Olympic Nail Art

The Olympic athletes are sporting some awesome nail art for their home countries. I'm totally jealous as I'm far too lazy to attempt some of these intricate designs. Although I could probably get the red, white or blue thing going.

The Guardian Newspaper has a Pinterest board dedicated to Olympic athletes patriotic nail art, plus some additional patriotic/Olympic nail art. (Link:  Olympic Nail Art)

Inspirationail has a Pinterest board dedicated to the 2012 Olympic Games-Nails as well (Link: Olympic Nails)

The post is ridiculously picture heavy. And mostly American athletes because that's where I'm from but there are other countries in the links, promise! I kinda went overboard with the pics and the links to even MORE pictures. Sorry!

Swimmer Lia Neal with her bronze medal and nails, from Today.com

Swimmer Elizabeth Beisel with her sparkly blue and red nails, from Today.com

Tennis player Venus Williams, from Today.com

Shooter Amanda Furrer, with her American flag French-style Manicure,  from Today. com

Hungarian Swimmer Suzana Jacobos, from the Guardian.co.uk

British Swimmer Rebecca Adlington, from the Guardian.co.uk

American Volleyball player Destinee Hooker probably wins the prize.  From the Guardian.co.uk

And here are some neat tutorials or designs I found while googling.

American style nail art from Today.com

Olympic Torch Nail, from The Daily Nail

Links:

• Nailing it! Olympians show off fancy fingers and toes, from Today.com
• Your Olympic Nail Art Roundup from Jezebel.com
• Olympic Nail art-in pictures from The Guardian.co.uk
• 4 Nail Art ideas to show your Olympic team spirit from Today.com
• The Daily Nail's Passing the Torch (the animated Torch nail)
• Pixie Polish YouTube Video of Olympic Nail Art How-To

Cos Bar at Target

Target's newest collaboration is with a bunch of boutique shoppes. I've been trying to curtail my shopping habits so I didn't rush out right away and get any of the new stuff.

By the time I managed to get around to perusing Target, most of the stuff had been pretty picked over, but I still got some cute things from the Cos Bar "shoppe".

I've only managed to play with the two nail-polishes so far but I'm quite excited about the rest of the stuff.

Target.com foot file, eye mask

Target.com tweezers (purple) and (green), body butter and body scrub

From Target.com, purple (L) and bronze (R)

I'm not a massive fan of all the colors and packaging though. It's kinda strangely Halloween-ish. Not that it stopped me on the tweezers. But it's why I didn't get any bags or mirrors--not quite my style. I think it had to be a lot of other's peoples because the line was mostly sold out.

From GirlyBubble

Additional Websites:

1. Target.com
2. Cos Bar Website
3. Cos Bar on Pinterest.com

More Ombre nails and newsprint nails

I feel like ombre nails are stalking me. I'm completely in love with the outcome of my second attempt (I did a softer blue and white combo). My friend sent me a link to a site that talked about newsprint nails and right up the page (one helpful scroll up) was another ombre tutorial.

without sponges.

To be fair, I like the sponge tutorial better, the blend is just much nicer, but if you want an artsy more mod/flair style. This is the technique.

from Lulus blog

Then, because I can't stop blog stumbling, I found a DIY ombre glitter manicure. Be still my heart.

from DIY ombre glitter bling gelish manicure

Although--sometime in the future, this (below) is going to happen. Granted, on the weekend, when nothing professional is going to happen. Because to be fair, unless you work at a fashion mag, I don't think you can pull these off at work. 

via Lulu's blog

Images and techniques from: 

1. Beauty How To: DIY Ombre Nails from LuLus a la Mode Blog
2. Ombre Glitter Bling Gelish Manicure from Granola 2 Glam Blog
3. Beauty Trend: Word Nails from Lulus a la Mode Blog

Birthday!

I totally had a nail success last night. Go me!

That's kinda a crappy picture, but for the love of me...I cannot find my camera cord. So I totally cheated and used my webcam (no flash) and lightened it in PicMonkey. Which is my new found love until I figure out the Photoshop program I stole from my dad's computer.

It's the gradient/dip-dye/ombre stain nail technique I mentioned yesterday. I totally used old nail polish (from like...middle school) that I probably should  have thrown out and two contrasting colors (pink and dark blue).

up close

I was so proud of myself I thought I'd share!

AND I finished paying my application fees (no thanks to farmville...which I'm feeling unnecessary annoyance at).

Today is also my birthday, so I've been cooking dinner because my family is coming over tonight for a family dinner. So I'll just leave with some pretty pictures (and protest pictures, that's all over the news here. Occupy and Bin-Laden/Seal Team 6).

Thailand

London

The Situation Room pic...

Links/Image Sources:

Occupy Protesters rally in London and New York on May Day
Bin Laden take-down picture
May Day Celebrations in Thailand

Stupid farmville leads to new awesome nails!

I think the only thing more stressful than the applications to college has been paying the application fee...for anything out of my home state.

It's just that paying my applications fees is happening the same time as some jerkface in New Jersey tried to steal my credit card number to play games on Facebook. Luckily, my card company caught it and wouldn't let any of his payments go through (or mine). And when they called me to tell me, we had a lovely time wondering what game he must be playing (farmville? mafia wars? some zombie plant game...We never could figure it out).

Sadly...nothing got paid on my end and I get to wake up tomorrow and try again. Which involves me calling the cc company and asking nicely for all these payments to go through. As long as it's not farmville.

Considering I'm completely useless tonight...everything is a go except fees...I might as well re-do my nails. And I'm thinking of trying something new. An "ombre-stain" mani or gradient nails. I went to Lauren Conrad, Amy Nadine and Kristin Ess' website (The Beauty Department) first because I remembered a post that they did involving a sponge and nail-polish.

from The Beauty Department's website. That's Kristin, Lauren and Amy.  

I also did  a google search and found another website...because one is never enough! It's called the Nailasaurus. How cute is that?

So, the basic premise is to mix the nail colors together-but not completely- and then dip the sponge in the color and transfer it to your nails. Easy-peasy.

Here's the tutorial from The Beauty Department. They also have step by step instructions (for instance...in picture no. 2, the sponge is soaking in water...not another clear-liquid-that-my-cousin-is-quite-fond-of). So you might want to hop on to the link in the paragraph (it's straight to the page) in case you want to read their tips.

I have old makeup sponges that I've never actually used (multi-pack for Christmas...from like...middle school days. oh wow). So this is for sure happening tonight! But I'm not feeling doing the gradient nails exactly. I'm thinking simpler and only about two (or three). Since it's my first time. So I'm going to mix and match but mostly use Nailasaurus' tutorial.

She has step by step instructions as well...but I'm only going to show two pics because I don't think I could explain it better than she does.  Basically, mix the polishes and put on your nails. I think I'm going more contrast...since I'm so artsy (I'm so not).

Manicure Meltdown

My manicures tend to only last about three days. It doesn't matter if I do them myself or have it done professionally. They just don't last.

Why I would love to have nails like this...

One day it would even be fun to go a little crazy and have a fun manicure last for a couple of days looking like this

But last night was the worst...my brand new, salon fabulous manicure chipped after ONE day. I was incredibly sad...maybe eventually I'll figure this out. 

Anyone have any tips? Other than wrapping my hands in bubble-wrap of course.