Minion Nails!!!

Hi everyone! I hope you're all having a good week so far! I've been a little under the weather, but I'm starting to feel better. I think it's mostly just allergies. Why do we say "just allergies" anyway? I mean really, if you have allergies like mine there's no "just" about it... they suck. 

But this isn't a blog about allergies, it's about nails! And these are some of my favorite nails that I've done. Who doesn't love the Minions from Despicable Me 1 & 2? They are some of the most lovable characters ever. We had a hectic 4th of July weekend, but my sweet husband took me to see it the next weekend. So of course, I had to have Minion nails for the occasion. 

This was before I started a blog, so I only got a couple of pictures, and they aren't great. But they're enough to get the idea. I used this pictorial by the amazing Alaina over at The Little Canvas. You should go follow her blog if you're not already, for real. 

On to the pictures. 

Colors used:

Ulta Blue Streak

Ulta Sun-Sational

OPI Black Onyx

OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls

OPI Kiss Me On My Tulips (for the little tongue) 

and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Celeb City

I free handed their little overall tips with the polish brush, then with a detail brush I painted in the strap for the goggles and their mouths.Then with a dotting tool I made silver dots, let them dry a bit, then white dots, let them dry a bit, then the little black pupil. Overall it was a really easy look to accomplish!

I hope you all enjoy looking at these as much as I enjoyed doing them and wearing them! You can't help but smile when you're at work and you look down to realize your minions are doing your work for you. ha :) 

Thanks for reading!

~casey

***all products in this post were purchased by me for my own personal use***

OPI Solitaire...

Hi everyone! I hope you’re having a nice Sunday evening. We are doing the usual, getting caught up on TV and laundry for the week.

Tonight’s post is a quick swatch of one of the OPI Liquid Sand polishes from the Bond Girls Collection. OPI Liquid Sands are their take on texture. From what I’ve seen they aren’t really sticking to any particular texture, each set that they’ve released has been a bit different in finish. Overall I haven’t been super impressed, but a few have caught my eye. Solitaire is one of those polishes.

When I first started seeing swatches of this I knew I wanted it. It’s unique in my collection, normally I don’t like pearly sheen white but with the little silver glitters it’s really lovely. I don’t know that I’ll ever wear it as a full manicure because I’m not crazy about it on my skin tone. But it will be great for nail art and accent nails.

So on to the pictures.

And of course a macro to show the teeny silver glitters.

I hope you all have a happy Monday!

Happy polishing!

~casey

***all products in this post were purchased by me for my own personal use***

Will paint nails for food....

Hi everyone! I hope you’re all having a good weekend so far. I took the day off work yesterday with no errands to run, nowhere to be, nothing in particular to do. And it was wonderful!

Last night we went to a good friend’s house for dinner, my friend Kristen, her husband Tim, and their two girls Claire (9) and Kendall (2). We have been friends since elementary school, I won’t go into detail about how long ago that was, we will just say that it’s been a while. Kristen is always fun, full of laughs, and a great cook. So she made us and her family dinner; fried chicken, mashed potatoes, salad, green beans, rolls, yummmmmm. I took a bottle of Three Olives Strawberry Vodka and a jell-o poke cake. And as a thank you for the tasty meal, I took along my nail polish supplies to do a few manicures.

First up was the baby. I've never painted toddler nails, it’s tricky. Especially when said toddler is feeling a bit sleepy and very squirmy. But with the right amount of distraction from mom and sissy we got the toes done. Kendall picked her own color and it was hilarious. She said “I want piiiiiink”, but her pink sounded like a sigh of love. Girl after my own heart!

After baby Kendall was done it was Claire’s turn. I didn't get a picture of her toes, but she wanted “Hawaiian flowers”. We did pink on pink with silver dots. Then she wanted “puzzle nails”, aka interlocking dots. I didn't get them as cleaned up as I’d like to, she was getting antsy. She’s a super sweet girl and did a great job holding still for me, but by the time we finished her toes and fingers she was at her limit. She was really happy with them, and according to mom she is borderline obsessing over them today. For these we used NOPI Naturally and Sally Hansen Celeb City.

Then it was mamma's turn. She loved the nails that I did for my friend Ashlea a couple of weeks ago, so we did a mani inspired on those. I think her color choices turned out great! We used Sally Hansen Celeb City, Finger Paints Santa’s Magic, chevron decals that I made on a sandwich baggie with China Glaze Liquid Leather, Color Club Beyond, and China Glaze Pink Voltage (neon). Everyone’s got topped w/ Seche Vite and voila!

Hope you all enjoyed these nails as much as I enjoyed doing them!

Happy polishing!

***all products in this post were purchased by me for my own personal use***

Glossy Glam...

Hello everyone! I hope you’re all having a good week so far. We’re halfway through it!

I’m very excited about today’s mani!!! OPI Can’t Find My Czeckbook is one of my all time favorite colors; seriously, I’d put it in my top 5. And those of you that have as many polishes as I have know how special that is. About a month ago I did a polish swap with the lovely Alysia when I was able to find the new Salon Perfect glitters and she couldn’t. In the goody box she sent me in return was Color Club Very Merry Berry. As soon as I saw it I knew I’d have to pair it with CFMC someday, that day is today, and I am so happy with the results.

Another reason I am excited about this mani is because I used my new topcoat for the first time. Now I have been a diehard Seche Vite user for over a year now, maybe 2 years. But, we all know about Seche’s fickleness. It tends to get thick, it can shrink your mani, and sometimes it gets bubbly. I’ve been working around this for a while now, because even with all of its faults Seche Vite is AMAZING stuff. It dries your nails (all layers) in minutes and has a thick, glassy finish that just can’t be beat. But, a couple of weeks ago I saw a post on Instagram from Rica that she was going to start selling a quick dry topcoat in her Etsy shop. I’ll admit, I was skeptical at first. I’ve been devoted to my precious Seche for so long… so I decided to wait until some bloggers started reviewing Glossy Glam. The reviews have been incredibly positive. Everyone was saying it was as glassy as Seche but NO SHRINKAGE! So when I saw she restocked again last week I quickly ordered 2 bottles. I got my purchase 4 days after I ordered it too, so very fast shipping. As soon as I got it I had to try it out. Now I will say Glossy Glam doesn’t dry as fast as Seche, but it does dry pretty fast. I didn’t time it, but within 5 or 10 minutes I could touch them w/ no problem, I just had to be careful to not hit them on anything too hard. I painted my nails around 30 minutes before bed, they were still a little tacky feeling, but dry enough that I was comfortable going to bed. (carefully) The next morning I checked them first thing, and WOW! It is so glossy!!!! And it had set completely and was rock hard. Some fast dry top coats I’ve tried never really feel like they have “cured”, that is not the case with this stuff. I gotta say, after just one use I’m amazed. I’ve had this mani on for 3 days and I have almost no signs of wear, none of my usual scuffing on the top, it’s still just as shiny as it was that first day. I really love the bottle and clean labeling.

So, on to the mani so you can see it in action.

For this manicure I used 2 coats of OPI Can’t Find My Czeckbook, then 1 coat plus some placed glitter of Color Club Very Merry Berry. I topped it off with Glossy Glam and it was good to go! Look how well GG smoothed out this chunky glitter!!!!

And of course, a macro of the glitter; because that’s what macro lenses were made for. Duh.

Be sure to check out Rica’s shop on Etsy! Glossy Glam is $6.50 per bottle plus shipping. And check her out on Instagram! She’s super sweet and posts updates on her stock.

Thanks for checking my blog out.

Until next time, happy polishing!

~casey

***The products in this post were purchased by me for my own personal use.

Birthday nails for Ashlea...

Hello friends! I hope everyone had a relaxing weekend. This weekend was the first time in a month or so that my husband and I got to stay home, it’s been great. I’ve been doing lots of nails today for upcoming posts! I’m so excited for this blog and to share my work with all of you.

For tonight’s post I’m sharing a birthday mani/pedi I did for my friend Ashlea a couple of weeks ago. Ashlea is a fellow polish lover, although she doesn’t have the level of love (erhm, obsession) that I have. But, she’s a sweet friend and she humors me and my rants. We started talking about birthday nails about a month before her birthday, and when I saw this post by Luster Lacquer I thought I’d found the perfect inspiration. As it turned out Ashlea had seen the same cake that had inspired Colleens mani and loved it so she was really excited about this manicure.

The colors I used were OPI Can’t Find My Czeckbook, OPI Kiss Me on My Tulips, Wet-n-Wild Gold Album, and Wet-n-Wild Flossy Flossy. I used OPI Nail Envy Matte base coat and Seche Vite top coat. I love how these turned out. For the chevrons I used the plastic baggie method where you paint a “sheet” of polish then cut it with craft scissors to make your own polish decals. There are lots of videos on YouTube showing you this method. I also shot a very short video on my Instagram showing what it looks like. I also did a matching pedicure; I’m including a picture of that. Hopefully feet don’t bother you too much!

I hope you like these! I know I do, I’m going to have to recreate a similar look on myself very soon!

Happy polishing!

~casey

***all products in this post were purchased by me for my own personal use***

Mint Manis for Talia Joy...

Hello everyone! I hope you’re all doing well. Things are going good here in our little world. I’m trying to get into the swing of this blogging thing, more mentally than anything else. I’m so excited to get it going, so hopefully I don’t let you all down. I’m hoping to get into a routine and start posting regularly throughout the week. I plan to post nail art and polish swatches all mixed together, because that is what I love.

Today I have some nail art for you, Mint Nails for Talia. For those of you that don’t know, Talia Joy Castellano was a 13 year old with exceptional make up and nail art talent. She had a YouTube channel with a huge following. I only learned about her a few weeks ago, but every interview I read or saw showed how much spirit this little girl had, and a never ending positive attitude. This little girl battled cancer for nearly half of her life, sadly earlier this week she passed away. To learn more about Talia and her battle you can visit the official Facebook page Angels for Talia.

Like I said before, I don’t know much about her. But I started seeing posts on the blogosphere after she passed away about doing tributes in her memory and to raise awareness to childhood cancers. Nicole from Nail Polish Wars organized “Mint Manis for Talia Joy on Friday” as a tribute. The last picture Talia posted on her Instagram was of a matching mint green cream mani she had with her mom and sister. So, joining in to the #mintmanisfortaliajoy tag, I came up with some nail art in her memory. It might seem like a silly thing to some, but the whole time I did the mani I had Talia and her family heavy on my heart and in my prayers, along with all of the other kids (and adults) battling cancer right now. I think it’s a fitting tribute for her.

This is my first leopard print mani and I couldn’t be happier with the results. I’ve never been a big fan of animal print, but in nail art I think I’ve found a new love. For this mani I used Essie Mint Candy Apple, Sally Hansen Extreme Wear Celeb City, and China Glaze Liquid Leather. Last time I wore Mint Candy Apple it stained my nails some, so I doubled up on my OPI Nail Envy Matte base coat and applied 3 coats of polish. Then using a dotting tool I applied “blobs” of Celeb City. I tried to keep them mostly circular, but not too symmetrical. Then I used a fine nail art brush and applied the black lines around the blobs with some dots and lines to fill in the blank areas. There are dozens of leopard tutorials floating around the internet, but I just pulled up some images of leopard print items and used that to help me. The best thing about this kind of nail art is that you can’t really mess it up since it’s not supposed to be perfect. After letting it dry a little I sealed everything in with Seche Vite. I posted a picture of this on my Instagram last night but wanted to do a proper blog post of it today for Talia. I was able to get a few more pictures before the sun went down tonight, enjoy!

***all products in this post were purchased by me for my own personal use***

My first blog post.

I thought I'd share my very first blog post ever. Back in April the sweet Alaina asked me if I would be willing to be her first "nail artist of the month" feature on her blog. I was completely floored, flattered, nervous, and excited. I have a hard time being proud of my work, and the thought that someone else liked it enough to feature it was a HUGE deal to me. The watermark says Nails by CaseyLane because that was my original nail account on Instagram. It got deleted by Instagram and never restored, so I set up CaseyLaneLovesPolish.

I know May was a while back, but I wanted to share it anyway. Go check it out! The Little Canvas: May Nail Artist of the Month.

***all products in this post were purchased by me for my own personal use***

Welcome to my world...

Hello friends! Welcome to my little corner of the internet where I hope to share my love for nail polish and nail art. I've been posting my manis on my Instagram for a few months and I absolutely love it. (I won’t go into the saga of my nail account that got deleted, because I’m back and better than ever baby!) The "nail community" is so supportive and fun; it’s really nice having people to discuss finish and application and wear with who don't look at you like you're crazy. I’ve made some really great friends through there, including a couple of bloggers who have been very encouraging and helpful in me getting this thing going. Thank you Alaina and Kelly!!!

So now I have decided to start a little blog to share this love. Some call it an obsession, but whatever. This is my hobby and I love it. Since this is my first post I'll tell you a little about myself. My name is Casey; I live in SW Missouri with my husband Mike, our dog Sammie, and our cat Pickles. Mike and I have been married for 11 1/2 years, and I love him more and more every day. He is supportive of this polish addiction, although he doesn't really understand it. He is sweet though so he will play along and ooh and aah when he should. His signature response to nail art is "that's fancy" or "pretty fancy", which kinda melts my heart to hear him say. (don't tell him I told you that though)

I have always loved nail polish. But about a year and a half ago I started researching nail polish online, I don't remember why; I think I just wanted to learn how to paint my nails well. I found tips and tricks all over Pinterest and YouTube; then I learned that there were polish bloggers. From there I was a goner. I kept my intense love of polish somewhat hidden from most people for a while, but now it's time to just come out in the open with it.  

Part of what I love about polish is the collecting part, well it’s really close to hoarding… let’s just be honest. I love hunting it down and finding just what I want. Buying multiple bottles at once is one of my favorite things! I never spontaneously buy polish, it’s always preplanned. If I do happen to see something that piques my interest, I quickly hop on my phone and go to my “go to” swatchers to see what the reviews are and if it’s worth buying. I feel hurt when a polish lets me down, especially when it’s a brand that I love. My favorite brand is OPI, the finish and wear are fantastic, the colors are on point, and they are pretty reasonably priced for the quality. I’ve got a budding love for Zoya thanks to the PixieDusts and wonderful creams they’ve been putting out lately.

So, enough rambling. Let’s get on with this thing. I hope that you enjoy my posts, or actually I hope that I enjoy my posts. Because really I’m writing it for me. 

Enjoy and happy polishing!