i'm on that mermaid life

Hey everyone! I've got some amazing nails for you today if I do say so myself! (And I do say so.)

Totally wanted to leave these on for the rest of my life.

The base color for this mani is a new-ish one from Essence (it came out in Canada in maybe October or November), called Aquatix Bay, I did three coats for best coverage.
The seashell stamping image is from the Cheeky summer collection, plate CH-38.
I used a Mundo de Unas stamping polish. I think it's called Lilac. They stamp sooooo amazingly.
I added some rhinestones and pearls to continue with the mermaid effect.

Mermaid nails are just the best. I am a mermaid. If you didn't know.

Hope you guys enjoyed these nails as much as I did!
BTW - Any of my polish friends out there in sunny Florida wanna take me to the Iggy Azalea concert in May? I'll be there for vacation with my fam, and at this rate, I'ma be taking my mom to see Iggy Iggs.

31DC2013 - day 29

Need I tell you how excited I am that after today there are only two days left of this 31 Day Challenge? Haha! Don't get me wrong, I love doing the challenge, it just came around at a bad time for me... Heh. I need some relaxation time, my nails included!

Today's theme is Inspired By The Supernatural and most people may think of ghosts or aliens but I think of my very favorite television show, Supernatural, which premieres its new season next week! I am so stoked.
Of course I'm doing nails inspired by the show again... But in a somewhat different way.

Inspired by a Supernatural shirt! (Okay, I don't think the shirt is actually licensed to have anything to do with the show, but it says Supernatural, it has skulls, and studs, I had to have it, duh.)

I used rhinestones to emulate the patterns of big and small studs on the sleeves, and using some tape I added black triangles with some gray shading at the tip. I think it matches the shirt wonderfully!

When I thought of this idea, I was wondering if I would have the right color for the job.
I looked to my nail table, and BAM, Color Club - In Theory was already out and waiting for me.
It was polish-fate!

I used Color Club - Where's The Soiree? for the black and some Zoya - Dove with a sponge for the smoky shading.

The stones were from Cheeky Beauty.

Do you guys like these Supernatural (kinda) nails? I love how they look!
Any more Supernatural lovers in the house? Hope so! Wonder what's gonna happen in the new season... Yay!

31DC2013 - day 23

Helloooooo everyone. This post is brought to you by a miserable Rebecca - I have a toothache to end all toothaches and I have to get a previous root canal removed and a new one put in its place, plus it is infected and I need antibiotics which don't mesh well with my Crohn's or my treatments for that... And not to mention I can't take any painkillers stronger than Tylenol because of said treatment...

Thanks, crappy old dentist, for ruining so many of my teeth. Much appreciated. I love being in agony because your "fix" for my previous agony has failed a couple years later and someone else has to continue to clean up your messes. (Plus I'm sure you can imagine how wonderful it is to pay for all these things twice.)

Anyway. It is Day 23 of the 31 Day Challenge and the theme for today is Inspired by a Movie.
I am in a Tylenol haze and could not come up with anything original for this one... So with some help from Chalkboard Nails I landed on Legally Blonde. Pink nails. Anything pink. 

I think Elle Woods would approve of these nails! Don't you?

I started with a base of China Glaze - Dance Baby and I added just about any type of pink rhinestone I had on an accent nail. Big, small, pearl, heart, bow, flower, teardrop...

It reminds me of those cute cell phone cases you can get with rhinestones and other crap glued all over them. I kinda wanna keep this nail on forever... But I imagine things will start falling off soon as I did not encase them in topcoat so not to ruin the look.

The bow is my favorite. Obvi.

And now I am off to sulk in pain. Toodles!

31dc2012 - day 18

The theme for Day 18 of the 31 Day Challenge is Half Moons!

I read somewhere before that the half-moon manicure was created because it was once seen as inappropriate for a woman to have her entire nail painted. I'm not sure why on earth leaving one little piece naked would make it better, but hey, it makes for a cute manicure!

This was another one of the keep-changing-as-I-go manicures where I sit down with one idea and end up with something pretty different in the end. I like it though!

The base color for this manicure is Orly - Lollipop.
I just painted it on freehand and cleaned up the half-moon shape afterward with my usual cleanup brush dipped in acetone.

Then I sponged on some of the fine silver glitter polish, China Glaze - Silver Lining.

Finally I added large silver rhinestones, and then some hex glitters that I fished out of Color Club - Platinum Record.

This manicure is ultra-girly and I'm enjoying wearing it! But it is gonna come off in a few hours when I start attempting my galaxy... Ah!

31dc2012 - day 13

Hello and welcome to Day 13 of the 31 Day Challenge - also known as MY BIRTHDAY!!!

However it is not a very happy birthday at the moment because we still do not have electricity at my house! OMG! And the power company keeps trying to tell us that there is nothing wrong in our area. So we have no idea when it is coming back. Living without power and hot water and the internet and television and a refrigerator is really getting old...

As you may have guessed, I am back at my dad's store, using his internet for my blog and other important things I had to catch up on, like school work! How frustrating.

Well, my birthday may be electricity-free, but it is not free of cute nails!
The theme for Day 13 is Animal Print which is perfect because I would likely be rocking animal print on my birthday anyway!

Tada! The big 22!

And a cupcake, of course!

Pink, leopard, cupcake, rhinestones. Perfect b-day mani.
I really enjoy the colors I chose for this leopard combo.

The base color is OPI - Panda-monium Pink, a nice light pink creme. The formula is kinda runny and it needs three coats but the color is cute so I can handle it.
I did the leopard spots (and cupcake details) with China Glaze - Rich and Famous.
The cupcake also has some purple sprinkles - China Glaze - Gothic Lolita.
My black polish of choice was Color Club - Where's The Soiree?

My right hand just does not like to pose for photos. Sorry for the awkward angles. But I have to show off my cupcake!

I can't believe I'm 22! I'm too old! Haha!

My mom helped me take this photo of both hands... Haha. She's not the best nail photographer but hey, she tried!

Well, that's all for today! Now I am off to school. Yes, school on my birthday. Cruel.

Hopefully tomorrow you will hear from me, from my own computer, in my own house, with my own electricity... Gah!

time for a HOT mani - featuring studs from Born Pretty

Hey guys! Pretty much I am the worst blogger ever this week, because I am busy being a good employee at my new job!
I've been super super busy but it's gonna slow down after tomorrow and I can get back to my regular flow. Good thing, too, because I might soon die of exhaustion! Opening new stores is hard work. But I love my new job and my coworkers. So life is good!

Tonight I'm going to show you a mani that is freakin' hot!

I recently received some new items from Born Pretty to review so you'll be seeing those over the next little while.

The first thing I tried out are these awesome studs!

Sexy! I'm a sucker for anything studded so I adore these nail studs.

These are the 4mm gold square studs from Born Pretty which you can buy right here.

They came in a nice resealable bag:

There are so many things you can do with these studs, I had a hard time deciding what to try first!

I got so many compliments on this mani, the studs are really eye-catching and fun to wear. They give your nails that extra somethin' somethin'!

The base color is China Glaze - Love's A Beach from the Summer Neons Collection. I'll have a full review of these polishes when I get the second half in the mail, but let me just say now that this one is amazing!
I love the shimmer and the formula is fantastic. 2 easy coats. As usual for neons it dries matte but comes alive with topcoat.
My ring finger is Milani Jewel FX - Gold.

I applied my studs into a coat of wet Seche Vite and then I added another coat on top.
I wore this for 2 days before losing a stud - and that was only because I was unpacking dozens of boxes at work! I could likely get these to last 4-5 days under normal circumstances.
Despite being kinda big, I didn't find they stuck out much at all once covered in a thick coat of Seche Vite.
The one on my pinky nail was more stuck out because the nail is so much smaller but that's to be expected.

Overall I totally love these studs and I can't wait to use them in a bunch more manis!
Get these and all your other nail art needs at Born Pretty.

Keep your eye out for some more BP product reviews soon, including a way cool polish!

And don't forget to use my coupon code if you order, for 10% off your purchase!

Product provided for honest review.

prom nail wheel

Hi everyone! Sorry for being so inactive this week - I've been working a lot at a new job but after this week it'll slow down! (Thankfully because if I keep working this hard I might die! Haha!)

I don't have time for a long post so I'm gonna show you guys an awesome nail wheel that I made for my cousin Megan who was having me do her nails for her prom. Her dress was black and her shoes were red, so I stuck to those colors and added some silver and gold for accents. Before she came over, I made this wheel so that when she came, she could easily pick what she wanted!

Tada! It was a lot of fun making this wheel.
I'll put a list of the polishes I used, but if you have any questions about a particular nail, leave 'em in the comments and I will answer you later tonight after work.

OPI - Comet Loves Cupid (all the reds)
Essence - Black is Back (all the black)
OPI - Getting Miss Piggy With It (red glitter)
China Glaze - Blonde Bombshell (gold glitter)
Essence - Make It Golden (gold glitter)
Urban Decay - Superfreak (gold)
China Glaze - Millennium (silver)
Milani - Gold Glitz (gold glitter)
Deborah Lippmann - Happy Birthday (rainbow glitter)
Essie - As Gold As It Gets (gold flake)
Glitter Gal - Red Sparkle (holographic red)
Lynnderella - Connect The Dots (black and white glitter)
Color Club - Nomadic In Nude (nude)
OPI - Black Shatter
OPI - Red Shatter
Sephora by OPI - Blasted Gold Shatter

Phew! That was a lot of polishes.
Megan chose to wear Glitter Gal Red Sparkle and a black accent nail with a row of red rhinestones. It looked great!

Doing wheels like this really help get my inspiration going. I hope you guys like it!

a very special engagement

Hey everyone!
I have a short and sweet post for you tonight to show off some special nails I did today!

My dear friend Vicki got engaged on Saturday night!
She came over today so I could hear all the sweet details, and of course do some pretty nails because you know she's gonna be showing off that hand a lot this week!

I came up with the cutest idea ever and we both loved it!

Bride and Groom! Adorable, right?
And check out that rock! Her fiancé did a good job picking it out!

For the white, I used Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Whirlwind White.
The black is Essence - Black On Black.
On her other nails, I started with Nicole by OPI - Nothing Kim-pares to Blue and did a gradient on top with China Glaze - No Way Jose. 

Congratulations again to Vicki and Greg! I hope the nails last all week for all the showing off!

Well, Vicki's nails have made their first appearance here on RLN! I wonder if next year I'll be showing off wedding designs! ;)
Now everyone congratulate the happy couple!

my 500th post, featuring Sonoma Sunset!

Hello and welcome to the 500th post here at Rebecca Likes Nails!
500 is a lot of posts, and I've put so much time and energy into them, but the love I get back from you guys makes it worth it!

I wanted to do some simple nail art to commemorate the occasion, so I laid down some rhinestones and stamped on a cute 500! (However I didn't have an exclamation point stamp so I freehanded that one on and it doesn't look so great.)

The numbered plate I got on eBay but it's available from Konad as well. I stamped using China Glaze - Millennium. 
But what is this beautiful polish underneath?

That would be the amazing Sonoma Nail Art - Sonoma Sunset by my friend Michelle.
It's a stunning purple glitter that I'm so glad to own!

I had a really hard time getting a macro picture of the glitter (because it's so darn reflective and besides that, my camera hates purple) but I think you can see pretty well. There's a whole bunch of different colors and shapes of glitter. It's awesome! And this is just one thin coat over the base color, which is:

China Glaze - Grape Juice.
A great shimmery purple that needs just 2 coats.

It's been a really long time since I've worn rhinestones and I forgot how funny they feel! Especially all in a line like this. I keep running my thumb over it.

It pretty much doesn't get better than glitters like this.
You can find this polish on Michelle's Etsy store, which is tentatively going to reopen on June 1st, but at this time I don't know if this one will be available. All her creations are amazing though, so definitely check her out!

That picture really shows the colors of the glitter nicely. Gah, I adore this!

Thanks again to everyone who reads my blog, whether this is the first post you've read, or the five-hundredth. I love all of you!

And now I'll get started on the next 500... ♥♥♥

OPI DS Original + stamping!

Good morning everyone, quick post for you today before I begin studying for my last exam of the semester!

I've posted about OPI - DS Original once already (here) but it deserves more pictures!
This is 2 coats of Original over 2 coats of China Glaze - Gamer Glam which is the perfect underwear for Original.

I added a little bit of stamping as an accent nail - can't cover up too much of the holo!
The image is from Konad m64 and I stamped with Wet N Wild Black Creme. I also added a 3mm rhinestone!

DS Original is one of my favorite polishes ever. It's just so pretty!

Speaking of favorite polishes, I'm soon going to be posting a list of my top 10 favorite polishes of 2011.
So far I have it narrowed down to about 20... Haha. Too many good polishes were released this year!
Help me decide! What are your favorite polishes from 2011?