Happy Birthday to Michael Jackson 2014

Hello, everyone! 

Today is the reason behind my MJ inspired week. Today is the King of Pop's birthday, and I have a look in his honor to show you all. I hope you like it! 

I cannot rember at all where I got the water slide decal from!!! I'm sure if you google "Michael Jackson water slide decal" you'll have plenty of options to choose from. The cute little crown charm is from Daily Charme, and they have a variety of charms and nail art goodies to play with. The red stripe you see on my index nail was done by using scotch tape to create a super clean edge. My glitter accent nail is a combination of two glitter polishes from OPI; "Crown Me Already" and "Muppets World Tour". 

So...how are you celebrating the King of Pop's birthday today? Hopefully you'll join me in doing an MJ mani too! Go to my Instagram and use the hashtag "manisformj" and tag @tiffstastefultalons so I can see! Thanks so much! I will be listening to Michael's music all day today <3

http://instagram.com/p/r2WJhXn9-t/

- Tiff 

Michael Jackson inspired mani #4

Hi, everyone!

I hope you all are having a great week... The long weekend is almost here! Michael Jackson's birthday is almost here too (tomorrow); being the reason for my third annual MJ week on my blog. Here's my fourth look of the week, and my second to last one in the pics below. I drew inspiration from the "Rock With You" video :) 

Blurred so you could see the sparkly goodness! ;) 

Again, striping tape was my friend during this mani. The pale sparkly glitter is China Glaze's "I'm Not Lion", and I thought it was the perfect glitter to match MJ's costume! I love how perfectly clean the stripes came out, and how the black base polish is still visible despite using very thin striping tape. 

Well, I really do hope you're liking my MJ manis this week! I've been having fun planning them out and bringing them to life.... Don't forget tomorrow is the whole reason for me doing this, and your opportunity to show everyone your own MJ-inspired nail art! My #manisformj theme is tomorrow, so get your nails ready! and visit my Instagram link below for more details! I hope to see you all then! 

http://instagram.com/p/r2WJhXn9-t/

- Tiff 

Michael Jackson inspired mani #3 guest post for Polished to Precision

Hi, everyone!

While keeping my MJ inspired week going, I did a guest post for one of my closest nail friends, Tiffany Jordan of Polished to Precision blog. She's a fellow Floridian who's family just made a very recent move up north to the New England area. I wish her all the best in getting used to that cold weather!!!! Lol! She's funny, smart, and has the cutest little kids on the planet! I'm definitely glad I've gotten the chance to get to know her this past year. 

So, like I said yesterday, I was going to give you guys the link to the post I did for her on her blog. Check out the full details of my third MJ-inspired mani  here. Enjoy! - Tiff 

Michael Jackson-inspired mani #2

Hey, there!

Today I have my second MJ-inspired look to show you. I saw this super adorable picture of Michael from when he was a little guy and thought the outfit he was wearing was super cute. I decided this would be a perfect look to draw inspiration from, and I hope you will be able to see why in the pics below. Enjoy! :) 

My favorite part of this look is the combination of the yellow and red, with the daisies in the shirt Michael was wearing in the pic. I tried to recreate that with my nails as best as I could, using my nail art pens from Sally Hansen, and a red striper polish (which I'll admit I need more practice with). Overall, I think this mani came out pretty good! What do you think? ;) 

I have still have some more looks coming up here this week, including a guest post I did for one of my closest nail blogger buddies that you'll see tomorrow. Don't forget there's still time to get your manis ready for the 29th on my Instagram (@tiffstastefultalons). Tag me and use the hashtag "manisformj" so I can see them and possibly feature them on my Facebook page! Thanks, and see ya tomorrow :)))

- Tiff  

Michael jackson inspired mani #1 "Scream"

Hi, there!

Thanks for taking a look at this super late edition of Tiff's Tasteful Talons! It's MJ week here on my blog, because his birthday is this week (the 29th), and I wanted to continue the tradition I have in dedicating this week to the King Of Pop. It's also the first week back at the dance studio, and classes started tonight for me; being the reason for me posting so late tonight. Well, I'm glad I got to get this post off before midnight eastern time, so let's take a look at my first mani shall we? I drew inspiration from one of my favorite MJ short films, "Scream", and I hope you can see some resemblance. Enjoy! 

There's a whole going on here, between the black, silver chrome, matte and shiny stripes. You can obviously tell that I created the stripes by using striping tape, a must-have for pulling off something like this. That silver chrome polish at the tips is the famous "Push and Shove" chrome and base duo from OPI, that provides that chrome-like finish that regular metallic polishes just can't. I also used one of my Sally Hansen nail art pens to make the little "7" that you see on my ring nail. I really like how this came out overall, even though I don't think I'm all that great at nail art. I do however, see that I am improving, so that's a great step in the right direction! 

Ok, so that's my first post for MJ week here on my blog! Stay tuned for another look on here tomorrow! Have a good night, and don't forget about my #manisformj on Instagram on the 29th! You can follow me if you haven't already at @tiffstastefultalons :) 

- Tiff 

Compulsive Nails Nail Polish Strips in "Fringe Tribal"

Hi!

Today I have a very cute set of tribal nail polish strips from Compulsive Nails. Alex, the company owner, sent me a new set to try, featuring a new shape of the nail strips for a better fit. You'll see a comparison photo of my last set and this one to see the difference for yourselves below. I love this blue and purple tribal design! 

As you can see in the photo above, the shapes are quite a bit different around the area that lines up near the cuticle. This change helped me to see which nail sizes were best for me this time around much easier, while I wasted a couple of them on accident trying to pick which ones to apply the last time. I definitely think the shape change works much better for me... Success! Apply your favorite top coat, and you're ready to go show of your incredible mani! :) 

If you love rocking instant nail art, but aren't quite a nail artist yet, I highly recommend you try Compulsive Nails if you haven't already. I'm especially loving Alex's tribal designs, as I feel they're great to wear any time of the year, and everyone loves the look. You'll definitely get lots of compliments wearing these eye-catching designs, and it's always great to support small businesses. 

I'll see you guys again next week for Michael Jackson week here on my blog. Don't forget to get your MJ-inspired glitter bomb manis ready for the 29th! See you then!

-Tiff 

OPI Pure Lacquer Nail Apps in "Black Grey Rattlesnake"

Hi, everyone! 

So I'm back from having an amazing weekend of tap dancing. I have the achyest feet ever, and did not get a chance to do my nails again between that time and my last post, but the experience I had made it all worth it. I did manage to do my nails late last night, so today I have a quick post with an oldie, but goodie. 

I decided to go through my nail polish strips stash and go with a set that had been sitting around for way too long. I had these beautiful snake print nail polish strips from OPI just waiting to be used, so I went for them. Despite being in my stash for well over a year, I had absolutely no problems at all when applying them (older nail strips tend to stick to the plastic wrapping they're put in to keep them from drying out). Take a look at the pics below to see how they look! :) 

As of this post, OPI has not released any new Pure Lacquer appliqués. I thought they made these really well; they're not too thick or too thin, and their designs were usually very unique. Because they're made from nail polish, they work very well with any top coat you use if decide to finish of your mani with some. I always use quick dry top coat, and I've never had any kind of shrinking of the nail strips after I swiped some on. I hope OPI decides to dive back into the nail strips realm again in the future, but until then, I still have some more strips from them in my stash! ;) 

So, what do you think about these? I love snake print and I don't see it going out of style ever. See ya next time!

- Tiff 

Jenna Hipp "The New Moderns" Nail Art

Hello!

In my previous post, I told you all about my first experience with Jenna Hipp nail polishes (available at Costco), and how much I like them so far. Well, I had the itch to change that mani after just a day, and throw on some of the polishes from the "The New Moderns" set, and try a bit of nail art too. I had been wanting to give the fishtail look another try, so I chose some colors that I thought would look great together. For it being just my second attempt at the fishtail braid, I think it was much better than my last! Hopefully I'll get better at it from here...Take a look at the pics below! :) 

I painted three thin coats of "This Is My Jam" on my index, middle, and pinky nails. It's a beautiful burgundy red polish with subtle gold shimmer through out. I then "braided" the colors "Throwing Shade", "Better Slate Than Never" and "Sherbetcha", giving each strand a minute to dry before painting on the next. The braid could have been a bit tighter, but I'm happy with how the mani came out over all. What do you think? Don't forget to check out these polishes and other products part of the Jenna Hipp line up at your local Costco if you're a member, or online for members and non-members too. See ya with a new post real soon! 

- Tiff 

Scratch Nail Wraps in "Shark Week"

Hi, everyone!

I am super excited about this post I have up for you today. One, it's the start of "Shark Week" on the Discovery Channel, and there are these amazing nail wraps I have to show you, inspired by this anticipated tv event. My favorite nail wraps company teamed up with the amazing nail artist Nina of Nina Nailed It to create these super adorable shark nail wraps. When the Monthly Mani Box that included these wraps arrived at my door a few weeks back, I knew I had to hold these in my stash until this week. I immediately started to contemplate looks for them, and I had a lot of fun doing it! I hope you like this look as much as I do! 

There's a lot going on here, but I think it still looks great. Some of these nail wraps have clear elements to them (the "shark bite", sail boat, anchor, and shark face), which allows you to layer them over any polish you want; or over your plain nail if you choose. I wanted to make each nail wrap pop, and use a base nail polish that would work great with each one. I even attempted, and I mean attempted, a water marble too! The water marble didn't come out anywhere close to perfect, but I think I'm finally heading in the right direction towards getting better at it. It's so etching that definitely takes some patience. 

Now, these nail wraps were so popular, that they are unfortunately (for us) completely sold out. Scratch may possibly create a way for people to vote on which sold out nail wraps to bring back, so cross your fingers if you are dying to get your hands on these. They temporarily were available again last week, and they sold out again before I was able to order a back up set. Hopefully they'll make another comeback! Keep a lookout by following Scratch on Instagram (under "goscratchit") to keep updated on what they have going on. You'll never know what fun surprises they'll have in store! See ya next time with a new post. I will be heading out of town this weekend for a tap dance workshop, so hopefully I'll be able to get another post in before then! I've got quite a few Scratch nail wraps I haven't used yet, so maybe I'll show you a couple more sets before I head off. I'm sure you'll love them as much as I do. Bye! 

- Tiff 

My first Jenna Hipp Nail Polishes!

Hi, everyone!

We're about halfway through the week, and I hope it's going well for you. Today I have a simple look featuring some nail polishes that I have been wanting for forever. Maybe you know about nail artist to some of the famous, Jenna Hipp, and the fact that she has a nail care line available at Costco. Well, thanks to a nail friend, two of her mini nail polish sets (I believe she only has mini polishes at the moment) are finally mine! I used two polishes from the "New Brights" set, and added some holographic glitter to sparkle the mani up a bit. Here's how "Daft Pink" and "Say Yellow To My Little Friend" look on me in the pics below. I used two coats of the pink, and three of the yellow. 

What I like most about Jenna's polishes is that they have a quick dry formula. I painted my nails late last night, a couple of hours before I went to bed, and I did not have to worry about waking up with any dings or dents. Finish off your mani using a quick dry top coat, and you're super good to go! Even though these are mini-sized nail polishes, I think you still get plenty of product, and they are convenient for taking them with you for travel. Overall, I'm glad I can say that Jenna Hipp's nail polishes are a part of my collection, and I'm excited to try her other products; especially her hand lotion sets. 

If you're interested in owning these, and you're not within distance of a Costco store, you can order these online. The Costco website will ask for a membership number at checkout, but you can still order them without being a member (just pay 5% extra). I didn't know that prior to my nail friend going out of her way to get these for me, but at least I know now, and so do you! ;) 

So, what are you thinking about these? I like how these colors are solid, but not quite like anything else I have in my collection. When you have as many nail polishes as I do (too many to count during my busy schedule at the moment), that's always a good thing. See ya next time :)

- Tiff