Stamping Practice!

Hi everyone!  I hope your Christmas was great!  I got everything on my wish list, which included the Bundle Monster 2011 & 2012 stamping plates, and the nail art brush set!  I am so excited, now I can keep improving my skills!  Speaking of skills, I don't know about you, but my stamping skills are not so hot...so I plan on doing a lot of stamping until I get a good grip on how to do it.  So today I am doing stamping.  For today I used Julep Alyson, Sally Hansen Olive Branch, and BM10 for the stamping.  I am quite pleased with how it came out, I tend to have a problem with smudging the designs, and I really don't think it happened this time as much...lol.  Originally I planned on doing them all with the design, but I needed to do another coat of the Alyson on my index and thumb fingers.  I actually really like it with those two blank.   However, grrr, I ran into a bubbly problem with the top coat on those two blank fingers.  I was using a top coat from Butter London and it is to the point of being very tacky, but the finish is so reflective!  I slapped it on, then smudged it with another finger, and then put ANOTHER coat of said tacky top coat on.  And voila!  We have tiny bubbles!  Patience seems to be key in the world of nail art, and it is taking me a while to realize that!  ;)

China Glaze Pure Joy

Merry Christmas everyone!  Its almost time to celebrate with family, eat, eat, eat, and tear into the presents!  I have one more Christmas manicure to share today.  On a side note, I did get the bundle monster hawaii theme nail stamping plate, however the polish I wanted to use did not work, and I aborted the stamping.  Today I have another polish from the China Glaze Holiday Joy collection.  The polish today is Pure Joy.  Its a gold and red glitter, pure glitter, Pure Joy!  Im not so joyful about the forthcoming removal of this polish though...wink wink.  Until then I will love it!  I hope all of you have a very Merry Christmas, and maybe if we have all been good this year there will be nail polish in our stockings!

 

Merry Christmas!

China Glaze Winter Holly

It's getting close to that special time of year!  I hope everyone is ready!  I know I am, I cant wait to celebrate with family over the next few days.  There are only 5 days until Christmas, that means only 5 days left for Christmas nails, oh no!  I feel like I am just getting warmed up.

Today I have China Glaze Winter Holly from the Holiday Joy collection.  I LOVE IT!  This polish is so awesome, and I don't want to take it off.  I used Sinful Colors Last Chance for the base coat, which was also an awesome polish on its own.  Today I have a lot of photos because it is so pretty!  Be sure to check out the last photo, it is my favorite.  I love how each nail is focused differently.

Fancy-schmancy Christmas Nails!

Happy Holidays!  Hi everyone, it has been way too long since I have written a post!  Between working 8-5 six days a week and having no sunshine since I don't know when, there have not been many opportunities to write new posts.  I think I am going to start playing with alternate light sources today, because surprise, surprise, it is supposed to cloudy all day here in northern Florida.

I would like to give a big "Welcome!" to my new follower!  It really surprised me when I checked on my blog the other day and saw a new follower during this dry spell.  Thanks to anybody who takes interest in what I do! :)

While I have not posted in about a month, I have not quit painting my nails!  I have 2 Christmas manicures photographed and ready to go, and after I am done writing, I am going to start a new manicure!

I have been using my Bundle Monster nail stamping plates a lot lately, and it is taking some getting used to.  I keep trying to use polishes that are too thin, and of course there is the getting the stamp lined up correctly.  Practice makes perfect!  When I look at other nail blogs I always love the fancy scroll manicures, and I thought I would give it a try.  For this design I used Orly Luxe for my base coat, and Sally Hansen Save the Date for the stamping.  I used stamping plate BM21 for the scroll design.  I absolutely love how it turned out!  I got really creative and painted my toes to coordinate with this too.  I used the Sally Hansen Save the Date for the base on my toes, and then I stamped the leaf design from BM01 on my big toe with Orly Luxe.  I really LOVE the Save the Date on my toes, it is a gorgeous shimmery maroon.  I have never been big on coordinating my fingers and toes, but this was fun!

So I dont know about you guys, but I am NOT ready for Christmas.  It seems like it has snuck up on me this year, don't tell anyone, but I don't even have any presents bought yet...but my nails are ready!!!

Tada!  I love them!   I would love to share the photos of the toes, but I really do not like how any of the photos came out.  Just know they looked great!

These photos were actually taken after a few days of wear.  I really like how well the polish held up!

OPI Into the Night

Hello!  So I know its been a while since my last post.  When I first started a little over a month ago I was unemployed and had all day to play with my nails.  Last week I got a temp job and have been finding it difficult to do posts when I am working all day, and when I get home it is dark which is bad for photos.  I will figure it out though, nail art is too much fun not to!  Today I have photos from a polish I wore last week.  I was really wanting to do a clean manicure with a solid color.  I picked OPI Into the Night.  In the bottle it looks like a regular blue, but on the nail...OMG!  It is awesome on the nail!  The application is great, I love how smooth it looks.  In the light it glimmers and it is gorgeous.  I have a mini bottle from the Spider Man mini collection, but think I will have to find a full size bottle.  Hopefully it will not be this long before I post again.  Enjoy the photos!

I have been trying really hard to get my manicures looking super clean, I think I got it with this one!  

The color is so awesome in light and shade.

I love how reflective it looks.  That would be thanks to the top coat I use by Butter London!

Birthday Nails!!!

Hi everyone!  Today is my birthday so I am doing birthday nails!  I opened one of my presents this morning and got my first ever Color Club polishes, 12 of them!  I cant wait to use them!  I wanted to do something fun for my birthday so I decide to give cupcakes a try.  For this manicure I used a ton of colors, of course.  I also did a polka dot manicure on my left hand for the first time, and LOVE the way it turned out!  I did cupcakes on my right thumb and middle finger, along with balloons on my index finger, streamers on my ring finger, and candles on my pinky!  I absolutely love how this turned out.  It was all free hand and fun!  I used a dotting tool for everything except the base coats.  Enjoy!

I used Essie "Shine of the Times" for the base on this.  I am in love with this!

Yummy cupcake!

More cupcake!  I will be eating cake later on!




I used 3 Julep colors: "Niecy," "Georgia," and"Blake."  I used 2 Ulta colors: "Sun-Sational," and "TuTu Cute."  I used  3 Essie Colors: "St. Lucia Lilac," "Shine of the Times," and a blue with a label missing!  I also used Sinful Colors "Cinderella."

A little more about my blog

How's everyone doing?  Did everyone have fun for Halloween?  Today I don't have any nail art to share with you, but there is a surprise at the end!  I thought I would write a post explaining more about this blog and what I want to do with it.  I just kind of dove right into this without much introduction.  First off, for anyone who is following this blog, do not be scared off when I change the layout of this blog.  I really want to get it a lot more customized looking in the next few weeks!  By customized I mean the way it looks, but also I want to have sections about nail care and such.  I myself am very much a beginner in the world of nail art.  I keep learning new things all the time, and want to share them with you!  Ok so I thought this would be longer, but it is not!  What I am trying to say is, I hope you enjoy growing with me!  Now on to the surprise.  I thought I would share my find from last night.  My husband and I live in a town with no Target.  It's sad, I know.  Last night we got to go to Target.  I always love their nail polish selection, especially the clearance section.  I love digging through the baskets to see what I can find!  Last night I found these:

This is Sally Hansen "Gilded Lily"  It was the last one in the clearance basket!  It looks even better in person, and I cannot wait to use it!  

This is Revlon "Mistletoe"  The photo does this polish no justice.  It is a murky green with lots of gold micro glitter.  Very unique.  This one was not on sale, but I thought it was special enough!

This is L' Oreal "Rainy Piccadilly"   This one I found in the L' Oreal section and noticed it was the only one.  I took it up to one of those nifty price checkers and found it was on sale too!  I love when that happens!

This is Halloween Nail Art Challenge: Recreate

Happy Halloween!  Today is the last day of my first nail art challenge!  I made it through, and I am proud of myself for it.  I don't think I will be doing a Christmas challenge though, maybe in the spring I will take a chomp at one again.

Todays challenge is to recreate a look from another challenge, since this is my first challenge I dont have any to recreate.  So, I decided to do a crackle manicure!  I know, crackle is old news, but I have never used it before.  I am signed up for the Julep Maven monthly box and recently I recieved a Julep crackle by the name of "Sabrina".  I have not been able to use it during the challenge, so I decided to use it today!  I have never been that attracted to crackles, but I really like this one.  I used China Glaze "Stone Cold" as my base.  I used one coat because it is so opaque, which is great.  I then applied one coat of Julep "Sabrina" over it, and viola!

China Glaze "Stone Cold".  I really love it byitself too!

Crackle looks good!

I really tried to go for a clean manicure with this one.

Artsy shot!

This is Halloween Nail Art Challenge: Trick or Treat

How's everyone doing today?  It's the second to last challenge!  Today is "Trick or Treat."  For this challenge I did a different design on each nail, and used 19 different polishes!  I also used a Sally Hansen nail art pen in Black for the first time.  It definitely made things easier, but I did notice the black smudged off almost instantly.  This could be due to the lack of a top coat.  I did not apply one because I really did not want to mess up my hard work with black streaks.  I suppose I will do a test with the pen and top coat later on tonight when I am doing tomorrow's nail art.

On my right hand, A.K.A. the "Trick" hand, I did a spider on the thumb which connects to a web on the ring finger.  On my index finger I did an eyeball, on my middle finger I wrote "Trick", and on my pinky I did blood.  Originally on my pinky I did brains but they didn't turn out so well, and the black came off when I washed my hands.  Trust me the blood is much better!

I wanted to share a blurry shot because it really made the sparkly polish come out on the web finger.

My spider connecting with his web!  

The blood was actually the fastest and easiest thing to do, I just painted a free hand french tip and then used my dotting tool and drew some drops!

On my left hand, A.K.A. the "Treat" hand, I did a jack o lantern with my ring finger and thumb.  On my index finger I did a caramel apple, on my middle finger I wrote treat, and on my pinky I did a candy corn.  I am really happy with how the carmel apple and the jack o lantern came out.  You would think the candy corn would have been easy, but really it wasn't.  Taping is not my strongest suit, yet!

Jack o lanterns are way easier to draw when using the nail art pen!

Trick or Treat!

This is all of the polishes I used!  The most used to date!

This is my dog T.K.  I like to take my photos around 2:30 in the afternoon when the sun is just coming into our apartment.  Unfortunately TK loves to start his daily sunbathing around this time too!  Luckily he is a good dog and always moves to the side while I take my photos, and he gets right back to sun bathing when I am done!

If you have any questions about the polishes I used, let me know!  19 polish and brand names would take up a ton of space!

This is Halloween Nail Art Challenge: Graveyard

Hey everybody!  Before I get started, I want to say welcome to my 3 followers!  Thank you!  I hope you enjoy!  There are 3 more days until to Halloween, which means it's marathon time with the challenge!  For the next 3 days it is 3 different designs.  Bang, bang, bang!  I have enjoyed doing this challenge, but I think I am ready for it to be done.  I want to paint my nails something other than orange, black, purple, or green!  My birthday is coming up in 5 days, so maybe I will do a mini birthday challenge!  Candles one day, cake the next, streamers, who knows?

In the meantime, let's get back to the challenge at hand.  Graveyard!  I decided to do a gradient for this, and then paint tombstones and crosses over the gradient.  I know what you are thinking; "Kristina, you've done a gradient THREE times in this challenge!"  I honestly did not realize this until a few minutes ago when I was looking through my photos.  You would think I would be a pro at it, but I still am figuring it out.  Gradient is tough.  Hopefully I am getting better at it!  Ok, so I got side tracked again.  For this challenge I used 7 different polishes!  On the nails it only looks like 4.  I used the silver for the base, hoping that some shimmer would come out when I did the sponging.  Really I think I could have used the pale purple instead.  I had a lot of trial and error on a paper towel to get it right.  Actually I didn't feel like I had it right, I was just read to get going!  I finally narrowed it down to a swipe of Ulta "TuTu Cute", a swipe of Sally Hansen "Greige Gardens", and a swipe of NYC "Skin Tight Denim Creme".  Every now and then I threw some of the NYC "Tribeca Silver" into the mix.

Over all I would say it came out pretty good!  The only thing I noticed was the polish started to get really tacky and rough.  I am not sure exactly what the cause of this is, maybe too much sponging?  Either way I like what I got, and there is a bit of shimmer in there!

These are the 4 I used for the gradient.  Left to right:  Ulta "TuTu Cute" Sally Hansen "Greige Gardens" NYC "Skin Tight Denim Creme" and NYC "Tribeca Silver"

My Graveyard!  When I was sponging a piece of the sponge came off and suck into the polish.  I tried to retrieve it with tweezers, but it was too late.  Of course it happened on the finger I chose for the moon!  I can see it, can you?  Haha!

I really love this shot because it really captures the shimmer!  Especially on my index finger.  Sorry for the junk in the background, but I had to share this shot!

This is Halloween Challenge: Witches

The challenge today is witches.  I received my 2nd order from 365 Days of Polish the other day!  I got the Hocus Pocus mini collection, and today I am using "Boouk!" from that collection.  You can see the collection and many other great polishes here: 365 Days of Color  So I actually do not have any witches on my nails, but my polish is from a collection inspired by a movie about witches!  I love Hocus Pocus, and have seen it tons of times!  It is such a good, fun Halloween movie.

"Boouk!" is a unique glitter with a murky tannish base.  I would try it with a nude base.  I used L'Oreal "Walk on the Beach" for my base.  I had to use 3 coats to get it smooth looking.  After that I used 2 coats of "Boouk!"  Followed by a topcoat!  And this is what I got:

I love this!  If you look close you can see there is a shimmer in the base of this polish.

A nice break from all the orange, black, purple, and green, wouldn't you say?

Gorgeous! 

This is Halloween Nail Art Challenge: Gradient

As I continue my journey into the world of nail art I find myself learning new things all the time.  Most recently I have learned that I need to paint my nails the day before I post them to my blog.  For the last 3 parts of the challenge I have had my nails done on the right day, but have not been ready to post until the day after.  Yesterday I lost daylight and could not get the quality photos I wanted to get.  Lesson learned, plan better!  On to the polish!

Today I have the gradient part of the challenge.  I did four nails in the gradient and one as an accent nail.  On the accent nail I tried to mimic a frankenstein candle holder I got last year.  Free hand nail art is not my strong suit, but I think it came out pretty good!

I thought I would share the process with everyone!  I use a makeup sponge, polish, and paper towels.
As you can see there is a cup in the left of the photo.  I tried dipping the sponge in water to keep it from absorbing too much of the polish, but all that did was make a mess.

I tapped up my fingers to make clean up easier.  I just used 3 pieces of tape; one on top and two on the sides.

This is how it looked after I removed the tape.  A lot easier to clean up!

Finished product!  My frankenstein had a few issues as you can see, but I am really pleased with the gradient!

I used China Glaze "Gaga For Green" and Rimmel London "Black Satin"

I got this candle holder last year, and it was my inspiration for this challenge!

Back to This is Halloween Challenge: Bats!

Hi everyone!  Today I am back on the challenge!  I decided to do a gradient with OPI "I Brake for Manicures" and ULTA "Fine Pruned".  I then used Bundle Monster stamping plate BM13.  I am proud to say I think I had a break through with the photography!  I really like the way these photos came out this time.  I was actually laying on my stomach next to the door to my apartment balcony and the sun was just right.  I still want to work on perfecting the cleaning up process, but I think I am getting better. I really don't have much else to say, this was an easy and fun challenge today!  I will be back on Monday with the next one!  This is Halloween Nail Art Challenge

The gradient actually came out better in photos!  

This is my first time using my Bundle Monster plates.

I think they look pretty batty to me!