31DC2013 Day 15

Phew!  We are half way through the challenge!  Todays theme is delicate print.  I went onto Google images and searched delicate print and surprisingly all I came up with was nail photos!  So, I changed my search to delicate pattern and got better results.  I wanted to find something that inspired me, and I came across a green frosted bathroom sink that had branches all over it.  I thought this was very pretty and would be fun to try to recreate.  I told myself I would try to be more creative with my nails and I am having fun trying!  I used a teal that resembled the glass color, and used white to paint the branches.  I then used a white shimmer with a matte finish to give it that frosted look.  I am really enjoying this challenge, it is pushing me to try new things!  I think by the end of this challenge I will need to buy another white polish, I seem to use it in every mani...for this mani I used Zoya Purity, Revlon Entice, Wet N Wild Break the Ice, and NYC Matte Me Crazy.

Inspired By A Tutorial

Hello everyone!  Today I tried out a tutorial called "Take On Dots" originally posted by the blog Nailed It.  I really love nail art and am in awe at the girls that come up with such awesome nail art ideas right out of thin air!  Personally I am not that great at just imagining something, I mean when I try to "doodle" all I can do is write my name in bubble letters...I have been wanting to do some nail art so I decided to search the web for tutorials.  First I searched blogs that I follow, and came across the dotted tutorial on Nailed It.  Freehand I am not so good with, but dotting is pretty doable for me!  I pretty much duplicated what was in the tutorial as best as I could.  I used a basic black from Rimmel London, and for the dots I used Picture Polish Peaches N' Cream, Milani Totally 80's, and Essie Butler Please.  This tutorial was very easy to follow, and I absolutely love the end result!  For more tutorials check out the tutorial tab on Nailed It.  Oh yea!  Do you happen to notice a difference in my photos???  I switched backdrop colors!  Hehe!  I went with white, I feel like the colors really pop more on the white! :)

 

Flowers For Mom Nail Art Challenge: Perfect Gift For Mom

Hello, first I would like to say that I did in fact miss the second day in this challenge...I had a tough time with it, I orginally tried to use my Bundle Monster stamping plates, but it was beyond frustrating trying to use those things!  I dont know if I got bad plates, or if its the polish.  I think I am going to try to buy actual "stamping polish" and see if thats any better.   Since the stamping failed and frustrated me, I just made a simple design that was kind of cool, but just didnt remind me of mom.  So, I am saving that for another day!  For todays challenge I chose to paint Daises on my nails.  They are my moms favorite!  I did the petals free hand and then used a dotting tool for the yellow centers.  I have a set of nail art brushes, but cant seem to master the art of using them...guess I need to watch some more tutorials!  The main color I used for the base color was Essie Bikini So Teeny.  It has tiny sparkles in it, but they are barley visible.  I even bought the one that had the most sparkle to it, yet it is not that visible.  Either way it is still a great color.  I know everyone loves Essie, and I do too.  However, I have always noticed that Essie is not the easiest polish to apply.  The first coat for me is always horribly streaky, but the second one is better.  With two coats its nice.  Since I am on the knit picky train, I would like to talk about top coats.  I have to have a fast drying top coat, and originally tried Seche Vite, and loved the finish and the quick drying time, but didn't like how goopy it got about half way through.  So, upon recommendation I tried Out The Door top coat.  After using Out The Door for many manis now, I find that I do not like it.  I find that it doesn't actually dry the polish as well as Seche does.  My biggest problem with Out The Door is these tiny annoying bubbles it creates in the polish!  You can actually see what I am talking about in the two photos below on my pinky nail.  I am totally going back to Seche Vite, and I have learned a few tips on how to handle the goopy-ness.  This is the first year I didn't get my mom flowers, I got here clothes instead!  So, I put the flowers on my nails!  Below is a list of others participating in the challenge.  :)

Carmina from Cubbiful

Nicole from Dipped in Lacquer

Alicia from Makeup and Nails, Not War

Erin from Paint Those Piggies!

Paulina from Paulina’s Passions

Kristina from Polish and Repeat

Rachael from Rachos Nail Love

Tes from Tes Did It Nails

Yohana from Beauty-Shoes-Nails-Fun 

Easter Time!

Hello!  So, I have had an epiphany!  I have figured out the lighting for my photos, finally!  O yeah!  What does everyone have planned for this Easter weekend?  Me, I am just going to relax and then spend time with the family tomorrow and eat so good food!  Today I have a gradient with stamping.  It took me many tries to get the gradient colors worked out, first I tried to use a shimmery China Glaze color as the base color, but when I started stamping I kept getting a balding effect that could not be fixed...I then tried various things on my ruined nails, and finally decided to use Sally Hansen Jaded as a base coat and then sponge Jaded and Sinful Colors Tempest onto the nail.  I took some photos with just the gradient, and I must say I am super excited about how awesome these photos look!  Next, I stamped some easter goodies using BM302.  The bunny on my middle finger is a little smudged, but I like to think of him as one of those long hair bunnies!  :)  Happy Easter!

My Own Creation/I found a beauty supplier!!!

Hi everyone!  So today I would like to share a little nail art that I came up with all by myself!  I was sitting at work a few weeks ago toward the end of the day, and then it just hit me!  I wanted to do a  single neon and single purple chevron with black dots in-between.  I went home, painted it, and loved it!  Now, I did think of it on my own, but thats not to say others haven't thought of it before.  I used Milani Totally 80's and China Glaze Coconut Kiss.  You will probably notice that my cuticles are a bit flooded in this look, this is because I was afraid that if I did clean up, I would loose too much of the neon color.  If my nails were longer I would have had more space to work with and would have cleaned up,  buuuut, since my nails are still in the nub stage, I decided to not do clean up.

Now on to so exciting news!  I found a beauty supplier!  I always have seen that all the bloggers I admire have a "supplier" and always wanted my own.  Well, I was in the town next to where I live a few weeks ago and found a one off nail supply retailer!  It looks like a bit of a hole in the wall, but you go inside and its about 6 isles of all kinds of nail supplies.  If I remember correctly there are 5 end cap cases about 6 ft tall holding all of the OPI nail polish you could imagine!  There were colors I have never seen before, colors from discontinued collections, and the Euro collection that had just come out the day before!!!!  And, the owner said if there is any color I want that I don't see, that he can see if he can hunt it down for me!!!!!  Im so excited!  No more paying $9.00 at Ulta for OPI anymore!  This place also has an incredible selection of Color Club and a decent selection of China Glaze.  I cant express how excited I am about this!  :)

I really love how this came out!  It was all done with tape and a dotting tool.

I am trying to work on my photography, I just bought some new lights and will hopefully try them out today!

I put this photo up because I am liking the idea of playing with hand positioning.  I recently saw a post on Chalkboard Nails blog where she did something like this with her hand and really loved the way it looked.  

Unintentional Break/Happy St. Patty's Day!

Hello there! So, I have been away for a while as you can tell...I really didn't mean to take a break like this. Originally I was feeling a bit run down. So, I decided to take a week or two break from blogging. That 2 week break quickly turned into a 7 week break. Oops! I haven't quit painting my nails, just kinda got out of the habit of blogging about them. Hopefully it doesn't appear that I don't want to do this, I think it is just that this is my first blog and I jumped head first into it, and got a bit run down...plus I started the blog only a few months after I started nail art. So, I have been learning how to do two things at the same time. Anyhow, I am back and have a bundle of goodies to share! :)

Like I said before, I am still green (holiday pun intended!) to the world of nail art and nail care. To be honest I find it hard to stick with routines, trying to remember to use cuticle care multiple times a day, let alone once a day, is difficult for me. I am getting better though, and I am trying all kinds of new products. Most recently I purchased Lush Lemony Flutter and Essie Millionails. I have been using these two solidly for a few weeks now, and cant quite tell yet, but think my nails are stronger! While I was on my break, I kept having a problem with the breaking of one particular nail! My nails were looking great, all but my right ring finger. For some reason when I start to get length on that nail, it immediately tears. This has happened THREE times in a row!!! So, I decided to switch up my base coat to Essie Millionails, and have been trying really hard to remember to condition my cuticles. O, and I also switched up my remover from a generic pure acetone that was visibly drying out my skin, to OPI Expert Touch. Soooo, that all being said, I decided to cut all my nails on my right hand and now have nubs! Hopefully not for long though!

Finally, I will get to some photos. I have decided to put together a little series of what I have been up to for the St. Patrick's Day holiday!

 

For this little number I used Julep Lucky and Julep Felicity.  I have to say the Julep Luck is AWESOME!  I love it, and cant wait to use it again!!!

This manicure looks better on the hand than in pictures I think...

This is Chick polish Hipster Chick, I love the way it looks in the bottle, but I feel it was just kind of eh on me.  Maybe I should have done a little some thing to add some pizazz?

This one I really liked,  I used China Glaze Gaga for Green and Piggy Polish Get Orge It.  Haha, I like the Finger Paints name! :)  I did all of the tips and stripes, and the four leaf clover freehand!

Teal/Green Water Marble

The process of the water marble was really easy and clean, which really surprised me.  If you have tried water marbling you know what I am talking about.  I guess practice helps!  Lets just hope its the same for stamping...still have not mastered that.

On my other hand, I decided to be lazy and do my first ombre!  For that I used all three colors in the water marble plus China Glaze For Audrey, and on my thumb (not pictured) I used Sally Hansen Sea.  I have to say Sea really surprised me, in the bottle it looks like it would be opaque.  But really it is quite translucent.  I really like it, and want to find a way to use it again.

A co-worker of mine told me her daughter likes to do her nails, YAY!   She has tried the water marble, but has a tough time with it.  So, I told her I would post a tutorial on how to water marble.  However, I decided it would be better to share a link to the blog that really helped me learn how to water marble.  That would be Chloe's Nails.  I referred to her tutorial over and over until I got it down!

Whimsical Ideas by Pam: Seuss!

Ooooo!  I am so excited to share this polish with you today!  It is Whimsical Ideas by Pam: Seuss!  I have actually had this polish for a few months.  Every time I would go to pick my color to paint my nails, I would browse my shelves, see Seuss, admire it, and put it back.  It never felt like it was the right time to wear it.  I started seeing everyone wearing Seuss, and started thinking I needed to find a way to wear it and not blend in with everyone else.  Then it hit me!  I found my inspiration, I would do all my nails with Seuss, except my middle nail.  I would do that one as an accent nail; with solid red and a french tip of Seuss!  Its brilliant!  I love it!  I also love exclamation marks!  Hahaha!

To conserve my Seuss I used Sally Hansen Blinding Blue as my base color, followed by two coats of Seuss.  I love for my glitter polish to have a layered look.  The polish itself it awesome!  I love all the glitter, especially the tiny blue ones.   For the red I used Juelp January.  At first I tried to do the french tip without the silver strip, but as careful as I was, I could not keep the colors from bleeding together.  So, I got the idea to paint a piece of tape silver and cut out a little strip of it to make a clean straight line.  I really love it!  

Of all my polishes, I only own 13 Indie polishes from 3 makers.  11 of them are minis, and 2 are full size.  Those two full sizers would be my Whimsies, I have Seuss, as you can see, and I Love NY.  Trust me I want more!  Just the other night I was eyeballing Whimsical Ideas by Pam Peacock Park, and Magical Mystery Tour.  I think I will be getting those sooner than latter...hehehe!  There is no doubt that my Indie polish collection will continue to grow, but Whimsical Ideas by Pam Seuss and I Love NY will always have a special place in my heart as my first Indie purchases.   :)

First Photos in Light Box using Julep Madison!

Check it out!  My first photos in my new light box!   I have been playing around, getting used to it.  I can already see the quality of photos I am taking improving by leaps and bounds.  Yay!    I really wanted to use a color that would photograph well.  So I chose to use a solid, bright color that I knew would be photogenic.  The color I used is Julep Madison.  I got it in my most recent Julep Maven box, and originally was not all that excited about it.  But when I got it on, that was a different story.  I am obsessed with this color!  I love 1940's styling; makeup, hair, and clothing.  This polish looks like it would be from that time, I could totally see a woman from back then wearing it.  I would describe it as a red with a bit of a coral color to it.  I have had it on for days because it looks so timeless, and makes me happy every time I look at it.   If there had to be a down side, it would be the finish.  I don't know if it is supposed to be like this, but the finish without a top coat is very flat and plastic-y looking.  But with a great top coat it is killer!  I cant wait to use it again!

Zoya Edyta

Today I am wearing my first Zoya polish purchase!  Trust me it is not going to be my last.  In the past 48 hours I have acquired 6 more Zoya polishes!  3 from the Zoya promotion, and 3 more earlier today at Ulta, all on sale.  Todays Zoya is Edyta, and it is awesome!  Purple my be my favorite color, but when it comes to nail polish, greens and golds are where my heart is.  This polish happens to be an awesome dark green with tiny gold glitter, and when the light hits this polish you can see small colorful glitter all mixed in there too.   I decided to do an accent nail with this one, and for that I used Orly Luxe.  I am not talented with art what so ever, so I am very proud of that little arrow I made!  In my last post I mentioned that I was building a light box.  Well, I did it!  I used it for the first time for the photos below.  I am still trying to figure out the lighting, exposure, and whatnot.  I am very pleased with how it came out, and will share some construction pictures soon!  In the meantime, please enjoy these photos taken in my new light box.

This is probably my favorite shot, I love how soft it all looks.  

Layla Cosmetics CE-52 AKA "The Butterfly Effect"

Hi everyone, how are you doing?  It has been so miserably cloudy here in "Sunny Florida" for the past few weeks, which is especially depressing when you happen to need the sun to capture beautiful photos of nail polish...But fortunately yesterday we got sun for a few hours and I was able to get some lovely shots of this awesome polish from Layla Cosmetics.  I saw this in Ulta sitting all by its lonesome, and knew I had to have it!   Purple is my absolute favorite color, and I go wild for anything with a rainbow effect, which makes this polish the bomb.  I have never heard of this brand, so I tried to research it some more.  I guess because it is a foreign brand, there isn't much on it out there.  I was able to find only a couple reviews of this polish.  Now on to mine!

Okay, so technically I wrote the top paragraph a few days ago...and got distracted by wanting to build a light box again, which I will hopefully talk about after I finish it tonight!
I have never owned a "Jelly" polish, until now.  I didn't know it was a jelly until I started painting, and noticed the thinness of it.  Instead of using a base color, I applied 3 coats of the polish.  I really love it.   The purple is amazing, the flakies are rainbow-tastic, and there is tiny pink glitter all over the place!  What more could a girl ask for?

Its amazing what using a top coat will do, I am not so tedious with caring for my non photographed hand.  I have had this polish on for about 5 days, due to the lack of sunlight, and my photo hand is doing great!  However, the non photo hand is looking a bit ragged...

Well, the forecast says sunny everyday for the next week or so, and I am beyond excited to paint my nails!  Sorry if this post has been a bit frantic!  Enjoy the photos!  :)

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.