Saturday, October 26, 2013

More October Nails

I know, GREAT title right? lol have anything better, leave it in the comments ;)





These were fun :D I'm starting to perfect the striping technique.... The trick is to make sure everything underneath is 100% dry, and peel the tape off when the polish on top is still wet. I was not doing that before, and either whole chunks of the top color would peel off, or polish from under the tape would come up. It was a mess! Not this time, though!

Saturday, October 19, 2013

Dem Bones, Dem Bones!

I decided to try and replicate a post from pinterest, instead of adding my own little twist, just to practice and to see where I really am. Lol okay that's a bunch of bullcrap. Sorry. I just REALLY liked this design!

Original post is here.




This actually turned out better than I expected it to! ... On my left hand, at least. My left hand still isn't down for the finesse it takes to make the tiny bones, but it didn't do too bad.

These took me a loooong time. I wish I had a more opaque orange, I had to do several coats on top of a white, and you can still kinda see where the white isn't even.

For these nails, I used Sinful Colors Black on Black, Pure Ice Kiss me Here, Revlon's Spirit, and Flower's Eye of the Tiger Lily. Top coat is Matte Me Crazy by NYC.

Friday, October 18, 2013

Halloween Finale prep

No nail art today, sorry! I just had a question for everyone :)

What monsters would you like to see on my nails? If I get enough participation, I'll pick the ten I think I can do best and wear them for the Halloween Finale nails.

Please leave your answer in the comments!!

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Blood Drips

It's 46° here. It's the middle of October and it's like we've forgotten about Autumn already :( 
Oh. Right. I live in the midwest now.. 46° is Autumn. 46° is winter temps in Las Vegas...

Whatever, I'm cold.

ANYWAYS, nails! I did blood drips, they seemed simple enough... and they were, but they didn't turn out great. I need practice. 

You can sort of see the wear on my nails after a day. I'm NOT in love with Seche Vite!




Despite my misgivings, they were pretty popular. I used Sinful Colors Snow Me White, and an unnamed LAC red. Keep in mind that if you're going to do blood, that it has a blue base. You don't want it looking pink!

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Minimalist Frankenstein

My best friend REALLY LIKES Frankenstein's Monster. So, in the spirit of the season, I give you: minimalism?

Hahaha wasn't expecting that, were you?

I REALLY wanted to do Watermarble Mummy nails tonight, but then I realized that I can't be spending that kind of time on them because tomorrow night I have to take them off and do something for a couple of weddings that the boyfriend-thingy (it's complicated in the most adult sense) and I are attending this weekend. So, I K.I.S.S.ed it tonight.


The smudging was intentional. Monsters!



To get the color I got (not pictured very well), I used my Rue Beaute Mint, and the did a coat of Sinful Colors Irish Green. I got the studs at The Dollar Tree! You can't really see, but I also have a layer of Pure Ice's Oh Baby! where my nail beds show through, and then on my tips, I have a Franken (apropos, right?) of Oh Baby!, Petite's Daze, and NYC's Matte Me Crazy. 

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Pumpkins!

Ahhh I love fall! The colors (which is funny, I'm a cool-color person), the weather (the temperature! the rain! the lack of humidity!), the food (squash soup!), the clothes (finally can wear jeans without dying. also, sweaters.), the holidays (Halloween! Thanksgiving!) and my electric bill (seriously!)! I love EVERYTHING ABOUT FALL. Okay, the whole pumpkin spice obsession is a bit out of hand, but EVERYTHING ELSE I LOVE.

This list should also include pumpkins. I really, really like pumpkins, and finding the perfect pumpkin always stresses me out because when I find my "perfect" pumpkin, I psyche myself out because someone else could probably not destroy it like I am preparing my kitchen with newspaper to do.

So, I made my own pumpkins!






Cleanup was really hard for me with this orange because it's so sheer, I had a hard time seeing it (there are a few other reasons, like I have a hard time differentiating certain shades of oranges and pinks (which actually did not help while I was building up the orange... couldn't tell where I'd put the first layers...), and I was watching True Blood in really low lighting. Sorry!), so please excuse the mess.

I still love how these turned out! These just scream "Fall is HEERE!" to me.

Please meet Flower. Apparently it's a brand you can buy at Walmart now? I'd never heard of it before. The orange, Eye of the Tiger Lilly, really caught my eye, perfect for pumpkins, right?? ...Not so much. This polish is very sheer, and I'd actually like to call it a Jelly. I layered it with Sinful Colors Cloud 9  to get some opaque-ness and it gave it a very, very subtle glitter. 

Application is pretty good, not very streaky. It is a little thin, but not too bad! Even with two topcoats, there's shrinkage and wear happening after only two days :( 


You can see my cuticle butter in my cuticles... oops. Lush's Lemony Flutter, if anyone's asking.
You can also see where I couldn't figure out where the orange and the pink were lol
I really like these, despite all of my flaws (I'm still learning freehand...), and the issues I had with the polish.

Thursday, October 3, 2013

October is Here!

...Someone wake up that guy from Green Day. (I know, overused joke...)

I'm so friggin' excited for October, but at the same time, I'm in total disbelief that it's actually October. 2012 was just last month, right??

I'd been so excited to do my nails tonight... All of my nails I had perfectly shaped and they were all even and the same great length... and then I broke my right middle. So frustrating! I'm sure I'll get over it... Nails do grow back, after all!

If you're arachnophobic, heads-up. I'm wearing spiders and their webs!

Step one: Sponge the tips of your nails with your base. I chose Orly's Charged Up.

I sponged Sinful Colors' Let Me Go on top and just under the Charged Up. In hindsight, this was a little too much, but had I just left the whole thing like this, it would've been perfect.

Next, I added the spider webs. Using a thin striping brush, start at the gathering point and draw out in black. Repeat a couple more times. Draw little U's between the lines. I went over mine with glitters. Born Pretty's Holographic #7 is shown here.
I stamped spiders onto my accent nails using Pure Ice Black Rage and Mash-38 stamping plate.

Little closer....

A couple of the spiders on my right hand got squished. 

I LOVE this mani, and I've only been wearing it all of five minutes now! This was inspired by this post that I found on Pinterest. I'm working on improving my freehanding, and drawing straight lines will probably improve with time. I'm still very impressed with myself on how these turned out though!