Cold Swirls

Hello, Gorgeous! I hope you're doing well! Or, at least, better than I am... Nails first, then news!

It may be the season for turkeys and orange and brown and other fall-inspired colors, but I'm simply uninspired by it. So I looked for inspiration elsewhere, and found the snow, and the wind, and the ice that I had to battle for windshield territory this morning. Inspired by this tutorial, I decided to try a somewhat-skittle with different colors and a different "charm". 

On my left hand, I used three colors (not including the nude or the glitter)

On my right, I used five colors. What a difference, eh?

Also, my camera hates the nude color I used. Grrr.

I used a nude, unnamed Color Workshop from a few years ago as my nude. Over it, I sponged Kleancolor's Metallic White. Using tip guides, I created french manis using the unnamed Rue Beaute, Sinful Colors' Snow Me White, Zoya's Robyn, Finger Paint's Inkblot Blue, and Kleancolors' Metallic Blue. Then, using my medium striping brush, I created the swirls, using a small dotting tool, I created the dots, and then using Winstonia W120 stamping plate and Snow Me White, I created the snowflakes. Lovely!

So on to the news! I'm moving back to Vegas to go to school to do nails professionally! I. am. terrified! December and January are going to be suuuuper hectic, and I may or may not be able to make regular posts during that time. So just a heads-up, you may not hear from me for awhile. I'll be okay, though. I'm thinking I'm going to do what Nailed It, NZ did, and blog about school. We'll just have to see. Please bear with me during this transitional time!

HPB Presents: Fall Favorites!

Hello gorgeous! How's the weather? We're under a "winter weather advisory" for freezing rain right now, and it's 29°F. Miserable. But that's when I get to put on my favorite sweater and cuddle up with a special someone and some hot chocolate (or hot apple cider) in front of the TV and binge watch TV shows on Netflix (last night's discovery was Once Upon A Time... OMG!). 

Today, I'm doing another linkup with Hobby Polish Bloggers, and this month's theme is Fall Favorites! For a while I couldn't decide what was my favorite thing about autumn, or how to depict it on my nails. Is it the turning of the weather, going from miserable to lovely? Is it the gorgeous change in the leaves? Is it the fat squirrels running around, preparing for winter? Yes. And so much more. 

And then it hit me: my favorite sweater. Seriously, the first day it was below 40°F, I was rocking that sweater. And I have worn it at least once a week since. I friggin' love that thing! And yet, I don't have a pic of it. Sorry :(

But I do have pics of this mani!

At first I didn't like that the red was so uneven, and then I realized it's a sweater.
Everything's uneven about it lol

The grey and burgandy, the fat stripes... everything about this mani turned out exactly how I wanted. And it was easy to do, I just freehanded the stripes with a small-ish brush. Two layers of LAC's Lost Soul, then a layer of Diamond Claws by Dragon Claw Polish, and then laying down the stripes using Sinful Colors' GoGo Girl. I used acetone and more Lost Soul to clean up the lines, and then topped with Diamond Claws. Pretty easy, pretty fast, and I'm thrilled. It perfectly sums up autumn to me.

Hobby Polish Bloggers is a wonderful group of women that I am proud to be a part of. So many lovely women who are experiencing the same struggles that I do: trying to get more views; trying to balance a full-time job, children, nail care, and the blog; nail care; the lust after new polishes by amazing creators; breaking a nail and being unable to salvage it... All of the trials and tribulations. They're there for me. I also get great tips and tricks from them, and new goals to aspire to (like someday being able to paint half as well as Narmai over at PiggieLuv). 

Every month, HPB does a linkup. Here's this month's participants: 

An InLinkz Link-up

I hope you have a lovely rest of your autumn, and please enjoy a hot cocoa for me!

In the comments below, please let me know what you're favorite thing about Fall is!

Snow Days

Hello from the midwest, where it went from 60°F to snowing the next day.

I was not ready for this. I am cold.

But in celebration of the season, I've done an homage to my family's second-favorite snow activity: Snowmen!

To create this look, I used an unnamed pale blue Rue 21 nail polish, a single coat of China Glaze's The Outer Edge, from their The Giver line, and to create the snow, I dabbed on OPI's Liquid Sand Solitaire. Pretty easy, and actually very quick. 

This was the first time I've used The Outer Edge. It's a dream to use on the nail, very easy to control the glitter, but a nightmare to get off the cuticle. I do like the way it looks, though. It's made of dense, tiny white matte glitters and then some less-dense, even-tinier silver glitter suspended in a clear base. 

I top coated with Diamond Claw from Dragon Claw Polish before I dabbed Solitaire.

Are you excited about winter? If so, what's your favorite part?

Happy Belated Birthday, Blog!

So my blog's birthday was a long, long time ago. Like, September... But I *just now* got my blog's present, so we're celebrating! YAAY! The blog is 2 years old! So I got me a present! A Macro Lens!

I bought it at ThinkGeek. It's a rubber band that holds the lens to my phone's camera and allows me to take shots from SUPER close and SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICALLY zoomed in. So I took some shots while doing tonight's mani.

The lens

China Glaze's Cosmic Dust with an LED lamp for lighting. 

China Glaze's Cosmic Dust, again. Just trying to get the holo to appear

It's been a long, horrible week. There was a death in the family, and I don't get to say goodbye. I'm exhausted and getting motivation has been extremely hard. So I decided to do an easy mani that I enjoy wearing, which is a waterfall. In purple, which is a fun, easy color to wear.

I hope you guys had a better week than I do. Have a wonderful rest of your week as well!!