Crazy Diamonds

Hello Gorgeous! Hope your December is going well! Mine is full of craziness. Saturday is my last day of work, then next Thursday, we're hopping on a plane to Vegas to tour schools, celebrate my birthday and Christmas, and start to get things settled for our stay there. Kiddo is very excited!

 As you're aware, I'm a part of the Hobby Polish Bloggers, and from that group I made a great friend, Narmai from PiggieLuv. She's always got AMAZING art on her nails, and she's an absolute muse. I took some inspiration from her GORGEOUS Don't Let Anyone Dull Your Sparkle nails, and decided to work with it. I bought some OPI Sheer Tint minis on Amazon, grabbed my chunky glitters and went nuts.

First step in this process is using a sp- you know what, she's got a great tutorial over on Youtube. Check it out!

I went out and about like this, before they were finished... Even unfinished, they got comments and compliments! 

Macro Shot. Because these will never get old lol

For my nails, I went with a different message than my muse:

Shine on, you crazy diamond! 

My diamond in Macro

To create the lettering and the diamond, I created my own decals using Seche Vite, a piece of paper, and a ziplock baggie. I wrote out what I wanted to say on the paper, put the paper in the baggie, and then painted the baggie with Seche Vite. After that was dry, I painted out the words using Pure Ice's Silver Mercedes and Sinful Colors' Black on Black using my medium-length line brush. The diamond is Silver Mercedes, with LAC's Glitter Bomb and China Glaze's Fairy Dust behind.

I sooo love these! They were so cute and fun to make! I hope you enjoyed them as much as I do!

In the comments, please lemme know what you're doing for Christmas!

Traveling TARDIS nails!

Hello, Whovian! Hope you're having a wonderful day! Today, I'm showing you some of my favorite nails I've ever done! If you've been with me for a while, you know I'm a pretty big nerd/geek, part of the Doctor Who fandom, and I love doing nails that show it!

So on Black Friday weekend, Storenvy was having a 30% off select shops sale, and while sifting through a bunch of beauty stores, I discovered one called Gryffinstor that does mostly water decals and temporary tattoos. They have a LOT of fun and nerdy stuff, please go check them out! As I was sifting through their items, I saw that they had the TARDIS, and I had to have a sheet! With zero hesitation, I tossed them in my cart and purchased them, with the intent to do this mani.

I received them really quickly, the shipping speed was excellent! In fact, they arrived so soon, and I couldn't wait (of course), so I took some polishes, sponges, and tools to work and did these at my desk. After some trial and error, I ended up deciding to paint the backs of the decals with white polish because they were too transparent without, and you couldn't see the TARDIS. After doing so, the TARDIS really pops!

Ooweeeoooooh! OOooheweeeeoooh! Do do do do da doooo de dooo!

*weird grinding noise*

Yeah, I'm excited about these. After wearing them for a few days, I still don't want to take them off.

Now, I wanna let you in on a little secret: not all of this is nail polish! I accidentally forgot to bring black (how?!), and I don't have black handy at my desk, so I grabbed what I had: black sharpie >_< 

So after laying down the black, I put a top coat down so it didn't smudge, then sponged on several colors using a ripped up makeup sponge held by some tweezers.

The colors I used for this are: Black Sharpie, Sally Hansen's Co-Bolt Blue, Zoya's Robyn and Pippa, and LAC's Purple Passion. I also used three glow-in-the-dark colors, an unnamed Rue Beaute' that's hot pink (it has a light-up lid), Pulsating Purple by Bright 'n Sassy (I found it at my local grocery store), and Pure Ice's Glow In The Dark. I was disappointed to find that the pink and the purple don't glow in this mani, but Glow In The Dark sure does! I haven't been disappointed in that one yet :) I still feel like they do make a bit of a difference in this mani, though, by changing some colors.

I used a dotting tool and a striping brush to create the stars, and Sinful Colors' Snow Me White. Topped everything with China Glaze Fairy Dust, and then placed the TARDIS-es. After those were snug, I topped everything with Diamond Claw after cleanup.

I love these so much, and I keep nerding out over them. I have a feeling we'll be seeing them again soon!

What fandoms do you belong to? If you like these, please leave a comment!

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!

October Challenge: Week 3

Hello lovelies! This week you're getting TWO blog posts!! How awesome is that? Today's post is Week Three of the October Challenge! This week's theme is:

I realized after I did Week 1 that I'd already used spider webs, and felt like a dolt. But I've been wanting to do a mani like this for forever, so I just went with it. 

Turns out I had some bad karma or something going when I was doing this, because NOTHING was working with me. It was a very frustrating mani :( I had intended on having newspaper print going, the webs were supposed to be black glitter, and the spider on my thumbs were supposed to be stamped. But I couldn't find my spider stamping plate, my bundle monster binder for my plates broke (still usable), my rubbing alcohol is missing, and neither vodka nor water worked for the newspaper transfers, and the black glitter I have bleeds into the topcoat. Oh, and I tried to freehand a spider with no reference. My first attempt looked like a tick. ...You very nearly didn't get a Week 3. 

But I persevered and I survived, and I've already gotten a few comments on them!

They glow in the dark! But my camera can't capture it and it is impossible to find a black light smaller than 2' in this teeny tiny town.

Ooooh spoooooky misty green!

Holy crap I didn't see how many stringies I have :(

For this mani I laid down a layer or two of Rue Beaute's Mint, and then dabbed on China Glaze's I'm With The Lifeguard, Finger Paints' Silkscreen Green, Sally Hansen's Limestone, and LAC's Limelife using a makeup sponge and some foam I cut up from some kind of packaging. I then did a thick layer of Seche Vite, because I just KNEW I was gonna mess up. Holy moly am I soooo very glad for that forethought! This is when things went... downhill. I'll spare you the gory details. I freehanded the spiders and the webs using a thinned Sinful Colors' Black on Black and a medium-length striping brush. Previously my arch-nemesis, it has become my favorite brush. Topped with a final coat of seche and I went to bed.

I really wish the newspaper transfer had worked out, but I'm still pretty satisfied with this mani. And I know it's messy, but I am damn proud of my spiders (not pictured, but the one on my left hand is actually much smaller). 

And just a reminder of what's coming up next:

October Challenge: Week 2

Hello lovelies! I hope you're enjoying your October, I know I am! Halloween is my favorite time of year. Lovely weather, pumpkins, lovely trees, and piles of leaves! I love how the air smells and the birds sound. October is my favorite month! And I'm keeping on with the challenge, so here's week two!

Inspired by this pin, which takes you to a slideshow of nails (all of which have no sourcing). I tried finding the original source, but after 10 minutes I can't find anything outside of more pins or unsourced lists. :(

I tried and I tried, but I can't catch the orange lines on my middle fingers.

No one's sent me anything to post for week one. I'm hoping I'll get some submissions for week two!

Happy October!

Sunset Over the Skylines

Hello luvvies! Hope you are excited for this weekend, I sure am!

At my Dollar Store, we've been getting some really awesome steals lately. Particularly in the makeup section, so I've been keeping an eye there, and very recently, I scored! I found some Maybelline New York COLORSHOW Nail Tattoos in style 30, called "Skylines" and I immediately knew what I was doing with them! Sunsets!

I absolutely love these, so I took WAY too many pics! Sorry-not-sorry lol

This one is my personal favorite

For the sunset, I started with a dot of Sally Hansen's Mellow Yellow, then put a ring of Salon Perfect's Haute Pink (which is really an orange, if you ask me), followed by a ring of Zoya's Charisma, followed by a ring of Pure Ice's Last Chance, and then the rest of the sponge was Sinful Colors' Endless Blue (I thought it was going to be darker, but the sponging lightened it up considerably).  Over the Last Chance and the Endless Blue, I dabbed some unnamed LAC glitter.

Doing a round gradient opposed to a linear gradient was actually much harder than I was anticipating. Anyone have any tips?

I have had an AMAZING amount of strangers and friends commenting on how much they love them. I love them too!

I hope you guys have an awesome Friday and an even better start to your weekend!

Barbed Wire and Roses

Happy Friday!!

So with my recent paycheck, I got a hefty bonus and decided to treat myself. So, I bought 28 bottles of nail polish, 10 more swatch wheels, and a new storage system for my polishes. I'm very excited about all of it, because the items that were shipped weren't supposed to be here until at least Monday, and I got them all between Wednesday and Thursday! 

So on Wednesday night, I just had to use the polishes that came in, which were the Kleancolor Metallic collection and the Kleancolor Chunky Holo collection. I ended up just using the Metallic collection, though.

I keep hearing Seal's "Kiss From A Rose" whenever I look at this design

Stamped with Pure Ice's Silver Mercedes, which decided to soak up the purple pigment -_-

For this look, I used Kleancolor's Metallic Fuschia, and stamped with Pure Ice's Silver Mercedes. On the accent, I laid down two coats of Sinful Colors' Black on Black and stamped with Kleancolor's Metallic Pink. I used Bundle Monster's BM-323 stamping plate. I'm loving this look! I absolutely love the Metallic Fuschia, it's an insanely gorgeous color, possibly one of my favorites.

I got the swatch wheels and the Kleancolor Duochrome collection on Thursday, so I'm going to be playing with those tonight. I've already gotten the polishes swatched, going to be putting everything away soon and playing with the new colors a bit more. Maybe do some reviews for you guys if anyone's interested?

Have a great weekend! Please subscribe and share, and if you have any questions or requests, please leave a comment!

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!

Sweet Summer Lemonade, Topcoat Comparison

So I recently made my first purchase at the Born Pretty Store, and if you read the previous post, you saw that I got a round of fruit fimo decals.

At first, I was gonna do watermelon nails, but I decided to use the lemons and make lemonade nails first. I usually HATE yellow, but I really like LAC's Hysteria.

These were really fun to make!

1. Prep clean as usual, basecoat.
2. Paint with a white base (I used Sinful Colors' Snow Me White), and then add two coats of your yellow over it. I used LAC's Hysteria, which is a neon jelly, I think. It layers REALLY well. You can find it at Dollar General or online.

For the accents:

1. While the paint is still wet, sprinkle your glitter over the tip of your accent nails. (I got the glitter I used from the Dollar Tree, but honestly, I saw some that looked the same at Walmart today in the craft aisle.) Run a dry brush over it gently to knock off excess glitter. 
2. Using a quick dry topcoat, secure the slices of fimo to the nail. Press and hold into place until mostly dry.
3. Topcoat

For the "regular nails:

1. Take your white nail polish and create rings of white using a coffee stirring straw. Allow to dry
2. Apply a thin coat of Hysteria, allow to dry
3. Create larger rings of white, using a regular straw. Allow to dry.
4. Apply another thin coat of Hyteria, allow to dry
5. Using a dotting tool, pen, pin, toothpick, etc, throw on some random dots.
6. Topcoat

The night before I did these, I received an order from Sally's Beauty Supply, which had a bottle of Seche Vite in it. It's currently on sale! Plus, I have a Sally's membership, AND I had coupons. I got the bottle for about $4.50.

SO I put it up to the test. On my left hand, I used my [new] favorite, NYC's Turbo Dry Top Coat, and on my right, I used the Seche Vite.

Here's my observations:

• You can't tell the difference, once they're dried. And they dry at about the same rate. They're both very shiny, very hard, very smooth.
• Seche Vite smells like one of the cheap polishes I won't buy at the dollar store (yes, there are some that I won't buy!). I REALLY found it off-putting, and I did not like it AT ALL.
• NYC is a little thinner, but it's kinda hard to tell unless you're looking for things to compare
• So far, neither of them have chipped. In fact, most of those pictures I took about 10 minutes ago.
• There's a bit more bubbling on the hand with the NYC, but I don't know if it's because of the topcoat or because I was being hasty with letting my lower layers dry. 
• (Probably me being hasty.)

Honestly, I think LAC's Turbo Dry Topcoat is the winner. For the price I paid (50 cents), it has a much better value. Seche Vite isn't 3-Free either, second ingredient is Toulene.

Blue India

I couldn't figure out a name for this, but it makes me think of Henna tattoos that are very popular and traditional in India, so...

Blue India.

To differentiate from the nameless salmon version I did a couple weeks ago.

I REALLY like the design. Which is why I did it again. I figure, practice makes perfect, so I'll keep plugging at it until I get it right. (I didn't, btw. I missed a finger.)

Yeah I missed that ring finger. Gorram it!

I used Sally Hansen's Extreme Wear's Blue Me Away, Pure Ice's French Kiss, and Pure Ice's Superstar! for the India, and for the gradient, I used LA Colors' Flurry. 

I used NY Color's Matte Me Crazy topcoat.

I used a new (to me) strengthener by Sally Hanson, called Instant Strength. I wasn't thrilled at first, it was extremely thin and I was kinda wary that I'd just dropped $6 on a waste. Well to make a long story short, I am impressed.
Beyond a couple of TINY chips, I haven't had any problems with it. My nails still are kinda bendy, but they have a nice strong curve. According to GoodGuide, it's the #3 nail strengthener, and the #1 isn't even sold anymore, apparently. I'm going to keep working with it for now.

What are your feelings about the India print?

I'M BACK, BABY!!!

I have finally, after too long a time, gotten internet!

Took me long enough!

After soul-searching for what I wanted for my birthday, I finally decided on internet. So I decided on a budget and went shopping and here I am!

I know. Less me, more nails!

Unfortunately, being without internet leaves me without all the inspiration I'm used to, so my manis have been few and far-between. But I do have a few to show you!

I'm not sure what to call these, beyond pretty!

I normally would not put these colors together. I do not like gold, and for the most part, and coral and seafoam aren't my favorite colors. But put them together and holy cow! These are GORGEOUS!

I can't figure out how the other blogs get their cuticles so clean... :/

To get this look, I used Sally Hansen's Extreme Wear in Mint Sorbet, L. A. Colors' Dizzy, Sinful Colors' Timbleberry, and Maybelline Color Show Bold Gold. 

To get the pattern on the pinkie, I painted the nail gold and let it dry completely, put a topcoat over that, and let it dry completely, and then painted the Timbleberry and the Mint Sorbet. Before that dried, I took a stamp that I got at a scrapbooking sale and pressed it, removing the Mint and the Timbleberry and exposing the gold underneath.

I'm not happy with the way the thumbs turned out. I'm thinking I should have just done a gold tip instead of attempting (and failing) at a gradient.

What say you?

Watermarbling Madness

So out of sheer boredom I started practicing my watermarbling technique. In the name of Science, I tested and labeled all of my different colors into one or two of three categories (This took several sittings...). Green means "I can marble really well!" Yellow means "I'm OKAY at it. Use if desperate," and Red means "I cannot marble. Don't even TRY!" Green and yellow puts it in the middle between okay and good/great. A lot of the brands surprised me, I thought the cheaper ones wouldn't do it as well, but the majority of the LAC's did pretty well :)

Here's the pics from last night's adventure:

Some turned out really well! And others.... Not so much.  :/ I honestly have no clue as to how I got that rainbow splatter one :'(

Now that I live in Iowa, I figure I'll need to know how to do Cyclone and Hawkeye nails. This one turned out pretty well, despite the black not working with me very well.

This was my first attempt at Cyclone and Hawkeye nails. The black REALLY wasn't working with me here (I had it labeled as yellow, but added red to that rating), and I don't think these turned out terribly well. For practice, however, they're just more experience.

This one was my first REALLY successful nails. In fact, I'm quite proud of it.

So that was my evening. These are cheap, blank, fake nails my sister gave me when she moved out of our house. You can find them for about $5-$10 at Walmart. I just use a small dab of thick white nail polish to keep it attached to my stick.


My nails right now are blank. I'm going to do a fall-themed watermarble when I get home (I'm currently at the library... internet is internet, even if it's slower than a tortoise on a tricycle.)

Good Vs. Evil and The Most Expensive Internet Ever.

So now that I'm all settled in to my brother's place for the next 10 days or so, I figured I should make a post to make up for yesterday's absence.

There was on-flight internet, but I seriously was NOT going to pay $10 for the 6 hours I was on a plane. Sorry. On a budget and all.
ON TO THE MANI!
This has to be one of my more awesome ones to date. My friend texted me after a very troubling event knowing I needed to do my nails (it makes me feel better!) with this: "I have an idea for your nails! You could do a naughty and nice type deal, like, do a hot color on all your nails except your accent nail, where you can do a pretty neutral. Also you could do the shiny topcoat on the 'naughty nails' and the matte topcoat on the 'nice' ones. Just a suggestion. I won't be offended if you think the idea sucks."

I took the suggestion and ran with it. It mutated in my mind into "Good vs. Evil" and here ya go!

This was an "Evil" accent nail. Devil horns made out of caviar beads. The beads were almost impossible to see without looking :(

 

This was the other "Evil" accent nail. Devil tail made out of caviar beads.

This was a "Good" accent nail. A halo made out of  caviar beads. Oddly, this was much easier to see  in normal light, but the camera hated it.

This was my "Evil" hand, with the "Good" accents. My middle and pinkie fingers are wings.
(My pinkie sucked, IMHO. I wish the halo was visible, but I promise it's there)

The "Good" hand. This picture turned out much better lol

So what do you guys think? I personally really enjoyed wearing this, though that was mostly because I couldn't stop playing with the beads >.<

So, I don't have my polishes with me, and I didn't think to write down what colors and brands I used, so I'll do my best to remember.
The base white and base red are from Sinful Colors. The white had a Pure Ice glitter over it, and then the silver, which I THINK is L.A.C. The red had an N.Y.C. glitter over it, with a black/silver combo from... Hrm. It's either Color Workshop or L.A.C. I can't remember. Sorry. The caviar beads all came from the Dollar Tree and are a brand I can't make out in the picture.

I would like to say that I HATE working with white polishes. They get gloopy and hard to use waaaay too fast, and even my polish thinner doesn't seem to help :( If anyone has a favorite brand of white or a suggestion on how to keep the whites from thickening up super quick, leave it in the comments please!

On a side note, am I terribly vain or are there others who totally feel let down when no one comments on your nails? No one said anything about them :(