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!

October Challenge: Week 1

Good morning! Sorry this is a wee bit late, I have some company. In this week's challenge, I'm doing "nude." And I decided to keep it simple and go for a purple gradient French tip. Which felt too simple, so I added some webs, just 'cause I need the practice and also because they're totes adorbs (sorry. I don't know what happened there). 

I am very proud of what my left hand achieved on those spiderwebs.

Please ignore my pinkie nubbins. I lost them both on the same day after weeks of superglue and coffee filters.
It was very sad. 

For the gradient, I used NYC's Strawberry Cream, Sally Hansen's Pronto Purple. Strawberry Cream is a lovely translucent soft pink, with barely a hint of shimmer. It's absolutely perfect for this type of nude gradient.

For the spiderwebs, I used Revlon's Spirit and Kleancolor's Metallic Fuchsia and a medium-length line brush. All fairly simple, really :)

I topped this with a mix of Seche Vite (which has already caused some shrinking, booo) and Pure Ice's Glow In The Dark.

I can't wait to see what you guys come up with for the challenges! You can email me your submissions at pinkies4apenny@gmail.com if you don't have your own blog, and you can always post to instagram, twitter, tumblr, or any other social media using the hashtag #OctoberChallengeP4AP. Hope to wake up to some gorgeous nails :) 

Stripes and Daisies

I love daisies. And this color palette. So why not put them together? Inspired by this pin, I decided to have a go at it. I was not impressed by my freehand skill, so I decided to use a stamp. Much better!

Freehand

Yeeeeah, I'm not a huge fan of that. I couldn't get the lines thin enough, even with using acetone.

Stamped

For this mani, I used Pure Ice Kiss Me Here, NYC Lexington Yellow, Wet'N'Wild I Need A Refresh-Mint, and Revlon Spirit. 

I laid down three coats of Lexington, and then placed striping tape down where I wanted the yellow to show. I then painted Kiss Me Here and pulled off the tapes after about 5 seconds. I got really clean lines this way, for the most part. I then did a layer of Seche Vite, in case I needed to erase a mistake later. I decided to freehand the I Need a Refresh-Mint, as using the tapes was starting to wear on my patience lol. Another layer of the Seche Vite, and I was done for the evening lol

Before the daisies

The next evening, I tried to do the daisies. I still suck at freehand, but practice makes perfect, right? I gave up and pulled out my stamps, instead of trying to use my left hand. The stamps look best, I think. What say you?

Simple Gradient

Just a simple gradient today. I was gonna top it with a stamp, but the Seche Vite shrunk the polish and it would've looked odd. 

Indirect Sunlight. Man I love this blue! And the green omgomgomg!

Direct Sunlight. It's blurry, but it shows off the colors accurately.

For this mani, I used three colors. Sinful Colors' Snow Me White (base), Fing'rs Meet Me In The Green Room, and Sally Hensen's Co-Bolt Blue. 

I laid out two layers of Snow Me White, then two layers of Meet Me In The Green Room. A makeup sponge with Meet Me In The Green Room and Co-Bolt Blue and viola! This was so gorgeous. I really regret using Seche Vite, it would've lasted longer.

I really am in need of a good topcoat. I have a ton of bottles of Seche, but my manis keep shrinking after only a few hours. Even after making sure the mani is dry, it shrinks :/

I have to say, I absolutely LOVE Meet Me In The Green Room. I wish it had a better formula, as it's really quite thin, runny, and streaky. I'm really jonesing for a neon that's opaque...

Hope everyone is having a good summer!

Argyle Nails, Striping Brush Fun

I have never gotten along with my striping brush. I have never managed to get a straight line with it, but after several attempts of struggling with my striping tape (are you sensing the pattern here? I am...) I gave up and dug out the nemesis.

Sooo glad I did, these nails turned out WAY cuter than they would have!

Today I got my hands on OPI's Int'l Crime Caper from the Muppet's Most Wanted line. My Walmart's Smart Style salon had it in their Buy One, Get Two Free promo, and since kiddo was getting his hair cut... I had to grab some. And then I had to use this one! Inspired by this, found on Pinterest, I went with a totally different color scheme, and I'm really pleased with it!

The colors used are OPI's Int'l Crime Caper,  Salon Perfect's Blue Ribbon, Pure Ice's Kiss Me Here, Revlon's Violet, and Revlon's Spirit. I used Seche Vite for top coat, Orly's Nail Armor as a base.

After two coats of Nail Armor, I laid down a layer of Int'l Crime Caper. Once it dried, I sponged on two layers of Kiss Me Here (I put Int'l Crime Caper on the sponge too). I freehanded the diamonds, and then used my striping brush to finish. Topped with Seche Vite and lookit how gorgeous! Must say, I'm tickled pink with how this turned out.

I'm going to start trying to post every Friday, as I have Thursdays off regularly now. With my recent hiatus, I do have some posts saved, in case I ever need backup again. Thank you guys for sticking around for me, glad I have some loyal people around.

Have a lovely evening!

Chevron

I am so ridiculous sometimes. I KNEW I did my nails for last week's post, but I just could NOT find the pictures for them, so I broke down last Tuesday night thinking I forgot to take the pics for them.

Suddenly tonight, I found them! ...They were in the folder I never use, which is literally named "Nails" for my blog pics. I put something away for once, and couldn't find it because of that.

Yeah. Brilliant.

Anyways, I found them, yay!

This is a very trendy look right now, with the glitter on one finger and the chevron on the next, and I really did fall in love. Era picked the purple and I did this at work. 

I have no clue what happened to my pinkie. It was like that IRL, it's not an issue with the camera.

That dratted thumb, can never get that corner right....

I freehanded the heart and the chevron! I used this Pinterest tutorial as a general guide. Unfortunately, I have dug through her tumblr AND her actual blog and I cannot for the life of me find the original post :( Darn pinterest!

I used Wet'N'Wild Megalast On a Trip, which my camera didn't like too much (It's too blue in these pics), China Glaze Cosmic Dust and Fairy Dust (on my middle finger), and Revlon's Spirit. Topped with Seche Vite.

I will likely do this several more times because it's just so friggin' cute :)

Zoya + Bundle Monster Stamping

I got new Bundle Monster plates! I've been eyeing the 2012 collection for a while and finally decided to get them (taxes rule!). I absolutely love this entire set, there are only a couple that I don't think I'll use.

For my first use, I decided to break out my Zoyas Charisma and Robyn. I forgot to bring a white with me (took a bunch of stuff to work), so I grabbed a hot pink for my base color. Two layers of Sinful Colors' Neon Fusion and two layers of Charisma gave me a satisfying purple. I then stamped with Robyn. Accent nail is Robyn with Petite's Craze, stamped with a makeup sponge.

Topcoat was Seche Vite.

1 night after Seche Vite application and I've already got shrinkage going on. *sigh*

I'm in love with these colors together! 

I taught my friend and coworker how to stamp a few months back, and she came up with this:

I forgot to bring my cleanup brush to work, please forgive her cuticles lol

Too cute! She chose Sinful Colors' Savage and Rue Beaute's Mint.

Endless Blue by Sinful Colors

I have no clue when I picked this color up, or from where, though I'm pretty sure it was Walgreens when they had a sale of some sort. Doesn't matter though, because I ABSOLUTELY love it!

This color is a one-coat wonder. I went with two, but it's simply because I'm paranoid. Sinful Colors knocked this one out of the park! It's a medium creme polish, with a shiny finish.

Ooooh shiny holo!

I was thrilled to find I have a striping tape to match!

I freehanded that heart. Very proud of it.

The color is a tad bit darker on the nail than in my photos, but that's okay.  

I can't tell if it's the topcoat (Seche Vite) or if the striping tape always does this, but the color is fading from the tape, which is disappointing. It came in this pack, which is really a steal, especially considering the free shipping. 

The holo is, of course, a mix of China Glaze Cosmic Dust and Born Pretty Holographic #7.  I like the coverage Cosmic Dust gives in 2 coats, and the chunk of the #7. 

Because I was short on time, this got a coat of Seche Vite. 

I LOVE wearing these, and the way they turned out, even though I did vary somewhat from my inspiration. I just couldn't get the stripes the way I wanted them trying to freehand.

I'm actually pretty proud of this mani, took me about an hour, but that's because I kept fudging. I'm pretty sure I could have done them in about 40 minutes (including drying time) if I remembered which nails to paint what color and if it hadn't taken me 2 tries to do the striping before deciding on using tape.

Flowers Freehand

As soon as I saw this , I knew I had to try to recreate it, despite the fact that I'm still no good with freehanding. Buuuut I got some new brushes and I want to try them out, so I figured I'd give it a shot.

They turned out pretty well, if you don't look too closely.

I did this from memory, and i'm still pretty pleased with them :)

I'm really digging these nails!! I wish they'd turned out better, but that's what practice is for, right?

Two coats of Pure Ice's Superstar, and then I dabbed Sinful Colors' Lavander (it's weird how that's spelled wrong, and I triple-checked), and Essie's Bikini So Teeny randomly on the corner or my nail, and let that dry. I dabbed some Oh Baby! by Pure Ice in the center, then went to town making ) shapes with the brush. Which is not particularly hard, it's just not easy getting the polish to stay the same consistency.

I thinned the polish with some acetone to try to get it easier to work with, and it actually worked :D

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Happy New Years'!!!!!

Another 12 months have passed since this time of year again! Yaaay!
And of course I have to have nails for the occasion :D

OH NO WHERE DID MY PINKIES GO?!

Fireworks!

And a toast to finish off the new year/welcome in the new one!

In the past three days I have taught three people how to successfully stamp using stamping plates. I'm pretty damn proud of that :) They had beautiful nails :)

To create this look I used Sinful Colors Black on Black, and Snow Me White, Fingerpaints Peacock Portrait, and OPI Nicole Heavenly Angel. 

Thank you guys for sticking around :) This year my goals are to start getting comments outta you guys, get some subscribers, and to finally sit down and work out a schedule. Do you have any goals geared around your hobbies?

Go Go Go Go GO!

In love with Seche Vite? I just grabbed 2 full-size bottles of it for $6.68!!!

LINK HERE!!!

I just ordered mine, my bottle of Seche Vite is about halfway gone, and at THAT price, you just can't NOT buy it.

It's a Girl!!!

I'm getting a niece! My sister Jacq and her husband recently found out they're having a little girl, and I'm soooo excited for them! Congrats, mi famiglia!
So I used this opportunity to use a lot of pink, and to use some stamps I've had that I've wanted to use for a while :)

There was black crap coming from weird places. A couple of my nails have black smudges,
and IDK where it's coming from...
Stamping plate by GALS, GA36

Pinkie: Single bow, Stamp. Ring: Saran wrap with three shades of pink, with a rhinestone. Middle: Stamp of many bows. Pointer: Half-moon with dots. Thumb (not pictured): Gradient of three pinks.

Stamp plate by GALS, GA7

Saran Wrap, three layers, pink rhinestone.

I used five different colors for these nails.
Base for all five: L'Oreal Penthouse Pink.
Pointer: Sinful Colors Glass Pink, Daredevil, and Rue Beaute (Glow In The Dark) Pink
Middle and Pinkie: Sinful Colors Fusion Neon
Ring: Sinful Colors Fusion Neon, Rue Beaute (Glow In The Dark) Pink
Thumb: Rue Beaute (Glow In The Dark) Pink, Sinful Colors Fusion Neon.

All are topped with Seche Vite.

Congrats again to my sister and brother-in-law! I love you guys, and can't wait to meet my niece, Makenna Jr.!

Happy Birthday!!!

My blog is a year old! I'm actually pretty proud of myself that I've kept it up so long :)
So while watching the last season of Sherlock last night, I did some Birthday nails to celebrate!

That's supposed to be a one.

Happy birthday, PinkiesForAPenny!

Thank you everyone who follows or has visited my blog, I could not have done it without you :)

Another huge thank you to my friend, Jaxo, who created my banner and did a guest post :)

Here's to another good year! 

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.