Born Pretty Store

I've been wanting a holo polish for a while, so when Born Pretty had their holos on sale, PLUS the 10% off discount if you follow Polish Art Addiction, who has her own coupon code, I kinda had to finally get one!

Get it here

For the price, Born Pretty's holo polishes are very small. I wasn't aware that it was only .2 fl oz, which is really disappointing. The regular (non-sale) price is $12.88! That's... WOW. One of the reasons I assumed they were full-sized bottles!

I haven't gotten the chance to try it, as Era hasn't gone to bed yet (it's only 1:15 and I JUST got the mail. Had to share this asap!!) and it's such a tiny bottle I would feel it a waste to do a swatch on a fake nail.

I'm gonna use it tonight.

NEXT ITEM!

I've always wanted to try Fimo decals, and I REALLY like the fruit-salad-looking nails, so...

Get them here

Ooooh! They're tiny and rubbery and very cute! Apples and oranges and watermelon and citrus and strawberries!  I can't wait to figure out the designs I'm gonna try!

I was very happy with the size of this item, there are quite a bit of each design, and the detail is great :)

Overall, I'm very excited to use my new stuff!



These items were NOT given to me by Born Pretty for review, nor were they given as gifts.

Marble Nails and a Foiled Success

I really should come up with my own designs, I know. But pinterest is so inspiring, and there are so many things all right there... yeah. I'm sure I'll get tired of it soon enough.

Anyways, I fell in love at first sight at this mani and had to have them!

So here's my take:

 I LOVE these!

Here's how:
Prep nails.
Apply light blue/periwinkle. I used a light blue by Rue21 that I picked up a few months ago.
Get a cup of lukewarm water, and drip one (it's all you need!) drip of silver nail polish. I used Pure Ice's Silver Mercedes. It tends to shred instead of spot, which is what I wanted.
Spray hand sanitizer on the spread out drip. (You can get the spray kind at Dollar Tree)

Dip your fingers in. You can get up to three, depending on how far it spreads!
Topcoat.

Easy peasy!

For my accent nails, I tried a foil from Dollar Nail Art, then waterspotted over it with the blue.
It came out kinda funky, so I did the corner in the solid blue, and a stripe of the Silver Mercedes.

I would like to take a moment here to be excited. This was the first time I've EVER gotten a smooth cover in foil the first time. Guess it was just that I needed practice, which this blog is all about, I guess :)

On this mani, I tried a new topcoat (new for me) by NYC. It's a speed-dry topcoat. I've worn these nails ONE DAY and they've chipped. And I haven't been typing all day and being hard on them, so I'm a little disappointed. It did REALLY well on sealing everything, and it did it fast, so there's a plus, but I might go over it with another layer of something more reliable.

I would also like to say that this topcoat worked REALLY well with the foil's adhesive, but I'm wondering if that's because of the waterspotting on top of it. If that is the case, maybe it's possible to use water to keep the adhesive from wrinkling... I'll have to look into this!

What other colors do you think would work well with this method? I like the two colors that I used because they're so similar and you kinda can't tell at first glance :)

Have a wonderful week, luvvies!

Nubbies :(

I took off the skittles mani to every artist's nightmare: nasty nails. The tips of my nails were chipped, peeling, yellow, and just plain nasty. Three of my nails had fixes that were peeling on the edges.

So I gave them a trim.

All of them.

I HATE having nubbies! They feel weird when I type, or pick things up, and I can't scratch, grab tiny things, or peel off stickers.... I hate it.

But hopefully, it's for the best!

Anyways, I did a simple design, another glitter gradient. I LOVE them, and I'm sorry if you're getting tired of them :(

Sunlight

Flash, inside

Two coats of Sinful Colors' Lavander, gradient with Queen of Beauty. On the accent nail I did a coat of L.A. Colors' BCC 655? I can't find a name for it...
You can best see the color in the sunlight picture, but honestly it's less blue and more grey.

Neon Skittles

So I finally broke down and did a Skittles mani, based on this pin. I decided to do neons, though, instead of the almost-but-not-quite pastels in the original pin.

I'm trying to use my thumb to hide the stupidity that was my  ring finger... ONE SPOT stayed wet, and I have no clue why.

The thumb was my favorite.

This was another late-night mani that gave me more frustration than it was worth. I stayed up watching the end of Downton Abbey season 2 though, so it was worth it.

To get the gradient, I wet a cosmetic sponge, and then put black polish on the corner, slowly moving back and forth.

Fourth of July Nails!

Happy Birthday, America! *Raises glass* Here's to what you were supposed to be!

I promise that thumb is clean, the cuticle is looking odd in general

I am still on haitus, for an indefinite amount of time. Grannie's death has hit my family hard, and I'm not taking the time to take care of myself like I used to. 

I hate having nubbies!

Hiatus

Sorry everyone, I will be going on a brief hiatus for a couple of weeks.
My beloved grandmother died suddenly this morning, and I'm pretty much going to be wearing black and sky blue (her favorite color) nails.

Here's the obit I made: http://imgur.com/gallery/172E6/new

And the official/published obit: http://www.wallacefamilyfuneralhome.com/obituaries/1652/Mildred-L-Holdsworth

Thanks for your understanding, guys. Love you!

Grunge Rainbow Foils

So another Pinterest find has inspired me, and now I can't find it to show you the original (don't you hate that?). Grr.

How to achieve this look:

Paint nails black (I used Sinful Colors' Black on Black)

Apply foil adhesive on the top 3/4 of the nail.

Apply the foil (it's okay if it's not perfect, holes will make it look better)

Take a fan brush, and brush upwards, creating rough edges along the sharp line created by the edge of the foil.

For the rainbow, I used two separate foils from Dollar Nail Art: Citrus Flash and Wildberry Flash to create the rainbow effect. 

The adhesive reacts to certain topcoats, so don't use anything that's fast drying. I used Revlon's Extra Life No Chip Topcoat and it doesn't seem to react like the others.