Winter Waterfalls

Filler post today guys, sorry! I just got off a 5-hour plane ride with a 3-year old (who may or may not had been cranky most of the flight) and the next 72 hours are going to be SUPER BUSY, so... yeah.

I did another waterfall. I'm not sorry, I effin' love this style! And with the blue, it's just.. augh, so GORGEOUS!! I stamped some snowflakes on to my ring finger, and freehanded the ones on my thumbs. I added the little rhinestones to hide some mistakes. These were so fun to wear!!

Had some fun with my watermark. Still figuring out Gimp.

I may have been playing with filters on instagram. Maybe. 

I should be back up to posting next week, but seeing as it's Christmas and I won't have my nail polish stash with me, I can't make any guarantees.

If I don't see you then, I hope you have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!! (I'll be driving across the country, so I dunno if I'll be able to post for New Years' either... sorry). Please stay safe, and stay warm! 

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!

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!!