52 Week Challenge: Vintage Nails

This is waaay late!! Sorry about that guys... I was overly excited about this theme and over thought it. hah I do that.. Also last week was kinda crazy for me.
So, I guess I decided to do a "Neo-Vintage" design, because I always think of cherries when I think of vintage. I guess that's somewhat of a modern take on vintage though. I also of course left my half-moons bare in homage of the manis from the 20's/30's/etc. They got a little messed up because I did them last night and for some reason they weren't dry when I went to bed a good 6 hours after I did them. I really have to invest in some Seche Vite again real soon! Ok, done talking, enjoy! ^_^

Decided to have some fun in Lightroom ;)

For the accent nail I mixed some of my loose glitter (a mix of light green and light green holo) with topcoat and packed it on with a square nail art brush. To make all the half moons I used paper hole reinforces, and then touched up with a small nail art brush. 

 

BAM! Look at all that glitter!!!

What I Used:
Base: Finger Paints Don't Make a Scene
Cherries:Wet n' Wild Red Red
Finger Paints Go Van Gough (stems)
China Glaze White on White (highlight)

So Many Polka Dots So Little Time!

I've been thinking about entering Chalkboard Nails' Polka Dot Contest, but I love polka dots so much I can't decide which one to enter. I decided to of course do a nail wheel again to practice and get all my ideas out. Also if you guys want to help me decide which one I should enter that'd be awesome too! ^-^

I broke out my trusty well loved dotting tools and got spotting. This is going to be a super long post with lots of pictures so hold on tight! hah

Sooo many nails...

Now be prepared for each nail described one by one. 


1-Base:Sally Hansen Innocent Nude, Tips:Sally Hansen Insta-Dry Presto Pink Dots:China Glaze White on White

2-Base:Confetti Lonesome Dove, Dots:Sinful Colors Innocent, China Glaze For Audrey, Wet n' Wild Megalast On a Trip

3-Base:Unnamed nude, Dots:China Glaze White on White











4-Base: Hard Candy Beetle (I LOVE this polish, and had totally forgotten about it! It's a great duochrome with hues of copper, gold, green, pink, and yellow), Dots:China Glaze Luxe

5-Base:Wet n' Wild On A Trip, Dots: China Glaze Refresh Mint

 6-Base:Color Club Beyond the Mistletoe, Crackle:China Glaze Black Mesh, Tips:Wet N' Wild Ebony Hates Chris, Dots: China Glaze White on White

7-Base:China Glaze Techno Teal, Crackle: China Glaze Crushed Candy, Tips:China Glaze White on White, Dots:China Glaze Techno Teal

8-Base: Color Club Beyond the Misteltoe, Crackle: China Glaze Crushed Candy, Tips:China Glaze White on White, Dots:China Glaze For Audrey

9-Base:China Glaze Flying Dragon, Dots:China Glaze Purple Pop, China Glaze Happy Go Lucky, China Glaze High Hopes, China Glaze Four Leaf Clover


All the dots on this one are from China Glaze 2010 collection Up & Away, I loved all these colors and bough half the collection off Amazon (for probably too much hah), along with my first stamping kit (the original Bundle Monster one). It was pretty much what got me into nail polish, before that all I owned were shades of black and possibly a hot pink. haha Because of that I'll hold a special place in my heart for it ^-^

One more, fun photo for the road ;)

Anyone else have a special polish or collection, or even makeup product that they love a little more than all the others? What did you guys think about all these nails?! Love it, or hate it?

It's Mardis Gras! Get out your beads!

First off, I want to say it really makes me sad to lose my 73 followers, but as far as I can tell there is no way to transfer them over after I exported my blog to this address. Pretty much I wanted to consolidate my life a little bit, because I'm going in too many different directions in general, and getting everything in one place was getting overwhelming. -_- Anyway, here's to new beginnings and welcome all my new (and old) followers!

Prefect timing for a celebration too, being Mardi Gras and all! I have to say, my favorite holidays are drinking holidays. No worry about getting everyone the prefect presents, dealing with family, or detailed planning of the day. Only one goal in mind...Have fun(well and generally get drunk hah)! So of course I had to celebrate with a Mardi Gras mani! I've only done gradients once or twice and it shows. :sigh: I'll have to practice. Hopefully you guys get where I was going with this one though!

Ignore my horrible cuticles, I'm trying to fix them..

This took forever!

• 1 coat Orly-Luxe
• 1 coat Oke.doke-Goldilocks
• 3 "gradient coats" (I sponged on the polish) Sinful Colors-Call You Later
• 1 gradient coat Orly-Here Comes Trouble
• 2 1/2 coats Finger Paints-Purple Pallette to build up purple glitter 

  

I've also been doing my nail art on nail wheels a lot lately, so I figured I'd include these in here too. Enjoy! 

For these guys I used the same polishes as above plus:

• The glitter is Kleancolor-My Valentine
• The purple creme is Finger Paints-Pretty as a Portrait
• The green creme is Ultra Pro-Leaf Me Alone

That's all guys, have a good Mardis Gras, get a DD or eat a lot of amazing, delicious, greasy food if you're not a drinker! :)

V-Day Pedi

****Warning:Feet Ahead!******

I can't believe I'm showing you my feet. I hate them. I have a freakishly long second toe, that I can use to pick things up with (I even flicked a lighter and lit someone's cigarette with my feet once...it was a while ago haha). Showing my feet also means showing you a few of my tattoos. So, surprises all around.

I used this tutorial from Copy That, Copy Cat as a starting point for this pedi. I just discovered this blog, and am really loving it, especially the tutorials.

Also for some reason I have no idea how the hell to take pictures of my feet. 

What I used:
Color: Wet n' Wild-Red Red
Tips:Sinful Colors-Black on Black
        China Glaze-Silver Lining

52 Week Challenge: Half-Moon

Today you guys get to see the mani I'm actually wearing!... like right now, at this very moment. Are you all excited?! I know I am!.. </unnecessary sarcasm>

Ok I'm going to be honest, I suck at doing half moon manis. I guess they're cute if done right, so maybe I just need practice. Also decided to break out the Crackle polishes today! Underneath all those cracks are my horrible failed first attempt at magnetic polish, something else I'm going to have to practice with. hah

 I thought this was ok, but decided to get really fancy and break out the matte top coat too!

 I mattified everything except for the half moon, glittery part because, of course, I wanted to keep the bling!

What I used:
Base Coat: China Glaze Magnetix Attraction
Crackle: China Glaze Crackle Cracked Concrete and Fault Line
Glitter Half Moon: Color Club Magic Attraction
Matte: China Glaze Matte Magic

Venturing into Gels and Acrylics!

Truth be told, I wrote this up months ago, so you can see my level of procrastination. hah

Oh hey guys!! I'm back(ish). Life's been crazy, and I've been quite uninspired in all artistic aspects of my life, including nails. Also my nails have been breaking like crazy and are nubs, hence why I decided to try the whole acrylic tips thing. From what I've read the soak off gels, are the least damaging to the nails as well. Hopefully when they grow out a little I can ditch the tips and just stick with some gel, so these babies don't keep breaking on me.

Here's the results of  my first attempt at venturing into soak gels with acrylic tips. I think it came out decent, but I have a long way to go!

• Acrylic tips
• IBD Dehydrate 
• IBD Clear gel
• IBD Builder gel
• ECO Soak Off Gel Color in Bare Foot Pink (2 coats I believe)
• Clear gel mixed with some AC Moore glitter, trying to make it as flat as possible
• Another thin coat of Clear 
• For the leopard spots just a no name Hot Topic polish and some black stripping polish 
• Topped it all off with a coat of the IBD UV Top Coat. I found you can use regular polish on top of the gels, with the UV Top Coat, and it lasts pretty much as long as the nails last, with maybe just a little cracking of the polish. 

My thoughts:
Truth be told these were a little thick, but after a few days I got used to them. The glitter on in the tips is a little messy.

I used the IBD Soak Off Gel System, (bought it here, http://www.8ty8beauty.com/uv-gels/uv-gels.htm, as I've said before, I love these guys!) for these. It's a great starter kit for gels!

One last nautical themed nail..

I really had to get in a nautical nail post before the end of the Summer! I love the whole nautical theme, partly because it meshes so well with rockabilly/pinup style, which I have somewhat of an obsession with. I don't necessarily dress like it...I mean I would say my style meshes multiple genres.. I wear bows in my hair, have piercings, funky colored hair, vary from wearing cute little dresses to jeans, t-shirts and Converse. Sooo.. yeah. hah

I digress, back to nails again.

Ignore the huge chunk out of my middle finger..

The anchor could be a little less messy.. meh...

*I'll add the polish names a little later, just wanted to get this post up*

Fail-ish attempt at a half moon.

Ok so seeing as how I have been procrastinating my life lately, I have some manis I did months ago that I just never uploaded. So for now I'm going to try to catch up on some of those.
Lets not even lie though, it's cause I'm lazy really. hah They are on my computer already and already partly edited.

I liked the idea I had with this one, but it's somewhat of a fail in execution. I think I may try a half moon mani again soon, but using these circle stickers I got from Staples (also months ago... do you see a trend here hah).
Ohhh and I think I was going for some sort of watermelon theme here..

I painted a base of Finger Paints Art You Wondering?, when it dried I put the circle sticker on, and covered the whole thing with China Glaze Electric Pineapple. Then touched up the half moon with a pink stripping polish.

Pink (Tiger) Wednesday, and a Gelish Question.

Rawr!

heh

 I loves me some tiger (..or is it zebra?? ehh... let's just call it animal print)! 

Did a gradient with Finger Paints Outta Sight Orange and added Sinful Colors Creme Pink to the tips really messily and on an angle, it was pretty haphazard really, but I wanted it like that so it would look more like a gradient. Then topped it all with WnW Kaleidoscope, which IMHO blends the gradient and makes it a look smoother.

Still loving the new Bundle Monster plates, and I cannot wait till Fall so I can use the awesome Halloween ones! And by Fall I mean September. hah Needless to say I LOVE Halloween! I love Fall in general, but Halloween... yeah it's my favorite holiday.

I used Sinful Colors Black on Black with BM 2?? (this plate is currently MIA, and I may cry) *Edit:Just found it, along with about 20 other plates!!! This just made my day! Finally cleaning pays off!*

So my Gelish question is this.. I'm thinking I may buy this starter kit from Sally's seeing as how I would love to have my manis last 21(ish) days rather than 2 tops. The UV lamps they have there look pretty shit. I mean battery operated, really?! Anyone have any advice on where to find a decently prices UV lamp, or even on the Gelish system in general?? 

Thank you guys in advance for any help, you're all awesome! :)

So many nails, so little time. *Warning-Hella images*

Seeing as how I haven't posted in so long, I figured I'd make it for lost time with this massive post. Some of these nails I just did for fun, and one wheel I actually used for a party that I painted nails at. Are you ready for this? Take a deep breath!.....

And, go!

Complete with a lovely view of my couch and cell phone.

First up, we have some designs I hand painted, using nail polish and various nail art brushes and paint brushes.

1: Orly Ancient Jade
Flowers- Random white polish, Centers-OPI DS Passion
2: China Glaze Something Sweet
Tips-WnW Lavender Creme
3: WnW Lavender Creme
Tips-CG Electric Pineapple
Seeds/Highlights-Black & White Striping Polish
4: ????
Tips- Milani Fresh Teal; Random glitter polish

Leopard explosion!! <3333!

All done with the Konad M57, and Sinful Colors Black on Black (unless otherwise stated)
5: Orly Luxe
6: Finger Paints Don't Make a Scene, Stamp-???
7: Milani Freh Teal; Spots-Milani Cyberspace
8: WnW Lavender Creme; Spots- OPI DS Passion
9: Color Club The Lime Starts Here, Spots-Color Club Ultra-Astral
10: Estee Lauder Cool Lilac, Spots- Color Club Fashion Addict

NUDES!!! 
hehe
Color- Mabelline Express Finish Blushing Bride
Dare I say my favorite sheer nude?!
11: Random White Polish, Random holo gold glitter (that is MIA right now)
12: Stamp-Konad Special Polish in white
Konad M26
Pink Rhinestones

Some more hand-painted designs I did, I think I got the design from the Wah Nails site, which is great for inspiration!
Both done with a black polish and paint brushes.
13: Color Club You Got a Soul
14: Color Club I always Get my Man-darian

I <3 the shit out of neons, I really need to get more in before the Summer is over!

Both using Finger Paints Don't Make a Scene as a base. 

15: Used a pink feather I got from ACMoore, attached with a layer of T/C, trimmed the excess, and then did two layers of T/C on top. I love this but it's oh so very un-vegan of me.. I already could hear the crap I would get from my friends if I wore this.. I'll probably do it anyway. ha

16: Outlined heart with pink/purple striping polish, filled in heart with T/C and sprinkled glitter. Topped with two coats of T/c of course.

Attempt at sandwiching, all with a layer of color, topped with WnW Party of Five Glitters, then topped with the color again.

17: Oke Doke Hot Tomato

18: Fingers Paints lost the the name ha

19: NYC Luxury Lime Creme

20: City Color No Name pink jelly

21: City Color No Name

Experiments in Mattifying and Glitters

22:Milani Fresh Teal; Topped with WnW Party of Five Glitters; Matted with Esssie Matte About You

23: The Above without Matte

24: Wnw Ebony Hates Chris; Topped with Pure Ice Busted; Matted with Essie Matte About you

25: The above without matte

26: WnW Ebony Hates Chris; Topped with Pure Ice Spit Fire and Pure Ice Cheatin

The black base with Busted on top is so freakin' pretty, you can somewhat see the duo chrome effect here. When it's matted, it takes on a whole other look.

All using WnW Ebondy Hates Chris as a base
27: Topped with Pure Ice Spit Fire and Pure Ice Cheatin; Matted with Essie Matte About You
28: Topped with Pure Ice Spit Fire
29: Topped with Cheatin
30: Topped with WnW Party of Five Glitters
31: Topped with WnW Party of Five Glitters; Matted with Essie Matte About You

I LOVED all of these SOOO much! But then again I have a serious addiction to black polish and glitter in genral, so combine the two, and it's game over! I thought 27 looked especially awesome when matted, it reminds me of an gallaxy you'd see on the Hubbell telescope. I'm definitely going to be painting at least one of these on my nails ASAP.

Well that's it everyone, and boy was that rough.. my hands are seriously cramping from typing so much right now. hah Hope you all enjoyed it!