Wedding Season Nails

Hey there, nail enthusiasts of the net! I have some fun ones today. It's wedding season, and with that it meant it was time to get a new dress. Of course whenever I go shopping for a dress I take into consideration the kind of nail art I can do to accessorize, and I found such a fun dress to inspire my art.
My cousin got married this past Sunday and I did a mani-pedi to go along with my dress:

(I'm the one on the right)

I snapped some pictures quickly while waiting for the ceremony to start, so these are not the best of pictures (and I proceeded to pick of the paint the next day- bad habit, I know), but they turned out pretty great!

Pretty fun, right?

It's a good thing I like my pedicure, since I'm probably going to be keeping it for quite some time.

I have bad news.

I dislocated my right shoulder yesterday and the doctor I saw thinks I tore a ligament or cartilage. I'll find out in a few days when I see the orthopedic specialist. Either way, My dominant arm is down for the count for at least a few weeks. I guess I can work on using my non-dominant hand in the meantime, but unfortunately I won't be able to do any nail art (or anything else I like to do for that matter) for quite some time. You have no idea how frustrated I am about that. But I will try to post sometime in the next month.

Until then-

Happy Painting!

Pinspiration Challenge Day 4: Colors

Today's challenge was an interesting (and messy) one. I decided to try out a tutorial pin from my board for a blow dryer technique. I got a new scarf over the weekend and thought that the colors would be really pretty for this design. Here is the original pin by the Neverland Nail Blog:

Here is part of my scarf that inspired my colors:

And here is the result:

Not terrible for my first attempt, but they're not the most beautiful thing I've done either. But still, the colors are pretty and I finally figured out how to get the paint consistency so that it will spread right. It was fun to try.

Happy Painting!

Pinspiration Challenge Day 3: Geometric

I'm excited about this one, you guys! My nails turned out really well for today's challenge!

It was hard not to just do my own thing for this on since I love color blocking, but I found a cool pin to take inspiration from here. This is by a French blogger, it seems: La Paillette Frondeuse. Here's the original pin:

And here is my interpretation:

I added some more stripes and changed the colors to match my wardrobe this weekend. I love them! I'll be sad to take them off.

Happy Painting!

Pinspiration Challenge Day 2: Stripes

Day two of the challenge is upon us! I decided to give my fingers a break and give myself a pedi for stripe day. The pin that inspired me is actually the first pin I pinned to my nail art board! This is the original pin credited to pshiiit.com:

And as you'll see, besides making this a pedicure, I also changed the colors to pastels, and changed the number of stripes.

I got impatient and put on striping tape before the base was dry, which actually hasn't happened to me yet, so I unfortunately had some leaking.

I like them, though! I'm glad I finally got around to trying this design out. I mean, that is the point of the challenge after all...

See you on Friday for the Geometric challenge!

Happy Painting!

It's a Manicure Miracle!

You guys, something huge has just happened. My manicure has lasted an entire week without any noticeable chips!!! This has never happened before. I always pick at my nails, and my polish almost always chips significantly by the 4th day since I use my nails a lot for work and they sometimes get beat up when I play music. But besides the small dent that was basically there to begin with, they look stellar!

I probably should have taken better pictures so you could marvel (okay, I'm the only marveling, but still) at how great these still look. But, here's what they looked like right after painting them a week ago:

And here's what they look like now:

So, what did I do differently? Well, I tried out a new product - Chip Skip from OPI. I was skeptical at first, but goodness, it really works! I have a tiny bottle that came in a sample pack, but I would definitely consider coughing up the money to buy a full bottle of this stuff. It would be especially good for giving other people manicures, since I change my nails rather frequently anyhow.

In other news, I finally bought some striping tape. I tried it out for my pedicure and it turned out pretty well for my first time using the stuff, although I don't have a picture to show you. It's a bit tedious and certainly time consuming, but I know I'm going to have a lot of fun with striping designs in the next few weeks.

Okay, last point of business. This floral design was inspired by pinterest, and that got me thinking of creating a nail art challenge inspired by pinterest designs. Would anyone be interested in doing a challenge like this?

Happy Painting!

January Nails

So, as you may have noticed, I am not the greatest at updating this blog regularly. I am, however, still painting my nails fairly often, so today I have two of my recent manicures to share with you.

For the first time in a long time I decided to do a splatter manicure. Those can be a bit exhausting, but it looks pretty awesome when you're done. These pictures aren't the greatest since I just randomly took them on my phone, but you can get a pretty good feel of what they looked like.

My roommate got me Essie's Lilacism for christmas, and I love it! I saw a design similar to this next one on pinterest and wanted to give it a try. You'll notice some weird striping/smudging which was unfortunate, but I really liked them overall. They were also a hit among friends.

Not too shabby, eh? Right now I have a random manicure with the new OPI polishes I got. They were half off at TJ Maxx! I couldn't pass up a deal that good. Apparently they look like some classic rock album cover. I don't know. I may end up taking a quick picture of them, but they're pretty chipped at this point.

Anyhow, I shall try to post more often! I pinky promise.

Happy Painting!

Happy New Year! 2014 Nails.

Last night I decided to do an impromptu manicure to celebrate the new year. I don't know about you, but I am quite glad that 2013 is over. Here's to 2014!

Happy Painting!

Leaf inspired pattern

I've seen this pattern floating around the blogosphere and thought it would be fun to try. And it was!

I think these are nice colors for the end of fall. It snowed here yesterday and my heart broke a little. I was not ready to put away my flip flops yet.

Happy Painting!

30 Day Challenge: Inspired By Art

I LOVED this challenge! It was so fun to paint paint again, and I found beautiful inspiration in this painting by Pol Ledent:

About 2 hours and a ton of polishes later, here was the result of my inspiration:

I used some sponging and a paint brush technique to replicate the style, and tried to break up different parts of the painting onto each nail.

I'm quite happy with the result. I think it was a pretty great interpretation, but I'm a bit biased. I did a lot of mixing of my polishes in order to get the right smoky colors, which is part of the reason this took so long. Also, I just really had fun painting like this, so I took my time to try to get everything as close to the original as I could. I really wish you could see these in person, as they look so awesome!

Thankfully I already did tomorrow's challenge earlier today, so I can keep these guys on over the weekend.

Alright, ready to see the ridiculous amount of polishes I used for this one?

Polishes used:

NYC In a Minute Sidewalkers

Essie Blue Rhapsody

China Glaze Bahemian Escape

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Blue Me Away

China Glaze First Mate

NYC French White Tip

China Glaze Kalahari Kiss

China Glaze Lemon Fizz

China Glaze Sun Worshipper

NYC Times Square Tangerine

China Glaze Peachy Keen

Sinful Colors Easy Going

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Cherry Red

China Glaze Street Chic

Bon Bons Black

My Golden Yellow Nail Art Pen

Seche Vite (top coat)

Happy Painting!

31 Day Challenge: Inspired By a Book

Okay, so I'm catching up again. I had a rough day, so the two designs I did today (especially the fashion one) are not up to par. Oh well. This one is pretty cute.
I'm more of an article girl than a book girl, and I wanted to do something fun, so I went with Dr. Seuss.

Not too bad, I suppose. I used glue as my base today so pretty much five minutes after I took these pictures I peeled these guys off and went on to the next challenge. I already put away my polishes and don't really feel like getting them out again so no polish list tonight.

Happy Painting!

30 Day Challenge: Galaxy Nails

This was my first time ever doing galaxy nails, so I went with the traditional sponged look. It was really fun! As you'll see at the bottom of this post, I ended up using a TON of polishes. I'm pretty sure I didn't need that many, as it ended being about a fourth of what I own, but I pretty much went crazy with every shimmer polish I have.

Not bad for my first attempt. I really like how the orange/yellow one turned out. I certainly didn't need to use as many polishes as I did, but now I have a better idea of what looks best for whenever I try these again. I'll also be able to get through them a bit faster.

The glue protector took off the edges of my index and middle fingers, but otherwise I'm finally starting to get better at painting inside the lines. If anyone has tips for not flooding your cuticles other than, well, be careful, please let me know. I always appreciate advice.

Tomorrow is water marbling, which might be awful. The two times I've tried it have not been successful in the slightest. This could be interesting. But I do think I'm improving by doing these challenges, so perhaps it won't be as bad as I'm expecting. We shall see!

Polishes used:

NYC In a Minute Quick Dry (base)
Bon Bons Black
China Glaze First Mate
Petites French White
Bon Bons Yellow Shimmer
Bon Bons Pink Shimmer
Bon Bons Purple Shimmer
NYC Broadway Burgundy Frost
Essie Nothing Else Metals
OPI Dutch Ya Just Love OPI
Pure Ice Hot Tamale
Pure Ice Magic
CQ Rustic
NYC Cashmere Creme
Essie Blue Rhapsody
Pure Ice Calypso
China Glaze Shower Together
NYC Big Money Frost
Kiss Nail Art Striper Silver Glitter
Seche Vite (top coat)

Happy Painting!

30 Day Challenge: Half Moons

Okay, so a small disclaimer: I cheated for today's challenge. I only have two technical half moons as accent nails and I suppose they're a bit too large to actually be considered half moons, but awww look at the pumpkins!

As I mentioned previously, I told my roommate Ashley that I would give her a pumpkin manicure sometime this week. It was my first time ever painting pumpkins, but thankfully Ashley has such large, lovely nails that I had plenty of space to work with and was able to put in some nice detail.

Just to give you an idea of what great nails she has, the pumpkins are about the same size as one of my full fingernails. Crazy!

Fun fact: I won first place at the regional elementary school art contest in 3rd grade for a chalk pumpkin drawing I made. When I was younger I was an avid drawer and my grandfather, who is an incredible artist, was teaching me how to paint. I was actually quite good at both but for some reason stopped practicing freehand arts in high school, so I've lost a lot of my technique. I think that's why I enjoy nail art so much-it's helping me recover my natural love of paint.

Pictured: my incredibly oversized half moon pumpkin

I actually come from a long line of artists. As I mentioned, my grandfather is a painter, as well as two of my great uncles on both sides of my family, and my dad makes and paints model airplanes and he's amazing at it. The amount of detail and precision he has makes my nail art look like a toddler's drawing.

Still, I'm very happy with how these turned out. I had to mix two of my polishes to get the right orange, which actually gives it some natural shading which I really like.

So yes, I kind of cheated for today, but it was worth it. I love these nails, even though it took almost 3 hours to do prep, paint, and clean up (the glue as a cuticle protector did not work so well on Ashley's skin. It was a pain to try to get it off). Now that I've done them, I think I'll be able to cut the time in half whenever I do these next (and I will, because you cannot deny that these are cute and worth repeating).

Polishes used:
Sally Hansen Double Duty (base)
Sinful Colors Snow Me White
China Glaze Lemon Fizz
China Glaze Sun Worshiper
NYC Times Square Tangerine Cream
Double Art yellow striping/dotting pen
Sinful Colors Exotic Green
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Lickety-Split Lime
China Glaze Street Chic
Seche Vite (top coat)


Happy Painting!

30 Day Challenge: Glitter

Okay, so you guys know I wasn't looking forward to today's challenge. I don't think I've worn glitter polish since I was in Junior High. I'm just not a glitter girl. And I decided to only paint one hand because of that. However, I was really pleasantly surprised with how much I liked today's design.

I also tried using glue today to prep my cuticles since I'm so sloppy and pretty much always flood my cuticles. It worked like a charm! My cuticles are in really bad shape, though, so they still don't look great, but once they're healthy again and I figure out a quicker way to apply the glue, I think I'm really going to cut down my clean up time. 

It's kind of hard to tell from the photo due to the mixed source lighting, but I used a very nice soft pink as the base. I've had this polish for a while but haven't actually used it until now. It looks kind of preppy with the other colors and the design, which I'm actually totally digging. It helps that the glitter polish I used is really dense and a single color. I may even use it again. Okay glitter fans, you've won me over this time.

Polishes used:

Sinful Colors Easy Going

Kiss Nail Art Paint Silver Glitter

Kiss Nail Art Paint Black

Finger Paints White

Happy Painting!

30 Day Challenge: Tribal

My roommate Ashley has been wanting me to paint her nails for a while, so last night I asked her if she wanted a tribal print. She said she though that would look cool on her feet, so I let her pick out the colors she liked, and this is what I came up with:

This was my second time ever trying out the tribal print. It's a lot harder than you'd think to try to get so many details on little toes. Actually, Ashley has really nice toes to work with.

I'll have to practice the tribal print more when the challenge is finished since I really like the designs I've seen for them so far. 

I'm starting to run out of both my regular polish remover and my pure acetone, so I'm trying to use as little of it as possible since I really can't afford more at the moment, which means I may fall behind a bit on the rest of the challenge. But, I did promise Ashley I'd give her a pumpkin manicure sometime soon, so I'm thinking that may end up being what I do for the half moons challenge.

Tomorrow is supposed to be glitter, and that makes me very sad. I don't want to waste a pedicure on glitter. Can someone please convince me that glitter designs can be something other than gaudy and girly?

Polishes used:

NYC Quick Dry Sidewalkers

Finger Paints White Striper

China Glaze Holly-Day

Happy Painting!

30 Day Challenge: Delicate (Fall Dots)

I found my camera! So hopefully the pictures will be better from now on (I can see a small difference, at least). I originally had a different idea for today's challenge, but then I saw a cute little dot graphic and thought it would be fun to try to recreate with fall colors.

I was definitely a bit sloppy around my cuticles, but to be fair, I was really into the Packers game while trying to do this. Sometimes the commercial breaks aren't long enough.

I actually have smaller nails considering the length of my fingers, so it's difficult to appreciate just how tiny (or delicate) these dots are in these pictures. Trust me, this was some of my steadiest work.

See, aren't these pictures better? Ah, the wonders of macro. And I finally  remembered to add a watermark to my pictures. Now I feel like a legit blogger. Another friend told me after seeing these that I should start doing nail art as a side business, so I'm really starting to consider that option. We shall see!

Both of my roommates want me to paint their nails, so hopefully I can convince them to try the challenges coming up. Especially glitter, because I can't stand glitter.

Polishes used:

Sinful Colors Snow Me White

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Cherry Red

Pure Ice Magic

Pure Ice Hot Tamale

China Glaze Street Chic

Seche Vite Top Coat

Happy Painting!

30 Day Challenge: Flowers

My good friend and recent roommate Kelly is visiting for the weekend. I noticed that she has lovely large nail beds and she was happy to let me paint her nails.

I had been browsing google for pictures of flowers to use as inspiration, I showed Kelly a few options and we both really liked this colorful dot design. It literally looks just like this. I think it turned out quite well!

I have to say, I think this might be my favorite or second favorite design of the challenge so far. It was pretty easy, since all I needed was a dotter, but it was time consuming. I think it took around an hour since there were a lot of colors and a lot of waiting around for colors to dry. 

Kelly seems to really like the end result as well. I like this so much that I think I may have to use it for myself after the challenge is over. Or maybe for the recreate a design day- that's the last day I think, right? I think the only thing I'd need to change is to apply a second coat of the base brown. 

Kelly is also trying to convince me to start a little business painting nails and doing makeup and other beauty related things. I'm pretty sure I can't do any of those things fast enough to be really successful, and I'm a bit sloppy yet, but it's something to consider. Getting paid to do something you love is the best, right?

Colors used:

China Glaze Street Chic

Sinful Colors Snow Me White

China Glaze Bahamain Escape

China Glaze Lemon Fizz

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Lacey Lilac

Sally Hansen Insta Dri Lickety-Split Lime

OPI Kiss Me On My Tulips

Seche Vite Top Coat

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this manicure. 

Happy Painting!