Christmas Nails

Well here it is the 28th and I still haven't posted specifically about my Christmas nails. It's been a crazy week. Topped off with my mom in the hospital yesterday, nothing super serious just an abundance of caution. Still stressful. ANYWAY about my nails. I used a green color I am fond of for a base coat then added nail vinyls then threw on a copper to red gradient. It looked nice but a little "crazy" according to my family who noticed them. Here are some pictures: 

 

As you can see the shades were not "typical" Christmas shades but I love them regardless. My ability to place the nail vinyls is getting better. So hooray.

I am still tired I just wanted to get this post out before I fall asleep again.

Polishes Used were 

China Glaze Agro

Kleancolor Metallic Red

Revlon Copper Penny

Seche Vite Top Coat

Finally... a light box.

I finally made a light box for myself. I used a medium shipping box and paper towels. It is glorious. I actually also used some twigs from a plant we have to re-enforce the areas where the cardboard was pretty narrow. It's small as light boxes go but it will work for pictures of my nails!

Here is the box:

And my messy desk.

Anyway here is a picture I took with it of my Christmas nails (which I will talk about more in my next post).

Unfortunately along with my pretty polish, you get to see all my ragged skin/cuticles/fingers. But I am still happy with having made the box. I've been meaning to for months and now I did. ITS A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE!!

Anyway, Merry Christmas everyone, what did you get? Did you have fun with family and/or friends?

Christmas Chevrons Attempt.

Well since the big day is quite literally around the corner (five days?!) I decided to start playing with ideas for how to do my nails for Christmas. Last night I was really having trouble sleeping so I just decided that was the time to start. Three in the morning is a great time to paint your nails right? Right.

So I got out my only solid gold polish, which is actually Klean Color Metallic Yellow, then started looking for a good metallic green and a good metallic red that would look good with the "yellow." I finally settled on Wet-n-Wild Poison Ivy and Wet-n-Wild Under Your Spell. Ironically those are from the Halloween/Fall collection if memory serves.... 

Anyway painted on a base coat, then the gold, waited for everything to dry up, then applied some single chevron Nail Vinyls, aand on went the green(Poison Ivy) on all but my ring fingers who each got the red color (Under your Spell).

Naturally polish went everywhere, my nails, my skin, my desk.... it was after 3am, that's my excuse. Yep. I was tired, uh-huh, yep.

Anyway After removing the Nail Vinyls I had some pretty rad looking nails but they don't strike me as a great Christmassy paint job. One of my friends (who happened to be online while I was doing this) says they remind her of Power Rangers. Not what I was aiming for, not at all.... Still I really like them.

Here is a picture:

These were taken pretty much right after I finished doing clean up. After I took these pictures I was still not ready to sleep so I took a shower and next thing I knew the sun was rising. Whoops.

But wait... the sun... for the first time in weeks is actually showing through the clouds?

SUNSHINE NAIL POLISH PHOTO OP!

So I took a couple more pictures and my nails looked even better anyway thanks to the shower lifting off more excess polish.

The reason these aren't Christmassy enough is that the green and red are too dark. So my next attempt will involve a brighter green and a brighter red if I have one. I don't have very many reds.... Also in the sunshine pictures you can see my flubs. Whoopsie-poopsie.

Anyway, have a holly jolly holiday season! If I don't see you again before the holidays are past I hope they are merry and full of joy!

Nail Vinyls! Such fun! Much Awesome!

Have you ever tried to cut your own chevron strips/stencils for your paint jobs with masking or scotch tape? I have, aaaand it sucked. Recently I was cruising around instagram and came across a small review and pictures of the beautiful lines nail vinyls makes. Without ripping up your base color or being horribly uneven in shape/size.

So I waddled to the linked shop and bought a handful of them, they are very inexpensive, and they arrived yesterday which was 2 days after they shipped. My only complaint about the shipping was it arrived at our house with the return address label ripped half off and the envelope was open. I assume it was the crazy postal service's fault but who knows for sure, everything was still in it so I'm not upset.

I wanted to try them immediately buuut we had errands to run and I didn't get back home until well past dark (which is around 5pm here) and I had to put stuff away, make dinner, and all sorts of distractions. I finally gave the french tips vinyls a try. They worked like a dream and the only problem is my nails are stubby and I am horrible and getting them straight. I don't do tips often so I figured if I used that sheet first and accidentally mutilated beyond use some of the vinyls I would not be heartbroken. HOWEVER! they worked great I was able to reposition the ones I misplaces without the adhesive damaging my base color or losing their stickyness too much to still work. That alone made me love them. After I got them situated and painted on my second color and removed them the crisp lines were to die for. However there is a noticeable "altitude" difference between where the stencil was and the second color, however it filled in and smoothed out nicely with the application of a top coat.

The result? These:

Beautiful tips using Pure Ice All Night Long and Revlon Emerald City

Compared to my usual tips these are vastly superior. And as you can see the biggest problem is my sloppy painting skills.

And for those who wonder, this is what the vinyl sheets look like:

Black (and whites if you can see them) are for half moons. The top red and greens are different sizes of chevrons. The pink is a single chevron. The lower red is three sizes of stripes and the very bottom green is for french tips.

SO, this is me saying OMG! THESE ARE GREAT! When I get more money I will be getting the lightning bolt vinyls. I am very sad that I have to wait until the first to get paid though... I want them now!

And now that you have read far too much of my raving and rambling... here is the link you probably want:

NailVinyls Shop!

Hooray!

Thanksgiving Nails

A simple french tips style done with two SinfulColors polishes. I had planned something different but was pressed for time and fell back on this.

Colors used were SinfulColors Dancing Nails as a base then a layer of NYC Matte Me Crazy top coat, then tips done with SinfulColors Rich In Heart. I feel like I used too thick a line for the tips but that's what happens when you freehand I guess? Still I like how it turned out with the matte lighter shade and the super glossy dark tips.

Shopping Spree on November 30th!

Yep. Spent over 40 dollars at Sally Beauty on stuff for myself and for gifts. As well as a few dollars on stuff at Rite Aid for myself. Most of the "stuff"? I'm not saying it was nail polish... but it was nail polish. As a side note because I spent so much at Sally I got a free flat iron. Which I might never use becasue curling with it is a pain and my hair is pretty durn flat/straight anyway. MOVING ON!

Sally now carries OPI. HOORAY! But it is still like 8 bucks a bottle. So the four I got are probably the only four I will get for a looong time. But they are so pretty! The first paint job I did with the new polishes was using the dark blue OPI and stamping a lighter blue atop it and it was gorgeous:

This is OPI Incognito in Sausalito as a base with Sally Hansen Xtreme Blue Me Away for the stamps. I love the deep blue of the OPI. I can't begin to tell you HOW MUCH love I have for it.

The next paint job was a gradient, or ombre if you wanna use fancy talk, using two OPI colors. I have three pictures to share:

 

First you make a mess here....

Then you make a BIG mess on your fingers!

 And finally! BEAUTY!

This was done with OPI Teal the Cows Come Home and OPI Purple with a Purpose. Both are beautiful colors and both are great to work with in a gradient! I have not used the fourth OPI yet or any of the polishes I got form Rite Aid. All in due time though... all in due time.....

"Advanced Stamping"

This was fun to do. It was also mildly difficult. It's a nail stamping technique that I have been wanting to try but wasn't sure how to do it until I stumbled across a blog post (link here) that explained it and made me giddy. I used the stamper I had, and it worked great but I don't know how squishy or not squishy different stampers are. My stamper came with the Salon Express kit my mom got me last year.

Anyway this was my first attempt:

Like I said this was super fun but also fairly hard since I was painting with a nail polish bottle brush not a fine nail art brush (which I have a set of now! WOO!). I really liked it and everyone I showed in the real world were impressed, which was fun.

Anyway if you have stamping supplies and a stamp plate with a design that lends it's self to this technique, DEFINITELY try it at least once. It's pretty awesome.

Polishes Used:
Base: Finger Paints Pink Patina
Stamp: Finger Paints Pretty as a Portrait
Stamp Flowers: Sally Hansen Xtreme Lacy Lilac
Top Coat: Seche Vite

Well then....

Over a month and I haven't posted anything. Shame on me. I need to dig around a bit for pictures to post, because despite not posting I HAVE been painting. Should I post them all in one go or separate? Hmmm...

Be back later tonight with much postings!