Why did I stay up all night?

To paint my nails, of course. Well that's not all I did but I did start painting pretty late... here's some back story:

For the last two weeks wild fires have been raging all over Eastern Washington, which is where I live. In the last 5 days the smoke in my area has be exceptionally thick, due to the fact that we had a lightning storm on the 14th that sparked a few fires and some are still going strong. In fact one was almost scarily close I mean this was a photo taken a block from my house:

In the lower right of the picture is where you can see the smoke billowing up and then the smoke blows into the left side of the picture. This fire was put out fairly quickly, but there were more started by the storm. In my neighborhood that day the smoke was thick, but that's not as bad as it got later in the week...

Lovely sunrise on the 17th which was the worst day for smoke I have ever lived through. Living in eastern Washington comes with some summer smoke, however the sun being a tiny red dot, they sky being sooty greyish brown, not being able to see more than half a mile ahead of you... that's all NOT normal unless you are VERY close to the fires. On the 17th most of the smoke was probably from the Chiwaukum Creek Fire near Leavenworth. Prevailing wind blew it right at us as this lovely satellite photo shows:

Satellite image from an article on discovermagazine.com

The blue dot is approximately where I live. Red dots are active fires and the smoke is pretty obvious. In fact the Smoke from the Chiwaukum Creek Fire was visible in SEATTLE. Which is on the other side of a mountain range from that fire.

ANYWAY, I am blathering about the fires because the smoke from them has been causing my mom, who I live with, a lot of issues with her lung and eyes. On the 17th she almost didn't eat because the smoke was making her nauseous, but once we sat in a restaurant for an hour while I ate she started feeling better and also got some food. Once in the car again she started feeling sick again. So we went to Walmart and got replacement filters for my air filter unit. so that at the very least we can have one room in the house with decent air to breathe. Last night my mom slept in my room on my bed because she needed restful sleep with clean air. So I let her. Which is why I was up allll night and decided to paint my nails at nearly 3am. If I'm gonna be awake all night letting my mom sleep in my bed I might as well do something fun and constructive right?

So now to the actual nail polish related bit of this post!

I decided I wanted to use one of my new ILNP brand polishes, because pretty, and I wanted to try negative space style art. As much as I wanted to use Exodus or Purgatory I decided
to go with something lighter since my nail beds are fairly pale and I didn't want the contrast to be jarring. In my opinion negative space with bright/bold/dark colors tend to look really odd. I find that pale, softer colors appeal to me more for this type of style. SO I decided on You're My Boy Blue as my color. It's a gorgeous dusty baby blue linear holographic. So pretty.

Stock Photo from ILNP website

 Once my color was decided I applied a base coat, the one I used was NailTek Foundation II, which is a ridge filler and strengthener combined. TAKE NOTE this brand is not 3-free so there is Toluene and Formaldehyde in it, I looked up an ingredient list for those curious. However I like it because it does help my nails stay strong and it also has the ridge filling which I really wanted for the negative space look. Seeing gaping ridge lines in my area of no polish would have killed me. Although I don't have super bad ridges, I do have some that annoy me even if they are minor. After base coat was on I waited a good half hour before the next step to be 100% sure the base was dry.

Once my half hour was up, I put a lightning bolt nail vinyl (bought here) on my index finger, made sure it was firmly attached and properly pressed into the creases between my skin and nail bed. I didn't want to mess this up. Sadly I managed to do so anyway. After I had applied the vinyl I threw down three coats of You're My Boy Blue as quickly, yet carefully, as possible then removed the vinyl with tweezers. I was very pleased wit the outcome until I noticed a teeny area where the polish had gotten under the vinyl. I cursed a bit but decided I didn't want to remove it and start over as the removal process on one finger would mess up my base coat on other nails. I decided to keep going and I am glad I did, rather than, say, giving up completely.

I worked nail by nail, apply vinyl (ultra super carefully and securely), apply polish, remove vinyl, repeat on next finger, until both hands were done and then I waited for 20 minuted before adding my top coat because if the top coat smeared the polish into my negative space I'm not sure I would have taken it very well. But it went perfectly, no smears, no streaks, just glorious glossy holo blue and negative space lightning bolts! After a bit of half-assed clean up I was content to rest and take my glamor shots then veg on Netflix. Here are a two images of the final result:

Indoors under CFL bulb.

Outdoors in full morning sunlight.

So there we have it. the product of just over 2 hours of nail painting, which would have taken less time if I weren't being such a perfectionist. I love them and so do most of the people I have shown them to.

Ever tried negative space? How'd it go for you? If you haven't tried it yet what do you think of it and would you ever try it?

Throwing down some pictures!

These are just a few photos I took last night of the five polishes I got at Wal-mart on the 12th. There are three SinfulColors shades and two Pure Ice shades. I think I will start with the Pure Ice. :3

Pure Ice, Speechless (bottle)

Pure Ice Speechless (bottle and swatch)

Pure Ice, Speechless (swatch)

First you will probably be noticing the bottle looks dark but the polish looks pretty bright, yeah? Well that is because the swatch is on a clear stick with a white background and the polish it's self is a very sheer jelly style polish. It's a very vibrant, beautiful color but I know I would have to tone it down somehow to have it look good on me, I will probably use it over a darker color in the future.

Pure Ice, Laven-dare (bottle)

Pure Ice, Laven-dare (bottle and swatch)

Pure Ice, Laven-dare (swatch)

 So I love this color, not so much the way it applies.... Shown here is two coats on a swatch stick and you can clearly see it is still pretty streaky. The color is so pale I almost thought it was a pale-gray-off-white, but it is actually a very subtle purple-off-white. It reminds me more of faded Lilacs than Lavender but regardless it is gorgeous. I will be interested to see how it looks on my actual nails and if it will smooth out after adding a top coat as many super pale colors tend to in my experience.

On to Sinful Colors!

SinfulColors, Island Coral (bottle)

SinfulColors, Island Coral (bottle and swatch)

SinfulColors, Island Coral (swatch)

Wowza that's blinding. It's a lot less IN YO' FACE when you look at it in real life. My camera decided "Lets see if we can't blind people with this color!" Basically imagine the color pictured toned down a level, it's actually very pretty and while I don't see myself using it for full coverage it will be great for nail art!

SinfulColors, Mint Apple (bottle)

SinfulColors, Mint Apple (bottle and swatch)

SinfulColors, Mint Apple (swatch)

My camera needs a kick in the teeth. This color is much more pale in the real world. It's a gorgeous shimmery green color that I have been wanting for a while, finally found and HAD to buy. It applies pretty solid in two coats and is not streaky at all unless you actually have too little polish on the applicator brush. It's super SUPER pretty. Just sayin'.

SinfulColors, Rise & Shine (bottle)

SinfulColors, Rise & Shine (bottle and swatch)

SinfulColors, Rise & Shine (swatch)

This is a beautiful green leaning teal with a subtle shimmer. It's a pinch streaky in application but I'm sure that can be mastered by people with better technique then me. I really love this color because it is so bold and all around pretty. And I am not sure when I will use it first on myself but I want to use it in something awesome that does justice to the color.

Anyway, there they are. This post took me two days to finish thanks to interruptions form friends, then needing to sleep, and after that being lazy! xD

Happy painting! 8D

This is what happens!

Whenever I make a blog I never update it regularly. I'm. A. Bad. Blogger. But I will continue to blog anyway cuz why not? 

My birthday rolled around on the 7th  and I got 80 dollars to play with. What did I do with it? Blew most of it on nail polish of course! I have several packages arriving next week and tomorrow and HOPEFULLY Will get my booty in gear and do some posts about them.

I also got the Winstonia 1st generation stamping plat set. AND a set of the Winstonia 5x2 Dotting tools that actually has 10 different size dot tips! My last set (a generic bought on Amazon) had 6 sizes on a 5x2 set, how rude. So today after the mail arrived (quite late due to a substitute mail lady) I had the fun job of reorganizing my stamping plate sin the place binder thing I have AND removing all those blue films... which wound up with these results:

Nails are not tools they tell me, don't use them for anything they say... THEN WHY ARE THE SO GOOD AT PICKING AT THINGS?! (that's a big chip in the tip of my actual nail not just the polish in the first image in that collage)

Anyway will update eventually with something interesting I'm sure, hopefully sooner rather then later.

Sincerely, 
Emily the Bad Blogger

Here I am! First Week of May Update.

It's been a while, I apologize. My notorious blog laziness has apparently struck with a vengeance.

ANYWAY!

Spring has sprung and so have my allergies! Also my desire to garden.... My nails are pretty short currently to accommodate my gardening and yard/house work. But I am still painting them! Today's nails I used three colors on, all of which I bought/received this last week. Here are some pictures:

The blue I used for the base color is Bonita, Ride the Waves. Bonita is a new brand for me that my RiteAid has just started carrying. I don't know if it, as a brand, will be permanent but for now I very much like what I see.

The purple streaks were done with Wet-n-Wild, Buffy the Violet Slayer. That shade of purple is very dark yet very bright, and I see myself using it for accents and nail art, but not generally as a main full coverage color, even if it is super pretty. To get the streaks I used a fan brush and dipped the tips of the bristles in the purple polish then brushes it on lightly.

The purple around the lightning bolt is Zoya PixieDust, Carter. I got this as part of my Zoya Earth Day Sale haul and I'm glad I did. Pictures never do justice to textured glitter polishes, but this color sis very shiny and glittery. the lightning bolt shape was achieved using a Nail Vinyl so it was pretty easy to do.

Added Bonus: I have a very short video of my nails today that was meant to show off the sparkle of the Zoya polish I used:

Next up! I have two videos of my most recent hauls.

 In the fist video we have the following colors:

Expressions Nail Paint (No color name on bottle); Wet-n-Wild MegaRocks, Gettin' Amped; Wet-n-Wild Mega Rocks, Stick It To The Man; Bonita, Ride The Waves; Bonita, Royal Highness; Wet-n-Wild FastDry, Buffy The Violet Slayer and Wet-n-Wild FastDry, Saved By The Blue

And in the second video all the polishes are Zoyas the colors are: Neve, Carmen, Hunter, Chita, Godiva, Sunshine, and Carter.

 All of the swatches shown in the videos is with two coats of the color they are displaying. I do that with all my "swatch sticks" to ensure I can know how opaque or sheer any given color is in two coats.

Well this is all I can manage to write tonight due to my being sleepy, it is 3am after all by the time I finished editing it's actually closer to 4am now ; n;... Goodnight everyone and I hope I will start posting more again. <3

Zoya Monet

So in the mail today I got something neat. My Zoya Monet bottle, along with Zoya Dillon and Rebel. They are amazing. But this post is focusing on Monet.

I got Monet for free because of the promo code I got in an email, because I did the 3 free promo. Hooray for promo chains! Monet is a glittery top coat with multicolored iridescent hex glitters. The glitters seem to be yellow, pink, and blue/green. But they look different on different base colors as they are somewhat sheer glitters. Because a friend was curious I wound up swatching it over various dark or bold colors, and not over Dillon or Rebel despite the fact that Rebel, Dillon and Monet all came together. However one of the colors I did use was Zoya's Wednesday which is almost a creme version of Dillon. I mean look at them side by side!

Dillon on the left and Wednesday on the right.

Scarily similar, but definitely not the same.. Anyway, I tried Monet on five different colors, one on each fingernail of my left hand. Here they are before Monet:

I didn't clean up right away because I wanted to wait until I had Monet on. Polishes are as follows:
Index: Zoya, Wednesday
Middle: Zoya, Lael
Ring: Wet-n-Wild MegaLast, Toxic Apple
Pinky: Wet-n-WIld Wild Shine, Burgundy Frost
Thumb: FingerPaints, Vintage Glam

Now after I put on Monet I kinda fell in love with it's looks but also rather dislike the formula. The glitter are suspended in a very thick and kinda gloppy sheer pink jelly base. While the thickness helps suspend the glitter so it doesn't all sink and you get plenty of glitter on the brush but, it's kind of odd to work with. I may get used to it but for now I'm not a fan of the formula. While the base is pink it applies sheer enough to not see the pink at all, or dull down your base color. the glitters are very sparkly as glitter should be and they distribute pretty evenly but will occasionally clump, which in a way means the thick formula helps give you time to spread more evenly, so there is a plus. The glitters are very good at catching light even on very dark colors. Here is photographic proof:

Honestly? I like it much more over dark colors, because it really pops. And for bonus points here is a video! Pardon the fact that I took it before I cleaned up.

Over all I love Monet, it's very pretty and unique in my collection. I would recommend it to anyone who has a hunger for glitter and pretty colors. Really the only con, and I'm not sure it really is a con, is the thick base. If you get past that, it's all bling and beauty.

Anyone else get Monet? How do you like it?

First of all some of those pictures I promised from my internet break!

Here I have some OPI swatches I did during the week of boredom.

First of all I have OPI Incognito in Sausalito, from the Fall 2013 San Fransisco collection. This polish is a very, very dark navy blue. When I wear it half of the time my family mistakes if for a black. I personally love it for it's deep color. It's what I imagine deep oceans would look like from the ocean floor looking up. I used two coats and Seche Vite for the following picture, also pardon the damage to my fingertips I was a bundle of nerves and was thus chewing a lot.

 

The next color I have is OPI Teal The Cows Come Home, from the brights collection. I cannot get over how much  love this color. It is a beautiful shimmery light blue that honestly reminds me of the pool at my grandmother's home in San Diego. This is two coats with Seche Vite on top. My camera made the color appear a bit brighter than it should be but it is still a very up-beat blue.

Next we have OPI Purple with a Purpose, also from the brights collection. Everytime I get this polish out I have a small laugh when I inevitably blurt out "Poiple with a Poipose," I never claimed to be mature.... Anyway, this color, to me seems like a purple version of Teal the Cows Come Home. This is a very bright, and very friendly purple that is perfect for spring and summer. I applied two coats and Seche Vite. Again the picture turned out a bit bright.

And my final OPI swatch is OPI Muir, Muir On the Wall from the San Fransisco collection. This is a gorgeous duo-chrome shimmer that has a subtle plumb-burgundy to a dark copper shift. I love this color but it needs a bit of dedication to get it perfect. If you apply a heavy coat it will show brush stroke lines, if you apply a light coat it is very sheer, so I apply two or three thin cots to avoid the greater evil. The brush stroke lines. Pictured I used 2 coats with Seche Vite to top it off.

As a footnote, this color is most likely named for John Muir who was a great guy and deserves plenty of respect and is 100% worth learning about.

So that's all of them, the four OPI polishes I had at the time. I now have eight plus three shatters. Will get pictures of the rest of them someday.

So which of these colors do you think is your favorite?

Infinite apologies....

The world has kind of.... taken me by surprise. I got into another hobby.... shame on meee!

Gonna queue some posts tonight though. Sorry times a million for poofing.