Green Argyle

Ah, I remember this manicure. I was so excited because it was the first one I "designed". Up till then I was copying other mani's I saw online. Now Argyle isn't exactly an original idea, but I was so proud of it at the time. I had also just learned what a striper was. A striper is a bottle of polish that has a long, thin brush in it for sharper lines. I painted my nails white (Sally Hansen's "White On") then painted a green X on them with a green striper. Fill in the top and bottom triangles formed by the X with green, then a green sparkle on top of that. Then I used a black striper to cut the triangle/diamonds in half. Very easy but rather impressive. I'm not sure what colors I used, but I think the only stripers I had at the time were It's So Easy Strip Rite brand ones.

Tin Foil Glitter Removal.

Who doesn't love glitter polish? Seriously, it is a trend that has lasted for a very long time simply because everyone loves sparkles. The only thing to truly despise about glitter polish is that it is the hardest thing to get OFF your nails again. Glitter sticks to your nails like little suction cups and the nail polish remover simply can't get under the glitter flakes to dissolve the polish under it. There are many tips and tricks out there, but here is a tried and true method most people swear by.

Find out how to use Tin Foil to remove glitter polish after the jump...

Vera Bradley Nails

So we sell these purses where I work. Vera Bradley is a pretty popular brand, and I'll admit, I have a few myself. So when new colors come in, we kind of get swamped at the store of people wanting to get a peek at them. Last Sunday we had our Vera rep come in to give us a sneak peek at the new colors (love em!) and I decided to paint my nails to mimic one of the patterns. I really think Vera should licence out (loan out? give permission to? oh you know what I mean) so that Sally Hansen or some other company can make nail polish strips in Vera patterns. I told our rep that but I don't know if that idea will get passed along. I'd buy them, but you can't go by me, I buy anything nail polish related. Anyway, the top photo is the Vera pattern "Plum Crazy" and the one below is "Lime's Up" that I did last summer. The insert is the pattern I based the mani's off in case you are not familiar with Vera Bradley.

"Plum Crazy" is OPI's "Louve Me Louve Me Not". I then painted with a regular thin paint brush and dotting tool in Sinful Colors "Unicorn" "Sweet Nothing" "Hazard" and Sally Hansen Xtreme wear "Green With Envy".

"Limes Up" is Sally Hansen Xtreme wear "White On" "Blue Me Away" "Green With Envy" Insta Dri "Lightening" and stamped with Salon Express SE20 in Wet n Wild "Ebony Hates Chris".

Harvest Festival

While we wait for winter to be over and spring to get here already *glares at grey gloomy skies* how about a look at a fall manicure? Here is a 3 color gradient of China Glaze "Hey Sailor", Pure Ice "Hot Tamale" and Sally Hansen "Lighting". Stamped over that is BundleMonster BM205 in Maybelline Color Show "Bold Gold" perhaps the best gold stamping polish I've found so far. I was trying to use colors that reminded me of falling leaves and the stamp image worked so well with that. Not sure why I used gold for the stamp color other than I had just bought "Bold Gold" and was eager to use it for anything o.~

Shrooms!

I really liked this mani. Very simple Mario mushroom done for another game night. I think this was the first time I painted my nails for game night. Got to my sister's place early so we both did nerdy nails. Of course at the game none of the guys noticed, but afterwards at Barnes & Noble the cashier girl noticed and loved them. Sally Hansen "White On" for the white tip and Bath & Body Works "Candy Apple" for the red. We used the handle of a paint brush for the dots. Just a little bit of Wet n Wild "Ebony Hates Chris" for the eyes. I still really like this one. Maybe I'll do it again but in green for the 1UP mushroom.

Nail Polish Thinner

I like dollar store polish. I can get nearly every color in the rainbow for dirt cheap, but you take a chance with it. A lot of cheap polish I come across is cheap for a reason. It bleeds, stains, is super thin, or more commonly thick. For thick polishes there is an easy fix. Nail Polish Thinner is just a few bucks at your local beauty supply store and can restore polish that is nearly dried out. In fact I had a dried up bottle and a hefty squirt brought it back to life. I shook it up and left it for a few days and boom! It was polish again. Now even though it fixed dried up polish, I don't recommend it for that, as the once-dry polish is greasy. What you want to use thinner for is polishes that are getting gloppy like my Art Deco silver glitter striper was getting. I once heard someone using water to thin polish but I just can't see how that would work, because water and polish literally don't mix. That's the whole theory behind water marbling. Under NO circumstances should you add Nail Polish Remover or Acetone to thin your polish. Remover and Acetone are made to break down and destroy chemicals in polish, so adding it to your bottles will destroy what makes polish, polish.

Check out before and after photos after the jump...

Techno Stamp

Ah, here is a mani I was rather proud of. I designed this for Soguesswhat11's contest back in May 2012. It also happens to be one of the few videos I made. Don't laugh...but here it is. Claire's Starstruck collection "Drops of Jupiter" is the base with Bundlemonster.com's BM221 stamped with Wet n Wild's "Ebony Hates Chris". This is also the first time I played with gems. A small clear gem in the middle of the ring finger. I don't wear gems much as I'm always worried they will fall off. They also feel weird on my fingers but I'm sure that's only because I don't wear them much. I'm sure if I wear them more often I'd get used to it.

Pac Man

Sally Hansen's "Lightening", Wet n Wild's "Ebony Hates Chris"
 and Kiss Nail Art striper in blue.

Another game night manicure. Pac-man here was made by cutting a triangle of scotch tape and laying that on the finger first, then painting the yellow circle over it. Peel the tape off before the polish dries to keep from tearing into the design. Carefully outline him in black (I used a toothpick. One of these days I'm really gonna have to get a striper brush). Black tips on the other fingers with a blue line above that and yellow dots on the black. Very simple. His eye ran a bit when I top coated it, but nearly a year after I did this mani I look back and think "wait...Pac-Man doesn't have an eye, does he?" So skip the eye. Clean up was optional for me back in those days, but now a cotton swap dipped in remover will clean up the edges nicely.

Workspace

The blue Caboodle's case on top is what used to hold my collection.

Well, if I'm gonna be completely honest, organization has never been my strong suit. For the longest time I stored all my polishes in a Caboodle's case. When I out grew that, they went into a plastic sliding drawer thing. No real rhyme or reason, just colors I used a lot toward the front and older, more unused ones got pushed to the back. Not bad, but you couldn't see the colors. You just had to know what was in there and what the cap looked like. I want to SEE the bottles. It helps so much when designing nail art.

After the jump check out my set up now.

Pink Gradient

You'd think after Valentine's Day I'd be sick of pinks and reds, but sometimes you just feel in a "girly" mood. This is Sinful Colors "24/7" with "Pink" sponged on the bottom half and because no one can say no to glitter, OutTheDoor glitter topcoat "Northern Lights". Simple and subtle, but so girly and pretty.

Angry Birds

Here is my sister's nails again. I like to paint our nails for game night. Who am I kidding, any reason is good to paint nails! o.~ Anyway, game night is a good reason to do game related nails so here is our friends from the addictive game Angry Birds. The polish is again mostly from her stash, so I'm not sure of brands. I just remember the green we found for the pig was so sheer it was a pain in the neck to get opaque enough so show up. She was reading a good book and didn't want to put it down for photos.

Nail Polish Journal

Nail Polish Notebook.

Nail polish is easy to collect. Maybe a bit TOO easy. A bottle or two here and there. Once you start keeping an eye out for it you'll find bottles popping up everywhere. Drug stores, grocery stores, beauty supply stores...well ok, that last one is a bit obvious  But drugstore bottles tend to be cheap so its not that hard to justify picking up a couple when you happen to be in the area. How often you "happen to be in the area" is what you need to justify :) Anyway if you start to collect, one day it will happen. You find that gorgeous glitter you can't live without only to get home and find you already have it or one by another brand identical to it. You could return it, but some stores put up a stink about returns. You could keep it, most of us do. But how to avoid the problem in the first place? You can't very well bring your whole collection with you everywhere...can you?

You can with a Nail Polish Journal. Take a peek into mine after the jump.

Plaid Hearts

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!! Here is the Valentine's mani I did last year. Avon Color Last "Lucky in Lilac" a very pale pink on the bottom diagonal half of the nail followed by Bath and Body Works "Candy Apple" a bright red painted on with a pin in criss-crossing lines. Its So Easy Stripe Rite white striper crosses the lines between the red. The silver line and red hearts are Kiss's nail art pens which I haven't used since that day, as it took me a week and a half of scrubbing to get it off my nails again. I think I didn't use a basecoat so that might be why I couldn't get it to come off, but I'm to afraid to use it again even with a basecoat.

Doctor Who Logo Practice

Not my work. But OMG I want to do that when I grow up!

A friend of mine recently posted this mani to my Facebook page and while I think I've figured out how to do most of the fingers, how she did the logo was baffling me. Well I sat down one night with my practice nails and I think I figured out the trick. Do a blue gradient on your whole nails first then paint the black over the top. I was always trying to gradient INSIDE the logo and that was just a pain. Gradient FIRST. Well this is what I've come up with so far.

Not outstanding, but I'm proud of it. Little more practice I think.
Wet n Wild's "Saved by the Blue" Sally Hansen's "White On" and
Wet n Wild's "Ebony Hates Chris"

I'm really kind of proud of it, but soon it will be time to try it on my own nails and I'm a bit nervous to do that. I need to master it by March 30th. That is when Doctor Who season 7 part 2 starts airing.

Plants Vs Zombies

This mani I did nearly a year ago. I know it's not the best picture, my cuticles are dry, and there is barely any clean up done, but I am still proud of these nails to this very day. This is perhaps my first successful freehand painting. It was so long ago that I don't remember what polishes I used but I can guess. Sinful Colors "Irish Green", Sally Hansen's "Lightening" and "White On", Pure Ice's "Silver Mercedes", and Wet n Wild's "Ebony Hates Chris". The brown I think was acrylic paint. Most of this was painted with a toothpick and knitting needle. At the time, I was obsessed with the game "Plants Versus Zombies" and I was itching to do a mani with cartoon characters. I'd say if you haven't played the game give it a shot, but after days of nonstop playing you will all hate me. So play at your own risk o.~

Pink Crackle Heart

Another simple Valentine's Day manicure. Here I have Pure Ice's "Shell Pink" a very soft pastel pink with China Glaze's "Haute Metal" crackle from their Crackle Glaze collection. I lucked out on the crackle at my Sally's Beauty Supply Store and got them on clearance for like a buck and a half each I think it was. Got 4 colors that day in crackle. Stamped over that is a heart from Salon Express plate #SE21 in Sally Hansen's "Quick Brick". I had heard that most of the Insta-Dri collection stamped well so I wanted to try it. Not bad but not as well as I thought it would stamp. The whole manicure is nice, but rather subtle. Subtle is fine but I like manicures that stand out a bit. A little "Hey-Look-At-Me!-I'm-Nail-Art!!" is what I go for.

Purple Hearts

I just got back from a convention this weekend, so only making a quick post of what I'm wearing right now before crashing for a nap. I work in a place that's very focused on holidays, so I'll be sporting Valentines mani's for a few more days. Here is the latest. OPI's "Louve Me, Louve Me Not" stamped with Claire's white using the hearts found in Claire's new stamping kit. Topped with Out The Door's "Northern Lights" holographic top coat. I don't think the glitter was a good choice, but the white on the purple was rather stark, so I wanted something to soften it. For some reason I thought glitter would do it. I still like it, but maybe next time I'd stamp in pastel purple instead of white. Stamp lined up really well on index and middle, but then I got impatient and ring and pinky got placed a bit high. Ok, nap time now....

Claire's Stamping Kit

Claire's Nail Stamping Kit.

There aren't too many places in my mall that carry nail polish, but the ones that do I tend to haunt when killing time. I've always thought of Claire's as kinda of a pre-teen little girl place, but they have nail polish so I'll ignore the plastic earrings and locker stickers of what ever teen idol is the flavor of the month to see what is new in the polish section. Good thing I did because look at what I just found!! There are plenty of stamping plates online, but as I don't do much online shopping, finding plates in an actual store is like finding a gold doubloon  in the center court fountain. 

Get a better look at all that comes in this kit after the jump.