Another Messy Mansion Celtic Knot

 With all the plates and polishes, all the nail art I own, I still come back to Messy Mansion for my St. Patrick's day mani. For a holiday I love so much I really need to get more plates for it. This is China Glaze "Refresh-Mint" with OPI "Gleam On!" Over it. Stamped with MM04 in Maniology (formerly BundleMonster) B441 "Alocasia".

Mani x Me

 I did it. I finally got a subscription to the Maniology Mani x Me boxes. Curious, is it Mani and Me? Or is it Mani by Me? Both ways work. Sorry, I'm getting sidetracked. I'm excited to show you January's box even though it's almost time for February. I'd apologize but by now you guys know I'm just not a fast blogger lol! I have to admit, I took these photos after I already opened the boxes. I was excited. 

And the very first time you order a subscription box they send you a mini scraper and a rectangular stamper. Every thing came well packed. This month's theme was Art Nouveau. 

There are 2 subscription boxes available from Maniology. The first comes with 2 plates, 2 polishes, and something extra, this time it was some stickers. There is a cheaper option, however, that is exactly the same it just doesn't come with the polishes. Let's take a closer look inside after the jump:

Celtic Knotwork

I think this is from St. Patrick's Day 2015? or 2016? I don't think the color is my beloved China Glaze "Running In Circles". I'm pretty sure it's Wet n Wild's "Emerald City"? I'm pretty sure it's layered over another green, but I'm not sure. It could just be several coats of "Emerald City.  Stamped with a black, probably Cosmetic Arts "TGIF" and a gold that might be Maybelline's "Bold Gold". A lot of this is guess work. It's been a long time since I did these nails.

Valentine's Day Swirls

Yeah, So an unplanned hiatus happened. It's not really over actually. My net is very limited at the moment, so yeah. Sucks.

But in happier news I won a Give-Away! I've never won one before and am super giddy. The chances of me winning were so slim too. I only got one entry in it because I found out about it so late. I'm without internet and just happened to see it on the last couple days it was active. I didn't have time to do a challenge mani for it, so I only got the one "click here for a free entry" click. After winners were picked they only had 24 hours to email and claim their prizes. About 4 or 5 days after it was over I happened to be at the mall and had an email from the sponsors. I figured no way I was still in the 24 hour period, that maybe the email was old and I got passed over. But no! The first few people didn't respond and I got chosen at the time I happened to be at a wifi spot. Seriously, it was like it was meant to be!

Anyway, back to these nails. I painted them China Glaze "White on White" and then with some foil glue. I had this idea that since the glue dried tacky I could brush loose glitter over it and have it stick. There were... complications. The tiny tub of glitter was stuck shut and as I was prying it open... well... it popped. Like a little glitter volcano all over my bed. (its cold outside so I sit in my bed and paint my nails instead of doing it on the porch like normal in the summer.) So I got glitter on my nail like a planned, but I also got lint and cat hair too. Soldiering on, I stamped with OPI "Time and A-Gwen" and Fab Ur Nails FUN 3 stamping plate, both of which were part of my give-away gift. Despite the cat hair-glitter fiasco, I really like how this turned out.

So I don't know when I'll get a chance to post again. I'll try to at least get pics up, if not text. I'm still here and still painting, but access to net is ugly right now.

Dragon Eggs

These magnificent little gems have been popping up in all my nail polish groups these last few days. Dragon Eggs! I adore them! The tutorial I have been following is by Accio Lacquer.  The only real difference is she says she used about 200 thumbtacks, but my count is closer to 600, but I think that is mostly because I got a bigger egg by accident. That's right, you heard me, thumbtacks. The basic idea is you paint the heads of the thumbtacks with nail polish and push them into a Styrofoam egg. Very easy, but time consuming. And polish consuming I found out.

Materials:

• Styrofoam Egg
• Thumbtacks (The large the egg, the more tacks you will need)
• Nearly full bottles of polish and topcoat (for my example I used Sinful Colors "Enchanted" Wet n Wild "Buffy the Violet Slayer" and Fresh Paint "Candy Crush")
• Cardboard, corkboard, or foamboard. Something to hold the tacks while you paint them.

No way to get around it, this is the long boring part. Push your thumbtacks into something to hold them in place. First time I did this I used a pizza box. This time I just using a couple sheets of cardboard. Don't push them all the way down or you might get em stuck to the cardboard when you paint. Try to leave some space around each one so they don't get stuck to each other either.

300 tacks....

And 600 tacks. Long and boring, but it helps so much when you paint em.

I started off with Sinful Colors "Enchanted" a deep almost eggplant purple. One coat of that followed by the slightly shimmery color Wet n Wild "Buffy the Violet Slayer". By the time you finish painting the last tack, the first is dry and ready for next coat. I topped it all off with a coat of Fresh Paint "Candy Crush" and lovely flakie. You can topcoat as well, for the green egg I did, but I ran out so purple egg isn't topcoated yet. I think I'll get some spray sealant for it.  For an egg this size you will almost used a full bottle of polish each coat. Like 2/3 of a bottle. That's why I suggest you start with nearly full bottles and cheap ones. First egg I did, my green one, I had no idea just how much polish this eats and used my beloved China Glaze "Running in Circles". It's not empty yet, but it was a wrench to part with that much of it.

This part goes much faster than the stages before it. Time to stick em on the egg! Now the eggs has a narrow and a fat end. You want the fat end to start with.

In the center of the fat end push your first tack in. Doesn't have to be exact, just eye ball it.

Your gonna want to spiral out from that tack. Each tack you put in needs to overlap the last tack you put in. It also helps if it overlaps the row below it too. These aren't glued in (tho you can if you want to) and the tack you put in holds all the tacks before it in place. That sounds confusing. I made a short video of what I mean but blogger is being a pain and not loading it right. I'll keep working on that.

Just keep going spiraling outward and upward.

Get the idea?

Keep going!

And your done! My camera has a tough time with blue-leaning purples, but it is way more purple in real life. I love how the flakie adds just a subtle magic to it.

And my first egg, Sally Hansen "Emerald City and China Glaze "Running in Circles". And I used gold thumbtacks instead of the silver I used in my purple one. Now time to make some sort of padded chest to store them in. I'll be experimenting with smaller eggs later this week. I still want to make a red holographic one and a white pearly one.

Neon Rainbow Graident

Summer time to me means neon polish! No idea but this time each year I start itching to bust out the eye watering shades. I wanted to do a vertical gradient rainbow across my nails but everything kept going wrong with this mani. The white undercoat China Glaze "Snow"got patchy bald spots no matter how careful I was in application. The gradient refused to be smooth and everytime i tried to fix it it just kept pulling polish off my nail making the bald spots glaringly obvious. Despite the fact that it didn't turn out as planned, it was still fun to do. Let's see if I can remember what polishes I used...

From Pink to Purple:
Sinful Colors "Pink"
Warpaint Beauty "Acid Orange"
China Glaze "Celtic Sun"
Warpaint Beauty "Slime"
Sinful Colors "Endless Blue"
And the purple I simply don't remember what it was. I don't have my polishes with me right now but I'll try and look that up for you guys later.

Since the gradient just didn't turn out as I imagined I coated the whole thing with China Glaze "Fairy Dust" to try and hide the flaws. I should have used China Glaze "Icecap", it's much better at hiding flaws than "Fairy Dust" is. I wore this for a few days then tried to stamp over it, but it didn't turn out and I just removed it altogether.

Mickey Mouse Party!

We had a Mickey Mouse party at the store I work at this weekend. We wore disney shirts and mouse ears and of course I had to do my nails to match my shirt. I forgot to take a picture of it, but it has the work "Mickey" in rainbow glitter. I also just got a new striping brush so I decided to give it a bit of a work out. The rainbow is (from red to purple) Essie "5th Avenue", Sally Hansen "Lighting", "In Record Lime", "Blue Me Away", and China Glaze ... I forgot the name. Something Lilac. Hang on, I'll see if I can look it up. Ugh, I don't remember and I'm not at home right now. I'll update this when I get home and can look at my bottles.

Anyway I topped it off with China Glaze "Icecap" to match the glitter on the shirt. The ring and thumb got "5th Avenue" dotted with China Glaze "Snow" to mimic Minnie's dress. Then because it still looked a bit plain, I added dotted Mickey heads in Cosmetic Arts "TGIF". I'm really kinda digging the way this turned out. I think I might have a picture I sent to a friend on my cell phone of the shirt an ears I was wearing. I'll see if I can find it...

 (to be updated in a couple hours...)

4th of July 2014 Skittle

I don't know why I was so excited for 4th of July this year. Usually I just try to catch glimpses of the fireworks going off thru the trees outside my window without ever leaving my own room. This year was different for some reason. My city stopped putting on fireworks displays a few years ago because of cost but for some reason did it this year. Only this time they charged you to get into the park to watch it. Guess they have to pay for the displays somehow. So I spent the night on a bridge just outside the park and still got a great view of the fireworks. Sorry, I'm broke.

I was excited to do 4th nails and decided to do skittles. Well, not actually decided. The fact is I COULDN'T decide what technique I wanted to do...so I did them all. I had a vague idea that maybe I would pick the nail that turned out best and redo the rest to match. That didn't happen so skittles it was! I used the same 3 polishes on all the nails, just the technique changed. Essie "5th Avenue", China Glaze "Snow", and Sinful Colors "Endless Blue".

I'll go the the nails one at a time tho.

Left hand

Thumb: Over "Endless Blue" I simply used Salon Perfect "Speck-tacular"

Index: Messy Mansion stamping plate MM15 and little rhinestones I got at a dollar store.

Middle: Blue and White striping tape I got at WalMart by Salon Perfect

Ring: Watermarble. I really should have painted the nail white first to make the color stronger and hide the bald spots but I was excited and didn't think it thru too well.

Pinkie: Small nail decal by Salon Perfect

Right Hand

Thumb: Salon Perfect "Starred and Striped" and "Grand Finale" over "Endless Blue"

Index: Another Salon Perfect Decal

Middle: Another Watermarble. This time with a white under coat

Ring: I loved the Index on my left hand so much I wanted to do it again on my right. 

Pinkie: This was the first time I had ever used loose glitter before. This is "Endless Blue" that I topcoated with a slow drying topcoat and then brushed some loose glitter over the bottom half of the nail. I added a star rhinestone that I got from a dollar store years ago and topcoated the whole thing.

I wore this polish for longer than I usually do and something odd started to happen. The topcoat started to eat the color off of the metallic striping tape. This is after the first topcoat and you can see between the white stripes that its turning silver. I re-topcoated it again a few days later to keep the edges of the tape from lifting up and the blue almost completely turned a silver brownish color. Very odd and something I need to keep in mind when I use this tape again.

Birthday Mani

My birthday mani for this year. I didn't have much time to do it this year so it was just a quick plastic wrap on index, middle, and pinkie. I did a graidient on ring and thumb of the same colors (China Glaze "Snow" and "Escaping Reality" and Cosmetic Arts "TGIF") with a Bundle Monster stamp BM307 in Pure Ice "Silver Mercedes"

SIMPLES Week 5 Updated

There is a reason you shouldn't work ahead of the class. There were very specific rules we needed to follow for week 5, but since I worked ahead I didn't know them. So here is the week 5 mani I did that followed the rules properly. China Glaze "Snow" with "Celtic Sun (Neon)" over it and dotted with LA Girls black dotting polish. It looks greenish in the picture but its actually a neon yellow.

China Glaze Water Marbling Kit.

I wasn't planning on doing another water marble post so soon after that last one, but at Sally's Beauty Supply yesterday I came across marbling kits that I was very excited to try! China Glaze polishes are 5.99 with a Sally's card and the kit is 13.99. In the kit is 4 polishes, a plastic cup and a small orange stick. So it was way cheaper to purchase the kit than to get the polishes individually. Twirlin' and Swirlin' (pictured above) comes with the polishes "That's Shore Bright" "Pink Plumeria" "Snow" and "Too Yacht To Handle". There is a second set that I didn't purchase called Spin Me Round. I already owned "Celtic Sun" and just got "Snow" in the other kit, so I just bought the 2 other colors "Turned up Turquoise" and "I'm With The Lifeguard" to finish that set. Nouveau Cheap just did a post on both kits as well.

First up the cup that comes with the set is considerably smaller than the cup I'm used to using. Now I thought right away that it was useless and I'd never end up using it, but it is actually pretty nice. I'd never used something so small, and with smaller cups you can get more intricate designs.

Like all marbles, first up you paint your nails white and tape up the finger. Add the polishes to the water, swirl em around, and dip in your finger. For better directions check out my water marbling post here.

See? With the smaller cup you can get more design to show up on the nail easier. Cleaning the surface of the water was easier as well.

And here is the finished product. I only did on finger to test it. After this success I decided to do a whole hand using the polishes that come in the other kit Spin Me Round. "Turned Up Turquoise" gave me fits, but otherwise all the polishes work very well for marbling. I am impressed!

My First Foils

I have always admired nail foils. So shiny! And a fascinating effect that glitter and holos just can't quite copy. I did get some by Fingr's Heart 2 Art collection, but it didn't come with glue. Fingr's directions was to paint your nails and just before it was completely dry to put the foil on then. That seemed incredibly stupid so I just hung onto the foils until I got some glue. I figured it was just a matter of time before I did. A couple weeks ago I proved myself right when I found It's So Easy Foil 'Em Kit. 3 rolls of foil and a small bottle of glue!

My camera didn't want to pick up the patterns in the foil at all. The rolls in the box are, from the left, silver with holo lines running thru it, aqua blue with holo dots, and violet with holo dots.

The directions are more what I expect from a foil kit. Paint your nails with the glue. As it dries it turns from milky lavender to clear. The interesting thing with foil glue is it dries sticky.

Here you see the light purple color of the glue on my thumb. The ring finger is almost dried so you can see how much clearer it is.

I tried to keep the foil on the roll but it was unwieldy so I cut a small square off of it. Press the boring color side of the foil to the clear, dry glued nails. Rub it onto the nail and keep it as flat as you can to avoid wrinkles. Then gently lift it off the nail. You will see the colorful part of the foil stick to your nail leaving clear plastic in your hands. You can see on my ring finger that some glue got on the skin and the foil transferred to it too.

 I've always been told not to topcoat foils. Curious I just had to give it a shot. The topcoat I used (Pure Ice "Girl On The Run") looked like it ate the shiny holo bits and made it look over all kinda foggy. I took a pic then redid the nail. So don't topcoat your foils!

China Glaze "Coconut Kiss"

 You can always go back and fix any bald spots on your nails. I still need practice, but for my first time foiling I am super proud of it!

Happy Pi Day!

Ah, Pi Day again. This year I'm happier with the results. I do seem to be craving spring it seems, the colors I chose look a bit Easter-ish to me. For those that don't know, the mathematical constant Pi is the circumference (the distance around) a circle divided by its diameter (a line that cuts thru the middle of a circle). It doesn't matter how big the circle is, the Circumference divided by the diameter will always equal 3.14159....(it's a very long number. No one has found the end of it yet). This number is also called Pi, named after a Greek letter.  There are a few numbers in math that do this, but not all of them share a name with a tasty dessert. Mmmm...Pie....

First the basecolors: Here we have on the index Sally Hansen "Grape Race", the middle has China Glaze "Seahorsin' Around", the ring finger has China Glaze "Running in Circles", the pinkie China Glaze "Wish on a Starfish" and the thumb Sally Hansen "Lighting".

Second the stamping: The black is Wet n Wild "Black Creme" and the freehanded Pi symbol is Sinful Colors "Gold Medal". Since the blue, green and pink were glittery I added a coat of China Glaze "Icecap" to the purple and yellow to match. The numbers on index, middle, and pinkie are BundleMonster BM311, the thumb is BM408, and the ring is isolated parts of BM425. The 2 stamps on BM425 actually read I <3 YOU and CUTIE PIE, but I just used the I <3 and PI. That was trickier to do that I thought it would be.

And yes, I am a big enough nerd that I scheduled this post for 3/14 at 1:59am. *giggle*

Celtic Knotwork

I thought I was super clever when I came up with my Book of Kells mani. I guess I was too clever. People asked about my nails and when I proudly proclaimed that they were inspired by the Book of Kells, I got blank stares and "Book of what?". Apparently no one knows what an illuminated manuscript even is. *sigh* Luckily my first order of Messy Mansion plates came in yesterday so I can go back to playing with classic green manicures. This is 2 coats of China Glaze "Running in Circles" my fav chunky green shimmer ever. Then stamped in Wet n Wild "Black Creme" using Messy Mansion MM04. I'll be writing a proper review on Messy Mansion later, but short story? I am so impressed! I Love Them!

Green Gradient with Claddagh

This gradient I both liked and didn't like. The transition between all the colors is amazing, but the colors themselves look gritty and spotty. I liked the over all color tho. This is a 4 color gradient. The darkest is China Glaze "Holly-Day" then "Starboard", Sinful Colors "Pistache" and finally Cosmetic Arts "Picture Day". "Picture Day" is a stark white, but as I was sponging on the colors I kept going up and down the nail to mix the colors well. I like it, but again I'm not sure why it came out gritty looking. I couldn't decide what to stamp over it. I was gonna go with some clover from a MoYou plate. However when my new set of BundleMonster plates showed up yesterday morning I just HAD to stamp the Claddagh image! I suddenly like the mani a lot more! Stamped in Maybelline "Bold Gold" using BundleMonster BM418.

I love green, but I'm starting to burn out with it. 6 Green manis in a row (some didn't turn out all that well so I probably won't post them). I'm starting to crave other colors. I'm sure it's possible to do a St. Patrick's Day mani with other colors... I just gotta figure out how.

Audrey's Lace

I had some fun with new stamps and new polishes! This is China Glaze "For Audrey", a very popular color of theirs, but the first time I've gotten a bottle of it. I got a tiny bottle because I wasn't sure I would care for it, but I am thrilled! I'm gonna have to get a full size soon. I put an under color of white (Wet n Wild "French White Creme") so the teal would show up better, but I'm not sure I had to. The I stamped using Fing'rs Heart 2 Art stamping plate kit. They don't number their plates, but so far there are only 2 out there and they come in the same kit. Then on advice from some girls in my nail polish group I picked up "Picture Day" by Cosmetic Arts. It is now my very fav stamping white, beating out Claire's unnamed white and Milani "White On The Spot" and cheaper than all of them at 1.98 a bottle.

Rainbow Gradient

Mom has the winter blahs and wanted something bright and cheerful. So what's more cheerful than rainbows? She also loves gradients. I wasn't sure I could get that many colors in a gradient but was willing to give it a try. I'll run through the polishes real quick: I started with an under coat of Sally Hansen "White On" to make the other colors brighter. Then I used Essie "Fifth Avenue", Sinful Colors "Clementine", Sally Hansen "Lighting", China Glaze "Tree Hugger", Sally Hansen "Blew Me Away", and Sally Hansen "Grape Race". I painted these in thin stripes on a cosmetic wedge sponge and dabbed them on to the nails. I did 2 coats of the gradient. Then to smooth the transitions I painted over the gradient with China Glaze "Ice Cap" a light sheen of chunky gold shimmer. I like the effect it has to soften the color shifts. That and glitter makes everything better :D I would liked to have done a bit more clean up, but she had to get to work, so I cut clean up short.

Diagonal Gradient MPP

My nail art group does a Monthly Palette Project each month. I thought for sure I had written about this before, but I can't find the post, so I'm gonna write about it again. Possibly for the first time. Anyway, they post a picture with some color options and we use the picture as inspiration for a mani. Here is the photo they used this month:

Unfortunately I don't have many of these colors so I had to come as close as I could. I used the 3 colors on the right. This month we also had to include a gradient in the mani somewhere. I thought I would test myself a bit further and try and put the gradient on a diagonal. It wasn't that much harder, I just had to focus on where I was holding the sponge so my lines would lay in the same spot for each coat I added. I painted my nails with Sinful Color "Unicorn", then I sponged on "Unicorn", China Glaze "Tree Hugger" and Salon Perfect "Scarlet Enchantment". I wish "Enchantment" was closer to the turkey red in the inspiration picture, but I think it turned out ok. I added just a little stamping to dress it up a little. BundleMonster BM314 in Wet n Wild "Black Creme". I like these mini challenges. It stretches the creative muscles.