Suede Nails?

In light of Ciate doing the velvet manicure kits that are ridiculously expensive, I thought I would try the DIY version. I know this isn't new to nail artists, I have seen it. I just have never tried it. I went to Michaels yesterday to get some flocking and they were out. I went to Joann's and they don't carry it. I was so bummed! Then, I remembered that I might have a few bottles of it from my paper art days. I just didn't know where. So, I dug around in my stash and found them. Not bright pretty colors that I want to try, but two shades of brown and black. I thought I would give the lighter brown a try to see if I would even like doing it:

I definitely need to buy more colors! This was fun! It was so quick and easy too. I have no idea how it is going to wear, but it looks cool. I think it is going to be an awesome fall manicure cuz it just makes me feel warm and fuzzy ;)

I did a base of China Glaze Fast Track from the Hunger Games collection and then sprinkled on the flocking while it was still wet. I gently patted it down into the polish and let it sit for a few seconds. Then I used a fan brush to clean up the excess. It went so fast.

Tomorrow will be a test to see if it holds up. I don't see it lasting through a shower and handwashings all day, but many nail gurus say that it does. We'll see...

Thanks for stopping by!



Hit Polish Glitters

Hey everyone! Saturday, my order from Hit Polish came and I was so excited!

These looked so pretty and I couldn't wait to swatch them. Unfortunately, life gets in the way I had to wait.  I got home from work tonight and quickly got out my new glitters.

First, I want to say that I was very impressed with their fast shipping. I think I ordered from them on Wednesday and they came Saturday. When you live in the middle of nowhere like I do, that is lightening fast!! I got Patina - a gorgeous mix of greens, turqoise and copper with green microglitter in a clear base, Vintage Appeal - an awesome mix of retro colors in various shapes and sizes in a clear base, Punk'd Up Kicks - blue, pink and holo lime green glitters with blue microglitter in a clear base and finally Funfetti - every color, shape and size glitter in a clear base. These are absolutely beautiful! I bought the mini bottles because I wasn't sure how I would like them. Now, I wish I would have gotten the full size!

I painted all of my nails but my ring finger with Sinful Colors Black on Black. My ring finger got a coat of Finger Paints Avante Garde Green because I thought the Patina glitter would be pretty over a dark green. My index finger has Vintage Appeal, middle finger is Funfetti, ring finger is Patina and my pinkie is Punk'd Up Kicks. Each one is two coats. It looked awesome with just one, but I wanted to see what two would look like. Even yummier!!



This is a horrible picture :(

This one isn't much better. I really need picture advice. I thought I was getting better, but obviously I am not. I hope you can see the difference between these 4 pretty glitters!

Thanks for stopping by.

Simple Stamping

Nothing really exciting to share today. We have been putting new siding on our house and I haven't gotten nearly enough nail time. lol I just did a quick manicure for the weekend and thought I would share it with you before I change it. Please excuse the nail wear. I have been sporting this all weekend and doing manual labor. It isn't fresh...

I painted my nails with Wet 'n Wild Megalast Club Havana. This is a gorgeous orangey coral. It just makes me happy when I wear it. Then I stamped over using my favorite, go-to, always stamps great Konad m64 plate using Konad special polish in white. I swear that every image on this plate stamps perfect everytime. It is the one I reach for when I am in a hurry to get a fun manicure without a lot of work.

That's it for today. Thanks for stopping by!



Jelly Sandwich Success? I think so!

I was blog hopping the other day and discovered KBShimmer nail polish on someone's blog. I saw the Band Geek glitter and was so excited! My 16 year old daughter is a marching band geek and I knew she would love this polish! I loved it too, so it was a must buy! It is gorgeous gold, copper and silver glitters in a black jelly base. Two coats and it looks beautiful! Now, I can't ever just buy one polish...that won't justify paying shipping! lol So, I bought my 13 year old daughter Clown Puke. This is an AWESOME glitter!! Colorful, assorted shapes of glitter in a clear base. I just KNEW it would help me be successful in doing a Jelly Sandwich manicure...and I was right! At least I think it looks pretty fantastic:

I used one coat of Wet n Wild Megalast 205B Sugar Coat (can I just say that I LOVE the brush on these polishes?!?!), one coat of KBShimmer Clown Puke and then one more coat of Sugar Coat. I just love this look! I would NEVER wear Clown Puke as a top layer because it is so bright and young and I am so not young anymore. But, in a Jelly Sandwich, it is perfect! My husband said it reminds him of Robin Egg malted milk balls and I have to agree. lol

Well, almost perfect...after a day of wearing this manicure, I decided to add Northern Lights holographic top coat to it to add a little 'kick':

It is hard to see in pictures, but the Northern Lights added just enough sparkle and dimension to make me very happy!! I now am on a mission to find more awesome glitters and nail colors to do Jelly Sandwiches. I think I am addicted!

And also, take a minute to stop by KBShimmer and check out their gorgeous polishes! They are so worth buying and they ship FAST!

Thanks for stopping by!

Liebster Award!

The sweet and talented Painted Pony has given me the Liebster Award! Thank you!

The Liebster Award is passed along to up and coming blogs with less than 200 followers to help them promote themselves and congratulate them on coming this far!
Here's how it works:
1) The recipient must post 11 fun facts about themselves
2) The recipient must also answer 11 questions created by the award giver
3) The recipient must give the award to 11 new bloggers with less than 200 followers and post 11 questions for them to answer
4) These 11 bloggers must be told they have been given the award
5) They will in turn pass the award on to 11 new bloggers of their choice (no tagging back the award giver)

Eleven fun facts about me:

1) I am a reality show junkie...I am ashamed to admit how much I love all the Real Housewives, Teen Mom and all the other ridiculous shows on tv. I think it is because my life is so very boring! lol

2) When I was little, I was a huge nail biter. I bit my nails until they bled. Then as a teen, I went the other direction and would grow my nails ridiculously long. Now, I have a hard time keeping them an acceptable length....they get way too long before I cut them back a bit. If my nails are too short, I will start biting them again.

3) I have a shopping problem. I find a passion and can't stop buying. Great for my nail polish collection, bad on my checking account!

4) I have a husband and two teenage daughters...nailpolish is my escape!

5) I am a night owl. I love staying up late...until I have to get up at 5 am to get ready for work!

6) I wayyyyy overuse (...) in case you haven't figured that out yet!

7) I am scared to death of spiders, mice and bats. Like a frozen from panic kind of fear.

8) I have a tattoo of a lizard on my ankle that I got on a whim and now wish I wouldn't have gotten it.

9) I live in a very rural town in the middle of nowhere and wouldn't change it for anything in the world. I actually have lived on the same property for my entire life. Moved from my mom's house to a house next door that she rented to me and my husband and then back to this house when she passed away. So, I have lived in the same spot for 38 years!

10) I am very shy to the point that some people think I am snobby when they first meet me...but once I know you I am the life of the party!

11) I had a VERY hard time writing these facts because I don't like to talk about myself at all.

Now for the questions:

1) When and why did you start blogging? I just started blogging a few weeks ago. I have a paper arts blog that I wrote for many years and was popular in that community, but I haven't done any of that type of art in over a year. I decided that I wanted to have a place to share my passion for nail art. I realized that the nail art community was a big as the paper art one and jumped in!
2) How many bottles of polish do you own? I haven't counted recently and I did just go through my collection and give away a lot of the cheaper polishes that I will never wear. I have a rack that holds 140 polishes and I have to come up with a new solution because there are a TON that don't fit on that. I would guess over 200.
3) What color do you have the most of in your collection? I don't know that I have any more of one color than another.
4) What is your first memory of nail polish? I remember always wanting my nails painted and asking my older cousin to do them for me. She would spend the whole time yelling at me for biting my nails down so far! lol
5) What do your friends/family think of your hobby? My younger daughter loves it because she does her nails as much as I do. My older daughter thinks I am insane. My husband is just tired of me buying more! My friends and coworkers love it. They come to me for advice or recommendations and they always want to see what I have on my nails.
6) What are your hobbies other than blogging? I used to do alot of paper art. I have been an artist my whole life. I also love to read and spend time with my family.
7) What's your favorite nail polish color? Hmmmm...I don't know if I have a favorite. I have ones that I love, but one favorite would be hard to choose.
8) What would be your dream polish? A one coat, perfect application, dries instantly one. I would take one in every color, finish, etc. lol
9) What is something you love, but everyone else hates? Not sure what this means. Everyone I know or everyone in general? Either way, I can't think of anything that I love that others hate.
10) What trends do you love? stamping and magnetic polish
11) What trends do you hate? outlined nails & stiletto nails

As for the 11 bloggers I want to nominate, there is a problem. I am so new to this community and the only way I am finding blogs is by checking out the ones that have been given the Liebster Award or ones that have too many followers to qualify. I would love to give it to fellow bloggers, but I just don't know any that haven't already received it. So, I am going to ask for you all to help me out. If you know someone with less than 200 followers that hasn't already gotten this award, please tell me and I will visit them and share the love.

Thanks again to The Painted Pony for giving me this award!!

Adventures in Jelly Sandwiches

Okay, I am so new to the nail blogging world. I have been addicted to YouTube videos on nail everything, but didn't know there were so many amazing blogs out there to help feed my obsession!

After reading MANY blogs, I learned about jelly sandwich manicures. I had no clue about these before last week...I know...they are old news to most of you probably! But, bear with me as I share my mini adventure!

I discovered one very important thing tonight as I attempted two different jelly sandwich manicures...I don't have appropriate glitter polishes for this! I did order a couple of indy ones this past weekend that are flying my way as I type and they may work better than what I had.

My first attempt used Finger Paints Pop Rock Pink (which is way more coral than pink) as the base, Finger Paints Gourd or Bad? glitter & LA Colors hex silver glitter. Finally a layer of the Pop Rock Pink  over the top of it all:

I really don't like this manicure at all. I seems too thick and messy for me. I guess I just don't have the proper polishes for this technique.

Here is my other attempt on a nail wheel:

This one isn't THAT bad, but the heart shaped glitter I used totally disappeared! lol I used Nicole by OPI Respect the World as the base and then used Nicole by OPI Honeydew you Love me? and LA Colors hex silver glitter with another coat of the blue over it all. It is a little better, but like I said, no blue hearts are visible anymore.

Now, before anyone says anything, I know my photos are HORRIBLE! I wish I knew how all of you bloggers got such amazing pictures of your nail art!! When I did my paper art blog, I was a pro at photos, but this is a whole new ballgame. Any tips are greatly appreciated!!

Thanks so much for stopping by!



Neon Swirls

So, my daughter and I went to Michaels the other day and she bought some neon acrylic paint in pink, yellow, green and orange. I immediately started thinking about a possible manicure using them. Please excuse my very stained cuticles. If someone has a tip to get black Konad polish off after stamping, I would love to know. This stuff is so MESSY and difficult to remove from skin and cuticles!

I base coated my nails with one coat of China Glaze white. Then I used a tiny paintbrush to paint a pink swirl in the center of each nail. Then, I added the yellow, green and orange around it to create a swirl pattern, almost a tie dye effect. When it was dry, I painted a coat of Northern Lights silver holographic over it. This helped blend the colors a bit more and give me a good base for stamping. Finally, I stamped over each nail using BM 203 and Konad Special Polish in black. It is hard to see the subtle shimmer of the Northern Lights, but it is sooooooooo pretty in person! I love this stuff when I just want a little 'kick' to my polish.

Thanks for stopping by!

August Julep Maven

My Julep Maven box arrived at work today. I don't always get these. I actually only get one every few months. If they have something intriguing or different, I will let my order ship. This month, I liked the metallics in the Amerian Beauty box, so I didn't opt out. I am so glad I let this one come to me!

It is the birthday celebration box, so it came in a cute little reusable bag:

Isn't it cute?!?! I sure thought so! I wasn't disappointed with the contents either:

There is a little bottle of non acetone remover with the pump dispenser lid. I have one for my normal polish remover, but this will be nice to use for non acetone remover! I will probably just keep refilling it with my normal brand unless I find this to be special in some way. The polishes I got are Dakota (a gorgeous rose gold color) and Stefani (a beautiful gunmetal gray with a small amount of microglitter in it).

It was hard to get a picture that did these colors justice! I didn't do it on my own nails since I just did a new manicure last night, so I swatched them on a nail wheel. This is one coat. They have great coverage. The rose gold one is more pink and the silver has more fine glitter in person.

Overall, I am pretty happy with this month's box. The bonus??? There is a TON of holographic hex glitter in the box and bag. I am so frugal, I am going to salvage as much as I can for a future manicure! lol

Thanks for stopping by!



Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain

I think I am in love! I am a die hard Tarte Lip Surgence lover, but at $24 each, I only have a few. I just love the way that they moisturize my lips and they last a long time. The other day while browsing the makeup, I noticed the Revlon Just Bitten line. I know they have been out for a few months, but I haven't ever tried them. I have tried their other lip stains and they dried out  my lips so bad! I was reluctant to try these, but at around $8, I thought I would give them a try. They come in 12 shades and they are a matte lip stain. That made me think they would probably be drying, but they are so not! They moisturize my lips just as much as the Lip Surgence do! They also last for hours. I notice my lips are still tinted after my lunch hour, so I am very impressed! I only have Romantic (a deep warm red color) and I love the fact that I can put on a little and get a nice reddish tint or I can layer it and get a much deeper color. I will add a swatch to this post when I get home, but I just had to share how much I love these lip stains and will definitely be buying more. I especially love the fact that I can buy 3 for the price of one Lip Surgence! I will still cherish my Tartes, but I found something that is very comparable for a fraction of the price! That makes me very happy!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Braided Nail Art

I am seeing this new braided nail art technique popping up on Youtube. I thought it looked like it might be fun to try. I, in no way, am claiming that I came up with this idea.  I am just sharing my results. All of the videos I have watched did a full manicure with the technique. I didn't, for two reasons: I don't have time during the week to do that kind of labor intensive technique and I think it is way too much for all of my nails. I chose to just do accent nails.

This is in the shade:

This is in sunlight:

Now, this was very easy to do, but HOLY COW is the polish thick when you are all done. I think I will wear this tomorrow, but I will probably take it off tomorrow night. That is, if it doesn't just peel off my nails on its own! It makes my nails look acrylic and since my nails are natural, I prefer them to look that way :) Thanks so much for stopping by!

Polish I used:

Jessie's Girl All Things Girly and Mermaid Lagoon

Sally Hansen Insta-Dry Silver Sweep

Sunday Nails

I always do a full manicure on Sunday mornings. This is the one day I make time to do my cuticles and nail treatments. The rest of the week, I change nail polish as I feel like it :) Never on a particualar day. Today, I decided to not do the normal brighter summer colors I would usually do this time of year and actually try my OPI Just Spotted The Lizard.

 I got it when it first came out, but to me it is more of a fall color, so I haven't used it yet. It is the only one of the Spiderman collection colors that interested me and I really wish it looked as good on my nails as it did in the bottle. Of course my pictures are awful, I really need to figure out how everyone else does such great pics of their manicures!! This polish is so sheer! I am thinking I may see what it does layered over another polish in the future.

I did three coats of base color. Then I stamped just the tips (this was my first time using a french manicure stamp...little tricky to get lined up right) with Konad black special polish and Red Angel plate 101. Finally I used Seche Vite for a top coat.

 This picture was done inside. You can 'kinda' see the coloring shifting from green to gold to blue. I can actually see it better here than I can in real life! lol

These next two pictures are done in natural sunlight. It was hard to get a good picture in bright light because that is when the superfine microglitter shows up.

All in all, I like this nail polish. Not a huge favorite of mine. I am hoping that the new China Glaze Bohemian collection colors are better than this one. I don't see myself reaching for this one alot.

Thanks for visiting and stop by again!

If you have any requests, suggestions or feedback, I would love to hear it!

**edit**
Okay, so after wearing this nail polish for a few hours, I have to edit this post. I have decided that this polish DOES have a cool effect that I wasn't seeing before. I guess I was hoping for the colors to all show when just looking at it, but I realized that when I move my hands I do see all of the colors that show in the bottle. I should have videotaped it, but will try to show you with these two pics:

This one is just when looking straight at the nails in natural light. There is no flash, they are just so shiny that they pick up the small amount of light coming through a window. They are goldish-green.

Now, when I tilt my hand forward, they totally turn teal blue. I kept my pinky up to show the difference, ignore that it is out of focus. lol

So, I am beginning to like this polish more after further examination.

Some of my past designs...

Here is some of my early nail art. The Christmas one is from this past year, but the others are from when I first started doing nail art. Pardon the horrible pictures. I promise that I will get better at that.

Green nails with black tips and polka dots:

4th of July:

China Glaze For Audrey and black water marble w/ CG Fairy Dust:

Watermelon nails with CG Fairy Dust:

CG Ruby Pumps as base color. Handpainted Santa & Rudolph. Snowflake glitters on other nails:

Again, I promise I will take better pictures in the future. These were just pics that I was taking to put on Facebook and Pinterest before I decided that I wanted to start blogging about nail art :)

WELCOME!

Welcome to my new blog. I am hoping to share lots of fun beauty tips with everyone. I love doing interesting things with my nails and I want to be able to share them with all of you. I will soon be adding a gallery of my past designs for inspiration. I also want to share reviews of various beauty products and the latest and greatest things that are hitting the market. So, again, welcome to my Nail File!