Tricolor Braid

Hello all!  I hope you are all doing well :)

It's not the catchiest title, but it captures the essence of what I painted on my nails.

I got my flu shot today, so my left arm is going to be sore tomorrow ;_; however, my left arm is the arm I use the least in my lab work so I think I'll be good to go tomorrow.

But also the meteorologist predicts blizzard-like conditions so it's possible that I get a snow day tomorrow.  A snow day!  I haven't had one of those in like 8 years now.

Regardless of my sore arm and the cold weather, here are my nails:

For this manicure:

• Base Coat - Bonder by ORLY
• Thumb & Pinky - Julep by Julep
• Pointer & Middle - My Vampire is Buff by OPI as the base color; braid segments separated out using striping tape and filled in using a striping brush and Hocus Pocus by Formula X, Lainey by Julep, Mia by Julep
• Ring - Ellis by Julep
• Top Coat - Out the Door by inm

Approximate Completion Time: 2 hours

The color on my ring finger is my first holographic polish!  I'm finally joining the craze - slowly but surely.  Julep calls it a "liquid holographic" polish.  I'm not sure if liquid is really the right word for this color, but it is very addicting to look at in real life.  If I didn't have to wear gloves at work I'm pretty sure I would be focusing all my time and attention on this one polish, rather than on the blood samples that need to be tested for antibodies linked to diabetes...

I actually painted my nails over the course of 2 days.  The first day, I just put down all the base color on my nails and after my nails dried, I went to bed.  Then the second day, I finished the design with the braid pattern.  I would have done this all in one day but for some reason I thought that splitting the design creation would be easier.  I was right.

Look at those crisp, clean lines.

With this colder weather, I wonder how my cuticles and skin will change.  I haven't steadily lived in Colorado for over 4 years now, so I have no idea how my skin is going to deal with the transition from fall to dead winter.  Goodness.

I hope you are all warmer than I am.  That's all I have to say for now, and I hope you all have a wonderful day!

Talk to you soon :)

Time to Get Spoopy!

I'm actually not that into Halloween nail art.  Lately, I've been seeing a lot of artists on Instagram recreate looks that are very scary and spooky.

Why do y'all taunt the dead now ._.

So here are my nails that I wore to show that I have some Halloween spirit in me.  Like the innocent Halloween spirit.  Like the Halloween spirit of the older sister who dresses up as Queen Elsa and forces the younger sister to be Princess Anna even though the younger sister probably wants to be Queen Elsa but she's just gotta let it go.  That type of innocent Halloween spirit.

For this manicure:

• Base Coat - Bonder by ORLY
• Base Color - Surreal by Formula X
• Middle & Pointer - applied a coat of Out the Door by inm to help speed up drying time, then stamped Bunny by Julep over Honeycomb Stencils by vinyl boutique
• Top Coat - Blast Off by Formula X, then Matte Me Crazy by NYC

Approximate Completion Time: 2 hours

As you can see, I'm experimenting with different poses.  It seems like I'm not satisfied with my work lately, so hopefully I can find solace with my photos now.

Here is a close up shot of the stencil pattern on my nail, just in case you wanted to see how amazing and intricate and clean nail vinyls can be!

BOOM.  HONEYCOMBS.  FOR THE BEES.  THEY MAKE THE HONEY.

Also, I've been featured several times in Natalia Tera's blog.  Her blog is a form of nail art, but not what you would expect.  Rather than painting her own nails and showcasing such, she requests nail artists to send in photos of their bare nails and their bare nails + base/top coat.  It's an art form all of its own.  Here is a link to her blog:

http://nataliateranails.blogspot.com/

Please go check out her blog!  And extra kudos to you if you find my nails :)

And lastly, it seems there is enough interest for me to start an actual Facebook page for my blog (shocking, I know...), and I will get on it.  Just not right now.  My personal life is a little bit crazy at the moment, but right now my plan is to have the page up and running by January 1, 2016!!  So please stay tuned for more :)

That's all for now!  I hope you all have a wonderful day :D