Bold Watermarble

Bold because I used bold colors, and bold because I'm being bold by showing you some of my work that is not as excellent as I wanted it to be.  But nail art isn't about perfection, and this blog isn't anywhere near perfect, so because of that it's a perfect fit (odd huh).

Watermarbling isn't hard, really, as long as you have the right polishes.  However, if you want to make it look perfect, then holy dang it is hard.  I was really tired when I painted my nails so when I got to my right hand I had more of a "let's just get color onto my nails" mentality rather than a "let's do this the right way" mentality.  But fortunately you won't be seeing any of my right hand.

For this manicure:

• Base Coat - Bonder by ORLY
• Thumb, Ring, & Pinky - Angela by Julep
• Pointer & Middle - I painted My Vampire is Buff by OPI as a base color (which you can't see); I watermarbled using Lainey, Dawn, Joanne, & Ilsa by Julep
• Top Coat - Out the Door by inm

Approximate Completion Time: 2 hours

Watermarble art dries out quickly due to the thin coats of polish that are transferred onto your nails, so you don't even need to wait that long before you can confidently add your top coat :)

And here is an up close shot of the middle finger (aka the only finger that worked out).  I'm sorry for the travesty that is my pointer finger but it is what it is.  I wish I felt more pain looking at how the marble on that nail turned out but I've become so numb to imperfections.

Mm yes hello.

Goodbye.

Black & White Lace

Now that Dancing with the Stars is over, I find I have a lot more time on Mondays.  It's odd.

But with my free time, I get to paint my nails (and blog about them, of course!), play with makeup, and play video games!  That's the life of the typical millenial, aka me.

For my nails now, I've had the idea in my head for about a week, but it was in bits and pieces and not a complete thought.  I'm so glad I got it all out on my nails though.

For this manicure:

• Base Coat - Bonder by ORLY
• Base Colors - unnamed magenta shimmer & unnamed pale fuchsia shimmer by Shades of the Season
• Stamping - used special white polish by Konad & noir black by b.m.c. using stamp plate BM-021 by Bundle Monster
• Top Coat - Out the Door by inm

Approximate Completion Time: 2 hours

The stamping was harder than I expected because the stamp image I chose had a large fill space for polish, and I wasn't used to how much polish I had to use and how precisely I had to pick up the image (or else it would smear).

But these are all good experiences to have!

It's getting closer to Christmas and New Year's...so my next few nails will be outrageously festive.  I realize these nails are a little bit too delicate for the storm that is the holidays that will soon be upon us.

This is all I have for now.  Stay warm out there friends, and I'll see you next time! :)

Blue French Tip

Hello all!  I know I haven't posted in a while, but I actually did paint my nails at least once before this post but I didn't have the time to blog about it because it was Thanksgiving and I was busy eating/shopping/being lazy...ah yes, the American dream.

Anyways, here are my nails for now :)

For this manicure:

• Base Coat - Bonder by ORLY
• Base Color - mademoiselle by essie
• Tip Colors - Jeanne by Julep & Tribeca Silver by NYC; blue part was freehanded, and silver part was painted on using a nail art striper brush
• Stamp - BM-020 stamp plate by Bundle Monster used with special white polish by Konad
• Top Coat - Out the Door by inm

Approximate Completion Time: 1.5 hours

French manicures are actually easier for me to paint on other than on myself.  When I paint my own nails, I often get caught up in the design and forget to take that step back so as to make sure my nails are even.  But when I paint on others I can easily step back and assess my progress.

I got to test out my new UberChic mat for nail art and large sticky stampers for this design.  The mat is amazing (so innovative yet so simple!) and the sticky stamper is too much fun.  I maybe spent a good 5 minutes just touching the stamping head and marveling at how sticky it was.  It's like touching jello.

I got home an hour early today so now I'm really confused as to what to do with my extra hour of free time...I honestly might just spend it playing Splatoon.

Well that's all I have to say for today.  Please stay safe, and I'll be back in about a week, plus or minus a few days.

Yeah :D

Ice & Snow

Hello all!  As I write this, I am being informed that there is quite a scary winter storm approaching.  By "scary", I really mean "blizzard-like conditions" and I'm actually honestly not sure whether going to work is gonna be worth it.

So my nails reflect the ice and snow that will soon be all over this freaking place.  Give me my fuzzy socks, my warm gloves, and hot chocolate pronto.

For this manicure:

• Base Coat - Bonder by ORLY
• Thumb, Ring, & Pinky - What a Broad by Sephora by OPI; ice imitated via silver foil purchased from rue21
• Ponter & Middle - Endless Blue by Sinful Colors; stamped with iced silver by b.m.c. using SH202 plate by Shany Cosmetics
• Top Coat - Out the Door by inm

Approximate Completion Time: 1.5 hours

What happened was as I was taking more pictures, my camera decided to run out of battery :o then I charged my camera, and I was charging said camera, my nails got scratched and chipped.

But still, even having 2 good pictures beats having no pictures to show.

It's cold enough to start wearing socks to sleep o.o hopefully the cold doesn't get to the best of me.

That's all for me for today.  I hope you all stay warm wherever you are!! :)

Pusheen the Cat Nails

Hello all!  Today I have Pusheen nails to show you :)

Pusheen the Cat is the cute, cartoon cat whose adventures and other silliness have been captured by Claire Belton.  Please visit http://www.pusheen.com/ on a daily basis as a way to bring a smile to your face daily! :)

But actually the reason why I painted Pusheen the Cat on my nails is because a friend of mine had requested them, and I was like "yeah why not".  This conversation happened back in the earlier parts of summer.  It's now November.  But let it be said that I am a keeper of my word, no matter how long it takes for my words and promises to be kept.

If you don't love Pusheen the Cat, you're wrong.  Fact.

For this manicure:

• Base Coat - Bonder by ORLY
• Thumb & Pinky - Erin by Julep; stamped with Special White Polish by Konad & iced silver by Bundle Monster using the stamping plate BM-019 BY Bundle Monster
• Pointer - Frankly, I Don't Give A-dam by Sephora by OPI; Pusheen the Cat face details done with a thin striping brush and Janae by Julep
• Middle & Ring - Mint Sorbet by Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear; nail decals made using Double Duty Base & Top Coat by Sally Hansen, Penelope & Janae by Julep, & I Gotta Blush on You & Frankly, I Don't Give A-dam by Sephora by OPI; nail decals stuck on using Out the Door by inm
• Top Coat - Out the Door by inm

Approximate Completion Time: 1.5 hours

I confess that I did quite a bit of photo editing for these pictures.  The reason is because I messed up and trapped a lot of air bubbles underneath the nail decals :( so I decided to smooth over those air bubbles the best I could while editing.

And somehow that triggered minor strains of trypophobia in me.  I'm normally not reactive to trypophobia but seeing holes in my nail polish made me feel a little bit uneasy.  Anyways, for those of you with that condition, I saved y'all from an attack.  And please don't Google image search trypophobia because good Lord you will not sleep well tonight.

I've also started using liquid latex barriers around my nails every time I paint them.  It really helps with the clean up (yay reduced clean up).  On the one hand, the nail art community can very easily go back to our old clean up routines, but on the other hand, acetone is a harsh cleaning agent so do we really want to expose our biological systems to that?  No.

I've read the MSD form for acetone too many times now.

That's all from me for now.  I hope you all have a wonderful week, and I'll be posting again soon!  But until then, stay safe, eat good food, play video games, etc.

You do you.

Triforce Heroes Nail Art

Hello all!  If you've been following Nintendo at all lately, you would know that they just released a new game for the Nintendo 3DS.  I played a demo of said game.  Triforce Heroes is so cute :) it has the art style of Link Between Worlds, and the online multiplayer co-op is truly a test of patience, skill, and achievement through limited communication.  If you have the 3DS, I would recommend you buy the game!

I too shall buy the game...after I finish Majora's Mask...uh...

But this isn't a post to review video games.  This is a post to show off the nail art that I made to celebrate the launch of the game! :D

For this manicure:

• Base Coat - Bonder by ORLY
• Base Color - Alexis by Julep
• Triforce Colors - good as gold by essie, Nadia by Julep, Ruby Ruby by Sinful Colors, Endless Blue by Sinful Colors, Happy Ending by Sinful Colors; decals made with Double Duty Base & Top Coat by Sally Hansen
• Top Coat - Out the Door by inm

Approximate Completion Time: 1.5 hours

I like how that picture makes the blue pop.  I was also really surprised that my camera was able to capture the purple.  Granted, I'm in direct sunlight, but cameras are notorious for losing the ability to can when it comes to the color purple.

I think I increased the saturation on my camera just by a little bit for this picture.  Maybe.  I forget.  But I'm really happy with this manicure :) for once, nail decals started to make sense to me and they didn't stick out so much in the photos, if even at all.  I used about 3 layers of top coat for the nails that had the decals, so I think the extra layers did the trick.

Hopefully I finish Majora's Mask soon so I can buy and play Triforce Heroes!  The reason why I haven't bought the game yet is because if I did, I know I would completely ignore Majora's Mask and only play Triforce Heroes, and it's a travesty because I'm so close to beating the game.

But why does Majora's Mask have to be so scary and stressful ;_;

Anyways, that's all for now.  I hope I'll be able to post another set of nails soon! :) But until then, I hope you have a wonderful day!

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

Alopecia Awareness Nails

Once upon a time, there was a younger me who was going through the typical angst that is puberty and I seriously was mad at God for making it so that I had alopecia.  I was like 100% sure He had a hand in it (maybe He does, maybe He doesn't).  I so wished that this condition was embodied within someone else and not in me.

But God works in interesting ways to bless His people.  I don't wake up thanking Him for my alopecia, but I do finally appreciate how it has shifted the way I perceive my own body image.  My church also prayed for me over the course of 5 years.  I remember that final doctor's visit where the doctor told me that I didn't need to continue using whatever solution I was using at that time, because my hair has grown back at an immensely faster rate than he had expected.

Throughout college, there were times when God seemed so far away, but I would have to remind myself that I was living proof of His miracle.  My hair is proof of His miracle.  Of course, college stress meant that I would have occasional flare ups and lose hair time and time again, but that hair always grew back.  My hair isn't dense and thick.  It's pretty thin, but yo I'm thankful.  However, I have like 1.2 eyebrows.

Of course, those antibodies still exist in my blood (as far as I'm concerned...haven't been tested since), which means I technically still have alopecia.  It would be cool if we could cure alopecia, but since it's an autoimmune disease, that would be quite the challenge.  How does one selectively target antibodies??  Granted, I wouldn't need such a cure because I feel pretty confident in my condition, but for those people out there who do have alopecia and do want a cure...that would be nice for them.

Anyways, September is Alopecia Awareness Month, with the awareness being the color blue for some reason.  So here is my contribution to the awareness:

For this manicure:

• Base Coat - Double Duty Strengthening Base & Top Coat by Sally Hansen
• Thumb, Ring, & Pinky - aruba blue by essie; glitter gradient made using a makeup sponge and Portia by Julep
• Pointer & Middle - Shelly by Julep; used Fishnet Stencil from Vinyl Boutique and stamped gradient over it using Jeanne by Julep, Endless Blue by Sinful Colors, & Char by Julep
• Top Coat - Out the Door by inm

Approximate Completion Time: 2 hours

Surprise, surprise - the top coat dries quickly, which makes the vinyls easier to use.  Nail vinyls are pretty legit.  I remember seeing them for the first time a few years ago and I was like "this is a cool concept but it's never gonna catch on".  I was wrong.  This is also how I felt about Vine, Snapchat, the Nintendo WiiU, etc.

Clearly I have been wrong on more than one occasion.  I can own up to that.