sunset nails

Gradient and stamping on one nail, oh my.

My left hand has been lazy recently (aka when I try and do detailed things, it goes wonky) so I didn't want to try gradient and stamping on my right hand, so I used all the same polishes and did a gradient dot look.  Surprisingly the two hands actually work together.

I think the gradient was a lot more successful this time.  The orange and yellow actually flow together and are smooth. *follow the jump for some more photos*

grey & retro stripes

 

After organizing all of my polishes and making swatches, I 'found' so many polishes that I want to use.  I bought this OPI color a while ago and have been meaning to use it.  It is grey but with some subtle glitter-ness.
*micro photos after the jump*

organizing & micro lens

I am getting organized.  A while back I purchased a drawer unit from a large chain flat-pack box store.  I love it, all my nails stuff is in one of them.  I started arranging the polishes by color.  But I always felt like I was forgetting about some of the great polishes I have.  I am a dork and love playing with those fake-nail-polish-sample-wheels at nail supply stores.  Sort of like trying on clothes without the blow to the ego.  I saw something on another blog a while ago about using fake nails and Popsicle sticks to do this same sort of thing.

I am slowly working my way through my polishes to make this creepy looking things (above) but they are already so much fun.  It is so cheap and I feel like it will pay off more and more as my polish collection grows.  The sticks were $0.03 each, the glue gun was $2.99, glue gun sticks $2.99 for 10, and the fake nails were $6.99 for 200.

I just put a dollop of hot glue on the end of the stick, stuck on just the end of the fake nail, held it for a while, then let it cool.  The 'nail' hangs over enough that I can still place it over my nails to see how it will look with my skin tone and/or over another polish.

Another fun purchase this week was a micro/fish-eye lens for my iphone.  It just slips over the corner of the iphone when you want to use it.  The micro lens is so much fun.  I am going to have to get my cuticles in perfect condition before I start using the micro lens.  I don't think I will use the fish-eye lens with my nails, but both lenses will be fun in the kitchen.

modern family - back in my gloria days

I splurged on two new polishes.  I will admit 'Modern Family' is one of my favorite shows on tv.  Back when they first announced Nicole and 'Modern Family' were teaming up, I knew I wanted to get some of those polishes.  I have been hunting for them at all the stores that sell Nicole.  No one has them.  Until yesterday, I finally found three of the colors at Rite Aid.  I got two of them.  They were not two of my top picks from the collection, but they were there and I finally found them.

I ended up with a Gloria and a Mitch polish.  The above paint job has the 'Modern Family' polish on the pinky and middle finger (and thumb but it didn't make it into the photos).  It's an odd purple.  It has a gold-ish, pink-ish base but still works with a silver blue type polish.

To add a bit of zing to this paint job I added a homemade jelly top coat to my pointer finger and went with a matte fuchsia on the ring finger.  I like the over all result.

Nicole - Back in My Gloria Days
Sinful Colors - Dream On
Nails Inc - Westminster Bridge (matte top coat)

Have you been able to find any of the Nicole 'Modern Family' collection polishes?  Did you get any?  Where did you find them?

gel update

Gel mani update - I am beyond impressed.  They were done 11 days ago and they look just like new.  Well, almost.  The only sign that they were not done today is the gap between the cuticle and the polish.  It is really noticeable because I went with such rich blue.  It is less noticeable on the ring finger.

There has not been a chip, crack or mark.  I am not nice to my nails and was especially not kind to this paint job.  I was up in the mountains for a week.  That including stacking a cord of fireplace wood, shoveling snow, knitting, general wear&tear, etc.  Plus, it was COLD (-4 degrees f) and the cold weather and hot showers are not kind to paint jobs.

On my way back down the mountain I stopped at my nail supply wholesale place.  I was looking into a UV/LED light.  The sales guy was really nice and told me to wait a little while because the technology/chemistry will be advancing more in the next couple of months.  Do you have a light box (not they type for taking photos) for drying your paint jobs at home? Do you understand the difference between the gel UV polishes and the gel LED polishes?

gelish

Continuing the 'something new' theme for this month, I tried another new polish.  Not just a new polish but a whole new style paint job.  Well, to be more specific, I basically sat there while someone that is actually skilled in gel polish painted my nails.

january polished days challenge - something new

'Something New' is this months Polish Days challenge theme.  Something New here means a paint job that you have seen before that you have been wanting to try.  I am that dork that bookmarks different paint jobs that I eventually want to try so this was a great theme to help me try something new.  I wanted to try a water marble paint job, or maybe a real feather paint job.  The bookmarked ideas quickly add up, faster than I can paint my nails.
**update 1/9 - this paint job is awful, it lasted 12 hours on my nails until I picked it off.  Don't worry, I won't be posting feathers and/or ombre again until it actually looks semi decent.  If it is this bad, why did I post it?  Because I feel honesty is important in the nail/nail art community.  If you have any tips/tricks for these styles, please please please leave them in the comments.  If you think I failed miserably, please let me know (it's okay because I already know I did).  I will be using the 'something new' theme this entire month, so there will be better 'something new' paint jobs coming.**

Yes, it is a totally crazy paint job.  Studs, feathers, fade/ombre, and stamping.  All on one hand.

What is the 'something new'?  Two things actually...

magnetic plum

This months Polish Days challenge is coming on Tuesday.  Since I will be traveling on Tuesday I had to do this paint job a bit early (thank you delayed posting).  This paint job is a is 'something new' (the theme) for me since don't have experience with this type of polish.

 Can you tell what type of polish I used?

Magnetic polish.  I guess I kind of gave it away with the post title.  This time I went for a magnetic polish which I liked as just a polish and if the magnetic magic worked, it would be a bonus.  However, I decided to give myself a pedicure this afternoon and my nails, well, just the polish took a beating.  So I decided to do another paint job that was also 'something new' but more challenging than holding a magnet over my wet nails.

glitter tips

 My nails felt naked without polish on them for the past two days so they got an easy paint job this afternoon.  I was picking through my polishes to see if something inspired me.  It turns out these two polishes were next to each other (I have my blue/green and glitters in the same drawer).  I wanted something simple as well so I just winged it.  I like the look.