black & red

Nothing fancy, but very Queen of Hearts without the hearts.  The 'dots' are rhinestones.  The jelly glitter is a great polish that packs a ton of glitter.  The red is a classic red.  The only downside is it is OPI pre-3-free so it is a bit on the smelly side.  Why do I still have it and use it?  I love the color and the new formula of the same color isn't quite the same.

OPI - Malaga Wine
Spoiled - Ants In My Pants
Sinful Colors - Black on Black

nude & stones

Showgirl nails!  Not in the sense that they are what a showgirl would wear on their nails (that would be more bright red and long I think) but more what their costumes are like.  Sort of like an ice skaters costume as well.  A bunch of flesh tone netting and cleverly placed rhinestones.  The netting is there to give the illusion of skin but needs to be there so it stays rather PG rated.

Super easy paint job.  Simply apply the best nude polish for you and add some rhinestones.  This would also look great with just silver/clear stones.  But I went through my rhinestones and picked out a bunch of colors.  Nothing too fancy and very easy.

OPI - Coney Island Cotton Candy

april polish days - 7 deadly sins

7 deadly sins!!  Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy, Pride.  I don't know why this theme is so great, but it is.  I knew I wanted to go with greed (a sin of excess, hoarding of objects) and use a bunch of studs, rhinestones and pearls.

My pinky is so greedy for treasures it is spilling over to my ring finger.
*more after the jump*

birthday party

So, after posting my Academy Award nails, my Aunt asked me if I was free tonight to come and paint nails at her daughter's 9th birthday party.  The theme for the party was an Awards Show so she thought the tux nails would be perfect.  So I packed up a few polishes, tools, rhinestones, stamps, etc and headed over to their house.

It turned out to be a lot of fun.  The hardest part was painting on a small scale.  9 year old's nails are a lot smaller than mine (duh) and they are super bouncy.  I ended up painting most of the girl's nails and doing tux nails on the thumbs of the one boy guest.

*photos after the jump*

holiday challenge - we wish you a merry christmas

Last day of the holiday challenge is going out with a bang, 'We Wish You a Merry Christmas'.  Another theme that makes me start singing in my mind:

We wish you a Merry Christmas;

We wish you a Merry Christmas;

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Good tidings we bring to you and your kin;

Good tidings for Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Oh, bring us a figgy pudding;

Oh, bring us a figgy pudding;

Oh, bring us a figgy pudding and a cup of good cheer

We won't go until we get some;

We won't go until we get some;

We won't go until we get some, so bring some out here

We wish you a Merry Christmas;

We wish you a Merry Christmas;

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

I bet you are singing it in your head now.  Sorry.  Well, I really don't know how to do figgy pudding nails, or even a cup of good cheer.  I just went with the general Christmas theme for this paint job.  Not even the whole Christmas theme, my favorite parts of Christmas.

Candy canes:

Twinkle lights:

holiday challenge: deck the halls

The third holiday challenge day is 'Deck the Halls'.  It is pretty hard for me to say 'deck the halls' without also saying 'with bells of holly'.  I don't even know what the means.  What is a bell of holly?  Is it the holly term for a cluster of the holly berries?  So bells of holly were going to be my main theme of this paint job.

 When this time of year rolls around and the holiday parties start, there is always mistletoe.  I might avoid it at all costs.  It is sort of like an awkward adult version of spin the bottle in which spiked egg nog comes into play. 

december challenge: bling

So, I signed up for a monthly challenge and this is my first month with this challenge.  I was super excited when I found out the theme - BLING!!

When I think of bling I think of stones.  Not stone like you find in a field, but gem stones (diamonds, rubies, sapphires, etc).  And when I think of that sort of bling I think of Tiffany's.  I am lucky enough to live close to a city with a Tiffany's store.  It is rare that I walk past without going in and looking.  I do own some Tiffany's jewlery but it is all from the upstairs department (aka where there are few stones and the ones that are there are about the size of a grain of salt). 

I wanted to do a ring paint job.  To many rhinestones on all the nails I think would loose the look for me.  So I came up with two different 'rings'.

everything that glitters

This was a whimsical polish job.  I wanted to use a new polish and play off of the glitter in the polish.  My left and right hand are the same since it was such an easy application.  I haven't used shaped rhinestones before, even though I have two wheels of them. **I promise that there are no bald spots on my nails or with this polish, it is the outside light reflecting off the nails**

package

My order from Born Pretty (http://www.bornprettystore.com/) finally arrived!!  It is exciting since it was sitting in the USPS processing center in LA for almost two weeks.  And I am guessing it was not scanned at any other post office because I didn't get any other updates.

Here's what I got -
* rhinestone/stud containters/spindle wheels (2)
* pink metal rhinestones, 2mm
* round gold studs, 2mm
* square gold studs, 2mm
* round silver studs, 1mm & 4mm
* square silver studs, 2mm
* GLOW-N-THE-DARK polish!!! - 2 different colors

black & orange

Despite the fact that I am stuck at home with a wicked bad cold, I have not been that inspired to do a paint job.  I had to remove the last nail job on Thursday night because I had to make cookies (snickerdoodles, sugar cookie brooms/oak leaves/flowers) so I have been naked for three days.  My nails have liked the break but I felt like I need to paint them.  However, I could not think of anything to paint.  I know I did not want to do stamping, too much work**.

purple dots

I needed a little break from Halloween themed nails so I went back to a previous paint job.  I am happy with the purple choices except for the light purple dots.  It is really hard to see them both in the photo and real life.  I also made a little accent nails with some rhinestones and beads.  It is very subtle but shines in the light.  It was a quick paint job that is just the right break in paint jobs before going back to Halloween theme.

OPI - A Grape Fit (the base), Care to Danse
Sinful Colors - Amethyst, Mesmerize, Black on Black

Witch's Kitchen

This polish job is a little crazy.  I heard about a nail art contest through a couple other blogs.  I decided to come up with an idea and enter.  Here is the contest - http://www.bundlemonster.com/frightnight.  I don't think I will win at all, I just want to get some feedback for the paint job.

Why is it called 'Witch's Kitchen'?  I'm a chef and wanted to incorporate a bubbling witch's cauldron.  I also wanted to try sponging.  Over the past couple of days I flushed out my idea and sketched and planed each individual nail.  Sounds a bit odd, but it really helped in the painting.

Black & Gold

I'm not sure where I was going with this paint job but I like the way it turned out.  I couldn't get a photo where the gold in the polish really comes through.  It is more of a silver gold but it still has those yellow undertones.  The accent nail (to start) is the pinky on each hand.  One hand had black glitter with a little gold and the other was gold glitter.  Since the gold of the glitter and the gold polish didn't really match, the golden pinky looked a little funny.

After a day with this paint job, I got a little bored of it so decided to spice it up a little...

I added some black rhinestones.  Here you can see golden pinky and how it just looks a little odd with the polish.  A silver polish and silver glitter would have been better, there is always next time.  I do like the rhinestones, they add a bit of edge.

If I do this type of polish job again, I will skip the pinky glitter.  I will also do all nails the same except the middle and I will just invert those colors (ie the stamp on the other will be the base and the base on the other will be the stamp).  I think it would pop with the right colors and the right rhinestones.

Sinful Colors - Zincing of You, Black on Black
Plate - Cheeky CH7

Do you have any colors that don't come out quite like you thought it would?  Can anyone recommend a good polish that is gold?  Not gold glitter but a solid gold color?

Water Flowers

The hounds tooth was too simple now that I had so many options to pick from.  I decided to do a quick polish that I knew didn't have to last too long (back in the kitchen over the weekend).  I am still working on getting the stamp to be in the center of the nail.  It is harder with these individual stamp designs verse the whole nail pattern.  It doesn't look bad being off center with this flower, but some other images might look a little funny.  I only gave one polish coat with the purple/maroon polish (over the base coat).  The pinky only had one coat of white.  While both the thumb and pinky were still wet, I gave them a little glitter fade.  The stamp was easy and quick especially since I only had to wait for one color polish coat to dry.  The rhinestone was just stuck on with a little base coat.  I like some things about this paint job but I don't know if I will ever do it like this again.  Maybe just the flower on one finger and the glitter on another.  There is a lot going on and seems busy even though there are only three colors used.

MAC -Dark Angel
Sally Hansen - White On
Plate - Cheeky CH2

What do you consider too much for a paint job?  Do you think this paint job was too busy?  Do you have any tips/tricks to getting a single image stamp in the center of the nail?

I got mail...

Guess what was in my mailbox this afternoon?

Since I don't get many packages from Hong Kong I knew what is was as soon as I saw it.  And it was HEAVY for such a small package.  Okay, to be fair, I actually came on Friday of last week but I didn't have time to check my mail because I was making this -

Yes, a very large cake.  It is all edible.  The only part that was edible was the mast & booms of the boat, but they were coated in cocoa powder to make them look more like teak.  The decorations were gum paste (tastes sort of like a necco wafer).  The silver seal was a white chocolate seal I made from
silicone mold (which I also made from the trophy).  This cake was a lot of work, so it was nice to have such a great package waiting for me in the mail and to zone out white playing around with stamping plates for the first time.

What else was in the package?  Some great little little things...

An insane amount of rhinestones.  All different colors, different sizes and some different shapes.  I now have so many rhinestones I feel a bit crazy and obsessed.  The nice thing about these wheels is they are tiny.  I would say about three inches across.  They also spin really easily but are tough enough that I don't feel like they will spin in my tool box and have rhinestones all over.

As excited as I was for the rhinestone wheels, I am more excited about the nail stamping plates.  The nail stamping tool came two weeks ago and has just been sitting in my tool box.  The package came with 26 different plates.  16 are solid patterns (4 to a plate with some extras in the blank spaces), five have mini designs and 5 have tip patterns.  While waiting for these plates I have watched numerous how-to videos online so I know the general idea of how they work.  I decided to dive right in...

Not bad for a first time if I do say so myself.  It needs some work but I think the more I use and do it, the better it will be.  I love this little hounds tooth pattern.  However, I do not like the colors.  They are too similar to have the hounds tooth really pop.  The blue would have been better as an electric blue or used a hot pink instead of the purple.  Now with so many rhinestones and plates, I think I could do a different mani each day for the next year and never repeat.  I don't think I am ready to take on that challenge yet.

One of the best things about this package was the size.  It was tiny.  Imagine the five rhinestone wheels stacked with the stamping plates on top.  That was the size of the whole package.  No packing peanuts (aka ghost poo) or bubble wrap here.  Neat and efficient.

Sinful Colors - Why Not, Let's Talk
Plate - Cheeky CH13

Has any ordered nail art supplies online?  Where in the world did they come from?

Panning for Gold

This paint job was inspired by another polish job I saw on another nail blog (http://www.nailnerd.com/purple-glitter-snazzle-nails/).  I liked the purple of that polish but wanted to try something with black and gold.  The black is not a solid black but it has tiny tiny silver dust in it.  Then one accent nail just has some loose glitter and hex glitter (just a few dust nuggets of gold).  The other accent nail is a full on huge nugget of gold.  This was thick.  Yellow base, glitter, hex glitter, multiple rhinestones, clear coat with some more glitter.  Then the fine seal coat.  It is a strange thing to actually be able to feel the wait of your nail (or rather the crazy amount of polish on it).  The feeling doesn't last long because you get used to it, but it is there.  I have never worn fake nails but I am guessing it was something like this.

Even with an accent nail all blinged out, it is a very subtle polish job.  My grandmother thinks I am crazy and asked if I ran out of polish.  One of these days I will turn her on to accent nails.

Sinful Colors - Secret Admirer, Lets Meet

Do you name your polish jobs?  Is it too much to theme it out like this?

Going to a Wedding

This weekend I am going to a wedding on the east coast.  The colors of the wedding are silver and lavender.  Since I am a total dork, I decided to paint my nails to match.  I went a little crazy and had my accent finger different on each hand.  The ombre purple rhinestones are the same on both, just the polish color is changed.  It might look a little crazy but it works.  And since I don't wear rings, the bright silver accent nail works as jewelry.

The silver polish is great.  The formula is perfect.  It feels like it is going to be too thin when it goes on, but with two coats it is perfect.  It doesn't feel heavy because the coats are so thin.  It is also a real white silver color, not quite holographic silver or glitter silver, but it looks like real metal silver.  (UPDATE - the silver nail was the only nail that did not chip during the whole east coast adventure.)

OPI - Do You Lilac It
Sinful Colors - Let's Talk
Sally Hansen - Celeb City

Has anyone color matched for an event?  Are two different accent nails on each hand too much or just right?

4th of July

Happy 4th of July!  Yes, it is a couple of days early but I am going to the fair today so I thought I would do up my nails for the upcoming holiday.  All nails except the pinkies are just a basic red color that works with my skin tone**.  Since I am still new to this fancy nail art stuff, I don't have a white yet.  The closest I could come was a pearl white color.  The only problem with that color was it was very transparent so I had to do a couple of coats.  The many multiple coats actually worked perfectly on the pinky because I smooshed the rhinestones into it while still very tacky.  Since I don't wear a lot of red clothes. this was a great way to get into the 4th spirit without changing everything.

Essie - A List, Room With A View


**It is crazy how many red polishes are out there.  They might all look the same from far away, but it is crazy how they 'change' when you actually put them on your nails.  I have one red in particular that looks great on my toes but doesn't work on my fingers at all.

Did you do anything special with your nails for the 4th?

Purple & Teal

Accent nail! A new thing.  Besides just a single nail with some rhinestones, what about a different color on that nail?  Well, going with my love of teal & purple again but making it more obvious I went with this color scheme.  The five rhinestones in the last polish didn't really work.  That one rhinestone on the edge was catching on everything and it generally bugged me.  I thought about fewer rhinestones.  I layout all the rhinestones on the nail before painting and sticking just to see if I like it.  Well, three solid purple ones just looked a little dull to me.  What about purple ombre nails (wow, ombre is trending right now)?  And with just three rhinestones, there is more room between and doesn't feel as heavy.

As much as I love this teal color, it is really calming yet cool (as in cold) at the same time, the formula is just off.  It requires many many coat to get a solid nail.  I think I had to do 5 coats to get the teal above.  I know there are ways to thicken polish but I don't want to alter the color.  So I just have to set more time aside when I want to use this color in the future.

OPI - Do You Lilac It
Essie - Turquoise & Caicos

What are your favorite color combos?  Which finger do you like to use as your accent nail?