Fantastic Floral

I was inspired by Pshiiit the other day, when she posted these awesome Hawaiian floral designs... well, I frigging loved it. Even though she posts in French, I still loved it! I went to the world wide web to on find my own floral... and found this little bugger:

Source : The Sewing Directory

Here's what I did.

I painted 3 of my nails with Nails, inc Baker Street which is an amazing super pure royal blue.  My two accent nails I did a base of OPI Road House Blues. Then I went at the pattern. I think I used 6 different colors for the design.  Let's see some pics, ok?

Dude, I'm totally in love with this. It's one of my favorite looks I've ever done.  I need to look at fabric more often.


Hope you like it!
April

Spring Weather

Hey guys! Do you have weekend plans?  I'm super excited that I don't have any!! A whole weekend with nothing to do.  Sounds like heaven.

So I decided to pick up the April challenge. I missed the first day because I was crazy busy. So I combined the two: autism and weather.

It's finally starting to get warmer here, so I wanted to do something to keep my spirits up. Also, I wanted to on have something blue for the first day I missed. Clouds!!

I used Essie's Rock The Boat and then painted on the clouds. I can't believe I haven't used Rock The Boat more often.  It's such a pretty periwinkle blue with a pearl shimmer. I wanted the whole look soft and shimmery, so I topped it off with Essie's Pure Pearlfection.

I liked this, it lifted my spirits and helped get me out of the longest winter ever funk.


Thanks for checking this out!
April

Day 17, Studs #nailartfeb

No, this is not a post about hunky shirtless boys. We're talking nail studs here. I am on the fence with studs. They kind of tweak me out, the texture is a little weird. I find myself rubbing them all day and then the color rubs off.

I'm on day 3 of the Jamberry wrap that I posted about on Saturday. It's still holding strong,  so I wanted to add on to that.

I searched all over to see if I could glue on a stud on top of the wrap. I heard stories how you can't topcoat wraps because they would shrink and wrinkle. Guess what... it worked. I put a thin coat of Seche Vite, placed the stud, and waited for it to dry placing another coat of Seche on top.

Side note,  did you know that you can paint your studs? I painted that boy blue. The glitter on my thumb is Sephora X TNT, which is a random shape matte blue glitter.  Love it. My nude base is Zoya Taylor,  and the blue is Nails, inc Baker Street.

Whatcha think about this one? I like how it's trendy, but for some reason it still looks professional.  Sometimes I feel a little weird with my crazier manis, but me likey this one.

Happy Monday chickies. Let's get this week started.
April

Come on, Spring!!!

Worst. Winter. Ever. I swear,  this is the longest and coldest winter we've had in a long time. I'm over it. I live in Iowa, so seriously,  40 degrees is like summer to us. You'll see people with their windows down, shorts, picnics,  everything.  Just give me a day above 20. It's been hell on my nails and skin. It's hopefully going to be warmer today,  but that's supposed to come with snow. Ugh...


So, in effort to not slip into a sad dark depression,  I tried putting some cheery springy colors on. It didn't really help, but the niece's loved it.

My blue is Sally Hansen Baracuda, and I used several other colors for decor. I'm not sure what is going on with my lacey stamp... it looked fine in person,  but in pics it sure looks like its a little funky.

Still addicted to the cottage roses. What else can I put them on?

One more day until the weekend! !! Happy Friday Eve!
April

Let it Snow!

If you read my post from yesterday,  you know we we finally got some snow. People are driving like they've never seen snow before,  and the grocery store was insane. I mean, come on... it's Iowa. This happens every year. At least with the the snow,  it provides some fun inspiration.


The fabulous Wintermint polish I bought was just screaming to be the base for this snowy scape. I then sponged some white polish on the tips and then topped it off with that lovely Blue Bells Ring polish for snowflakes.

I missed to mention yesterday that my nail that was broken and then repaired snapped off on Friday.  I think it was just too far far broken. It thankfully didn't hurt. It looks all kinds of ridiculous though. It reminds me of when I used to bite my nails. And I'm not gonna lie,  a little part of me, that old nailbiter, wanted to chomp on that bad boy. Gross!  Ha!


Let me know what you think!
April

Sunday Spew

What a lazy day it is today!  We are in the process of of getting our first decent snowstorm and so I ran out before it got icky. I was supposed to meet my dad for dinner to celebrate an early birthday for me, but this dang snow has shut down bridges and roadways.  I don't want my daddy out there in this!!!


I've got what I am affectionately calling a Sunday Spew today. When I wasnt feeling too much like I wanted to blog, I still took pictures of what I was doing to share.

First up are some fall looks that I did for November.  Have you checked out the blog, Chalkboard Nails? She came up with this distressed look that I wanted to try, but I wanted it to be more fallish. You do this look by scraping off almost all of the polish off of the brush, and then dry brush it onto the base color. I added a gold flakie, because every girl needs a little glitter in her life.

Next is what I did for Thanksgiving. I believe this is based off of a tutorial from Polish and Pearls. I just saw this on Pinterest and I needed something quick and easy to do.  Since im not a huge fan of a lot of white, I went to my good ole standby, My Vampire is Buff. Then just freehanded the feathers and turkey lurkey. I kind of like his wonky eye. Lol

Now I've got the polishes from a subscription box, the I.N.N. Box by Inzuri. This is an interesting subscription,  because there are 3 collections monthly and you select which one you want. You also receive a beauty product. It's $19.95 per month,  which ends up being around $25 with tax and shipping.

I received two China Glaze polishes, and one Orly.

First, the Orly. This is Masked Ceremony which is a dark charcoal with silver shimmer, magenta glitter and silver square glitter.  I liked this in the bottle, and I love the square glitter.  I hate how it looked on me. Definitely not a favorite. The formula was fine, I had no issues.  Maybe at a different time of year I would give this another shot.

Next, China Glaze Bizzare Blurple. I was really excited about this one, since I love purple polish. It was a great color. Great formula.  I used two coats for these pictures.

Finally is China Glaze Blue Bells Ring.  This was probably the one I was looking the least forward to because I use blues for accents,  not typically a solid nail color. When I saw the bottle,  it was really frosty looking, and I psh-shawed it immediately.  I'm kind of a spaz and I swatch out all of my polishes on a swatch wheel, by brand, number the wheel and then number the bottle. I apologize to China Glaze for dismissing this color. It's stunning. I was shocked when I swatched it. This could easily be a one-coater too. I used two though just to be safe.

And then the last for this post is a little gem I found at Walgreens the other day. I went in for some cough drops and I just had to swing past the polish. After digging around the tacky perfume value sets, I saw the perfumery display from Revlon. Not a fan of scented polish. Ive had a few in the past, but nothing special.  So just looking through this half-heartedly,  I almost screamed.  This is so close to Deborah Lippmann's Mermaid Dream, and I only paid $4.99 for it. The DL version retails for $19. And then it smells like mint? Extra bonus.  These are two coats of this little beauty.

Whew! That was a lot of posting, so I hope something looked appealing in there for ya! Stay warm my friends.  I will have a winter look to share and also a birthday manicure for you all to check out. Until then, have a wonderful day

April

Zoya Winter Zenith Collection

I had a coupon for Ulta and I knew I needed to use it for nail polish since you could use it on the good stuff.  I had eyeballed some of the different winter collections that I saw and picked up a few that I liked.  (side-note,  it was extremely shocking that my Ulta had these,  since it took them months to get the fall collection in.)

I only chose two of the batch because I'm not too keen on the textured polishes anymore,  and the others looked like ones I already have.

First up is Belinda,  a GORGEOUS royal purple with a magenta flash.  This is so incredibly pretty.  I have a weakness for purple polish as it is,  and this one does not disappoint. The formula is almost  a one-coater,  but I did two to make it completely opaque. It just looks so regal and rich.

Lighting : shade

The other one I purchased was Mosheen,  a holographic bar / feather glitter with holo specks too.  This was a surprise for me,  since I've tried the feathered polishes and they were just  Ok... I think I don't care for how the little flakes peak out along the tip of the nail. This one does the same,  but I forgive it because it's so unbelievably stunning.

We're lucking out today with some lovely sunshine,  and it picked up every little holo speck flash...  Just beautiful. Please forgive all of the pictures,  but I was capturing so many pretty ones!

Lighting : shade

I also really wanted Dream,  which is a deep blue with a scattered holo,  and Payton is a nice burgundy with light holo sparkle... But I figured I wouldn't wear them as much as these two.


I picked up one of Essie's new Luxe Effects polishes as well,  so I will swatch that one out to show you. It's shockingly beautiful also.

Too early for holiday collections? I'm torn.  Now that I am out of the retail sales world,  I enjoy the holidays. Although my birthday is around Christmas time and I'm always a little bitter about that... Too many cheap relatives!

Have you gotten any of this collection?
April

Dark blue matte

Best day of football ever on Saturday.  It's no surprise to some of you that I love the Iowa Hawkeyes and I have season tickets this year.  We've had our ups and downs,  but we won in overtime this weekend. I have never yelled so much in my life.  I do a black and gold mani every game, so maybe I need to create an album of just those.


Today I have a quick mani to share.  I was fumbling around on Pinterest and saw a lovely manicure that was a super dark blue shimmer that was mattified and decorated with silver studs.  I totally stink at studs.  I get nail glue all over the nail and on my fingers.  Hate it.  So, I dug out my new Pueen stamping plates, and did that instead.

My blue is Essie's Aruba Blue.  This is just two coats and is a deep royal blue. The accent nail is Pueen plate #33 and the polish is Maybelline Bold Gold. The matte finish top coat I use is Essie's Matte About You.

I love how royal and elegant this looks when matte.  I'm not usually a big fan of blue nails, but I'm totally loving this.

I also need some more practice with stamping. I'm fairly new to it, and I'm having issues every time. Either the polish is not working, or the stamper doesn't grab the image. Top it off with that then I tend to put it on crooked.  I just need to sit down and mess with them more I think.


Also- I uploaded a ton of pics to Instagram on Sunday.  Follow me here and help a sister out.  ;)


Any tips with stamping? What's your favorite matte finish?
April

Day 26, Inspired by a Pattern

First of all, hilarious side note. When I was typing "pattern" above for the title, it wanted to auto correct to Pattinson.  I think I may have an obsession with a certain beautiful vampire actor.  Whoops!

Ok, back to the challenge.  Today is inspired by a pattern,  and I really had a hard time trying to find something that I could translate to nail art. I remembered this awesome application that I have on my phone and tablet, called Pattrn. You use the website Colourlovers and color in templates where then they get uploaded onto the app. You favorite them, and then you can set it up that your background on your phone changes every day between your favorite patterns.  It's pretty slick.

So I found this one:

source: Colourlovers Paisley Meadows

I like the paisley look, and I really liked the color scheme.  So I took 4 different colors and started at it.

My base is OPI'S My Vampire is Buff (wait a minute... is that where the Pattinson thing came from earlier? ), and the accents are OPI's Vant to Bite My Neck, Essie In the Cab - ana and Essie Butler, Please.

I did all this free hand looking at the pattern.  I like it! And I think it translated nicely. I'm shocked that I really liked the nude color... that's not typically my style. But its a great neutral!  Its shiny, and a perfect creamy off-white. Highly recommend it.  My ring finger got a little bleedy when I put on the top coat, which I was totally bummed about. I'm also having some mega stressful days lately and its hard to keep my fingers out of my mouth.  =(   It's so hard even when you haven't bitten them in years,   but there's that small comfort in an old habit.

So, today was also Christmas at the homestead as I FINALLY got my September Blackbox AND I also got the new set of Pueen stamping plates that I ordered. Yay! Goodies of those two to show later.


So, lemme know your thoughts  on this paisley princess.


Hope you all have a great weekend!
April

Day 24, Inspired by a book

I. Love. To. Read. I always have. I remember that there was a contest at our elementary school called Read A Million Minutes.  I won it one year. I typically read a new book at least once a week. I used to be one of those purists when it came to books, but I tell you what. .. I love my Kindle to the moon and back. I have an ancient Kindle that still has a keyboard and it's own 3G network.  Last time I checked I had over 150 books on it.

I jumped on the Hunger Games bandwagon right after Catching Fire was released.  I liked Hunger Games a lot. But the other two books... meh. They were ok. So I went looking for the next dystopian book that looked interesting.  That was when I found Divergent.

This book is amazing.  AH. MAZING. It centers around future Chicago (which as a Midwesterner I completely appreciate) where the inhabitants are sectioned into five factions.  Abnegation: the selfless. Erudite: the intelligent. Candor: the honest.  Amity: the peaceful. Dauntless: the brave. Our main character is Beatrice,  or Tris as she is later known.

In this world, you grow up within your parents' faction.  When you turn 16, you must choose between staying in that faction,  or selecting a new one. Beatrice has grown up in Abnegation,  and selects Dauntless as her new faction. The rest of the book centers around her transition to this new faction which is so unlike her old home, and also finds out that there is something a little different with her mind too. And then there's Four... ah, Four. He's the bee's knees. ;)

Ok, so can you tell I chose Divergent for my inspiration?  This worked out great.  5 fingers, 5 factions.

Here's the whole hand. I sponged on a blue background and then freehanded all of the individual symbols.

Close up of Erudite, the intelligent.  Symbol for them is an eye. Smarty pants.

Close up of Candor, the honest. Their symbol is the scales... they are like the lawyers of the Divergent world.

Close up of Abnegation,  the selfless. In the book, these are the do-gooders and once a year, Beatrice would get her hair cut. That was the one time that she was allowed to look in a mirror.  Crazy! Their symbol are two holding hands.

Close up of Amity, the peaceful. These are the farmers and the hippies. Probably where I would have ended up if I was in this little world. Their symbol is a red tree.

And finally,  close up of Dauntless,  the Brave. Symbol for them of course is fire.

They are of course making this into a movie (boo!) So I hope it turns out true to the book. Of course I think everyone says that. The only time I was pleasantly surprised was Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Killer flick and totally how I pictured it. There are currently two of the three books out in this series,  and the third is due out in November.  Can't wait!

So thoughts? Have you read any good books lately that I need to add to my list?

Cheers!
April

Day 14, 31 Day Nail Polish Challenge- Flowers

Today is day 14, which is flowers. I like flowers, I used to have somewhat if a green thumb, but then I got waaaay too busy for that and all my flower beds became overgrown and died. I have a hard time with potted plants now too. Good thing the hubs likes to watch stuff grow. He's been taking care of our veggie garden the past two years and I get to eat all the delicious produce.

So since it's finally starting to feel like fall, I wanted to do a nice fall-y flower for today's challenge.  Sunflowers came to mind.

I sponged on two colors of blue, and let that dry. I then free hand painted on the sunflowers with acrylic paint.

I love the combo of blue / purple and yellow flowers. So fun, funky, fall. I can smell the burning leaves and pumpkin bars in the air.

It also reminds me of that terrible sunflower perfume that my mom always wore in the late 80's / early 90's. And you know what? I can smell it as I type this. Funny how smells invoke memories.

Well, that's all for today. I'm having a helluva time with tomorrow,  delicate print. I don't have very many stamping plates, so that's out. I only have freehand or other techniques to work with, and I'm just not getting the look I want. We'll see what gets actually posted tomorrow... maybe a fun picture of a cat or one of those Fry from Futureama memes. You'll just have to wait and see!!!

April