Using Eye Shadow In Your Nail Art

So, I found this technique on Pinterest and had to try it! Basically the tutorial said to use a "dazzle dust", but since I have no idea what that even is, I used eye shadow. She talks about painting a fresh coat, putting some of the dust on your finger by your cuticle, and then blowing the dust down your nails. That technique did NOT work with the eye shadow! So I used my finger and smeared it instead. That just meant that there was more coverage with the shadow. This will probably be something I'll try again to figure out the right balance.

I used Finger Paints Art Dealer Teal-er and the eye shadow was Coppering from MAC.

Baby Shower Nails

So, a very dear friend of mine is pregnant with her second child, and one day I asked input/suggestions from others and she suggested a baby theme! So, as the due date is pretty much right on top of us, I decided to try out a baby theme yesterday! I love how they turned out!!

 

I got my ideas from two different pictures I found online. This first one is where I got the duck from, I just have no idea of the original source/artist. Baby Nail Design 

This next one is from Robin Moses and her blog, but I couldn't find a video tutorial. 

I am especially proud for figuring out the ducky! I used a large dotting tool and did two dots, one sitting right above the other. And then I used a brush to paint in the tail and then later added the finishing touches. And, of course, I had to make one of the blocks in Oregon State colors ;)

The colors I used were:

China Glaze For Audrey for base color

Finger Paints Hip Hip Hue Ray!

Orly Hook Up

Nina Lilac-ing Discipline

Nina Burnished Bronze

Finger Paints Cerulean Seascape

China Glaze Starboard

China Glaze Tree Hugger

China Glaze Exceptionally Gifted

Nina Black

Finger Paints Sparkle Top Coat for the nails with the balloons

Whoo!! I think that's all of them... 

Another Attempt at Stamps

So, a couple weeks ago I got myself a stamping set. It didn't work. I couldn't even get it transferred onto the stamper, let alone my nail! After some time and some glances at tutorials, I tried it again, and this is how they came out::

Not great. Some areas were missing bits, and it took me some time to get the alignment right. I also learned that the patterns that are meant to fully cover the nail are TOUGH!! I really wanted a basic, full-coverage diamond pattern, but when pieces are missing, it's so much tougher to get it looking good.

I used Nina Lilac-ing Discipline as my base color and China Glaze VIII for the stamping color. Then I added some dots of sparkly silver to add a little bit extra to the nail, especially in areas where the stamp kinda fudged.

Are You Gellin'?

So, there's a woman in my choir who, every week, is interested in what I have on my nails. She's also so thoughtful, because she'll bring me clippings of ideas or coupons and most recently gave me a box of some UV-Free gel color to try out!

So, since I didn't have any brilliant ideas for today, I figured I'd give it a shot! My review? It's brilliant!! By the time I've moved on to the next hand, my first is already dry!! It'll be perfect for toesies so that you won't hafta walk around all duck-footed and be afraid of putting on your shoes!

This picture was taken *maybe* 10 minutes after the first pic of the unopened box! And they were dry! I might hafta check into some other colors, but for now, I can't have my nails just one plain color! And since the color made me think of jeans, I decided to add a little to them to make them look like distressed jeans! I did this by using my Finger Paints Hip-Hip-Hue-Ray! which is a white with a thin brush. I wiped the brush off best I could, then made little hash marks or horizontal marks and then done!

This whole mani was done in about a half hour! Sweet :) Now I'm out to enjoy the sunshine!

****UPDATE****

MAJOR chippage in less than 24 hours! I thought the gel polishes were supposed to be MORE chip resistant than regular polish?? All nails have chipped and have large sections of polish missing. I will need to redo them all together tomorrow. :/ hmm

Follow-Up Question...

So, I have a question for all you nail polish lovers out there. Does anyone else have a problem with color bleeding? For example: my current Valentine's nails have a deep red for the base color. I even waited a full day before putting on my top coat to hopefully minimize the bleeding, but it still resulted in my golden hearts to be a reddish gold instead.

These pictures don't show the red color on the gold very well, but it's there! It completely changed the gold color!! Anyone have any tips or tricks to avoid the color bleeding? I've noticed it with my deep red polishes the most.

Valentine's Themed Nail Art

OK, yeah so I know it's been a long time since I've updated this. That's what happens when you pick up extra work shifts (mostly overnights) and take a massively terrifying test that pretty much determines if I pass my program.

Anyways! So I thought I'd try a couple different Valentine's Day themed nails. My first attempt was based on a design from TotallyCoolNails. I was able to recreate it relatively well, but not nearly as nicely done as in the tutorial.

For the pink, I used China Glaze Rich & Famous. For the lighter pink, I just mixed the Rich & Famous with some white polish. I also put some China Glaze Fairy Dust over my Eiffel Tower to give it some sparkle, since the actual Eiffel Tower lights up and sparkles at night :)

My next project I ended up doing twice. The first time, I overdid it by putting on a layer of gold glitter top coat (Orly Too Fab). The glitter was just too much. It's kinda tough to tell in the picture, but trust me!

Anyways, it was bugging me so I redid them and left the glitter off. After my Beauty Secrets Base Coat, I did two coats of Nina Love Struck. Then I used my Nina Black and a small dotting tool to make the hearts. I made them by making two dots right next to each other, and then simply using my dotting tool to drag the polish down to a point. On each nail, I left a space open and then went back to do a heart in Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Golden-I. I then used the gold to do all the hearts on my ring fingers as well. This second time, I also went in with a smaller dotting tool and China Glaze Ruby Pumps to put a small red heart within one of the gold hearts on the ring finger. I think that turned out pretty cool :)

 Happy Valentine's Day!

Fun With A Modern Art Nail Design

I found a picture on Google that was simple and I wanted to try. Sadly, the link was a dead-end, so I can't give credit to whoever took the original picture. However, I can still show you what I did!

I used Finger Paints Art Dealer Teal-er as the background color, and a trio of Kiss nail art polishes for the pink, silver and black rectangles. Simple, but a hint of modern funk!!
:)