Fall Trees

   One of my fellow students found a pin that she wanted me to replicate. It was a cute gradient with a fall tree accent.

   To make the gradient, I used OPI A Woman's Prague-ative and Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Branch Out. The leaf was made with Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Butterscotch.
   The tree was made by sponging on a bit of Prague-ative and then painting on Branch Out for the trunk. Then it all was topped off with a matte topcoat.


   Have a great week!

Gold Leaf

   This client really wanted something green. I had a gold that looked really pretty on top of it, so we painted a geometric design similar to leaf veins. I really liked the simplicity of the design.

   I started with a base of Studio M On The Field. Then I used Maybelline Color Show Bold Gold and applied it with a small, thin brush.

  Have a great week!

Chalkboard Sunflowers

I found a really cute pin of some sunflowers a few weeks ago. I loved the chalkboard feel of it.

   I started with a base of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Black Out. Then I sponged on varying amounts of China Glaze Recycle.

   To make the sunflowers, I started with Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Butterscotch to make the petals. Then I used Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Branch Out for the sunflower centers. To make the stems I used L'Oreal New Money.

   I topped it off with a matte topcoat.

   I hope you all have a fantastic week!

All Blinged Out

   Last week I had a client who wanted nothing but rhinestones on her nails. This isn't something I usually do, so it was both a challenge and a lot of fun.

   I used a combination of rhinestones, caviar beads, and glass glitter. The polishes I used were Orly Matte FX Purple Velvet, Finger Paints Plum Perspective, Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Resurrection, and Absolute New York Turquoise.

   She wanted one nail completely covered in rhinestones. The other has become one of my favorites. I made a line of rhinestones and then wove lines of pink and blue caviar beads around them. I love how it turned out!

   I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Sugar Plum Fairy

   A few weeks ago (1? 2? I don't know...) I bought some awesome new polish from Noodles Nails. It's a pretty cream crelly with purple and pink glitters, called Berries and Cream.

   I love the color combinations and I think it will be a perfect winter polish. Getting somewhat ahead of the seasons, I made a (sort of) Nutcracker-themed design. Since there are some purple glitters in the polish, I thought I'd try and paint the Sugar Plum Fairy.

   I loosely based my design off of some images of the ballet costume, and added some fairy-wings on the other two nails. I had high hopes for this design, but I think it needs a bit of tweaking before Christmastime comes around...

I used mainly pinks and purples for the design. For the wings, I started by painting the basic shape with white paint. I went over the white with thinned out Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Don't Be Leotardy on the wing ends, fading into Nina Ultra Pro Plum of the Earth. The dark purple stripes were made with OPI Vant to Bite My Neck.

   The ballerina was made by (again) painting the basic shape with acrylic paint. I used Don't Be Leotardy and Plum of the Earth again for the Sugar Plum Fairy's leotard and tutu. Her skin color was made with an extremely thinned out L'Oreal Doutzen's Nude, and her hair with a thinned out Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Branch Out.


   I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Stained Glass

   I found a pretty design by Will Paint Nails For Food and I just fell in love!

   I'm not gonna lie, I just changed the colors up and 100% copied it. Her designs are so pretty!

   I really liked the dark pink I used in my last design, so I used it again! I think it's a great color for Fall, and one I hadn't really thought of before. It's Finger Paints Plum Perspective.

   To make the stained glass design, I started with a light pink base (China Glaze Princess Grace). Then I drew out the black outlines with my black striper. Then I filled in the spaces with Plum Perspective, Revlon Colorstay Buttercup, and L'Oreal Doutzen's Nude.

   Then I finished it off ny re-lining my black lines and painting on my top coat.

  Have a great weekend!

Halloween Part III

   The final installment! These are manikin hands and nail wheels.

   I made a werewolf! Isn't it cool?? There are a couple things I would fix (aren't there always?), but overall I'm satisfied.
   I used my manikin hand to make this one. I applied various shades of brown to the skin to darken it up (it was a very pale hand, completely wrong for a werewolf). I used hair from some curly hair extensions to make the furry hands.
   The nails were made with a cream base and a white crackle layer over top. I thought that gave it a nice bone-like texture. Then I sponged on various shades of brown and a bit of black at the base of the nails and the surrounding skin. One of the girls at school had some fake blood, so to complete the effect, I gave it some bloody nails.

   This is my Halloween-themed nail wheel. Some of them glow in the dark! I wish I had a picture for you... I'll need to bring it home, take one, and update this soon. The cemetery has ghosts that show up in the dark. The glowing forest glows in the dark, as well as the green part of the Evil Queen's poison apple. Oh, and the skull/ghoul faces!
   I think the Snoopys are my favorites though. I've always liked Charlie Brown so I had to try and paint some characters. They'll probably be back for Christmas too....

  That's all of my Halloween designs this year.

   Have a great weekend!

Halloween Part II

   To continue with my belated Halloween designs... (Eventually I will post them on Halloween if not before!)

   Here are a few designs I created at school on fellow students and clients.

   First up: Saw-themed nails. This student was dressing up as Jigsaw for Halloween, complete with the tricycle. I've never seen any of the Saw movies (I like to sleep at night), so I had to do a little research for this one.
  For the accent nails, I used Revlon Colortsay Sure Thing as my base, and red acrylic paint for the hand print and swirl. The other nails were painted with OPI Midnight in Moscow, a neat seemingly black base with a red shimmer when it's in the light.

   Sugar skulls and spider webs! This girl was dressing in a skeleton/sugar skull/Day of the Dead themed costume. To make this set, I started with a white base for the sugar skulls. Then I used a combination of red and black acrylic paint, as well as a green nail art pen. The webs were made with OPI Midnight in Moscow and white acrylic paint. The set was topped off with a matte topcoat.

   I'm a little bit proud of this one... I've always loved calligraphy, so it was really fun to combine my love of letters and my love of polish for this design! I'm not sure what the costume idea was for this one, but I'm just happy I got to paint pretty letters.
   I started with a black base, and then used acrylic paint for the letters. It was topped off with a matte topcoat as well. She had broken a couple of nails, so I sculpted those out. All in all, I think it took about 3 hours, including a quick smoke break for her and a wiggle break for me. :)

   I have one more installment and then I'm done with Halloween and back to trying to catch up.. I think I'm only 1 week behind. Surely I can catch up from that! :D

   Have a fantastic week!

Happy [Belated] Halloween!

  Still behind... Nothing new!

   I hope you all had a great Halloween! We dressed up at school and had kids come in to trick or treat, it was lots of fun!

   I was Dorothy! I'm all about being cheap and using stuff I already have. I had recently bought this dress online and it worked perfectly!

   And of course, I had nails to match.

   I started with a white base, Revlon Colorstay Sure Thing. To make the blue plaid nails, I used some thinned out Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Blue Me Away. I made the darker shadowed squares with Revlon Colorstay Indigo Night.

   To paint the poppies, I started with a bit of red, Revlon Colorstay Red Carpet. I used some thinned out OPI Midnight in Moscow to create the darker interior on the poppy petals, and then finished the flower out with some small dots of Revlon Colortay Buttercup.
   The stems and leaves were made with Studio M On the Field.

   And, despite not being able to find cheap red glitter shoes ANYWHERE (they are always in abundance at Walmart the years I don't need them...), I did put red glitter on my right hand. My feet just had to make do with plain, boring, un-glittery, red heels. :)


   I painted some other Halloween-themed desgins, I'll try to get them up soon. I might just have to go out of order for a week so my Halloween designs are posted at least near Halloween...  I really need to get my blogging life together!


   I hope you all have a fantastic week!