Thanksgiving!

   Despite being way ahead of seasons this year, I am super excited for Thanksgiving! I love all the food, and of course seeing my family. I don't get to see my cousins enough. My roommate and some friends had our own small Thanksgiving this past Saturday and it was lots of fun! We didn't burn the turkey or anything, so we were happy. I don't think any of us ate any supper that night, we ate too much at lunch!

   Anyway, back to nails. I of course had to paint some Thanksgiving-themed nails for this week, in honor of the holiday. I found the perfect inspiration on Pinterest!

   Aren't they so cute?! I found them a couple weeks ago and knew I had to paint them!

   I started with two different bases; the Indians/turkeys have an Orly French Manicure Pink Nude base, and the Pilgrims have an Orly FX Starburst base (although you can't really tell...). I thought the glitter in Starburst would be really cute, but the minions are too big! Oh well, you see it on my right hand -

   To make the minions, I started with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mellow Yellow.
   For the Indians/turkeys, I painted the turkey feathers next, using Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Butterscotch, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Sun Kissed, L'Oreal He Read My Mind, and Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Branch Out.
   For the Pilgrims, after painting Mellow Yellow, I painted the hat next, using OPI A-Piers to Be Tan. To make the buckle I painted a yellow square (over top white, to make the yellow pop), and then used my black striper.

   Next I painted their faces, starting with China Glaze Pelican Grey for the goggles, then white and black for the eyes and mouth. To make the teeth I used the tip of my smallest brush. It works really great if you leave a bit of the previous polish on and let it dry so it makes a firm point (you can clean it off later). I used OPI A-Piers to Be Tan for their shirts and black for the buttons. Then I topped it all off with a matte top coat!

   After tomorrow at 12pm, I am done with class and officially on Thanksgiving break! I'm so excited! I won't have any new posts until I get back, I don't want to mess with carting polishes home this week. Besides, when I'm not at work, I'll be to busy visiting with my family!

   Have a wonderful week and a great Thanksgiving to those of you celebrating!

Fall Plaid

  This year is apparently the year for getting really into seasons before they've arrived. I was ready for Fall in August, and now I'm ready for Christmas! I had to really make myself not paint a Christmas-y/winter-y design this week. I knew if I did I'd never get my Thanksgiving design panted next week! Luckily I found some cute plaid inspiration that kept me in season.

   I really liked my inspiration for the cozy winter aspect, but I had to keep it Fall-ish for next week's sake, so I painted it in orange-y browns. And it worked! I'm sort of back in the Fall mood (although I'm super excited to decorate for Christmas!).

   I started with my favorite base, Orly French Manicure Pink Nude (which still isn't pink...). I painted diagonals with OPI A-Piers to Be Tan, then I painted squares where the lines met with Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Branch Out. I painted the gold glitter with Finger Paints Wrapped In Ribbon.

   I'll have to make a tutoral for this one, I know my explanation made about zero sense. Why am I so terrible at describing?! I'm like this with directions too, it stinks. I can know exactly how to get somewhere, but it is extremely rare that I can give directions that are actually useful...
   I think I'm going to put this in my shop at some point too! I really like it and think it will go over well in other colors too.

   Thanksgiving nails next week! I'm super excited to paint it and show it to you guys!

   I hope you guys have a great week!

Review: Rhinestones

   We're to review number three! My last two posts have been some reviews from an awesome bag of goodies from Born Pretty, a stamping plate and some water decals. This review is on some pretty opalescent rhinestones.
 

   I bought this gorgeous orange glitter from OPI, A Woman's Prauge-ative, and I just had to use it! Not only does it look nice with the rhinestones, but it's also just plain pretty. I think I'm in love...

   Pros: I really like how these rhinestones looked. They aren't faceted like most, which gives them a different look. They were fairly easy to apply too, so that's always great!
   Cons: The only beef I really have with these are how far out they come from my nail. I felt like they poked out more than other rhinestones I have used, but that could be because they are a little larger than what I have used previously. If you have small fingers like me, 3mm is almost too big a rhinestone. It fits great on my thumb and middle finger, but my nails are too small and too curved for it to fit on my other fingers.

   Overall, I like them a lot! They're pretty and work great as an accent on my fingers.

   To make this design I started with a grey base, China Glaze Pelican Grey. Then I painted the basic design in white, since I wanted a white outline. I used my white Stripe Rite striper. Then I filled in the middle of the white with OPI A Woman's Prauge-ative, leaving a white outline. You can go over the white again if you need to even the outline out.

   Next I added the white flounces and dots, then the rhinestones. I finished it off with a couple coats of my top coat, to help seal in the rhinestone. The extra coats might be unnecessary, but it makes me feel better! I'm so rough on my nails, the extra coats make me feel like the rhinestones will last longer.

   I hope you all have a fantastic week!

   You can use this coupon code, AIBW10, to get 10% off your purchase at Born Pretty.

Review: Water Decals

   Last week I reviewed a stamping plate from Born Pretty. I have a couple goodies left that they sent me and I'm excited to show them to you! The first item I have for you guys are these cute water transfers.

   They are really cute and I love the design! Purple is one of my favorite colors, and if you've been following my blog, you know I love flowers. For the most part they were really easy to use. I trimmed them to where they were a little bit longer then my nail, so allow for error on my part. Then I placed them on my nail, dried it per instructions, trimmed the excess, and then applied my topcoat.

   Pros: They are a whole lot quicker and easier than actually painting a design like this. And they're cute!

   Cons: Before they dry, they are super slippery and a little hard to keep in place. They are still a little slippery after you dry them, but once the top coat is applied that isn't an issue anymore. It kind of threw me off at first, but you get used to it. There also was some slight wrinkling at the tips, but I almost forgot to blog about about it because all evidence of that disappeared once I applied my top coat!

    ....A few days later: After three days of wear they still look great! There's the smallest bit of chipping on one nail where it lifted and then snagged. I haven't tried to be nicer than usual to my nails, so they're really holding up great.

   Overall I really liked them. It's an easy way to get really cute manicure!

   I hope you guys have a great week!

Review: Stamping Plate

    Last week I got a fun package full of goodies from Born Pretty Store! One of the items I received was this awesome stamping plate.

   I loved the design on this one. It reminded me of a mix between henna and paisley. Ever since about 9th grade I've been in love with traditional henna. The flowy, detailed designs are so amazing!

   I'm not an expert stamper, so I made several attempts on a couple of my fingers, but that's all user error. I haven't stamped in a long time so I'm really out of practice! There were a few spots on the stamping plate where the design wasn't fully etched, but with such a detailed design that has several super thin lines, that's to be expected. The polish went into all the little crevasses and come out great. Overall it worked really well!

   To make the stamping so colorful, I used this really neat technique I learned over at the Lacquered Lawyer. It's called reverse stamping. I like how it lets you spice up a stamp.

   You can use this code, AIBW10 to get 10% off your purchase at Born Pretty!

   I hope you have a great week!

Halloween!

   So I'm a few days late, but you probably expect that by now. Sorry guys! This year for Halloween I painted a cute skeleton design I've had on my Pinterest for a while. Skeletons aren't really my thing, which is why it's been sitting there for a few years, but this one is neat. You might have seen this one about a month ago, I made it into an Etsy set first.

  I started with a black base, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Black Out. I used a combination of my white striper to make the skeleton. I outlined and colored in the basic shape, and then used my dotter to make the teeth and nose, and a brush to make the eyes. To make the teeth I made a row of black dots and then made some smaller white dots inside to get the outlined look. Then I finished it out with a matte top coat.

   As I mentioned, this is in my Etsy shop. It's a little out-of-season now, but you can still look at it! You can find it here.

   I have a review coming up next! The Born Pretty Store has sent me some awesome new goodies....

   Have a great week!