Merry Christmas!

   Merry Christmas Eve!

   This year, as usual, I couldn't pick just one thing to paint. So I made a Christmas collage, Cotton Coney style.

   I started with a base of Girly Bits Cosmetics January Morning. Then I added on stockings, candy canes, presents, and a tree.

   To make the tree, I used some striping tape to mark off the space for the tree. (I used a great tape dispenser that I'll have to tell you all about soon...) The green I used was Finger Paints Sketch N Etch, and I added a very thin layer of Zoya Pixie Dust Vega over top to give it some sparkle. I topped the tree off (literally, ha!) with a tiny gold stud.

   The candy canes, stockings, and presents were all made with either my red striper or Revlon Parfumerie Balsam Fir. The white stripes and stocking tops were made with my white striper, and the gold ribbon on the presents was some polish I got as a gift (Love brand, with no color name).
   I also added some tiny iridescent hexagon glitters in the empty spaces ...so it didn't look so empty. And to make it glittery.  (Man, I am excelling at writing today....) Then I topped it off with a matte coat!

   I hope you all have a good time this Christmas, but I know it's not always as fun for some as it is for others. :/

   Merry Christmas!

Star Wars!

   Those of you that follow my Instagram saw my sneak peak a few days ago. I saw The Force Awakens on opening day!! It was really good. They definitely knew that you knew that there is another movie coming, so they didn't care about giant cliff hangers, but it was good!

  Anyway, you know know some Star Wars nails had to be made for the night.

   I started with a base of Nina Ultra Pro Glamrock. It is one of my favorites bases for anything star related.

   To make the letters, I used Revlon Gel Envy Casino Lights and my favorite teeny tiny brush from Born Pretty.

   I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!
   (And if you didn't see Star Wars... go see it!)

Christmas Ornaments

   I'm so excited that it's December and I can officially start Christmas and winter designs. Especially since I have a beautiful new holo from Girly Bits Cosmetics, called January Morning. It is the perfect winter polish!

   I've been wanting to paint some ornaments for a while. I based these of old retro ornaments.

   I made the ornaments with black and red acrylic paint, and a green polish pen.

   I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Butterfly Wings

   I am in love with this set!

   I've never painted butterfly wings before, but I have always wanted to try. A friend at school and I have been trying to get her nails painted for months, and we finally fit it in on her last day.

   Isn't it so pretty and sparkly?! I used all holos for this design. We couldn't resist their shiny-ness! And they were all Girly Bits Cosmetics polishes... I guess she could be a walking ad for them. :)
   I used Downtown Funk for the wings. January Morning is the pretty white holo behind the half butterfly. Well Isn't That Special is the purple in the wings of the half butterfly.
   For the outlines and dots I used black and white acrylic paints and my favorite super tin brush.

   I just can't stop looking at this one! Partly because I like how the design turned out, but also because of the sparkle....

   Anyway, I sculpted these out (they are acrylic nails, which I don't think I mentioned). Looking at the pictures, I'd love to go back and reshape a couple; some of them look a little fatter than the others. But it's not too bad. Picky Sarah strikes again!


   Well, that was a super distracted post. If you can get past all the "I love holos" it might be an intelligible post!

   I hope you all have a fantastic week!

3D Acrylic Flowers

   My friend at school wanted me to give her some pretty nails before I left, so I gave her some 3D acrylic nails.

   We found a pretty picture on Instagram that she wanted on her nails. (I won't show you the original, mine looks nothing like it!)
   I'd love to explain the process to you, but it would probably take too long, and I'm not sure if I'd be able to!

   I started with a base of black polish, and then put the acrylic flowers on top of the polish. I used blue and white premixed acrylics. I've mixed my own, but it's a lot of work to get the color just right!


   Have a fantastic week!

Gold Glitter Acrylics

   I'm slowly getting better with my acrylics. They don't ever look bad, but perfectionist Sarah likes them to look just so! Last week I put some acrylics on a fellow student and painted them up pretty for her.

  I sculpted them out, because I need the practice. (For those of you that don't know the lingo, sculpting is applying acrylic over a disposable form. You can also apply nail tips and put the acrylic over the tips instead. For me, sculpts are quicker, but tips are easier. So I need the practice!)

 

   On her nails, I used Cover Girl Boundless Color Plum Pudding and Essie Summit of Style.

   By the way, I'm almost done with nail school! I won't be licensed until I take my state test in January, but I graduate Tuesday!!

   I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Pumpkins

   Still a week late, but oh well. I'll get there! These are my Thanksgiving week nails.

   They were inspired by Cotton Coney. She creates some of the most detailed and intricate designs. It's crazy what she can do!

  It's very detailed and I used lots of polishes, so I won't go into a lot of detail. I'd have a super long post!

   Suffice to say, I started with the pumpkins and went out from there. Pumpkin shape, detail, grassy stuff, detail, flower, etc. You get the idea! If you ever have questions about a design, you can always email me.

   My Thanksgiving this year was busier than years past. I learned what it was like to be a responsible adult that had to help prepare the house and food before everyone came over! It was still fun though. Seeing and visiting with the family is always good.

   I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Thanksgiving Turkey

   I'm still behind, but only by a week this time! Here's a Thanksgiving design I painted on a fellow student.

   Aren't they cute? We even gave them crazy eyes.

   The majority of her nails were painted with OPI Lincoln Park After Dark. The turkey was made using Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Branch Out. His tail feathers were painted with Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Butterscotch, L'Oreal He Red My Mind, and L'Oreal Orange You Jealous.

  I hope you all had an enjoyable Thanksgiving (those that celebrate it, of course). Have a fantastic week!

Blueberries

   I ordered some new polish, and they are both holos! I'm telling you, I'm officially addicted to them like the rest of you. I don't know what took me so long...

   This is Girly Bits Cosmetics Downtown Funk in bright sunlight and indoor light. It's such a pretty holo!

   (This isn't a very color correct image for Downtown Funk, but you've already seen some in the first two images.)
 
   I made some vines with berries (blueberries?) on this design. It ended up looking kind of wintery.... I started by painting the vines with thinned out OPI A-Piers to Be Tan and Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Branch Out. To make the berries, I used Aurora Gel Effect Inky Dinky, and highlighted them with L'Oreal Royally Reinvented. The leaves were made with Studio M On the Field and Revlon Parfumerie Balsam Fir.


   I hope you all have a great week!

Peacock Inspired

   I've been inspired by Pier 1 Imports again. This time by a cute peacock wicker headboard.

   I thought it was so pretty! My design is only loosely inspired, so don't expect anything super fancy.

   My base is Girly Bits Cosmetics Well Isn't That Special. I love this color! I used white acrylic paint and a very thin brush to make the design.

   I forgot to take pictures of this design, so this is the only one I have.... Sorry!

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!