XOXO

   I have a new set up in my shop! And I must say, I really love it. I keep hoping I'll find time to paint it on my own nails this Valentine's Day. (I haven't been posting much recently because I'm down south helping my mom clean out her parents' house this month and last month.)

   I started with a white base, and then added a layer of Girly Bits January Morning. I just love that polish!

   I used a new black water-based paint that I bought from ?. I really like it so far; it's nice and thin, but not too thin. I used my favorite super thin brush from Born Pretty Store.

   For the thumbs, I outlined the heart, and then placed red glitter inside of it.

 
   This set is up in my shop, so check it out! I don't have time to deliver to you by this Valentine's Day, but you can always keep it in mind for the next! :)

   You can find it here in my shop.


   I hope you all have a fantastic week!

New Sets!

   I have some new sets available in my shop! I've taken way too long to put something new up. I've had several fall and Christmas sets ready for a while, but I just got busy and forgot about them. So they'll just go up next season instead!

   This first set is one I've been wanting to remake for months. I didn't like my first version of Pocahontas nails, but it was the best I could come up with at the time. This version has 1 similar nail, her turquoise necklace. The others are new. Her tattoo on her arm is the other accent nail, and the other three are based off the Colors of the Wind song.

   You can find it here in my shop.

   My Sleeping Beauty inspired set has been a long time coming. When I made the Disney Princess sets, I never could get the design right. Six months later, I finally got it! And, yes, you can get it in pink.

   You can find the set here in my shop.

   This is my first new Valentine's set! I have plans for another one that will be neat... 

   You can find this one here in my shop.

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!

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!

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!

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!

Halloween in... Disney World!

  ...Unfortunately, I'm not the lucky lady who gets to go. Somehow, my parents have neglected to ever take me there... Which I might or might not be slightly upset about. But hey, it's not like I didn't get to go to lots of other really cool places most people don't get to visit. So I guess it evens out.
   Anyways, I had a customer contact me about creating a couple custom sets for her trip to Disney World around Halloween. Super cool, right? It's got to be so much fun to go there on any holiday, but especially Halloween.

  The first set was a Hocus Pocus themed set. I've never really been a huge fan of that movie (I know, blasphemy!), but it was still really fun to create. She wanted four accents; the black flame candle, Thackery Binx (in cat form), the spell book, and Billy Butcherson.

   To keep it short, the main colors I used were purple with a glitter top coat (OPI I Vant to Bite Your Neck and Finger Paints Glitter Top Coat), green (L'Oreal New Money), and a really neat black with a slight red shimmer (OPI Midnight in Moscow).

   The other set she requested was a Mickey Mouse inspired set. For the thumbs, I used a base of CND Vinylux Grommet and my red striper. The black glitter is Nina Ultra Pro Glam Rock. The red glitter is Wet 'N Wild Fergie No Place Like Home (and one of my favorites!).


   I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Vintage Roses

   Sorry I've been so silent, I've been of vacationing and then working on a boat load of orders. Hopefully now that I'm done with summer vacations and getting ready for school, things will quiet down and I'll be posting and painting more regularly.

   This week I painted an old Etsy set.

   I wasn't a fan of this set originally - I like my flowers and things to be more realistic usually. But after painting it recently for an order, it started to grow on me.

   I started with a base of OPI My Dogsled Is A Hybrid and Revlon Colorstay Sure Thing. I used a white striper to make the dots and stripes. To make the roses, I started with Finger Paints Far Out Fuchsia. Then I swirled on various amounts of Revlon Colorstay Card Shark and Finger Paints Plum Perspective.


   Have a great week!

New Polishes!

   I have a ton of new polishes now, thanks to Wondrously Polished! She was moving last week and had to clean out a lot of her stash, so she was selling it to whoever wanted it. I have a bunch of pretty ones now!

   I have a bunch of swatches for you all too.

   This is two coats of Sephora's Formula X Ur . It's a neat polish. It's very subtly textured, similar to those sand polishes that were really popular last year or so.

   I hate removing glitter polish (I haven't discovered a great method for me yet), so for the glitters that I'm swatching I just put on some fake nails. This is Wet-n-Wild Cost Is No Issue. I don't really need this description, it's all on the picture! I really liked how this one looked over top a teal.

   I've always said I don't like holos, but I was so wrong! I own two now and I love them! This is Liquid Sky Lacquer What Was Your Name Again, around 3 coats, I think. Holos are so shiny and pretty......

   This is two coats of Rescue Beauty Lounge Insouciant. It's a really neat purpley-grey polish, with a slight blue sheen that you can see in the sun. I really like this color!

   Three coats of Girly Bits Well Isn't That Special, another pretty holo! I really like this shade of purple; this is the reason purple is one of my favorite colors.

   This is more or less one coat of Hare Polish's Teen Queen, a pretty blue and pink glitter. I love how it looks over these two colors, Spelling Bee and That's Hula-rious. It reminds me of spring and speckled bird's eggs.


   I don't have a swatch of Model's Own , it's essentially the same as a polish I already own, Studio M On the Field. If you really want to see it, you can stop in my shop and take a peek.

   I've updated all of my solid set listings over my vacation, so once my shop is open again you should be able to find all of these in my shop.

   I've been traveling all over the south this week, so I don't have any new designs. I thought I'd have one to show you all, but I forgot to take a picture. Something about traveling just makes me forget...


   Anyways, I should have more soon! I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Daisies and Dots

   Last week I was a little lazy... I've been in a bit of a creative slump recently. I really hope I pull out of it soon! So to make up for it, I painted an old Etsy set. Believe it or not, but I'm still trying to paint all of my Etsy sets onto my own nails. I've just gotten really slow at it!

   This design is crazy simple and really easy to recreate. I started with a base of Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure. Next, using a white striper, I essentially made an asterisk *. I made each petal individually (it's easier for me that way), but you could certianlly make it however you want! Next I used a small-medium sized dotter to make the yellow centers. I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mellow Yellow. Lastly, I used my smallest dotter to make the white dots inbetween flowers. If you don't have a dotting tool, then a toothpick or small brush would also work!

   You can find the Etsy set here in my shop. It's great for spring! (Shameless plug, I know, but sometimes you have to!)

   I hope you all have a great week!

New Spring Sets

   I have a few new sets to show you all this week! They are all old designs, but they're new to my shop. They're almost all flowers, so they are just in time for spring (and summer!).

   This first one you saw in my last post. I really liked how it turned out and think it will go over well with my customers. You can find it here in my shop.

   This one is from several months ago (you can read the original post here). I've always really liked this one; colorful and trendy, but simple. It was inspired by some fabric that always reminds me of an art deco print. You can find the set here in my shop.

   This one was inspired by some pretty stationary by the Rifle Paper Company. You can see the original post from a few months ago here. You can find the set here in my shop.

   This last one was a custom set for a customer on Etsy. You can read the original post here and find it in my shop here.

  I hope you all have a fabulous week/weekend!

Christmas Sweater

   Several months ago I painted this Christmas sweater set for my Etsy store, along with some other winter designs. Now that it's officially winter, it's time to paint them on my own fingers!

   I absolutely love sweaters, they're so warm and comfy! For this design I started with my favorite base, Orly French Manicure Pink Nude. The red I used was Revlon Colorstay Red Carpet, and the green was Studio M On the Field.

   To make the stars/flowers, I started with making the middle dot. Then I painted each diamond, going all the way around the circle, one at a time. I tried making the diamonds first when I first created the design, but making the dot first is a whole lot easier for me. It really helped me keep things evened out.

   For the other nails, I started with a wide red line. Next I added the small squares to make the red strip have an uneven line. I painted the green line with a thin brush. To make the green squares, I started by drafting it first in white so that the green pops against the red. Then I just painted over the white in green, fixing any mistakes with a red striper and a short brush (I can't control the long ones very well).

   As I mentioned, I do have this set in my shop if any of you are interested in it! You can find it here.

   I hope you all have a fantastic 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!

New Sets

   As promised last week, I have the rest of the evidence of my super-productiveness last week. I had planned to post them right after the first batch, but I was too excited about those cute foxes!

   I think this one will be a good summer design. Tribal things always seem to be at their height during the summer. I started with a base of L'Oreal Walk on the Beach and then used a small brush to paint on the teal triangle (Studio M Blue Ming). Then I just used my striper for all the black.
   You can find this here in my shop.

   I don't know what I think of this one yet. I like it, but at the same time I don't. I started with the same base, Walk on the Beach. Then I made three black lines with my striper, the top and bottom lines, and then one in the middle. Then I made diagonal black lines and filled the spaces with varying shades of brown (I used 3 shades). After that I went back over the black lines and then sealed it with a topcoat.
   You can find this here in my shop.

   This design is currently on my toes! I need to take a picture of them before I take it off. I forgot to get last months, so I 'll have to do better this time! This design is a simple glitter gradient. My base is Finger Paints Masterpiece of Minimalism and the glitter I used is Orly Glam FX Watch It Glitter.
   You can find it here in my shop.

   I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Fall Fox

   I am super in love with these foxes! They're so cute!

   I originally found it on Pinterest, and I knew I had to paint it! It was just so cute! I started with my favorite cream base, Orly French Manicure Softest White. To make the fox, I started with L'Oreal He Red My Mind. I used a white striper for all of the white on him, and black on a dotter for his feet, eyes, and nose. His ear shadowing was made with a thinned out brown (Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Branch Out).

   For the leaves I used orange (L'Oreal He Red My Mind), green (Revlon Colorstay Spanish Moss), yellow (Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Butterscotch), and brown (Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Branch Out), all slightly thinned.

   I also made this in to an Etsy set, so you can buy it! You can find it here in my shop. I made the fake set first, so of course it looks slightly better.

   I hope you guys had a fantastic weekend! I'm on my fall break, so I know I will! My mom went to the Biltmore mansion for the weekend. I'll have to show you some pictures when I get back.

Rhinestones and Rainbows

   I was cleaning out my nail folder this week and I found some custom orders from last month that I never showed you guys.
  
   The first one is a rainbow set I made for a wedding-goer.

   I really liked her idea of having one rainbow spreading over 5 fingers instead of one finger you usually see. I think that looks nicer (and it's easier to paint!). I used my favorite cream base (Orly French Manicure Softest White). For the rainbow I used Revlon Colorstay Red Carpet, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Sun Kissed, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mellow Yellow, L'Oreal New Money, Sally Hansen Xtreme WEar Blue Me Away, and L'Oreal Royally Reinvented.

   This next one is very different from what I normally do. It not only has small 3mm rhintestones, but it also has a huge 4-rhinestone set!

   I personally would not want to wear it, but I understand the attraction to it! The biggest beef I had with the whole design was the the larger rhinestone set pokes way out from the nail, probably 2-3mm at some points. For me, I know I would get it caught on everything and loose it withing the first day. But I realize some people are more careful than me. Probably lots more! I ordered the rhinestones from Born Pretty Store. They have a huge selection!

   I hope you all have a fantastic weekend!

Fall is Coming...!

   Like last year, Fall has taken me over! I'm super excited for it and still convince that it is the best season ever. I feel really sorry for you guys that don't really get this season. You're missing out!
   I haven't really painted any fall designs on my own fingers yet, but I have made up a few sets for my Etsy store!

   This first one is a design you might have seen before; I painted it on my fingers not quite two years ago.

  I bought a new brown a couple weeks ago - Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Branch Out - and, despite not liking it at first, it has become one of my favorite bases. For the leaves I drew them out with a white striper first (so the colors would be bright) and then used orange, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Sun Kissed, red, L'Oreal He Red My Mind, and green, L'Oreal New Money. I used a small brush to add in the brown veins, and then topped it with a matte coat.
   You can find this here in my shop.

   This next design was inspired by some cute Halloween fabric I found at work (JoAnn Fabrics). You can see it here.

   It didn't turn out quite like I wanted, but I think it's still cute! I'll probably tweak it at some point. I started with a base of Revlon Colorstay Indigo Night. Then I drew on the pumpkin shapes with my white striper and then went over them in yellow, Revlon Colorstay Buttercup, red, L'Oreal He Red My Mind, or orange, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Sun Kissed. I painted the crows and the designs in the pumpkins with some black polish and a small brush, then I gave the crows their eyes and beaks. I finished this one with a matte topcoat as well.
   You can find this here in my shop.

   This last one was inspired by a cute Halloween pin I found.

   It's really simple and easy to make, and has the added bonus of being cute! I started this one with a very thin nail-toned base (the base is optional, I just use it because I like to). I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Sun Kissed to make the orange tip. Then I used my black striper to creating the stitching/Frankenstein look.
   You can find this here in my shop.

   You can find all of my Fall and Halloween designs in this section of my shop!

   That's all for now. Last week was busy so I didn't really paint a design on my fingers. My roommate and I had matching brown glittered fingers. I meant to take a picture for you guys (it was a really pretty brown!), but I forgot to take it before I went home over the weekend, and then I didn't have my camera, and then it started peeling.... But I should have something new soon!

   I hope you all have a fantastic week!