Spring Daisies

   I'm working in a salon now!! If you're in the Louisville area, I'm working at Calssique Nails and Spa. Come see me! I'm not doing everything yet; I'm still in training since I'm freshly out of school (there's a lot that is done differently in salons that isn't done in school). I'm sure it won't be long before I am a full fledged technician though.


   Anyways, on to nails! Last week I had some cute daisies on my fingers.

   I started with a pink base. OPI something-another, I think (it was from work and I forgot to write down the name). Then I painted on the daisies; starting with black, and then painting white over top to get the outlined look.

   I originally didn't have any polka dots in the background. This design evolved oddly; I thought I was only going to paint an accent nail, so the daisies on my ring finger are much closer together than the other nails. Then the next day, I looked at it and it cried out for dots and a matte coat.

   I hope you have a fantastic week!

Butterfly

   I almost don't know where to start, it's been so long! As you might or might not know, I've been in Alabama the past two months helping my mom clean out her parents' house. On top of all that unexpected craziness, my computer died, meaning I couldn't blog. :(  But, my computer was fixed two weeks ago, and I've finally made it home. Be prepared for a flood of posts!

  I was thinking of Spring when I made this design. Even in Alabama, January was still a bit chilly and things hadn't greened up again yet.

   You might recognize this design, I painted one very similar several months ago. As with that design, the base for this butterfly is Girly Bits Cosmetics January Morning.

   To make the butterfly, I used my thinnest brush and black acrylic paint. Once I got a pattern I liked, I filled in the wings with Girly Bits Cosmetics Downtown Funk. The spots were made with gold acrylic paint.

   That was pretty short and sweet, compared to my usual posts! After so many months though, there's only so much that you remember you wanted to say...

   I hope you all have a fantastic 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!

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!

Review: Starfish Studs

   As you know, I was at my best friend's wedding last weekend! It was a destination wedding - Myrtle Beach - and it was tons of fun. We got our nails done, which was a new experience for me; I never can justify paying for it when I can do it (and more) on my own! But she wanted it, and it was fun. It was nice letting someone do all the work!
   Anyways, it was weird having just one solid color on my nails. And since it was a beach wedding, I added some bling to my nails and the other bridesmaid's to spice it up. In my last package from Born Pretty, I received some pretty starfish studs. Once again, I forgot to take a picture before I used them... Oops!

   I really like how the studs look, they are perfect for the beach or a beachy design! I have tiny fingers, so it does look large-ish on me, but they really aren't that big. They stayed on me much longer than I anticipated. I am notorious for catching 3D decorations on everything and picking at them, so they hardly ever last me more than 3 days. But these were on for a week! I guess I was extra careful or something, I don't know.
   My only complaint is that they didn't form to my fingers perfectly. The starfish are curved, but my ring fingers are extra curved, for some reason. Because of this, the stuck out a little on the edges. It wasn't a huge deal, and probably because of my extra curved fingers.
   Overall, I really liked them! They turned out to be the perfect addition to some beach wedding bridesmaids.

   I'm going on vacation again (I guess I'm making up for not traveling much the past few years!), so I won't have too many new designs the next two or three weeks. But I will have some more posts, I've been working on updating a lot of my listings in my shop.

   I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Picnic

   This week I have a cute red plaid to show you all. I really loved my brown plaid I painted near Christmas, so I wanted to try it in some different colors.

   It doesn't look quite as nice as the brown (I forgot my red turned funny colors on me when it gets thinned out), but I'm still happy enough with it.

   I started with a white base, Revlon Colorstay Sure Thing. Next I thinned out my red, Revlon Colorstay Red Carpet, and used a medium brush to draw the diagonal lines. To make the dark square where the lines cross, I used a very thinned out dark red, Covergirl Plum Pudding. Then I finished it off with a top coat.

   I even painted my left hand! Sort of. There was no way I was going to paint plaid on all my fingers on my right hand. So I painted some cute little tickle ants. They want to join in on the picnic fun too!


   I might be a little silent for a while (nothing new, I know, sorry!). My best friend is getting married next week so I have a ton to do to help her get ready and get me ready.

   I hope you all have a fantastic weekend!

Pineapple Accent

   This design was from two weeks ago. I went a little out of order on my last post so that Memorial Day's design would be somewhat close to Memorial Day. I've gotten a little behind again...

   I absolutely loved the pineapple design I painted last month, it's so cute and summery! I've gotten a new brush since then, and I wanted to retry the design with it, as well as make an accent set for my shop. I absolutely love my new brush, it's amazing! It came from Born Pretty, you can find it here.

   The pineapples were made the same way as last time. I used Revlon Colorstay Sure Thing as my base. Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Butterscotch was the base of the pineapples, with a very thinned out OPI A-Peirs To Be Tan for the outlines. Revlon Parfumerie Balsam Fir was used for the fronds/leaves. On the rest of my fingers I used Studio M On The Field.

   You can find this set here in my shop! I also have a full set of pineapples, which you can find here.

   I hope you have a great week!

Review: Nail Art Pen

   I've been super slow about reviewing lately... I get too distracted!
   This week I'm reviewing the last product in my most recent goody bag from Born Pretty. (You can see all my past reviews here.) This last review is on a very neat little nail art pen.

   I've been a beach kick recently, what with my starfish and flamingo nails these past weeks. And I'm still on it! Can you tell I'm ready to go to the beach this summer? :)

   This week I drew a coral pattern on my nails with the nail art pen. The pen is fantastic! It is super easy to use and the polish flows out of it very evenly and easily. It creates very smooth lines and is very similar to using a real pen or pencil (which works great for me, since I started my drawing career with pencils instead of brushes; it was quite the transition for me!).

    In my design, I dotted the lines instead of making one smooth motion, to give the coral more of the correct texture. Don't let that deceive you though, the pen is very capable of pretty, smooth lines.

(Sorry this picture is so dark, Blogger kept darkening my image! Hopefully I can fix it later.)

   Overall, I love it! I will definitely be using it in future designs, and maybe even getting some more colors. I love how thin a line it makes!

   For my design, I started with a base of OPI That's Hula-rious. It's part of their new Hawai'i collection. ...Which I might or might not be in love with; the colors are so pretty! I hardly ever buy OPI because I'm a poor college kid, but I've already bought two from that collection...
   Anyway, after applying my base, I used the nail art pen to draw on the coral. As I mentioned earlier, I dotted the lines to give it a more coral-like texture. Then I added on a few gold caviar beads.

   I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Starfish

   This weekend I painted the cutest little flamingos on my fingers. This weekend was also my brother's graduation from Auburn (which is about 8 hours away from where I live). This week is finals week, so I had to rush down Friday and come back home right after the ceremony on Sunday (who has graduation on a Sunday?) so I could make it to my final on Monday. Talk about a crazy weekend!
   After I had taken off the flamingos and started painting this week's design, I realized... I FORGOT TO TAKE PICTURES OF THE FLAMINGOS!!! I was so mad, I was really looking forward to showing them to you guys!  :(

   So you get to look at a modification of last week's design instead. After I painted and blogged about the starfish, I decided to paint the rest of my fingers with starfish.

   Here's a close up:

   I'm so mad about those flamingos.... I'll just have to paint them again sometime soon!

   I hope you all have a great week!

Starfish

   This week is inspired by Lilly Pulitzer! My roommate recently got me hooked on her. I could never afford anything, but the patterns sure are pretty!

   I thought this print was so cute!

   To make the "ocean waves" background, I started with a white base. I used Revlon Colorstay Sure Thing. Next, thin out a sea green and a blue; I used Revlon Brilliant Strength Entice and L.A. Colors In A Flash. You can also add a little shimmer too. I added a tiny bit of Pure Ice Splash to give it a subtle light blue shimmer.

   Here's a close up of it. You want it to be really thin, like you're using watercolors.
   To make the starfish, I started by painting the basic shape with white acrylic paint. Next, I thinned out some of OPI Aloha from OPI and painted it over the white. I used Revlon Colorstay Buttercup for yellow inside the starfish, and then painted the dots with Aloha.

   I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Paradise

   I've had my toes "newly" painted for a few weeks now, I just never got around to taking pictures of them for some reason! They were inspired by this pin form Nina Nailed It. I really like it; it's very summery! I haven't quite figured out the flowers yet, but I'll get there eventually!

   I started with a base of Revlon Colorstay Jungle. Next, much as in the pin, I sketched out the basic shape of everything with a white striper. For the palm fronds, I used a mix of L'Oreal New Money and a small amount of Studio M On the Field over top New Money.
   For the flowers I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mellow Yellow, and OPI Aloha from OPI as the bases. For the insides, I used Nina Ultra Pro Tangerine Dream (over top Mellow Yellow) and L'Oreal He Red My Mind (over top Aloha from OPI).

   Sorry for only the one picture, but the light was being fickle today.

   I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Pineapple Princess

   Have you ever heard the 60's song, Pineapple Princess? My cousin is in love with that song, it's pretty catchy.

   I found this pin last week, and that song has been stuck in my head ever since! I'm really ready for warm weather (it's supposed to get around 70° this week!), not to mention summer! I've got lots of fun beach plans this year, so I'm excited.

   I started with a white base, Revlon Colorstay Sure Thing. To make the pineapples, I used Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Butterscotch and a dotter. I thinned it out a little to make it a bit easier to spread out.

   Next I outlined the pineapples with a very thinned out OPI A-Piers To Be Tan. I also used that for the diagonals inside the pineapple. Next I painted the leafy part of the pineapple with Revlon Parfumerie Balsam Fir, also thinned out.

   This one really reminds me of a wallpaper or fabric print or something. I think it's really cute! I want to put it in my shop, but I can't decide if I should put it up as it is now, or have the pineapples as just an accent.... I might try both, we'll see!

Update: I've added the set to my store! Just the full set for now, but I'll probably add the accent later. You can get it here.

   I'm in a tropical mood, so be prepared for a few more tropical-inspired mani's in the next few weeks.
   I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Watermelon Seeds

   Two weeks ago I ordered some new polish from Spellbound Nails, a shop on Etsy. She has some really neat polishes, it was hard to choose which to buy first! I ended up getting Watermelon Seeds, a pretty pink polish with small black glitter, and Eat Me, a cream polish with multi-colored glitter that is part of her Alice In Wonderland collection.

  This is three coats of Watermelon seeds. You can get away with two coats, I just wanted to add a little more depth to the overlapping layers of glitter.
   I thought Watermelon Seeds was so cute! I like the color and the small glitter. So many polishes only use large or medium glitter, so it was nice to see a polish that only used small glitter.

   Quite predictably, I created a watermelon mani out of this polish. What with the name and the looks, I couldn't resist! For my design, I combined The Nailasaurus' tutorial with another design I found on Pinterest.

   For the watermelon shell (peel?) accent nail I started with a base of Revlon Parfumerie Balsam Fir. Then I drew on some squiggly lines using L'Oreal New Money. I finished it off by lightly sponging on New Money and then Balsam Fir.
   The other watermelon nails were made by painting on a line of white with a striper and then a thin line of New Money over top the white. I tried painting the green and then the white like in Nailasaurus' tutorial, but I could never get my striper to cooperate and make a thin enough line.

   I hope you all have a fantastic 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!

Strawberries

   I had time to paint my nails this week after all! I had an unexpected day off, so that gave me time to finish everything early and get my own painted. They are the promised strawberries, which is another installment in my Etsy-to-Fingers project.
(Pardon the pictures, the color is a little wonky; it's been raining practically all week so my lighting has been terrible!)

    Overall, I'm satisfied. I had different plans for the leaves, but they weren't cooperating. They work well enough though!

   I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Cherry Red for my red base. I made the seeds by first making white dots with polish from my Stripe Rite striper, then going over the white with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mellow Yellow. For the leaves I also painted with white first, to make sure the color comes out brightly over top the red. Then I painted over the white with L'Oreal New Money. After that I thinned out some of Revlon Parfumerie Balsam Fir with OPI's polish thinner to paint the outlines on the leaves. Then I sealed it all with my fancy Seche Vite top coat!

   I think it's funny that out of all of my designs, I've gotten the most comments from this design. Strawberries are just cute and summery! And I'm sure the bright red helps it to be noticed more too.
   As I mentioned, these are an Etsy set. This is one of the first sets I listed, back when I first decided to sell fake nails. The design looks a little different now, but it's basically the same. You can find the listing here in my shop.
   I painted my toes again, so I should have another update for you sometime next week, once I get around to taking pictures of them.

   I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

More Flowers

   I had another slight deviation in my Etsy-to-Fingers Project. I've been dying to recreate this design for my fingers, so I made it in to an Etsy set and painted it on my fingers yesterday.

   I originally painted it on my toes. I'm almost embarrased to show it, but here it is. They look so different! I think the lines on the leaves make the most difference.

   I was inspired by The Illustrated Nail. I saw a nail wheel of hers on Pinterest and fell in love. Her designs are all so cool!

   This one took a lot longer than my first attempt. I definitely knew more of what I was doing this time around. Thanks to Wonderously Polished's wonderful tip about polish thinner, designs are so much easier to make!

   I used some of my new polishes for this design. Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mellow Yellow was my base. For the flower I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Coral Reef. Revlon Brilliant Strength Entice is the green middle and my red Stripe Rite striper was used for the flower outlines. The purples in the very middle of the flower were China Glaze Sweet Hook (light) and CoverGirl Outlast Vio-last (dark). The leaves were made with L'Oreal New Money as the light base, and my new Revlon Parfumiere Balsam Fir as the dark outline.

   As I mentioned, I did make this into an Etsy set! I'm not sure whether to hope that people buy it or not, it was a ton of work! But it's so pretty, I can't help but want to let other people wear it if they want. It was fun to paint too, so the time doesn't really bother me. I'll just watch movies and have fun!

   You can find the set here in my store.

   In other news, I've started a tumblr! It will have pretty much the same thing as my Facebook (a shorter version of this blog). I'll probably throw in some other junk every now and then, like some pictures of these cute baby birds we have living in the space in between the floor of our top deck and the roof of the lower deck.

   I have some more updates coming later this week, I think.
   I hope you all have a great week!