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!

Orange Flowers

   About a year and a half ago I painted this set for a friend at church to wear on her trip to Hawaii. I've since had it up on my Etsy shop and though tit was about time I got around to painting it on my own fingers!

   It was originally an attempt at one-stroking some flowers. I ended up not being very  good at it, so it slowly morphed into this version, where all I did was paint some white petals and then paint a layer of orange over top (with it being thinner on the top and thicker in the middle of the flower).

   To make this set, I started with a base of Pure Ice Honey Do. It's a really old color that I've had for years (since I first started nail art almost 3 years ago!), so you might not be able to buy it anymore. To make the flowers I used Revlon Colorstay Sure Thing and Nina Ultra Pro Tangerine Dream. The dots and swirls were also made with Sure Thing.

   You can find it in my shop through the link at the top of the post.

   I hope you all have a fantastic 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!

Illuminated (Again)

   The illumination book strikes again! I've yet to try out any actual illumination, but I'm still in love with the pictures in my how-to book. This week (I'm finally caught up!), I was inspired by one of the corner details in a border illumination shown in the book.

   There was actually a lot more to the detail, but I liked this little quarter of it best for my design. It was a pretty flower-like deisgn, with these pointier petals around the outside (it had some softer, round inside petals that were small).

   To make this design, I started out with Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Jungle Gem. Then I thinned out a little bit of Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Barracuda, to make it a little easier to create the thin lines of the petals. For the yellow insides and dots, I used Revlon Colorstay Buttercup.

   I think I'm going to have to turn to the calligraphy book more often for my inspiration, it has such pretty designs! I might also put this set up in my shop; I think it might go over well.

   I hope you all have a great week!

Alice In Wonderland

  Last week, I showed you guys one of the polishes I bought from Spellbound Nails, Watermelon Seeds. This week I have the second one, Eat Me, to show you all. It's part of her Alice In Wonderland collection, so of course I had to paint an Alice in Wonderland themed design.

   I forgot to take a shot of the polish before I painted on it, but you can more or less figure it out. It's a cream polish with multicolored glitter. It kind of reminded me of the caterpillar and his colorful smoke from Disney's animated version. Using Nina Ultra Pro Plum Perspective, I wrote "who are you," trying to mimic the wispy-ness of his smokey letters.

   On my left hand I made an "eat me" tag using a white and black striper, as well a small brush for the letters. It looked a little lonely, so I added a teacup to go with the whole food theme. It's kind of hard to see though. I used Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Barracuda for the blue, and a white striper for the white. A tiny bit of Maybelline Color Show Neutral Statement worked well for the tea.


   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!

Cinderella Re-do

   In honor of Disney's new Cinderella movie coming out this month (next week!!), I revamped my old Cinderella set two weeks ago.

   It's a lot like the previous design, the only difference is the carriage. As in the old design, the light blue nails are based off her dress. I started with a base of Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Barracuda. I used Nina Ultra Pro French White for the "poufs" on her skirt.

   For her carriage, this time I started with a completely different background. I started with a base of Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Jungle Gem and then painted a coat of Maybelline Color Show Crystal Statement to give it the shiny-sparkley finish. To make the carriage, I started with my cream striper to make the pumpkin shape. Next I painted on the wheels with Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Buttercup using a thin brush. I used Buttercup for the door outline and the pumpkin stem as well. For the curtains in the door window I used a red striper. Lastly, I added the white stars with some white acrylic paint and the tip of a small brush.

   You can find the set here in my shop, as well as the old version. They're in the same listing, you just choose an option.

   I hope you all have a great week!

Black Matte Glitter Gradient

   So, it's official - this semester is nuts! I've had so much going on the past few months it's been hard to keep up. It's looking like things will be getting back to normal, but we'll see... I hope it does!
   This design (from about three weeks ago) is based off a custom order I had a few months ago.

   The original design had the glitter on just the ring finger, but for me, I liked it better with all the nails glittered. For the glitter gradient I mainly used Finger Paints Wrapped in Ribbon (a fine glitter) and a little bit of Wet 'N Wild Fergie Glamorous (large glitter). My base was a black polish, I used Finger Paints Black Expressionism. Then I topped it all with a matte top coat!

   This one is available in my shop, you can find it here.

   I hope you all have a great week!

French Fairy Tales

   In addition to loving calligraphy, I also love fairy tales! I might have mentioned this once or twice before... This week's mani was inspired by a fairy tale in one of my old fairy tale books, simply titled, French Fairy Tales. It has three or four longer tales, more like a chapter book.

   The first story, called Blondine, Bonne-Biche, and Beau-Minon, is about a princess who tricked into wondering into the enchanted forest by a boy who was overcome with a love for bonbons. There's a lot more to the story than that, but it would take a while to tell. You can read the story here.

   I took my inspiration from her carriage and the forbidden lilac woods. This passage: "
The garden in which Blondine drove in her little carriage, drawn by ostriches and guided by her little coachman, Gourmandinet, was separated by a grating from an immense and magnificent forest, called the Forest of Lilacs because during the whole year these lilacs were always covered with superb flowers. No one, however, entered these woods. It was well known that it was enchanted ground and that if you once entered there you could never hope to escape."
  I thought an ostrich-pulled carriage was just too funny!

   I also really liked the idea of lilac woods, it sounded really pretty. After doing some research, it seemed a little hard to draw, so I went with some wisteria instead. It's still purple, right? Besides, wisteria is just so darn pretty! I love how it hangs down. If I could ever grow some, I would! I'm not too thrilled about how the ostrich came out, but I'm pleased with the rest of it.

   To make the lilac/wisteria woods, I started with a cream base. Then I drew on some trunks using Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Branch Out. For the purple I used three different shades of purple; China Glaze Sweet Hook, Nina Ultra Pro Lilac-ing Discipline, and OPI I Vant to Bite Your Neck. For the grass, two greens; Revlon Colorstay Spainsh Moss and L'Oreal New Money. To get the dappled look in the grass and wisteria, I thinned out the polishes and dabbed them on somewhat haphazardly.
   The carriage was made with white, black, and Maybelline Color Show Bold Gold. The ostrich with China Glaze Pelican Grey, Maybelline Color Show Neutral Statement, white, and black.

   I think I wold have loved this design if it looked more like my left hand - all wisteria woods and no carriage! The carriage and ostrich aren't bad, but (as always) it looked a bit different in my head. Not too terrible though for my first real attempt at an full animal. I didn't know what to expect!

   I hope you all have a fantastic weekend! 

Review: Chameleon Polish!

   I received some really cool polish in the mail last week! Born Pretty sent me a bottle of their new chameleon polish. It's a holo polish that changes color in different lights. I received a blue-purple-orange color, #201, and it's so pretty!
   As always, you can use this coupon code, AIBW10, to get 10% off your order at Born Pretty!

    I've taken lots of photos for this one, so you can see it in many different lights. It essentially looks the same all the time, but different lights can create some slight changes in how it looks and changes color.
   Here it is under a yellowish light:

   You see the orange-gold color very well in the yellow light, and the purple is brighter, almost a little pink.
   Under a more blueish light:

   In the blue light, the blue really pops. You don't see the orange-gold at all, and the purple requires a lot of effort to completely "cover" the nail. It's such a pretty deep shade of blue under the blue light!
   In natural light:

   I think the purple looks prettiest (to me) in the natural light. The orange-gold has turned an interesting shade too, it's a little redder, I think.

   I think this is such a neat and pretty polish. I love how it changes colors. The whole time I was wearing it, I was constantly wiggling my fingers back and forth so I could watch the colors change!
   With this polish, you have to wear one coat of black polish to really help the color pop and look right. In the photos I had on one layer of black and two coats of the chameleon.
    There are lots of pretty colors in the collection; there are a couple that I think I'm going to need to try out soon....

   As usual, I did have to paint some sort of design on; you can't have plain polish! (Unless you're busy, of course!)

   I never quite know what to paint on shiny and holographic polishes... For some reason they kind of freak me out with designs! So for this one I went kind of simple. I glued a black rhinestone on to my middle fingers, and then painted some swirls coming out of it with some black acrylic paint.
   (This last set of pictures were taken in natural light, if you were wondering.)

   I've been working on a new design tonight! I'm trying my hand at a scene. I don't think it's too terrible for a first attempt, but then I am sometimes slightly biased....

   I hope you all have a fantastic week!