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!

Water Lilies

   Another interim design. This time I'm waiting to paint my Halloween nails! This week's design was inspired by the amazing Cotton Coney over on Instagram. She has this neat abstract birch design that for some reason reminded me of water lilies. The leaves just made me think of lily pads!

   I started with a dark green base of Revlon Colorstay Jungle. Next I added some white to L'Oreal New Money and applied it somewhat haphazardly with a thicker brush. Over top of that I added L'Oreal New Money (in its original shade). To make the lilies I painted the basic shape in white, and then painted over that with a combination of Revlon Colorstay Cardshark and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Coral Reef.

   I hope you all have a fantastic weekend and Halloween!

Ikat Tutorial

   My first tutorial! I painted these ikat nails last week and as I was blogging I realized that that's a really hard design to describe. I've been talking about making tutorials for a while now, I just never remember!

The Supplies:

Cream Polish - Orly French Manicure Pink Nude

Peach Polish - L'Oreal Orange You Jealous

Black Striper* - Black Stripe Rite

White Striper * - White Stripe Rite

Nail Art Brush

*If you don't have a striper, you can just use regular polish and a thin brush! 

The Steps:

Step 1: Paint on a cream base base polish.

Step 2: Using a white striper, paint 2 jagged triangles.

Step 3: Using a black striper, outline the triangles, keeping it jagged.

Step 4: Paint small peach jagged triangles inside the white with a thin nail art brush.

Step 5: Using a black striper paint very small jagged triangles inside the peach triangle.

Have a wonderful week!

Ikat and 100th Post!

   This is my 100th post! I didn't even realize it until I went to write this post. If I had been on top of things I might have come up with some fun giveaway or something. Oh well. I'll find another excuse for it!

   This week I'm being super trendy! In case you've never noticed, I'm not super trendy. I like what I like and don't change it around much. Not that I'm unfashionable, I just don't like having to change everything every few years as the trends change!

  Ever since it became more popular, I've thought that ikat was a neat design. I've just never gotten around to painting it before now. I used L'Oreal Orange You Jealous for the peachy-pink splash of color.

   To make the ikat design, I started with my favorite base, Orly French Manicure Pink Nude. I don't understand the name, because it's definitely not pink. It's cream. But whatever. Then I painted two white triangles on my nail, one at the top and one on the bottom. I made the edges jagged with my white striper. I'll have to do a tutorial on this design sometime, it's kind of hard to explain!

   Next I used my black striper to make a jagged outline on the top of each triangle. I used L'Oreal Orange You Jealous inside the triangles and then used my striper to make a small black triangle inside the peach triangle.

   Surprisingly, my right hand turned out looking pretty good! I actually like how it looks a little better than my left hand, which is definitely a first.
   This will definitely get put in my shop at some point, which is probably when the tutorial will be made.

   I hope you all have a fantastic weekend!

**Update: I've made a tutorial! You can see it here. This design has also been put in my shop, you can find it here.

Halloween Patches

   I've started early on Halloween designs! I have two I want to paint so I can get the pictures up in my shop (the skeletons and Frankenstein tips), plus one other I've had my eye on for a year or so, which is the one I have on now.

  I've seen several different takes on this design, the most common being a version of Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas. I almost did that, and I probably will for Etsy, but the version I did says 'Halloween' to me more than Sally.

   I started with a green base, L'Oreal New Money. I just painted one thin coat so that the other two colors wouldn't potentially not show as brightly. Next I drew on some lines with my black striper. Just the outlines, the stitches will come later.

   After the lines dried, I filled in the spaces I wanted purple. I used Nina Ultra Pro Plum of the Earth. Next I filled in the triangles I wanted to be green (I had made the first coat thin, so the green needed another round of paint). Then I filled in the remaining spaces with orange, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Sun Kissed.

   Next I went back over my black outlines, and then added the small black stitches, all with my striper. Then I sealed it with a top coat. I'm still using Seche Vite, despite the smell and the price. It's a really good top coat!

   I hope you all have a fantastic week! I probably won't have anything new for you guys until this weekend. I'm going to be super busy this week at school.