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!

Illuminated Nails

   I'm really excited to show you guys this week's design! I bought a really neat book that shows some ways to illuminate pages and whatnot. I'm really excited to try it out, I just need some free time... In the mean time, I painted an illumination-inspired mani!

   To make this design, you need a lot of movies.... And some polish and tiny brushes! I started with my favorite base, Orly French Manicure Pink Nude. I made the vines/outline with a very thinned out Revlon Colorstay Jungle. To fill in the leaves, I used Studio M On the Field. The flowers were filled with either Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Blue Me Away (blue), CoverGirl Outlast Vio-last (purple), or Revlon Colorstay Red Carpet (red).

  I think this is one of my favorites! It's so pretty and detailed. Details are my favorite, it's part of why I like macro photography so much!

  I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Peacock Stamp Review

   Last week I finally got around to my final review from my bag of goodies from Born Pretty! I'm desperately hoping things will quiet down again soon. This first week of class hasn't gone as anyone planned, and we all hope it never happens again!
   This review is on a really pretty peacock stamping plate, #BP-04. You can use code AIBW10 to get 10% off your order at Born Pretty.

  It's full of really pretty peacock prints. The main, largest design is really pretty. It's what first caught my eye. Then as I started thinking about my design and another smaller design caught my attention. I liked the shape of this one, and the three distinct feathers. It was really easy to apply, which is great! Like my last stamped design, I used reverse stamping. To get the stamp on two fingers, I just cut the design in half before placing it on my fingers.

   For the stamped fingers, I started out with a base of Orly French Manicure Pink Nude. I painted Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Jungle Gem. It is a little dark in places; when I went to put the design on my finger, I pushed on it too hard so I smudged it and had to go back in and fix it. The green I used was Pure Ice Saddle Me Up, and the yellow was Pure Ice Excuse Me. For my other fingers I used Zoya Pixie Dust Vega again. I just love that glitter! And I thought it was appropriate to have flashy polish with a flashy bird.

   (Fogrive the chipping. Like I said, it's been crazy here.)
   I also tried out a new top coat with this design, Revlon Transforming Effects Matte Pearl  Glaze. It's so pretty! I don't know if you can really see it, it was really hard to get a picture of it. I put a gloss coat over top of it because I thought gloss was better with this design than the matte.

   I hope your all's week was better than mine. Here's for a better week!

Pixie Dust

   I'm finally caught up! Hooray! This week I am trying out some new polish; two of the Zoya Pixie Dust collection, Lux and Vega. They're so pretty!

   This is three coats of both Vega and Lux. If you don't put on a top coat it has a neat bumpy texture. I'm way to distracted by textures, so I end up rubbing it all the time. And then I catch it on everything. Textures don't work for me, they never last more than two days between my rubbing and getting caught on everything. So I added two layers of top coat to smooth it out.

   The blue is Vega, and the pink Lux. I love how sparkly they are! Vega is definitely my favorite, but I just like a good light blue. Especially in glitter. Blue glitter is just so pretty! Lux is nice too, but it's not quite as pink as I thought. Although looking back at other pictures, I'm not sure why I thought is would be more pink because it is definitely not!

   Sorry for the crappy picture, it got cloudy so my light disappeared! I wanted to show you guys both colors in the bottle and on my nails. I'm going to try and take another one tomorrow, so hopefully the light will be good!

   I hope you all have a fantastic week! Tomorrow is my last day at work until March, so hopefully I'll become a regular blogger again.

DIY Flower Decal Trial

   So I'm trying out a new idea for my Etsy shop. I found a neat idea on another blog for making nail polish wraps. I'm not sure the idea will pan out, I've run into some problems I need to look at again and get some more opinions on.

   I chose the plastic bag route instead of the wax paper for this design. For me I painted 8 flower nails and 2 yellow nails. You just paint your base color in a basic nail shape and then fill it in with your design! Then once it's dried (about 10-20 minutes after painting your top coat), carefully peel it off and place it on your nail. Anything extra can be easily removed with nail polish remover.

   For this design I started with a base of Sally Hansen Jungle Gem and on my ring finger Revlon Colorstay Buttercup. To make the pink flowers I started with Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Don't Be Leotardy mixed with a bit of white. Then I used plain Leotardy, and then Finger Paints Plum Perspective mixed with a bit of white. To make the orange flowers I started with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Sun Kissed mixed with white. Then regular Sun Kissed, and then a small amount of L'Oreal He Read My Mind. The green leaves were L'Oreal New Money.

   The problem I'm stuck on with the wraps is that they seem to loose their stickiness after a while. They can still be applied, you just have to add in an extra step - applying a base coat and pressing on the wrap once the base polish is halfway dry. I'm not sure people will want to mess with the extra step. I'm sending a couple out to a few people to get their opinions!

   I hope you have a fantastic week!

New Sets!

   In continuation of sorting through old posts and old designs, I came across some new sets I had painted throughout the past month.

   This first one is a design that I painted as a custom set for a customer through Etsy.

   I like this one, the glitter is really pretty! I think I'll have to make an option for all nails to have the glitter, I think it would look really nice.
   For the glitter I used a combination of fine glitter, Finger Paints Wrapped in Ribbon, and a slight bit of a chunkier glitter, Wet 'N Wild Fergie Glamorous. Then I painted on a matte coat.


   This next set was also a custom set for a customer on Etsy.

   I really liked this one too. It's different and I've never used almond nails before, but I think it looks nice!
   I used Finger Paints Wrapped in Ribbon  for the glitter lines. The blue I used was one one layer of Orly Teal Unreal. It's a thinner polish, so one layer gave it a watercolor effect. I made the black lines with my black striper, and my base color was Orly French Manicure Pink Nude.
   The studs I used were from a neat little set from Walmart, Sally Hansen I Heart Nail Art Studs. I came with a tube of the studs here, as well as a tube each of clear and black rhinestones. The black ones look nice, but I'm not impressed by the clear. I guess I'm spoiled by more realistic ones? Or I'm just picky...

   I'm officially caught up! Sort of. I painted my nails again two days ago, but I don't think that counts!

   I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Glitter and Rudolph

   Like I said in my last post, despite not posting much recently, I have been busy painting! I have two new sets to show you guys.
   Back before I left for home, I painted my roommate's nails with a cute Rudolph design.

   I started with my favorite base, Orly French Manicure Pink Nude. Which still isn't pink. Ha. I painted the dots using Revlon Colorstay Red Carpet and Studio M On the Field. To make Rudolph, I started with his head an ears, using Nina Ultra Pro Beige-A Vu. To make the nose I used Red Carpet again,  and Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Branch Out for the antlers. The eyes were made with white and black.


   This next set I think I painted around Christmas. Maybe as an interim between whatever I had before and the design I painted for Christmas? Who knows, it's been too long!

   The red glitter is one of my favorite glitters! It's so pretty and perfect for Christmas! It's Wet 'N Wild Fergie No Place Like Home. I love it! The gold is pretty too, I'm just a little besotted with No Place Like Home. The gold is Finger Paints Wrapped in Ribbon.


   I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Flower Water Transfer Review

   I promise I haven't died, I've just been busy! Who knew being home would be busier than being at school?! ...And I probably have more distractions here at home. Which is probably the real reason for me not having posted in what feels like almost a month. I have been painting, just not posting... So I have lots of updates!

   I'm going to start with my current set, and then work my way backwards throughout the week. I have a lot of partial posts to sort through. Apparently I had some good intentions, but a short attention span!

   This week I have a review from my bag of goodies from Born Pretty. I've posted one review from the most recent trio, some pretty triangle studs. This week I have some water transfers to show you guys. They are #BLE2109.

   I really liked them, the picture was really pretty! Like the last water transfer I reviewed, they were really easy to apply. The main difference with this decal is that it was all one big picture, not 12 different little pictures, so you have to choose your favorite few spots and do your best to estimate your nail sizes.
   Like the last set, they are still a little slippery, but not as bad. I'm not sure if I did something different or if they were made slightly different. Or maybe I was prepared for it this time. Who knows!
    The only real complaint I have is about the more yellow nail. For some reason it cracked a bit:

   I'm not sure why it did that, none of the other transfers (this set or the last) showed any inclination to do so. It might have been something I did, I couldn't get this one to stay in the right spot so I might have nudged it a little too much or something once I put on my topcoat.

   Overall, I think they are great! You can use coupon code AIBW10 to get 10% off your order at Born Pretty Store!

   The polish I have on the rest of my fingers is a new polish that is quickly becoming a favorite! It's Essie Carry On, a deep purple-y red that's really pretty. I bought it a few weeks ago on impulse and I'm so glad I did! I have on three coats in the picture.

   More updates to come as I sort through everything.
 
   I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Christmas Lights

   Merry Christmas! A little early, I know, but what's a few hours?

   Today I have another Etsy "re-paint" - I have a bunch of Christmas/winter designs that I've made throughout the year, so I figure now it the perfect time to paint them!

   This design uses real thread! I found the idea at least a year ago on Pinterest. The trick is to get good, tightly wound (?) thread that doesn't have many (if any) little fibers sticking out. If you look at the next picture and make it larger, you'll see what I mean. The thread I used the first time was not great.

bad thread

good thread

   I started by cutting off a longish length of thread. I used Nina Ultra Pro French White as my base. When my second coat was about halfway dry (still a little sticky) I put on the thread, carefully pushing it into the white polish with my nail (or something thin). Be careful not to press your finger into the paint, I had several partial finger prints on a couple nails!

   For the lights, I used Revlon Colorstay Red Carpet, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mellow Yellow, and Studio M On the Field, and a small brush.
   I've found that it sometimes helps to paint a top coat layer before painting the lights to help keep the thread in place. It just kind of depends on how dry/moist the white polish was at the time of applying the thread, as well as how curved the nail is. You'll know if you need it, the ends of the thread will start lifting up.

   You can find the set in Etsy here.

   I hope you all have a fantastic weekend!