African Inspiration

   My Aunt recently went to Zimbabwe and brought me back the prettiest little painted tile.

   I loved the design and had to paint it on my nails!

   I started with a base of Finger Paints Far Out Fuschsia. For my right hand, I simply used white and black acrylic paint.
   For the branches, I started with a grey, China Glaze Pelican Grey.  Then I painted a streaky layer of brown, Nina Ultra Pro Beige A-Vu. For the leaves I used a mix of green, L'Oreal New Money, and yellow, Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Butterscotch. Then I outlined it all in black acrylic paint.

   To make the quails, I started with black acrylic paint and a dotting tool. Next I drew out the shape of the neck and head with white acrylic paint, and then used blue, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Blue Me Away. Then I used various amounts of red, yellow, and white polish, I painted the beak and wattle, as well as the spots and eyes. Then I outlined the quails in black as well.

   To make it more like the tile, here are the two designs together!

   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!

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!

Tangled

   I absolutely love the movie Tangled! It's definitely my favorite "official" Disney Princess movie. (Enchanted is my all time favorite, but Giselle isn't an official princess. Especially since she didn't actually end up marrying the prince....) I love her murals on the tower wall, so I wanted to come back and try to paint them. Here's some of my inspiration:

   I never painted her sun on either of my other sets, so I started with that knowing I wanted to fit it in, if only so people would know that this is a Rapunzel design. :)

   I started with a base of China Glaze White Ice. I've used up almost all of Orly Pink Nude, so this is my replacement!
   To make the sun, I started by painting the middle and then the flames with Revlon Colorstay Buttersup, using a dotter and small brush. Then using a really thin brush and some very thinned out OPI I Vant To Bite Your Neck, I outlined the sun and then painted in the background, leaving it a little streaky. (FYI, an effect that looks cool on your left hand does not look so great on your right...)

   Forgive me if I don't go into detail with the rest of the nails... Suffice to say that I used small, thin brushes and various shades of purples and browns, with a little bit of blue-green. My pointer is based off the first picture in my post, the one with the fish. My ring finger is based off the design on her mirror in the second picture.

   My thumb was based off some of the pretty birds that were scattered throughout the tower. I loved the curlicue head feathers on the short bird, so I had to paint him.

   I was going to show you my left hand, but as I mentioned earlier, the streaked purple design looked terrible on my left hand....

   I'm heading to my best friend's wedding tomorrow, so I might be silent for a few days...
   I hope you all have a great 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!

Review: Blue Rose Decals

   I received another package in the mail from Born Pretty a few weeks ago! I got a bunch of cute stuff that I can't wait to show you guys. First up: these beautiful blue rose water decals. It came in a pack of four different designs, but it was the blue one that caught my eye first.

   These were super easy to apply, like always. There was no sliding at all on these decals, so that was great! They lasted for a really long time too (for me), with no peeling. I work at JoAnn Fabrics, so I'm constantly knocking my nails around on bolts of fabric and counters. Most of my manicures only last about two or three days before they chip. These decals held up really well though and lasted for about four days or so. On any normal person that doesn't treat their nails horribly at work, I'd guess the decals could last a really long time for them.

   They were thin, so I did need to apply a base color before applying. I used my favorite cream base, Orly French Manicure Pink Nude. On my other nails I added some tiny light blue dots. They're really hard to see, but they are there! You can see them a little better in the first picture.

   I hope you all have a great week!

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!

Memorial Day

   I'm going to go a tiny bit out of order this week, so that Memorial Day's design is still somewhat close to Memorial Day. I know I've been quiet recently; I've been moving out of my apartment, unpacking, working, making a quick weekend trip to see family... Hopefully things will quiet down after this week!

   Anyway, I didn't plan on having a Memorial Day design, it just happened that what I painted ended up looking patriotic!

   I was really struggling this weekend with making a design work. I was in one of those fidgety moods where nothing turns out right.

   Using one of my favorite bases, Orly French Manicure Pink Nude, I painted some stripes with varying widths using OPI Aloha From Hawaii and Orly Teal Unreal. After staring at it and thinking it looked a little plain, I added some white dots to the widest of the stripes.

   There was no way I was going to attempt this on my right hand, so I used Aloha as my base and used my dotter to add on some white dots down one side of each nail.

   I hope you all 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!