Color Changing Polish

   My sister-in-law's sister gave me the coolest polish! It's called Del Sol Moss Me Much, and changes colors in the sun.

   It starts out as a light, light, green, almost white, and then changes to a pinky-purple.

 

   It's really neat! I'd never heard of polish that changed in sunlight, only the heat-changing polishes. I think I might have to buy some other colors....


  Short post today, but more coming soon! I've been doing lots of fun things in nail school and I'm excited to get to work on real people soon (and to show you all what I do!).

  I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Geometric Gels

   I'll start out by saying: school is awesome! For those of you that don't know, I started school to become a nail technician this month. We spent the whole first week giving each other manicures, so I never had polish on long enough to bother with. We started working with acrylics today. ...I think I'm in love! There is so much you can do with them.

   We ended the week with gels, so I'll have a pretty pink on for the next few weeks. This week I painted a geometric design on top of the gel.

   The gel polish used was OPI Pink Flamingo, I think. Something about flamingos, anyway! To make the geometric design, I used China Glaze Princess Grace and my favorite thin striping brush from Born Pretty. To make the dots, I used my smallest dotter.

   I'm not sure when I 'll have something new, but it shouldn't be too long now that we're not changing our polish every day. Maybe I'll have some acryilcs soon once I get more practice!


   I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Fabric Inspired Flowers

   This week I found a really neat piece of fabric on Etsy.

   I loved the flower design! I didn't notice the birds hiding out in the middle until later, so they aren't in my design. I might just have to make this one again!

   I started with one of my favorite bases, a pretty cream color. This time it's China Glaze
Oxygen. To make the flowers, I started with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Coral Reef, and then made a thin stripe inside the flower with OPI Aloha From OPI. The flower stems were Coral Reef as well, with a very thinned out Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Dark Huemoor in the middle of the stem. I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mellow Yellow for the flower centers and the dots on all the stems.

   To make the leaves I used Coral Reef, Dark Huemoor, and Mellow Yellow again for the leaf stems. Then I used OPI That's Hula-rious for the leaves and OPI My Dogsled Is A Hybrid in the middle of the leaves.

  In other news, I've started cosmetolgy school! I'm going for nail technician (that's a suprise, right?). So I might be a little inconsistent for a few weeks while I try to balance school, my shop, and my own nails. But inconsitency with me is nothing new, sadly.


   I hope you all have a fantastic week!

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!