Review: Gold Decals

   I've gotten super behind on my reviewing (sorry Born Pretty!). With school, it seems there's always something else to do, be it new designs, clients, orders, or just life in general. I've finally gotten around to reviewing another item, which I think might have been sitting for at least two months, if not three. Oops!

   Born Pretty sent me a few things to review a while back, and this pretty set of water decals caught my eye. The gold/bronze colors are great for fall.

   Applying the decals was super easy, as always. If you just follow the directions that come with the decals you will have no problems! I trim the decal as close to the shape of my nail as possible before wetting and applying the decal. That way there is minimal 'clean-up' trimming once the decal is applied.

   The Consensus: These water decals are great! They don't slide around too much while being applied, and the last a long time, as long as you aren't too rough on them. The pattern is so neat too!

   For the rest of my nails, I used Finger Paints Plum Perspective.

  Have a fantastic week!

Antler Tree

   I recently made the mistake of looking at a Pier 1 catalog. I could easily waste so much money there. I love pretty dishes and furniture! They are definitely one of my biggest weaknesses. Especially dishes...

   I love this plate! I really like how the antlers are trees and have little birds on them. I thought it was so cute!

   I wasn't about to try and paint the actual deer, but I had to paint the rest. I started with my favorite cream base, China Glaze Oxygen. To make the antlers, I used a thinned out brown (Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Branch Out), and added a bit of highlighting with a lighter brown (OPI A-Piers To Be Tan).

  To make the birds, I started by drawing out their basic shapes with white acrylic paint. Then I painted their coats (color markings? feather patterns?) with whatever colors fit the breed I wanted. But I probably made up a breed or two... Who knows! I kind of just painted... But I do have a cardinal! And maybe some sort of chickadee?

   Then I painted some green leaves with a thinned out Revlon Colorstay Spanish Moss. On my thumb, pinky, and right hand, I used Orly FX Starburst.

   Have a great weekend!

Halloween in... Disney World!

  ...Unfortunately, I'm not the lucky lady who gets to go. Somehow, my parents have neglected to ever take me there... Which I might or might not be slightly upset about. But hey, it's not like I didn't get to go to lots of other really cool places most people don't get to visit. So I guess it evens out.
   Anyways, I had a customer contact me about creating a couple custom sets for her trip to Disney World around Halloween. Super cool, right? It's got to be so much fun to go there on any holiday, but especially Halloween.

  The first set was a Hocus Pocus themed set. I've never really been a huge fan of that movie (I know, blasphemy!), but it was still really fun to create. She wanted four accents; the black flame candle, Thackery Binx (in cat form), the spell book, and Billy Butcherson.

   To keep it short, the main colors I used were purple with a glitter top coat (OPI I Vant to Bite Your Neck and Finger Paints Glitter Top Coat), green (L'Oreal New Money), and a really neat black with a slight red shimmer (OPI Midnight in Moscow).

   The other set she requested was a Mickey Mouse inspired set. For the thumbs, I used a base of CND Vinylux Grommet and my red striper. The black glitter is Nina Ultra Pro Glam Rock. The red glitter is Wet 'N Wild Fergie No Place Like Home (and one of my favorites!).


   I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Fall Branches

   Last week (I seem to be perpetually a week behind) I found a neat graphic that I just fell in love with.

   I couldn't resist painting it! I love the colors and the design.

   I started with my favorite base, a creamy off-white (China Glaze Oxygen). I painted all the branches first, so it would be easier to decide where to put all the foliage. I made the branches with a thinned out brown base layer (Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Branch Out), and then painted a couple stripes of a lighter brown (OPI A-Piers To Be Tan) here and there to act as highlights and give it more dimension.

   Next I painted on the flowers. I used a burnt orange (L'Oreal He Red My Mind) and orange (Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Sun Kissed) as the bases for the two flowers. I painted them on with a smaller dotter, making three dots to make it more petal-like. Then I used either He Red My Mind or a lighter orange (L'Oreal Orange You Jealous) for the highlights/shadows on the flowers.

   To make the berries/flower buds, I used He Red My Mind, Sun Kissed, and a yellow (Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Butterscotch). Then I made the leaves, using light and dark greens (Revlon Colorstay Spanish Moss and Jungle), and used a very light green (OPI That's Hula-rious) for the highlights.

   I finished the design off by making the acorns. I started with a darkish tan (Nina Ultra Pro Beige A Vu) and then made the acorn cap with Branch Out.

   I think this is definitely one of my favorites this season. And it's only begun! It will be hard to top this one for me, I think.

  I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Turning Leaves

  I bought a pretty new fall glitter two weeks ago, and I am super excited to show it to you guys! It's called Turning Leaves by Liquid Sky Lacquer. It's so pretty!

   I painted it over top Essie Bahama Mama. It's such a pretty fall glitter, so I just had to paint some leaves over top of it, especially with a name like 'Turning Leaves.'

   To make the leaves, I used a combination of yellow (Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Butterscotch), green (L'Oreal New Money), and orange (L'Oreal He Red My Mind). I started with either a yellow or green, and added in the second color while the first is still wet. That way it blends better.

  Then I finished the leaves by adding in the stems with thinned brown polish (Sally Hansen Compete Salon Manicure Branch Out). Then I topped it off with a gel top coat so that the polish would last through numerous manicures and pedicures and lots and lots of acetone.

   I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Roses, Owls, Forests

   One of the things I've learned it that I really, really like sculpting with acrylics. It is just so fun to make 3D things that I could never do with polish. Granted, I could never wear the sculpts because I'd catch it on things and pick at it, but they sure do look cool!
   A fellow student had a wedding this weekend, so she commissioned me to make her some roses for the occasion. I've really been wanting to learn how to make the roses that are really 3D and just pop out of the nail. They look really pretty. I haven't quite perfected the method to make them quite how I want, but we were both satisfied for the moment!

   For me, it worked easiest to make a few individual petals at a time (starting from the inside), attach them, then make a few more, attach them, and so forth until I had the look and size I wanted. I still haven't figured out how to curl the edges, but I'll get there....

   The one on the left was my first one. It was huge! Way to big for a nail. We were joking saying that she could make it into an earring. And then I got to thinking that maybe I needed some new products in my shop.....


   Last week, the same girl had me paint this cute fall mani on her nails. She fell in love this neat forest design by narmai on Instagram. She also wanted an owl accent, and to make it not so spooky and halloween-ish, we left out the eyes and made the sky more normal.

   To make the sky, I used the same ombre method as The Nailasaurus. I made the trees with my black striper. To make the owls, I started with a base of China Glaze Oxygen. Then using a dark brown, Saslly Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Branch Out, I painted two half moon shapes and filled in the space between them. A small one on the cuticle end of the nail, and a more dramatically curved one on the other end. I used OPI ??? to make the belly feathers and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Sun Kissed for the beak. The eyes were made with black and white paint, applied with a dotter.

  Have a great week!

He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not....

   Did any of you ever grab a flower and pull off the petals to see if someone liked you or not? You would alternate petals with 'he loves me' and 'he loves me not,' and whichever one you ended with would give you the answer. I'm not sure about you, but I'm pretty sure I cheated many a time with that game to get the answer I wanted!

   Last week on one of my fellow classmates I painted a cute design based off that game, inspired by this cute design by ann_li on Instagram. And I painted words! I'd never done that before and had them look decent. So of course I was super proud of them.

   I started with a gel base, a brown Gelish. I don't know the name, sorry! Then with my white striper I made the flowers and the floating petals. The black outlines were made with my black striper, and the yellow flower centers were made with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mellow Yellow.

   To make the words, I used my smallest, thinnest brush and some white acrylic paint. I find that I can control acrylic paint better for fine detailing like this. It took a long time! I was so worried I would mess it up.


   I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Blue Leaves

   It's been awhile again, I know. School has kept me busy, and when I'm home I feel like all I do is sleep... My cousin is also leaving for the army tomorrow, so I've been trying to spend as much time with him as I can before he ships off, too. I do have quite a few updates for you all though!

   First, let me say I love school! It is so much fun and the people are great. It's so exciting to be able to do what I love all day. It's just a great atmosphere at school; everyone loves what they are doing, and all of the teachers really want you to succeed (as do the clients that come into the school). I just love it!

   (Sorry for the less-than-stellar photos; I took these at school with my phone because I kept forgetting to take pictures when I was at home!)
   One of my fellow students had this pretty blue gel - part of the Gelish Cinderella collection. It has a subtle glitter in it that is just so pretty! While searching for what to paint on top of it, I came across this pattern. I loved the leaf design and knew that was what I wanted, with a few modifications. :) I painted the design with acrylic paint and my thinnest brush.

   We all use gel (or at least a gel top coat on top of regular polish) on our nails, so that the acetone doesn't take off our manicure every time we have a client. It makes compete sense, but it was definitely something that I had never thought of. I'm learning a lot of new techniques and it is great! I'm so excited to graduate and start doing what I love.

   I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Ocean Glitter

   I found the prettiest glitter at Micheal's the other day. It's a pretty sea green, and I have fun mermaid/sea plans for it in the future....

   This isn't the best color-accurate picture. Here's a better version.

   I started with a base of Revlon Colorstay Shell. While the top layer of polish on my ring finger was still wet, I poured some glitter on that nail. To make the gradient on the other nails, I painted a coat of polish, and while it was still wet, applied glitter where desired with a brush.

   Another short post. I hope you all have a fantastic weekend!

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!