Christmas Toes!

I'm going out on a limb here and showing my awful, hairy man-feet.  My poor feet have been through a LOT...my left foot is all messed up because I stepped on glass and ended up with two severed tendons, then had surgery to remove a Morton's Neuroma (a very badly inflamed nerve) and decompress another nerve...and now it has two bunions that will require another surgery in the future.  I have to admit that I have a slight aversion to feet, and when I started my nail tech classes, swore that I AIN'T TOUCHING NOBODY'S ICKY FEET!  (pardon the double negative)  Well...here I am, doing my clinic work at school and y'know what?  I really do enjoy doing pedicures.  I admit to not taking care of my feet like I should; the cuticles are enough to make any nail tech cry, and there are dry places from where I used to do a LOT of Israeli dance.  I loved dancing barefoot, but it sure came with a price.

So today I wanted to do some nail art on my tootsies.  I asked for help in my Facebook group, and the general consensus was to use red and gold, to get into the holiday spirit.  I took it up a notch and did white, red, and green.  I used Orly Bond base coat, CG white on white, CG White Cap, OPI Animal-istic, and Orly Meet Me Under the Mistletoe.  I added a French tip with my gold holographic glitter polish from Claire's.

Here is the result! (ignore the icky scar from surgery)

10-Day Challenge Day 10: Recreate Your Favorite

I can't believe it's already the last day of the challenge!  This has been a blast for me and is not only my first nail art challenge, but my first successful one too.  I really didn't know if I'd be able to make it to the end, because I honestly don't have much faith in my nail art abilities.  Even if I do something awesome, like my LoTR nails, I still don't feel satisfied.  I guess artists really ARE their own worst critics!

I didn't choose any of my manis because I wanted this honor to go to one of the other challenge participants.  From the moment I saw this, I KNEW it would be my mani for Day 10.  It's awesome, it's SPARKLY, and best of all, the colors are the same as my HS colors.  Go Radford Bobcats!  If I had known how to do this back in HS, I would have worn this mani for every game I cheered at.  I loved our cheerleading uniforms, especially the sweater ones, but our pom-poms were more black, white, and yellow than black, white and gold.  I miss those days, but I don't miss freezing my nose off in the chilly mountain weather! 

So here is the inspiration:

I SO want Zoya Storm...after Butter London Disco Biscuit, this one is a BIG lemming for me.  It's not only black, but SPARKLES too?!?  Yes please!  At some point in the future, I hope to have Shea do a guest post or few for this blog.  This lady has some serious skills!

I started with a base coat of CG Strong Adhesion Base Coat, used Finger Paints Black Expressionism, Nina Pro Big Spender and sponged my Claire's holographic gold glitter over it, and used CG White on White and FP Black Expressionism for the dots, with Big Spender as the final touch.  I took pictures before using the top coat, because it loves to streak my nail art, even if it has been drying for forty-five stinkin' minutes.

The lineup:

 And here are the results!

And that's it for Day 10!  Please don't forget to check out what the other awesomely talented participants have done, and be sure to show them lots of love!

10-Day Challenge Day 9: Water Marble

I have only done one successful water marble, ever.  Last year I tried, and tried, and TRIED, and got so frustrated I swore I'd never try again.  This past July, I got a wild hair and decided to try water marbling again, with a beautiful result.  When this day of the challenge came up, I was more than tempted to just use the pictures from July, but that would be cheating.

Here is a picture of the very first water marble, using Orly Haley's Comet and China Glaze White Cap:

It doesn't look anything at all like what I see on so many pictures, but that's the way I like it.  I had fun with this, but cleanup was a pain thanks to how shimmery the polish was, which meant I had shimmery bits all over my cuticles.  I had used tape to cover the cuticle area, but some polish still got on my skin.

This time I used petroleum jelly all over my finger, up to the first knuckle.  It made cleanup so much easier and didn't take as much time as applying tape to my fingers took.  For today's water marble, I used OPI Live And Let Die from the Skyfall collection, Nina Big Spender, and my e.l.f. gold glitter over top.  Orly Bond was used for base coat, and Jordana fast dry topcoat sealed the deal.

Here's the lineup:

And here is the mani:

Don't forget to check out the other lovely participants in the challenge!  Have a terrific weekend :-)

10-Day Challenge Day 8: Gradient Nails

I am TERRIBLE at gradient nails. For some reason, they just don't want to work for me. When I did my Rainbow Dash nails, I had the brilliant idea to just paint the lines on a makeup sponge and do a rainbow gradient that way...and it WORKED. I don't know why I haven't stayed with that tried-and-true method. I attempted the rainbow gradient yesterday, but used a different sponging technique. Fail. It looked less gradient and more stripey, so I chucked the mani. After ten attempts at gradients, I finally settled on one that actually worked for me. To my surprise, it was the one gradient from four randomly selected polishes, and is PINK. I'm not a big wearer of girly pinks, I'm more of a neon/hot pink person, but I actually like this. I used China Glaze Strong Adhesion base coat, Nail Savvy In The Pink, China Glaze Whitecap, an e.l.f. gold glitter (doesn't have the polish name on it), and Rainbow Honey Pinkie Promise.

I sponged In The Pink on my nails rather than use the brush, because this is a polish that takes FOREVER to dry.  I followed with the e.l.f. gold glitter, sponging that on in the middle of the finger.  Then I sponged White Cap at the top of the nail, and finally sponged Pinkie Promise from the free edge to the middle of the finger.  I did another sponging of the gold glitter at the top so I could have the small gold holo hexes showing up.  Two coats of fast dry top coat sealed the deal.

Whew, that's a lot of pictures!  I've been trying to come up with ideas for "hand poses" and will hopefully be building my first light box soon.  There's an Olympus camera I have my eyes on that has a macro filter.  I'd love to be able to take macro shots of my nail art and polishes. 

Be sure to check out what the other fantastic ladies have done for Day 8!  I can't believe this challenge is almost over, it's been such a blast and I've loved seeing what the others have done.  Have an excellent Thanksgiving and don't eat TOO much turkey!

10-Day Challenge Day 7: Lines and Stripes

Today's theme for the challenge is "lines and stripes".  I've done striping tape manicures before, but since it takes time and I'm wacky from Vicodin, I decided to go against my norm and use my striping brushes instead.  Because my nasal turbinates were reduced, my nose is bleeding so I have to be careful not to lean my head forward too much.  I hope this is the ONLY sinus surgery I will ever need, because it sucks having the feeling that I have a sinus infection.  It turns out that one of the cysts in my sinuses, on the right side, was too tiny and too close to a nerve to be safely removed.  There was the potential for nerve damage had it been taken out.  The worst thing for me in all this?  I finally got my nose pierced last year, and the darn thing has already closed up!  I can't even see a scar from it, so this means I'll have to get it done again.  It's worth it, because I loved that piercing.

Anyway, on to the manicure!  I used one coat of this GORGEOUS bright red, no-name polish that came in a gift bag from a friend, followed by a coat of this lovely sparkly red E.L.F. polish.  I then used my Stripe Right stripers in white and black to create a plaid-ish design.  After I was done, I could see areas that are not the best looking, but I'm too tired and in pain to even care now!  This challenge has been a blast to do, it's caused me to step outside my nail art "comfort zone" and do manicures that I've admired, but never thought of doing myself. 

So without further ado, here are my Day 7 stripes and lines nails!

Not the best, like I said, but I really do like it.  I'm not a red-polish wearing gal, but this works for me mostly because of the plaid-ish pattern.

Now go check out what the other ladies in the challenge have done!  I am consistently blown away by their talent and creativity.  Be sure to give them some love!

10-Day Challenge Day 6: Inspired by Another's Nails

Today's art is inspired by a GORGEOUS mani from Day One of the challenge.  I was totally blown away by all the beautiful rainbow manicures out there, but one in particular stood out to me.  The accent nail was so shimmery and looked just like stained glass, so I decided to do a stained glass manicure for today.

Here is the original from Shea Langlois Caithaml of OMG Wait What Polish Is That?:

FREAKING GORGEOUS!  I love love LOVE that accent nail!


I'm hoping my sinus surgery goes well tomorrow so I can continue doing this challenge.  There's only five days left and so much more nail art to do!

Here are the pictures, enjoy!

Don't forget to check out the other wonderful artists!  I'm so excited to see what they have come up with for today's challenge =^-^=

10-Day Challenge Day 5: Half Moons

Yay!  Past the "delicate" print day, and on to something I've never tried before: half moon nails.  I've admired them from afar and have cringed at the new names they've been given.  Why?  Because in the 30's and 40's, only the middle part of the nail was painted, leaving the lunula (half moon at the base of the nail) and the free edge bare.  I love how it was done in reds, dark browns, and even coral.  I tried this style on my own nails once, but didn't like it.  I like to keep my nails in a square shape, and this old-fashioned type of manicure looks great on oval nails.

I recently bought two new polishes: Taxi by Pure Ice, and Grey-t to Be Here by Essence.  Taxi is a GORGEOUS purple and gold duochrome polish and only required two coats to eliminate VNL for me.  GTBH is a beautiful gray creme polish with a lovely pink shimmer to it.  I picked it up because I needed a gray polish and was so delighted to see the shimmer in it.  I knew as soon as I picked these two up that I would use them in today's challenge manicure.

I began by freehanding a half-moon shape with a white striping brush, then painted the line and under with Taxi.  I filled in the half-moon area with Gray-t to Be Here, and added some rhinestones for extra oomph.  I was inspired by vintage jewelry, which is a BIG weakness for me.  I picked up this gorgeous vintage necklace at a thrift store just because it reminded me of what Marilyn Monroe wore in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.  Ohhh the dresses of the 40's and 50's!  If I had it my way, my closet would be FULL of replicas of the ballgowns and everyday dresses the women wore.

So here is my vintage-inspired half-moon manicure.  Enjoy!

Don't forget to check out what all the other lovely participants have for Day 5.  I was totally blown away by all the gorgeous delicate print manis I saw.  So gorgeous, all of them!

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