Candy Canes and Rudolph and Snowflakes, OH MY!

Thursday night I went with my best friend to see Desolation of Smaug in 3D...at MIDNIGHT.  It was so much better than I had expected, and was worth the three and a half hours of sleep I had.  The next afternoon I went to a friend's house to do her nails for her birthday and for Christmas.  I had a blast doing these designs!

On her thumbs I used a Limited Edition polish from Literary Lacquers, A Thousand Christmas Trees.  It's a GORGEOUS pine green linear holo.  I did a gradient of blues and white on her index nails and added China Glaze Fairy Dust over for an effect of snow in the background for the snowman.  For the candy canes on her pinky fingers, I did two coats of China Glaze White on White, let it dry, placed striping tape down to pattern the candy cane stripes, and went over it with Zoya Delilah (two coats).  For Rudolph, I used black, white, and brown acrylic paint, using the white for his nose, and went over that with OPI Animal-Istic.  I used a blue Orly polish for the background for snowflakes, and used a striper, detail brush, and white acrylic paint.  For the thumbs, I used Sally Hansen Celeb City and dotted on the "tinsel", used a dotter and white acrylic paing for the base of the ornaments, and different polishes to go over the white.  The snowman's scarf was placed using a detail brush and drier red polish that was a bit stringy, making it easier to place it where I wanted for the scarf.

All in all, it took about two to two and a half hours, including drying time, for this nail art.

I hope you enjoyed this!  As I type this, it's ten days until Christmas.  For those of you who celebrate it, have a wonderful holiday!  I'll be back soon with reviews of three Literary Lacquer polishes...as soon as the sun decides to come out.

Snowman and a TARDIS

Recently I've gotten into Doctor Who.  I admit that, when I first heard about the show, I was skeptical and poked fun at friends who were into it.  Now that I've watched a couple seasons, I can see what the fuss is about!  It's a delightful show that has made me laugh and cry, and I just love it.  I've been slowly but surely getting through it, mostly because other shows have taken up my time (looking at YOU, Supernatural!). 

A few days ago I decided to try my hand at a Christmas-y Doctor Who manicure.  I used China Glaze White on White as a background for four nails, and Literary Lacquers' Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster, a GLORIOUS blue linear holo polish with scattered holo glitter in it.  A swatch and review post on that and two others will be coming soon. 

Here's the photo of the manicure (taken with phone's camera, since my digital camera is down):

I used black acrylic paint and a striping brush to paint the wires for the lights, then used a detail brush and polish to paint the lights.  Black, gray, and white acrylic paints were used for the TARDIS and the snowman (isn't he adorably evil?).  I let it all dry, then topped it off with Orly's PoliShield. 

I hope my fellow Whovians have enjoyed this.  More coming soon!

Joe Boxer nail art

I'm sure you've all seen the hilarious K-Mart commercial for the Joe Boxer holiday print boxers, right?  If not, here's the link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PVhIMr4ScI

I entered another Facebook nail art competition hosted by Nailshine Journey and Polish Yer Hooves.  The theme is "Favorite Christmas Songs" and can only be done using nail polish.  Jingle Bells is my favorite of all Christmas songs; it's easy to remember, plus there's the Batman parody of it.  I looked up photos of all the Joe Boxer prints used in the commercial and recreated them on my nails.  I took a bit of artistic license and didn't do the "ugly sweater" print.  Choosing only five of six prints was hard, but the following won out.  It's all polish using detail brushes and a dotting tool, and took about two hours. 

Hope you liked them!  I've got a couple more manicures queued up to show you, so stay tuned!*

*I've been busy with my advanced nail classes and work.  I'll be trying to update as often as I can since my classes are all finished.

Nightmare Before Christmas

Hi again!  I had to schedule this post since I'll be working in the morning.  I'm excited to have landed a job at a gorgeous spa, getting to pamper women and do what I love.  I started last week, and everyone there has been very nice so far.  I joke that the only drawback is that I have to wear color (black is what I wear 99% of the time). 

I did these nails for a Halloween nail art contest on Facebook.  If you'll recall, a few months ago I did Jack Skellington nails for a challenge I was in, for "Inspired by a tuturial".  This time, however, I chose to go with two more characters and a jack o' lantern. 

I mixed different polishes to come up with the colors for Sally's patchwork dress, used China Glaze In The Limelight for Oogie Boogie, and Sally Hansen Sun Kissed for the jack o' lantern, as well as China Glaze Liquid Leather for the thumbnail, and China Glaze White on White for Jack Skellington's face.  I put a coat of Pure Ice Free Spirit (a beautiful glow-in-the-dark light green polish with blue shimmer) over In The Limelight, used China Glaze Celtic Sun for the jack o' lantern's eyes, nose, and teeth as well as on the moon behind Jack, and then used China Glaze Ghoulish Glow over Celtic Sun.  The entire manicure took me three hours and some change, mostly to wait for the polish to completely dry before painting on it.  I'm actually a bit pleased with how this came out, so on with the photo!

I had to angle the camera a bit to make sure Zero was included (he's on the thumb).  I used a detail brush that I had flattened, and used the tip to create Jack's outline.  Orly Skinny Dip was used over white acrylic paint for the sides of the hill, and then a dotting tool plus Sun Kissed created the pumpkins on the hill.

I hope you enjoyed this!  It was fun to create and time flew by as I was doing it.  I'll begin posting my manicures for the weekly Rainbow Challenge soon, and will be keeping a spooky theme since it's October.  Have a great day!

Almost four months later, I'm back!

I've had a VERY long absence from this blog, and I want to apologize for that.  In between dealing with a chronic illness, finishing requirements for school, starting classes on becoming an Advanced Nail Technician, AND GETTING A NEW JOB (yay!), things have been hectic.  I've also been sick with strep throat and bronchitis, and now am dealing with pain that's possibly from my gallbladder.  All in all, things have been going well, even with all the ups and downs.
I finished the ABC Challenge sponsored by Erica of Erica's Nails and More, won a nail art contest (woo hoo!), and now am participating in another nail art challenge.  I want to push myself and exceed myself regarding nail art, especially since I've gotten a bit of a reputation at school for being good at what I do.  Please forgive me if that sounds like bragging; I'm not.  To be completely honest, I view my nail art as simplistic and not really that good.  I do love what I do and want to exceed myself every time I do a manicure with nail art.
That said, I want to say a heartfelt THANK YOU for following me.  I'm going to do my best to keep this blog up and running.

Now...I want to share my contest-winning manicure with you.  I did this for Week X of the ABC challenge.  I love comic books and The Uncanny X-Men have always been a big favorite.  I especially love Gambit; who WOULDN'T love a charming, charismatic character with the ability to kinetically charge inanimate objects, throw them, and blow things up?  With this in mind, I had to do X-Men themed nails.  It was an absolute blast!

I used China Glaze Celtic Sun, OPI Animal-istic, an unnamed brown, and an unnamed purple L.A. Colors polish, as well as China Glaze Liquid Leather, a mini red polish, and a gold Nina Pro polish.  Detail brushes and a dotting tool were used to add details to the characters' costumes.  This was quite fun to do, and I wore it for about a week.  Stay tuned; I'll be showing my Nightmare Before Christmas nails tomorrow!

MIA Blogger and nail art

I know I've been MIA for over a month now, and I am so sorry for that.  I've been getting busier with work, finishing requirements so I can finally get my State Board exams out of the way, as well as battling severe fatigue.

I've kept on with the ABC Challenge, but haven't done any real nail art up until two days ago.  Sometimes I get creative burnout thanks to fatigue, but this idea was brewing for about a week until I had the chance to do it.

Before I share photos, I want to explain where the fatigue comes from.  Last September I was diagnosed, for the third time, with mononucleosis.  I spoke with my doctor and learned that the Epstein-Barr virus, which causes mono, can actually reactivate due to stress or a weakened immune system.  This virus attacks the immune system and has caused me to become more susceptible to the flu, colds, and any other ick that flies through.  The worst symptom of EBV, for me, is severe fatigue.  Some days I feel okay, others I am tired from the moment I wake up.  I'm taking supplements and trying to take better care of myself so that I can get better, but it's not easy.  I work 4-hour shifts at the school/spa, plus another four hours for work study.  I have an awful habit of pushing myself to almost breaking point, because I know if I sit and rest I won't get back up.
The fatigue has affected me creatively, and some more stress has caused more issues, plus my neck has acted up again (last year I had a small bulging disc in my neck, went 3x a week to my chiropractor, and had it fixed without surgery). 

I feel bad that I haven't maintained this blog or my Facebook page, but the weariness has kept me from doing a lot of the things I once loved.  The good thing is that there may be a peak after this valley, so hopefully soon my body will recover and I'll be able to gradually begin my daily walks.

All this said, I want to show you my newest nail art.  I went to AC Moore and grabbed two detail brushes for less than $6, and I love them.  They have made it so much easier for me to really get into putting fine detail into my nail art.  I do use acrylic paints because they are easier to work with and don't end up globbing up my brush, but I do use a combination of acrylic and polish because some of my polishes are just the right colors for what I need.

I was about 9 years old when The Little Mermaid came out.  I LOVE mermaids, always have, and that movie sent me into a tizzy.  I cried like a baby at the end and wondered how she could leave her precious daddy...and then wondered if Triton and his daughters ever got legs sometimes and came to visit Ariel.  I got the movie for my 10th birthday and had it memorized within a month.  I'm surprised the VHS has lasted as long as it has, considering how often I've watched it.  My love for The Little Mermaid and the sea has lasted, and I hope it always will.

As I browsed through my nail art inspiration folder, I happened upon a gorgeous mani that got my creative gears going.  A few fish photos later, I had the groundwork for the mani laid.  I searched for photos of Ariel and settled for a silhouette.  I settled on four saltwater fish to paint, and got to work.  One hour, 27 minutes later (yes, I timed it!), I had this:

My camera's batteries had been used up when we had a nasty storm last week and needed our weather radio, so I took this with my phone, uploaded it onto my Facebook page, and then downloaded it so I can have it on my laptop.  It's not perfect, but I'm so happy with how it turned out and I hope you like it.

I'll try to keep up with this blog as it deserves and try not to take another monthlong hiatus.  Thank you all for sticking with me.  Have a great week!

ABC Challenge Week Six: F

Welcome back!  Today I hope Blogger is nice to me...last week I attempted three or four times to upload my "E" manicure for Week Five of the ABC challenge, but I couldn't get a photo to upload.  I also had an out of this world mani to share that didn't get posted due to the same photo upload issue.

This week I chose to do a flower manicure.  I was browsing my nail inspiration folder when I came across this adorable dress, and inspiration hit!

Sometimes I wish I was a little girl so I could wear all the adorable clothes I see!  When I was a kid, it was just boring solid colors or polka dots, and those HIDEOUS flowered dresses from the early 90's.  Nowadays the kids get the cutest clothes and shoes, and adults get the boring stuff.  If I'd known it would be like THIS to be grown up, I'd have kept my Kiddie Card and said to heck with growing up, ha. 

I used China Glaze White on White, Liquid Leather, and Fairy Dust for the white background, black tips, and zebra stripes, and OPI Animal-istic for the red flowers.  I placed a dot of Liquid Leather for the flower's center, with a bit of Fairy Dust for additional shimmer and sparkle.

Here are the results:

I hope you enjoyed these!  See you next week :)