Sunday, September 30, 2012

More dots please!

Hello and good morning-ish all!

I loved yesterdays design so much I decided that we haven't seen enough dots here lately. So today you guys get some more dots! *Yayyy* I love how these designs can look so complex but be so easy to create. I tried to make the dots get smaller as they went down my nails but that didn't really work out because I don't have a very steady hand :( Oh well they still turned out really cool!



Colors used:
- Wet n Wild SaGreena the Teenage Witch
- White acrylic paint
- Black acrylic paint











Like I said it's super easy to create all you need is some nail polish and a toothpick, that's what I used at least. So what do you guys think?

Thanks for reading and have a great rest of your weekend! :)

Saturday, September 29, 2012

Walk for Alzheimer's nails

Hey everyone again!

Ok so a little back story here, my mom is a DBA for an assisted living home for the elderly. Tommorow she is going on a walk for Alzheimer's and I thought what better way to represent then to do some Alzheimer's themed nails for her :) The color for Alzheimer's is purple so I got to use one of my favorite purples :) I ended up doing another french on her again since she liked them so much last time! Now check out her lovely Alzheimer's nails everyone!


Colors used:
- Sinful Colors Let's Talk
- Rimmel Venus
- White Acrylic Paint










On her ring finger I put a small ribbon using white acrylic paint and then went over some of it with Rimmel Venus. I was so sad to see the dark purple start seeping through the white :( It still came out really beautiful but I should have used some more coats of white. Oh well it's still awesome!

What do you guys think?
Thanks for reading :)

Simple and subtle

Hello everyone!

I've got a nice and simple design for you guys today, a dotticure! I love the way this design came out almost like lace and in this case less is definitely better, I tried to make it look more like lace and can I just say thank god I stopped and took pictures here lol. Take a look!


Colors used:
- China Glaze Fast Track I just LOVE this color guys it's a beautiful light brown/ nude packed with gold shimmer. Its so dreamy :)
- Finger Paints Paper Mache










This look was really easy to create. I just used the end of a paint brush to create the bigger dots and a toothpick to create the smaller dots and that's it! Simple and subtle and most definitely work appropriate!

What do you guys think??
Thanks for reading :)

Friday, September 28, 2012

I'm in trouble....

Hello all!

Yes you read it right I'm in trouble..... dun, dun, DUNNNNNN!!! Lol so yesterday I posted that I was doing a Halloween Nail Art Challenge and I was so excited and I still am! But... I was perusing some of the blogs that I follow and I noticed that Glitter Obsession just posted tonight about a Halloween nail art challenge that a bunch of people are doing and I just couldn't resist! I have no self control I know -_- But the picture was just so pretty and the challenges looked like so much fun I just HAD to do it! 


Seriously guys how could I resist that?? So I might be in over my head doing TWO challenges in October but oh well!! I am so excited! This means you guys will be seeing a lot of posts from me next month I hope your as excited as I am! Oh and if any of you want to join this challenge, click here and let them know! 

Thanks for reading everyone :)

Nautical-ish?

Hello!

I've got some nautical-ish themed nails for you guys today :) I say ish because they aren't the normal colors many people use for nautical themes but oh well! I really like how they came out take a look for yourselves :)


I used some striping tape to make the stripes and a toothpick to make the anchors.




Colors used:
- Finger Paints Paper Mache
- Spoiled Distant Memory
- China Glaze Sun-Kissed






My free-hand art is getting a little better right?? :) What do you guys think??

Thanks for reading :)

Thursday, September 27, 2012

I'm a winner!!!

Hi everyone!

I have some awesome Essence swatches for you guys today because I won a giveaway!! Woohoo *happy dance* :) So a while back I decided to enter Lauriestrodes one year blogiversary giveaway over at Lauristrodes Fun With Nails and I won which was so awesome because usually I don't win anything ever :) A couple of days ago my package arrived in the mail and I just couldn't wait to swatch the polishes for you guys! So heres my package plus swatches!


My winners note... Isn't she sweet? :)


Some candy that looks absolutely delicious! It looks kind of like taffy :)


And here's the polishes! From left to right, Essence Time for Romance, Space Queen, Circus Confetti, Choose Me!, and Make it Golden


First up is Essence Time for Romance. This is a beautiful polish packed with tiny glitter and hexagon maroon glitter. The polish itself is a little thick but not too hard to work with. Below I layered one coat of Time for Romance over one coat of Finger Paints Paper Mache. I layered it over white so you all can really see the polish itself. 




Super pretty right? I bet this would look so pretty layered over black or a dark maroon :)


This is Essence Space Queen a beautiful baby pink polish with what almost looks like tiny holographic glitter but with a pink hue. This polish is wicked pretty in real life but it was very shy on camera :( The polish was actually really easy to work with. Below you'll see one coat of Space Queen layered over one coat of Finger Paints Paper Mache. 




See what I mean about it being shy? You can't see it like at all :( But take my word for it that it's so much prettier in person! I actually like this color over white but I think I would put a few more layers to see if I could build up some of that pretty baby pink :)


Next up is Essence Circus Confetti. This is a special effects topper and let me just tell you that it is such a glitter bomb like woah!!! I think it has every color small hexagon glitter and it really is packed in that little bottle! The polish was kind of thick but I expected that with all of that glitter. Below I layered one, yes one, coat of Essence Circus Confetti over one coat of Sally Hansen Black Out.




Look at all of that glitter! Its so beautiful! I put this on and was so sad I had to take it off to swatch some more polishes :( I bet when dry this is a pain in the butt to get off though I think I'm going to have to invest in some elmer's glue before I wear this one again :)


Ok this one is my favorite of the bunch I mean just look at that color! Essence Choose Me! is a teal leaning yellow/green polish with a beautiful shimmer. And the polish was so smooth going on! Unfortunately the yellow/green tint didn't really translate too much onto my nail but who cares?! This polish is to die for! Below is three thin-ish coats of Essence Choose Me!




Gorgeous right?? And it dries so shiny too! I wore this one for a couple of hours which is a lot for me :) That must mean something right?!


Last up we have Essence Make it Golden which is a pretty gold polish with tiny glitter and small hexagon glitter in gold. It has about the same consistency as Time for Romance. This polish is really pretty and you can't really see in the pictures but there is a slight gold shimmer on my nail as well it really is quite pretty :) Below I've layered one coat of Essence Make it Golden over one coat of Finger Paints Paper Mache.




This kind of reminds me of the popcorn flavored jellybeans :) I never liked that flavor but fortunately I love it on my nails!

So thats it! What do you guys think? Do you love these polishes as much as I do?

I also want to give a big shout out and thanks to Lauriestrode for giving me these amazing polishes. Her blog is awesome too you guys should check it out!

Thanks for reading :)






Halloween Nail Art Challenge!

Hi guys!

I just wanted to let you know I'm going to be doing my first ever nail art challege! Woohoo I'm so excited :) I'm going to be doing the "This is Halloween" Nail Art Challenge and it's being hosted by Lacquer Dreams so make sure you guys check her site during the challenge to see all of the participant's awesome nail designs!


Hopefully everything will run smoothly since I've never done one of these before :)

Check back in a little while to see some awesome nail polishes!!
Thanks for reading everyone :)

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Tutorial: DIY light box

Hi everyone!

Ok so this is going to be quite a long post and I still haven't figured out how to do the skip to pages thing... so I'm sorry guys :) Alright tonight I decided that I wanted to make myself a light box to get even better pictures. I wasn't sure if it would actually work to make my pictures better but I thought what the heck I might as well try. To start off I gathered all of my materials as you see below...

Cardboard Box

Poster Boards

Scissors

Xacto Knife

Tissue Paper
The supplies you will need are: a cardboard box (preferably in better shape then mine), white tissue paper, some scissors, an xacto knife, a pencil and ruler (not pictured), and some poster board. Most likely you will want to use either white or black poster board, I grabbed both to see the different effects, but whatever you buy make sure you buy in matte because the shiny will reflect the light too much. Oh and I also use a cutting board so I don't ruin the table. 

So first you need to tape the bottom of the box to reinforce it sorry I didn't get this pictured :( Then you are going to start marking off the edges of the box on two sides and whichever side you choose as the top. I used a ruler to make the lines because about an inch wide is what you want. 


Just imagine the lines are all around the sides :) After you do this you are going to start cutting around the edges with your xacto knife. Make sure you are really careful at this part! Always cut away from yourself. When you are done cutting around a side carefully pop out the inside square. It should look something like this...


Don't worry about cutting really straight lines it's ok if they're kind of crooked. After you've cut all of your sides it should look like the picture below. Also the more sides you cut the weaker the box will get so use caution. After you cut all of the squares out your going to cut the flaps on the box off.




Alright you are done using the xacto knife! Horray :) I don't know about you guys but those things make me so nervous. Maybe its because I accidentally stabbed myself in my palm with a similar tool in art class back in high school O.O oops! Anyways, now you're going to start putting on the tissue paper. Cut them to around the size of the open sides of your box, again these don't have to be perfect. With tape you are going to tape them to the sides and make sure you pull the tissue paper really tight. It should look like the pictures below.

One side done!

Tadaaaa!
When this is done you need to cut your poster board to the width of your box, make sure you don't cut it too small though you want it to fit snugly inside the box so you don't need to use too much tape. This is especially useful if you plan on switching out different colors of poster board. But don't trim the bottom yet it needs to be longer then the width.

See how it fits tight?

This part is kind of hard to explain, after you size your poster board turn the box on its back and push the poster board to the top. When its at the top, carefully you are going to start pushing the poster board into the box but don't let it crease. Making sure that the poster board doesn't crease means you'll get that infinite line look meaning there's no corners in your pictures. I'm not sure I explained that really well but take a look at the picture to see if you understand what I'm saying :) 


Aaaaaand now your all done! Woohoo you've made a light box :) The next pictures I have are me experimenting with the light box to see if it really does make my pictures better. As far as lighting goes I put a lamp that I have and shined it above the top of the box.

Without the light box

In light box with white poster board

In light box with black poster board
Tip for any of you who plan on switching poster boards for different colors be veryyyyy careful! The first time I switched them I stuck a corner right through the tissue paper so I had to take it off and put it on again :(

So my opinion? The light box does wonders for my nails! It takes the shine off and makes the colors more color-accurate. I absolutely love my light box! But I'm not sure if I like the white poster board or the black poster board better. What do you guys think?

Do you guys like this tutorial? I'm sorry it's so long I didn't know how to condense the information better :( But did you find it helpful? Do you like seeing things like this on my blog? Let me know!
Thanks for reading :)