It's Memorial Day Weekend!

To commemorate the occasion, I went full on into the theme this week with a patriotic, picnicy, and bbq type vibe. I have really been enjoying my Winstonia plates and used the stars and stripe pattern for my ring finger. Most of the nails were based in Whirlwind White, with a blue gradient under the S&S pattern. The pointer fingers are teenie burgers which I got the idea for from the very talented lady at Nerd Nails! The picnic blankets were achieved using a mash stamping plate with a hot pink polish, and blocking in the solid squares with red polish. These took a bit of time, but I'm happy with the outcome:

oh, and I also used some loose iridescent star glitters in the free spaces of the gradient nail stamp. They were the perfect size! I was so pleased. :-)

The other mani I've done this weekend is my dragon mani! I was inspired by my new obsession of watching Game of Thrones. (There are dragons!) I had picked up a few new polishes and thought that the pretty color from lovecharlottexo was the perfect scaly dragon egg dupe. If there were such a thing. 

The scales on the dark purple nails are done with Winstonia plate 101. I liked the random variation in the pattern. I used it again on the dragon eye, but turned it sideways to show more of the larger scales. The ring fingers are flames, because what dragon would be complete without a little fire. I freehanded the eye on both thumbs, though you can still def tell which is my dominant hand. :-/  The left hand was clear topcoat, and the right hand was holo topcoat. In retrospect, should have been a bit lighter handed with the holo, it drown out my stamps on some nails. 

So, let the summer begin! Hope everyone has a great weekend and thank a service member if you get a chance. :-D

R.

It's almost time for GATSBY!

I am beyond excited to see this movie. And the best part, I get to go by myself! I know usually people don't think of that as a good thing, but when you have two small kids and a husband who hates chick flicks, believe me, it's a good thing!

I've been amassing more polishes again, and I need to update here what I've been up! First up is my other Gatsby inspired nail design which I was super happy with the outcome for. I started with a base of Julep's Zora. I really like this color, even though I thought it was a bit boring in the bottle. It really reminds me of pearls.

Just lovely. I think it's a beautiful shade for wearing with light formal stuff. So feminine. She needed a bit more help to be a Gatsby nail though. We must live, dahling! We MUST. I decided to go with other things I find very feminine. Pearls, beads, diamonds (rhinestones), you know....the good stuff!

She's too expensive for me. But I love her anyway. ;-) It was a lot of fun to put so much embellishment on my nails, but I must admit I envy those who wear this much nail jewelry all the time. It kind of drove me crazy. I was constantly touching it. OCD is not my friend sometimes. Someone else told me they'd be pretty wedding nails. Not my taste, but I could see that it would work. 

I'm going to cluster the next few photos for sake of catching up and trying to stick with my theme. I haven't been able to post as much as I had hoped due to my husband graduating and commissioning next week. I have been absolutely exhausted most days with all the cleaning and errand running. In fact, most of my nail art has been done at somewhere between 1 and 2 a.m. most days. Also, darn those errands, because it gives me excuse to check out polishes wherever I am, and usually buy one. Or two...or five. Hmmm.

So, here is a little montage of the other stuff I've been playing around with: 

First one is a new line by Sally Hansen in texture with Sugarcoat, and depth with Fuzzycoat.

Sugar Coat or Fuzzy Coat

The next one is my newest mani, done with Julep's Millie. A beautiful blue/indigo shade and mash plate #39.

The third is a water decal mani. I picked up the wording decals at Walmart of all places!

Fourth is my new Holo Topcoat I got from indie polish maker Liquid Glam Lacquers. Her polishes are so unique and lovely! 

Her Store Link!

And last is my first attempt at one stroke flowers. It was definitely a lot harder to do than I thought originally, but something I will try to do again. :-)

So that catches us up on my nail saga. I have to go now, and clean pop tart off a one year old. I know you envy me. I can feel it. ;-) Bu-bye!

It's Gatsby Week!

I have become a little more than obsessed with nail art. In the last month I have bought polish every time I've left the house. Some cheap...some not so cheap. I love knowing that I have a rainbow at my fingertips to play with whenever I choose. It's also easy to convince myself to buy it when it's just a few dollars here and there. Recently, I had to move the entire collection to a full dresser drawer. Maybe I need a 12 step. Sigh.

So, I started painting away and watching tutorials on youtube. Then I started buying nail tools. And acetone in bulk. I have dap cups and ball tools. Stamp kits and plates and scrapers. Rhinestones, glitter, pearls, and omg...studs. It's a sickening amount of stuff. And I sit up at 2 in the morning after everyone in my house has FINALLY gone to sleep, and I create. At first it wasn't anything worth writing about. I also had janitor hands. But, I think I've gotten better! My nails have started to grow and with the help of some cuticle oil, the close up pictures I take for my various social networking programs don't scare people. (too much I hope)

 I decided a while ago that I was going to do some nail art inspired by the Baz Lurhman movie Gatsby which isn't even out yet. I love the 20's. Such a chic time, fashion wise. And when the nail polish company that I subscribed to get a monthly box from did their box theme on the 20s, I decided it was a sign. So this is the first of three, but perhaps four nail designs that I will do inspired by all things Gatsby and 1920s.

First thing, I needed a powerful red. Fun to use because it's so classic and so on trend at the same time. Julep came up with this shade for their May collection and named it Myrtle. I love the shade. A thick creme, that reminds me of something I saw my grandmother wear a time or two.

It's gorgeous on it's own. This is the shade done in two coats over Orly Bonder as a base coat. Just stunning. 

My inspiration for the twenties besides just basic color, is also pearls, lace, glitz, and art deco. Geometric patterns and dripping crystals. If I could figure out how to layer fringe on my nails, I would do it! 

So let's see Myrtle all dressed up for one of those deliciously excessive parties she's been invited to:

She's been tipped in Zoya Storm and the accent nail is dipped in black nail caviar with Pure Ice Beware underneath as a base for all the pretty rhinestones to drip from. I didn't want to overwhelm the mani by doing a lot else, so each other nail has one rhinestone "beauty mark" to tie it all together. I think she's my favorite so far! Hope you agree. :-)

R.

Posting in space

So it should be said that my last attempt at blogging was as successful as my attempt to slim down after my pregnancy. I'm hoping this time will be different. I have donned the cap of SAHM once again, and hopefully it will afford me more time to write. It was brought to my attention that I stopped writing, and I am trying to remedy that. So here goes, another blip in cyber space.