Monday, January 26, 2015

Illuminated Nails

   I'm really excited to show you guys this week's design! I bought a really neat book that shows some ways to illuminate pages and whatnot. I'm really excited to try it out, I just need some free time... In the mean time, I painted an illumination-inspired mani!


   To make this design, you need a lot of movies.... And some polish and tiny brushes! I started with my favorite base, Orly French Manicure Pink Nude. I made the vines/outline with a very thinned out Revlon Colorstay Jungle. To fill in the leaves, I used Studio M On the Field. The flowers were filled with either Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Blue Me Away (blue), CoverGirl Outlast Vio-last (purple), or Revlon Colorstay Red Carpet (red).


  I think this is one of my favorites! It's so pretty and detailed. Details are my favorite, it's part of why I like macro photography so much!

  I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Thursday, January 22, 2015

Peacock Stamp Review

   Last week I finally got around to my final review from my bag of goodies from Born Pretty! I'm desperately hoping things will quiet down again soon. This first week of class hasn't gone as anyone planned, and we all hope it never happens again!
   This review is on a really pretty peacock stamping plate, #BP-04. You can use code AIBW10 to get 10% off your order at Born Pretty.


  It's full of really pretty peacock prints. The main, largest design is really pretty. It's what first caught my eye. Then as I started thinking about my design and another smaller design caught my attention. I liked the shape of this one, and the three distinct feathers. It was really easy to apply, which is great! Like my last stamped design, I used reverse stamping. To get the stamp on two fingers, I just cut the design in half before placing it on my fingers.


   For the stamped fingers, I started out with a base of Orly French Manicure Pink Nude. I painted Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Jungle Gem. It is a little dark in places; when I went to put the design on my finger, I pushed on it too hard so I smudged it and had to go back in and fix it. The green I used was Pure Ice Saddle Me Up, and the yellow was Pure Ice Excuse Me. For my other fingers I used Zoya Pixie Dust Vega again. I just love that glitter! And I thought it was appropriate to have flashy polish with a flashy bird.


   (Fogrive the chipping. Like I said, it's been crazy here.)
   I also tried out a new top coat with this design, Revlon Transforming Effects Matte Pearl  Glaze. It's so pretty! I don't know if you can really see it, it was really hard to get a picture of it. I put a gloss coat over top of it because I thought gloss was better with this design than the matte.

   I hope your all's week was better than mine. Here's for a better week!


Thursday, January 15, 2015

Pixie Dust

   I'm finally caught up! Hooray! This week I am trying out some new polish; two of the Zoya Pixie Dust collection, Lux and Vega. They're so pretty!


   This is three coats of both Vega and Lux. If you don't put on a top coat it has a neat bumpy texture. I'm way to distracted by textures, so I end up rubbing it all the time. And then I catch it on everything. Textures don't work for me, they never last more than two days between my rubbing and getting caught on everything. So I added two layers of top coat to smooth it out.


   The blue is Vega, and the pink Lux. I love how sparkly they are! Vega is definitely my favorite, but I just like a good light blue. Especially in glitter. Blue glitter is just so pretty! Lux is nice too, but it's not quite as pink as I thought. Although looking back at other pictures, I'm not sure why I thought is would be more pink because it is definitely not!


   Sorry for the crappy picture, it got cloudy so my light disappeared! I wanted to show you guys both colors in the bottle and on my nails. I'm going to try and take another one tomorrow, so hopefully the light will be good!

   I hope you all have a fantastic week! Tomorrow is my last day at work until March, so hopefully I'll become a regular blogger again.

DIY Flower Decal Trial

   So I'm trying out a new idea for my Etsy shop. I found a neat idea on another blog for making nail polish wraps. I'm not sure the idea will pan out, I've run into some problems I need to look at again and get some more opinions on.


   I chose the plastic bag route instead of the wax paper for this design. For me I painted 8 flower nails and 2 yellow nails. You just paint your base color in a basic nail shape and then fill it in with your design! Then once it's dried (about 10-20 minutes after painting your top coat), carefully peel it off and place it on your nail. Anything extra can be easily removed with nail polish remover.


   For this design I started with a base of Sally Hansen Jungle Gem and on my ring finger Revlon Colorstay Buttercup. To make the pink flowers I started with Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Don't Be Leotardy mixed with a bit of white. Then I used plain Leotardy, and then Finger Paints Plum Perspective mixed with a bit of white. To make the orange flowers I started with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Sun Kissed mixed with white. Then regular Sun Kissed, and then a small amount of L'Oreal He Read My Mind. The green leaves were L'Oreal New Money.


   The problem I'm stuck on with the wraps is that they seem to loose their stickiness after a while. They can still be applied, you just have to add in an extra step - applying a base coat and pressing on the wrap once the base polish is halfway dry. I'm not sure people will want to mess with the extra step. I'm sending a couple out to a few people to get their opinions!

   I hope you have a fantastic week!

Sunday, January 11, 2015

New Sets!

   In continuation of sorting through old posts and old designs, I came across some new sets I had painted throughout the past month.

   This first one is a design that I painted as a custom set for a customer through Etsy.


   I like this one, the glitter is really pretty! I think I'll have to make an option for all nails to have the glitter, I think it would look really nice.
   For the glitter I used a combination of fine glitter, Finger Paints Wrapped in Ribbon, and a slight bit of a chunkier glitter, Wet 'N Wild Fergie Glamorous. Then I painted on a matte coat.


   This next set was also a custom set for a customer on Etsy.


   I really liked this one too. It's different and I've never used almond nails before, but I think it looks nice!
   I used Finger Paints Wrapped in Ribbon  for the glitter lines. The blue I used was one one layer of Orly Teal Unreal. It's a thinner polish, so one layer gave it a watercolor effect. I made the black lines with my black striper, and my base color was Orly French Manicure Pink Nude.
   The studs I used were from a neat little set from Walmart, Sally Hansen I Heart Nail Art Studs. I came with a tube of the studs here, as well as a tube each of clear and black rhinestones. The black ones look nice, but I'm not impressed by the clear. I guess I'm spoiled by more realistic ones? Or I'm just picky...

   I'm officially caught up! Sort of. I painted my nails again two days ago, but I don't think that counts!

   I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Thursday, January 8, 2015

Glitter and Rudolph

   Like I said in my last post, despite not posting much recently, I have been busy painting! I have two new sets to show you guys.
   Back before I left for home, I painted my roommate's nails with a cute Rudolph design.


   I started with my favorite base, Orly French Manicure Pink Nude. Which still isn't pink. Ha. I painted the dots using Revlon Colorstay Red Carpet and Studio M On the Field. To make Rudolph, I started with his head an ears, using Nina Ultra Pro Beige-A Vu. To make the nose I used Red Carpet again,  and Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Branch Out for the antlers. The eyes were made with white and black.


   This next set I think I painted around Christmas. Maybe as an interim between whatever I had before and the design I painted for Christmas? Who knows, it's been too long!


   The red glitter is one of my favorite glitters! It's so pretty and perfect for Christmas! It's Wet 'N Wild Fergie No Place Like Home. I love it! The gold is pretty too, I'm just a little besotted with No Place Like Home. The gold is Finger Paints Wrapped in Ribbon.


   I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Flower Water Transfer Review

   I promise I haven't died, I've just been busy! Who knew being home would be busier than being at school?! ...And I probably have more distractions here at home. Which is probably the real reason for me not having posted in what feels like almost a month. I have been painting, just not posting... So I have lots of updates!

   I'm going to start with my current set, and then work my way backwards throughout the week. I have a lot of partial posts to sort through. Apparently I had some good intentions, but a short attention span!

   This week I have a review from my bag of goodies from Born Pretty. I've posted one review from the most recent trio, some pretty triangle studs. This week I have some water transfers to show you guys. They are #BLE2109.



   I really liked them, the picture was really pretty! Like the last water transfer I reviewed, they were really easy to apply. The main difference with this decal is that it was all one big picture, not 12 different little pictures, so you have to choose your favorite few spots and do your best to estimate your nail sizes.
   Like the last set, they are still a little slippery, but not as bad. I'm not sure if I did something different or if they were made slightly different. Or maybe I was prepared for it this time. Who knows!
    The only real complaint I have is about the more yellow nail. For some reason it cracked a bit:


   I'm not sure why it did that, none of the other transfers (this set or the last) showed any inclination to do so. It might have been something I did, I couldn't get this one to stay in the right spot so I might have nudged it a little too much or something once I put on my topcoat.

   Overall, I think they are great! You can use coupon code AIBW10 to get 10% off your order at Born Pretty Store!

   The polish I have on the rest of my fingers is a new polish that is quickly becoming a favorite! It's Essie Carry On, a deep purple-y red that's really pretty. I bought it a few weeks ago on impulse and I'm so glad I did! I have on three coats in the picture.

   More updates to come as I sort through everything.
 
   I hope you all have a fantastic week!