Week 28: Gradient

Welcome to my little corner of hobbyland. As you probably know, I'm following a Year's Challenge that I found over on the blog I'm Still Thinking... This week's theme is Gradient, so I asked my visiting daughter what color I should use. She said red, so red it is!

I started with a base white coat so the colors would cover better, then I put a drop each of China Glaze Brownstone, Rimmel Burgundy Flirt, and Avon Ruby Slipper next to each other on my paint palette (otherwise known as the plastic lid I stole out of the kitchen ages ago and won't give back. ;) Using a fan brush, I picked up all three colors together, and painted them across my nail as one. If you use a few strokes, it blends them together seamlessly. It's my favorite method for making gradients, because the obvious lines between colors that even sponging gives you kind of irks me. Not that sponging doesn't have its place, and it looks fabulous on other people, but on my own nails, I will overdo it to the point of obsession trying to make the change gradual. So even though it's messier, I will use a fan brush almost every time. :)

Of course, I obviously didn't leave it there! I used a striping brush and Sinful Colors All About You to add some curving stripes, and then added a rhinestone in the middle. Neither the Gryffindor look nor the fact that it looks kind of like a wrapped present were intentional! As you can see, I didn't get the pictures taken until after I'd started to have some tip wear, but I have to admit that sometimes I'm just plain lazy! I also don't have good clean-up on these because 1) I'm out of acetone, and 2) cleaning up red even with acetone is a job and a half, and I just couldn't get it done well with polish remover! And I may love sharing my nail art fabs and flops with you guys, but I just didn't feel like spending an hour cleaning up a manicure that only took a half-hour to put on in the first place, when it really only looked bad in the close up pictures. ;P

Holly and Polish China Glaze On Safari Giveaway!!

Yep, you read that right. Holly and Polish has been around for a year, and to celebrate, she's giving away one set of the entire On Safari collection from China Glaze!

Holly and Polish has great swatching pictures, lots of fun nail art to ogle over, and I like reading her reviews. Even if you initially go for the giveaway, you should spend some time browsing her archives. Enjoy! (I would say good luck, but *I* want those polishes for myself! ;)

Vacation Nail Haul & Mani

I just got back this weekend from a week's vacation - my first actual, full vacation as an adult! (Yes, I'm almost 42 and I've never taken a vacation. I've had days off, lots of maternity leave, but no *vacation* where you take a full week off work and actually go somewhere as a family.) Well, my newly-adult daughter, Grace, is staying with us for a month this summer, between graduating high school and heading off to University this fall. So what better time? We spent three days visiting my dad and sister in KC, then headed down to Branson for a day and a half at Silver Dollar City, and then a day at the beach on Table Rock Lake. Despite the heat wave (thank goodness for water rides!) we managed to keep hydrated and thoroughly enjoy ourselves.

While we were at my Dad's place, one of my sisters decided to get rid of the last of her polish stash, so Grace and I split it between us. Here's my half of the haul! ::insert evil laugh here - Bwahahahaha!::

From left to right, that's Cover Girl Electric Blue, Sally Hansen Chrome in Gilded Pearl, Opal, and Black Pearl, then Avon Nailwear Pro+ (the glitters) and Nailwear Pro (the non-glitters) in Ruby Slippers, Lucky Penny, Absinthe, Vintage Blue, and Jade.

I also gathered Avon Mosaic Effects (otherwise known as crackle, duh!) in black and white, and two Avon Mirror Shines in Peace Ice and...well, the label says "Polish" but I don't know why they'd name a polish "Polish". WhatEVAR, moving on! Color Trend Refreshing Pear and some unnamed mini Lisa Frank Nail Magic. Is pretty, though!

And now I need to buy more swatching sticks, can you believe it? I think I have two or three left. Maaaaybe four. But I have 141 polishes on my shelf! (I bought 150 swatching sticks, and of course a few were cracked/broken.)

Last, but not least, lots of stickers/rhinestones/pretty things to stick on my nails!

I am sad to say that my right-hand middle finger was a casualty of war, though. It broke off at the quick while we were camping. Bad Ro for having nude nails for two days! If I'd taken the time to put a coat or two of basecoat on them, at least, it probably wouldn't have happened. But we had fun-filled days and we were TAHRED! (that's Texan for plumb worn out, by the way) when we got back to camp each night.

I did put on a basic manicure once it had broken, though, to ensure no more nails would go the way of my poor middle nubbin. I put on a couple coats of my wonderful Haken Nail Magic, then a couple of coats of my brand-new gifted polish, Avon Ruby Slipper, and then I added a gradient of Windestine Star Bright to the top half of my nails, and added a full accent nail of Star Light to my ring fingers.

At least I stayed with the patriotic theme for the week, yeah? ^_^ I mean, look, there's stars and bars right on my nails!

Would anyone like to share their tips or techniques for taking care of their nails while away on vacation? I'd love to hear them!

Week 27 - July 4th Fireworks!

It's Week 27 on our year's challenge list, and for Americans, that means Independence Day nails! I chose to do fireworks on my nails...and I ended up with a total of 13 different glitter polishes on my nails! THIRTEEN! *grin* Plus a few loose glitters. It's going to be a foil-method removal, that's for sure. I started with a base of China Glaze Smoke and Ashes, for that tiny bit of sparkle in a night sky. Then I just pulled out quite a few of my glitter polishes, and just picked whichever one I thought would look good with whichever firework I was producing, one nail at a time. :) I'm not sure which polishes are one which nails, honestly, though I can try to work it out if you ask. In no particular order, this is the list of polishes which were sitting on my work surface when I was done: Wet 'N Wild Kaleidoscope, NYC Starry Silver Glitter, Sally Hansen Celeb City, CND Gold Shimmer, Essie A Cut Above and Set in Stones, Sinful Colors Snow Me White and All About You, Pure Ice Strapless, Zoya Karina, China Glaze Electrify, Windestine Rainforest and Star Light, and KISS Nail Art in Pink Glitter and Gold Glitter. And now, on to the PICTURES! I've got a lot of them, in different angles and shots, so I'll use small pictures here. Click on them for the good sizes, of course. :)

Purple Paisleys and Flowers

Good morning, fellow hobbyists! My oldest daughter is visiting me for a month this summer before she heads off to the University of Kentucky this fall (where she lives with her dad, stepmom, two brothers and two half-sisters) so in expectation of having an irregular nail-painting schedule, I've started scheduling my blog entries to post on Monday and Thursday mornings. That way I can be sure to have a regular blog flow (ooh that sounded less gross before I re-read it! ::evil grin::) even while I'll be out of town for a full week during this month. You might remember that my friend V has been having some job interviews lately. Recently, she got called back for a second interview for one of the jobs she thinks would be a really good fit for her. So as usual, she called for an "appointment" at her favorite salon - my living room! She brought the shirt she was planning to wear, and it has this wide paisley and flower pattern all across the bottom of it:

I seem to have a hard time catching color on fabric well. I've had a lot of practice at taking pictures of nails by now, but taking pictures of her clothing is a different job entirely! ^_^ I don't have quite that color of green in my stash (and my oldest daughter, who is visiting me for a month before she heads off to her first year of college this fall, says that the number of polishes I already have is "NOT just a hobby, Mom. That's an obsession." Until I pointed out to her the number of polishes actual collectors have. I just have a paint palette, and clearly it's not a complete palette when I can't match this color. Anyway, of the greens I have, I thought Nubar Reclaim would look the best with it. I wish I could've got picture of this manicure in the sunlight, to show how awesome the Reclaim holoness looks in the sun, but obviously we did her nails at night. :P

I used a Jean-Michelle polish...I think the name is Perle, but since I don't have any other polishes of this brand, I can't compare to see if where that word is on other bottles is actually a color name. Anyway, I used Perle for the beige, NYC Purple Pizazz Frost, and Sinful Colors Daddy's Girl to give a little sparkle to the purple dots and flowers.

I think I might have trouble deciding what to do on V's nails the next time she wants a mani and doesn't have a job interview! Hehehehe...

First Snowfall in Minnesota

No, fellow hobbyists, I'm not in Minnesota, and it's not snowing, there OR here in Arkansas in July. But I saw this picture on Pinterest, labelled "First Snowfall, Duluth, Minnesota," and the colors were so striking that I had to drop what I had planned for my nails that very night and do my best at recreating it.

I guess I did a decent job at it, as some of my co-workers this morning have said they think it might be their favorite manicure that I've done thus far. It's a rather Monet interpretation...but I do love the way the colors came out! I used a base of Sinful Colors Snow Me White (how appropriate!) and then added a layer of China Glaze Luxe and Lush to mimic the shine and sparkle of sunlight on snow. I then used the saran wrap technique of blotting on the leaves, both in the trees and on the ground, using (in this order) Primark Beauty Neon Orange, Sinful Colors Courtney Orange, and NYC Broadway Burgundy Frost. A thin striping brush with Pure Ice Magic produced the tree trunks, and voila! An early snowfall on a brilliant fall landscape. I did dabb a bit more Courtney Orange over some of the nails where the tree trunks seemed too crisp.

Given the few numbers of people I have following my blog, I haven't asked a whole lot of questions of you guys, and I figure most of you are other nail art people. But if any of you ever want me to generate a tutorial for anything you see me do, just let me know. In the short-term, I'll point you toward where I learned it from, but I'll take a note and create a tutorial for anything you ask for just as soon as I can. The thing is that when I want to learn how to do something, Google is my friend, and I search out three or four different tutorials for it and then amalgamate them all in my head down to whatever works best for me. However, I do realize that some of you either might not know where to look, or just want to ask me, and I thought I'd put it out there that anybody coming by can ask! I have to remind myself not to assume that just because I read a lot of nail art blogs doesn't mean everybody does...and sometimes seeing all the experts out there I forget that one of the reasons I started this blog wasn't just to keep a record of my nail art, but also to show a progression of skill from beginner to (hopefully, someday!) an advanced skill level...and to help other newbies like myself be less intimidated by the amazeballs artwork out there and go, "Hey, if she can do that, maybe I can, too!"

So yeah, if maybe you're less intimidated asking me how I did something than you would be asking one of the awe-inspiring nail artists out there, please do! And if there's a technique out there you've seen going around and you'd like to see me tackle it and maybe show you an "Idiot's Guide to Nail Art" version, I'd love to give it a try.

Sassy Lacquer Giveaway

No one knows what's going on with the indie polish maker behind Nerd Lacquer. No one's heard from her in quite a while - the Etsy shop is down and no emails have been received in months. Sassy Lacquer has  duplicates of four of Nerd Lacquer polishes, and in her awesomeness has decided to share them in a giveaway rather than raking in the dough she could get selling them on EBay! Woot for us! So click here or on the picture to head over to her giveaway, and be sure to spend some time browsing her archives if you've never seen them before, because she's got some great swatching going on! :)