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Entry to BognaW's Nail Art Contest

Saturday, November 28, 2009
Here's the video for my entry.  The theme was "French Glam" and I did this Korean-inspired look.

The link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leZaDtAgi0Y

The Video:



I won't go into too much details, but...

What I Used:


NailTek (Basecoat)
Essie: Guadalupe Opal
Essie: Watermelon
O*P*I: Happy Anniversary!
Nail Star: Silver Glitter (Thin Brush)
Seche Vite (Topcoat)
White Pearl Nail Art
Pink Pearl Bows

What I Did:

1.  Basecoat

2.  One coat of Guadalupe Opal

3.  Watermelon Tips

4.  Happy Anniversary! Dots

5.  Another coat of Happy Anniversary! Dots, and add white pearls to the dots.

6.  Silver glitter along the border of the tip

7.  Top coat + Bow

Viola!

Afterwards I kinda decided that it could look better w/ the pearls/dots placed elsewhere.  I might try it again sometime soon, but for now...here's the look!
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Pure Ice: Wild Thing Review


I decided to check out this line from Walmart.  Pure Ice polishes are about $2 each.

The color is really nice and vivid, BUT...after I removed the polish from my fingers, they were stained bright green.  Even with a basecoat.

Soooo...let's just say I'll be only using this once every blue moon.

However, my nails did turn out pretty cute, and I got a few comments on them.  =)


I didn't do anything crazy....just made a little flower in the corner.

Here are the steps if you want them:
1. Basecoat

2. Two coats of Wild Thing

3. Five dots in a circle in dark blue (I used Nail Star)

4. One dot in white in the middle (it kind of mixed with the green, lol...that's what I get for being impatient)

5. Top coat

Done!

It could've been easily dressed up with rhinestones or whatnot, but I was going for a plain simple look. =)
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Inko86's Penguin Nail Art

Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Hey everyone!

So I saw this really cute video on YouTube by Inko86.  She entered this design into a contest for 3TanjaJ3's Christmas Nail Art Contest.  As you guys may know, I entered this contest as well.  I had a little Xmas ornament design.

Here's the link to Inko86's video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7edwq5l8-s

And here's a picture of how my nails turned out!

I didn't judge my space properly, so I didn't have enough space to do the cute santa's hat.  And that blob looking thing on my ring finger is supposed to be an igloo.  But whatever!  I still thought it turned out pretty cute!
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Bday Present for my Bro

Monday, November 23, 2009

The present I ordered for my brother's birthday FINALLY came in from Japan. These figures are practically impossible to find here in the US, so I was very excited to give him something I knew he would love.

This is a Figma figurine called Drossel.  It's from Disney Japan.  =)  I actually prefer the other hair pieces, where it looks like pigtails, but whatever...my bro likes this one cuz they look like "headphones" or something.

Since it's a Figma, I think I'm going to get the stage sets for him as well, so we can start posing them and taking pictures.  It will be fun...I hope!

I pretty much caught up with all the blogs last week.  I think I have one more kinda holiday design, and that's it for now....

I need more free time to figure out what's next!  I have a couple makeup contests I want to enter...and I think they're closing soon, so I gotta hurry up.  But it's hard to come up with a unique, avant guarde kind of look, you know?  I guess we'll just have to wait and see!
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Two New Videos up on YouTube

Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Hey all...I have two videos I just posted last night on YouTube.

The first one is about my first Franken-Polish:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hojUrFcjTBw

*Edit: Embedding the videos! 11/28/09



The second one is about hime decorating of a photo stand:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZTKLw0pQjM



They were both pretty fun to make.  The photo stand took forever to do, but I love the end product.  The polish was relatively easy to make, and I love the color I ended up with.

Enjoy!
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Polymer Clay Slices

Monday, November 16, 2009

Another recent purchase I just received in the mail yesterday were a couple polymer clay slices.  They are totally the rage in nail art right now, and of course I had to get into the action!

I bought two from Japan, and about 50 from Hong Kong (it was like $7 including shipping...couldn't resist!).  The ones from Japan arrived...the ones from HK will probably arrive...around Thanksgiving.  Damn that ship time for HK/China!

So here are the two canes I got:  a pink rose and a grey cat.  I used the rose ones on my mom.  They are really thick and uneven because I had a hard time slicing them.  But I've been practicing on some canes I made myself (silly cheesy stuff), and I think I'm getting the hang of it.


I put the cat slices on myself.  My brother had cut them for me, so they are a lot thinner.  They look almost like stickers.  When apply thin slices, they bend easily and are simple to mold to the shape of your nail.

I'm not sure what the point of having clay slices over stickers would be, but I have to say I'll be using these for awhile.  They are pretty sturdy, and probably don't fall apart as easily as a sticker would.

I've also ordered some pre-cut ones, and I know those will be thicker than I've been slicing right now.  I'll try them out and if I think they're too thick, I'll probably use them to decorate stuff instead.  I guess I'll have to wait and see!


What I Used:


NailTek (Basecoat)
essie: Watermelon
Seche Vite (Topcoat)
1.5mm Rhinestones
Cat Clay Cane
Rose Clay Cane

What I Did:

1.  Cut the cane into thin slices.  For my personal preference, the thinner the better!

2.  Basecoat

3.  Watermelon - I put two coats on my mom, but I only used one coat on myself.

4.  While Watermelon was still wet, I put the slices of the polymer on.

5.  I put a drop of Seche Vite wherever I wanted the rhinestone, and added a rhinestone.


6.  Top coat over everything.

7.  I tested out the essie Quick-e drops, and was very impressed.  Since I was going out, I didn't want to stress test them, but I think I will in the future.  I want to know how fast it really dries (it says seconds on the box, but I gave it closer to the minute mark), and if it really dries all layers like it says it does.  I've seen some drops that only dry the top layer, and stuff still smudges really easily.

But yeah, as you can see, one coat of essie gave really great coverage.  The 2nd coat was just to make it more solid.  I definitely want to go back and buy more essie polishes.  Unfortunately, Beauty HQ doesn't have that big of a selection, but I think I know a few colors I want to buy.  In general. most of the stuff there are older colors, which is why they could sell them at such a discount (probably!).  I'll probably look online/YouTube for some ideas for colors. =)
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China Glaze: Scarlet


I got this China Glaze: Scarlet polish.  I've used it before, in the LadyBug nails, but I had never used it as a regular polish.  So...before I ran to a birthday party, I tossed on a basecoat and two coats of Scarlet.

Without a topcoat, the polish got dull pretty quickly.  And the red is just soooo plain.  the way I had worn it, it barely lasted the night.

I suppose this is really disappointing because normally China Glaze polishes perform pretty well.  =(

I bought a couple more colors, but I had also gotten a bottle of essie, and I am waaaayyy more impressed with essie.  But more on that later!

Originally, I was planning to start up a China Glaze collection, but I think I might hold off on it for now.  I'm going to explore essie and O*P*I a bit more.  I have lots of Orly already, but I think I might get more....there's a couple colors I have my eye on....