Butterflies!

So I've been thinking of designs I can enter into the contests, but I've been stumped for all but the x-mas one.  I just need some time for that one!

So in the meantime, my mom invited her friend over, and asked me to do her nails (paid in sushi!  Hellz yeah!!!).  Since she has short nails (casualty of her job, lol) I decided to do a simple design.

The entire time I worked on her nails, my mom was watching over my shoulder and giving me "suggestions" as to how to make it prettier.  Personally, I was just trying to be a realist, and keeping a simple design that could be maintained at her work.  But, of course, I listened my mom with the whole rhinestone thing!

What I Used:

Orly Tough Cookie

Nina Pro: Purple-Xing

Art Club Nail Art Lacquer: Black

Art Club Nail Art Lacquer: Red Glitter

China Glaze: Fast Forward

Hyundai Nail Art Pen

What I Did:

Yes, I said Hyundai.  I know I've never named the brand of the pen I used, but there you go.  They're like $2 each at Beauty Headquarters.  It doesn't tell me how much polish is in one pen, but I'm pretty sure it's alot!

Anyhoo, so yeah, what I did.

Step 1: Base Coat.

Step 2: Diagonal French with Purple-Xing.  (2 coats)

Step 3: Black strip across the nail with the Art Club polish.  I am more comfortable with making straight lines w/ the striping brush than I am using a pen.

Step 4: Using the Pen, make an outline of a butterfly on the thumb.  At this step, I tried to use the Migi Nail Art Pens that I had just received in the mail.  Now, this is where I was really disappointed.  The glitter does not go through the pen tip very well.  It's quite watery (?) versus sparkly.  Which changes my game plan for my entries.  I might not be able to do another Halloween Video because my pens aren't going to suit a drawing purpose.  They're great as a regular polish though.  The glitter is very pretty when I use the brush tip.  More on that later!

Step 5:  Draw dots on the rest of the fingers in lieu of the butterfly.  Her nails were too small for a more elaborate design on every nail.

Step 5:  Fill in the butterfly wings w/ the red glitter polish.

Step 6:  Top coat.

Step 7:  This is optional, but I put on red heart rhinestones.

Here's some pictures of the look without the rhinestones.

So the rhinestones give it an extra dimension.  But I thought it looked fine without them!  I mean, I'm not being stingy...the rhinestones are relatively cheap, but I was just thinking how much she uses her hands and how they were just going to fall off anyway.

I did decide to use nail glue instead of just the basic top coat method though.  I figured this would give the rhinestones an extra chance to "live", lol.  I guess the next time I see here, I'll ask how long they lasted!  I heard that with nail glue, accessories can stick to the nail for about a month. We shall see!

On a side note, I am happily awaiting a ton of things from eBay.  As soon as I get everything, I'll do a major haul blog.  Still debating on whether I want to do a haul video.  That would require me to actually be on camera and talk.  Not like my current videos where I just give you titles and subtitles. LOL!  I just don't think I photograph too well right now.  Although, on the plus side, I wore a pair of pants today...a year ago they wouldn't have fit.  So yeah, that makes me feel pretty good. ^^

I also just got a pair of snowboarding pants (DC) that look like jeans @ SkiDazzle.  I totally can't wait to hit the mountain and board again!  That should help me slim down even more!  

LadyBug Nails!

So I decided to enter another contest.  It's hosted by meandmymakeup, for Nature-Related Nail Art.

Here's my entry:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKYKa-PAVNA

I did a slideshow instead of my normal video tutorial because it was easier and faster.  Plus I don't think it's that important to show how I put on my basecoat, etc.  Maybe I could've shown how to do the details with the nail art pen, but I was kinda shaky with it anyway.

Man, my right hand's art is awful!  But, whatever...practice makes perfect!

What I Used:

China Glaze: Fast Forward Top Coat

China Glaze: Turned Up Turquoise

Orly: Tough Cookie

China Glaze: Scarlet

China Glaze: Innocence

Black Nail Art Pen

What I Did:

My video will pretty much tell you the steps of how to get this look, but I'll go through the steps here too.

Step 1: Base Coat (Tough Cookie).

Step 2: One coat of Innocence over the entire nail.

Step 3:  Turned Up Turquoise on Diagonal French.

Step 4: Two coats of Scarlet - In a big Dot.

Step 5: Using the Black Nail Art Pen, draw in details of Ladybug.

Step 6: Top Coat (Fast Forward).

And there you have it!  Ladybug nails.  I've been wanting to do these for awhile, but I haven't received my Migi Nail Art Pens, so I've been using the generic one.  You can add rhinestones to this look, but I wanted to keep it simple since I was entering the beginner's category.

It was a fun design to do!  I had been thinking up Nature-Related designs since I came across the contest, and I hope she likes mine. =)

Double Diagonal French Manicure

So I went to this store in Pasadena called "Style 7", because I heard they sold rhinestones for really cheap.  To my surprise, they were extremely cheap...but Style 7 isn't a nail/beauty supply place.  So (IMO) you better get it while it lasts!

So this look is kind of based on MadelleTV's video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBHiFq9tFc8&feature=channel

It's pretty much the lazy version of it.  She does all these cute lines and dots....I just did rhinestones.  Well, I knew I wanted rhinestones, because I was dying to use the ones I just bought, LOL.

What I Used:

Orly: Tough Cookie Base Coat

Orly Glosser

FingerPaints: Palette of Platinum

China Glaze: Glacier

Nina Ultra Pro: Purple-Xing
Palette of Rhinestones

What I Did:

First, I put on one coat of Tough Cookie (yes, it's new!!).  Next, I used the Platinum and put on two coats in a really deep diagonal French.  Third, I put two coats of Purple-Xing in a more shallow diagonal French.  Then, I put on a coat of Glacier over the Platinum, just to give an extra sparkle.  To dress it up a little, I put some Glosser down along the border of the Platinum and put on some purple rhinestones.

Overall, I think the nails turned out really nice.  It was definitely a fun design to do...putting on rhinestones is very....soothing.  LOL!  I'm planning on changing my own nails soon and maybe in a few weeks, I'll be able to fully review Tough Cookie. =)

New French on Mom and Me!

Well, I obviously didn't keep my Halloween Nails on very long. I decided to do a different look.


I did my my mom's in a diagonal French, with glitter at the border of the tip. This is based on EricaLeung's video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvpxvukYT84

Afterwards, I did my own nails, with a more involved design (hey, my mom rushed me on hers!).  This is more like an Arrow French, but it really is just two opposite diagonal Frenches.

Both looks were really easy to do.  And I really liked how they turned out!

So let's move onto...

What I Used:

NailTek

FingerPaints: Art Her-Story

FingerPaints: Artist's Sapphire

Art Club Nail Art Lacquer: Silver Glitter

Z Super Dry Top Coat

What I Did:

First, for my Mom's nails, I just did the diagonal French in Art Her-Story.  Let that dry, then another coat.  Then let that dry, and then the Silver Glitter along the border of the tip.  Throw on a top coat, and you're done!  Really nice and simple, yet quite elegant.  (I did add some plastic flowers on my Mom's ring fingers, but this is completely optional!)

Then, for my own nails, I basically did two coats of Art Her-Story as a diagonal French in one direction, then two coats of Artist's Sapphire in the opposite diagonal French.  (This pictured here was actually my second attempt.  I think it looks better when you start lower on the nail than just on the tips.  But that's just personal preference!)

After letting that dry (no really, I did try to dry each coat....ish....), I used the Silver Glitter polish to make a design as pictured.  Basically, I followed the diagonal French on the tip, just like 2mm from the actual border.  After that, I put on some top coat.  I thought it ended up looking pretty good (pat on the back! lol).  Maybe a little fancier than I had intended (since I'm not going anywhere special), but whatever!  They're bomb dammit!

As a product review, I'm not overly impressed with Z Super Dry Top Coat.  I bought it because I thought it was similar to Yellow Stopper.  I think it probably is a yellow-stopper type top coat, however, it doesn't glow in the black light (more like shimmers-ish).  But that's not the real problem.  It is a REALLY thin top coat.  Although it looks pretty thick...and goes on pretty thick, it dries like insanely thin.  I suppose this is a good thing if you have like tons of coats of nail polish and you don't want a top coat to add to that thickness...but in general, I like a top coat that smooths all the bumps and ridges from my nail and design.  So yeah, probably going back to the Orly Glosser for the next blog!

Golden Diagonal/Arrow Manicure

Hey Everyone!

I did my mother's nails the other day, and they didn't really turn out the way I wanted them to.  I didn't have the right nail polish, I think.  So in the end, they look a little messier than I'd like, but oh well!  I'll probably redo them really soon!

The original look I was going for is pictured here to the right.  It's a nice simple diagonal/arrow manicure using white and gold.  This picture was sent in by Elaine Lemay from QC, Canada, to a nail design website I explored.

That website is: http://www.nailsmag.com and they have tons of designs, and even some "how-to's" on their site.  I looked through them trying to get some ideas, but most are complicated or pretty difficult (aka meant for experts!).  I think these designs were posted more of an advertisement for these nail artists, but they were really fun to check out.

What I Used:

NailTek

Orly French Manicure: Softest White

Aphrodite: 102

China Glaze: Cleopatra

Art Club Nail Art Lacquer: Red Glitter

What I Did:

Like I said above, this turned out really messy, but I can tell you where I went wrong!

First, I did a basecoat with NailTek.  Personally, I believe NailTek works great...I can see the difference it made on my own nails.  They are definitely stronger and they aren't peeling(?).

Next, I used the Softest White and did a diagonal French at the tip (2 coats).

Third, I tried to use just the Cleopatra for the diagonal from the opposite side, but it was too sheer.  I searched far and wide from my tiny nail polish collection, and came across the Aphrodite 102.  I'm fairly certain you can't find this outside of Myanmar, but any gold polish should do.  I did a diagonal French from the other side (also 2 coats).

Fourth, I tried the Cleopatra only over the gold part (I should've stuck to that!!!), and thought it still was too sheer, so I put it on top of everything.  Big mistake!  The gold and the white just kind of run into each other.  I tried to fix that by using my red glitter thin brush to outline the white and gold, but as you can tell, it looks a little funny.

So the overall effect I was going for did not turn out right.  The original look is definitely classier.  I intend to look for a better gold polish when I head out to the beauty supply store!

I probably will try to get another black polish and do some type of cute design using black for Halloween as well.  I've seen some pretty cute cat ones. =)  EasyNails did a spiderweb design that seemed pretty cool too, with a cute black rhinestone spider.  Decisions decisions!!!