Easter nails! and new organization :)

Hello! I hope everyone had an awesome Easter.  I did... for the most part.  Ate a ton of awesome food... but when home early to take a nap and make a project.  The nap gave me terrible dreams, though, and I couldn't get to sleep til 4 a.m... I think it's an effect of the stress of my parents' divorce.  When you're an adult... you just kind of internalize all that stress. :/  but I prayed with my friend Randi about it today and God's gonna take care of me! :)

Enough about me... to the nails!

For my Easter nails, I wanted something colorful but edgy.  Although you can't really tell in the pic, the colors under the Shatter are pink, yellow, and TEAL, not green.

The pink is Forever 21 Magenta, the yellow is a very old bottle of SH Insta-Dry in Lightening, and the teal is also SH Insta-Dry in Mint Spring.  (The shatter is OPI black Shatter.  I started with the pink all over and then used scotch tape to make the angled lines as I layered the next two colors.  It took forever!  And when it was all said and done, I honestly didn't really like the effect.  I wish I would have sponged some gradient between the colors before Shattering it... I think that's more of what I was picturing.  (Oh, and I of course used layers of SV take make it all dry quickly.)

Unfortunately, my pinky nail on my right hand didn't Shatter well. :/

So that all came off last night and I created a french tip style mani with a vampy twist...

It feels very va-va-voom!

I started off with two layers of 10 Pinky Promise for a nice base (I've taken to doing this on all my manis now, and it makes them come off much easier!) and then scotch-tape french tips of Revlon Perplex, which is deep purple.  (I added an extra little stripe on my thumbs for interest.)  When that was all said and done, it looked great! ...except for some smudges on my left hand that I couldn't repair.  So I added on layer of SH Xtreme Wear in Night Lights and BAM! The final effect was a color that reminded me of sheer, grey tights... very vampy.  I actually liked this a lot!  And Night Lights has such a lovely holo glitter to it. :)

Today, I went to Hobby Lobby with my roommate and some of her friends.  Of course, I ended up buying some crafty things... for my nail polish addiction. :)

I got an awesome set of four skinny brushes that hopefully I can learn to use for freehand! :D

I also got... *drumroll*... my pride and joy... a lovely sturdy box for my nail polishes! :D

The box was actually a photo holder box or something, but it was plain white, sturdy, and big enough to fit my polishes with room to grow.  Also, you see all those feathers?  Also new acquisitions. :)

This all leads into my mani for tomorrow... 

FEATHER MANI!!! :D

Left thumb...

Right thumb!!

Okay, no lie, these were much more difficult than I expected.  Even now, I can't get the top of my nail smooth.  It took multiple coats of Seche Vite to get the feather all glossed in and it all feels imperfect.  I added little X's on my ring fingernails (seen a few pics up) to try to balance it out.

Even with the difficulty, it does look pretty cool.   The base color I used it one I made myself by mixing a white and blue polish. :)

K, I've used all my pictures and it's time for me to hit the sack!  Night my dears!

~Steph

Hard Candy Beetle and *gasp* I finally got OPI Black Shatter!! :D

Let's start off with yesterday's nails:

I had heard about Beetle for FOREVER from various blogs like Lovelyish, but it wasn't until I was at Walmart on Tuesday and saw it that I knew it must become my own.  And it's only five dollars!

I think I actually managed to get a pretty good pic, considering that it shifts through pink, green, and yellow depending on the light and the angle.  It must be a pretty interesting polish for me to wear it just by itself!!

Then, at the mall (I'm pretty much always at the mall before work, because of bus schedules,) I passed by Trade Secret and decided I must go in... and there I found:

And, despite the ticket price of $8.50, (with tax it cost $9.20!!!) I knew it must become my own.

I then ventured on to work, where I of course showed my newly acquired bottle to my coworker Nicki, and when our boss decided to leave for the day early... I couldn't wait to try it any longer!

I tried it on my ring finger (which is always my preferred accent nail), just in case I didn't like it.

As you can see, it's fairly matte with no topcoat.  (And for the record, while it looked pretty over Beetle, it also negated Beetle's color-changing abilities.)  But that was alright!

Obviously, today, I knew I had to do a full Shatter mani.  So I layered it over the bottle of Jesse's Girl nail polish in Glee that I received from Chloe's Nails and this was my result!

I wish I had a better picture, because this really doesn't do this gorgeous mani justice.

I used two coats of Glee, one coat of Shatter, and two coats of SV because I really wanted a glass-like finish-- Shatter is definitely lumpy on its own.

Glee is a gorgeous teal blue with glitter in normal lighting, but peeking out from under the Shatter all you really see is jade green glitter flashing through.  The effect is so pretty that I might actually keep this mani for two days!  *GASP!*

I also went to the mall today and since I was open to buying more polishes (I think I'm using nail polish as a silent therapy for dealing with the stress of my parents' divorce), I spent some time in Ulta.  I didn't find anything interesting until I came across...

THE CLEARANCE RACK!!!

LOOK AT IT!  Ulta brand, Zoya, OPI, China Glaze... all for $5 or less!!  What a temptation!!  But despite the lovely price, there weren't any colors that I either didn't already have or that interested me, (although I did briefly consider the tan China Glaze one you see on the right.)  So no new polishes today. :)

Autism Awareness nails and my Freebies from Chloe's Nails!! :D

Hello all!  Today my nails are themed for Autism Awareness.  I used to work at a major toy store back during my first year of college, and during April customers had the option of donating a dollar or more to Autism Speaks, an organization dedicated to funding research for and raising public awareness of autism.  Most of the cashiers (myself included, at first) typically ignore these and don't bother with it unless the customer specifically asks, but God really put it on my heart to start asking every customer if they wanted to donate.  So in the two or three weeks left, I did... and by asking every single customer, I managed to raise up a donation of over $300!  (One girl raised higher than me--she raised over $500, and some of the other cashiers raised about $50 each.) So even though I don't currently know anyone autistic, I always remember the organization as the one God pointed out to me, because He really cares.
So today's nails are autism awareness!  The blue is Forever 21's Love and Beauty in Dark Blue, and the light blue is Dark Blue mixed with some NYC white and SH Celeb City. (At first, I tried just mixing Dark Blue with Celeb City and they would not mix!!  They just swirled!  So I added the white and it meshed them all together.)  Oh, and of course a top coat of Seche Vite.

I don't have a pic to upload, but that's just my left hand... the thumbnail on my right hand also has a puzzle piece, but it's a differently shaped one.
This is only my second Forever 21 nail polish; I bought it yesterday because I was super excited to find a non-shimmer dark blue, although admittedly I would have preferred a creme.  Dark Blue is a jelly-like blue color that's streaky, but with three coats (my middle finger up above has three coats,) it's a nice, opaque dark blue.  I was surprised to see that before the SV, it had a leather-like finish--not matte, not glossy, but somewhere in between.  I definitely needed the SV, though, because the Forever 21 polishes are thick, streaky, and take forever to dry.

On another note, my five polishes that I won in the giveaway over at Chloe's Nails arrived today!  I am so so so so so excited!!!

From left to right:  10 Professional Nail Lacquer in Pinky Promise; Milani Jewel FX in Gems; Jesse's Girl in Glee; Revlon nail enamel in Perplex, and Sally Hansen's Extreme Wear in Night Lights.

I am freaking thrilled about these, mainly because they are all colors I don't already have!  Jesse's Girl in Glee doesn't look like much in the picture, but it is the prettiest mermaid Barbie blue with green/blue microglitter.  I've heard a lot about Perplex on the blog sites... we'll see about that one.  And Night Lights is a grey-tinted HOLOGRAPHIC GLITTER!!  I've been soooo dying for a holo!  And I actually almost bought Gems last week... glad I didn't! :)  I've totally been needing a pale pink polish too, so I am super excited about these!  If you haven't checked out Chloe's Nails, go over there and read it.  All of it.  It's magical, and it's what got me really excited about nails again! :)

That's all for now... Will swatch/take pics of all the new colors later.  Ta-ta!

The Introduction and Past Nail Designs

Hello all!  My name is Stephanie and I love doing my nails.  Designing them, decorating them, you name it--I do it.  I used to change my fingernail polish every few days, but with the purchase of Seche Vite (SV, for short; if you haven't heard of it, it's an uber-fast-drying top coat) my nails have been changing every day.
I read many nail polish blogs, but I must confess that the one that started it all for me is Chloe's Nails, which I have checked daily (and obsessively) since finding it about two months ago.  Already, that obsession dedication has paid off, as I was lucky enough to win one of her recent giveaways!  It was only announced last week, so I'm hoping that my package of five polishes arrives soon.

Here's some pictures of polish designs I have tried in the past:  (from oldest to most recent)

 This was my first attempt at water marbling.  It came out pretty well!

There were some lumps, but it wasn't awful.  I think I just did the two accent nails. (The base green is Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Grass Slipper.)

In this one I tried a differently colored accent nail... wasn't a huge fan, even though the cross was cute. (NYC Long Wearing Nail Enamel in Big Apple Red Creme and Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Celeb City)

SUPER SPARKLY!! Love the colors... but it bores me so quickly.  And it was nearly impossible to get off.  (Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Celeb City with Rockstar Pink on top)

LOVE this design.  It was a little nautical and totally cute!!  Inspired by another site but I can't find which one right now... will get back to you. (White: NYC French White Tip; Blue: SH Complete Salon Manicure in Calypso Blue; Red: NYC Big Apple Red Creme; gold: reeeeallly old OPI Gold Lang Syne)

This started out as all back but I added some silver to perk it up.  I was feeling particularly teenage-angst-ish (even though I'm not a teenager) because my mother called me to let me know that she and my father were divorcing.  (Black is L.A. Colors nail laquer in Black Velvet and silver is Celeb City.)

I really wish I had a better pic of this.  It's a gumball machine!  I followed the tutorial found here and it worked marvelously.  I later painted the rest of my nails red to match. 

And this is the one I did last night.  The watermelon theme was cute, but too kitschy for me.  (The pink is my own mix, the green is SH Complete Salon Manicure in Grass Slipper, and silver is SH Hard as Nails Celeb City.)

So there are my credentials for you! For the record, I do not yet own any Konads, I do almost all my designs with scotch tape, and most dot or freehand designs are done using the point of a pair of scissors. :)

Thanks ya'll!

~Stephanie from Texas