Gold Wedding nails

My Disney vacation is in 157 short days. I’m super excited to go, as any rational human should be. To pass the time until December I decided it would be fun to watch the Disney movies that I either have never seen or haven’t seen since I was super little. Netflix has a bunch of Disney movies on their watch instant now so today I watched Dumbo. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Dumbo before and it wasn’t what I expected. The movie is super short (just over an hour) and pretty dark for a cartoon. I was so sad when they took Dumbo’s mom away (I feel ok about that spoiler since the move came out in the 40s so if you really wanted to watch it you have had plenty of time to do so). My next movie will be the Aristo-Cats, I feel more in the Disney mood already J

Not everyone is into pink/white wedding nails so I thought I would do gold wedding nails. I have mixed feelings about them but for this manicure I used China Glaze Fast Track, OPI Goldeneye, and e.l.f. 20417. I was going for messy glitter layered tips but they just didn’t turn out quite right.

Gold Wedding nails

I actually like these nails more in pictures then I did in real life which doesn’t happen very often at all. I feel like they are just missing something. If I were to do them again I would also make the tips smaller and try to make the transition less abrupt. I also think they would look better on shorter nails.

I do like nails that sparkle

Overall these nails were ok, with a few changes they would totally work for a beachy kind of wedding, or on a very tan bride (I always think gold nails look better on tan people). I only have one set of wedding nails left, hope you have enjoyed them so far J

Something Blue Wedding nails

I may have just done something dangerous; I put my jeans in the dryer. I’ve put other pairs of jeans in the dryer before, but this is the first time I’ve put this pair in, they are my ‘skinny’ jeans. I hate saying they are ‘skinny’ though as they are not skinny cut jeans and any pair of pants that has a hope of fitting me are clearly not skinny, but what I mean to say is they are my smaller fitting jeans. . . and I put them in the dryer. It was a bold move, I hope I don’t come to regret my impulsive last minute dryer decision, I suppose only time will tell. If you are super confused right now, drying jeans makes them smaller, you now have all the information you need to put all of that in context, you are welcome.

I wanted to do more wedding themed nails but I also wanted to do nails for the Bride that isn’t into pink. For this manicure I used China Glaze For Audrey and Orly White Tips. My original idea was for my nails to look like boxes from Tiffany’s and although I’ve never actually seen one of their boxes, I think they turned out pretty cute.

Something Blue nails

I ended up making the bows too big for the nails to really be considered classy but they are cute anyway. I think these nails would be perfect for a really low key wedding. I really need to start doing a better job of cleaning up the edges of my nails while they are still wet; the ridges on the sides are super annoying in these pictures. I’m going to need to finally invest in orange sticks, oh darn I have to go to Sally’s.

The edges are super annoying, right?

I broke my nail file this morning, it’s one of those awesome crystal nail files and it slipped right out of my hands and broke on the hardwood floor. I really liked that file and my nails need to be shortened so the timing wasn’t awesome, I guess I have more than one reason to go to Sally’s now, double darn for that. Hope you liked these wedding nails J

Classic Wedding nails

I can’t believe June is almost over, everyone is seriously running out of shopping days until my birthday. Don’t worry though, you do still have plenty of time to pick out the perfect birthday gift for me J. It has been miserably hot and stormy recently, I used to love thunderstorms but Millie is so scared of them that they are no longer fun. Fireworks are also no longer fun. I’m thinking about buying one of those thunder shirts that they sell in the pet store, I’m sure wrestling her into it would be less than fun, but it if kept her from waking us up that would be awesome and totally worth the glory rolling basset hound.

I went to a wedding this weekend and wanted very traditional wedding nails for the big day. For this manicure I used OPI Rosy Future and Orly White Tips. I was really pleased with how the design turned out (I used a couple of my many stripers) and I got the excuse to use my rhinestones again which always makes me happy.

Classic French Wedding nails

These nails are super simple but overall I’m very pleased with how they turned out. I painted them Thursday night and didn’t take pictures of them until Sunday though so they have a little road wear. There is something about drinking that really messes my nails up; I’m going to guess it is the general loss of motor control.

French Tips always make my nails look so long

These nails were perfect for the wedding; I wore purple so they coordinated without being too matchy. I also didn’t want them to be too flashy (they couldn’t be fancier than the Bride’s nails after all). I’m having fun with these bridal nails but I haven’t decided how many I’m going to do yet. . . I’m going to keep you at the edge of your seat I guess J

Glitter Wedding nails

I love weddings; I guess you could say I’m a romantic. I just think it is awesome to be part of someone’s best day. I had an amazing wedding, it wasn’t fancy but it was the best day of my life. For my wedding I got my first French manicure, my nails looked wonderful and for the first time I had a bunch of people ask me if they were fake (for some strange reason I love when people think my nails are fake). I did a very classic (read boring) French manicure for my wedding, but really there are a bunch of different options for classy wedding day nails. Since wedding season is in full swing I thought it would be fun to do some wedding nails. Hope you enjoy J

For my first wedding manicure I decided to do a twist on the classic French, let me just say right now that I love these nails. This manicure used Sally Hansen CSM Shell We Dance?, essie Matte About You,  Butter Fairy Cake, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Strobe Light, and China Glaze Luxe and Lush and Glitter Goblin. Holy sparkles Batman, that’s a lot of glitter!

These nails say “I do”

I love how the matte looks on the light pink and how well it goes with all the glitter, it created such a cool texture and overall feeling. If I were to do these nail again I wouldn’t use the glitter that has the orange in it (Glitter Goblin) it doesn’t look bad but I think it takes away from all the other sparkly glitter.

Perhaps they are too fancy for work

I love doing glitter gradients, they look so cool and they don’t require the same precision that a regular French does. I also really like having the glitter on the back ends instead of the tips; it makes these nails very different while also looking very pretty. So, what do you think? Do you think these nails are good enough for a wedding?

Orly - Mayhem Mentality nails

I think Millie has learned how to count. This isn’t as dangerous as her growing wings or thumbs, but it is rather problematic. I first started to notice her counting skills when I tried to sneak her sister an extra treat and she calmly said in basset hound “excuse me mom, but I feel like you only gave me one when my sister got two” (basset hounds can say a lot with one look). Her counting skills moved into full fledged mathematician status we started going for walks more frequently. No matter how many bags I bring, she finds a way to poop more than I’m prepared for. I’m not sure where she learned how to count, but I’m finding it very inconvenient.

For this manicure I used Orly Mayhem Mentality and OPI Alpine Snow. I got the Orly a few weeks ago but couldn’t come up with any designs to use it with. The design I ended up doing (on the ring and thumb) is called cartoon nails. They are supposed to look like a nail would if you drew it on a cartoon character, the idea is kind of farfetched but I think they ended up kind of fun.

Mayhem Mentality nails

These nails might be the most distracting nails I have ever done. They were so bright I thought that they were going to glow in the dark. The neon went on so much easier than most neons I have used. Usually I use a white base coat so the neon is more saturated but I didn’t need to with this one, it only took two coats and was as bright on my nails as it was in the bottle.

Nails so bright you could read by them

The more I use Orly polish the more I like it, it’s a great deal and the formula rarely disappoints me. If you are looking for a crazy bright orange then look no further. Now I just need to come up with other reasons to use it J

China Glaze - Itty, Bitty & Gritty nails

I hate sleeping alone, I’m so spoiled and now I have a hard time going to sleep in my house by myself. In case you couldn’t figure it out by context, Thad is gone tonight. Thad and I have lived together for almost 8 years and I’ve only been alone a handful of nights (I told you I’m spoiled).The girls and I are having a rough go of it. They just keep looking at me and making audible sighing noises. I’m terrible about scaring myself when I’m alone, I’m sure watching this Law and Order SVU marathon before bed is a solid plan; nothing creepy ever happens on SVU. To be honest I won’t be sleeping totally alone, Jules will keep me company tonight, I just hope she doesn’t fart in bed.

I feel like China Glaze tricked me. I finally bought a bottle of textured nail polish and I feel like it was a mistake made by the polish company that some PR genius decided to market as being on purpose. For this manicure I used China Glaze Itty, Bitty & Gritty. This color was super thick and I only used one coat for these nails. I also really like the coral color, but I hate the textured polish look.

Itty, Bitty & Gritty nails

I decided to do palm trees and birds because I thought that the texture might look sandy and tropical. I don’t even know what to say about this polish, it really looks like a mistake to me, like they had 80,000 bottles of messed up polish and someone had a light bulb moment and said “let’s pretend it was on purpose!”

They feel like plaster

The only thing I can think that this polish would be good for is starfish. The color and texture would be so perfect for starfish that it makes me want to do starfish nails. I don’t think I’m going to be tempted to buy more textured nails polish.

Rubber Duckie nails

When I moved into my first apartment I really wanted to have a rubber duckie bathroom, nothing says independent adult like a bathroom fully of yellow ducks. I got rubber duckie everything, shower curtain, trash can, soap dispenser, even wall art, that bathroom was so full of ducks you couldn’t walk into it without having hundreds of beady black duck eyes watching your every move. I feel like I’m somehow making my bathroom sound sinister but it was quite cute actually. I finally ditched the ducks when I moved into my house, although I do still have bride and groom ducks hidden in the closet.

I would say I did these nails to celebrate my duck bathroom of apartments past, but I really just did them because they were cute. J For this manicure I used China Glaze For Audrey and Sea Spray, Orly Skinny Dip and Liquid Vinyl, OPI Alpine Snow, Ulta Sun-Sational, and Sally Hansen Strobe Light. I’m very happy with how these nails turned out, I especially like the marbleized soap bubbles.  

Rubber Duckie nails

To do the bubbles I dipped my dotter in three different colors, the dotter made the color mix in some places but also have separate colors in one dot. This is similar to the technique used in water color nails and it really makes me want to try that (what don’t I want to try though?). I was surprised with how easy the ducks were to do, the ducks on my right hand aren’t bad but the left ring finger duck is definitely the best one.

Rubber Duckie you’re the one

These nails were really fun to do and they didn’t take long at all, start to finish I had these done in less than an hour (which is pretty good for me). They do cause me to sing the rubber duckie song from Sesame Street but that is a price I’m willing to pay J

Matte Black Tiger nails

I’m a huge fan of Sally’s, I’ll pause a moment for you to recover from what I’m sure is great shock and surprise. I had to go to Sally’s this weekend because I was running low on SV base coat and I had a $5 coupon burning a hole in my purse. While at Sally’s I was perusing the nail polish when I couldn’t help but over hear another customer ask the sales lady for advice on water marbling. The sales lady didn’t really seem too excited about water marbling and I couldn’t help but completely butt into their conversation and offer my unasked for advice. It makes it a little better that I happened to work with the other customer, a fact that I wasn’t aware of until after I jumped in like an interrupting goat. I get way too excited about nail art; I think I may have frightened them with my enthusiasm, oops.

This is the manicure that has been on OPI’s main site for what seems like months now, ironically I didn’t use any OPI polish when I did it, sorry OPI. For this manicure I used Orly Liquid Vinyl and essie Matte About You. I’m so happy I got a new bottle of Liquid Vinyl I didn’t realize how bad mine had gotten until I used new polish.

Matte Black Tiger nails

These nails are much more subtle than my normal nails; a couple people even thought that I just had plain black nails until they saw them up close. I had a really hard time taking pictures of them without the stripes completely disappearing. To do these nails I used a striper to put glossy black lines on a matte black base. I went to bed too soon after I was done and since I didn’t have topcoat to protect my nails I ended up with the lovely sheet marks you see in the picture.

It’s really hard to stay up long enough for nails to fully dry

I thought these nails were just ok, they aren’t the type that I’m desperate to do again or anything. I did like having nails that weren’t so gaudy for once, but I’m starting to think that gaudy nails are more me. J

Striped nails

I’ve never been a huge fan of baseball. When I was a kid all my brothers were in little league and I remember being super bored at the games. My dad loved baseball so he would have us all go out to the ballpark on weekends and play as a team. Dad always gave me special rules so that I wouldn’t suck too bad, for instance I got five strikes and if after that I still didn’t hit the ball, he would throw the ball as if I had hit it and let me run to base. Thinking back, I’m pretty sure that I never hit the ball. What can I say? Sports aren’t in my blood, but nails are J

I did these nails for a Twins game this weekend. I didn’t want them to be too basebally (since as previously stated I’m not a huge fan) but I did still want them to be somewhat Twins themed. I found this idea online (cutepolish is amazing) and just had to do it right away. For this manicure I used OPI DS Radiance, China Glaze Splish Splash, Sally Hansen CSM All Fired Up, and Orly White Tips. I’ve talked before about how much I hate white polish so I got this Orly to replace my OPI and it is so much better. I think it is most noticeable when you look at the coverage around my cuticles.

Striped nails

These nails were easy but required a lot of work. To do the stripes I used those dental flossers that you get from the drugstore. In order for the paint to stick to them you have to make sure to get the kind that are not ‘glide’, I of course only had that kind so I walked to Wallgreens, they were out, so I walked to CSV and there I found the flossers I needed. At this point I had already put in a lot of work and I hadn’t even started painting my nails!

I always seem to have dog hairs in my pictures

These nails made a much bigger mess than I thought they would, paint got on the plastic edges of the flosser so the paint then got all over the sides of my fingers. They also took a really long time, new paint had to be put on for each stripe and I did each color twice. I didn’t mind how long they took though because I was watching Wreck-it-Ralph and it was a really cute movie.

This makes them look more basebally

I really liked how these turned out and they make me want to do them in different colors, like all different shades of blue would be cool. Hope you liked them too J