Butterfly nails

I’ve had the theme song from Reading Rainbow stuck in my head for the last three days because of my nails. I’m a truly terrible singer so it is really bad when I have a song I love stuck in my head because I want to sing it and my singing causes inner ear bleeding. I was shocked to find that a large number of my co –workers didn’t know the song from Reading Rainbow, it was such a huge part of my childhood I can’t believe that anyone close to my age wouldn’t have also loved that amazing show. Butterfly in the sky. . . ahhhh memories.

For these nails I used Orly Prelude to a Kiss and Liquid Vinyl, Ulta Sun-Sational, OPI Alpine Snow, and China Glaze Riveting. These nails were a pain in the butt to do, they took for freaking forever, and I’m not super pleased with how my line work turned out.

Butterfly nails

Although they are far from perfect, they are pretty cool. They look much better from further away (something I say about every manicure that uses sponging). I was so excited to start them that I sponged my thumb before I put on my base color which is why it is much lighter than the other nails. I would have taken it off and started over but instead I was too lazy, I can justify it though by saying that I wanted you to be able to see what it looks like without a nude base color.

I can fly twice as high. . .

I really liked how the gradient turned out on these; I did the same colors in gradient for my pride nails so I knew I liked them together ahead of time. The glitter in the orange is just downright fun and it works so nice with the bright yellow.

Just take a look . . .

I wonder if Reading Rainbow is on Netflix, I bet it is like Milo and Otis though and it will lose it magic now that I’m an adult. Hope you like my butterflies J

Pansy nails

I’m pretty sure I was just about the most annoying child ever. I’m super loud and still have yet to master to art of being silent, so I would say it is a fair assumption that I was the kind of child that makes me cringe. My parents had to love me, they are my parents after all, but my friend’s parents did not have any such obligation. I’ve been friends with my best friend since we were eleven which means that for the last 18 years I have had a second mom, a woman who had no responsibility to like me and my super annoying self but somehow did. Jackie’s mom (yes I still call her Jackie’s mom even though I’m an adult) has really been a second mom, and I’m not using that term lightly. She is awesome, she let me tag along to family functions so often that I really felt like a part of her family. I was reminded of how thoughtful she is the other day, when  for no reason she sent me a present, a hoodie from the zoo I used to work at. How nice is she?

I wanted to do nails for Jackie’s mom so I decided to do her favorite flower. For this manicure I used OPI You’re Such a Budapest and Alpine Snow, Sally Hansen CSM Anenome Of Mine, and Orly Lemonade. These nails ended up reminding me of wallpaper Jackie’s mom had in her kitchen because of the purple background.

Pansy nails

Some of the pansies look like space aliens and not flowers, but overall I was happy with how these nails turned out. If I were to do them again I think I would do sponging or saran wrap backgrounds and more than one pansy on top of it. I like that idea so much it makes me want to do them now.

I don’t know why the one edge is so jacked up

These nails were super simple but fun none the less. They reminded me how much I love flower nails and that I should do them more often, it is spring after all. I hope you liked my pansy nails and thank you Jackie’s mom for the super cool hoodie. J

Newsprint nails

I’ve fallen in love. I’m the type of girl that is generally skeptical when people say “you should watch such and such on YouTube” but I listened when my friend Gayle said I should watch Jenna Marbles and she was so right. Jenna Marbles, I have the biggest girl crush on you. I watched every video she had on her main YouTube channel within a week, I found myself talking to my dogs in a Jenna Marbles voice and using foul language all the time. It was like when I watch an entire season of a show in a weekend, everything I did and said made me think of her and how awesome she is. So here is my official recommendation, you should all watch Jenna Marbles and laugh your butt off. My only criticism is that she needs to paint her nails more, that chipped nail look isn’t cutting it, but I still love her.

 I wanted to do these nails for a while but lacked the necessary equipment, if that sentence doesn’t intrigue you I don’t know what will. Since we have the internet and TV, Thad and I don’t get the newspaper, which is very necessary when creating newsprint nails. For these nails I used Sally Hansen CSM Shell We Dance? and an old newspaper I ‘borrowed’ from work.

Newsprint nails

I read about how to do these nails on the interwebs before I tried it myself, most of the directions said that I could use rubbing alcohol or cheap vodka, since I’m way too old for cheap vodka (and I obviously wasn’t going to use Grey Goose) I had to buy rubbing alcohol to do these nails. I think they were worth it. Even though you can’t read most of the words, I used an article about a dog rescue in Minnesota that goes to other states to rescue puppies on death row. I got both of my little girls through places like that, Jules came from Ohio and Millie came from Kentucky, so the article tugged at my heart strings

Can you tell my pointer finger was my first attempt?

The directions I read told me to dip my nail in the rubbing alcohol and then pressing the dry newspaper to it, as you can tell from Mr. Pointer, that didn’t really work. For the other nails I used the much more effective method of dipping the paper in the rubbing alcohol and then put that on my dry nail. After I had perfected the method I tried to redo my pointer finger but it didn’t transfer any newsprint so I guess you only have one shot at doing these.

Ooooooo right hand

I really liked these nails, they were very subtle for me but I liked them nonetheless. I really want to try them again with a page of comics, perhaps I will need to invest in a Sunday paper. J

Zoya Song tips

Hello again! It’s been too long!! I found that if I don’t blog on the weekend I will not blog at all, it’s a good lesson. I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this before but I’m going to Disney World in 193 days, I’m pretty excited. Because of this awesome trip (and time off for my best friend’s wedding and my dirty thirty) I don’t really have any vacation to use for the rest of the year. I think my job is pretty generous on the time off front and I actually really like my job, but not having a day off can get pretty rough; all that being said, I am so excited for this weekend, the idea of having three days off in a row makes me smile like a crazy person. I started the weekend off right by getting a pedicure with my mom, pedicures are awesome FYI. I’ve also done my fair share of drinking tonight so I apologize in advance if that impacts my blog negatively.

I had this manicure on for less than a day, I’ll let you infer what that means about my feelings about them. For these nails I used Zoya Song and Tanzy and OPI DS Radiance, these are three colors I officially love so it is a shame that these nails don’t rock my socks off.

Zoya Song Tips

I wanted to try to do little tips and see how I like them, I don’t like them. My nails are just too long to pull off the tiny baby tips, they simply look way better on short nails. As for the design, I can’t even tell you what I was going for; it looks like some sort of amoebae.

These nails scream ‘eh’

I know these nails are a disappointment after a long blog drought, but I hope you learn to forgive me with time. I was told at work the other day that someone’s adult daughter read my blog and my mom and brother told me people at their work read it, I just want to say I think that is awesome. If you really like my blog please follow and/or leave comments on it, I really enjoy sharing my nails with everyone J

Neon Water Marble nails

Like most rational humans, I hate going to the doctor (any doctor) but sometimes you just can’t avoid it and you have to go. In the last few weeks I’ve had to endure the dentist and the eye doctor. Going to the dentist is one of my least favorite things, no, that’s too nice let me try again. Going to the dentist sucks and I hate it with the red hot fiery passion of a thousand Thursdays. This last time I went they decided that instead of using the evil pick thing to clean my teeth they would use high powered water, this sounds good in theory since it went way faster and didn’t make the horrible scratchy sound, but in practice it just misted my entire face with a stank fog of crusty tooth shrapnel, joy. The eye doctor went better than the dentist, I just got my eyes dilated so I looked like a space alien, I looked terrifying but it was pretty funny.

I debated whether or not to post these nails, I think they are an epic fail but other people seemed to like them so I guess they are worth a post. For this manicure I used OPI Alpine Snow, China Glaze Splish Splash, Turned up Turquoise, and Pool Party, essie Braziliant, Sally Hansen CSM Anenome of Mine, Ulta Sun-Sational, and e.l.f 2F01AS.

Neon Water Marble nails

These were another by request manicure. My boss suggested that I try a neon water marble and I thought it had been a while since I tried water marbling and I should give it another go. I made a few mistakes with this manicure, one is that I painted them on a white base (neon usually looks so good on a white base!) the white just ended up making some of the colors lighter and that totally threw off the whole neon look. If I did this again I would paint them with one of the neons and then do fewer total colors as part of the water marbling, I think I used too many colors of polish and they ended up getting a bit muddled.

They look like I just threw paint on my nails

As with any water marble, these nails were super messy and took forever. I just don’t think they look cool enough for the amount of work that goes into them. I put glitter on my pointer finger hoping that the glitter would help the overall look, it didn’t. Oh well, I can’t love them all J

Pride nails :)

I hope everyone had a great Mother’s Day yesterday! I was able to spend the day with my mom (shocking) and we had a blast. My mom is fun to hang out with in general and by adding drinking into the equation it only gets more fun! I was a little nervous though because Mom wanted me to help with gardening and I had just done my nails that morning, I powered through though like a good daughter. J We even managed to find time for me to paint Mom’s nails!

Happy Mother’s Day Mom!

I try not to be too political, despite the fact that I’m super loud and talk pretty much consistently I tend to shy away from talking about politically charged subjects. I just hate it so much when you find out someone you thought was cool is actually a total douche. That being said, when I did these nails I didn’t intend for them to be political at all, I actually did these nails at my Dad’s suggestion. Regardless of why I did them though, I do want to say that they are very fitting for such an awesome day - Minnesota voted for marriage equality today and I think that is pretty rad. For this manicure I used Sally Hansen CSM All Fired Up and Anenome of Mine, China Glaze Riveting, Splish Splash, and Paper Chasing, Orly Prelude to a Kiss, and Ulta Sun-Sational.

My unintentional pride nails

I really like how these nails turned out, they were a huge pain in the ass so I’m happy that the end result is so much fun. To create this look I painted a base coat of the Orly and then sponged on the colors in rainbow order. I’m a bit embarrassed to admit that I had to write down the order so I didn’t have to say ROYGBIV over and over again.

I love that I have a big white dog hair next to my middle finger, I’m classy

These nails are the type that look way better from far away than they do up close. I think that is common with sponge painted nails, or maybe I’m just saying that because I jacked up my cuticles and I don’t want you to notice. I hope you like my pride nails as much as I do J

Glitter Bomb nails

This weekend put me in a very unique nail situation. I had a bachelorette party on Saturday and a baptism on Sunday, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that those two events are just about as far apart as possible on the social spectrum. I don’t often get the chance to get all gussied up and go out with girls with the express purpose to drink and be merry and I wanted my nails to get all gussied up too! I had a suspicion that my sister-in-law wouldn’t appreciate phallic themed nail art at the baptism of her daughter so I knew I had to go the classy route (although I think it’s pretty clear that I need to be invited to another bachelorette party so I can do those other nails).

I’m really happy with how these nails turned out, they ended up being appropriate for both events, which I’m pretty proud of. For these nails I used OPI Rosy Future, Butter Rosie Lee, and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Strobe Light.

Glitter Bomb tips

Rosie Lee is a super fine pink micro glitter; I put it on very thick on the tips because I wanted it to be solid glitter. I put Strobe Light on top of that to add some holographic glitter. Even though it is a cheaper polish Strobe Light may be my favorite glitter I own. It’s just sparkly and pretty.

The picture just doesn’t do the sparkle justice

These nails had visible tip wear by the day after I painted them, I think that was the result of too much paint right on the tips and drinking (my nails always have a rough night when I have a fun night). They are distractingly sparkly and looked awesome in bar light and church light (which were surprisingly similar).

Super girly nails

I like how these nails ended up being really fun without being over the top. It isn’t very often that my nails turn out just how I wanted them to and these did. I’m sure they will be a bitch to take off because of all the glitter but I think they were worth it J

Galaxy nails

I’m not a fan of running - I’m the kind of girl that is built for comfort and not for speed. That being said, I’m also not a fan of my pants not fitting so I have been running at the gym. I may be in the minority on this, but I actually prefer to run on a treadmill to running outside. I’m not responsible enough to maintain a running pace when I’m outside; I require the treadmill to force me. I try to avoid running outside at all costs but my work hosted a 5k recently and I found myself in a situation where I was going to be running outside. I managed to survive the experience but I also burnt my forehead and got a heat rash in the process, oh well, at least my nails looked good.

I love these nails. I wanted to do galaxy nails for a while but I was worried that they would be too difficult or that I would mess them up and they would look like galactic vomit on my hands. The manicure ended up being super easy; they only took me about 30 minutes to do! For these nails I used China Glaze Splish Splash and Gothic Lolita, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Strobe Light, OPI Alpine Snow, and Orly Liquid Vinyl. I’m not quite sure what happened to my Liquid Vinyl but it was like putting tar on my nails, it’s a good thing I covered it up almost completely.



Galaxy nails

I love when nails look really difficult to do when they are actually super easy (like my plaid nails). These were crazy easy to do, I started with my tar like black base, then used a normal makeup sponge to lightly sponge on blue, purple, then white. After some dots for stars and a light coat of glitter I had galaxy nails. If you are going to try these out (which you should) make sure to put your glitter coat on before your nails fully dry so that it can blend some of the paint together.



Do they remind you of a starry night?

I love these nails so much that as soon as I was done I was thinking of reasons I could do them again. It makes me want to try other sponge painting nails, and you thought sponge painting was just for the guest bathroom.  :)