Fall Leaf nails

At the end of September I got to go to a beautiful wedding. Two friends from work got married at their lake house, it was very rainy day but they didn’t let the foul weather spoil anything. Everything about their wedding reflected them as a couple, I had never been to a wedding in someone’s home before and it was so much fun. I love weddings; I don’t think there is anything better than getting to be a part of the best day in someone’s life. J

I really wanted to do beautiful fall nails for the fall wedding and although they turned out nice, they didn’t turn out how I pictured them in my head. For this manicure I used OPI DS Indulgence and Deutsch You Want Me Baby? and Sally Hansen CSM Gilty Pleasure. DS Indulgence has to be one of the coolest colors I own, it is so rich and fiery, I really need to find reasons to use it more.

Fall Leaf nails

To create these nails I did two coats of DS Indulgence and then sponged the other colors on top (both on my ring finger and only Deutsch on the others). I then used a striper to create the fall leaf design. To make them a little sparkly I put a little gold glitter on top of the black on my ring finger.

It appears I didn’t do a very good job cleaning up the excess polish

I love how the base color turned out but I’m not sold on the leaf design, I feel like it ended up too thick so it doesn’t look quite right. I love fall leaves and I hate that I keep getting them wrong in my nail designs. I will try them again before this fall is over, perhaps third time will be the charm here. Even though it’s about a month late, congratulations on your wedding Joe and Anika, now all you need is a puppy J

OPI - Pompeii Purple nails

Every once and a while you stumble on a nail color that from the first time you wear it, you know it will be one of your favorites forever. When I was a kid we had a L’Oreal color that was called Sea Violet, I still remember that color because I loved it so much. We much have bought ten bottles of that color, if I ever saw it in the store I would buy it in a heartbeat. While spending one of my super sweet Ulta gift cards I bought OPI Pompeii Purple and I fell in love. It is such an amazing color, I’m pretty sure I love everything about it. I’m also pretty sure that this whole post is going to be an ode to Pompeii Purple.

I kept these nails on for almost a full week, pause for shock and awe, almost a whole week. For this manicure I used OPI Pompeii Purple and Sally Hansen CSM Gilty Pleasure. I had no idea what kind of art I wanted to do until I had already started painting. As soon as I saw how amazing the OPI is I knew that I didn’t want to cover much of it up with a design so I ended up doing my first chevron!

Pompeii Purple nails

Can we take a minute and talk about how amazing this color is? I didn’t realize how popular this color is until I had these nails at work and two different ladies guessed the name of the color correctly. It doesn’t happen very often that someone knows the name of the color that I’m wearing, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that I’m far from the first person to discover how amazing this color is.

Pictures can’t do this color justice

My chevrons are a bit of a miss. I didn’t center my guide dots very well so the whole design is very much off center. I also didn’t have my brushes so I did the design with a dotting tool so the lines aren’t super smooth (yes I’m blaming the tool and not the painter).

Lumpy chevrons

If you like pink/purple nail polish I highly recommend this color, it looks so awesome on that I was tempted to paint them this color again after I took these nails off. Now, if only I could find Sea Violet.

OPI - I Saw...U Saw...We Saw...Warsaw nails

I went to an awesome bachelorette party last weekend. We drove up north and she had her party on a pontoon boat on a big, beautiful lake. I hadn’t been on a boat all summer and it was just the perfect way to end the season. I was also super proud of myself that I didn’t let myself burn at all, that is a pretty big win when you are pale and you spend a whole day on a boat. I think that last weekend was the official end to my string of weekend plans; I have nothing that I have to go to this weekend, which sounds pretty good.

I really liked these nails even though they were a pain. For some reason I think that blue nail polish is the hardest to work with. It was super difficult to get all the blue off from around my nails and when I took the polish off my fingers were stained blue. For this manicure I used OPI I Saw…U Saw…We Saw…Warsaw, Sally Hansen CSM Gilty Pleasure, Sally Girl Matte Top Coat, and Orly Liquid Vinyl.  

 

OPI - I Saw…U Saw…We Saw…Warsaw nails

This is my first true navy and I really like how it looks, I especially like it as a matte, but I’m a sucker for matte so that is expected. I love using new polish, I got this one (and three others) with birthday gift cards at Ulta. I still have more birthday Ulta money and now I also have a coupon, I’m pretty sure this weekend is going to include staring at nail polish (shocking).

Please disregard the ugly hangnail

The formula for the blue was consistent with other OPI polish; I’m wearing two coats and had full coverage. Unfortunately I decided I needed to finish off my last pitcher of beer-garitas by myself before starting this manicure so I had quite a bit of clean up afterwards. The blue just didn’t want to leave my fingers once it made contact, I really feel like blue is the worst for that.

I should do animal print more often

When someone at work saw these they asked if they were moons and stars, now I really want to use this blue as a base for cute moons and stars. My post it list isn’t getting any shorter, there are just so many fun things you can paint on your nails!

Sponged Disaster nails

I’m pretty sure I watch seasons of TV shows like every other rational person does, I compulsively watch the entire season as fast as physically possible and allow the show to affect most aspects of my life, normal right? I just consumed the seventh season of Dexter, and although I didn’t even really like the season I still felt the need to get through the season in a manner of days, it would have gone even faster if we didn’t have jobs. Between watching Dexter and hanging out with friends in Vegas, it has been very hard for me to keep my language clean at work, stupid peer pressure J

You know how when I do a sponged manicure I always say how much I love it and how I should sponge more often? Well these nails are sponged and they didn’t need to happen. For this manicure I used Orly Prelude to a Kiss, Sally Hansen CSM Gilty Pleasure, and China Glaze Fast Track and Rich & Famous.

Sponged disaster nails

These nails were so blah that I forgot to take pictures of them until after I started taking the polish off, which is why you get rare right handed pictures. The application of the polish had so many issues that it would have been impossible to have nails that I liked in the end. Somehow (I’m going to guess because I never dust) my sponges (and everything else) got covered in dog hair so I ended up sponging the dog hair right into the design. It was really fun to find the hairs days later and have to pull them out, it made me feel really pretty.

Yes, these pictures suck

So, yeah, these nails aren’t very good. They were a poor design that was poorly executed. I guess these nails are proof that sponging isn’t nail magic. On a completely unrelated topic, while I was at work Thad DVRed The Man with a 132 Pound Scrotum, he must love me J

Peacock Feather nails

I had ever intention to blog the other night but my DVR had other plans. Without me knowing, my beautiful DVR quietly recorded three episodes of I Used to be Fat, don’t worry, I feel the appropriate amount of shame for being excited about a show on MTV. I love bad TV and this show is right up my alley, if you are unfamiliar with the show, it is about teens during the summer between high school and college. For the most part they have always been fat and this is their one chance to not be fat when they go off to college, I get way too into this show. I find myself cheering them on and when they try to give up I yell at them for squandering this amazing opportunity. So, yeah, basically what I’m saying is I watched three straight hours of a teenage-weight-loss-docudrama; I’m a very exciting lady.

My plan was for these nails to look like peacock nails, and I feel like I should mention that they looked way more like feathers in person than in pictures. For this manicure I used China Glaze Splish Splash and Turned up Turquoise, Sally Hansen CSM Gilty Pleasure, and Zoya Ray. Overall I think these turned out ok, but they certainly are far from my favorite.

Peacock Feather nails

I almost feel like the dark green was too shiny and that’s why the pictures didn’t turn out right, it’s super dark and shiny in person. This design would be way better on shorter nails and if I would have added a purple to it.

More exciting than peahen nails

I think it’s kinda funny that I don’t really like birds but I love bird motifs. I guess I think their looks are the best part of them. As soon as I painted these I wanted to repaint, it was only sheer laziness that caused them to not be changed immediately. Oh well, can’t win them all J

Wizard of Oz nails

I don’t have a fun way to start this blog so I’m just going to talk about my nails. I have a post it that I keep a list of nail ideas on and chose this one off the list to do. Without thinking about it I ended up doing two movie themed nails in a row, perhaps I can think of more and do a whole series of them. I feel like I should mention that I don’t actually like the movie Wizard of Oz, the monkeys scared me as a kid (that’s a lie the monkeys still scare the shit out of me). Despite the terrifying monkeys I thought the movie would make for a good muse for my nails and I was right.

These nails are distractingly gaudy, they may even be ugly. For this manicure I used quite a few colors, Orly Skinny Dip, Liquid Vinyl, and White Tips, Sally Hansen CSM All Fired UP, Gilty Pleasure, and Butterscotch, China Glaze Ruby Pumps and Paper Chasing, and OPI DS Radiance.

Wizard of Oz nails

My pinkie is supposed to be the Emerald City but I think it looks more like a pineapple, I guess this means if I ever do Spongebob nails I know how to make his pineapple under the sea. The red nail is supposed to be for Dorothy’s ruby red slippers, I was so happy when I found the red for it and then saw the name was Ruby Pumps so I’m pretty sure that was meant to be.

I’m not sure where the tiny divots on my Tin Man came from

My other nails are for the Tin Man, Dorothy’s dress, and the yellow brick road. I bought Butterscotch for Winnie the Pooh nails, but I thought it made for a good road.I was really happy with how the Tin Man nails turned out, since he was my favorite I had to include something for him.

I liked three pictures, so you get three pictures of these

These nails are fun but not very flattering; they are a bit too bold even for me. I think if I were going to do them again I would choose just two designs and not five different ones (I’d keep the pineapple of course). Now let’s see if I can come up with another movie theme, perhaps one that doesn’t distract me so much J

 

Heart nails

Today is a stay in the house kind of day. We were supposed to get hit with an epic blizzard, I wouldn’t really call the weather today epic, but it is unpleasant. So far the heavens have deposited layers of sleet and wet snow, what a lovely combination. I keep having to remind myself that this is February and I live in Minnesota, so I shouldn’t be surprised. Last night we decided to be social since we knew today we would be home bound. We went to a silent auction at my parents church, it was fun as always and I won a super cute ‘girls night in’ basket (complete with the movie Bridesmaids). I joked with my mom that next year I should put up a manicure for auction; she seemed to think it would sell but I’m not so sure about that, I’m a really messy painter. :)

For this manicure I used China Glaze Rich & Famous, OPI Aphrodite’s Pink Nightie, and Sally Hansen CSM Gilty Pleasure. That China Glaze is quickly becoming my new favorite pink, I’m pretty sure it is going to be in all my Valentine’s manicures. To create the heart design I folded a piece of scotch tape in half and then drew and cut out half a heart, unfolded the tape, and used the stencil on all my nails. I was surprised I was able to use the same stencil on all my nails, but since I’m not very good at drawing hearts it made me very happy.

Jaunty hearts

I messed up the heart stencil a little bit on my pointer finger because I had too much paint on the stencil when I pulled it off. This was the first time I have made a stencil out of tape, I usually use tape for my French manicures. I was really happy overall with how it worked but it is very important to make sure that there isn’t too much paint left over on the tape or it gets in the wrong places.

I love the rhinestone heart

I had totally forgotten I had rhinestone hearts in my enormous rhinestone collection (thanks again Thad) I’m pretty sure these hearts will be making another appearance this month. I’m also pretty sure that I’m going to end up doing Valentine’s Day nails all month because I’m having so much fun with them.

Polar Bear nails

Happy New Year! Thad and I are not really party animals so our New Year plans included going grocery shopping and getting to bed at a decent hour. We did have a fun couple of days prior to New Year’s Eve though; we took a trip to the big city to hang out with family. Because I’m kinda weird, I took polish with me and did my sister in law’s nails. For her manicure I used OPI Brisbane Bronze, China Glaze Glitter Goblin, and Sally Hansen CSM Gilty Pleasure. Her nails are so much smaller than mine that it took a few tries before I picked something that worked. She seemed to like them and loved the SV topcoat because of its awesome dry time.

 

A well deserved manicure for a busy mama

I did my nails on Saturday before we left for our trip. I wanted fun going out nails but instead chose to do the opposite and did adorable cutesy nails. For my manicure I used Avon Lagoon, China Glaze For Audrey, Fast Track, and Luxe and Lush, OPI Alpine Snow and DS Radiance, and Orly Liquid Vinyl.

Nothing says party like a polar bear

I had so much fun doing these nails and I love how the bears turned out, I think Fast Track was perfect for the bear’s face. I tried a different snowflake pattern than I used last time and I’m not sold on it, I think I liked my first snowflakes better. I used matte topcoat on my pointer finger and for the first time it didn’t really make my polish look matte. I don’t know if that was as much because of the sparkly dots on top or because the blue color is a shimmer.

How can you not love this bear?

They are not party nails, but they are super fun. These nails make me want to try other animal nails. At the end of my last post I mentioned baked potato nails and was told I needed to clarify what I meant by that. An awesome way to remove glitter polish is to dip cotton into remover and then wrap your nail in tin foil with the cotton on the nail. After waiting about 10 minutes the polish comes right off with none of the normal “I hate glitter” frustration. When your nails are all wrapped up I think it looks like you have five little potatoes on your hand.

Baked potato nails and gray sweatpants

If you have never used the method I highly recommend it, not only does it work well but it also looks pretty awesome and makes your hand useless for 10 minutes which is always fun.