Disney Princess nails

Every once in a while I do nails that I simultaneously love and hate; these are some of those nails. As soon as I did them I thought they were so cute and I was very happy with how they turned out. A day later, however, I started to think that they were staring at me, and by the day after that I had to take them off because they were creeping me out too much. They kept staring at me while I was typing at work, like ten creepy little kids, always watching, always judging. For some reason, I’m don’t like it when my nails could be the subject of a scary movie.

General creepiness aside, these nails are super cute and they really turned out just like I pictured them. For this manicure I used a ton of different polishes: Orly Prelude to a Kiss and Liquid Vinyl, OPI Alpine Snow, Ulta Sun-Sational, Sally Hansen CSM All Fired Up, China Glaze Turned up Turquoise, Zoya Louise, and various stripers.

Disney Princess nails

I think these nails would be better on shorter nails; some of my princess (especially on my right hand) didn’t have the right face proportions because my nails are so long. To be honest, my right hand looked like a bunch of jacked up step sisters and not the real princess at all. I always seem to have issues getting my edges right when I use that Orly, it isn’t a forgiving color at all.

Let’s just pretend there aren’t a bunch of technical issues with these nails

These are definitely the kind of nails that look better from far away; the closer you get to them the creepier they are. I think Jasmine turned out the best and I bet that is partly because she is the smallest one. I want to try this art out on someone with shorter nails and nail beds, perhaps in two years when I can paint my god daughter’s nails I will try it out on her, but perhaps it is way too early to be planning such things. Hope you are enjoying my Disney nails while I’m enjoying Disney J

Little Mermaid nails

It is getting to be my favorite nail time of the year but I’m starting to think I may not have enough time to do all the nails that I want to do. Between Halloween, fall, and Disney nails, I have a lot of plans and I’m simply running out of time (68 days till Disney!). Oh, so many plans, so little time. I guess I just need to paint my nails more J

I want to do different nails for all the Disney Princesses, so I figured I should start with my favorite. I have always loved The Little Mermaid; I had a huge poster of it on the back of my bedroom door when I was a little kid. For this manicure I used Orly Prelude to a Kiss, Liquid Vinyl, and White Tips, China Glaze Gothic Lolita, Turned Up Turquoise, and Mahogany Magic, and Sally Hansen CSM All Fired Up and Mermaid’s Tale. I didn’t realize how many colors I used until I just wrote them all out, wow.

Little Mermaid nails

I found some loose glitter pieces that worked perfect as a mermaid tail on my pinky, they were super annoying to have on though, my hair got all caught up in it while I was washing my hair, not a pleasant experience. I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do for all my nails and after I did the shell bra it occurred to me that it was a little weird that I focused on Ariel’s chest, I’m sure she will forgive me.

I’m not even sure how I bent my thumb like that

My favorite nail is the Ariel on my thumb, I think she turned out really cute and it makes me want to do a nail like that for all the princesses. I’m going to have to come up with other things to add to them to make them all look different; otherwise all the blondes will look pretty similar.

Not only is today 68 days till Disney, it’s also my 5^th anniversary. I’m super lucky to be married to Thad, he is an awesome husband, and I’m pretty sure I could be married to him forever J Happy anniversary honey!

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

Starfish nails

My best friend Jackie is getting married next month, which means I get to go to Vegas with my sister. I don’t think I’ve been so excited for a wedding since my wedding. I just booked the hotel and it is finally feeling close. I’ve only been to Vegas once before (also with Jackie) and we had a blast. I think it is kinda funny that the two trips I’m taking this year are to Vegas and Disney World, I’m a diverse lady J. I don’t know what nails I’ll do for Vegas but I’m sure they need to be very sparkly and super gaudy; I shouldn’t have a problem with that.

For some reason I decided I needed beachy nails and I got to say, I’m loving these nails. For this manicure I used Sally Hansen CSM Barracuda, China Glaze Itty, Bitty & Gritty, and Orly Prelude to a Kiss. When I used the China Glaze last time I hated it but it for this manicure it worked so well for my starfish. I love the different textures on my nails!

Starfish nails

These nails are just fun, they are bright and beachy and I really love them. I can’t get over how great the starfish turned out. They were a little tricky to do but only because as the paint dried it was really hard to put on so I had to work fast. My shells are just ok, I did the shape of them pretty well but the lines just look weird. I think I should have made the lines thinner and made the shells bigger so I could do more lines.

Now I want to do Patrick the starfish nails

I originally got the light blue for Cinderella nails but after using it for these nails I’m super happy I got it. It’s such a pretty blue! I love the Sally Hansen CSM brush too; it’s very wide which works great for my nails since I have quite a bit of surface to cover. I don’t think it would be a good brand/brush if you had small nails unless you really like getting messy. Hope you enjoyed my starfish nails as much as I do J

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

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

essie - Braziliant

I can’t call my nails short anymore. I had to buy new files so I could shorten them, they still aren’t as long as they were before the incident, but I think I might like them more now, they are a good length. Just because they grew out doesn’t mean I’m going to stop doing ridiculous tacky manicures on them. I keep wanting to do nice simple nails, and then as soon as I sit down to paint I just go crazy. If I’m not distracted by my nails I feel like I didn’t really do my job.

A few months ago one of my friends gave me a color that screamed summer, I’ve been waiting to use it until it got warmer, but after how this spring has been going I decided to just cave and use it despite the cold weather. For this manicure I used essie Braziliant, Orly Prelude to a Kiss, OPI Brisbane Bronze, Sally Hansen CSM Parrot, and Ulta Oh!.

essie Braziliant

I love the base color in this manicure; Braziliant was exactly what I wanted it to be. I sometimes forget how good the formula on essie can be since I don’t own very much of it. The lighter colors seem to be runnier, but this color had the perfect formula, and looked amazing after two coats. I’m not sure what the green blob things were supposed to be, when I started painting my nails I wanted to do a pattern that wasn’t flowers but then they ended up looking like blob flowers.

Are they flowers or amoebas?

On my ring finger I used lose glitter and it looked pretty cool, in a 3D kind of way. The glitter didn’t wear well at all though and most of that glitter is now in my bed and hair. My favorite part of this manicure is the little Orly colored dots. They make the whole manicure look kind of retro, like a kitchen from the 70s.

My ring finger looks fuzzy

You can tell by looking at these nails that I didn’t really have a plan when I started. I love the color combination but the overall design isn’t one of my favorites. Pretty sure these aren’t going to last long, but that’s ok, I like painting my nails J

Easter nails

Hoppy Easter everyone! It was a chilly Easter but Spring is in the air and the Easter Bunny left my favorite Easter candy for me (mini Cadbury eggs). I always loved Easter when I was a kid, my parents did a great job making sure that all holidays were done up right and Easter was no exception. Mom had color coded plastic eggs so my brothers and I got the same amount of eggs even though they were way better at the egg hunting process. I wish I could still get a brightly colored Easter dress and hat to wear, but I think people might look at me funny if I was wearing a polka doted Easter dress with petticoats, although I do have bunnies on my nails right now so I guess I’m not really fooling anyone.

For this manicure I used a crap ton of colors, that is a very technical term in case you were wondering. I used OPI Alpine Snow, You’re Such a Budapest, and Aphrodite’s Pink Nightie, Orly Liquid Vinyl, Lemonade, and Prelude to a Kiss, China Glaze For Audrey and Rich & Famous, Ulta Sun-Sational and Oh!, and Sally Hansen CSM Parrot. I also used three stripers so in total that is 14 (plus top and base coat so 17), and that is a crap ton. Nothing says Easter like an overwhelming number of polishes J.

Hoppy Easter nails

My boss requested that I do tie-die egg nails but I was resistant because I hate water marbling. The last time I attempted water marble nails it resulted in me drinking too much and making a huge mess on my patio table. I’m not going to pretend that this attempt didn’t involve alcohol, but overall it was much more successful. I actually like how the pointer on my right hand turned out better than the left so you are about to be treated with a rare right hand shot.

Tie-Die egg success!

I was a bit disappointed at Easter when my nails failed to impress an 8 year old girl, I don’t think that was fully my manicure’s fault but more the fact that children are like bees and they can smell my fear. I’m not really sure if bees can truly smell fear but I heard it somewhere and have decided it must be a fact.

They may not impress an 8 year old, but they make me smile J

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter and enjoyed my cutesy Easter nails. I mostly write this blog for my very good friend Gayle and she recently announced that she and her super awesome husband are expecting. I hope her baby can’t smell my baby related fear because I’m sure their kid will be pretty cool. Congrats Gayle and Ben!

Chick nails

Jules had her well-puppy appointment today at the vet, I’m actually not totally sure what they call them but I assume they are called well-puppy exams. You will all be pleased to know that she is a happy and healthy puppy, who managed to lose a pound over the winter. Everyone at the vet’s office loves Jules, she is so cute and friendly they all want to meet her, she is happy to meet them too and stick her tongue in their mouths with lightening speed, I did say she was friendly after all.

For this manicure I really wanted to do bunnies, this goal resulted in a bunny battle and no bunnies on my nails. I wanted to do whisker-less bunnies (due to space) but Thad insisted that without whiskers I couldn’t really call them bunnies. I’m going to try to find a way to make the whiskers fit, I still have a few days until Easter. For the design I ended up doing I used Orly Lemonade and Prelude to a Kiss, Ulta Sun-Sational, China Glaze For Audrey, and OPI You’re Such a Budapest. (I have to say, OPI comes up with some of the best names, I chuckle every time I see this one.)

Easter Eggs and Chicks

I wanted the non chick nails to look like Easter eggs and I’m pleased with how my middle finger turned out. This was the first time I tried to do a zig-zag, it was harder than I expected, hence the reason there is only one small line of it.

Are they ‘egg-ceptional’?

My chicks look a little like blood thirsty serial killers hell bent on destroying the Earth, and sort of adorable, they are a bit of a mixed bag. I’m still not used to doing nail art on the shorter nails but I will say that my nails are growing remarkably fast; I almost can’t call them short anymore. They are already making the clicky nail noise when I type, and my typing is slowing down. I know everyone is super excited about it. J