OPI - Pussy Galore nails

I’m a wuss. By that I mean I have a very low threshold for pain. By that I mean I cry like a little girl when I stub my toe. By that I mean I sometimes cry when I think about stubbing my toe. I’m fully aware of my limits but for some reason I really like tattoos, it’s a bad combination. It’s been about four years since I got my last tattoo, just long enough for me to forget how much it sucks, and I’d been toying with the idea of getting another for about a year so I finally took the plunge and got one a couple weeks ago. I’m not going to include a picture because right now it looks like a hot hairy mess, perhaps when he gets pretty again I’ll post one. I say ‘he’ because I got a pretty owl on my calf and all pretty birds are boys. It took four hours to finish, making this my biggest tattoo by about an hour. I would like to say I stoically took the pain but that would be a huge lie. By about the three and a half hour mark I started cursing like a sailor, but I didn’t cry, so at least there is that.

While I was getting my bad ass tattoo I had on some of the most girly nails imaginable, I like to be a dichotomy (I had to call my mom to spell that, I’m not sure what that makes me). For this manicure I used China Glaze Rich & Famous and OPI Pussy Galore. The OPI is my first liquid sand polish, yes, I fell victim to textured polish again.

OPI Pussy Galore nails

I pretty much hate most of the textured polish I’ve used so far, but I actually liked the liquid sand, it’s very faintly textured so it isn’t super annoying like all the other ones I’ve tried before. I also love how the texture looks compared to the shiny part of my nails (and let’s face it Rich & Famous is one of my favorite polishes).

There is nothing about these nails that says ‘it’s fall’

As soon as I got the OPI I wanted to use it right away, even though it’s about as far from fall as possible on the color wheel. Pink is my favorite color though, so I don’t really mind having pink nails any time of the year J

Tuxedo nail step by step

Netflix is evil. They recently changed how they play TV shows so that the next one starts 20 seconds after the last one ended. I have watched a shameful amount of How I Met Your Mother over the last few weeks but there are so many freakin episodes that I’m pretty sure I’m going to be watching this show for the next few months. Oh how TV helps me to be so lazy.

I had a first today! I was asked to do a step by step for my tuxedo nails that I did in June (as part of my wedding nails). I’ve never done a step by step before, but I hope this helps you to recreate my tuxedo nails. For this manicure I used Orly White Tips and Liquid Vinyl, Sally Hansen CSM Wine Not, and China Glaze Rich & Famous. A few disclaimers about my step by step: 1. I didn’t actually want to have tuxedo nails so I only painted two nails 2. I’m a really messy painter so please disregard all the paint that appears to not be on my nails and 3. I don’t actually have a third disclaimer, but it felt like I couldn’t just have two.

I start these nails like I start all nails, with a coat of OPI Nail Envy and SV base coat. On top of that I did two coats of Orly.

To start my tuxedos I painted a V with a black striper and then filled in the bottom of my nail with the Orly brush. To get in the ‘tight’ places I used a dotting tool. Try to get the V as centered on your nail as possible; I didn’t do so well on that front.

Ok, it looks like I did a lot in this step, but I really didn’t. To create the bow tie I did one smallish center dot and then used a dotting tool to create two small triangles off of it. I then put buttons on my tux and the dots on my black nail (I think they sorta look like buttons too). I put one larger white dot on the black tux so I could create the boutonniere.

To make the boutonniere I put a pink dot on top of the white dot and then took my wine color and made small c shapes in the pink with it. It’s ok when you are doing this if the pink swirls with the other color a little, it just makes it look more like a rose.

That’s how I did these nails! If you don’t have a striper you can use any small brush dipped in polish. If you don’t have a dotting tool that’s ok too, you can use the pointed end of a toothpick for the small stuff (like the detail on the flower) or cut the toothpick in half and file it smooth to use for a larger dot (like for the bow tie or buttons). For even larger dots you can use the end of a quilting pin, although you may want to put the pointy end in an eraser or something so you don’t injure yourself.

Hope this step by step was helpful, if you do these nails I would love to know how they turned out, be sure to let me know in the comments J

Interview nails

I generally don’t talk too much about my job, but this time it relates to my nails so I’m going to go for it. I really like my job, that isn’t something I thought I would be able to say a year ago. I’ve been filling in at work as an administrative assistant and I found that being an admin is something I truly enjoy, and not just because we have a whole day dedicated to us. There is something about the controlled chaos of being an admin that makes me happy to go to work, believe it or not, Monday is my favorite day of the work week, how freakin ridiculous is that?

I mention my job because in the last couple of weeks I was able to apply and interview to make my job a permanent position, of course, as soon as the job posted I started thinking about interview nails. This blog has two different designs because I had two different interviews. For the first manicure I used Orly White Tips. They are perhaps the most boring (read professional) nails I’ve ever done.

Interview nails

I was really nervous about my first interview and wanted to make sure my nails were really professional and not too flashy. These turned out just how I wanted, in person the line was a nice dark gray and I wore a dark gray skirt so they coordinated well. For my second set of interview nails I used Orly Liquid Vinyl and White Tips and China Glaze Rich & Famous. These nails are a bit bolder J

These nails say ‘hire me’

After the first interview I realized my nails didn’t really show at all, so I decided to have super fun nails that matched my outfit and made me feel fancy. This is only the second time I’ve tried a half moon manicure and I love how they turned out. To cover up the rough edge between the two base colors I put in the dots and I must say I really like how that turned out.

I guess they could have been more professional

I really liked both of my interview manicures; they gave me that little extra confidence that I needed going into the interviews. The best part about the manicures is that they were part of successful interviews; there really isn’t anything more I could have asked from them J

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

Doodle nails

I’m not a very social person, as evident by the fact that I’m in my PJs writing this blog on a Friday night. Despite my non social nature, I have somehow managed to make plan for every weekend between now and labor day. This is unchartered territory for me; generally my weekends are filled with Netflix, not people. Truth be told some of my plans are more exciting than others; I can’t believe I get to go to Vegas in two weeks! All these plans mean that I have a lot of nail designs to plan out J

I love these nails the longer they are on my hands. They are so cute and fun! For this manicure I used Orly Liquid Vinyl, Lemonade, and White Tips, Sally Hansen CSM Barracuda, and China Glaze Rich & Famous. I have used Barracuda so much since I got it; I think it is officially one of my favorite summer colors.

Doodle nails

It took me a few tries before I got the black lines the right thickness, that is why the yellow flower on my ring finger is a bit wonky. I ended up using the smallest dotting tool I had, I think the end of a toothpick would work well too if you didn’t have dotting tools.

They are just so much fun!

Sponging these made me remember how much I love the look of sponged nails; I really need to come up with more ideas so I get to sponge more. I’ll have to get on the interwebs and do some searching J Even though these nails are really colorful, I feel like they aren’t as gaudy as some of the other designs I’ve done.

I love them so much you get three pictures

I broke a thumb nail a couple of days after I painted these and ended up having to cut all my nails. As much as I liked this design on my long nails, I think I liked it even better on my little stumpy nails, so I guess there is a silver lining to the break.

Saran Wrap nails

It’s been way too long, I wish I had some awesome excuse to explain why I have been neglecting my blog, but I don’t have one other than I am lazy. Don’t worry; I’ve still been painting my nails so this week will be full of blogs, blogfull if you will. Minnesota and Mother Nature got together and decided to play a mean trick on us here in the northland. We got snow a few days ago, and not just a little dusting of snow, but like 8 inches of this horrible, wet, heavy snow. I miss being warm and seeing the sun. Please get warm again Minnesota, we really earned it.

I wanted to try something different for this manicure so I did what I read on the interwebs is called a Saran Wrap manicure. At first I tried to use Cling Wrap brand saran wrap and I’ll let you in on a secret, it didn’t work as well as the Saran Wrap brand saran wrap. For this manicure I used China Glaze Rich & Famous and Fast Track, every time I use Fast Track I’m reminded how much I love that color. I should have bought it in bulk so I would have it forever.

Saran Wrap nails

To do this manicure I first painted my nails with the gold color, and then I had to wait for it to dry all the way (something I struggle with). After it was totally dry (well, mostly totally dry) I put a layer of the pink on and then dabbed it away with a balled up piece of Saran Wrap. If you are thinking right now ‘I bet that made a huge mess’ you would be very right. I had pink all over my fingers, but nothing a shower couldn’t take care of.

I pushed a little too hard in a few places and made little divots

Just for fun, I decided to put essie Matte About You on my ring finger. In person I liked the matte finish nail more than the shiny ones but in the picture I like the shiny ones more. I like the overall look of the nails, I thought they kind of look like marble. This manicure was super easy and I’m already thinking of other color combinations I can do with it, perhaps next time I’ll use two colors that are more similar, like light and dark purple. Hope you didn’t miss me too much, I’ll try to be less lazy 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!

Pins for Paws Bowling nails

On Sunday I got to volunteer for the local animal shelter in one of the most fun ways possible; my work had two teams at the Pins for Paws event so I got to bowl for puppies. I’m a terrible bowler, like really bad, I bowled a 68 my first game and a 79 during the second game (I got a strike!). I always have fun bowling even though I’m horrible at it (no offense to anyone reading this and thinking that I bowl better than them). I was very worried about breaking a nail while I was bowling and my fears were not helped when someone said “how can you wear those? You are going to break them all off!” This comment was met with my standard “they are real” and “OMG why would you say that?!?!?!” I’m at bit ashamed to say that I actually said the letters O, M, and G. Somehow I managed to not break any of my nails and I’m going to say that is why my game suffered.

For this manicure I decided to do paws (again) but to give them a bowling theme so they matched the event. I used China Glaze Rich & Famous and Gothic Lolita, OPI Alpine Snow, DS Radiance, and Deutsch You Want Me Baby? and Orly Liquid Vinyl.

Pins for Paws nails

I’m terrible at painting nails all white, I don’t know if I put on the coats too thick or don’t do enough of them, but they always look terrible, like chunky streaky messes. I also hate how all white nails look on me, but this might be because I can’t seem to paint them right. Despite all my thoughts on white nails, I really wanted to have some of my nails look like bowling pins, so I went with this design. My thumb is supposed to look like a bowling ball but I’m not so sure how well that really turned out.

Bowling ball thumb?

These nails aren’t my favorite but they worked well for the event. I think it is odd that I have found a reason to do paw print nails three times since starting my blog. I must really like puppies J.

Leopard Heart Print nails

Thad and I don’t do a whole lot for Valentine’s Day, we like to keep it low key. This year (and last year) I asked for nail polish instead of flowers or chocolates. As I my collection of polish is growing, Thad is having a harder time finding colors to get me, so this year he got me a gift card to Sally’s. Getting a gift card for nail polish is like getting two gifts in one; I love shopping for polish. I didn’t get quite as good of a deal as the last time I had a gift card to Sally’s but I did manage to add three colors to my collection and get more polish remover and cotton rounds.  None of those colors are in this manicure though since these are the nails I had on Valentine’s Day.

For this manicure I used China Glaze Rich & Famous, Fast Track, and Mahogany Magic, Orly Liquid Vinyl, and Sally Hansen CSM Shell We Dance? and All Fired Up. I think they look like mobster wife nails, like I’m married to Ray Liotta from Goodfellas.

Leopard Heart Print tips

There is a little tip wear in the pictures and I think this is mostly because I only put one coat of FastTrack on the tips. Normally it wears super well, but one coat just wasn’t enough. I’m very pleased with these nails, I free handed all the hearts and some of them came out downright awesome. The one on my ring finger was the first one I did and it turned out amazing. J

I impressed myself

I’ve never been good at drawing hearts so I was a bit surprised that these came out as well as they did. I should have done less of the regular spots so they tips weren’t quite as crowded and perhaps more of the hearts so that it looked more Valentiney.

Sad short thumb nail

I have so many ideas for my new polish, I hope everyone had a great Valentine’s Day!

Avon Nail Stencil nails

Bacon is amazing and I love it. We bought half a pig, I named him Kubie, and he is the most delicious pig that had ever lived. Truth be told, I actually have no idea if Kubie was a boy pig or a girl pig (that’s city girl talk), what is important is that he didn’t die in vain; he died for his delicious bacon. Tonight for dinner Thad made me a grilled cheese sandwich with bacon and fried in bacon grease. Let me say it again, I love bacon (and Thad). My fingers were all shiny with the bacon deliciousness and it was glorious.

I’m not really a fan of these nails, not that I want to sway you but just as a statement of fact. For this manicure I used OPI Alpine Snow and Rosy Future and China Glaze Rich & Famous (told you it was my new favorite). I also used Avon nail stencils that my mother in law gave me last weekend.

Oh how I hate you nail stencils

I hadn’t heard of the nails stencils before so being a 21^st century girl I Googled them right away. All the reviews said pretty much the same thing, they tear, and oh did they tear. I found them to be a great size and they were very easy to peel off the plastic sheet but as soon as you started pushing them onto your nail they tear like crazy. The directions say to leave the stencils on for 5-10 minutes before removing them; I didn’t listen to that direction but none of my issues seemed to be as a result.

Notice the red on my pointer finger

As if the tearing wasn’t annoying enough, part of the stencil got stuck in my polish and I couldn’t get it off (it’s the red smear). I yelled at the stencils so much so that my puppies were concerned for their mom’s sanity. I’m going to try more of them just to make sure, but right now I would give these nail stencils a big 0/5. I’m really disappointed in these nails because they could have been so cute, my right hand looks terrible because I tried to reuse the stencils and it was an epic fail. I wanted to repaint these nails right away but I’m forcing myself to wait until tomorrow so I can do my Valentine’s Day nails, hopefully I like them more. 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.

Pink Plaid nails

My gas company sent us a report card the other day, apparently we are part of some pilot program where they will send us a report card and let us know how we stack up amongst our neighbors as far as how ‘efficient’ we are. We didn’t do so well, out of 100 households we ranked 76. We have a brand new furnace and our water heater is only two years old, so I think it is unfair to say we aren’t as efficient, they just meant that we used more gas than other people. The whole thing bothered me, I like my house warm!  They also suggested in the letter that we lower our thermostat by 10 degrees when we are not home, I really don’t think my girls would appreciate that. They are the type of pampered girls that get their nails done like they did on Saturday (Millie has green nails and Jules has red).

I painted my nails in my very comfortably warm house on Saturday, after the girls got their nails done. For this manicure I used my brand new China Glaze Rich & Famous, and NYC French White TIp. I used my NYC white instead of my OPI because the brush is a lot smaller, in general it is a terrible white and I hate it.

They are like pink Burberry

I love these nails; I annoyed everyone at work by showing them off this week while I shamelessly gushed about how awesome they are. I took the pictures on Tuesday so some of the nails look a little worn but overall the manicure has been holding up very well, I got my first chip today. Rich & Famous has a pretty terrible name, but the color is great. It is just the Valentine’s color that I was looking for. I used two coats on these nails and they didn’t really need another.

With natural light

The white was terrible, the pink showed through really bad on some nails and I had to go over the white several times, which just led it to look chunky and streaky. I wish I would have just used my OPI and been careful with the wider brush. The design was actually pretty easy to do but it took a while just because I wanted to go slow with the lines. For obvious reasons, my right hand is a little shaky but as I didn’t pick a very forgiving color scheme I’m not too surprised.

I finally did a decent job with my cuticles

It dawned on me recently that I’ve been doing my nails for right at a year now (since the end of the gel manicures). I know I haven’t saved any money by not getting my nails professionally done, but I’ve really enjoyed painting them.