Disney's Tangled nails

I’m not a fan of kids but I love many of the things that they love, Disney is no exception. I first went to Disney World when I was a senior in college and my super amazing coach took me to the Magic Kingdom when we were in Florida for a tournament. I was hooked from my very first glimpse of Cinderella’s castle. Thad’s first trip was on our honeymoon, aka the best honeymoon destination ever. This December marks our third trip together and also our third trip in just over five years, we can’t stay away! So while I’m enjoying the sights and sounds of the most magical place on Earth, I decided to have a couple of blog posts for you to entertain you with Disney nails while I’m at Disney.  

Tangled is such a great movie, if you haven’t seen it I highly recommend that you put it on your list to watch. Also, if you haven’t seen it, these nails won’t be as fantastic for you. For this manicure I used Sally Hansen CSM Anenome of Mine, OPI You’re Such a Budapest, I Saw. . .U Saw. . .We Saw. . .Warsaw, Alpine Snow, and Pussy Galore, Ulta Sun-Sational, and Orly Liquid Vinyl. These nails turned out even better than I had imagined, they are quite possibly some of my favorites I have done.

Disney’s Tangled nails

If you have seen the movie the nails are pretty self explanatory. In case you missed the instant Disney classic, my pinkie and ring finger are parts of her dress, middle finger is her hair (she is Rapunzel after all), my index finger is for the lanterns they light for her birthday every year, and my thumb is the royal symbol. I’m impressed with how well the thumb turned out, I figured I’d try to do something like the sun symbol and it would fail miserably so I would just hide my thumb, I guess when you set your expectations so low you are more likely to impress yourself.  

Seriously, watch the movie

I got Tangled for my birthday from a friend at work and I totally watched it while I was painting these. Hope these nails brought you some Disney joy J

Nail Striper Overload nails

One side effect of having a nail blog is that people love to send me pictures of nails they find online that they want me to try. Quite often the nails they show me are so far beyond anything I could ever hope to do, but sometimes I’m able to try the design. I never like to do nails just like in the picture; it just doesn’t seem as much fun to do them exactly the same. I got the idea for these nails from a picture my sister in law found on Pinterest. I have a Pinterest account but I don’t allow myself to use it, I feel like as soon as I started it would suck hours of my life and I already have enough activities that keep me lazy and on the couch.

I love these nails, I kept them on for far longer than I normally do, I just didn’t want to take them off! For this manicure I used OPI You’re Such a Budapest, essie Matte About You, and a crap ton of stripers. At first I was just going to do my ring finger as an accent nail but I ended up loving the design so much I wanted it on all my nails.

Nail Striper Overload nails

I had no idea what to call these nails; I almost think they look like feathers. These were so easy to do, it’s the type of nail art that you just can’t mess up. I used about 10 different stripers and just randomly put lines in, to make the design look fuller, I used all the stripers twice each so the end result was very layered.

Love the matte on You’re Such a Budapest

My planed Vegas nails are similar to these and after I saw how much I loved these, it makes me even more excited to Vegas my nails up. I can’t get over how much I love matte finish manicures combined with glossy elements, it’s like nail heaven.

Of course you get three pictures of these!

I hope you like these nails as much as I do. I don’t have the source picture anymore to post it, but it is from nailsaurus (who is amazing by the way). My trip to Vegas is coming so quickly, I hope my nails live up to all the hype J

Disney's Up nails

It isn’t very often that my family all gets together. We had the opportunity to all get together this weekend though to celebrate my parents’ 35^th anniversary and had a blast. In good Minnesota fashion there was way too much food, including an entire table of desserts. I parked myself right next to that table of deliciousness with my beer in hand and had myself a grand time. I have seven nieces and nephews on that side of the family; they are almost their own baseball team, although I’m not sure how well a 3 month old would be able to handle a baseball. It’s awesome to see all my brothers as dads, growing up they had the unspoken rule that they could tease me all they wanted but no one else better try it, and it is just cool to see them protecting their kids now.

I thought it would be cool to do nails for a love story since these were the nails I had at the anniversary party. I love the movie Up, it has such a cute love story (and yes it always makes me cry). For this manicure I used a crap ton of colors, Orly Lemonade, Mayhem Mentality, White Tips, and Skinny Dip, OPI You’re Such a Budapest, China Glaze Turned Up Turquoise, Mahogany Magic, and Pool Party, and Sally Hansen CSM Barracuda.

Disney's Up nails

I was very pleased with how these nails turned out. I wish I would have made the balloon strings a little darker, but besides that I’m very happy. These are the first nails I’ve ever done that I modified the design for my right hand, I just put clouds on my right thumb since the house was so hard to do in the first place.

The house is far from perfect but still pretty cute

I was really bummed when people didn’t immediately recognize what the design was supposed to be, but it was pretty cool when someone did. The nails were a big hit at the party and I got a lot of “you do that yourself?!?!” which I love. Overall I would say these were a success 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

Purple Ombre nails

Spring is finally here! After snowing for the last three weeks I think we are finally done with the snow and spring is here. I missed green so much, and being warm. I wore a dress yesterday, I love wearing dresses when it’s warm since I hate wearing shorts. I think it was just about the perfect Minnesota weekend. We cleared off the leaves from the patio and I spent a fair amount of time outside today, soaking up vitamin D and remembering that Minnesota does in fact have other seasons besides winter. I hope everyone else had as wonderful of a weekend as I did, it was worth the wait J

For this manicure I felt the urge to do something different so I tried my hand at ombre again. I have done a manicure like this once before and I wouldn’t say it was a success, this time turned out much better. For these nails I used OPI You’re Such a Budapest, China Glaze Gothic Lolita, and Sally Hansen CSM Anenome of Mine.

Purple Ombre

These nails are also sometimes called gradients but I like the word ombre more, even though my Microsoft Word isn’t putting the fun accent mark on the e and I don’t know how to put it on myself. To create the faded look I put the colors on a makeup sponge in three lines and then dabbed it on my nail, then I put on top coat pretty quickly so it smeared it a bit. The smearing didn’t work out so well on my pinkie but the other nails turned out pretty good.

The sponging method didn’t provide for good tip wear

I don’t know what happened to my middle finger, perhaps I was drinking too much, I’m going to guess that the sponge had it out for my middle finger and just decided to deposit a ton of dark purple right at the end. These nails were annoying because I immediately chipped one of them on my right hand and I had no way to really touch it up since the color was mixed and not just out of the bottle. They also annoyed me because they looked so much better from far away than up close but no one looks at your nails from far away (not my nails anyway).

Picture from further away, disregard the filthy windowsill

These nails were far from perfect, but they were lots of fun to do. Next time I want to try to transition from two different colors (like yellow to orange) instead of doing shades of the same color. I imagine it will be tricky to not make it vomit colored in the middle but I think it would be worth a shot.

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

Spring Plaid nails

There are so many things I love about living in Minnesota; March is not one of them. This winter has really been long and horrible, crushing the hopes and dreams of so many Minnesotans. Damn that groundhog, damn him and his little adorable self. The other day I was running errands for work and I had my sunroof open, it was 30 degrees. 30 degrees is somehow warm enough for me to think my sunroof needs to be open; winter has successfully messed with my head.

This manicure is the first time that I’ve reused a nail design and just changed out the colors. For these nails I used OPI You’re Such a Budapest and Orly Lemonade. I’ve been stalking the OPI for weeks at Ulta, its part of their newest collection and I wanted it so much I even paid full price for it (shocking). It’s a wonderful light purple that has a bit of a shimmer in the bottle but not on the nail. The color is perfect after three coats, although I’m still adjusting to needed less polish.

Spring Plaid

The purple didn’t photograph very well; I’m going to blame that on the camera/lighting and not me. I can’t decide if I like these more or the pink ones I did last month, I love how hard they look when they are actually pretty easy. They are those eye catching kind of nails that make strangers comment, these were flashy enough that guys even commented on them (a very rare event).

I had some cuticle trouble, like usual

I haven’t been painting my nails as much as I did before, I’m going to blame that on the fitness center ladies, they don’t seem to think that nail painting time is as important as working out, strange I know. Hopefully as the sun returns to the frozen northland my energy will come back and I’ll start staying up past 9:30. On a side note, today is my niece is six months old; I can’t believe it has been six months since I did my cherry blossom nails and met her. Happy six months Arloa!