Due To My Boredom... A Dotticure

Well, on the search for a matte top coat (since I couldn't find mine), I found one that was on sale 2/$5... well not wanting to pass up that deal, and not knowing how well the matte top coat was going to work, I decided to choose a color as my second bottle.

This was a new brand for me, and I wasn't sure if I would like it, but the price was good, and I really liked the color...

A number of years ago there was a polish by "China Glaze" that everyone seemed to have, called "For Audrey". I always loved this color, but was unable to buy it (probably because of money, but can't remember now, and I don't know if it is still available). It was a really nice, lite teal / turquoise color, that I just loved. I know there are others, but for some reason that is a color that I just don't seem to have. I have one by "Sinful Colors" that is close in color, but more of a baby blue, but at the same time it is also very sheer and has some fine pink glitter in it, so I don't think it really counts.

Anywhoo, this color just called to me, so I buy them and finally try out this new polish. I will say The color was nice, but I was not a big fan of the application. The formula felt very thick and goopy, and went on streaky. With this I had to do, I think 3 coats before I was happy enough with the look, and then just hoped the top coat would smooth it all out (which it did!). Also the smell is strange, it smells more plasticy (I know these are not real words...) like children's polishes smell, then how we expect nail enamel to smell. Now as this is the only one of their polishes I have tried, I am not wanting to knock it off your list. I could have gotten a bottle that had become to warm at some point, or had something else happen to make the formula weird... but for me this is one of those I got what I payed for (even though there are many cheap polishes that are great!).

I wanted to do something to change up the look, so why not a dotticure, add some Holo polish, and there we have it...

Needless to say, I was not really happy with this mani, so I just took a picture (that I am also not very happy with ) and took that shit off! I think the idea of the dotticure was a good one, and I will probably try it again with some other polishes, but this one I would rather forget.

Colors used:

Base Coat: "Seche Clear" by Seche

Base Color: "Shell Me More" by pop-arazzi

Dot Color: "Get Outta My Space" by China Glaze

Top Coat: "Seche Vive" by Seche

Skittlette!

I have officially done my first skittlette nail design! Woo Hoo!!!

As I mentioned in my last blog, I have been wearing gel polish a lot lately in order to grow out some breaks. Well with that, I have on this gorgeous pink color right now (same as in the last blog photo) and I felt like changing it up a bit. So without having to remove the gel, what do I do? Paint over it! And to tell you the truth I LOVE how it turned out!

Two colors that I think go really well together, are pink and gold. They make an elegant and soft combination. I wanted to do a skittlette, and I decided to use the ABCAB pattern, so I had to think of what to do as my accent nail, and well the pink and gold still screamed spring to me, so why not some flowers??? I didn't want them to stand out to much, but blend in with the other fingers to keep with the elegant look, so just a simple white stamp seemed to work.

I haven't really done a skittlette design yet, not because I don't love how they look, I do, but more because I have a hard time figuring out three things that are different, but yet still go together. Mixing patterns is something that is hard for me, for instance, at I am writing this my middle tiny is having picture day, and he was wearing a subtle plaid shirt, but wanted the camo background... I let him do it, but it was hard for me to accept.

So this skittlette was easy for me to envision, because I used two colors that worked well together, and only one pattern. Now don't get me wrong, I love almost every skittlette that I see others do, I just have a hard time conceptualizing how things will go together. I think I need to either buy, or make one of those mani idea books, so that I can try and work things like this out first, and then apply them to my nails. I feel that I do a lot of starting over, or removing polish from a nail, because the idea is not fully planed out, and is more of a whim... we will see. 

I will say, this picture doesn't look as loose as I would have liked, and have started making them, but the corner of the thumb nail that you would have seen... well the gold was rubbing off, since I took the picture after a day or two of wearing them. So I just covered that up with my finger... hahaha, problem solved! I think this turned out well, and may do something similar in the future, but for now, on to something different!

Colors used:

Base Gel: "Foundation" by Gelish

Base Color Gel: "Pink Chiffon" by Sensational

Top Color Gel: "Pink Champagne" by Sensational

Top Gel: "Top It Off" by Gelish

Gold Color: "Love.Angel.Music.Baby" by O.P.I.

Stamp Color: "French Tip" by Color Club

Stamp Plate: "BP-108" by Born Pretty

Spring Is Here!!!

SPRING IS HERE!!! So it is time for flowers and colors, be them bright, or pastel!

The below mani is one that I had actually done for Easter (it's only a little late), and it just so happened to match my shoes. But they also had a tiny purple flower on them, and that reminded me of the tiny purple Violets that I have growing all over my yard. Sadly I didn't get a chance to take a picture of the violets before they were mowed over, and you can barely see the purple smudges in the background of my picture. But the nails still screamed SPRING!

I have been doing a lot of gel polish lately as I am trying to grow out a break (or more), and all of the peeling sections of my nails, and honestly this is the best and easiest way I have found. It gives me the strength in those spots, as well as holds the peeling spots together. I do still use nail and cuticle oil on my cuticles (I find it harder to remember to do it regularly when I have polish on, but I try). I will also do other manicures over the gel, with a peel off base coat, as well as using non acetone polish remover.

I guess I don't have too much to say about this manicure, just that this picture has become my new favorite mani picture! I love the way it came out, and honestly I love the simple design. I did change it up (I mean with a base color that is gel, you have to get creative with different ways to use the color, or just pain cover them completely) and did another pink mani, that will be in my next post.

 


 I think I am onto a baby pink kick right now, so I may be doing many more. To tell you the truth, at this point I don't have many gel polish colors (they are kind of expensive compared to a regular bottle of polish). But I love how I can do a gel manicure at home (which lasts about a week as I don't buff my nails before application) for a fraction of the cost of getting them done in a salon. I am probably going to go and buy another color or two soon (hopefully Sally's Beauty is having one of their sales) so that I can keep up with the gel for a while, and still be able to change it up a bit.

So I have heard that you are not supposed to mix the different brands of gel polish, but I have to admit that with this mani, the base and top gels are a different brand as the colors, but they seemed to work just fine, and actually I think they work better than when I use just the colors that go with my base and top gel coats. With the two gel colors, I used one coat of each color, for a total of two coats of color. I like how they are light, and subtle.

Colors used:

Base Gel: "Foundation" by Gelish

Base Color Gel: "Pink Chiffon" by Sensational

Top Color Gel: "Pink Champagne" by Sensational

Top Gel: "Top It Off" by Gelish

Flowers: These were stickers, out of a pack found at the drugstore, sorry but I don't remember which brand.

Happy Birthday To Me!!! Nails

April 24th... the anniversary of my birth!
(or as my sister would put it, happy anniversary of your natal day!)

So for the last number of years, my birthday has been a day of depression for me... I'm not sure why, maybe it is because I am getting older, or some other reason, but I just get depressed... 

I feel like people only wish me a happy birthday out of duty, and any cards or gifts are after thoughts. I don't really get anything anyways, and it just feels like any other day, nothing special to it. (I kind of feel the same way about Mother's Day) In talking with someone just yesterday, I realized, that is is more the feeling that there is a lack of thought. I think I would feel different if it was obvious that time and thought had been put into it, like making a card or gift... or getting something that had to be ordered (or something that I just really really want, as that shows that you pay attention to me and what I like), or making a reservation for dinner... something that shows you thought about it ahead of time, not just an "oh crap... let me get something on the way home". That probably sound selfish, and self centered... but its just how it seems to feel. Anywho...

Well this year was exceptionally so... my husband didn't say happy birthday in the morning, but did call later in the day. I spoke with my mom a few times, but she didn't say anything till the next day, and my kids didn't say anything till my husband had them sign a card (I hate cards... a waste of money on something that is just going to be thrown out! Unless it is a homemade card... those would be cherished). Even my brother and sister didn't try contacting me till about 9 pm... (see feels like an oh crap... better do this before time is up).

To make matters worse, it was a gloomy, rainy day, and I was having two different personal health problems. Needless to say the day sucked.! So to make myself feel better I decided to do my nails!

My favorite color is Purple, and I have fallen in love with holographic polishes and glitters! So I decided a purple holo polish was just what I needed. Added to that some stamping of "happy birthday", balloons, streamers, and cupcakes, and we have it made! I used silver holo glitter polish, and the sharpie trick to add more holo and color, and we have birthday nails.

 

I will say, secretly there have been things over the years that I wish people would do for me. When I turned 16, all I wanted was for someone to play the song "16 candles"... alas no one did, and nowadays I see these Birthday collage collaborations people do for other nail artists birthdays, and I just hope that one day I will get to experience the joy of one being made for me! To know that you were thought about before your birthday, and that someone spent time making something just for you! What a lovely gift!

I also hope that over time, I will become known well enough to be asked to participate in some of these collaborations. To be able to give that gift to someone else, would feel amazing. But to achieve that, I just need to do more artwork, and be better about posting!

So this was a shitty post, that I feel doesn't paint me in the best light, but if you haven't suffered from depression, that's the way it feels. Over time things can change, but you can't change the way you feel, and I don't feel like sugar coating it! Anyways, my birthday ended, and the next day was better. Now to post more pictures and write more blog entries!

Colors used:

Base Color: "Harold's Crayon" by Smitten Polish

Stamp Color: "French Tip" by Color Club

Stamp Fill Color: "This Is My Tiara!" by Smitten Polish

Happy Birthday, Balloon & Streamer Image Plate: "BM-H19" by Bundle Monster

Cupcake Image Plate: "BM-H20" by Bundle Monster

Sharpies & Alcohol for color tints

Where The Hell Have I Been???

Wow, so it has been over a YEAR since I last posted... amazing how time flies. I did have some drafts that were started, but never posted during this time and I am sorry for that. So what has been going on??? Well, life!

About a year ago, I came up with a new name, that was shorter and easier, that I wanted to use, and well in the process of changing that, my blogger app was messed up, and I could no longer see all of my posts. So that was one of the big things that kept me from posting. Also I was going through a lot of stuff at the time of my last post, and well, I just couldn't do it. Things are different now, as I am in a much better place in my life, and I have also found a new app to let me work on my blog (I was able to get blogger to show all of my old posts, but it keeps kicking me out of the app, so I am testing to see if I like this new one, and if I do, I would then just have to buy it) as most of the time, I can work on my blog while waiting in the car for kids to get out of school, or off the bus. So let's hope that I like this app, and we will be back in business. 

Lately I have been obsessed with Instagram, and have been posting there fairly often, so even though there isn't a blog about my nail art, nor the info of polishes and plates, you can check them out: @leg.c_nails ... if there is one of my past manicures you find and like, ask and I can try to write a blog about it and hope to remember the items used, for all of my latest items, I will try to put them on here as well. I made a comment on another persons Instagram post that I wanted to get my blog back up and running at some point, and well no time like the present, so that is what sparked me to get my butt in gear!

My birthday was a few days ago, and I did post a nail picture on Instagram, so I think new birth year, new blogging, and that will be my first mani blog I will post. More to say on that, but I should probably save it till the actual post, other wise, what am I going to write about?

Well, I guess that is about it, and hopefully people are still reading blogs at this point. Even if not, it gives me something to do, and a way to express myself. See you in the next post!

Waiting For Nail Mail...

Well, isn't that something that we all hate... We have finally ordered some nail mail, and now what do we have to do? WAIT! Gar...

So a good friend gave me amazon gift cards for Christmas, so of course, I find nail items I want to buy...

I start off by puting them into a wish list to save them, as I was not yet ready to order, then when I go back a few days later, what should happen? One of the items I wanted the most is no longer available. So I wait a day or two, to see if there will be more... Finally I give up, and just order the other items from amazon. Then I go to the actual company's website and order that last item... Luckily I get free shipping, so that is a plus, and it was only $10... But then "Murphy's Law" kicks in, and I go back on amazon, looking at other items, and that last item is back on amazon... AHHH... Really?

Well anyways, now my items are ordered, and now I must wait. The thing that sucks is that at least one of my items isn't supposed to get her till March... MARCH??? Why so long? Why must you make me suffer so???

Please let the nail Gods be with me, and allow my stuff to all come quickly.

... Aparently the nail Gods are not with me, as I started this post last night, and this morning I can an email from the company I ordered the other item from, and apparently it is on back order, so they can't ship it out until at least the end of February... Oh well, here is to waiting!

Glitter Gradient

I am super excited about this post, as I absolutely LOVE this mani! It may be simple but I still LOVE IT!

I have been really unhappy lately that my nails have been having such a hard time staying long, so a week ago (Tuesday) I decided to use my gel polish, in the hopes that it would stay for a week or so. I decided to do it at home, since I had neither the money, not the time to get them done professionally, and I had the stuff at home to do it. I will say I also think it's a good thing, as my nails probably didn't get filed as much, so it was also better for my nails. 

Then that weekend, I had a birthday party to go to for my grandfather who was going to be 95! (Go grandpa!) so on Friday, while I was baking 4 lbs of bacon and 60 sausage patties for the brunch party (go figure the pescetarian is the one to do all the meat) I figured I would fill in the boring time in between each of the 6 or so batches, by updating my nails.

So recently I found this blogger named Cristine, of "Simply Nailogical" on YouTube (you can find links to her YouTube channel, blog, and Facebook at the bottom of this post, if you want to check her out. I do know she also uses some others programs,  but I haven't followed her on those, as I don't use them) and have been watching all of her videos... (I will say some of her language isn't that great, which doesn't bother me, but I want to forwarn you, also it just means I can't watch her around the kids, oh well, but I love her stuff, and actually love her sarcastic attitude). Anyways, she does a lot with glitter, and gradients,  and taught me how to properly apply glitter for best, and most saturated glitter application. I have always liked gradients, but was not very good at them (as you can see in my other gradient post) and wanted to try again. 

Usually I shy away from glitter because of how hard it is to get off your nails (some other things Cristine has taught me is about peel off basecoats, and latex barriers to easly peel off the mess you get around nails after doing a gradient, or if you are just messy like me, now I will no longer be afraid of any of it!), but figured since I would be putting this glitter over a gel polish (which is already a pain in the arse to get off) I wouldn't worry about it.

Cristine has also sparked me to finally take better care of my nails, so hopefully I will have better nails to paint! *crosses fingers* Here is to no more peeling and breaking nails!

And finally, here are a couple of pictures of the mani. I will say that the pictures SOO do not do this mani any justice. You can see what I did, but it looks so much better in real life. Also as I figure this mani will not last till Valentines Day (which it would be great for), I may end up redoing it but without the gel polish just for the holiday. As I said, I Love how this turned out, and will so be doing other similar manis, sparklies make everything better!  

 

P.S... The day after writing this, the mani stared peeling off, so I had to take it off. I also had a nail chip, so I had to file them all down a little... Only good thing about that, is that now all of them are the same length.

Colors used:

Base Color: "Pink Champagne" by SENSATIONAIL (color gel polish)

Glitter Color: "Sparked" by Wet n Wild (wild shine)

Cristine of "Simply Nailogical"

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/user/simplynailogical

Blog:

http://www.simplynailogical.com/?m=1

Facebook:

https://m.facebook.com/simplynailogical/