NYC

This was the summer of family and one of my favorite family vacations was when my boyfriend, his parents, one of his sisters, and I went to NYC. Ron and I go there often, so it isn't very exciting for us, but none of his family had been before. We got to take them to the Empire State building, the Statue of Liberty, and eat tons of food! At the end of the vacation I decided that I should do some nails to commemorate the trip. So these are my NYC nails! My right hand said "I *heart* NY" but I can't find a picture of it. Here's the story behind each nail:
Thumb: This was for Ron's mom, Susie. She loves playing Monopoly on facebook, so the "Go" from Monopoly reminds me of her
Index: This was for Ron's father, Vern. He is devout in his Christianity so I couldn't think of anything better to represent him than a cross
Middle: A kitty cat for Ron's sister Bonnye. Every time I ever see anything with a cat on it my reaction is always, "Oh my god, Bonnye would love that!"
Ring: Well, if you're read my blogs a bunch you can probably guess that the hamburger is for Ron. He loves hamburgers. A lot.
Pinky: And of course, I got the hand with painted nails... because let's be honest... I kind of like painting my nails.

Jammin' Iris Dust

This week I had the opportunity to try a product I've been wanting to for a long time - Jamberry Nails. Thank you to Amy Smith (the link goes to her web site), an independent consultant for supplying these fabulous samples. Let's go through the process, and I'll show you how they worked for me.

I started out with Amy's samples, and then Nubar's "Iris Dust" and "2010" for the nails that weren't getting "jammed out". In order to apply the Jamberry Nails, a hair dryer is also needed. Jamberry Nails are basically a plastic nail shield with heat-activated adhesive on the back that are very easy to apply as long as you follow the instructions. They come in all different designs and colors - I really like the patterns on these black and white samples.

Now because I wanted to follow the instructions exactly and my camera isn't all that great at video, I didn't record my own nails, and I didn't take pictures because I wanted to focus on correct application. But watch Amy's video - it explains the process very well. I assure you, it does work exactly the way she explains.

I applied four nails worth, and my only complaint is not a fault of the product, but rather a by-product of my ultra-curvy nails. Here's what one hand looked like just after application:

Where the curvy nails come in is the edges - because the design is flat, and my nails are...not, the edges would not lay flat against the nail surface when I used the proper size shield. I used the hair dryer to heat and press, heat and press, heat and press, and still just could not smooth out the edges. I ended up making tiny cuts in the edges with nail scissors in order to give the material room to flatten out, but it didn't completely alleviate the issue.

When I used a shield that was too small, it flatted out just fine...but of course that's not the ideal solution.

Just tonight my genius husband suggested that before application, I cut them down the middle lengthwise, and then apply one side at a time so it would be easier to flatten out. He also suggested cutting them into strips and tips to use over nail polish for accents - and I'm going to order some more to play with doing just that. :-)

After I finished these, I sealed the tips/sides with top coat, and then did a coat of Seche Vite base coat on the unfinished nails followed by 3 coats of Nubar's "Iris Dust". It's a nearly sheer formula, so it doesn't really cover well enough in 2 coats, and really probably could have used a fourth to be absolutely opaque.

I topped that with a coat of Nubar's "2010" top coat...which is just amazing with the iridescent pieces in it, and then a coat of Seche Vite top coat. Unfortunately, I was in a hurry and botched the top coat by applying quick dry drops too soon...but it was kind of one of those nights.

My only real complaint with the Jamberry Nails is the difficulty with the edges, but like I said, that's more due to the shape of my nails. I dare say that if you wear your nails shorter, or square them off so they naturally grow flatter, you'll have no problem at all with them - and the patterns are super-cool. A great way to do your toes, if you don't want to worry about them for awhile! The hair dryer is noisy, which is problematic if you do your nails between 12am and 2am like I normally do, but I seriously doubt many people actually do that. ;-)

I should mention that even with the lifted edges, the nail shields are very tough, and I haven't even dislodged them at all yet through warm showers, hand washing, lotion, and snagging my fingers on things (as usual). Lots of typing too, with no tip damage. So they're very sturdy, and from what I understand they come off as they went on - apply heat, and peel them off. If you'd like to try them, please contact Amy for ordering since she was kind enough to provide samples.

Until next week, happy polishing!

Lightning

These were some lightning nails that were inspired by Fleury Rose Nails. I love her designs. She is always unique, creative, and clean. To create this look I just painted my nails blue, made a jagged purple french tip and then sponged on some white in order to blur where the blue and purple met. I then used a small brush to paint on the lightning. They were really easy and ended up looking really neat... and of course, they're good for hurricane season.

The Evil Dead

I love horror films (if I were exaggerating -- like I tend to do -- I would say "more than anything"). Almost all of my favorite horror films come from the 1980's, and although my favorite genre is the slasher film, The Evil Dead is way at the top of my favorites list. So for these nails I did two different logos from the film, The Book of the Dead, and Ash's face. This was my first attempt at portraiture, and as you can tell, I am still learning. But I think that these nails were the turning point in my artistic abilities because I challenged myself with Ash's face and with lettering (another hard skill). Whenever I am asked about my nail art, I always say that these are the first set of nails I painted that made me feel like an artist. And I think that every time I've painted my nails since these has been exponentially better that anything I did before them. I was so happy when I did these that I finally hit my stride -- and I couldn't be happier that it happened with something as cool as The Evil Dead!

Acid Wash Jeans

I saw these on a YouTube tutorial and thought they looked cool. They were really easy to do: Just paint a base coat that is dark blue, then cover it with a light layer of white, lastly take a q-tip dipped in nail polish remover and rub it over the white coat. I have seen so many people do these more successfully than I did, but I really liked that they yielded such a cool effect for such minimal effort!

Tips For Great Galaxy Nails

I went to Wales for two week this summer and I wanted a set of low maintenance yet flashy nails. So I decided to do a second attempt at galaxy nails. Well, when I first finished these I loved them and thought that they turned out perfectly -- basically that I was the galaxy master. But every time that I look at them now I see where I went wrong. I now know how to accomplish the best ever galaxy nails, and by looking at this picture I can explain to you what some "beginners" mistakes are. First, when sponging on color it is INSANELY important to use a light hand. You can see in these pictures that the colorful areas don't really blend into the background, giving a stark contrast between the nebula's and sky. This makes it look more like a mash of colors than the galaxy. The second really important lesson I learned from these nails was that you can never have enough stars. Here I was doing stars from memory and they ended up looking more like sesame seeds than stars. A good technique is to make the stars really small and put them in clusters. This makes areas appear more like the milky way and less like a hamburger. I hope these tips help... I feel like in every tutorial I've ever watched no one has mentioned anything like this and I know that I would have found it to be helpful information!

Topshop Dalmatian Jumper Inspired nail art

Hi Guys

Thank you for the lovely comments on my last post. I'm still not feeling brilliant but I am chosing to ignore it over the bank holiday weekend. I'll probably spend Monday asleep all day because of that but never mind! 

I'm off for a day out to London tomorrow. We're starting at the Tate and seeing where the day takes us. It will probably take me to a Primarni and a sleek selling Superdrug. And Sallys. And Topshop. I wanted to do some funky nails and when I saw the press releases for Topshop A/W 11 I died when I saw the Dalmatian jumper and HAD to do some nails. if you haven't seen it the Topshop lookbook is here and it's in the new mod section.

I used Color Club in French tip for all the white, Pupa 704 for the black nails and a claires black nail art pen. The red line on the french tip nails is Boots 17 Knockout Red and the bow is hexagon sequiny bits then I drew round them with the nail art pen. to tidy up the bow shape. Not totally neat nails but I think they are funky XD. This was a really easy manicure. I'll break it into steps for you prep nails as you normally would using your favourite basecoats

1. Paint thumb and ring finger white

2. Paint index, middle and little fingers black

3. Paint white tips on black fingers (I used a fine brush)

4. Paint black blotches on the white polished nails and the tips. I found it best to use a nail art pen and jiggle it a bit so the edges are not to smooth and try to be random. 

5. Paint a fine red line where the white tips meet the black nail polish

6. place sequins in a bow shape on both white nails. 

7. Use the nail art pen to outline the sequins and define the bow shape. I also put a few little creases in the bow. 

8. Paint all nails with topcoat. I used Sally's Express Gelous and when that had dried a little a coat of Seche vite.

If you decide to recreate this look please share your links I'd love to see it.

Have fun 

Stacie xoxox

The Most Feminine Nails I've Ever Worn

I'm gonna go ahead and believe that these don't need any more information along with them in addition to the title.
(Oh, except I did see this design somewhere but don't have the name to give credit)

Goats and Pizza

For Ron's actual birthday I put the things he loves most (or at least 2 of the 3... I didn't do hamburgers) on my nails. First I did a pizza with a candle on my thumb. Next I had to decide what to do for the rest of the nails so I used the fact that Ron really wants to own goats. He thinks they are the best animal that exist and is perpetually trying to convince me that a goat would be a great pet. I, however, am not an idiot and I know that a goat would eat all of our stuff, poop everywhere, and climb on everything. These are of course significant facts since he wants an indoors goat. So this, Ron, is the closest you will ever get to being a goat owner while I'm around... At least until you convince me otherwise.

Minx inspired nails

Sorry I haven't been around much I've been feeling under the weather I just thought I would do a quick post of these nails. I saw some new designs from Minx and loved this design Roses 2

I didn't copy it exactly but have been inspired by it. I only did this design on my thumbs too as I'm into every nail being different but matching at the moment. I think these look like a lovely patchwork quilt

Polishes used are mainly Barry M ice cream colours

Thanks for all the lovely comments on the bunny nails I'm glad you liked them

Stacie xoxox

Brazil

As I'm sure is obvious at this point, my boyfriend Ron and I love movies. It probably isn't a stretch to say that one of his all time favorite movies is Terry Gilliam's sci-fi classic Brazil. So as an early birthday present for Ron (whose real birthday falls on June 23) I painted Brazil nails. The thumb is the logo, the index finger is the baby mask, the middle finger is the wall of infinite filing cabinets , the ring finger is the singing telegrams outfit, and the pinky is the Ministry of Information logo. The entire reason that I did the signing telegram is because Ron believes that she is the most fantastic girl in the world. I'm not exactly sure what he likes about her, but he thinks she's great!

Pierced Fall Foils

Sorry about the missed post last week. I sorta got sidetracked by way too many evenings out and about. Thankfully, this week should be much more normal.

I've been dying to try this rich brown color - Misa "When U Say My Name" ever since I bought it, and now that fall is around the corner, I couldn't hold back any longer. I decided that gold and copper foil would accent it nicely, then on a whim, decided to pierce my pinky nail just for a little extra glint of gold. The foils I'm using are from Nail Art Delights, and I find it's easier to pull them into little pieces before starting the manicure. I just use a couple of orange sticks...the foil is extremely thin and will go flying with one deep breath (which is what makes it fabulous for nails...).

After I cut and filed my nails, I got my nail drill (also purchased from Nail Art Delights), laid my pinky finger on a flat, hard surface, and started turning the drill back and forth right where I wanted the hole until it went all the way through.

Groovy! I find it's easier to do this without polish, but if you have thinner nails, it might work better with base coat, at least. If you do drill before polishing, remember to keep something handy to poke polish out of the hole with...

Next up, Seche Vite base coat, and two coats of Misa's "When U Call My Name". I love this color...just enough gold in it to shine nicely, but still a very dark, rich color. Yummy!

Then to set the foil, I brushed on a thin layer of top coat, and just sort of piled it on randomly. The foil sticks to the top coat very easily, so it's a pretty quick job. I use an orange stick to wrinkle/de-wrinkle where it seems to work.

You'll notice I still don't have the ring in yet - I put two coats of Seche Vite top coat over these, let them dry, and then when I did clean up in the morning I put the ring through the hole. You'll need at least needle nose pliers for the task, and possibly a small pair of regular pliers too (for closing the jump ring).

And there you have it! I got tons of compliments on these - they were much more shiny than these photos give them credit for.

Because I know someone will wonder - yes, I can type with a ring in my pinky. The trick is to put the hole far enough back that the ring moves freely, but doesn't dangle too far off the nail. It does help if you're already used to longer nails though.

I can't decide whether to go with a matte for next week, a crackle, or a duochrome. I guess it will be a surprise! Until then, happy polishing...

Tacos

Another set of nails dedicated to my love of Taco Bell. These were done for Nail Polish Art Addiction's contest "Good Enough To Eat." Which I, of course, did not win. But that's only because there were SOOO many amazing entries. It was a great contest that really showed off a lot of talent. My absolute favorite nails in the contest were Cathy's Vegemite nails, which Leslie (The nail polish art addict) blogged further about at the link.

Blinky

Everyone who knows me knows that I love The Simpsons more than any other T.V. show. When I was growing up my parents and I ate dinner every night while watching The Simpsons and those are some of my happiest memories. I don't think I'm alone in thinking that the show has really deteriorated over time, so I thought I would do a set of nails that paid tribute to the older seasons. This is Blinky the three eyed fish. Bart caught him in the lake that was being polluted by Mr. Burns and the power plant and he became the symbol of a campaign against the pollution created by the plant.
NOTE: I saw someone else do a design similar to this one, but I didn't note who did it, so I'm sorry for not giving credit where it's due.

cherries and lemons

Lemons from Nail Polish Art Addiction, who got the idea from The Illustrated Nail.

Strawberry Kiwi

Abnormally cute (for me) strawberry kiwi nails. Every so often, I really like dainty, adorable things... I think these nail suited the craving well!

Slanted French Tip

These nails were inspired by an acrylic set that I saw somewhere and unfortunately didn't record where. I decided to paint them for a family weekend that I go on every year. For it I needed something a bit understated and presentable, but of course I always like a bit of fun.

Bitcoin

A few months ago, my boyfriend Ron became obsessed with the online peer to peer currency Bitcoin. Essentially a bitcoin is like a dollar, a pound, a yen, a euro, a peso, except instead of placing it in the hands of someone else when you want a good or service, you give it to them electronically. You can get bitcoins in two ways: first you can buy them with your dollars, pounds, yen, euro, or pesos, and second you can generate them. Generating sounds like a pretty good deal but let me explain how it works.

In order to generate a bitcoin your computer must solve a complicated cryptography problem which all of the other generators are also trying to solve. If your computer is the first to solve it, you get a bitcoin. This leads to possibly the most interesting aspect of bitcoins: The more computers that are trying to generate bitcoins, the harder the cryptography problem you are given. This system essentially sets the interest rate of bitcoins, eliminating the need for... oh say, the Fed.

Bitcoins have a lot of really great applications and really interesting economic applications. I have COMPLETELY oversimplified a lot about them in this post, but I'd recommend checking them out further to get the whole scoop, or maybe even investing in some yourself!

For more info: http://www.bitcoin.org

Skulls and Eyeballs

Every year my friends and I go to a "big" festival called Maryland Deathfest. It's the biggest metal festival in the U.S., but is dwarfed by festivals in other countries. This year it was May 26-29, over 50 bands played, and somewhere in the vicinity of 2000 people attended. I decided that instead of making nails for just one of the bands that was playing (though I would have done Skinless) that I should make a general set of nails for the entire weekend. These are what I ended up with... Skulls and eyeballs. I think it was very fitting!

Colorful Stones

I saw some fabric with a really beautiful pattern a long time ago that inspired these nails. I think they turned out looking almost like stones on an old wall, but really colorful stones. This was a nice, simple, quick mani that I ended up loving!

NOTE: This is my 50th nail art design!

Crazy french tip

This was a spiky, crazy french tip that was inspired by Floss Gloss Boss, I'll try to find the link to where she does the design later today. For now, I'm off to hang upside down by my ankles covered in blood. Have a nice day!

Edit: This is Floss Gloss Boss's original design

Liz's Birthday

My friend Liz turned 22 this year (I know, you never would have guessed). Her birthday is May 7th and she's one of my best friends so of course she needed extra special nails. She got balloons, numbered birthday candles, regular candles, a cake with her name on it, and for an even more personalized touch: a crew paddle! (I'm sure there's a name for the paddle that one would do crew type things with, but I don't know it). Liz started coxswain-ing and discovered a new passion -- screaming at a bunch of fit guys. No, really though, she loved it and I think it's one of the great things that defines her!

Dolphins

Silhouette of a dolphin at sunset

Two dolphins splashing around

These dolphin nails were inspired by Ron's mom, Susan. She said that I should do some pretty ocean nails so I decided on doing waves and dolphins. As you can see, I also did a whale on my right ring finger, but it turned out so blahhh that I don't even like to talk about it. The dolphin thumbs and ring finger turned out just as I wanted them to and these nails have definitely been a source of pride for me over the months.