More nails, who can get enough?

I wore these ones the week of girls camp, the girls had a kick out of them, and they made me smile. They were so simple, just a white polish and black acrylic paint.

These were spirit week nails I did on my bestie, they were a red glitter fade acrylic nails to white tips. I put black jewels on all the fingers exept the ring, where I hand painted her school logo.

I just love the polish on these,it's Orly's Wedding Belle. This mani was done for my childhood friends wedding. I wish her the best, they are the cutest couple.

Current Mani thanks to a picture I found on Pintrest.

Nails, Nails, and more Nails....

Here are the first few of many to come, of past Mani's I have done over the last year..ish.

I got the most comments for this one. I wnet to the movies with my sister and the guy at the ticket couter said that they were "the sickest things he had ever seen." I told thim thanks, and proudly said that I painted them myself.

These are my 'Flutterbye' nails. I loved this Mani, and the girls at my dentists office gave me lots of cudos for them. (Dispite the smear I got from putting the top coat on too soon.)

I started this mani out with just plain light pink nails, that had blinged out ring fingers. After looking at them for a week I added the retro inspired roses for a new flair.

Ah, these were done for Toy Story 3, my nices love this movie, and I was elated that they made a third one. I cried, gasped, laughed and panicked for my beloved Toy Story toys, and couldn't help but do this mani inspired by my favorite peeps. I love the aliens! Thses are still talked about by a few girls as one of their favorite.

This year I managed to squeeze in more than one Halloween inspired mani. The first was inspired by my all time favorite Tim Burton movie, Nightmare Before Christmas. I watched the movie that night, was about to go to bed when it hit me that I had yet to do a NBF inspired mani, and I LOVED the movie. so I grabbed it (the movie), my laptop and paints...and voila. Needless to say I went to beed at 3 am that night. The blood dripped nails were inspired by the ones I did on my sister (dumbo me didnt get a picture of her nails.)I took my nails and filed them to a Stiletto point.

The last that I leave you with was done with love and insperation from this found here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mq4mbwMtamU&list=LLXsxk_JB7PO_Fu_8Gideb4w&index=3&feature=plpp_video . They were a blast to do, people thought they were cute, and I did them on a friend too. Love,

Coming Back to my Blog

This was something I started last year in attempt to catalog and remember manicures I have done in the past. The funny thing is that a few years back I never painted my nails, it wasn't something i was into, not me in the least bit. I got easily bugged and pissed off at nail polish.
*It chipped...
*It took forever to dry, and the last thing I wanted to do was sit in front of the T.V for  a mindless hour while they dried...well, paranoia in me told me to wait that long.
*the color didn't always match my mood...which resulted in picking, a lot of picking. (Which gave it the chipped look..SEE?)
*I hated looking at ten fingers that were all the same color! (for some reason that bugged me, and the last thing I was going to do was paint each one a separate color like I was five..)
*Its not cheap...when you think about it it costs a lot for a bottle of nail polish. There are cheaper alternatives, like Dollar Store ones or just cheaper brands, but like everything else...you get what you pay for and the better quality is more money.

When I decided I needed a hobby I just looked around did a little 'YouTube-ing' as I like to say. I tell my sister that you can YouTube anything, and you can. Then I did something I thought I never would do, pulled out my tiny stash of polish and a few rhinestones I had from craft stuff, and my first mani was born. **The picture is posted as the first one I did.**
Since then my little collection of polish has grown, the things I have to do them has expanded and the once small container I used to hold it now has become a five drawer compartment on the side of my dresser and a few smaller bins.
The biggest thing I have learned in doing nail art, mostly mine, my nieces (I have a lovely older sister who lets me abuse the usage of them, I love them a lot though.), a close childhood bestie, a good friend I've had for a few years now, my sister's mother in-law and the occasional straggler that just asks....back to the point, as I was saying. The biggest thing I've learned is that its an investment, not just money, but time. It can take anywhere from a few minutes to hours. That and the right products make everything.

Coming up...
-A crud load of pictures of manicures
I figured since I take the pictures with intents of posting them here...and don't, I might just do a massive upload, site the ones that come from inspiration, and let you look.
-Post a list of my nail must haves for mani's.
-Talk about places I look for inspiration, and people I..okay, slightly obsess over. ONLY, slightly...

And just, I don't know, post pictures! Good, golly.

With much love, and super lateness...

href="http://www.mylivesignature.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://signatures.mylivesignature.com/54488/353/6C50FADA872C31E197054CB0E9C64666.png" style="border: 0 !important; background: transparent;"/>

Winter...Thanksgiving Nails

So where I live we have had two huge snow storms come in in the last week. One earlier in the week and a Oblizzard that came two days before thanksgiving. So I did a mani inspired by the time of the year and the weather we were having where I live.

The color is Call Your Mother by Sephora OPI I used a white Strip Rite by it's So Easy along with chunky nail glitter in pearl also by the bran it's So Easy. the top coat was my HG it's OPI's top coat.

And when I say blizzard...it was a white out but they told us that to get people off the roads just in case someone broke down the temperature was below freezing and they wanted people home and safe, so I guess if you don't look at the few inches we had...(which were probably two to three inches) it was a good warning.

The ring finger is just Sephora OPI in Call Your Mother with the chunky glitter

Haul

I like haul posts to see new colors or colors of polishes purchased by others, so I thought I would share mine. I bought all of these in the last few weeks, I went a little crazy. Going to apologise first for the mess you see in the background I really didn't want to clean my vanity off so you get my makeup junk in the background...maybe I'll show you what it looks like when I'm done with the polishes...?

 CLICK ON THE PIC'S TO ENLARGE THEM

These are my OPI polishes, there is the Sephora by OPI in Call your mother and OPI's Feelin' Hot-Hot-Hot!



 I just got the Sephora one, like today..so its not opened or used, but the other OPI one is a gorgeous hot pink that I love...close to but not exactly like Elephantastic Pink, which I adore.

My Sinful Colors in the shades Innocent, This Is It,Aphrodite, and Gogo Girl (from left to right)

They Have all been worn, the gold (This Is It) is really, really shear..my only complaint. Other than that for first time buys I love the brand.

Picked these up and the Dollar Tree when I grabbed a box of tissues(awful, and I do mean AWFUL allergies...in the freaking FALL!)  to try out, was shocked when I only needed one coat for the most part, and the colors are awesome. Pissed when I took the green blue off (Atomic) and it turned my whole finger blueish....not too happy about that.

Maybe I shouldn't admit to this...but I will, this polish is a week old and that's how much I have used,  its shear but I fell in LOVE with the color and have used it on my nails since I got it. to get the creamy ivory color (Wedding Belle) true to the bottle it takes about three to four coats, but I love it.

New China Glaze in Something Sweet, bought on clearance at Ulta. For some reason the pastels are in for me, not the right time of the year..ehhh who cares. I also got two glitter polishes by Wet n' Wild in Kaledoscope and Sparked.

Most used polish in my collection China Glazes Black Diamond.

So, I bid you good night, since its late where I am and I'm half asleep as it is.. I leave you with pictures of today's mess on my vanity... and my nasty retainer case, sorry.

Quick Pic's

Yes, those are chistmas inspired nails, were strting early in our house. The tree is already up.

Just looking at this makes me groan, it was soooo good, but I ate way too much.



Tryin' something NEW....say WHAT??!

My first post...not so long ago 'cause I suck at blogging, was about cuticles. After much review and looking into thing, since my nails look like crap, they broke, they peeled and just are plain kucky after removing acrylic nails.
Sadly in all this I stopped painting them to try to bring them back to life, and they did...a tiny bit. But they weren't growing fast enough. So I cheated a little, and may or may not have glued on some fakies....if you ask I might lie and say that they are real.
On to the topic, I am trying Sally Hansen's cuticle removing gel. I used it maybe once a week, or once every few. I usually push my cuticles back, but pushing them back was getting to be kinda gross. I could feel them if I rubbed oil on them, and that is just nasty.


Pic found on google images



Pic found on Google images



So far, I love. It doesn't burn or sting...unless you have a hang nail....that's just a bad time period. i just apply a thin layer, leave for three minutes and scrape it off with a stainless steel cuticle pusher (bought at Sally's for this reason), and wipe the goop off onto a cotton pad to dispose of when I'm all done

I have to help my sisters friend with her I-Pod, but as soon as I'm back I'll post a pick of my nails, since I did them...and possibly what we cooked for dinner, it was de-lish.  

So, So very sad

I'm a little on the sad side as of late about my nails. After the last post my nails took a hit. The glue from the fake one for the Frankin Nails, as I like to call them, ruined my nails on top of having removed acrylic ones a few weeks before. then at work I dropped a heavy wire shelf on my finger and bruised the nail, and cuticle area of my 'byrdie' finger on my right hand.
AND...with work, they have all broke, so the summer spent growing them out didn't last nearly as long as I would have liked, but that's okay, time to redo it all....well, not the parts that ruined my nails.
I'm going to post a haul and review on the things I have bought since starting this blog, as well as talking about what I like and don't like. I'm very picky about what I use... I'm stuck with these hands for life, have to make the most out of what I have.

So with love I say good night.
....look for up coming posts

Halloween Nails!

I love October for so, so many reasons. The scary movies are one, I'm a twist who likes to be freaked out. Then there is the haunted houses, candy, and dressing up.
But of course this is a blog about nails.. so lets start this. I have done Candy Corn nails inspired and very much like I Have a Cupcake, which can be found here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCnXlyq131c.
my latest, after removing acrylics and having a little over two weeks of plain boring, and ever so depressing to look at nails, I sucked it up and bought Kiss fake nails, so I could paint them and wear them for Halloween.

My laptop is the background, but I smile when I see those!

Tip Time!

I know when I use dark polish it stains my nails and cuticles. So i thought i would share two DIY tips to get rid of the stain from the polish.
First one: After removing polish soak nails in a solution made of 1/2 cup of lemon juice and 1/2 cup of olive oil. The lemon lightens the nails and olive oil moisturizes.
Second one: Keep a travel size tube of whitening toothpaste with your nail polish, dab it on the beds of your nails. The whitening works the same way on you nails as it does on your teeth.

Nails

After spending the time to pull out my acrylic stuff, I put a layer on top of my natural nail because they kept breaking. I took the time to paint them tonight, and this is what the end result is.

The base is a white, pure white- it doesn't have a sticker and its old...then I took Black Onyx by OPI and painted the right corners, and took OPI's ElePhantastic Pink and a nail brush and made swirls, then on the ring finger I put light pink jewels and one on the top left corner of each nail. And of course sealed it with a top coat.

Cuticles...Yours or Mine?

I have pushed them back, cut them off and ignored them all together. And for a while, they grossed me out, I don't know why but the idea of them, EWW!
I got into taking care of them when I got into taking care of them I started to use Lemony Flutter by LUSH. that makes me all warm inside, I have abnormally soft skin, I don't have to use lotion, but I do, and most things that people use on dry skin does the opposite on me.(I had a mani peel, the wax stuff that is supposed to make my skin soft, made it dry and it cracked.) I love this stuff, its universal you can use it on more than just cuticles, i use it on my elbows too. Keeping the area moisturised is important.

To cut or not to Cut...?
I heard that cutting them off is bad, here's my take. If you have never pushed them back or taken care of them, or its been a while cut them off. There is a tool you can buy that looks like this.

Cut them off and moisturize.

Other wise push them back with a tool that looks like this one, most of us own it, my nails are long enough that I push them back with them.

Still moisturize after.

Oils can be bought anywhere, there are high end places that sell them like Sephora, or Ulta and many others, or drug stores a.k.a your supermarkets.

you can get Sally Hansen brand cuticle cream, oils, or treatments. there are brands like O.P.I that has one at Sephora my sister uses that one along with Lemony Flutter.

I like Lemony flutter, that is my go to, and then an oil by Seacret...something about having good things from the dead sea.

I leave you with a picture of my HG.