New Year Nails 2011

These are the nails I'm wearing to bring in the new year. :)

What I used:

• Top and Base Coats: the usual Avon stuff
• Pink color: Sephora by OPI in "Lost without my GPS" -- 2 coats
• Stamp: Konad stamp plate m79 with Konad blue nail polish
• Glitter: Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear Nail Color in "09 Disco Ball" 

My goal for the next year is to take more time for my nail blog. I want to update as soon as I do my nails instead of just taking a picture and waiting until one or two weeks later to upload. I already cleaned up my blog by changing the design and fixing all my labels.  This year I made 26 blog entries compared to 2009's 20 entries, so here's hoping for a better 2011 year of nail designs. Yay!

More Christmas Nails 2010

Apparently this week I forgot how to use a camera and all my pictures came out blurry. Sorry about that! Hopefully you get the idea, though. 

What I used:

• Top and base coats: the usual Avon stuff
• Green undercoat: ORLY "Green with Envy" #40638 -- 1 coat
• Sparkley Green: China Glaze "Watermelon Rind" #80226 -- 1 coat
• Gold stamp: Savvy Nail Lacquer in "Golden Honey"  #627088 with Konad stamp m60
• Stickers: Random snowflake stickers from my box. (Sorry, I don't know what brand they were)
• White snowballs: OPI Nail Lacquer in "Alpine Snow" applied with the end of a paintbrush
• Gold Confetti: Sally Girl #812070

December 2010 Haul

It's been a while since I bought these but I thought I'd share anyway.

1. Sally Hansen Insta-dry #250 "Lightening" from Walmart
2. Sally Hansen Insta-dry #16 "Blush Rush" from Walmart
3. Konad stamp plate m60 and m79 from the seller "trendservices" on eBay

On the polishes: Whoever said those nail polishes are insta-dry was wrong. They take forever to dry! Luckily I really enjoy doing my nails so it didn't make a difference that I had to wait for them to finish. :)

On the plates: I noticed when I've playing around with konad stamping that I needed more full-nail stamps, so I found these online and ordered them. They've been great! 

Gold winter nails

I went to a wedding reception (for the same girl whose henna night I went to before) and did some gold nails for the occasion. Not much to say about these, just gold, stamp, tips, flower stamp.

What I used:

• The usual base and top coat
• Gold: Savvy Nail Lacquer in Golden Honey 627088
• Dots: Konad stamp plate m79 with Sally Girl "Poser 812051" (note to self-- I need a thicker black nail polish for my konad stamping)
• Tips: Nicole by OPI in "Razzle Dazzler" -- I used this instead of the Sally Girl black because I like the brush better for painting on tips.
• Sprinkles: Sally Girl 812070 (I love this stuff. I need to get some in silver)
• Flowers: Konad plate m4 with Konad white nail polish

Birthday Nails

Last Saturday, December 4, was my 27th birthday! Yaaaaay! Here are my birthday nails. This is my first time doing rhinestones.

The rhinestones were actually fun. I've always thought that anything 3D that I put on my nails would really get in the way, and it wasn't ENTIRELY true. I did have a few times when I wanted to scratch my ear and had to force myself not to for fear that I might drop a rhinestone in, but the final verdict is that I like 'em. I wouldn't do it all the time but I like it.

What I used:

• Top and base coat: the usual!
• Blue: Nicole by OPI in "It's up to you" -- 2 coats
• Stamp:
• Konad stamp m64
• Konad white nail polish
• Rhinestones:
• The ones that came in my Konad set that my sister bought me. :) I love you stupid.

Coming up:

Christmas nails and Mini hauls. I bought two new colors from Target that I'll show off, plus I have two more Konad plates coming in the mail. I got some birthday money from my dad and decided to spend it on lots of little things instead of one big thing, so now I'm one happy 27-year-old with DVDs and a cute apron and nail stuff and DVDs on the way. Come in UPS, step on it!

Pink henna night

Last Saturday, on November 27th I went to a henna night for my friend who's having her wedding reception on December 11th. Her husband's family (she and her husband were officially married last year when I was out of state for school) is Afghani the henna night is a traditional celebration with lots of dancing and money and gifts and photographs. It was pretty amazing and I had never seen anything like that before.

The theme was "pink" so I wore a pink dress and did my nails for the occasion. Enjoy!

What I used:

• Top and base coat: the usual (click here)
• Pink: Sally Hansen Insta-Dry Fast Cry Nail Color in #16 Blush Rush -- 2 coats
• Flowers: 
• Sephora by OPI Nail colour in "What a Broad" 
• Konad plate m64
• Glitter: Sally Girl #812005

For the record: Top and Base Coats

2011 is around the corner and that means I'm going on my third year of keeping this blog updated. And that means... I'm tired of typing out the same top coat/base coat spiel every time I post a nail blog. So here it is once and for all so that I can just post a link to it from now on:

My top and base coat

Avon Nail Experts:

Smooth Beginnings Base Coat and UV Gloss Guard Top Coat

I like these because they're thin enough to really seem like base and top coats without being too heavy. And I love that there's a difference between them -- I hate it when I'm looking at drugstore brands and they claim that the product is both a base and top coat. They're completely different products, man! One is to help keep polish on and the other is to protect and keep things OFF, so I really don't get how you can use the same product for both.

The base coat has a gritty feeling to it when it dries, and the top coat is smooth and flows nicely. I really like them, and I never have a problem with bubbling. I usually do only 1 coat of the base and 1-2 coats of the top coat (hence the difference in levels on my bottles that were bought at the same time...)

So there it is, if you're ever curious.

Sparkley Gold Christmas Spirit

I love doing my nails because I basically get to have Christmas wrapping paper on my nails every day. :) This week I went with a gold theme to kind of keep myself grounded at LEAST until after Thanksgiving. Then I'll go crazy. I admit that it's not quite Christmas season yet.

On a side note: I'm not quite used to the "wide angle" of my new camera... check out my thumb. I'll have to get used to not zooming in so much like I did with my other camera.

What I used: (the usual top and base coats)

• Base: Savvy Nail Lacquer in "Golden Honey 627088" -- 2 coats
• Stripes: Konad plate m64 with Konad white nail polish
• Flower: Konad plate m4 with Konad red nail polish
• Sparkles: Sally Girl 812070

Disneyland!

In celebration of my graduation this year, my sister's graduation last year and my dad's re-election as mayor, I bought my family a 3-night vacation in Disneyland in Anaheim. We were there from the 15th until the 18th, and it was spectacular. Nice weather, barely any lines, not too crowded. We had a blast.

In my excitement, I did some Mickey nails for the trip. These came out less-than-ideal but I was exhausted by the time I had reached this point and just decided to call it quits. My original design was red nails with blue tips with stars/moons like the Sorcerer's Apprentice Mickey, but by the time I finished both hands I just wasn't happy with it. So, I started over and ended up with this.

Strangely, my left hand did a better job of painting than my right hand did... it was weird.

This picture was taken at the park in Tomorrowland. It was cold and my hands were dry. :P

What I used:

• Top and Base coat: The usual!
• Red base: Wet n Wild in "Red Red": 1-2 coats
• Tips: Nicole by O.P.I. in "Razzle Dazzler" -- 2 coats
• Mickeys: Konad white polish, and same red base polish, applied with the handle end of a paint brush I found on my desk
• Sparkles: Just a little bit of Sally Girl #812070 on the sides. 

Black tips, white hearts

Can I just say that I loved these nails? They were so frickin cute.

What I used:

• Top and Base Coats: The usual!
• Tips: Nicole by O.P.I. in "Razzle Dazzler" -- 2 coats by hand. 
• Hearts: Konad plate m56 with Konad white nail polish

Soooo cutie. I'm surprised at how good they came out... I'm getting better at painting on tips and my aim's improved as far as stamping goes. 

Dark Fall Nails

I attempted to do something "fall" inspired but it ended up pretty dark for my taste. They're nice, but they seem to be someone else's style more than my style. I'll probably re-do them before the week is over.


What I used:

• Avon Smooth Beginnings Base Coat -- 1 coat
• Base: Sally Girl "Gotta Have It" -- 1 coat
• Glittery color: Sephora by OPI " in 212-SEPHORA SE 016 -- 1 coat
• Black Tip background: Nicole by OPI in "Razzle Dazzler" -- 1 coat
• Tip Stamp: Leaf Design on Konad Stamp Plate #m56 in Savvy Nail Lacquer "Golden Honey" 
• Bow Stamp from Konad plate #m56 in Petites "French White"
• Top Coat: Top Coat: Avon Nail Experts UV Gloss Guard Top Coat -- 1-2 coats 

I don't like that my Avon topcoat streaks the paint underneath. I may have to look out for a new brand. 

Halloween Frankenstein 2010

I had fun with these last night. :)

Happy and angry Frankensteins. Well, Dr. Frankenstein's monster, but you get it.

What I used:

• Avon Smooth Beginnings Base Coat -- 1 coat
• Main colors:
• Orly Nail Lacquer in "Green with Envy" -- 3 coats 
• Sephora by O.P.I. Nail Colour in "What a Broad" -- 2 coats
• Stripes: 
• Orly Nail Lacquer in "Green with Envy"-- 1 coat
• Covered with glitter before applying tips
• Glitter: Sally Girl in "So Disco"
• Faces:
• Nicole by OPI in "Razzle Dazzler"
• Ear plugs: Nicole by OPI in "It's up to you" with Petites "French White" applied on top
• Tips: Nicole by OPI in "Razzle Dazzler" -- 2 coats

Halloween 2010 + Mini Haul

I did my nails at the beginning of October and never got around to posting it! Whoops! These pictures were taken when my nails were already starting to get worn out (and on a cold day... so my hands were dry!) Nothing special, just black, orange and quite polish along with some stickers floating around my box.

Mini Haul at Sally's

I wanted to do some green and purple halloween nails last week but realized I don't have the right kind of green that I had imagined. So... off to Sally Beauty Supply with my sister. 

Picked up this "Green with Envy" color by Orly (love the rubber grippy handle!), a little sparkley nail polish, and some nail files. The big grey one is a replacement for the other one I've been using. I'm not actually sure how often you need to replace nail files but my other one is "gross" so I figured that's as good a reason as any to buy another $1.50 file. The skinny one should come in handy for filing the little edge that always shows up underneath my fingernail after I'm done shaping. 

That's all for now! Time to wrap lumpia then do my new halloween nails. I bought some glow-in-the dark nail polish too, so that ought to be fun.

Lagomuffin cameo + Purple swirlies + Avon order

My sister, who writes awesome blogs as lagomuffin here on blogger, is making  a cameo this week. :) She's a fan of plain, simple nails and has awesomely long fingernails that would probably look ghetto if she grew them out and filed them like I do. She's got my mom's hands. She likes doing single colors, MAYBE a top coat, sometimes both a top and base coat if she happens to be using my stuff. (By the way, most of my color choices are too loud for her taste... har har). I am still working on getting her to at least stamp ONE nail one of these days.

And Tissa the pookie is making a cameo in the cameo. Yes, she's laying on pretty, cutesy tissue paper.

My sister, lagomuffin, and Tissa the pookie.

Here are some nails from a couple weeks ago. I love this purple.

What I used:

• The usual basecoat and topcoat
• Base purple: Sephora by OPI --"What a Broad"
• Stamped swirlies: 
• Konad m64 stamp plate; color: 
• Finger Paints Nail Color --"It's an Original" 
• Ring finger accent: 
• Konad m53 stamp plate;
• Savvy Nail Lacquer --"Golden Honey #627088"

I really liked how the two purples looked with each other so I only stamped a gold accent on the ring finger.

And congratulations, I finally finished my first bottles of nail polish! I had to make another order of Avon Top coat and Base Coat because the ones I'm using are pretty goopy now. That, and they're really low and the polish only fills the bottle to the very tip of the brush. So, yay Avon! I have good timing, apparently, because both $6.00 bottles were on sale for $3.99. That basically equaled out to "free" shipping by the time I checked out, which is awesome considering I SO would have paid $6.00 for each bottle if I had the option of buying them in a store. Excellent.

No nail updates until I get those bottles in the mail, though. Till next time, folks.

Lacey Bees and Strawberries

My sister and I were walking through San Francisco on the weekend of her marathon and found this little Japanese cosmetic place that sold makeup, hair stuff, and cutie nail stuff. I bought a sheet of strawberry/flowery/bees stickers. It was pricier than usual but worth the cuteness overload.

What I used:

• Base Coat: Avon Nail Experts Smooth Beginnings Base Coat -- 1 coat
• Nail Stamp: Konad m64 with Konad white nail polish
• Stickers: PA Nail collective Nail Sticker by Dear Laura, 0120-66-9243
• Top Coat: Avon Nail Experts UV Gloss Guard Top Coat -- 3-4 coats to keep the stickers on.

 What I learned:

• Avon top coat smears the Konad stamps if I do more than one swipe across my nail.
• I'm totally gonna do my nails like this on my wedding day. Especially since my sister goes "SHE'S GETTING MAAAARRIED" when I showed them to her. 

July 4th and Root beer - Quick Update

I haven't been keeping my blog updated lately but I have been doing my nails, so here's a quicky update.

July 4th Nails

Tissa's cameo! Sephora by OPI 212-SEPHORA, SE 016

Space filler

Not really a space filler, but yea, a space filler. I've been busy graduating and moving out and stuff (which is a big deal in my life, but that's a story for another blog) so I haven't gotten to do my nails lately. Two weeks ago I did have white nails, though. So here they are. And Lucky, our 19 year old cat, chillin'.

Rockin' the plaid this week

Okay I admit it, I'm addicted to Konad now, and I can't help but want to use at least three stamps on each fingernail. I almost always have to start over because I've overdone it and can only pull off two stamps per nail for now. But man this stuff is fun! Love it.

What I used:

• Base Coat: Avon Nail Experts Smooth Beginnings Base Coat -- 1 coat
• Color: Sephora by O.P.I. "What a Broad" -- 1 coat
• Plaid Pattern: 
•  Savvy Nail Lacquer in "Golden Honey"
• Konad Nail Plate #M64
• Flower Pattern:
• Konad Special Nail Polish (White bottle that came with my Konad set)
• Konad Nail Plates #M4, #M53
• Sprinkles: Sally Girl Nail Color #812070
  
• Top Coat: Avon Nail Experts UV Gloss Guard Top Coat -- 1 coat. 

Lacy flowers - first attempt at KONAD

Not really my TRUE first attempt, actually. My first true attempt crashed and burned because I have horrible aim and slow reflexes. Discouraged me for a few days and then I did THIS and feel better!

What I used:

• Base Coat: Avon Nail Experts Smooth Beginnings Base Coat -- 1 coat
• Tips: Konad plate M56 with Konad white nail polish
• Flowers: Konad plate M53 and M4 (pinky fingernails) with Finger Paints "It's an Original"
• Sprinkles: Sally Girl #812005
• Top Coat: Avon Nail Experts UV Gloss Guard: Top Coat -- 2 coats
• Drying Agent: Drip Dry by OPI -- 2 drops on each nail 

What I learned:

• You don't have to put that much nail polish on the plate before scraping it off.
• Dark nail polish (like the purple I used) comes out quite light, and light nail polish comes out useless.
• I still have bad aim. 
• I can't clean off the plate, scraper or stamp until right before the next time I use them, or else I'll mess up the nice nails I just finished!

 Fun stuff!!

Next week: Something black and purple dedicated to Hit Girl from Kick Ass and the psycho kitten named after her.

An off-topic update about ME!

MEEE!!

There have been some changes in my life that call for a new bio to the side, so for good ol' time sentimentality sake, I'm leaving a note for myself to see how my bio looked when I first started this blog in September 2009.

I finished architecture school and passed all my classes and am real-world bound (not "Real World' but "real world" like the kind where you have to brush up your resume and reload your bank accounts regularly, not the kind where people form alliances and climb obstacle course rock climbing walls with a bucket of waterballoons hanging from their feet). But ideally the nail blog will live on and whoever I work for will accept my nails for how they're gonna look each week.

The other major change is that Kricket, my hamster after whom this blog is named, passed away on  April 14, 2010. She was an old lady, older than two years old and quite the character. I will miss her very much.

I stated before that I love all my animals, and our animal family has really grown in the last ... week? Guinea pigs and six betta fish, welcome to the family!

That said, here's the old bio. And on with the new! (whenever I get around to updating it... hah.)

KONAD is WIN

My awesome sister bought me a KONAD set on her birthday trip to Vegaaaaaas!!! Yaaay! My sister is WIN.

Box set plus two extra discs. Hoorah!

Flowers and sprinkles

I finally had time to do some nails tonight. Yay!

LEFT HAND:

RIGHT HAND:

What I used:

• Base Coat: Avon Nail Experts Smooth Beginnings Base Coat -- 2 coats
•  "Sprinkles" (as my sister calls them): Sally Girl #812005
• Stickers: 
• Cina 3d nail decals in "blossoms" -- 133040
• Other cina flowers and butterflies -- unfortunately I don't have the name/numbers anymore.
• Top Coat: Avon Nail Experts UV Gloss Guard Top Coat -- 2 coats.

Valentines 2010

Happy Belated Valentines Day!

Things are getting busy for me around here, so I'm back to my quicky updates. Did this on Saturday night just in time to have something festive for Valentines Day. Nothing special -- red polish, gold glittery dots (clear nail polish w/ glitter).

Get to work, babies!

New nails

My sister calls them "Tim Burton style."

They're kinda messy... I kept the sticker nails from my last blog post on for about 2 weeks (trust me, they were looking pretty ratty by the end) and apparently they dried out my fingers and nails. Had a bit of a time trying to make my nails act normal again. Note to self -- the week-long nail limit works, so don't mess with it!

I doubt these will last the whole week. The stickers are really thick so they get caught on stuff, and I've already had to trim them a little. Luckily, I won't be having an insanely busy week like I had last week anytime soon, so I'll update them if they don't stand the 7 day test.

Nail Patch Walk-through

I'm kind of in a pinch for time lately, with all my school work and such. So I thought I'd take the easy way out and do a repeat nail job, and what quicker repeat can there be than the nail patches from Sephora that I raved about, huh?

And as a treat: a little walk through, because I felt like it. :)

BEFORE:

My french tips from last week have seen better days.

Removed nail polish with Onyx Acetone and a cotton ball.

Plain nails are ready for shaping!

Decided to go without corners this week. I've been doing square tips for a few weeks now and my nails could use a break from getting caught on everything. This is a nail file from my sister , who bought it from Body Shop a little while back. I really like nail files. :)

I treat my cuticles with Sephora by OPI cuticle oil. I don't really know how to do my nails the professional way, and the last time I tried to push my cuticles back I ended up damaging them. You can still see a little dimple on my right thumbnail tip from way back then... it's on its way to being grown out and filed off.

Reviewing the (very easy to follow) directions on the nail patches, so I don't mess up.

Open up the air-tight package.

The package comes with two sheets of 8 nail patches. Chances are you'll find the right size somewhere in there.

Found my sizes! Tore them off and put away the extras so I don't get confused later.

Carefully remove the white plastic on top.

Peel off the nail patch.

Applying the nail patch to my thumb. They're adhesive, but strong enough so that if you mess up, you can reposition the sticker and it won't rip or tear.

Tucking in the excess nail patch. The extra stuff tears off nicely.

Next finger!

Make sure you rub it on really well.

No problem and super easy. :)

See! Easy!

Ta-DAH! All done. :)

Yay Nail Patches!