Orly Limelite Experiment

I really should sell konad. I must have introduced about 5 cashier ladies to the concept of nail stamping just by having my nails done. Today's nails were complimented by the nice post office lady who always has nice makeup on. I remember mailing something to my sister in a Sephora box (it wasn't makeup, I was just re-using the packaging) and she said something along the lines of "Oooo I love Sephora!!" I've told her before that her makeup is cute. She makes my sister and me want work at the post office because she's always so cute and friendly.

Yesterday I went to mail something and she goes "Ooo I like your nails. Where did you get them done?" and I told her I did them myself. Then I told her it's a stamp, and you just paint the background color and they you roll the stamp on top. She was so interested, so I told her the name "konad" (along with the spelling, because everyone who asks me about it has never heard of it) and that she should look it up. She goes "I'm excited! I'm going to look it up tonight." 

So I've converted another one. :) Like I said, I really should sell konad, that way I can just hand over a business card and have them buy from me. It's so tempting to tell them my blog address but I don't wanna seem all full of myself like "Oh, you like my nails, look at ALLLLLL my nails on my blog!?!?" or something like that. My plan is that I"ll ask her about it next time. 

What I used:

• Base coat: Avon smooth beginnings (whoops, forgot to put it in the picture!)
• Base color: Savvy Nail Lacquer in "French Sheer White" -- 2 coats
• Blue: Orly "Limelite" -- 3 coats (yes, three!)
• Stamp:
• Konad black polish + konad plate m64
• Top Coat: Seche Vite top coat

What I learned:

I really had to layer that Orly on to get it to show up. I actually experimented with putting it straight onto my nail but since it's so clear I went with the white base, which helped. Oh, and I followed the advice of Polish Hoarder Disorder who kindly answered an email I sent her about keeping the polish so clean and tidy. Slower painting and detail touch-ups... worked like a charm. :) That and I also tried painting further away from my cuticles than I normally do. 

Evil Ruby Slippers plus no video tutorial

I originally had grand plans to upload this one with a video tutorial on my youtube channel and everything... but my computer can't really handle it. I recorded the video clips with my new digital camera that takes really good resolution video and apparently when I open all the clips in Windows Live Movie Maker I get glitches and all these little icons pop up on my status bar next to my desktop clock. So... nevermind.

I call them Evil Ruby Slippers because they're red and sparkley but in a villainous sort of way. ;)

What I used:

• Basecoat: Avon smooth beginnings base coat
• Base: OPI "My Private Jet" -- 1 coat
• Top: Forever 21 in "brick"
• Stamp:
• Konad black polish
• Konad nail plate m64
• Top Coat:
• Seche Vite -- 1 coat because it doesn't blur my Konad polish
• Avon UV Gloos guard top coat: as an extra top coat just cause I wanna!

Mermaid nails

The idea with this one was supposed to be a mermaid-under-the-sea-with-pearls deal. It didn't quite turn out as great as I had hoped but it's still cute. I like the different kinds of blues and greens I made up, and they each have their own unique shimmer too.

Sorry for the messier-than-usual. I ran out of q-tips and cotton pads so I had to do the best clean-up I could with just soap and water. :(

What I used: Unfortunately there was a lot of experimenting with layers so I don't know how many coats of each color I have on each finger. The listed colors are in order of application on each nail.

• Base coat: Avon Smooth Beginnings Base Coat
• Top coat: Seche Vite 
• Pinky: Sally Girl 812047 + Nicole by OPI "It's Up to You" + Konad white w/ plate m27
• Ring finger: Avon mirror shine "Glisten" + ORLY "Green with envy" + Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear "09 Disco Ball" + Konad white w/ plate m60
• Middle finger: Zoya "Pippa" + Sally girl "Luv it" + Konad white w/ plate m79
• Index finger: Sally girl 812047 + ORLY "Green with envy" + Sally girl "Luv it" + Konad white w/ plate m79
• Thumb: Zoya "Pippa" + Sally girl "Luv it" + ORLY "Limelite" + Konad white w/ plate m79

Nail polish seizure

Waiting for my nails to dry. I hate it when I have great plans for my nails and they don't come out as spectacular as I wanted them to. Ah well.

Anyway, I'm waiting for my nails to dry after spending about an hour of layering different colors, experimenting with combinations and stamping stamping stamping. Then I sign in to read Polish or Perish's latest blog and almost have a heart attack thinking about how wonderful it would be to haul like that! I am really glad that I'm having fun really diving into this nail blogging online community. It's so fascinating.

Then I go and pull a crazy and look up "nail polish lot" on eBay and have what I can only call some kind of seizure. It makes me kinda crazy to know how much nail polish is out there. Fortunately I've already officially begun my "save, don't spend" shopping diet so I'm not in any danger of binging. I may be having a lot of fun in the coming weeks layering colors on top of each other to mimic some of the new colors I would have bought if I were allowing myself to spend the money on more polish. :)

New blog entry should be coming in tomorrow, assuming I don't mess these nails up when I'm sleeping tonight.

Here's a preview of tonight's experimental laboratory: (the markers belong to my brother... I'm using his coloring station at our table)

Half-moon manicure

I've hopped on the bandwagon! This week I decided to try to calm myself and continue with the simple designs. What better way to do it than by following the current trend of half-moon manicures!

What I used:

• Base coat: Avon Nail Experts Smooth Beginnings Base Coat
• Gold half-moons: Savvy Nail Lacquer in Golden Honey -- 1 coat
• Blue color: OPI Nail Lacquer in Ski Teal We Drop -- 2 coats, applied over some circular reinforcement label stickers  used as guides
• Top Coat: Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat

What I've learned:

• I had no idea what I was doing. First off, you don't paint the moons on afterward. You paint the bottom color over your entire nail, then put the next color on top so that a moon-shaped hole shows the color beneath. This is actually my second try at the same colors in a half-moon manicure because the night before I had done the blue first, then painted on the half-moons by hand. Didn't look so great, even when I slept on it gave myself time to get used to it. 
• Reinforcement labels are key. I suck at drawing the half moon shapes, and the reinforcement label technique worked wonders. The only bad thing is that if you have sensitive, dry fingers like I did the day I painted these, removing the stickers may hurt your skin a little bit. They're permanent stickers so when they stay on, they stay on. (They're not super sticky like duct tape or anything but they still hurt, so I'm throwing that warning at you)
• I still love that color. I love this blue color. Seriously. I want all my clothes to be that color. (not really but you get what I mean)

Haul it in! I love free stuff - Third Haul of 2011

I successfully reached a $25 Amazon.com gift card reward through my Amazon Visa and decided to use it up on some nail stuff I've been wanting for a while now.

I got these from the Amazon seller named "KJ Beauty Store." I have nothing but nice thoughts about them due to this order. Everything went very smoothly. Technically each item that I bought from them had a shipping fee of $2.99 to $3.99 but when I paid for it all together my shipping was only $5.99 total, so that's awesome. Highly recommend KJ Beauty Store on Amazon.com for your Konad needs. 

From left: Konad Black Nail polish and Yellow Nail polish, Konad OneTouch Remover bottle, and Double-sided Konad Stamp set

1. Polishes: I have been wanting to print a vivid black print onto my nails ever since I started working with Konad but none of my black nail polishes ever quite did the trick. Konad's expensive though, so I couldn't just go and use $8 to buy a simple black nail polish. Good thing I got these for free! The yellow one was one that I bought on the fly, because I knew I wanted another color but wasn't really sure which one. I can see myself doing some yellow stamping on a dark base color. That'd be cool. Bumble bee nails, anyone? I'm excited.
2. Bottle: I was really happy to find that Konad makes these because for the past few weeks I've been wanting a bottle with a push top like this one. I considered getting one from Sephora. My sister is a regular reviewer on there so she reads reviews on a lot of products and she actually told me that their bottles are kinda iffy -- like I'd have to buy one and make sure it works and then keep exchanging it until I get a good one. Not really worth my trouble, plus $11 bucks for a plastic bottle? I even looked through Target and Walmart because I vaguely remember using a toner (that didn't work well on me- was it Almay?) that had that kind of dispenser on the bottle. I figured the drugstore product would coast me about $5ish and I could just dump out what's inside and keep the bottle. But no luck. Really glad I found this on eBay and then got it for free on Amazon. It works wonderfully and will surely come in handy.
3. Double Stamper set: I've been wanting this for a long time too! Mostly because I thought it would be smaller, actually. :| But it turns out that having a bigger stamp is pretty convenient for me because I have large hands for a girl, and this one is more comfortable to hold than the one that came with the set that my sister bought me. I think it will really come in handy to have two scrapers too, because I noticed that sometimes I get polish buildup while I'm doing my nails and I have to stop and clean it off -- which kinda puts me at risk for getting cotton lint on my newly painted nails. Or maybe I'm just making up excuses for using my gift card on something like this. Either way... I'm happy I have it. :)

Till next time. Comin' up: Half-moon manicure /slash/ reverse-French manicure!

Haulin' out! - Sally Beauty Supply

Another haul because I'm so spendy lately. This one's thanks to my Sally Beauty Supply membership. I got a coupon in the mail that said if I spent $25 or more I'd get a free travel flat iron. Technically I already have a flat iron and don't even know how to use THAT one, but my sister had been wanting to try for some time so I used her as an excuse to BUY STUFF. That "buy stuff" should really be in bigger caps and larger font. Anyway, I went around Sally's with my basket and threw this stuff in. This is just the nail stuff I bought (to get to $25 I had to buy some other stuff but since it's not nail-related I thought I'd leave it out of the haul.)

Picker upper for rhinestones, Sally Girl Nail color "812031" and Nail Art clay decals #380275 Blue Denim

1. PICKerr UPerr: You might recall from my attempts at rhine-stoning that they're hard to maneuver when you're using bitty little tweezers to pick 'em up. I may or may not have mentioned that. I really can't remember. Lemme go look. Nope, didn't mention the tweezer difficulty, but here's the post where I tried some rhinestones if you're interested. 
2. Sally Girl silver sprinkles: I call them sprinkles. :) I've been wanting some silver ones for a while now but never really felt the need to go into Sally's and charge .79 cents to my credit card. I love these sprinkles. I have the gold ones and the pink ones too. It's amazing how much they help "busy up" my nails when I'm really in the mood for sparklies.
3. Nail art clay decals: These are so frickin' cute. It probably didn't help that the package is "blue denim" themed so I automatically liked the color scheme. They're so frickin' cute. It includes flowers, butterflies, hearts and feather shapes. I'm really excited to use them. My sister -- the one who loves bunnies and anything "little," really -- could barely handle how cute they are. I let her have one as a gift. It's in her wallet. :D

I be haulin' - Beauty Outlet

I am apparently not over my "it's Christmas time to spend money" bug... so that combined with my laziness equals multiple blog entries that make me look like I went on a spending spree of nail supplies. Hoorah.

I kinda went crazy at my local Beauty Outlet because their nail polish inventory has increased immensely since the last time I was there. Another thing that got me to buy stuff was that they now have a roll of scotch tape hanging by the polishes and you can use that to test out the colors. No more blind purchases. Yay!

From Left: OPI Nail Lacquer "My Private Jet"; Seche Vitte Dry Fast Top Coat; Orly "Limelite"; OPI Nail Lacquer "Ski Teal we drop"

1. OPI "My Private Jet" : Haven't used it yet but I got it because it basically dries with a really "dense" and "mineral-y" look, like a granite countertop. So cool.

2. Seche Vitte: I joined the ranks and bought a bottle of this so-called "Best top coat" from all the nail blogs I read. And I love it. It's thick but doesn't smudge my Konad nail polish and only needs one coat, versus the 2 coats I needed with my Avon top coat. Looks like I'll be changing that blog entry that says what my top and base coats always are. Oh ya and I just realized I actually bought this on eBay, not at Beauty Outlet. Yay eBay bucks that get me a free top coat that's way better than my old one.

3. Orly "Limelite": Not much to say yet, since I haven't used it. But I had never seen a shimmery color like that before so I went ahead and bought it. 

4. OPI Ski Teal We Drop: I love this blue. My sister commented last night that it looks like algae green, which is true in indoor colors. Then in daytime it's blue again. Nail polishes with color-changing-trickery are always awesome. I used this color already on my recent half-moon nails. So lovely. 

And one last thought ... am I the only one who imagines cheezburger cats saying "o rly" when I see the brand "ORLY?"

"Simple" nails

I've gotten so many compliments on these nails this week. It's funny, because these are the simplest nails I've done in a LONG time and people seem to like them so much.

I didn't really feel like putting a lot of effort into this week's nails so I went with my favorite color combo, black and white.

What I used:

• Base Coat: Avon Nail Experts: Smooth Beginnings Base Coat -- 1 coat
• Black: Nicole by OPI in Razzle Dazzler - 2 coats
• White design: Konad white nail polish with plate m60
• Top Coat: Seche Vitte -- 1 coat

By the way, Seche Vitte is an awesome top coat. So glad I used my eBay bucks to get it. :)