Migi Nails Take #1

Sorry for the lack of details. These are old designs that I never got around to posting and so I don't remember much about how many coats, drying time, application, etc. Enjoy the pictures! (P.S. the design is based on one of the designs on the back of the Migi Nail Kit box)

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

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)

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!

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.

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.

Winter Wonderland

Winter Wonderland, so accurately named by my sister.

Butterflies and flowers and snowflakes, because I had a magically butterfly-filled chick-flicky week leading up to Christmas this year. I'd love to dish the details, but a nail blog probably isn't the place for it... haha!

I used my new Avon Mirror Shine in "Glisten." It took two coats to get it like this, and boy are they shiny. Did you know it's difficult to photograph something super shiny with white stickers on it? Good thing I took advantage of our visit to Aveda and their salon with a billion lights. I was redeeming a birthday gift postcard for a free perfume essence in a scent of my choice. And if you must know, I got the oil in Fire Nature #20. :)

What I used:

• Base Coat and Top coat as usual, lots of top coat though
• Color: Avon Mirror Shine Nail Enamel in "Glisten" -- 2 coats.
• Stickers: Random leftover stickers from some sticker sheets in my box. Don't have the labels for them anymore.

Happy New Year!

Christmas Nails!

Yaaaay Christmas Nails! I love Christmas. I love the corny songs, getting the same presents every year, even the Christmas junk that I used to hate when I was little and now would love as a Christmas present.
 
These are my favorite nails yet! They look like wrapping paper. Sooooo cutie. I hope they last a LONG time because I'm not gonna wanna get rid of them anytime soon. The idea is thanks to a youtube tutorial and a suggestion from my sister to put snowflakes on red instead of blue. The snowflakes and larger white dots (snowballs) are stickers, the little white flecks are painted on with white nail polish.

Note to self: I need green nail polish. I don't have any green!

What I Used:

• Base Coat: Avon Nail Experts Smooth Beginnings: Base Coat --1 coat? I can't remember if I did a second.
  
• Red: Wet n Wild Rock Solid Nail Lacquer:  #227 "Rockin in Rubies" -- 2 coats plus touch-ups
  
• White specks: OPI Nail Lacquer: "Alpine Snow" -- applied with a #306 Winning Nails by WorldWide Nail Art brush
  
• Stickers: Professional Nail Sticker, Sinyemei Nagel-Kunst from eBay.
  
• 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?

My left hand is INCREDIBLE shaky right when it matters, when the brush has white polish on it and it's about to touch my right hand fingernail. I'm steady up until 1 cm away and then BAM shaky shaky shaky. It's kind of nerve-wracking, actually.

My latest purchases: Avon Top Coat, Drip Dry by OPI

Avon Nail Experts: UV Gloss Guard Top Coat

I really love this stuff. It's a lot thinner than my previous topcoat by Nailene and it never leaves little bubbles on my nails. That, and I love how it makes my nails look like they don't have a top coat on. I prefer that to having a clear layer floating on top of the colored nail polish.

I bought it from Avon through Amazon: Here's the link if you're curious. $3.99 + 5.99 shipping, but I pretty much got it for free since I opened up an Amazon Credit Card and will be getting a $30 credit back on my bill. Yay freebies!

Drip Dry by OPI: Lacquer Drying Drops

Previously I've used Sephora by OPI Nail Colour Drying Drops but that was $14 (plus shipping if I didn't have access to a store... which I don't, during the school year). Instead I found the next best thing on eBay, from the seller jenbyk for $6.99 + $1.95 shipping, which ended up being super fast.

So far, no complaints. It works the same as the non-sephora affiliated drying drops, and I'm guessing it's the same product but with a different label. I like it.

Glittery Blue tips and flowers

My sister said these are her favorites of all the nails I've done before. She said that she always wishes I would buy the ones in the store but that I always end up going for the ghetto ones instead. *shrug* ... 's true.

This week's glitter and blue tips are inspired by a set of fake nails that I keep seeing in stores. Of course, I love looking at the nail section in Target and Walmart and now that I've copied an idea that I've seen before, I can't find a picture of them online. But yea, I did copy the idea from somewhere.

  

What I used:

• Remover: Equate Regular Nail Polish Remover to remove last week's nails -- four cotton pads did the trick (soaked and used all four sides).
• Base: Avon Nail Experts Smooth Beginnings -- 2 coats
• Glitter: Sally Hansen Hard Nails Xtreme Wear Nail Cor in 4860-09 Disco Ball -- 1 coat over half the nail and some touch-up dabs after the first coat dried
• Blue Tips: Nicole by OPI in "It's Up To You" -- 2 coats, then some more glitter on top of the tips again
• Stickers: Combination of the flowers found in
• Cina 3D Nail Decals Item #CI-18013 and
• Kiss Nail Accents #NS13
• Top Coat: Nailene Acrylic Strong Topcoat -- 2 coats
• Drying Aid: Sephora by OPI Nail Colour Drying Drops -- 2 drops per nail
  

OTHER NEWS!

Coming up in October!!

I'm really excited because I just won an auction on eBay for 5 sheets of Christmas nail stickers. Now I'm on the prowl for a good deal on halloween stickers. I love halloween and plan on doing Halloween Themes for the entire month, so be on the lookout for that. :)

Also -- I found this awesome site that's an online nail community / message board system. CoolNailsArt.com Lots of nails and lots more nails. Most of them are way longer than I can handle, but I love all the designs. I've never gotten my nails doen professionally so it's pretty exciting for me to see what people are capable of doing with nail polish...