Nail Catch-up #1

Wow I have never fallen this far behind on posting nail photos! Sorry for the quick post. I got a lot of great new nailpolishes over the holiday season. I got some for my birthday, bought some for myself, and even got a whole new box for Christmas. But before I dig into them I really want to get caught up on all the photos I have saved on my computer and my phone. So here they are! Enjoy!

 

 

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.

Bad Matte.

These nails hold the record of having the shortest wear span. You know the China Glaze Matte Top Coat I mentioned in my last haul? Not so good, even on top of non-top-coat nail polish. Booooo. They were pretty for the whole 24 hours I had them on, but they also chipped intensely within those 24 hours. Unacceptable, so they had to go. I wasn't a big fan of the matte look anyway... the non-shine was kind of freaking me out. And this week I'm rockin' some plain frenchies as the replacement.

What I used

• Base coat as usual
• Red: Wet n Wild 414A-- 2 coats
• Stickers: ??? Leftovers from sticker sheets I have in my box.
• Top coat: China Glaze Matte Magic -- 2 coats. Thumbs down.

October Week 2 -- spider webs!

Shoutout to my cat ZETA who unintentionally makes her debut today!

Inspired by a tutorial I found on Youtube here:

 Halloween Nails Tutorial - by fumsmusings

I really liked the spiderweb design she made, so I added it to what I thought were already finished nails. I had ordered some halloween nail stickers off eBay, and, being upset that they hadn't arrived yet, my original plan was to do some plain orange with black tips. I dunno, some sort of spite fit because the stickers weren't here yet. Wouldn't have proven anything to anyone, wouldn't have done anything, really.

But anyway, I got done with the orange, then I put on some yellow to make it an "ooooo shimmery!" kind of look, and then my black tips came out okay. So... I felt like adding more.

Then I looked online for halloween nail tutorials, and t's amazing how many tutorials out there and it's even MORE amazing how IMPOSSIBLE it would be for my non-dominant hand to even TRY anything these tutorials suggest. Plus, a lot of them are tutorials on how to draw on a fake nail that's not attached to anything. And sure, anyone can do that. But when they're your own nails and they're attached to your hands already, you can't exactly follow a "Learn how to draw a Frankenstein" tutorial 10 times in a row.

Anyway, the youtube link again: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTGVp2YOYQ4 See for yourself!

I like my nails now. No more spiteful plain nails!

What I used:

• Base Coat: Avon Nail Experts Smooth Beginnings Base Coat -- 1 coat
• First color: OPI Nail Lacquer in "In My Back Pocket" -- 3 coats
• Shimmer: Sephora by OPI Nail Colour in "Cab Fare" -- 1 thin coat
• Tips: Sally Girl Nail Color in "Poser" -- 2 coats
• Spider webs: Petites in "French White 417" -
• Applied with Nail Brush: Winning Nails by Worldwide #306 Nail Art
• Top Coat: Nailene Acrylic Strong Topcoat -- 1 coat
• Drying Aid: Sephora by OPI Nail Colour Drying Drops

What I Noticed:
I'm pretty sure you can use any kind of thin brush to paint designs. No need to shell out the money for an official nail brush, since it just gets coated with nail polish anyway.

This was my first time freehand drawing on my own nails. I know 1) for SURE I am right-handed and 2) thin lines are hard to make with frickin' nail polish and 3) I feel like I oughta try this more often!

Pink hotness, yep!

But first an update on the nails that I posted in my last blog:

They held up surprisingly well! My family went to Reno for a 4 night vacation at Harrah's and I was so sure that they would end up chipping by the end of the week. At the base of the nails I could see the color lightening a little, which meant (or at least I thought...) that they would start peeling and chipping. I'm used to lighter color meaning that the nail polish is separating from my nail surface and only hanging on because it's connected to the rest of the polish that's still attached. But hey, it lasted well until I got home.

Removing the nails was interesting. The last time I used stickers I had applied them to fake nails, so it was simply a matter of peeling off the nails and putting something on something new. Since then I've graduated to using my natural nails. When you wipe your nails with nail polish remover, you take off the nail color and the design on the sticker but the plastic stays on your nail, leaving a sticker-outline of the color you had underneath it. Then you have peel off the sticker and remove the polish leftovers and THEN you're done. It doesn't seem like a big deal, but it's about two more steps than I'm used to dealing with, which is a bummer but not SO bad, I guess.

Okay the new set:

What I used:

• Base coat: Avon Nail Experts Smooth Beginnings -- 1 coat
• Color: Sephora by OPI Nail Colour in "Lost Without My GPS"-- 2 coats
• Tips: Sally Girl Nail Color in "Poser" -- 1 coat
• Accent Color: Savvy Nail Lacquer in "Golden Honey" -- 1 coat (little stripe on the black tips)
• Stickers: Broadway Nails Fashion Diva Nail Art "Find Me" -- applied with my pocket knife tweezers
• Top Coat: Nailene Acrylic Strong Topcoat -- 1 coat

Stuff I noticed:

1. The stickers are difficult to get off the sheet. I had at least 4 stickers go flying when I picked them off.
2. The stickers have examples on the back of how awesome your nails would look if you put more than 2 stickers on them. In real life, they just look ridiculous, like you couldn't decide which stickers to use and just kept going and going. Plus it's impossible to get them in a straight line with my left hand, which adds to the ridiculousness.
3. I'm getting better at painting on tips. Even my sister says so. :)