Valentine Nails 2011

Well so much for me keeping updated! Here's a quick post on my latest Valentine Nails. Enjoy!
Last week:

This week:

(Inspired by Whoa Nails! Valentine Nails -- her design was SO cute I had to try it! )

Happy Valentine's Day!

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. :)

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.