Genius and virtue are to be more often found clothed in gray than in peacock bright.

Ah, I've missed having my nails colored...  where have I been that I haven't posted in almost a month!?  I stayed up past my bedtime last night for this:

I smudged my right index finger repeatedly, and moisturized with a shimmery lotion before taking the photo.

I used CND Stickey Base Coat and Speedey Top Coat, Orly Royal Navy, Crayola Green Apple and Blueberry, Sally Hansen Nail Prisms and Manhattan (color names are unreadable; both are iridescent green), MK 24 Karat, OPI Warm & Fozzie, The "It" Color, Teal The Cows Come Home.

Tea To The English Is Really A Picnic Indoors...

Happy 4th to my American readers!  I'll share my picnic with you:

And what's more picnic-y than watermelon?!

I have a confession.  I painted my hands at a bar.  While drinking.  (On the patio - I didn't try to kill the patrons by painting indoors.)  And I woke up the next morning and thought "woah.  I was drinking for sure, eh?"  But oddly, I thought my ants turned out really well, even though they were the last thing.  Proof:

In my defense:  I go to this bar every week.  Lover plays in a band there, so I know the staff and the regulars, and while usually I drive myself, on this day I rode with him, and I figured I had a few hours to kill - drinking and painting seemed like a great idea!  It was fun though - by the end I had a line up of staff wanting manicures, nail art, and fills.

Hands:  MK Base, Sally Hansen Black Out, Cherry Red, Pure White Tip, Beauty Secrets Top Coat.
Toes:  Base, OPI Strawberry Margarita, Lincoln Park After Dark, Green, Gray, Top Coat.

OPI Shatter vs China Glaze Crackle - Showdown

Without looking at the filenames, can you tell the difference?  (Apart from having a third hand to take the black shots and myself to take the blue?)

I did them both the same way - base coat, two coats of the base color (and dried completely), shatter/crackle, top coat.  I polished in the same direction on each nail (for both colors - middle fingers horizontal, ring and thumbs vertical, baby and index in opposite diagonals) and you can tell with both polishes by the way they crack how I did it.

The black is OPI, and the blue is China Glaze.

I found the OPI to be a bit more user friendly - you can see that it generally shattered fairly consistently, and it goes on like regular polish.  China Glaze was a bit thicker, sort of tarry, and to thin it out (check my left middle finger) it just gets worse.  By the end of my right hand I think it looked comparable, and pretty cool, but it's not quite as fool proof.  Also, on my left thumb and index finger - where's the effect? And on my ring finger, how come there are slits on the end and crackling toward the cuticle?  Then my right thumb completely separated and it looks like I missed a spot, but on the right index it didn't crackle very well.  The last three fingers on my right hand look pretty good, so I'm not sure what gives.  Maybe I'll do a "take two" to see if practice will improve.  ;)

Overall - both worth it.  China Glaze is much easier to find (Sally's has it, OPI is only available in salons) and I think retails for slightly less...  They offer very different color selections too, so buy what you like and work it!

MK Base, OPI Simply Smash-ing, Black Shatter, Love & Beauty Fuchsia, China Glaze Crushed Candy Crackle, Beauty Secrets Top Coat.

Artists are just children who refuse to put down their crayons.

June 7 was National Crayon Day.  I know my post is late, but I did my nails in honor of the occasion.

Sorry about the poor shot of my thumbs...

MK Base, Sally Hansen Pure White Tip, Cherry Red, Black Out, Finger Paints Scenery Greenery, Sketchy Character, Love & Beauty Fuchsia, Ulta Moody Blues, Beauty Secrets Top Coat.

If a building looks better under construction than it does when finished, then it's a failure.

As the warm weather approaches, it is joined by orange and white barrels, single lane highways, and irritable drivers.  Behold:

I just googled traffic signs for reference (they were much orange-er in real life, not sure why they photographed so red...) and wasn't paying attention when I painted the bio-hazard symbol.  Oh well!

Not catching the zombies reference?  Than you obviously missed the big news!

MK Perfect Surface Base,  Sally Hansen Black Out, Pure White Tip, Cherry Red, Orly Hook Up, Claire's Flames, Beauty Secrets Top Coat.

A work of art which did not begin in emotion is not art...

Remember the emotions chart from when you were a kid?  No, I'm the only one that needed that kind of therapy?  Well, it's just a bunch of clipart smiley faces labeled with different emotions to help a child verbalize what he's feeling.  Recently, I've gone through quite a range of emotions, but the original artwork is a bit boring for nails, so I used emoticons!

I used MK Perfect Surface Base Coat, Orly Hook Up, Sally Hansen Black Out, Beauty Secrets Top Coat.

Of course I have played outdoor games. I once played dominoes in an open air cafe in Paris.

The other night my friend couldn't come out with me because she was playing Triominoes with her parents.  (She was home to visit, be nice.)  I'm actually not familiar with the game, so I just did Dominoes.

I think they'd look better if my nails were square too, but I think I look weird with square nails.  Also, I find them unbelievably annoying.

MK Perfect Surface Base Coat, Sally Hansen Black Out and Pure White Tip, Beauty Secrets Top Coat.

I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.

My sister loved my first attempt at water marbling, and requested I do her nails (NOW, since she's moving out of state).  She chose her colors, and here it is:

Her left ring finger is my favorite, and I'm glad because I think it was her most attractive nail that day.  A friend who is also a nail tech suggested I put vaseline around the cuticles to keep the cleanup to a minimum - I did this, and it worked!  (Thanks D!)  I coated the entire finger just past the first knuckle with it, carefully avoiding the nail beds, but we wiped the polish off the skin easily and I only had to do a bit of detail cleanup.

MK Perfect Surface Base, Sally Hansen Spark, OPI Flashbulb Fuchsia and A-Rose at Dawn...Broke by Noon, Ulta Dance Teal Dawn, Beauty Secrets Top Coat.

As a side note - comments are not being published.  I get them in my email (so thank you, commenters*, I appreciate your feedback!), but I can't reply to them.  Switch to WordPress already? 

*I see that this is apparently not a word.  But commenter is, and I wanted it to be plural.

And when it rains on your parade, look up rather than down. Without the rain, there would be no rainbow.

It's been raining for most of a week here, and is scheduled to continue for another week.  Instead of being sad about the rain, I decided to be happy that I don't have to water my flowers (not including the one that died cos it got too cold, but I digress).  Tulips are possibly my favorite flower - also, they're reasonably simple to draw, even left-handed - and my partner isn't keen on having more (than the one by the porch).  Admittedly, their bloom period is short, but I still love them.  Same with lilacs...

It occurred to me after that I should have reversed the colors - the dark blue as the clouds, and the gray as the sky/background...  Oh well, next time. 

MK Perfect Surface Base Coat, Ulta Moody Blues (base), OPI I Want To Be A-Lone Star (clouds), Big Hair...Big Nails, A-Rose at Dawn...Broke by Noon, Rose to the Ovation, Flashbulb Fuchsia, Orly Hook Up, Finger Paints Scenery Greenery, Sally Hansen Pure White Tip, Cherry Red, Love & Beauty Fuchsia, Beauty Secrets Top Coat.

Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.

I tried water marbling for the first* time.  It's arson awareness week, so I used some fiery colors to do it.
I'm torn.  It is messy.  I'm content to spend two hours painting details with a tiny brush, but to spend it swabbing polish off my fingers?  Not so much.  I think my fingers have aged a decade - acetone is not good for you, and my hands have seen a lot of it this evening.
But, it's kinda cool.  I'm not very happy with how they turned out this time, but I expect with practice I'd get better at dipping into the pretty spots.  And keeping more pigment on the nail.  My results don't really resemble fire, but hey, they can't all be winners.  Actually, it seems to be pretty impressive... Maybe I'll try again.

*Actually, we tried it in beauty school...  but we were instructed wrong; the result was ugly and messy.  It's still messy, but at least has potential.  Youtube it.

MaryKay Perfect Surface Base, Sally Hansen Cherry Red and Black Out, Orly Hook Up, OPI Big Hair...Big Nails, Beauty Secrets Top Coat.

By and large, jazz has always been like the kind of a man you wouldn't want your daughter to associate with.

It's jazz appreciation month!  I didn't listen to any jazz, but I themed my nails for it.

I know my right hand is kinda lame, I did it first without the detailed inspiration, and I'm right handed anyway...

I used MK Perfect Surface Base Coat, Sally Hansen Wild Life, Black Out, Pure White Tip and Nail Art Pens in Black and White for details on the keys, Orly Hook Up, Finger Paints Sketchy Character, Ulta Brownette, Beauty Secrets Top Coat.

Remember When Atmospheric Contaminents Were Romantically Called Stardust?

Lyrids Meteor Shower is scheduled for April 21-22 this year, so I did shooting star nails.

I used: MaryKay Perfect Surface Base Coat, Sally Hansen Spark and Aqua Chrome, Beauty Secrets Top Coat.

Did perpetual happiness in the Garden of Eden perhaps get so boring that eating the apple was justified?

April is National Gardening Month!  I've "planted" a mixture of vegetables and flowers for your viewing pleasure.

Cucumber, carrot, plumeria, tomato...

Broccoli, sunflower, daisy, hot pepper...  (Yes, clearly I should have used a reference for some of these...)

Rose (what, you can't see that?), pansy.

Base is MaryKay Perfect Surface, and the red on all nails is also MaryKay but I can't read the name...  Rose something, I think.  Wet 'n' Wild Metallic Green, Orly Hook Up, Sally Hansen Pure White Tip, Cherry Red and Spark, Finger Paints Scenery Greenery and Sketchy Character, Beauty Secrets top coat.

If you are in a spaceship that is traveling at the speed of light, and you turn on the headlights, does anything happen?

April 12, 1981 is listed somewhere as the first space shuttle launch.  To celebrate (or to include a geeky post so my dad could feel included) I did rocket nails.  It begins on the launch pad and ends on the moon.  I realize that the first space shuttle probably didn't make it to the moon*; we'll call that artistic license.

*Apparently, no shuttle has gone to the moon.  Rockets have, the difference is that rockets are one-time-use and shuttles are reusable.

I don't have a good shot of my right thumb, it's light blue blending into dark blue with an air stream...


I used: Mary Kay Perfect Surface Base Coat, Orly Blue Collar, Love My Nails Black Rage, Sally Hansen Spark, Sinful Colors Midnight Blue, Finger Paints Scenery Greenery, OPI I Want To Be A-Lone Star, Pure Ice Frosted Ice Platinum, Orly Hook Up, Avon Lagoon, Ulta Dance Teal Dawn, Sally Hansen Pure White Tip, CO2 #237 (Silver shimmer, I can't find a web site), Wet 'n' Wild Having Fun, Love and Beauty Fuchsia, Beauty Secrets Top Coat.

My life is like a stroll on the beach... as near to the edge as I can go.

It started with Orly Rubberized Base Coat and a teacher who was kind enough to let me paint while she lectured...

Cindy, here's your day at the beach!  Yay for spring break!

After the base coat:  Sky - Orly Blue Collar, Water -  Sinful Colors Midnight Blue #13, Sand - MaryKay 24Karot, ball - Maalouf Aphrodisiac and Ulta Dance Teal Dawn, sun - Orly Hook Up, tree - Finger Paints Sketchy Character (also sail boat base) and Scenery Greenery, sails, texture on water, kite string - Essie Picket Fence, kite - Love and Beauty Fuchsia and OPI A-Rose at Dawn...Broke by Noon.  OPI RapiDry TopCoat.