Butterfly, Skull, and More Tips

Some tips inspired by magazines:

On the butterfly tip:  OPI Did It On 'Em, A Roll In The Hague, Black Onyx, Alpine Snow, Don't Know... Beets Me, Topcoat.
Biker Girl: OPI A Roll In The Hague, Need Sunglasses?, Don't Know... Beets Me, Black Onyx, Alpine Snow, Topcoat.
Pink Flower: OPI Don't Know... Beets Me, Alpine Snow, Topcoat.
Skull: OPI Nein! Nein! Nein! OK Fine, Black Onyx, Alpine Snow, Pink Friday, Topcoat.
Kitty: OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui, Alpine Snow, Monsooner Or Later, Black Onyx, Topcoat.
Light Pink Flower: OPI Shorts Story, My Very First Knockwurst, Black Onyx, Topcoat.

Halloween and Moustaches

I don't even remember what day I did these.  It's been so busy!

Both were client requests, and the manicure was actually done by another technician who doesn't do nail art.  She (client) had a picture on her phone that she asked me to replicate.  I changed the spider and bats, and we added the hat.
I used OPI Black Onyx, plus a little gray the client had for her toes, and CND Speedy Top Coat.

I have no idea when moustaches became so cool.  I see them on pinterest, on nails, drawn on skin.  Really, I just don't get it.  But whatever, I still charge for it!  The pedicure is with OPI Need Sunglasses? and then at the last second the client asked if I could do the 'staches.  I didn't have a reference for them, and obviously I haven't been paying enough attention to the trend, but she was very happy with them.  OPI Black Onyx and Top Coat.

Halloween Art Take Two

I love Halloween, so I tried a bit of nail art early.  One of my favorite clients always gets a fullset of art, so I was trying to think of something to put on her next time (did spiderwebs  with spiders in black over orange last time).

I might do the purple with bats, partly because I don't know what else I would put with the eyes!

Eyes:  OPI Black Onyx, Did It On "Em, Essie Blanc, Seche Vite Top Coat.

Bat:  OPI It's My Year, Black Onyx, Essie Blanc, Seche Vite Top Coat.

Now I'm trying to decide on the best way to display them at the store; I'm getting quite a collection!

Brights!

Bright colorful nail art!

A girl I work with asked for tie-dye and that's what I came up with; I wanted to try some bright lightening style nails, and I wanted to make a puzzle - unfortunately, the red in the center blends with the orange on the right in all my photos.

Tie-Dye:  OPI Fly, Need Sunglasses?, Don't Know, Beets Me, Did It On 'Em, Seche Vite Top Coat.
Lightening: OPI Fly (blue), Don't Know, Beets Me (pink), Need Sunglasses? (yellow), Black Onyx, Orly Dazzle, Seche Vite Top Coat.
Puzzle: OPI Unfor-Greta-Bly Blue, Danke-Shiny Red, Suzi & The 7 Dusseldorfs, Deutsch You Want Me Baby?, Seche Vite Top Coat.

Back To School!

And now that everyone has been back to school for a few weeks, I finally did some back to school themed nails:

And for whatever reason, I associate grade school with argyle:

For the pencil:  Essie Blanc, OPI Need Sunglasses?, Dulce De Leche, It's Totally Fort Worth It, Pink Friday, Black Onyx, Seche Vite Top Coat.
Ruler French:  OPI Need Sunglasses, Black Onyx, Essie Blanc, Seche Vite Top Coat.
Bus:  OPI No Room For The Blues, Need Sunglasses?, Black Onyx, It's Totally Fort Worth It, Quarter  Of A Cent-Cherry, Essie Blanc, Seche Vite Top Coat.
Crayons: OPI Jade Is The New Black, No Room For The Blues, A Roll In The Hague, Color So Hot It Berns, Pamplona Purple, Black Onyx, Essie Blanc, Seche Vite Top Coat.
Chalkboard: OPI It's My Year, Dulce De Leche, Quarter Of A Cent-Cherry, Suzi Loves Cowboys, Jade Is The New Black, Essie Blanc, Seche Vite Top Coat.
Argyle:  OPI Ski Teal We Drop, No Room For The Blues, Jade Is The New Black, Seche Vite Top Coat.

Warm and Cool Colors

Warm colored mani for Chalkboard Nails contest!

I actually did the other hand in cool colors, too.

And that one I entered over on Color Club's fb contest.  (Click to vote for me!)


Left hand:
Orly Rubberized Base Coat, OPI The "It" Color, Essie Red Nouveau and Good As Gold, Crayola Orange, Beauty Secrets Top Coat.
Right Hand:
Orly Rubberized Base Coat, Dazzle, Royal Navy, Essie Coat Azure and Bikini So Teeny, Venique Blue Suede Shoes, Beauty Secrets Top Coat.

Fun fact:  both my thumbs were repaired with acrylic - I did my left and it's lasted almost a week!  Hurray for improvement!

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Graffiti is not about clean lines, pretty colors and beautiful blends. Graffiti is my life's turbulence exploded on a wall.

Graffiti nail!  I stayed after work today to practice doing acrylic, and my model agreed to let me polish her nails however I wanted with the polishes she chose.

They are her polishes, two from China Glaze and three from... a brand I fail to recall, but the bottles were extremely similar to China Glaze.

Starfish On A Beach

I skipped nail art on my last pedi, so this time I went a little brighter than normal.

I used CND Stickey Base Coat and Shiny Top Coat, Essie Coat Azure, OPI The "It" Color, FingerPaints Blank Canvas Cream.

April Showers Bring May Flowers

I never bothered to topcoat the stamping on my hands from my last post, so they were already starting to chip.  (Also, I work in a nail spa, so it's tough for me to make it last more than a day.)
But then I ran across Kayla's blog and contest, (congrats Kayla!) and I thought it was a perfect excuse to do some real art!  (Even though I work in a nail spa and will ruin them tomorrow.)

CND Sticky Base Coat, Urban Outfitters blue glitter (tips, polish is unnamed), OPI Gone Gonzo, Black Onyx, And This Little Piggy, I Want To Be A-Lone Star, Hawaiian Orchid, The "It" Color, No Room For The Blues, Claire's Flame, Orly Blue Collar.

Rainbow Zebra from Algae Veronica

I met my new favorite person, Algae Veronica, the other day when she got a pedicure from me at my spa.  Thrilled to meet another nail artist, we swapped URLs, and when I got home I immediately went to her blog...  and read all the way back to the first post.  She has some great video tutorials, and I adored the rainbow zebra one.  I had some spare time tonight, and decided to try it on myself!

I used Orly Rubberized Base Coat, 3-in-1 Top Coat (2 coats this time), LA Colors 565 (purple), Claire's Flames, OPI Black Onyx, Dating A Royal, Don't Mess With OPI, The "It" Color, OPI Red.

I love Christmas, not just because of the presents but because of all the decorations and lights and the warmth of the season.

Just about finished Christmas shopping, which is not my favorite thing to do, so I consoled myself with some festive toe nail art.

I used Lippmann Collection Rehydrating Base Coat and On A Clear Day Topcoat, A Perfect 10 (available at Wal Mart) Missy, Sally Hansen White Nail Art Pen, Finger Paints (available at Sally Beauty Supply) Scenery Greenery, OPI Black Onyx, OPI Red, The "It" Color, Dating A Royal, Don't Mess With OPI.

America Is An Enormous Frosted Cupcake In The Middle Of Millions Of Starving People

This one was quite a while ago (July/August) but my photographer and I got really busy at the same time, so it was overlooked.  I give it to you today to make up for lost time...

Orly Base and Top, Hook Up, Blue Collar, Finger Paints Sketchy Character, Ulta Brownette, Sally Hansen Cherry Red, Ruby Diamond.

Let Us Dance In The Sun, Wearing Wildflowers In Our Hair...

I know it's been a while.  Let's start with a picture:

And now I'll explain - way back when I started this blog, I was working as a salon receptionist.  That is to say, I was encouraged to have my nails polished, especially by the company's brand.  Then I started doing nails, and it was just impractical to have them polished - removing everyone else's ruined mine every day, but I tried to keep it up for a few months.  I moved to a different nail place, where gloves were permitted, but then got a professional job.  I'm still pretty new there, so I'll wait a bit before painting my hands.  The other women keep theirs light or natural, and while I'm comfortable standing out, I actually like my job and don't want to stand out in a bad way.  ;)
I'll try to keep up on my toes in the mean time.

Orly Base and Top, Hook Up petals, OPI Midnight in Moscow all over, Rue Beaute 146 petals, Finger Paints Sketchy Character and Meet Me at the Met center, Sally Hansen Black Out center

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.

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.

Tips - Animals and Nature

The last two sets of beauty school tips:

Animals:

You get the flash and no-flash shots, cos I couldn't decide which looked better.  First is pink zebra stripe, suggested by a classmate (but I couldn't do just black n white!), then ladybug print cos my baby is obsessed with them, then a bumblebee, dalmatian, and spiderweb.

Nature:
                                                                                                                                                                     
The first is a sunburst, the second is a flower design after a temporary tattoo I had once, third and fourth are roses, fifth is a sunflower, sixth is the sun on an ocean, seventh is lightening, eighth is a crescent moon and stars.  Still working on the photography thing...
Aren't you glad I did these in sets instead of individuals!?

Tips - Objects

These posted by request:

The first was the German flag (the woman in charge of my school is German), the second obviously is the US flag, the third kinda looks like an eye but was just a dot for no reason, the fourth was a holiday bow, the fifth is hard to see but it's an apple or cherry (really don't remember) the sixth is a UFO in honor of my mom, who's obsessed with X Files, and the seventh is a Valentine's inspired heart.

Tips - Designs

More tips from beauty school:

Random splashes of colors, and I don't remember the polishes.