Fishnet and Bubblegum…our first stamping manis

We finally got our Konad stamper in the mail yesterday!  The package was the size of a box of bank checks.  Apparently I bought the “mini” version (no wonder it seemed so cheap).  The good news is…it still works just the same.  I just feel like a giant when I’m using it.  We ordered several stamping plates. The original plan was to do white nails with black sheets of music for Annika.  We could NOT get the music notes to work.  Everything else was easy peasy.  So we’ll save the music for another day.  Instead, Annika chose a fishnet looking stamp.  It’s amazing how crisp this thing stamps.  I know seasoned nail bloggers have been stamping for years.  But for a mom and her tween – this seems like magic.  Here’s Annika:

I’ve been doing a lot of grey and blue lately and was in the mood for something pink.  I did simple white polka dots on my ring fingers.  I love this mani (I say that everytime).  Here’s me:

I chose this pink China Glaze off the shelf without looking at the name.  Annika and I figured it was “Bubblegum” or “Teen Dream” or something like that.  But no…it’s called “Sexy Lady”!  What??  I’ll have to ask Sheldon.

Annika

• Polish: OPI Arctic White, Konad Black
• Tools: Konad Plate M57

Leela

• Polish: China Glaze Sexy Lady, Konad White
• Tools: Konad Plate M79

Gold and Navy…my new favorite

First, a big shout out to my sister and brother-in-law, Chrystal and Delano, for buying the pizza and Dairy Queen to fuel our mini mani marathon. I’m not sure if they’ll like their blog pseudonyms…but I do…and it’s my blog. 🙂

I’ve wanted to try a half moon manicure for awhile now and finally got around to it. I’m loving gold and navy. And surprisingly, my favorite gold is a Sally Hansen Extreme Wear in Golden. It’s really vibrant, sparkly but not glittery and isn’t too yellow. It dries quickly with one coat. I started with a base of golden and placed hole enforcers at the cuticle and did one full-coverage coat of China Glaze First Mate. I really like it! I’ll have to take another picture in the sun because this indoor shot doesn’t do it justice.

My other niece, we’ll call her Brandy (Barbie’s sister) started off with a base of the Sally Hanson Golden. It looked so good, we decided to keep it that way. We added First Mate polka dots to each of her ring fingers. I love it!

• Polish: Sally Hansen Extreme Wear Golden, China Glaze First Mate
• Tools: office supply hole reinforcers, dotting tool

Neon Nails for the Dance

My niece, we’ll call her Barbie, is headed to her first dance.  The theme is neon so we chose neon pink nails with neon turquoise accent fingers.  I wanted to do something else snazzy on her ring fingers…but she got pulled away to other matters that sounded way more exciting than having her aunt paint her nails.  Barbie has pretty little nail beds.  The sun had set, so we couldn’t get a clear shot…but the neon was actually quite bright.  It also dried matte, which surprised me.  Is that how all neons work?  We started with a coat of white so the colors would pop.  I think it’s cute as can be and is perfect for a tween dance.

Polish: China Glaze Shocking Pink (Neon) and Turned Up Turquoise (Neon), OPI Arctic White as a base

Two Girls on Fire and a Superman

Annika had a sleepover last night.  The girls got to pick their own online pseudonyms.  So the crew included Annika, Max and Jade.  Not surprisingly, I had requests for Hunger Games and superhero manicures.

Annika (China Glaze Scarlet and Electrify)

Max (China Glaze Frostbite, Scarlet and Happy Go Lucky)

Jade (Finger Paints Where Art Renoir?, China Glaze Electrify)

My dear friend Herrneee (I picked the name, but I totally know she would have chosen it if given the chance) did a boring old manicure with China Glaze Fast Track.  I tried to get her to do something fancier, but she kept rambling about her “job” and her “patients” and something about “glitter getting in people’s eyes”.  Anyway, no pic of that.  But we shall break her in the future!

Spring Cherry Blossoms

It’s the weekend, so I spruced up my plain gray polish with some Spring Cherry Blossoms.  This was super easy and turned out just as good on both hands!

I used a black striper for the branches and a dotting tool for the flowers.  Here’s a closup.  I wish I was a better picture taker-er!

• Polish: China Glaze Pelican Gray, OPI Alpine Snow, Finger Paints Model Colour
• Tools: black striper, dotter
• Inspiration Link: Spring Cherry Blossom Nail Tutorial

Flickerman to Nemo to…grey?

I’m obsessed. I admit it. I needed a hobby and here I am…again. I wish Annika would let me do her nails every night! Then I could try out all this fun stuff and not get the double take at work. I think my Flickerman polish caught the light of the projector during a meeting today. I’m sure it was shocking. I feel like a double agent or something! So off goes Flickerman…but not before I tried something else.

I changed a ring finger to a clown fish.  I painted the nail white first so the orange would be bright. The orange is actually Hunger Games Riveting. (I swear this is not a Hunger Games Nail Blog, no matter how many times I post about it.)  Then I used white and black stripers and added a coat of Seche Vite.  It took longer to remove the polish than it did to paint the fish stripes!

This Nemo inspired masterpiece lasted just long enough to snap the picture.  BTW, lesson learned…I practically had to jackhammer the glitter off!  My fingers were raw and pickled when I was done.  When I did nails back in the day, we didn’t get too many glitter requests.  My clients splurged on french manicures and maybe a red polish at the holidays. Good, crazy times.

Here’s where I ended up. I looooove it. Plus it’s office friendly.  I might try the newspaper technique on it. But enough for now.

• Polish: China Glaze First Mate and Riveting, OPI Alpine Snow, Pure Ice Don’t You Wish (top), China Glaze Pelican Grey (bottom)
• Tools: makeup sponge, white striper, black striper

Caesar Flickerman Accident

I never change my manicure mid-week.  It’s too much work.  But this week, I had to make an exception.  The Essie polish I used for the Burberry manicure looked horrible on me…greenish brown taupe.  I couldn’t take it.  To me, it looked like I had some strange circulation disorder.  Plus Sheldon picked up dinner on the way home and Annika didn’t have any homework so I had some time to spare.

Annika and I experimented with our new stash and I intended to do a simple navy blue mani.  But noooo.  We couldn’t stop there.  Suddenly I’m adding glitter.  I’m a grown woman with a grown up job.  I should not be wearing glitter. But that didn’t stop me.

When it was all said and done, Annika declared my impromptu design a Hunger Games original – Caesar Flickerman.   And I have to admit.  It is (accidentally) Flickerman inspired (there’s a pic of him at the end of this post that I found after the fact).

I used China Glaze First Mate (two coats) and stippled Pure Ice Don’t You Wish in three steps: 1) ¾ way down my nail, 2) ½ way down, and 3) just the tips.  After it dried, I did two coats of Seche Vite to make it smooth (it was kind of grainy).  I wore a boring blue blazer to work today to coordinate with my madness.  That evens it all out, right?

I think it looks like the ocean.  It might be fun to paint the ring fingers orange and stripe them black and white like a clown fish.  Now THAT I could not wear to work!  Maybe before I take this off, I’ll try it.

Here’s Caesar Flickerman…

• Polish: China Glaze First Mate, Pure Ice Don’t You Wish
• Tools: makeup sponge

Burberry Nails

I know this manicure has been done a million times before.  I sound like a broken record, but it’s hard to find fun stuff that I can also wear to work.  To make this a little less wild, I only did the burberry design on my ring fingers.  VERY VERY hard to do on the right hand! I’m still growing my nails out from years of acrylics (I’m almost there!)  Once they get a bit longer and stronger, I’ll have more surface area to work with. But for now, my right hand looks like it was applied during a seizure.  I had striping polishes in black and white, but not in red.  So for the red lines, I just used a striping brush.  BIG mess.  I need to learn how to work that thing!

I don’t love the Essie Jazz (the base color).  As a matter of fact, I can’t ever imagine using it again.  It looks kind of green and boring against my skin tone.  But overall, it’s not bad.  As long as I keep my right hand hidden!  LOL  I’m telling you, the Seche Vite topcoat can fix a multitude of sins!  This look would be fab on every single nail if you were going somewhere fancy with a little black dress on.  If you watch the tutorial, she shows you all ten with the design.

• Polish: Essie Jazz, China Glaze China Rouge
• Tools: Striping brush, White Striper, Black Striper
• Inspiration Link: Burberry Nails

More Hunger Games

Hi, this is Annika and I finally get to talk! Yay! I really, really like Hunger Games (if you couldn’t tell by now) and we wanted to do something unique and challenging.  We found a great YouTube tutorial online, so we just had to try it.  We made some changes.  We painted the mockingjay pin on a plastic freezer bag instead of painting it directly on the nail.  By building up the polish really thick, we could get it the way we wanted and then peel it off and attach it to the nail.  We were nervous about messing up another mockyjay pin, so we put HG on the other ring finger instead.  The circly thingies are in the background of the cover of all the books.  I am really surprised by how they turned out because it really looked hard.  But luckily for me, it’s really easy…if you just have a mom who was a former college art major and professional nail technician…then it’s not so bad!  🙂

• Polish: Finger Paints Where Art Renoir?, China Glaze Pelican Gray, China Glaze Happy Go Lucky
• Tools: small dotter, sandwich bag, small brush
• Inspiration Link: Hunger Games Nail Art

Ulta Haul

Okay, I have never been to an Ulta. I don’t know why, but I always assumed it was a low rent version of Sephora.  We only have a JC Penney Sephora in my town.  It’s fun, but teenie.  Plus, I’ve had bad luck with getting product home and it’s old.  Anyway, I went to Ulta today to see if they had the China Glaze Hunger Games Collection in stock.  Annika has some money burning a hole in her pocket and that’s what she wanted.

Wow. Is that place awesome! I’m actually kind of glad I’ve never discovered it before because I’d be broke.  I sort of went a little overboard.  The pro polishes were buy 2 get 1 free.  I figured we didn’t go to a movie as planned this weekend and we’d have easily spent as much on tickets and popcorn.  Fortunately, my hubby (we’ll call him Sheldon) is on board with our hobby in spite of the remover smell and random cotton balls in the kitchen.

So Ulta has everything! Including Annika’s requested polish.

Left to Right.  District 1 (Luxury) Luxe and Lush, District 4 (Fishing) Hook and Line, District 2 (Masonry) Stone Cold, District 5 (Power) Electrify

I picked up a few other China Glazes for a future Batman manicure and a few office worthy options.

Left to Right. Frostbite, Happy Go Lucky, China Rouge, Pelican Gray, First Mate (wouldn’t the grey and navy be cool together?)

Finally, I’m a sucker for purple and I needed a beige for the Burberry manicure I’m going to try next.  So I got three Essie polishes.  I also got some stripers and oil (since it was on sale too) and another Seche Vite topcoat since it’s the greatest thing out there.

Essie’s Left to Right: Jazz, Bahama Mama, A Cut Above

I know, I’m a crazy lady.