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

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.

Matte Topcoat…my new obsession

Annika and I went to Sephora looking for a matte topcoat after searching several drug stores.  I’m surprised there’s not a cheapy brand out there yet.  Maybe I didn’t look hard enough.  I wanted to try something with both matte and shiny.  I got my inspiration on Pinterest.

This is the same pastel purple Zoya (Kendal) I used on my last manicure, but with the matte topcoat it turned out gray (which I liked).  I used a dotter tool to dot two lines of dots on the side of each nail.  It was so easy.  Anyone can do it.

Again, I got some funny looks at work in meetings.  They must think I’m going through a near-midlife crisis or something!  I’m not telling them about the blog. I’ve been at the company for many years and there a few folks that know of my nail technician past.  Perhaps they think I’m moonlighting at a nail salon??

Here’s another picture with the flash on.  Hopefully I get better at taking pictures.  I’m using my iPhone.  If anyone has any tips, I’m open!

• Polish: Zoya Kendal, Finger Paints Model Colour, Wet n Wild I Need a Refresh-Mint, Sephora by OPI Matte Top Coat
• Tools: dotter
• Inspiration Link: We Heart It via Pinterest