Black and White - Crumpet Challenge day 1

Sometimes, I think I have to learn a lesson over and over and over again. We may see a lot more of that lesson this month, since I've chosen to join Crumpet's Nail Tarts challenge.

Today, the theme is Black and White. I decided to try a dry marble french, as seen here. The lesson is: my photos stink. And I should look closely at them before removing a manicure, even if I have to do several in a day so that I can post them on time.

The ingredients are simple -- Sinful Colors' Black on Black plus Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On. The marbling wasn't bad, even. But I didn't remember to clean up, there's weird cotton ball schmutz hanging on the edge of my nails, and I can absolutely, positively do better. Way better.

Tomorrow, I'll try silver nails. Well, later tonight, but you'll see it tomorrow!

Half Wreath Moonicure!

So the big lesson I have learned from this manicure is that it's dumb to remove it after taking pictures but before checking that the pictures are any good. It's a good lesson.

I used Finger Paints Sketch n Etch as a base, and covered it with Nailtini Millionaire, which I got in my ipsy haul last month. It looked kind of fuzzy and festive, like I think a wreath should look. I used my hole reinforcers (you know why they cut them in half in tutorials? It's not because they're cheap -- hole reinforcers cost about a half a penny apiece -- it's because they bend up if you use the whole thing. Now you know!) to make a moonicure, and painted over the whole thing in Sinful Colors' Black on Black. Which is still my favorite black, even if it's cheap. It covered glitter smoothly in one coat. Dang. After I pulled off the reinforcers, I freehanded some bows in Orly Monroe's Red. The whole result was cute as a button.

So I snapped a few pictures (light box will likely come after Christmas, if I ever have money ever again) and they looked okay on my phone, so I removed the polish. I wanted to get a head start on the weekend manicures -- I have six church services to attend or perform in between Sunday and Monday, plus wrapping gifts, plus making food, plus not going insane, so being a few days ahead seemed like a good idea.

Yay for lessons! Sorry the pictures stink. I'll figure it out someday, I swear.

In the meantime, go see what everyone else did! I bet they have better photos!

A Christmas Story, and how fitting!

I have always loved A Christmas Story. The whole thing makes me giggle and snork and slap my leg laughing, every year. Maybe it helps put things into perspective -- you know that no matter how many things go awry in your holiday plans, no one stuck his tongue to a pole, or gave you a pink bunny suit, and your dinner is safe from marauding dogs.

In honor of this movie, my manicure is based on A Christmas Story. And it had about as many disasters as the movie.

I had a BRILLIANT IDEA. Truly revolutionary. I was going to turn the nail-blogging community on its HEAD. I had built it up as the most awesome thing EVER. In my head. I was going to decoupage. ON MY NAILS!

Guess what? The reason why no one decoupages paper onto their nails is because it doesn't really work. Even with the PVA base. It sticks up at the edges, the paper doesn't conform to the shape of the nail, and... it's annoying as all heck.

I figured this out about ten minutes after finishing the last coat and realizing that the Seche Vite on top was never going to dry, that the paper was never going to lay flat, and I snapped some pictures without bothering to clean up, the sooner to get it off.

Maybe I was doomed by picking that movie. I had some wrapping paper and thought I could go with the theme. The base is Sinful Colors' Sugar Sugar, the black is Black on Black, and the white in the broken glasses on my index finger is White On by Sally Hansen.

Ah, being humbled by my own lack of skill. It's good for the soul.

In the meantime, I'm certain the other challengers had far more success. Go check them out!

Frosty the poorly proportioned snowdude...

For this challenge, I looked for some snowman ideas, and I saw, and really liked, this one:

While I didn't have the exact same colors on hand, I think my version isn't bad...but I made his head too small to be able to fit on decent sized features, and there's no way a scarf will work since his mouth sorta covers his neck-al area.

The turquoise base is Sally Girl Dumped and the nose is Amped. The snowman and ground are Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On, the black is Sinful Colors Black on Black, the silver is Elle Dancing Queen, and the shimmery white is NOPI Lights, Kim-era, Action.

I got dotting tools (straight from scenic Guangzhou!) and used a bunch of them. Unfortunately, the biggest one fell out of the tool within 10 or so dots. I'm going to try to epoxy it back together. I'm pretty sure the epoxy will cost more than the entire set of tools did, including shipping. I know, I shoulda ordered from bornprettystore or ... not China, but we've been poor lately. Maybe Santa will bring me some cash. And I won't feel obligated to spend it on "bills" or "living indoors".

I can't wait to see what my fellow challengers did! Check it out here!

Santa Claus is Comin' To Town

This one may be a ways towards the abominable side of the spectrum. I had a grand idea, and...well, it was executed. I'm so not good at straight lines.

For the 12 Days of Christmas Nail Art Challenge, the song I couldn't get out of my head was the Fred Astaire version of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town".

You're very welcome.

So I started with a base of Finger Paints Cerulean Seascape with a couple of coats of Darling Diva Ringer (it's a lot like Fantasy Fire! Lovely!) that I'd been wearing for a couple of days. It looked suitably wintry-night-ish. On my thumb, I overlaid a few coats of Sally Hansen CSM Runway Red-y and made a belt out of Sinful Colors Black on Black and the weird Style Essentials Gold. On my index, ring, and pinkie, I made houses out of Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow, L'oreal Park Ave Luncheon, and Sinful Colors' Savage, respectively. I added roofs in the gold, and dotted on windows and doors in black. My middle finger is supposedly Santa's beard -- it's a coat of Commander in Chic with White On saran-wrapped on top.

Does it look like a town? Like a beard? I think I have Santa's belly under control (though if it were black, it might look more like a pilgrim hat than a belted torso!)

It's a learning experience, and I'm having a ton of fun trying new things. I sometimes wish the actual results had any connection to what I'm picturing in my head, though!

Go see what the awesome things my fellow challengers did!

Happy Halloween!

I've seen a lot of great mummy manicures, and I've seen the fantastic spun sugar manicures (XOXOAlexisLeigh does a fantastic one here!), but I haven't seen anyone try to combine the two. (That doesn't mean no one has, just that I haven't seen it done in the many many blogs I follow).

So here it is. I did My First Ruffian (without actually referring to pictures I've seen before, so maybe it's more like a framed mani. My next ruffian won't have the underwear showing on the sides) and kept my left ring finger un-ruffianed for the art.

So on the bottom, we have Sinful Colors' Black on Black, then two coats of Sally Hansen CSM's Commander in Chic. On my ring finger, I put on two coats of the black, and then mixed 3 drops of Commander in Chic with 5 drops of White On to make a lighter, more bandage-y color. I taped my finger to avoid some mess, and taped off an area for the mummy's eyes, and mixed and stirred and mixed the combo color, for a long time. It was probably 5 minutes or so, before it got gummy enough to become stringy.

I followed the spun sugar manicure directions and it really, actually...worked! Amazing! Success isn't my normal outcome with these experiments.

I dotted on eyeballs and pupils, and I let the whole thing dry for about an hour, and then put on a topcoat of SV, which ended up ruining some of the definition of the strands, but I'm overall happy with my effort.

Happy Halloween!

Inspired Leopard Print!

I was totally inspired last night by another blogger's awesome leopard print mani, here, so I had to try it myself.

I started with two coats of Sally Hansen's CSM Commander in Chic, dabbed on bright pink spots -- Circus by Andrea's Choice's Ringmaster, and poorly outlined them with Sinful Color's Black On Black, adding some extra marks and dots. I should have been less assiduous in outlining the spots -- it would have looked better with a little less.

I really like the colors together, and I keep staring at it. Early reviews from my husband sitting 3 feet away are that it just looks like splotches, but I think it looks pretty leopard-y. I like it, at any rate.

I'm going to do some serious cuticle work later tonight, though. I didn't think they looked so bad until I saw this picture!