Thursday, January 29, 2015

Cat Hair Nails



I’ve gotten pretty good at recreating other people’s work, but I want to be more than just a copycat artist.  This year I have decided to focus on trying to do more of my own original designs. I wanted to do something completely out of the box, but wasn’t exactly sure what. I follow a gazillion talented bloggers, but one that sticks out in my mind for originality is PiggieLuv – particularly her amazing manis done with flocking powder, cork, and otherout-of-the-ordinary mediums.  One day it hit me – I want to do a mani with cat hair. Yes, real cat hair.

I have cats. Plural. All rescues. They love to lay on my stuff, and get their hair everywhere. They puke up hairballs on my desk. They drive me insane sometimes, but I wouldn’t trade them for the world. No cats were harmed in the making of this mani. Three of them purred profusely when I “borrowed” some of their hair. 

After I painted each nail with the background color, I began the process of hair collection. First up was Smeagle, my Sphynx. He is what breeders refer to as a “peach fuzz” Sphynx, as opposed to a “rubber bald’”  -  ie, he has a little bit of hair. All I had to do was give him a good rubdown, and my hand was covered in his fuzzies. The base skin tone color is two coats of  KleanColor “Sheer Pastel Nude” with a coat of “Sheer Pastel Pink” over it. I put a matte topcoat on the nail and pressed the hair down. Not too bad. I trimmed up the sides and beamed at my Smee nail.

I decided my next nail would be modeled after Bullet, our male black and white kitty. I used Wet Wild "Lights Out" and "Whipped Topping" to create a tip on the nail, similar to Bullet's collar.  He laid on his back and purred as he enjoyed his brush-down. 
 I wasn’t so lucky with Grenade, Bullet’s brown tabby brother, so I used some scissors to snip a little pinch of fur from under his leg. A little catnip and I was forgiven. I used LA Colors "Whipped" and NOPI "Promises in the  Dark" with some light sponging of the black polish to make the brown tabby pattern. 
The ring finger is modeled after one of my Lykoi boys, Pink.  I used the same Kleancolor polishes for the skin tone, and LA Colors "Lost Soul" for the gray pigmentation. You are probably saying “WTF is a Lykoi!?!” right now – click here J I fell in love with him and his brother at the shelter. I realize he isn’t what most people would describe as a cute cat – and I am totally ok with that. I fell in love with his personality, not his looks.  To me, he is beautiful inside and out.

Finally, my pinky nail is modeled after Picasso, the Cat Who Thinks He is a Dog. Really.

 The process of laying down the matte coat, applying the hair, and then trimming, was a little more laborious than I expected. For the first time ever I was putting hair on my mani instead of trying to pull hair off, and it just felt very strange. I debated on sealing the hair in with a topcoat, but I really like the 3D effect of the hair.


My husband said my nails are disgusting. I think the word "unsanitary" may have come up.  My son just shook his head and told me I was strange. I am anticipating comments stating the like, and I look forward to showing them to my hubby to reinforce the fact that IDGAF .

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

From the Pinterest Vault

Today's mani is from one of the many that I have stored in my Pinterest Nail Art stash.

 When I choose someone else's mani to recreate, I do a little research (beyond just looking at the pic) on the original artist so that I may give credit where it is due. I was pleasantly pleased with Miriam Elizabeth's work -- you can find her Facebook page here and Instagram  here -- you too can be inspired by her creativity! The original mani which serves as my inspiration can be seen
here. 

I used Essence "Breakthrough" as my base, and added the purple (OPI "Siberian Nights), blue (Zoya "Ling") and White (Funky Fingers "Gesso") by using the watercolor technique . As the final touch, I added some gold nail foil. This time, I decided to use the nail foil glue, like you are supposed to do. Usually I use my quick-dry top coat. Musta had the big girl panties on. Long story short, I do not care for the nail glue.

Bottom line, this is one of those manis that I keep staring at my own fingers. I love it. I will definitely be trying to recreate mroe of Miriam's work in the near future.  :)

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Golden Snowflakes

I do a snowy design on my nails, and it snows :( I guess I need to do some kind of spring/summer mani next.

Anywho, in case you couldn't tell, I'm not a big fan of snow, Or cold. Nonetheless, I picked up a few gorgeous Zoya polishes on sale at Ulta ($1.97 for Pixie Dust? Yes please!) and thought that "Rebel" and "Nori" would look awesome together for some type of winter design. This is what I came up with :)

The base is Zoya's "Rebel," which is a sky blue metallic with a silver shimmer. I added "Nori" in a random, abstract pattern and a few gold snowflakes. It's a pretty simplistic mani, but I am pleased with how it turned out.

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Vivid Lacquer Stamping Plate VL027





I am an avid animal lover. I have been involved with animal welfare in some form since I was 15 years old, and haven't stopped. When I saw this post by Betty's Beauty Bombs, I knew I had to have that plate.
I watched Etsy like a hawk, waiting (somewhat) patiently for it to come back in stock. And NOW IT'S HERE BABY! 

I used China Glaze "X-Ta-Sea" for my base, and stamped my images with Salon Express Black and White stamping polish. I did my right hand in cat images, and my left with the dogs. I was super impressed with the quality of the words (I <3 my cat, etc) - I was really doubting they would stamp well, as I haven't had much luck in the past with such delicate designs. This stamp will definitely get a lot of use.  Now if I can just find some stamps with ratties and chinchillas on it, and maybe a bearded dragon, I will be set.  :P

Friday, January 16, 2015

Born Pretty #BP-24

I am very pleased with the new Born Pretty Store plates! For this mani, I used plate #BP-24.  I really loved the rambling flower pattern on the plate, but I was a little worried how the finer lines would pick up - but they were clean and crisp! I did a little happy butt jiggle in my seat :) I used Zoya's "Odette," "Paloma" and "Charity" to create a dry water marble on the first and ring fingers, and the remaining digits are each in one of the three shades (Pinky is "Charity," middle finger is "Odette." etc). I have a little bit of tipwear going on, but I also did a lot of cleaning :/ My bad.

Don't forget that you can use code TTHEX31 to get 10% off a Born Pretty Store purchase!

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Bad Romance

Today I am using my Deborah Lippmann polish for the first time. This is "Bad Romance," which is a black jelly polish, loaded with purple glitters. I applied 3 coats, and then stamped Sally Hansen Insta Dri in "Silver Sweep" and one of the new plates from the Born Pretty Store, #BP-08.
While the color and formula itself is pleasing, I wasn't very happy that I had tip wear after less than 24 hours (with 2 coats of Seche Vite applied). Luckily, this bottle of DL was on sale at Ulta - had I paid retail price ($19), I wouldn't be too happy. Will I ever try DL again? Maybe, but only if it's on sale!

Saturday, January 10, 2015

Keep Calm and Chive On


A lot of people, including myself, find nail art inspiration on social media - Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and so on. I was feeling particularly uninspired, so I decided to cruise one of my favorite sites, the Chive, in hopes of finding something that would turn on the light bulb in my head. Then it hit me - why not do Chive nails?! So here we are. The Chive's "color" is green, so I went with a girly shade of green with a hint of glimmer by Emerald & Ash called "Stubble Jumper." This was a limited edition polish that I won in a giveaway, numbered bottle 4 of 5. :) For my fingers I stamped them "KCCO" - which is short for the Chive's Logo, "Keep Calm and Chive On." For my thumbs, I stamped a crown (again, part of the KCCO logo), and a peace sign on the other. 
If you have never heard of the Chive, or you have heard of it but never visited, go now! It is amusing, funny, interesting, and sometimes even educational. 

Stamping plates used:
 Konad's M17, M18 for the lettering and peace sign
Bundle Monster's BM08 for the crown


Keep Calm and Chive On!

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

NYE Nails - C-Ya 2014!

So I am a week late with posting this mani, but better late then never, right?!?  I was so exhausted from our Christmas trip that NYE consisted of sitting on the couch with my kids, trying to stay awake until Midnight. Wild and crazy times! My nails definitely had a better time than I did.
 My base polish is Essie's "Over the Edge," which has been described as a "metallic midnight silver." It's an almost-black-but-not-really with just a hint of shimmer. I used Bundle Monster's plate #BM-H14 to stamp the fireworks in white, and then lead-lighted the colors in. The cityscape is from another Bundle Monster plate, this one is #BM-414. I pulled the music notes from a Pueen plate (#PUEEN47), and the cute little cocktail glasses are from Gals Cosmetics (#GA9).