Inspired by....

Inspiration can come in the craziest places! Today's mani was inspired by a lighter. :)

I started with a black base coat for this design. I stamped on a lace design with one of Bundle Monster's new blogger collab plates, BM-XL206, using a lavender polish ("Sugar Plum Fairy" from Funky Fingers). I then took the pink and purple polishes from the OPI Sheer Tints and sponged them at the top of the nail to create a gradient.

Where is the strangest place you have found inspiration?

Welcome Christmas!

The greatest thing about holiday season? All the great holiday nail art of course!

I've been busy at school with lots of holiday manis, and I am loving every minute of it. It makes the day go by fast, and there is nothing more rewarding than the smile I get when I'm done doing someone's nails :)

Here's some of the work I have been doing this week:

So many possibilities, and only 20 days left! What are you wearing on your nails?!?

Grayscale Geode, Inspired by the Lovely Lady Alayna

     I started my Nail Technician classes this week, and I am very excited to be able to focus on my love. I saw this mani on Pinterest by Lady Alayna, and it was an instant "do me now" project.

     Although I have admired the geode nail art for some time, this was my first time attempting it. I used a fine art brush and various polishes to create the geode design. In hindsight, I will either 1) use acetone to soften the lines or 2) use watered down acrylic paint instead. I added a slight pinch of loose gold microglitter to the golden centers of the geodes.
     The remaining nails are done with a variety of techniques, including stamping, spray water marbling (shout out to Liquid Palisade for making water marbling and stamping infinitely easier to do) and glitter placement, along with a few goldtone accessories and a rhinestone.
     This was tremendously fun yet challenging - there will definitely be more geode nail art in my future. What do you think - have you tried this type of nail art before? What did you think -- any tips? I'd love to hear from you :)

Do you FiMo?

For some strange reason, I am addicted to fimo nail art, but I don't really like wearing it on myself. Go figure. I do, however, list auctions for fimo on Listia, where the buyer can choose the pieces he/she wants, instead of having to get some random crap that they didn't really want. I started doing fimo auctions this way because I was tired of bidding on a packet of nail art, when I only wanted 1 or 2 things in it.
So now.... I have an Etsy store!

This is my "trial" run to see if I have as much success on Etsy as I have with Listia. I have NO plans to leave Listia, I just want to see what happens :)


Are you an Etsy chick? Who is your favorite seller?

Happy 4th

Does anyone else find it ironic that we blow things up to celebrate the anniversary of war?

With 4th of July coming up, I was inspired by a recent email I received from Formula X to do this mani:

This is a super easy mani to do! I used striping tape and Essie "Guesso" to paint the white part of my nails. Then I added the awesome red-white-and-blue glitter topper from Funky Fingers called "Fireworks."  That's it -- simple yet festive!

Geo-chic

Can I start off by saying that Liquid Palisade is amazing? In my opinion, it's the second best invention next to stamping for the nail art lover. I am doing much more in the line of stamping and gradients thanks to LP. I could kiss whomever birthed this wonderful idea.

But, let's get back on track, shall we?

I am doing more and more facials in my Esthetics class, so it's becoming more of a necessity to keep my nails on the shorter side. That will not, however, stop me from rockin' some funky designs now and then.

For this mani, I used Indigo Bananas "Taffeta, Darling?" as my base. This is a gorgeous purple glass fleck holo chrome that I was blessed to receive in a giveaway. Then, with my new go-to black, Morgan Taylor's "Little Black Dress," I stamped on the plus-looking design from Born Pretty Store plate #BP25.  My finishing touches were the large pyramid shaped aurora borealis gem and some smaller rhinestones.

I used to not wear anything 3D because it drove me nuts when my gems, etc, would get caught in my hair and clothes. Over time, I have learned how to seal them in more efficiently and have become accustomed to wearing the adornments. My question is this: do you like to wear 3D nail art? If not, why? I'd love to hear your answer in the comments! 

Margarita nails

One of my favorite summer activities is enjoying a nice, refreshing margarita on a hot summer day.

Unfortunately, today was not one of those days. So I put margaritas on my nails instead. :)

My base is "Mint" by LA Colors. On my tips I used OPI's "Lights of Emerald City" to give the look of salt on the rim.  "Lights of Emerald City" is a nice glitter topper from OPI - it has white square glitter as well as small iridescent glitter as well. I think it worked quite nice for this theme. Finally, I added some lemon and lime fimo, in a variety of shapes, and top-coated the h3!! out of them.

Now if I only had some tequila.