Cross Cross

Random Manis

For the Love of Purple



New year, new attempt at blogging, all that stuff.

I wanted to start off the year with my favorite color: purple. So I chose two shades that are at the opposite ends of the purple spectrum - the darker purple is OPI's "A Grape Fit!" and the lighter, lavender shade is Revlon's "Lily."  I did the dots with an Orly dotting tool.  It's simple but cute, and I've gotten several compliments on it this week. 

I love the way these 2 colors work together.  And I have to say that A Grape Fit definitely ranks in my top 5 favorite purples.  I've always dreamed of owning a purple baby grand piano, and if I had the means to buy one (and a place big enough to put it!), I would buy it in the color of this nail polish!

I spent a good part of the new year's holiday weekend working on a very ambitious project:  alphabetizing, cataloging and photographing my entire nail polish collection.   I found a handy app on my phone that allowed me to enter each polish into a database that included brand, name, collection, and shade.  The only category I wish it had that it doesn't include is finish, but I was still able to get them all entered.  Along with each entry it allows you to photograph the polish.  So I got them all entered and took a pic of each one.  This was no small task and took me about 5 hours broken up over 2 days. 

The great thing about finishing this project is, I was able to reorganize all my polishes into 2 Helmers and still have 3 drawers left over for supplies.  Plus I put them all in alphabetical order by brand, so I can quickly and easily find exactly the color I'm looking for.  Another bonus of having an accurate record of exactly what polishes I own that it is with me at all times.  It already came in handy today when I went to Sally for buy one Orly get one free.  I picked up 2 different colors that I thought were pretty, checked my database and found that I already owned them both.  Then, I complimented myself on what good taste I have, and put them both back!

The downside to having such an accurate record of all my polishes, is knowing exactly how many I own.  I knew it was going to be a pretty high number, since it had been a really long time since I counted them all, but I have to say I was shocked at the final count.  When I think about how much money this collection represents, it makes me feel a little guilty.  But, then again, I work and I earn my own money and I feel like I can spend it however I want! 

I've been contemplating doing one of those 30-day challenges.  The only reason I've never done one before is I don't want to commit to doing my nails every single day.  I hardly EVER have my nails painted just a plain color - I've always got some kind of nail art on them.  And I'm not that good so it usually takes me a good 2 to 3 hours every time I do them.  So after spending that much time and effort on a mani, I hate the thought of having to take it off every day.  So it's possible I might try one just on my own - but make it more of a 30-manicure challenge wherein I do all the designs but not necessarily in 30 days.

Tomorrow is the first playoff game for the Pack, so I might do some kind of Packer mani tomorrow afternoon.  GO PACK GO!!!!! 

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Nails & Nerds

I absolutely love watching The Big Bang Theory on Thursday nights.  This week, I invited 2 of my girlfriends over to watch it with me and do our nails. So the 3 of us geeked out and watched the Big Bang and I showed them how to do nail stamping. 

They each did a dark purple base with silver Konad stamping on top.  They chose single stamps rather than ones that cover the whole nail.  And they both did only a couple of fingers.  But I think they enjoyed it and I certainly loved sharing my polish and doing my nails with girlfriends. 

I already had Revlon's "Royal" on my nails from the night before.  But they were plain and I wanted to do some stamping too, so I used Konad silver and a Bundle Monster polka dot stamp.  I love the way this turned out. 

I really enjoyed the evening and I think the girls did too.  I'm hoping we can do it again soon!

Blue Lagoon

The blue is Revlon's Blue Lagoon, stamped with Konad white and Red Angel plate 110.  This manicure was somewhat inspired by Linda at Copy That, Copy Cat..  The inspiration came from her post China Glaze Kinetic Candy and Simple White French.  I liked the color combination, although I don't have Kinetic Candy.  I thought Blue Lagoon was a good substitute.  And now that my nails are a decent length again, I wanted to do something with tips. 

Multi-Colored Leopard Print

This was the same leopard stamp I used before on the sponged manicre.  I did the leopard stamp first then went back in with a dotting tool and put in the colors.  But I think the idea would have turned out better if I'd put the dots in first, then outlined them in black with a nail art pen.  But, I did like this mani a lot.  I like the three colors.  Incidentally, these are the same 3 colors that I used in my previous sponged leopard mani. 

Sunshine & Smiles - For Kris

I did this manicure in honor of my friend Kris.  She is one of the most uplifting, positive people I've ever met.  And she's extraordinarily funny and always has a way of brightening my day when she comes around.  I always tell her she spreads sunshine wherever she goes, which is what inspired me to do my nails in a bright sunshine yellow, and stamped with some smiley faces from a Bundle Monster plate.  I had quite a time getting these little smilies centered on my nails.  It took me numerous attempts.  Luckily, I was prepared with 3 coats of the yellow so I was able to remove messed up stamps without damaging the base color.

Anyway - here's to Kris, whose friendship I cherish. 

Bullseyes

This is China Glaze IDK stamped with Konad black and a Red Angel plate.  I got tons of compliments on this manicure everywhere I went with it.  The lady at Subway wanted to know all about stamping and luckily there wasn't anyone behind me in line so I was telling her all about it.  It was fun to share my limited knowledge! 

My nails are finally back at a length that doesn't make me cringe with disdain every time I look at my hands.  This length is great for trying stamps that cover the whole nail. 

Sponging & Stamping

Major photo fail.  After I'd removed this mani from my left hand and one finger of my right hand, I realized I'd never taken a picture of it.  Therefore, the only pic I have is the above, which is horrid.  But, you get the idea.  This was 3 different China Glaze colors (I can't remember them all but the turquois color closest to my cuticles is For Audrey.)  The leopard stamp was from a Bundle Monster plate.

Playing with Matte

Just playing with my matte topcoat.  It looks good under direct light but in a normal room it just looks like purple nails.  Might work better with a darker color. 

Broken Heart Valentine's Nails

China Glaze - Fuscia Fanatic

OPI - Panda-Monium Pink

White Konad Polish

Black Nail Art Pen

So, I'd say it's pretty obvious I'm not in a relationship...  if I was I would hope that I wouldn't have nearly this much time to do my nails! LOL  So instead of doing a Valentine's Day mani like everyone else is doing right now, I decided to do an anti-Valentine's mani.

I started by painting all my nails with Fuscia Fanatic, except the ring fingers where I used Panda-Monium Pink.  Then I did the polka dots with the opposite colors.  Then I stamped the heart with Red Angel plate RA120 and Konad white polish, then used the nail art pen to outline and "break" it.

I love these colors together.  And even though it's a broken heart, it's still using a V-Day color scheme, and I do love having pink on my nails. 

I'm still holding out hope for true love, though.  I'm not ready to give up on finding it just yet.  And when I find it, I know my nails will look GORGEOUS!  :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Things That are Easier with Nubbins

OPI - Ink (the dark color)

FingerPaints - Flecked Topcoat

1. Typing
2. Playing piano
3. Texting
4. Putting in contacts
5. Dialing the phone
6. Blending eye makeup
7. Wearing gloves
8. Using the remote control
9. Changing the radio station in my car
10. Buttoning jeans/shirts/coats

Other than these things, I am not of fan of having my nails this short.

But I can type like the wind, and I've been playing piano more in the last week than I have in the last few months.  When my nails are super long I don't like to play, because they get in the way of me playing the right notes, and I've had a nail get caught in between the keys before.  It's just a lot easier to play when my nails are this short.

Besides, I've been asked to play at my friend's wedding in a few months and I need the practice time anyway.  So maybe cutting my nails short was a good thing.  Still, I'd rather have cut them short of my own choice and not becuase one broke.  And even then I would never have cut them this short.

Oh well.  I guess if this nail drama is the worst thing I have to worry about, my life isn't that bad.   Moving on, I promise.  :)





Nail-Tastrophie

Tragedy
When the feeling's gone and you can't go on
It's tragedy

 -- Bee Gees

Waaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!  I don't even know how it happened.  I'm so annoyed!!  Last week when I was wearing the jagged tips mani, I came out of the restroom at work, went back to my desk, and saw that my right index nail was barely hanging on by a tiny little piece.  I don't recall hitting or snagging it on anything, and I didn't even feel it happen.

Of course I didn't have any nail glue so I put two bandaids on it and glued it when I got home.  Then I repainted my nails with two coats of China Glaze Gothic Lolita.  Later that night, I completely forgot about it and opened a soda with that nail.  STUPID MOVE!  It broke again and I was forced to re-glue it.  I just didn't even think about it and my nails are usually really strong and I wouldn't worry about opening a soda.  I'm so mad at myself!

Anyway, the next morning, it ripped off at the tip when I got to work and took the top layer of my nail halfway down.  OUCH!! 

I couldn't stand to look at it all day so I put another bandaid on it and then hacked the rest of them off the minute I got home.  If it had been a thumb or a pinky, I might have left the rest of the nails long, but it just felt so weird to have my index finger SO short and the rest of my nails so long.  I was having trouble typing! 

So, I'm down to nubbins. I absolutely hate my nails this short and I can't wait till they grow out some.  The broken one is going to take a while to regrow because the top layer of the tip is completely ripped off and is now super flimsy and flexible.  Here's hoping it will grow fast! 

China Glaze - Electro Pop

China Glaze - Fuscia Fanatic

China Glaze - Gothic Lolita

China Glaze - Gaga for Green

I finally found this collection at Sally, an ended up buying four colors from it.  I couldn't decide which color I liked best so I used three of them on this mani.  The other one I got was called Make Some Noise which is a nice coral color.

Alas, this is the last pic of my gorgeous, long, strong nails. 

Jagged Tips - Inspired by The Princess of Polish

This jagged tips manicure was posted back in November by The Princess of Polish.  As soon as I saw it I immediately wanted to try it (another reason I took the green/polka dots mani off without wearing it out).  It reminds me of a comic book and I love the bright colors contrasting with the white base and the black zig zags.  I did those zigs zags freehand with a nail art pen - need more practice at that.  But I still love this manicure... behold the jagged tips.  Love it!!!

At the end of this post, I'd just like to take a moment to complain about how little the workers at my local beauty stores know about the world of nail polish. They never know when stuff is coming out and it seriously annoys me!

Dot Explosion

Here is another manicure that never left the house.  Although the pizza delivery chick did compliment me on it this afternoon when I had a pizza delivered.  LOL  This polka dot manicure was originally intended to be a recreation of another tutorial, but halfway through it became clear that it was going to be too difficult for me, so it became something totally different.  I'm going to try the original one again sometime though.  I didn't keep this on becuase I just wasn't happy with it. Too much going on and not all the dots are round, which annoys me. 

 





Misc. Manis

I've been sick so I haven't blogged much and I left a couple manis on for 3 or 4 days each which I NEVER do... but I got pics of all my recent manicures so here they are.

First up... this is one of my new Red Angel stamping plates. I love this design!!

This next one was a fail.  The first couple fingers looked good the others are a hot mess.  I was trying to place individual glitters picked out of a glitter polish in a clear jelly.  It looked a lot better in my head but here's how it turned out:



The next manicure was inspired by this post by Kayla Shevonne.  I loved the colors she used, and I  just recently bought some new Wet N Wild colors that were quite similar, so I took them out for a spin and I really liked them.  Plus they were cheap - only $1.99 each at W@lgreen's. I got a lot of compliments on this manicure:



The following manicure was never worn outside my house because I wasn't ultimately happy with how it turned out.  I was happy with the sponging, but the stamping was a total fail.  I just need more practice.  It just sucks because if you mess it up, you have to take it off which takes off the base polish, which you then have to reapply, and it just takes forever.  But regardless, here it is:





Tutorial Followed - Acid Leopard Nail Art

I saw the tutorial for this manicure earlier in the week when Colette first posted it and as soon as I watched it I knew I wanted to try it.  Colette is one my biggest nail art inspirations.  I've tried several of the water marble tutorials she has posted on Y0uTube but I haven't had much success making them look very good.  But I love watching all her videos and I obsessively check her blog for updates every evening before I go to bed. 

So Colette posted this tutorial on how to create "Acide Leopard" nails.  I followed the tutorial to the letter aside from using more of a creamy, opaque white as the base rather than a sort of shimmery white like she used. I also picked up the same nail art pens as she used in her video.  I must say it looked like she had a much easier time using it than I did. It was a catch 22 because I tried using the pen before I put my top coat on but after sponging the paint was not smooth and I couldn't draw a half circle for anything.  So I put on a coat of seche vite which made the surface smoothe, but seemed too smooth for the polish in the nail art pen to soak in.  I might add this was my first time ever trying leopard print free-hand so I'm happy with how it turned out. I think I will be better next time I use it.

So here is how it turned out on me:

I am so geeked over this manicure!!!  Thanks to Colette, for breaking this down into steps that are easy to follow. For my very first time sponging polish onto my nails, I am extremely happy with how this looks. And best of all, I think the world of sponging has been opened to me and I am having lots of ideas of how I can incorporate the technique into other designs.

I might throw some matte top coat on this tomorrow after work - I am curious to see what that will do to the look.  But either way, I like this so much I think I will keep it for a few days.  I want to show it off at dinner with some girlfriends on Tuesday night.

Purple Holo on Purple Jelly

Tic Tac #251

China Glaze - IDK

I can say with certainty that this is manicure is one of my favorites that I've ever done.  That Tic Tac color is the one I bought at my local nail salon after my last pedicure.  And I just think the holographic color really pops on top of that bright purple jelly.