Full Moon Mani Test Run

You guys! I was looking around the internets for cute designs to try on the ol' paws when I came across this amazing look from one of my favourite nail blogs:The Illustrated Nail.



OH. MY. GAWD. I LOVE IT. And thank goodness there's kind of a tutorial for it here.
Armed with China Glaze's Liquid Leather (for the night sky) and Lubu Heels, Sally Hansen's White On, Orly's Shine On Crazy Diamond (as the "stars"), my makeshift dotting tool (made from this tutorial) because I don't have a striper brush, and a makeup sponge, I was ready to try it!


Well? Not bad, I'd say! I used Lubu Heels for the night sky on the rest of my nails and saved the full moon for my thumb (since it's the biggest "canvas").

I wanted to keep my manicure simple for my simple Halloween costume.  Since we're filming on Halloween (again...), I decided I'd keep my costume super simple so that I can work the filming in the morning and not have to worry about a super drastic costume change later.
So what is it??  Who am I dressing up as?  Marceline the Vampire Queen from Adventure Time!



You can't get any easier than jeans and a grey tank top, right?  I don't have the red boots, though.  Red shoes look weird on me so I'm sticking with some boots and I have a wig.  All I need is some vampire fangs and I'm all set! 

What are you dressing up as for Halloween?

Photo Post!

So much stuff has been happening!
My office finally got painted at work and I'm in the process of reorganizing for all my new equipment that's supposed to come in soon...



I experimented with a gradient mani and IT WORKED!! The red and black version is my favourite so far but the pink fade is looking pretty good too!

 

Coffee jokes



These two kids were adorable! I caught them posing at The Varsity while I was stuck in traffic on North Ave.



I finally got a shot of this sign! Too bad it was at 1:30am but still.



The old man and I went for some delicious vegan pancakes at a new spot we haven't tried yet



On that same trip, I was finally able to capture a photo of the BEST display EVER!

Nail Art Inspiration: Candy Paint

Well, I battled my "Nail Art ADD".  After some web surfing around some nail blogs, I stopped on one of my favourite pages: Candy Paint.  Her designs are always wonderful!  Her page is where I got the idea for my ring finger on this mani




Sweet right?!  Totally.  So when I saw these, you know I HAD to try it!


Mesmerized, I got out my newest, prettiest neon pink (Orly's La Vida Loca), my favourite blue (Sally Hansen's Blue Me Away), gold (Sally Hansen nail art pen brush thing) and black (China glaze Liquid Leather). As with all my nail art, the best representation is always my left hand (since I am right-handed). After a few splotchy mistakes on my thumb, I was pretty pleased with how my index finger turned out.



And after more messing around with my sewing pin and makeup sponge, I was pretty proud of my left hand



My right hand isn't as pretty but it still looks cute. I definitely love Candy Paint's way better than my version but at least I tried, right?!  I was getting lots of compliments (especially from the Big Boss' little ones).  Now that I feel confident in my animal prints (again) I might try another all-over animal print with a technique Christian shared with me.  Or I could go to her but I need a plan first.  I think I'll make my appointment with her before my trip.  Where am I going?  I won't say right now but know this: I am very excited!

Nail Art ADD

After seeing all the fun stuff on various nail blogs and Instagram accounts, I've been feeling rather inspired to try mo things. Maybe I just really want to be a Wah Nails girl but sadly, the Wah Nails crew is in the UK (and sometimes NYC) and I'll admit that I'm not exactly sure how to locate my nearest nail boutique for some sweet nail art (besides Christian at Sugarcoat) and I'm sure there's some Cosmetology School stuff that's involved so, like most things, I take matters into my own hands and just do it myself.
While I enjoy a proper mani with the soaking and the cuticle oils and all that, I like the fact that when I do it myself, my indecisive Libra nature isn't holding any other appointments back. No, I don't know how to execute the proper mani because I don't get proper manis on a regular basis - which could be why my cuticles look mangled most of the time...
So now since there's nothing on TV this summer, I've been left to my own devices. I could write more music but I haven't been feeling that inspired, unfortunately. After scrolling through my nail art-heavy Instagram feed, I decided I'd do a potpourri of nail art. A walking nail wheel, perhaps. I think I described it the best when I was with Lauren on Friday night. I told her I'd probably redo my nails on Saturday but she said I should keep them and I said I felt like an old lady who put on all of her jewelry before leaving the house. I'll show you what I mean.

Here's my right hand

Pinky: Pink / blue gradient
Ring: Galaxy
Middle: Googley eyes
Index: Pink / black / white polka dots
Thumb: Purple / gold gradient

And here's my left hand

Thumb: Galaxy
Index: Pink / blue gradient
Middle: Purple / gold gradient
Ring: Pink / black / white polka dots
Pinky: Red and navy "Dalton Academy" heart

I had every intention of making them match but I didn't want them to be too matchy matchy (if that makes sense). And I saw that the Glee 3D concert movie was on HBO so I fast forwarded to the Dalton Academy section and felt compelled to have one Dalton Academy nail (my pinky on my left hand). But I only wanted one. So what should I do on the corresponding finger on my right hand? Enter the green base with the "googley eye" pattern. I was feeling very inspired by one of the people I follow on Tumblr and Instagram who has a very impressive googley eye collection: photographer Chloe Rice.
If you haven't checked out her stuff, you're seriously missing out! Her work is always great and funny and just entertaining overall. And she's got tons of googley eye adventures. I like the way the nail turned out so much that I think I might mix the googley eye nail with the pink, black, and white polka dot nail for another mani... PS - Chloe liked it too!  Fangirl moment!
It looks like I'm getting the hang of the lovely gradient mani as well. It still needs more work but it's definitely better than my first attempt.  I think the flaw in my first attempt was that the colours were too close to each other. Either way, I'm happy with the purple / gold and the pink / blue variations.
The pink / black / white polka dots were cute and girly and the galaxies are always fun to do.

I'm thinking of maybe learning the mani basics and possibly extending my nail art adventures to nails other than my own.  I can't do every design but I learn quickly!  Who wants their nails done?

Adventures in Nail Art

After much debating, I finally decided I wanted to get my nails done. But the question was: who could do it? Who could do great nail art in Atlanta? I searched and searched but I couldn't think of anything - and living OTP (outside the Perimeter / aka: the suburbs) wasn't helping my case. Sure, I've done some pretty sweet nail art myself but there's nothing more glamorous than getting them done. But where?!
Then I remembered! The lovely DJ Speakerfoxxx always has awesome nail pics on her Instagram so I sent Oni on the case: where does Speakerfoxxx get her nails done?! I had to know!!
After a while, I got what I needed. She gets her nails done by a wonderful woman named Christian at Sugarcoat in the Highlands. I made my appointment for today and anxiously waited.
And while I waited this morning, I curled my hair two ways. First: with the most ancient hot roller set I picked up from my Mom's house last weekend:

And after I pulled the hot rollers out, I spruced them back up with my curling iron, pinned them and tied them all up under a pretty scarf (so I could run out and get some breakfast!)


And I did my makeup too! And while I let my curls heat set a little longer than I wanted, I scrounged the interwebz for nail art ideas.
I went to Wah Nails and The Illustrated Nail. I checked out the #nailart and #nailsdid tags on and I went directly to Speakerfoxxx's page for some direct inspiration.
I had a couple of photos saved on my phone already of pretty leopard print manis but I wasn't sure if that was what I really wanted...until I saw these!


LOVE! So after much debating at the very intimidating colour wall, I decided on three colours: a blue that resembled "Slushied" (from the Glee OPI collection), a neon hot pink and a pretty neon green.


I felt like a kid in a candy store: I didn't know what to tell Christian to do! I felt terrible but she was very sweet and we finally decided on a design I saw on Candy Paint:


Gah! So beautiful! But I didn't want an exact copy - hence the blue colour. And we even pulled from Speakerfoxxx's pretty 80's nails to create this lovely mani!


And I've been getting lots of love on Instagram since I posted it! It's making me so happy! But what's more - I got a notification that startled me and made me feel all giddy. I got a "Like" from ultra style maven Nicolette Mason!

WHAAAAAT??!!!! OMG! I had a total fangirl moment! I love her blog and her style and she liked one of my photos?! I'm freaking out!!

Christian did such an amazing job on my nails and I can't wait to see her for my next appointment! Since we chatted (more like I talked her ear off about nail art), she said I could come up with some wacky idea for next time but I'd have to call her to send her photos of what I'd like to experiment with next. I mentioned galaxy nails (again, I know) but she had never seen them. I didn't get a chance to show her my attempts at them but I know she'd come up with some killer galaxy designs! Maybe next time I'll incorporate some hardware since Lauren did hook me up with some studs...I'll keep my eyes open. Maybe we can go high fashion next time? Sounds like fun!

If you're in the Atlanta area and you want some awesome nail art, give Christian a shout at Sugarcoat in the Highlands! You will not be disappointed!

Nail Art!

If you know me, you know I like to have little pops of WTF in my daily life.  A place where you will most certainly see that is with my nails!  I always try to mix it up with a different colour on each nail or with some weird design.  Lately, A LOT of my inspiration has been coming from Nailside.  Her tape mani tutorials are great and I've learned a lot from checking her tutorials out!
Along with Nailside, there a bah-zillion other blogs out there dedicated to nail art.  Some are fantastic sources of inspiration!  I'll give you a short list of my faves:
Nailside
The Illustrated Nail
Wah Nails
Madeline Poole Nails
Daaaang Girl!
Pretty Nail Swag
So So Fly Nails 
Love The Nails
Rebecca Likes Nails
SuPa Nails
Disco Nails

There are many MANY more but these are the ones I remember off the top of my head.  And that's a lot of good stuff right there!  Here are some great (and not-so-great) photos of nail art I've attempted.

 
1. A two-toned french tip mani based off of a mani I got when I attended my Goddaughter's Communion.
2. My 3 favourite Glee by Sephora colours (Blue: Slushied, Glitter: Celibacy club, Pink: Miss Bossy Pants)
3. Gold with OPI's black crackle
4. The most fun lightning bolts ever!  Based off of a black/gold lightning bolt I saw at The Illustrated Nail.  I call it the "Robin Hood" since I remember I was watching the BBC series while doing these...
5. Blood splattered
6. Rainbow splatter
7. I was attempting a Nailside explosion design but it didn't quite come out right...so I dubbed them Birthday Crowns since I did them for my birthday last year
8. Some lovely Butter London nail skins I got at Ulta
9. Hello Kitty bow fakesters I got at Target
10. 1st attempt at galaxy nails (based off of a You Tube tutorial I saw)
11. 2nd attempt at galaxy nails
12. Current mani - purple-pink triangles with blue glitter accent nail

Nail art is fun!  Sometimes I'll zone out and do my nails while watching TV or I'll see a design on a nail blog and I'll want to try it right away.  Lauren and I have talked about maybe having a nail art party in the Spring - which would be awesome because I'd LOVE to try and see some new designs!  When we do, I'll be sure to post lots and lots of photos!

Do you have any favourite nail art blogs or inspiration?