31 Week Challenge: Week 9 – Rainbow Nails

Sorry for getting this up so late. I have been unmotivated about doing nails and all that jazz all week. I figure I’d put up two tutorials this week. One today and one at my regular time on Monday. I hope to be back on top of things after that. You know, taping two a week and have them all queued to go on Monday mornings.

This week I had to do rainbow nails. I struggled with this one because all I kept coming up with I could easily find on the internet. So I googled “rainbow” and after searching the images section, I found something that kind of gave me an idea. Now my ideas rarely if ever turn out how I want but I actually don’t mind this one. It’s simple, fun, and cute. At least to me it is. I do hope you like it. Let’s get started!

Pictures of the final look:

Items I used:

1. Finger Paints Base Coat
2. China Glaze in Up All Night
3. Orly in Prisma Gloss Silver
4. Stripe Rite in White
5. DecoArt Acrylic Paint in White
6. DecoArt Acrylic Paint in Black
7. DecoArt Acrylic Paint in Red
8. DecoArt Acrylic Paint in Orange
9. DecoArt Acrylic Paint in Yellow
10. DecoArt Acrylic Paint in Green
11. DecoArt Acrylic Paint in Blue
12. DecoArt Acrylic Paints in Purple
13. Finger Paints Top Coat
14. Small Dotting Tool
15. Large Dotting Tool
16. 10/0 Artist Loft Round Brush

How I created this look:

That’s all for now! Leave me a comment and let me know what you think. I shall see you all again really soon! Take care!

31 Week Challenge: Week 8 – Metallic Nails

I was struggling in coming up with a metallic look with the polishes I had. I wanted more options but I am on a purchase diet when it comes to polishes and want to use what I have unless it’s something unique and that I really don’t have. I have at least 4 metallic polishes that I can think of so I figured I would suck it up and use those.

I was browsing Pinterest and came upon the Herringbone tape mani and decided it might work for this look. I played around with the design before I taped the actual tutorial. I tried it with tape and without tape (putting the polish stripes right on the nail) but in the end the tape mani won. It’s neater I think and I like the sharp lines. I did try it with four colours (Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Silver Sweep, Orly in Luxe, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Pink Satin, and Sephora by OPI in Rumba Romance) - all metallic – before I eventually ended up choosing silver, gold, and black to make the colours really pop. I am so happy with the results.

My only wish? That I would have paid better attention how I was lining up the tape so that the tape met down the middle of the nail but now I now for next time. Now let’s get on with it.

Pictures of the final look:

31 Week Challenge, Week 7: Black & White Nails

I’ve recently been really into creating zentangles and when I saw that I had to create black and white nails I knew I had to incorporate zentangles into the design. I was inspired by the zentangle design called Flowtus. I thought it would really turn out pretty on the nail and once I had it on I thought making it look almost like a chalkboard design would look pretty cool too. So let’s get it started!

Pictures of the final look:

Barb Wire Nails

I was inspired by Dressed Up Digits‘ June blog entry. I loved the way the nails looked and it was what inspired me to buy the new Bundle Monster 2012 nail plates. I’m so glad I did and can’t wait to play around with all the plates.

Items I used:

1. Essie All In One Base Coat
2. Sally Hansen Xtreme Wet Cement
3. Sally Hansen Xtreme Grey Area
4. Sally Hansen Xtreme Black Out
5. Sally Hansen Xtreme Invisible
6. Makeup Sponge
7. Bundle Monster Plate BM-323
8. Beauty Secrets Top Coat

I love how these turned out and I hope I will love them enough to last me for at least a week.  I’m hoping to get back into my weekly challenges hopefully this weekend. I’ve seriously lacked motivation or inspiration and I’ve really neglected the blog to even post my “On My Nails” entries. Bad Carmen.

That’s all for now. Hope to be on here again soon! Take care!

Disclaimer: When I’m not feeling particularly creative I love going on Pinterest and even search Google Images for some inspiration. If I do find something I love, I like to try it out. I’m not claiming these ideas are mine and if I do find the inspiration somewhere then I will always post a link back to the blog or site I found it on.

 

Glittery Gothic Goodness

Inspired by DailySomething.com‘s Vampy Glitter Nails, I decided to give it a try with my nail polishes and my Bundle Monster 209 plate.

Items I used:

1. Finger Paints Base Coat
2. Icing in Dark Magic
3. Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Cherry Red
4. Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Red Carpet
5. Wet N Wild in Black Crème
6. Beauty Secrets Top Coat
7. Bundle Monster Plate BM-209

I haven’t used the stamping plates as much as I would like so I’m still not great at it but I think I did a decent job. You can see some spots the stamp missed on my ring finger here.

I really love the way they turned out even though it’s not as dark and as glittery as hers. I hope they last all week!

I did French tips last week which was nothing special, just regular white tips. I had to trim my nails though because  I could barely type on my phone, lol. I wanted a fun design to go on my short nails.

Oh and another NOTW I didn’t share with you all was this one with BM-201. It was a chevron pattern. I wanted a subtle stamped design and though the colours seem to look almost the same on the picture here, the colour difference is more obvious in real life:

I’m calling it Four Leaf Clover For Audrey. Why? Well it’s a simple reason . . . I used China Glaze in Four Leaf Clover and For Audrey to create the look. For Audrey was the base colour and I stamped the nails with Four Leaf Clover. I wore it for a week before it started to chip off. Seriously hate that my work makes my polish come off faster than I would like.

Anyways, that’s it for now. I shall talk to you all soon.

31 Week Challenge, Week 6: Purple Nails

After more than 5 tries between yesterday and today and multiple tries to stay connected to the internet over the past couple of weeks, I finally managed to get the video uploaded. What usually takes 1 hour or less, this time gave me an estimated 2 hour upload rate and sometimes it didn’t budge for quite some time. Apparently it’s a problem with the signal coming into the house cause our neighbours had a tech guy come look at their internet today too. Hopefully within 24-48 hours we’ll have a better signal and have normal internet! That would be awesome.  So please forgive the lateness of this and the next video but it’s really beyond my control for the time being.

Okay so saran wrap nails have been pretty popular for a bit and I wanted to give it a try. I wanted a monochromatic look so I went with two different shades of purples. It looks a lot better in real life though I don’t mind how these pictures look at all.

Mostly people use two contrasting colours so you can definitely do that. I may do that at a later date on my nails and I’ll definitely share those pictures with you. For now I’ll leave you with pictures and the tutorial.

Pictures of the final look:

I Hate The Internets

Omg if I had a dollar for every time I had to call my Internet service provider to tell them I wasn’t connected to the Internet (I’m using my phone data at the moment to type this) I’d be a millionaire. Modem/router changed and nothing. 2.4 frequency phones unplugged. Nothing. Them trying to fix it at their end. Nothing still. Finally they are sending out a technician tomorrow to look at it.

Oh thanks so the millionth call did the trick?! I have a video all done and can’t post it because as soon as I’m online I click on a link and I’m disconnected. I’m rather furious. Hopefully they fix it tomorrow or I’ll be making a big stink about it.

So that is why no updates and no tutorials but I assure you they are being taped, edited and prepared for upload.

That’s all for now. Hope to be talking to you all soon! Take care.

31 Week Challenge, Week 5: Blue Nails

I had an idea of what I wanted to do once I saw these Salon Express plates. I knew I wanted to use the sea-horse just because he was so cute. It’s a quick and simple design and if you don’t have these plates or a similar one then you can draw a small sea-horse on your nail instead.

I am still practising using the nail plates to stamp designs on. Once I’ve got it down I hope to use them more often in my tutorials as well as my own nails.

Let’s get this design started!

Pictures of the final look:

Posh Teal Rays

I know, I’m lame at coming up with blog entry names.

I’ve always wanted to try the Konad plates or a similar product for not as much money. I’d try to order the stamper from Amazon but the shipping to Canada was $30 while the actual stamper and scraper was around $4. Totally wasn’t going to do that. So when I saw that the Salon Express was available in Canada (but apparently not at Sally Beauty despite being on the site and the woman at the store suggesting I check the website — it doesn’t ship to Canada), I wanted to find someplace I could buy it.

After searching online for places it could be, I realized it had a “As Seen On TV” logo on it. I immediately went out to the mall, walked in the store, and picked it up without hesitation. I really only wanted the stamper and scraper and the fact that it had 5 plates was just bonus.

I came home and had to give it a shot. I admit, it took me a few tries to actually get the technique down but it seems to be a little easier for me now that I’ve done it a few times. I’ve watched nail stamping videos for a while now . . . a long while actually, without being able to try it. It seems so easy when they do it that I was sure that I was doing it wrong. I tried it again today and had absolutely no problems.

Unfortunately when I did these nails a few days ago I wasn’t completely successful but I was so proud of how they turned out that I decided to keep them.

Just Spotted The Lizard On My Nails

I really wasn’t sure about this colour on my nails next to my skin colour. The gold and yellowishness of my skin just didn’t mesh well. But then I realized it’s only in certain light and I am really in love with the green that comes out.

Items I used:

1. Sally Hansen Salon Manicure Base Coat
2. O.P.I. Just Spotted The Lizard
3. Beauty Secrets Top Coat

The first pictures here you can see a lot more of the gold colour coming out. It doesn’t seem to look to bad next to my skin in these pictures and to tell you the truth, it’s really growing on me.

No Flash

OPI Just Spotted The Lizard with top coat. Flash.

OPI Just Spotted The Lizard with top coat. Flash.

OPI Just Spotted The Lizard with top coat. Flash.

You don’t see much of the green in these pictures but I assure you that in the right light, there is plenty of greens . . . nice dark, rich greens.