Lacquer Laced

Hey all!! Today has been a somewhat lazy day, I watched a few movies, did some laundry, made homemade strawberry ice cream, vanilla bean ice cream, chocolate cayenne ice cream, and chocolate cinnamon ice cream. :) Nom nom nom. One of the movies I watched was Somewhere in Time. (Sadly one of my all-time favorite movies) Terribly cheesy, but I adore it. I even have a picture of myself standing in the same spot Jane Seymour did in the movie when she and Christopher Reeves first met by the lake. :-D I also LOVED the Grand Hotel, which is where they filmed that movie. I got the chance to stay there, and it was lovely, I particularly enjoyed the dress code, which required men to be in suits and women in dresses after 5. I dunno, seems silly, but it made it feel 'special', and the 5 course dinner was pretty damn good- I had wild rabbit one night, duck, lobster bisque, you name it. :-D The Grand Hotel was the first time in my life I ever golfed as well, I was forced to participate in a scramble against my will by my then boyfriend. lol Apparently, though, I'm a natural, and on one of the holes I even came close to the longest drive- I was only 10 yards off!! :) Anyway, to the nails. I was inspired by the fashions in the movie, and thought lace would look pretty, so I painted it at the cuticle, sort of like a twist on a moonicure.



I used MAC Abalone Shell as a base, I can't stress enough how much I adore this color. :) For the lace, I used American Apparel Cotton, then topped everything off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

Class tomorrow- woo!! We're finally making sourdough- and I've been 'feeding' the starter all week- it REEKS! lol (that means it'll probably taste amazing.) :-D

Me at the tree on Mackinac Island (pronounced MACK-IN-AW), when I stayed there in 2007. :-D I'm SUCH a dork.

Marshmallow flowers

Dusty pink glitter acrylic extension with white marshmallow flowers.

Suitable for brides too! 

Lovely. ;D

Marshmallow flowers

Dusty pink glitter acrylic extension with white marshmallow flowers.

Suitable for brides too! 

Lovely. ;D

Nfu Oh #64

Hi everyone! Hope everyone is having a great day. Today's a holiday here in The Netherlands, so everyone is wearing orange, since that's our national color. I absolutely hate orange 90% of the time so I decided on this very festive polish: Nfu Oh (pronounced En Foo Ooh), number 64. #64 is a not very subtle mauve-ish holographic polish. I showed you #65 a while ago, and this one is pretty much the same. Application is a bit patchy, so it could take up to 3 coats for complete opacity. The finish is very smooth though, so 3 coats won't leave you with big chunky nails, thankfully! The best thing about Nfu Oh's holographics is that they're still enjoyable as hell when you're not lounging around in the sun. Very cool. I once said I liked subtle holos better than these, but I find myself liking these blingtastic ones more and more, they just never cease to amaze me. The fact that even guys turn their heads to get a glimpse of my nails when I'm wearing this, isn't an influence at all! ;-). This is too good to be true, you might think. What's the catch? Well, there is one and that's the wear. After 2 days you'll already notice major tip wear and spots where the polish already has worn off. Nfu Oh has a special base coat for their holographic polishes though, namely the Acqua base coat. Unfortunately I don't have it, but perhaps it could make all the difference! Another thing, I think it's good to know that these holos dry somewhat matte, I used top coat once (David top coat) and the holo effect definitely got duller! Thanks so much for reading, take care! -Michèle

It Only Takes a Spark-le to Start a Fire!

So yeah, yesterday was one of those days that you wish never happened, started, etc. I was one of the 'lucky' people at my company who lost their job yesterday. Sweet, huh?! (if anyone knows of any available awesome jobs in the Vegas area, please let me know!! :-D) I'm trying to look at it as a blessing, there are a ton of roads I could take at this point... I could work at night, and go back to school to get a culinary degree, I could get another graphic job, I could get a bartending or cocktail job, I could work at the casinos... the possibilities are pretty endless. I'm going to turn this situation on it's ass. :-D For today's nails I really wanted to do something fun and sparkly, so I used the new Nubar Sparkles polishes I bought at the International Beauty Show to do an ombre. :) These polishes officially kick ass, I can't stop looking at my hands, they're SO sparkly. I even ended up doing a matching pedicure!! :)



I used 3 coats of Nubar Petunia Sparkle, with Nubar Violet Sparkle sponged on the tip half of the nail. Topped everything off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat to smooth out the glitter coats. :)

So... what should my next endeavor be?

Zoya Perri Vio-Fio

Hello Dear Sweet Nail-art Lovers.
Finally got some inspiration, it is been a while that i made some one stroke nails with acrylic paints. The base color is Zoya Perri - love it - so perfect for sponging and gradient look, and overall just a really nice shade.
I also sponged the ring with this nail polish so it matches color of the nails. I hope you like it.

Spring Daisy Manicure

Hello my Sweet Nail-Art Lovers.
Here is my spring Daisy manicure, which is hand painted with polishes. Quite a rare thing for me those days wit all those stamps and acrylic paints.
I really love how it turned out, kind of simply bu intricate. I used Zoya Dana (flash collection) for the base color and i think this is what helped pull off this manicure. Dana is probably my favorite color from the entire collection - it is very smooth and bright.
I hope you ll enjoy this nail-art

Oh, Quit Your Waning!

So I think I may be tired lately... there are two nights this week so far that I've passed out on the couch, etc. before 8:30 PM! :-P Last night it was about 6:45, and I slept the whole night. That can't be good, right? So much going on lately! Next Friday, I need to make a wedding cake for my friend Jessica's wedding... I'm a little scared because it's the one cake in a person's life they're not likely to forget. :-/ I also need to make some ice cream for class on sunday, I'm thinking Chocolate Cayenne, Fresh Strawberry, and Vanilla Bean. (Banana, too, if I can find ripe bananas at the supermarket). I'm hoping to do a 1-tier practice of the wedding cake on Saturday, and I hope to GOD it looks awesome. lol On the bright side, tomorrow is Friday, and at least over the weekend I won't have to worry too much about work, just personal obligations! :)

Today's nail art was inspired by the phases of the moon, which are: New Moon, Waxing Crescent, First Quarter, Waxing Gibbous, Full Moon, Waning Gibbous, Las Quarter, Waning Crescent, and Dark. (according to wikipedia.org) As of the time of this blog post, we are nearly at the full moon! :-D I only used TWO colors for this art- black and white! Oh, and by the way, the ring finger on my right hand is new CND Shellac, which would explain why it's not decorated with art.. lol I'm testing their 2-week claim, because if if can stay on me, it'll stay on anyone.





I used American Apparel Hassid
for the background, as well as mixed with American Apparel Cotton for the greys, and also used American Apparel Cotton
to lightly sponge over the base to make 'stars'.

What is going on with this blog? First, all the talk of 'brazilians', and now a Waxing Moon?! :-P (bad joke, I know)

CURRENT MOON

moon phase info

Wet Paint sale on Ideeli!

Hey all!! Just a note to let you know about the Wet Paint Glaze System sale on Ideeli.com today!! Everything is deeply discounted- there is a set of 15 polishes for $50, original price is $150! It's a pretty neat idea, and with those 15 polishes you can create 102 different colors!!



Here is the link! Wet Paint Sale on Ideeli

US Shipping only unfortunately. :(

Picture is from ideeli.com

Oh, How Tacky!

Hi everyone!!! I hope that this lovely April day finds you well ( and not wind-blown, like here in Vegas!! lol) Today's nails were inspired by something at work- my cork board!! :) I thought it'd be something different, and plus, when I did the dinosaur nails the other day, I thought the background looked like cork, so I thought I'd used that idea as a design! :)



I used MAC Abalone Shell (I wish I'd picked up multiples of this- I <3 it), with Zoya Dea pretty heavily sponged over it, then topped with CND Super Matte, which BTW isn't MATTE AT ALL!?!?!?, don't get it. After that failed, I went to my go-to matte topcoat, Essie Matte About You. Next, for the thumb tacks, I used CND Green Scene, American Apparel Downtown L.A. for the red tack, Pure Ice French Kiss for the blue tack, American Apparel Poppy for the orange tack, and CND Bicycle Yellow for the yellow tack. I mixed each with American Apparel Cotton to highlight, and American Apparel Hassid to shade, except the yellow tack, which I mixed American Apparel Poppy with to shade. for the metal part of the tack, I used American Apparel Hassid mixed with China Glaze Millennium. FOr the items tacked up, I used American Apparel Cotton for the white, American Apparel Hassid for the black, and American Apparel Downtown L.A. for the red. For the shadows of the tack on each nail, I used a mix of topcoat andAmerican Apparel Hassid. Topped the tacks off with a coat of Seche Vite top coat, being careful not to get any on the matte portion of the nail.

Totally tack-y, right?!

And, as a bonus sneak peek into part of the giveaway prize.... (hand screened by yours truly)