Painted Flower manicure

Here is my bright hand painted flower manicure made in One stroke technique, hope you ll like it.

May the 4th Be With You

So apparently there is this saga which involves 6 movies, a guy in a black cloak and helmet, some white armor clad things, some teddy bear looking things, a little green guy, and the force...but here's the thing... I've never seen them...ever. I know that I'm one of the few, and possibly the proud, but yeah, nope, not likely to happen. However, I recognize that 90% of the world (probably more) have seen these movies and love them, worship them, and some actually LIVE them I think, so in honor of today (and a suggestion from reader Rebecca, who brought the holiday to my attention), which is Star Wars Day, I decided that I would suck it up and do Star Wars nails. I understand that by having never seen any of the Star Wars movies, that I am sure to lose my nerd cred, but I feel like I have to be honest. :-D



I used American Apparel Cotton as a base for the Stormtrooper helmets, and American Apparel Hassid for the black, as well as for Darth Vader's helmet. I also mixed a little of the American Apparel Cotton to make a dark grey to paint the features of Vader's helmet, which, unfortunately, are hard to see. I topped everything off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

...I AM your father.

How to: How I paint my nails

Hi everyone! Today I decided to finally to post about the subject I get most questions about: How I paint my nails.

I know a lot of you would love to see a video, but unfortunately my camera is only capable of producing the crappiest, pixelated movies ever. Add my camera-shyness in the mix and it's just a recipe for failure. Instead of making a fool out of myself on camera, I drew some pictures last week to explain my way of painting my nails.
I also know a lot of you already paint your nails perfectly, so this one goes out for everyone that just doesn't know where to begin.

1. Start off with a clean nail, make sure the surface is nail polish and oil free.	2. Apply your base coat or ridge filler. This prevents staining and chipping. Let it dry.	3. Place a drop of polish at the center of the nail, a bit above the cuticle.	4. Carefully push the drop towards the cuticle, leaving just a small gap.	5. Now move your brush upwards making a straight line till the end of the nail.
6. Go back to the base of the nail and swipe the polish along the curve of the nail.	7. Keep dragging the polish until the whole side of the nail is covered.	8. Repeat step 6, but do this on the other side of the nail.	9. Repeat step 7, but do this on the other side of the nail.	10. If necessary apply a 2nd or 3rd coat. Finish with a (quick drying) top coat.

Some other tips:

• Go to the bathroom first - not kidding on this one ;-)
• Make sure you have decent lighting
• Gather all the stuff you need and place it in front of you
• Rest your hands on a table or desk to remain steady
• If you're not that good at painting your non-dominant hand, start with painting your dominant hand first. You'll be less shaky. Move around the fingers you are painting, instead of moving your brush a lot.

Done, but everything is still a bit messy? Please check out my clean up tutorial.
I hope this was helpful!

Thanks so much for reading and till next time,
- Michèle

Unleash the Beast

Hey all! Today is my friend Shack's birthday! He turned OLD. (well, that happened a long time ago, but that's a different story), Well here's the thing about Shack, he drinks Monster Energy Drink, and not just a little, he drinks multiple cans per day, in addition to about 2 or 3 venti Starbucks a day. Crazy thing is, he doesn't even vibrate!! (though I'm sure his fiance would like it if he did, lol) So today, in honor of Shack's (whose real name is Mike, but goes by his nickname), birthday, I did Monster nails! :) Happy Birthday SHACK!!! :)



I used American Apparel Hassid as a base, with American Apparel Cotton as a base for the Monster logo, then I used Color Club Volt of Light on top of that for the green logos, with Color Club What a Shock! for shading. For the blue logo, I used Color Club Pure Energy, then mixed a tiny bit of American Apparel Hassid with it to shade. Topped everything off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

Everyone wish Shack a Happy Birthday in the comments!!! :-D

Catrice - I Sea You

Hello everyone! Everybody enjoyed their weekend? I was feeling a bit under the weather so I didn't really do much, like, totally nothing. But I do have a post for you today!

We all know the European brand Catrice for coming up out of nowhere with an amazing collection, filled with trendy colors. This brand used to be so bland, and now they're dominating Dutch drug stores with their unbeatable coolness. I've drooled over some of their colors before, and today I want to introduce you to: I Sea You. This one is just gorgeous, a beautiful dusty aqua/turquoise-y green creme. Application wasn't that great, but my P2 thinner was there to save the day, and after applying 2 coats, all was good.

It isn't the uniquest color out there, it sure is similar to some other polishes we all know and love. Let's take a look at this comparison I did:

As you can see: I Sea You is incredibly close to Misa's Dirty Sexy Money. It's a bit lighter and maybe a bit more on the blue side, but still very similar. Slate green is a whole bit lighter and Nfu Oh #431 is less dusty. What's your favorite?

Thanks for reading and till next time!
- Michèle

Are you starving for some cute...

Are you? Well, unfortunately nails today are not that cute,but i have however some really cute pictures of my Marshal to share. He seems really enjoy this pose, and been captured laying like this many times. We call it a flying squirrel pose, but however all the ideas about how to name this are kindly welcomed in comments. He is my sweet orange chipmunk, isn't he super cutey?
Marshal:




Nails

Get in Lines

Happy Sunday, folks! I'm wornnnn out. Had bread class this morning, we learned decorative breads. (inedible and non-rising... the dough is called Pate Morte, which translates to 'dead dough', meaning that since there is no yeast in it, it doesn't rise!) We also had a 'potluck' of sorts, which is why I made my ice cream yesterday, it was a hit, and everyone's food was yum!! :-D Chef Ray even brought in chicken leg quarters for us to cook up for lunch! :) It was definitely a fun class! :) Right now I'm house-sitting and dog sitting, and I have a little white dog that is helping me type right now, and earlier 'helped' me paint my nails. :-D Whenever I sit on the couch with the computer in my lap, he crawls up on my lap and tucks his head under my chin... meaning I get little to no work done. :-D (he's just so damn cute) Today's nails are simple and sweet, with bright color and glitter (who doesn't like glitter?!)



I used Orly Pixy Stix as a base, with Sally Hansen Black Orchid for the black lines, and Nubar Violet Sparkle for the glittery purple lines. Topped everything off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

My little white 'helper', Homer (aka Homey):



My Pate Morte bread art (everything is bread dough- even the flowers):



*yawn* naptime.

IBS LAS VEGAS

I am back from the IBS Las Vegas nail show. It was amazing! I learned so many tips and tricks there. Now I just have to apply everything that I learned. I have a lot of practicing to do! Can you believe these nails I saw in Vegas???

I am inspired by Spring. Both of these sets of nails have cherry blossoms on the ring fingers. On both sets I did 3d blossoms and then covered over with acrylic. My son called these nails "cotton candy trees". He is too fun!


Tie Dye Toes! I put all sorts of fun glitter colors on these toes and then added a layer of mylar over the top. These are so cute in person because the colors change when you move and the mylar reflects the light.

This is a Sparkles glitter in New Moon Risin Pink! Love it!

While I was in Vegas I noticed everyone was just doing random crazy colors all over the nails and just having fun with it. So that's what I did on these nails. I added the silver with nail polish.

More fun stuff that I purchased at the Vegas nail show.

On these nails I added a glitter from sparklesnailproducts.com called slivers at the smile line.

This is a new color of acrylic that I got in Vegas. It has little pieces of mylar already in it.

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