There's an App For That

For those of you not in the 'know', today was the release of the amazingtastical iPhone 4G from Apple. Thousands of crazy people around the country (like myself) waited in line for hours and hours and hours with the hopes of being one of the lucky ones to place our hands around the holy grail of smart phones. Personally, I showed up with my roommate, Maris, at approximately 1 a.m., to sit on a filthy Las Vegas sidewalk for 5 hours, only to be moved indoors into the Caesar's Forum Shops where we again, sat on the ground for 6 more hours by the time all was said and done. I have to say it though, it was so worth it. Scratch from our memories the argument coming near blows over line jumpers, people selling their spot in line for $400 and $500 dollars. I even facilitated such an exchange, picking a man who looked like he had money to burn out of the stragglers, yet no finders fee. *sigh* :-D Devin, the charming iPhone angel who bestowed upon us our shiny new iPhones, was a welcome change from the cranky restlessness of the crowd, with an easy smile and the ability to endure a certain amount of slap happiness on my part. Then there were the people we stood shoulder to shoulder with for hours on end, sharing sarcasm, irritation, and laughs. Finally, the line jumpers, if you're somehow reading this, learn to share, act civilized, and not be assholes, we managed to maintain our shit, I'm sure you can too. (though this redheaded blogger was shaking with fury, and the job of keeping her little mouth shut)

Today's nails are dedicated to us, the crazy ones. (and Lenny, of course)

I used:

Left hand:

Thumb: YouTube

Sally Hansen Trendy Creme as a base, with a mixture of American Apparel Manila, American Apparel Cotton, and Zoya Dea for the yellow part of the television, Zoya Dea for the outline, then Zoya Dea mixed with the outer outline. For the knobs, I used a mix of American Apparel Hassid and American Apparel Cotton, with American Apparel Hassid to shade, I also used American Apparel Hassid for the vertical speaker slots. For the shadow around the edge of the screen, I used a mix of American Apparel Hassid and Sally Hansen Trendy Creme, and for the highlght on the screen, I used Sally Hansen Trendy Creme mixed with American Apparel Cotton.

Index: Weather

Zoya Robyn as a base, with OPI What's With the Cattitude? brushed around the edges towards the middle. For the sun, I used American Apparel Manila with Zoya Jancyn to shade, as well as for the minute sunbursts. For the temperature, I used Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud.

Middle: Maps

Zoya Harley as a base, with Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud for the white road lines, as well as for a base on the interstate sign. For the orange highway line, I used Zoya Jancyn, and for the yellow, I used American Apparel Manila. For the interstate sign, I used China Glaze Salsa for the red and Pure Ice French Kiss for the blue.

Ring: Calendar

Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud as a base, with China Glaze Salsa for the red, American Apparel Hassid for the black, and Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud for the THU.

Pinky: iTunes Store

Color Club Pucci-licious as a base, with American Apparel Esprit lightly brushed outward on the bottom half of the nail, and China Glaze Grape Pop brushed out from the center on the top half for the burst. For the music note symbol, I used Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud.

Right Hand:

Thumb: Calculator

American Apparel Hassid as a base, with a mix of American Apparel Hassid and China Glaze Lemon Fizz for the grey buttons, and Zoya Jancyn for the orange button, with Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud for the +, -, X, and = symbols.

Index: Notes

China Glaze Lemon Fizz as a base, with a mixture of Zoya Dea and Sally Hansen Trendy Creme for the brown binding at the top, American Apparel Mount Royal for the blue lines, and China Glaze Salsa for the red lines.

Middle: Phone

Claire's MOOD Polish in happy/earthly as a base, with CND Green Scene sponged lightly on the top half. For the phone symbol, I used Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud.

Ring: Facebook

A mixture of American Apparel Mount Royal and American Apparel Esprit as a base, with American Apparel Esprit for the bottom line, and Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud for the f.

Pinky: iPod

CND Electric Orange as a base, with Zoya Jancyn sponged lightly over the tip edge. For the iPod symbol, I used Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud.

Topped everything off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat for the fresh from the Apple store shine. :-D

P.S. Forum Apple staff: Did you know that Blaine made cookies?! :-P haha!

OK, seriously, I'm on hour 36 with 1 hour of sleep somewhere around 1 pm this afternoon. I need shuteye in a bad way. I'll see you folks tomorrow. :-D

Polish for Paws

Pawlish by OPI

I'm not even sure how I navigated myself to this obscure dark corner of the internet, but I found something that really took me by surprise. Nail polish for cats and dogs. Wow. Now, I knew there were protective caps in all kinds of funky colors, but nail polish for paws? Never seen that before. And maybe I'm one of the last to know, as OPI released a line called Pawlish by OPI back in 2007! Pawlish by OPI, "Colors for nails...for those with tails!" This collection consisted out of six colors with names like: Yuppy Puppy, Poodle Pink and Bow Wow Green.

That line is long gone and discontinued but some etailers still sell it. There are other brands out there that market especially for pets, such as Color Paw and Pawz.

The Ingredients

My main concern would be the ingredients. Is it harmful? Well, trust me when I say it's almost impossible to find the ingredients of these polishes, but all brands claim to be formaldehyde free. One brand claimed the following:

The nail polish is made from natural plant products and includes ingredients such as aloe, seaweed, and green tea extracts combined with vitamin E. After some intensive Googling I found this: Ingredients of the Color Paw Glitter Top Coat(...): Butyl Acetate, Ethyl Acetate, Nitrocellulose, Acetyl Tributyl Citrate, Isobutyl Acetate, Isopropyl Alcohol, Polyester Resin So much for seaweed. These polishes promise to be really opaque so only 1 coat is needed. And why would that be? Probably because cats and dogs aren't the types that appreciate getting full blown manicures. Wait! There's more And it doesn't stop at just nail polish, nail art hit the scene as well. They have stickers and decals, and special glitter polishes. There's also a wide range of nail polish remover products. I'm not sure what to think of this. Honestly? It baffles me that this is even a successful niche. I don't think my pets would appreciate the look and feel of blingtastic nails, and of course I don't want them going around stealing my thunder, so I'll leave their nails alone. How do you feel about nail polish for pets? I'd never do this to my pet, it might cause discomfort or health problems I don't really care, as long as they don't shxt on the carpet I can't wait to try this out, it would compliment Pepe's outfit so well!    pollcode.com free polls

OPI's Promopic Nail Art Stickers French Manicure

pug image credits go to ~gabbybear

A True M*A*S*H Up

Being around for daytime TV lately has brought a few shows from my past back for me. Did you know that they show reruns of Little House on the Prairie and M*A*S*H every afternoon? Both of those are shows that I loved when I was a kid, and the first notes of 'Suicide is Painless' bring back a tide of old memories every time I hear it. I loved the banter and insults between Hawkeye and Major Burns, not to mention 'Hot Lips' Houlihan, Radar, Klinger and all the other great characters on the show. I remember always wanting to try Grape Nehi because that's what Radar always drank at the bar. Today's nails were inspired by those funny surgeons and nurses from the 4077th, on a TV show long ago. :-)

I used Sally Hansen Trendy Creme as a base, with American Apparel Cotton for the white background of the medical cross. For the cross, I used A Beautiful Life Poison, and for the numbers, I used American Apparel Manila. Topped everything off with a coat of Essie Matte About You to give it that old worn drab look.

Wicked Website: CND's Nail Style Gallery & LookBook

Every now and then I stumble upon a website I really like. Usually I just bookmark them, and that's that, but I figured I might as well share the stuff you might be interested in!

Creative Nail Design

CND, or Creative Nail Design, is a family-run company that makes nail polish, skin care, and nail care products. A lot of you are probably already familiar with the brand, but if you're not, you might have heard about their Cuticle Eraser, Shellac or the nail art they did for the Ruffian Fashion Show, the reversed moon mani. But the Ruffian manicure isn't the only great design they came up with. CND states that nails are the ultimate fashion accessories, and looking at the increasing popularity of nail polish and beyond, they might be right!

Inspiration Injection

In fact, they've got an entire section on their website with some really hot nail art designs. You can browse through the Nail Style Gallery, where you can find tons of very modern designs grouped by style: from Fancy Flirt to Global Chic. There's also a LookBook with images of their runway looks.

So, if you happen to like their style and you're feeling a bit uninspired, don't hesitate to take a peek!

visit the lookbookvisit the nail style gallery

images are property of CND

Hidden Hotness

Today's nails are pretty simple because it's been a busy day, I spent 5 hours returning emails from readers (yes, I've been way behind and I'm trying to catch up), I still haven't finished, so if you haven't received an answer from me yet, don't worry, it's coming, I swear. After that, I started working on a superawesome project for the giveaway that is coming up, and after I post this, I'm going to get back to work on that, I'm super excited, and I hope you all like them. :-D

Anyway. Today's nails are named as such because in direct sunlight, it's hard to see the design, you have to be in the shade or view sort of at an angle to see it over top of the super gorgeous Zoya Ivanka, which is seriously one of the prettiest glitters ever.

I used Zoya Ivanka as a base, with CND Green Scene applied with Bundle Monster plate BM20, I used the scrolled pattern. Topped everything off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat, because that's just how I roll, dig?

Back to the crafting! :)

4th of July and Many More

I just have to say this is an amazing client of mine. She thinks she drives me crazy but the truth is I love crazy! She is awesome because she makes me think out of the box and pushes me to be more creative and keep learning. This is the exact reason why I love my job so much. It would be so boring if I never had to use my brain. So thanks to this client and all of my other amazing clients! You're the best!

These are some little diamonds that I purchased from dollarnailart.com. The background silver is hologram from young nails.

This is a twisted version of 4th of July nails. Love these!

My new favorite fimo clay flowers.

More 4th of July nails. The white stars are made with an impression tool from youngnails.com.

The next two sets of nails are of amazing clients of mine. They ran a 188 mile relay race called the ragnar. They both wanted nails that went with their teams colors. I wanted them to both look different though.


This is me just adding a little spice on a regular fill on a client.

This is gel polish I did on my sisters nails and toes for her upcoming trip to disneyworld. Have fun!

This is opi gel polish in bogota blackberry. I added 3d stars and painted some little fireworks and accents.

This is a real dried flower on the ring finger.

This is a fimo clay lily from oaktreedollshouseminiatures.com. They are sliced super thin so they are easy to work with.

Review: Hema Matte Top Coat

Hi guys! Today's post will most likely only interest you if you're from The Netherlands or Belgium.. A while ago the Dutch store called Hema released a matte top coat. I know a lot of people prefer buying from brick and mortar stores, so I can imagine a lot of people were very delighted with the arrival of this top coat! I did a comparison of matte top coats a while ago, but today I will discuss this particular one.

How about it?

What's really making me happy, is the price. This top coat costs only €2.50 for 11ml. The price is comparable to the P2 Matte Top Coat. But I think it's so much better! Where the P2 top coat leaves a satin finish, the Hema top coat does a great job at mattifying. It still isn't as matte as China Glaze's Matte Magic or Essie's Matte About You, but it's definitely more matte than satin. And not totally unimportant: the application is superb, it's easily applied since it's not thick or streaky. I even prefer it over Matte Magic, since that one thickened up so fast. It will start to wear down around the edges after a day or 2/3, but for this price, I'm not complaining!

The transformation from gloss to matte isn't as fast as I'm used to, but it's doing a great job nonetheless. In the picture below you can see the effect the Hema Matte Top Coat has on several types of finishes. Not bad huh?

Hema cosmetics are also cruelty free, big plus. I don't even know if Essie's Matte About You still is, since Essie is owned by L'Oreal these days..
This top coat will be in stores till the 4th of October this year, so if you're planning on picking one up, please make sure you do this before this date!

Have you tried this top coat? What are your thoughts?

Have a Ball!!

It is the Summer Solstice today!! when I think of summer, I think of the beach, even if I never go there. :-D (this skin doesn't like sunlight, trust me :-P) So today's nails are a beach-themed design, with bright primary colored beach balls on each finger. :-D So whoop it up, summer is officially here, pull out your bikinis and go out and 'have a ball'!

I used Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud as a base with China Glaze Salsa for the red, Pure Ice French Kiss for the blue, and American Apparel Manila for the yellow. For the shading on the white, I used a mixture of Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud and Pure Ice French Kiss, for the shading on the red and blue, I just added American Apparel Hassid to the base color, and for the shading on the yellow, I used Zoya Jancyn. Topped everything off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat for that shiny vinyl feel. :-D

Wood You?

First off, Happy Father's Day!! :) When I think of my dad, I think of the garage, and mainly woodworking. In fact, he taught me how to woodwork!! :) He is one of those people that can make anything and fix anything, I've given him a sketched out drawing more than once, and he has figured out how to create it, and he has fixed more things around the house (and my old cars) than I can count...he and my grandpa were very much the same in that respect, and although my grandpa has passed, today's nails are dedicated to both him as well as my dad. :)

I used MAC In the Buff as a base, with Zoya Dea applied with Bundle Monster plate BM16. For the saw blades, I used China Glaze Millennium, mixed with American Apparel Hassid to shade, and American Apparel Cotton to highlight. Topped everything off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

Conservative office manicures

Hello my Sweet Nail Art Lovers.
I miss you all so much, and i am so excited right now, writing this post.
Today i will post you manicures that wore during the first week of my new job. Well it is pretty conservative, but however looked perfect in the office environment. And those gorgeous colors are from Essie Resort Collection - i love it. The last manicure is a clone of my San Francisco manicure from last summer, but done on shorter nails. I really love the combination of morrow shine chrome polish and bright details. So what do you think? Woukd those nails be apropriate for your office?