Autumn Gold

So after fabric week, I wanted to do something a little different, less literal, and more stylized. I was looking at the polishes that are currently on my table, (which I procrastinate cleaning off and putting away polishes from until there is literally NO workspace left), and liked the look of a couple of the colors together, so I thought that I'd do a reverse moon manicure with them.

I used American Apparel Cotton as a base, with a mixture of American Apparel Cotton and American Apparel Manila for the butter colored moon, with a moon of L.A. Girl Army Green at the base of the nail closest to the cuticle. Topped everything off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

Neck is getting better, hurts a little still, but getting more manageable. I've been resting as much as possible to take the strain off it. Thanks again for your concerns and suggestions!

No time to paint your nails?

Sometimes I run into stuff... wow! These bad ass gloves are designed by London based designer Dominic Jones.

Founded in late 2008, London based Dominic Jones Jewellery is fast becoming hot property amongst the fashion elite. The new "It Boy" for celeb jewelry, designer Jones' Tooth And Nail collection consists of rings, earrings, bracelets, necklaces, belts and gloves embellished with fangs, thorns, teeth and claw-like accents.

Aren't these awesome? Probably not something I would dare to wear (and I'm cutting down on real leather as it is), maybe I'd give these a spin if I'd ever reincarnate as Lady Gaga herself!
These would be perfect to cover up any nail art fails/chips/stained nails, don't you think? ;-). They only cost 682 EUR, quite a bargain. Riiiight.

Price aside: Fashion of Faux-pas?

Online store

quote credits go to ifitshipitshere.blogspot.com

How To: Make your manicure last

Hi guys! For today another how to post! Normally I change my polish a lot, but there are times when you want to make your manicure last! Maybe because you're busy or maybe because you're going on vacation, you name it. It isn't all that hard, take a look at the following tips:

1	Prep the nail Make sure you're starting off with clean nails. Get rid of any nail polish you might have on. By using a nail polish remover before you're starting your fresh manicure, you will clean the nails. If your remover leaves a greasy residue grab some alcohol on a cotton pad and wipe your nails with that. Any oils or residue on nails makes it more difficult for polish to adhere to the nail. Do your cuticles so everything is neat and out of the way.
2	Base & Top Coat A good base coat is really important. You're not walking around commando style either, are you? Or maybe you do, but erhm, anyway! A good base coat does not only prevent staining, it also bonds your nail polish to your nails. A top coat is to give shine, but also to keep everything sealed and in its place. You can also refresh your manicure daily with a layer of top coat, I don't do this often, but it does work.
3	Wrappin' it When applying polish, sweep a bit across the edge and under the nail tip. I usually just tap my brush, with some nail polish on it, against my tip before I start with the first layer. The polish wil melt together when you're done with your whole nail. By doing this you're wrapping the end, so it seals your nail polish onto your nail and it won't chip that easily. You can do this with your top coat as well!
4	Would you like a sandwich with that? Now this is something I've just started doing recently! Certain kinds of nail polish chip easily, maybe it's the texture, maybe the fact that a top coat ruins it all, but I've found this to work. You can use this trick with regular polish too. It is recommended to use sticky base coats when you're doing this so called sandwich. Think Orly Bonder or CND Stickey. If you don't have these: I had pretty good results with using top coat in between! Just make sure it doesn't give you shrinkage (like Seche Vite can do).
	Matte nailpolish Some brands that make matte nail polish advice against using a base coat. Ignore that, because some colors WILL make your nails yellow. Or green. Or blue. Obviously, if you're going for that crazy matte effect, you can't seal your mani with top coat. To make it stay: I apply a base coat, a layer of matte polish and then another layer of base coat. On top of that I'm just applying another layer of matte polish. Et voila, a nail polish sandwich! You can also do this if you're just mattifying with a matte top coat! Holographic nail polish I don't like to use a top coat on these either. It can really dull the effect so I do the same thing: base coat, holographic nail polish, base coat, holographic nail polish. Is this sandwiching making you hungry yet?

Image credits: www.fedoraonline.it

What a Hoot!

Welcome to the last day of 'Fabric Week' here on the Daily Nail blog. :) Today, I chose the cutest of my fabrics, and the only one that wasn't an abstract pattern or floral. It's OWLS! I love the simple colors and the retro feel. My owls look a little tweaked out, but that's ok. :-P

The fabric inspiration:

The nails:

I used Essie Mink Muffs as a base, with (from thumb to pinky) CND Bicycle Yellow, American Apparel Manila, a mixture of L.A. Girl Army Green and American Apparel Cotton, L.A. Girl Army Green, and Zoya Jancyn for the owl colors. American Apparel Cotton was used for the white of the face, with MAC Showy for the dark brown outlines around everything and in the background. For the eyes, I used CND Bicycle Yellow.

BTW, update on the neck...

A lot of you suggested a chiropractor, and usually I LOVE the chiro, but last time I had this problem happen (less than 2 months ago), he made it ten times worse. The shoulder still hurts pretty badly, but I was at least able to sleep last night, which was great. Hopefully it keeps trending towards getting better! :) Thank you all for your advice and concern!!! :)

Hexa-Gon With the Wind

Day #6 of fabric week, and today's fabric is simple earthy tones, and geometric shapes. I chose it because I love orange and brown together, and I liked the simpleness of the pattern.

The fabric inspiration:

The nails:

I used Nubar Milk Chocolate Creme as a base, with a mixture of Zoya Jancyn and OPI Ginger Bells for the orange shapes, then lightly dotted with American Apparel Cotton. Topped it all off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

Anyone have recommendations for a 'crick in the neck'? I get them all the time lately, but the pain from my current one refuses to go away, and keeps getting worse. I'm having a hard time sleeping, walking, functioning, etc. Not being a wimp, but this shit is getting out of control. I've tried heat, tylenol, massage, stretching, homeopathic remedies, ergonomic pillow, and medicated pain relief patches (not heated patches). It's been 4 days and it's gotten progressively worse. *ARGH*. Thanks in advance for any advice.

Stone Art and Failed stamping

Hello my sweet Nail-Art Lovers!
Yesterday i felt an irresistible urge to do somehting arty. Luckily for me, idea came along when i saw the rocks around the house. So i created some "Stone Art" using the same one stroke technique that use for Nail art. I also used some Nail-art decal materials to enhance those little gray stones, and i really hope that you will like this.
As for a manicure, i stamped black flowers on a white base color, but however dint allow it to dry completely, so when i tried to cover it the the top coat, i totally screw the design. I took one picture of my right hand before top coat, so you can see the difference. I had to wash this manicure off, and will have to come up with something new tonight.
With top coat
Before top coat

Fabuloustreet.com

Since I post about Nfu Oh products every now and then I get a lot of questions where I buy these. There's actually a small list of etailers that carry the brand and one of them is www.fabuloustreet.com. It's a really nice website with awesome customer service and they have a wide range of Nfu Oh products. I've recommended this website to a lot of people. A LOT. It's even in my FAQ section. Turns out, there are some issues with the site so I feel obliged to let you know the following. Please note I'm not making this post to cause any panic or slander the company.

On The Nailboard over at www.makeupalley.com there have been postings ( 1 | 2 | 3 ) about how some (not all!) people ordered from this etailer, paid with creditcard and experienced weird fraudulent credit card purchases not long after that. Somehow something got messed up. They're already on it as you can read here:

Thank you very much for your message
I am very sorry that you are having this same problem as well as the other customers. We are starting a detail investigation on this. We will call our credit card handling company (Paypal) to work on this issue. As soon as we find out some information, we will immediately post on our News section for updates.

On the technical side, we never see credit card informations. When we process orders with our hosting software, we do not see credit card numbers, (only the last 4 numbers.) So I can ensure to you that it was not our staff. But like I mentioned before, I will do everything possible to find out what happen.

Thank you very much once again for your message and I hope we can end this problem once and for all

Use PayPal

I'm guessing it's most likely security holes instead of a malicious Fabuloustreet. So if you're placing an order, please make sure to use PayPal, which is a lot safer.

Retro Fruits

Today brings the renewal of FABRIC WEEK!! :-P I bought the fabric that inspired today's manicure because of its bold colors and graphic retro imagery. I love it!! :) Today in Vegas is HOT. ugh! I did score a super sweet find at the Antiques Mall though- a zippered leather case in the shape of the sole of a shoe, it's about an 1" thick, and when you unzip it? LEATHER SLIPPERS!!! They're so rad, and they fit like Cinderella's, so of course it was fate, and I had to own them. I'll try to post a picture tomorrow. It's awesome. I'm trying to figure out who made them, the logo is gone, but the faint imprint of 'MILANO NEW YORK LONDON PARIS' is still visible in gold. Dunno, but they're rad, and they were cheap and in great condition!

The fabric inspiration:

The nails:

I used American Apparel Cotton as a base, with a mixture of China Glaze Salsa and CND Electric Orange for the red, MAC Showy for the dark brown, Pure Ice Wild Thing for the lighter green, L.A. Girl Army Green for the darker green, China Glaze Flyin' High for the teal, and American Apparel Manila for the yellow. Topped everything off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

How To: Konad

Hi everyone! For today I've got another how-to that has been requested a lot! I'm not saying this is the way to do it, because I'm sure everyone has their own preferences, but this is my take on it! The end result in the last picture is really awful, please forgive me, but I was working (too) fast because it's still subtropical in The Netherlands and I almost succumbed to the heat!

Before you start anything, you want to make sure you got the right stuff right in front of you. This will minimize little problems like knocking over very expensive nail polish remover or nail polish and the likes. (At the end of making these pictures I had nail polish on my cheeks and an almost empty bottle of Zoya Remove +).

Stuff you'll need

A medium file Image plate Stamp Konad/Awesome pigmented polish Konad special top coat (preferred)

Plastic Card Nail polish remover/acetone Cotton pads Perseverance A good mood

1. Roughen it up!

This is a step that you really don't want to skip. Just grab a medium file and file lightly over the stamp. If you don't do this, it most likely won't pick up nail polish at all.

2. Polishes

Before you start prepare a cotton pad (or more) with nail polish remover and lay it next to the plate. You'll have to clean the stamp (and sometimes the plate) after every go. By using something like tweezers to pick up the cotton pad you won't mess up your manicure.

The polish you use can really influence the end result. Konad sells special polish for stamping, but if you got some really nice pigmented (one coaters and such) nail polishes, you can use these too!
You don't have to fill the entire design on the plate, just apply a bit at one side of the pattern. (I accidentally kinda went overboard while I was taking pictures so you can use less than pictured).

3. Scrape

Most Konad kits come with a scraper. I don't like it. It's sturdy and damages your image plates like no other. Using a plastic card is easier on the plate and it's easier to move around anyway.
Scrape your polish from one side to the other, making sure the nail polish fills every gap in the design. Don't press too hard, because you don't want to scoop nail polish out of the grooves.

4. Be like Speedy Gonzalez

Speed is a really huge thing when you're Konad-ing. You really have to work fast or the polish will turn too dry to pick up with the stamp.

5. Stamp

After you applied nail polish, scraped around, immediately place the stamp on the design. You don't have to press hard, it will only mess up the design.

6. Press

Now you're good to go. Depending on your nail shape, there are several ways to stamp on the nail. My nails are a wee bit curvaceous, so I don't place the stamp flat, from the center. If you have really flat nails, I think this might work for you though.
I align the stamp to the side of my nails, making a circular movement while placing it on the nail. You want a steady, quick hand with this, or you'll end up with a design looking like mine :-P.

7. Top it off

When your done, it's time to get out the top coat. This can be a little bit tricky because it's very easy to smudge your fresh design. Konad has a top coat especially made for this. You can also use other top coats, just make sure it's not thick and apply it in a floating manner, like you're not really touching the nail with the brush.

Well, this is how I go around doing Konad. It's not something I really fancy doing, it can get very messy!

The nail polishes I used in this how-top are Color Club's Worth the Risque and Revvvoluton. Review coming soon!

We Stole the Statue of Liberty!

...the small one, from Las Vegas!!

HAHA, I'm so ridiculously excited to see this movie- the trailers crack me up. "IT'S SO FLUFFFFFY!!!!" and "Is this annoying??" make me laugh every damn time. Today, since I'm going to see Despicable Me tonight, I decided to paint the hilarious Twinkie-shaped minions on my nails, and the silhouette of 'Gru' from the movie logo on my thumb. Seriously silly.

I used China Glaze Happy Go Lucky as a base for the minions, and Zoya Jancyn as a base for the thumb. For the overalls on the minions, I used Pure Ice French Kiss as a base, with a mixture of Pure Ice French Kiss and Orly Snowcone to make them look like jeans (like in the pictures), for the buttons and chest logo, I used American Apparel Hassid. For the glasses, I used a mixture of American Apparel Hassid, American Apparel Factory Grey, and Pure Ice French Kiss for the goggles, with American Apparel Hassid for the goggle strap. For the eyes, I used American Apparel Cotton with American Apparel Hassid for the pupils. I used Zoya Jancyn to shade the bodies, American Apparel Hassid and A Beautiful Life Poison for the mouths, and American Apparel Hassid for the teeth. For the tongue, I used Essie Foot Loose mixed with American Apparel Cotton and CND Electric Orange, then added A Beautiful Life Poison to the mixture to shade. For the 'Gru' silhouette, I used Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud. Topped everything off with two coats of Seche Vite top coat.