I have some new nail art! It's been ages, but I had a ton of down time today and I was in the mood to do some nail art! I browsed Pinterest (Pinterest.com/rakuzen) and found a cute sunflower ish nail art.
The cast of characters:
From left: China Glaze Agent Lavendar, Zoya Arizona, Zoya Wednesday, Zoya Shelby, Revlon Dreamer, OPI DS Illuminate, and a Sinful Colors yellow striper.
First step, two coats of each color. These colors show up on my blog a lot because they're basically the only spring/summery ones that I have. Most are dark and more suitable for fall.
Then using the brown color, paint a small circle in the corner. Using a yellow striper (it was yellow, although it did turn green on the middle finger), draw petals around the brown circle. Finish with top coat and voila!
Super simple design, but I love it! Has just enough sparkle for me. It was nice to get back into nail art too, I haven't had much time or energy lately with working and taking classes all summer.
These are my nails from last week. I haven't had time to post! But final exam week always gives me time :) Plus, these past few days it has been so warm and spring-y out that I had to make spring time nails!
This was a popular design last year and I really love how cute and simple it is. I tried using spring colors but I only brought about twenty or so polishes with me when I moved to college, so I didn't have as many choices as I would have liked. In fact, I'll do a quick paragraph about that at the end!
I love these polishes (which is why I happened to have them with me). I tried to be as spring-y as possible! I used my Art Deco White nail polish striper to draw lines on each nail (3-4 per nail). On my pointer finger, I finally used one of my dried flowers from the wheel that I bought over the summer. I LOVE THIS NAIL DESIGN!
The polishes that I brought with me to college.
If you want to know what they are, I can post it. As you can see, lots of polishes haha. China Glaze, OPI, Essie, Butter London. Some of them I haven't used yet though (surprise, surprise). But still! I store them in a small cardboard box on my desk.
Hope you like it! I do have a couple more nail art posts to put up, some product reviews that have been waiting for me. Off to study!
My pseudo-flower design. I would have liked if each of my nails looked more like the design on my thumbnail, but c'est la vie. The base is Sinful Colors Tokyo Pearl. I love this color, except that it's extremely sheer and needs multiple coats to be opaque. And with each coat, if you accidentally nick it or make any type of imperfection, it will show through. But the color is so pretty that it's almost worth it. So, about three coats of Tokyo Pearl, then I used Seche Vite to dry it.
To make the designs, just draw the black outline with a black striper (I used L.A. Colors Black), then line the inside with a pink striper (I used L.A. Colors Pink).
Plus, my nail haul from last week. All Sinful Colors are from Walgreens (which had a 99 cent sale for SC), and the other picture is all from Rite-Aid. I know, 17 polishes sounds extreme. But they were all such a good deal!
From left to right: Sinful Colors Savage, Queen of Beauty, Nirvana, Boogie Nights, and San Francisco.
I'll update with the names later tonight because I don't have the polishes right next to me. As always, will swatch on request.
I love buying nail polish on a discount because, even if the color doesn't suit my skintone or tastes, I have friends who, knowing I'm a nail polish junkie, are always willing to take it off my hands.
And that's it! I'll have a new design hopefully on Monday, and maybe I'll get around to posting up all the nail art tools and decorations that I got off eBay (: 'Til then!
It's been awhile, but I finally have some nail art to share! I found this design while scrolling through soompi designs, and I saved this one among others. To be honest, I didn't realize that it was Valentine's day, and I was planning on doing this with OPI Ink instead of a pink and red combination, but I realized how perfect this design would be for V-Day. So you can use any colors if you want to replicate this design.
I used Sinful Colors Oasis for the base. The picture doesn't capture the beauty of this color well enough! It's a bright, gorgeous pink with a subtle shimmer. I know it's been sitting in my collection for months, so I have no clue why I've never used it! It's so pretty.
For the thumb nail, I decided to use a heart sticker instead of cutting out the hearts, but it was too wide and I didn't like how it ended up. Of course, with Valentine's Day stuff on sale now, it might be worthwhile to find some good heart stickers and purchase them to make it easier.
What you do is press the sticker (or, alternatively, cut hearts out of scotch tape and use that instead) in the corner of your nail. Paint the color all over your nail. I used three coats of Oasis, just because it got even more pretty the more coats were used. Then rip off the heart and outline it with a striper. I used Sinful Colors Be My Valentine Striper. Draw two lines in the corner (optional), wait a few minutes, and apply topcoat. So pretty! It's a very simple design, too.
Also, I received my Birchbox for February in the mail yesterday! I only found out about Birchbox last month, and now I want to know where it has been all my life! It's so pretty and professionally put together, and a great way to try new things.
The box. It is made of sturdy cardboard, and it's so cute and very strong.
The inside when you open the cover. I love how pretty these are! You could totally just take the birchbox and give it to your friend as a present. It's already wrapped on the inside! The bow is such a nice touch, I was totally surprised.
The contents of my Birchbox. From left to right: Eye Rock Designer Eyeliner. These are single-use, stick on liner strips that come in four different styles. I haven't tried them out yet, but they look so cool! A card for six free songs from Green River Ordinance, an indie rock band. Jouer Luminizing Moisture Tint. colorescience pro Glow and go Travel Puff. Dermalogica Daily Microfoliant. And a neon pink, heart-shaped, Lifestyle Extra nail file.
This box is so cool! I love it all, and I can't wait to use it. And isn't that nail file adorable? I usually carry around a crystal nail file at school, but I think I might swap it out for this.
Stay tuned! Later this week (or hopefully, tomorrow at the earliest) I will have my nail haul for the week. And it is INSANE.
Wow, I am fail. It takes me two weeks, and all I come back with is a long-overdue swatch and a sort of fail nail art? (I also did not buy any nail polishes. A lot of my money has been going to coffee.)
Anyways! I didn't have enough time last week to do a nail art, I just used some nail treatments on my nails. For a science project that is required for graduation, I'll be testing the effects of Toluene (one of the Big 3 chemicals in nail polish) on insects. What's the purpose of that?
... I do not know. But what could be better than being around nail polish, and poking roly-polys with a stick? Exactly.
My nails for the past week. A bit of tip wear because it was a day or two after I first did the design before I could take the picture.
I followed the tutorial off of this tutorial with a few major differences.
I used a sponge brush to apply Sinful Colors This Is It, then drew the flower design (although my friend remarked that it resembled a cracked egg) with my pink striper brush, and went over that with my black striper.
I didn't add the cheetah print marks because I don't really care for animal patterns. I also didn't put gold glitter in the center of the flowers, partially because I was lazy and also because I forgot. Overall though, I liked the effect :)
Here is my swatch for the week (since I have not bought anything over the weekend, you'll have to live with just a swatch. OPI Stranger Tides from the Pirates of the Caribbean collection.
I should have warned you that it was a swatch that I hadn't cleaned up my nails yet in. I'm sorry. (I'm also sorry that my watermarks and stuff kind of suck. I edit my pictures with the free picnik on Flickr, and I just pick a random color for the border and fade the Rakuzen.)
I'm working on a new design right now, so I'll post that soon hopefully.
Still haven't found my SD card. So I will just post about my haul for the last week.
Walgreens was having a sale on Sinful Colors, 99 cents per bottle (not including their new collection). I stopped by and picked up three bottles:
Left to Right: Hot Spot 943, Why Not 951, and All About You 921.
I haven't swatched them/tried them on, but I will soon. Yay. Cheap nail polish :)
I'm super sorry it's been awhile! But exams (and school) are finally over. Also, on Tuesday I pulled a muscle (maybe?) in my knee, and I've been stuck at home. It was scary; I turned from helping a customer at work, and just fell. There was a loud crunch in my knee, and it hurt so bad. Afterwards I felt extremely dizzy and my vision was so blurred;; I was still at work though, and apparently I looked so out of it that a customer thought I would pass out. So I spent two hours at the hospital, only to discover I had no broken bones.
Moving on to the point of this blog!
So my sister came home this past weekend, and brought me a present-- two colors from the OPI Hong Kong collection that I had been eying! "Lucky Lucky Lavender" and "Jade Is the New Black." I've only looked at Lucky in the bottle, but I couldn't resist and swatched Jade Is the New Black on a fake nail just to see the design possibilities. It's a gorgeous green, and I can't wait to wear it.
Plus, I made a post on Soomp! about how I wanted some out-of-stock OPI, and this super sweet Soompier messaged me, offering to see if they had the colors near her house. She snatched up Absolutely Alice, Jade Is the New Black, and Dim Sum Plum. I mailed her the cost (a ton cheaper than what I pay in Michigan) and a service fee because she was ultra sweet to do this. So I'll have two Jades, and the two colors I desperately wanted! :D So happy.
This is OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui. I'm really disappointed that I couldn't capture the correct color. It looks really bright, but it's actually not. It's a gorgeous dusty blue. A must-have for my current color obsession. The design is supposed to be a butterfly, but it can definitely be seen as a flower. I used my rhinestones for the first time! Only one of them was able to last five days until I removed it today.
And I bought Sinful Colors Soulmate a few weeks ago, when I bought their Mint Apple. I am so disappointed with Sinful Colors right now, and this is coming from someone who has promoted them so much. The formula was thick and goopy, and it dried slowly. Ten minutes after I had put the first thin coat on, it still made marks and was wet to touch. The color was kind of pretty, but it was disgusting on my nails, so I took it off. I was literally able to scrape it off with my nails-- it wasn't even like peeling nail polish (which is bad for your nails...), but more like scraping toothpaste or something off your skin. Gross.
That is seriously the closest picture I could get to the true picture. I don't even know if you can see the finger marks on it. (Please ignore my sheep pajamas). I am so disappointed right now. D: I took it off and applied base coat to my nails, but I already made the bathroom smell awful like nail polish and remover, so I'll have to apply polish tomorrow. I'm thinking Jade Is the New Black.
I went out of town today, and picked up a wheel of rhinestones from Michaels to use in nail art. It's not very big, which is good since I'm just using it as a test, and I got it for around $2 ?
Also...
I bought my first OPI nail polish! My sister referred me to the only place in the mall that sold OPI, so I went to check it out. I was hoping to get Absolutely Alice from OPI's Alice in Wonderland collection, because pictures make it look gorgeous, but they only had Off With Her Red. Right now I'm more into dark colors, so I didn't get it.
Then I saw they had part of the Hong Kong collection! I had just looked at swatches of that online (Thank goodness). They didn't have two of the colors I wanted the most-- Dim Sum Plum and Jade Is the New Black. Just "A Good Man-Darin Is Hard to Find," "Pearl of Wisdom," "Chopsticking to my story," and "Hot and Spicy."
Which was disappointing, because those were all the colors that I didn't want D: Ah, well. They had "Suzi Says Feng Shui," so I bought it. $8.50! But I hear the price is worth it, in OPI's case.
Sorry it's so blurry-- I'm super amateur at picture taking, and it's late. Plus, this was the photo that stayed closest to the bottle's color.
Moving on, I also bought my first Essie from the same store! My only prior experience with Essie was from my older sister. She bought me a "MegaMini Jewels" gift set with four colors-- red, two pinks, and a white. I touched it once or twice, but the color was too light for my tastes, so she ended up taking it back for herself. But I also heard Essie was a good brand, so I splurged and spent $8 on it (the highest I've ever paid for nail polish is $4 for Sally Hansen).
I didn't really look at many swatches for Essie, so I didn't want to buy a color and end up hating it and wasting my money. So I bought "Mint Candy Apple." The bottle was surprisingly big, so I'm excited to use it.
Once again, sorry for the bad quality. And the posters in the background xD Last year I went through a HUGE Jonas Brothers fangirl phase. I grew out of it though, but I'm too lazy to take down all the posters, so I have their old pictures everywhere in my room.
I got some e-mails from readers asking what kinds of nail polish and what nail brands I like to use.
I recently discovered (a few months ago) Sinful Colors nail polish at Walgreens. They have a beautiful line of colors with cute names, and it's $1.99 per bottle. My only problem with it is that it's a bit sheer, so you need a few coats if you like it dark.
I don't live in a big town, so I have no access to OPI, Essie (although I have a gift set that I received for Christmas), or China Glaze, but I heard they were very good brands and worth the money.
Here's a picture of part of my nail collection from sometime last month (It has expanded since then)
Hello! This is a blog that I am setting up to keep all of my nail art pictures. I first got into nail art about a year ago. I'm definitely not professional or anything, so a lot of my pictures and designs will be amateur-ish, but I hope you'll all grow along with me.
Now, here's a few samples of my work:
(Sorry for the blurry image) This was done for my high school's homecoming week last winter. As you can see, it's not extraordinarily done (I was rushed). I go to a private school, so I attempted to follow my school plaid onto my nails. :D
These were my nails for the homecoming dance. I used Sinful Colors Tokyo Pearl, and Sinful Colors Bali Mist, because my dress was a light purple and white. :D
My first ever nail art. Simple white with black polka dots. I used a bobby pin for the dots. :] Some of the 'compliments' I got were comparing it to a cow, and a dalmation.
