1950's Gilner Pixie / Elf Christmas Nail Art

Once upon a time, I had a super cute little vintage Gilner Pixie figurine. It was one of my favorite pieces of my kitschy 50's collection. Well.... I broke it. :( Haven't replaced it yet. I used to keep it out all year long. It always seemed 'Christmas-y' to me. Here is my little elf Christmas manicure. Also, I have a new, new camera! So, my pictures will reflect my practice status with my new DSLR. Mr Ice surprised me and bought me a Nikon d3000 on black friday. Yup. He is a keeper! The green is Orly Enchanted Forest and the pixie's hat is China Glaze Phat Santa.
This is a Gilner Pixie. Couldn't find the credit for this picture in Google images. :(
Close up. I need a macro lens. This is way washed out.

Halloween Art on Guest Fingers!

Notice anything different about this picture? It's not my hand! I was so excited when a friend asked me to do her nails for Halloween. She is a teacher so, her nails had to be 'friendly' spooky. I had the best time chatting and painting fun nail art. She gave me a nice gift as a thank you. :) I'm so lucky to have such great friends (and amazing e-friends!) Thank you so much Deez Nailz! Your AWESOME Halloween nail art round up post gave me the inspiration for this manicure. The vampire she did was inspired by the very talented Mistress Zombie. She has so many super cute (and simple to do) designs. All the white has a layer of OPI Ghostess with the Mostess. So, it's a glow in the dark manicure! The frankenstein is OPI Damone Roberts 1968 and the pumpkin is Orly Crush On You.

Ground Control To Major Tom Space Nail Art With Orly Galaxy Girl

I finally broke down and bought a few of the new Orly Cosmix colors. They are so out-of-this-world beautiful!! I painted my nails tonight with Galaxy Girl. I had no intention of doing any nail art. The color is so deep and interesting. I just had to embellish it. :) I painted a little astronaut (suit is OPI don't koi with me), my home planet, a friendly alien and a cool rocket! If you have an extra second, please click on this picture and make it bigger. The alien wants to say, "Hi!"

I will try to take outdoor pictures to capture the beauty of this polish. I don't think a camera (or my camera for that matter) could do it justice. This was three coats with poshe and doodles on top. :)

PS Don't adjust your monitor. YES I am orange from a fight with a spray tan booth... The spray tan won.

Seche Ultra-V UV Activated Top Coat Review

I ventured into the land of the living today. Feeling a bit better. Sick or not this was an emergency! I was out of my favorite top coat. I went in Sally's with the full intention of buying good ol' seche vite. This has been my staple top coat forever! I saw Seche Ultra-V UV activated top coat. I'm a sucker for quick dry top coats. The box said it would "cure in three minutes with direct UV light. Layers of polish dry quickly resulting in a durable, long-wearing, high-gloss shine."

SOLD! :) It was $7.29 with my beauty club card. I already had a UV lamp. Seche sells a UV lamp for $24.99. That is a good price for a UV lamp. The two reviews for the lamp aren't fantastic on Sally's website. CLICK HERE FOR LINK
Here is the top coat. It is in a cool black bottle that came in a box. See how the box is sad and alone behind the bottle? They wanted to be together so I'm keeping the bottle in the box. (sorry feeling goofbally and this picture is cracking me up! Pensive top coat bottle pic!) :)
So, I cleaned my nails just like I do for a 'normal' manicure. (Do I do 'normal' manicures?) I like using bond aid by OPI under my polish. It balances the PH of the nail and helps my polish stick. I did a swipe of that. Then, I used 1 coat of gelous. I bought this at Sally's. I like it. I picked a color that dries fairly matte. That way, we can really put the 'shine' of this top coat to the test! I picked the obnoxiously beautiful Orly Passion Fruit. I did two coats of color.
Here is a semi-blurry pic of Orly's Passion Fruit. It has a slight satin/matte finish.
Here is my cool picture of my nails going under my lamp after one coat of the UV top coat. Looks creeeeepy!
Voila!! It's a stinky, stinky top coat. But, I think I might be in love. My nails were dry to the touch after 3 minutes and barely 'dentable.' I did pretty thick coats of color so I'm impressed. I'll keep everyone updated on how this wears.

Sick, sick, sick... So.. Some Art From The Vault

My Mondrian Manicure. I have a tutorial HERE.
Pac Man nails! :) Original post is HERE.

GEEZ! my nails were loooong. :)

I just finished up a REALLY fun nail art manicure. But, I'm entering it in The Lacquer Files 'horror' contest. I can't share until Sunday. :(

Not really nail related update:

I have asthma. A few bad allergy days turned into ear infections, bronchitis, swollen lymph nodes and coughing all night long. YUCK. I haven't been in the mood for polish. Sad, I know. I wore incoco french white tips with OPI What's Dune on top for a week!! They sure are great if you don't want to change your polish for a long time. :) Also, my old camera finally died. The hunt begins for a new one! In the mean time.. My new pics might suck. :)

A Very, Very Special Day

Eight years ago I made the best (and craziest) decision of my life. I decided to trust my instincts and elope. My husband and I had known each other a very long time. We grew up on the same street and he was best buds with my older brother. I met him when I was six and he was 12. We grew up side by side yet separate. I wore black to his first wedding! I couldn't stand the girl he was marrying. We both ended up single (after both being in long relationships) at about the same time. I needed a roommate. So, he moved in.... THEN we started dating. I don't think many couples live together before they even go on a date. It made perfect sense to us! We both were fresh out of long term relationships. It looked like rebound romance. We knew it was more. We ran off to Vegas (just the two of us) and got hitched just a few short months after we became an item. Eight years later we are still going strong! I highly recommend eloping. So easy! (on that day I had pink and white acrylics with flames / playing cards airbrushed on them!)
Here we are at the Elvis Wedding Chapel. Elvis wasn't in our budget. So, they gave us a Phil Donahue look alike instead!
Here is my manicure. Orly Happily Ever After with eight marks. :)

Iris Nail Art For The I Most Important Person In The World

Happy Mother's Day mom! I know irises are your favorite. I made this iris is just for you. I love you so much. Thank you for making me who I am (and for making me in the first place!!) Thanks for loving me. Thank you for giving me the gift of confidence and strength. Now that I have my own children, my respect for you has multiplied exponentially!! How in the world did you do so much!! You truly are my super hero.

I love you mom!

P.S. Did you know the fleur de lis design is an iris?

Here is an extreme close up. The base is the gorgeous OPI Jade Is The New Black. The stem is Pure Ice wild thing and Orly Enchanted Forest. The flower is Diamond Cosmetics Not Your Hum Drum Plum and Orly Charged Up. The black, white and yellow are stripers.

Here is a picture of irises from the burpee catalog online.

Modern Dandelion Nail Art

I was feeling uninspired nail art wise. A friend suggested I do dandelion puff balls! This is my interpretation of a dandelion puff ball. I used Orly Mirror Mirror and black striper polish. I added a micro french tip. I kind of like this!

Later today, I will be doing my first Bikram Yoga class!! I love yoga. But, I have never tried "hot" yoga! It's 1.5 hours long and the room is heated to 96+ degrees. This should be interesting!

My Best Friend is a Droid (with orly iron butterfly)

I'd like to introduce you to my new best friend (sorry Erla!) He won Time magazine's Gadget of the Year award.

I finally got a new cell phone. It is a magical contraption. The Motorola Droid uses the Google Android platform. (the little droid is the Android logo) The things this puppy can do.... google voice search, scan barcodes, dvd quality video. I'm in love! I'm basically a PC girl. Finally, there is a phone that can step in the ring with the Iphone! No matter which phone wins the championship belt...

I Heart My Droid.

Wait a minute. I should have blogged from it! Next time?

Side note: The incoco was really easy to take off? I used pure acetone. I bet it would have lasted forever. I'm just too impatient! :)

The base color is Orly Iron Butterfly from the Metal Chic collection. The "I" is a chrome silver color by Stargazer. The heart is China Glaze China Rouge. The android is Pure Ice Wild Thing. I used Essie matte about you on the nail art to keep with the matte theme.

Avon Nailwear Pro Swatches and a Comp

First, here is a reindeer I made out of a beer can last year. :) Tis the season!

Now, onto the swatches!

I've wanted to try Avon nail polish again for some time. I used it when I was little. My mom would order skin so soft products every summer (it's supposed to keep mosquitos away.) She would always let me pick out a few things. (have I ever mentioned how amazing my mom is?) I remember getting the lipsmacker-like chapsticks (I'd eat them) and the nail polish in PLASTIC containers! Avon nail polish has come a long way. These are all glass bottles. :)

You can order these from Avon.com

Tweed is a perfect vampy jelly bordeaux color. This is three coats with seche vite top coat. Two coats would have been plenty. (side note: I still have a flipping silk wrap on my middle nail. Since these were swatches I didn't get it perfectly smooth. )

Nocturnal is a very easy to apply putty color. Color wise, it is an exact duplicate of OPI You Don't Know Jacques. It is more creamy and opaque faster than it's twin.
Here, the whole nail is painted with You Don't Know Jacques. I painted a swipe of nocturnal in the box. Can you see a difference? I can't! :)
More comparisons: 1. You Don't Know Jacques 2. Nocturnal 3. Orly Prince Charming 4. Sephora By OPI Metro Chic
Midnight plum is a pretty vampy plum shade. It looks almost black indoors. But, not fully black. The purple is noticeable.
This is Blue Flare. Definitely the most unique of the bunch. It is frosty without being streaky. I like that it is fairly dark without being blackened.

Classic fit is an almost black vampy purple. The top picture shows it's vampy side. The bottom pic shows it's purple base color.
This color is so not me! I don't know what to say. :) It totally doesn't fit in with the other colors I picked. I'm not sure what I was thinking?!

I've been using this cuticle balm for a few days now. The dry weather has been killing my cuticles. I'm really loving this balm. It's easier to travel with than solar oil. I feel like it protects my cuticles more than just oiling them up. :) The scent is very faint.

Thanksgiving Manicure. Bring On The Tryptophan!

So, these are the things that I am most looking forward to eating on Thanksgiving. Turkey, pumpkin pie and mashed potatoes are going to be consumed in quantities that would shock a competitive eater.

And yes... I am going to eat the Pillsbury dough boy. He is fast. But, I am faster! Muuuhahahaha.... (that is supposed to be an evil laugh)


After I am done. I will need some of these.

I am ready for Thanksgiving dinner!! Bring it on!! *adjusting my turkey eating pants*


PS On a nail polish note! The base color is Orly's Enchanted Forest. It's two coats. This green is gorgeous!! Definitely not black. Very nice. The Turkey is Ginger balls (oops) OPI Ginger BELLS from the new holiday collection. The mashed potato bowl is Sally Hansen Nasturitum. Pillsbury dough boy's eyeballs are OPI Dating A Royal. The rest of the colors are blended.

R Rated Manicure

This manicure is the epitome of sexiness! The base color is the uber sparkly Maybelline Red Comet. Add a layer of fishnets and Orly Goth tips and VOILA! What a fun way to dress your tips!