One more remix

COMMENTS: I'm sick of the pink but too lazy to take it off and put on a fresh mani, so... I played! Using tape to section off the nail, I painted the top part black with LA Colors - Black Velvet. Then came more  white dots, and finally the black dots. It's a bit much, but I'll only be wearing it for a day, so I'm not even bothering with cleanup or another layer of topcoat. Black Velvet is sooo shiny on its own!

EDIT - I ended up putting on another coat of topcoat 2 hours later. It looks better, and because I waited so long, I have minimal smudging. The topcoat really helps merge the layers into one smooth shiny surface.

She's Sooo Glam... in that Bold Blouse

COMMENTS: It's amazing how much attention a (pepto bismol) pink manicure attracts! Either way, I finally had time to do something quick with yesterday's Color Club - She's Soo Glam. I turned it into a funky french with Tres Risk - Bold Blouse and added dots in white. Photos taken before a final layer of topcoat.

Color Club - She's Sooo Glam

APPLICATION: A little patchy like a pastel - I had to shake it up again before the 2nd coat
COATS: 3 - I had two, then failed at putting on stickers, so had to add a third.
TOPCOAT?: Yes - Beauty Secrets Fast Dry
SOURCE: Ross Dress for Less as part of the Rebel Debutante Pack
COMMENTS: I wanted to wear an unmistakably girly pink - and this one definitely fits that description! Unfortunately there wasn't enough time to put on white polka dots. Ah well... and yes, I know, I didn't have time to moisturize my cuticles and hands after cleanup.

UP NEXT:

American Apparel - Mac Arthur Park, Trenchcoat, California Trooper

APPLICATION: Formula was a little thick, but smooth
COATS: 1
TOPCOAT?: Yes - Beauty Secrets Fast Dry
SOURCE: American Apparel
COMMENTS: I walked into an American Apparel store (first time ever!) last week and while they didn't have all the new colors in, I managed to get a few of them as well as some older ones. Back to my favorite quick and easy nail art - dots!

Mac Arthur Park:

Trenchcoat:

 California Trooper (tiny single dot accent)

ABOP Franken - Light Teal Holo

APPLICATION: Smooth
COATS: 2
TOPCOAT?: Yes - Beauty Secrets Fast Dry
SOURCE: Holo polish was a grey holo (#108) from Golden Rose. I added some blue and green (can't remember which ones, sorry.)
COMMENTS: I've wanted China Glaze - DV8 for a while as I find it the most attractive of the OMG polish collection. I still don't have it, and a while ago decided to make my own version. I wasn't successful, but do like the result! Plus, I ended up with more than one grey-ish holo from Golden Rose, so I feel this was put to good use. This green franken was also made from it.
Photos taken with flash to show the teeny tiny bit of "holo-ness" in the polish.

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Quick Sand

APPLICATION: A little lumpy as the polish is quite thick.
COATS: 2
TOPCOAT?: Yes - Beauty Secrets Fast Dry
SOURCE: CVS
COMMENTS: This polish is a nice neutral and looked intriguing in the bottle since it has little silver specks/shimmer in it. The silver doesn't show on the nail but rather adds some texture to the color. I love that this color is super subtle on my nails - from afar it almost blends into the color of my fingertips.

Got a long overdue trim...

As much as I liked my nails really long, they just were too long to be practical anymore. I took them down a bit, with a nail file. I haven't been doing anything special to them since my surgery in mid-August. I stopped taking Biotin back then.

Here they are after the filing to cut down the length - you can't see it because of the curvature of my nails, but the corners are sharp since I filed straight across. I sat outdoors to file since I was generating quite a bit of nail dust!

I accidentally scraped the nail file over my thumb nail as you can see in the photo below. I leave the surface of my nails alone - no buffing or anything. 

And after final filing with the finer side if the file and adding some curve to the corners. They're ready for a quick wash and scrub followed by lotion and on to the next mani!

Nyx Girls - Mushroom Glitter, Buzz Worthy

APPLICATION: Smooth
COATS: 3
TOPCOAT?: Yes - 1 coat of Quick Slicker
SOURCE: Beauty supply store
COMMENTS:  Buzz Worthy was the first of these two that I purchased. Obviously I like it a lot because I mistakenly bought it again! I especially like it because it's a warmer color that goes well with my skin. I got Mushroom Glitter later, and since I couldn't decide which to wear first, I decided to wear them both - and I think it works. 3 coats were necessary, but each coat dried quickly. These are gorgeous foil-ish glitters, and boy are they shiny!
Index and ring fingers = Mushroom Glitter
Middle and pinky fingers = Buzz Worthy

UP NEXT: Something neutral

Rub-on transfers are not all created equal

COMMENTS: When I used a new set of rub-ons on my Nyx - Perfect Grey mani the next day, I realized that I'd picked a batch that didn't work well for nail art. These were thicker - more like stickers. They also had some sort of glue on them - not alot, but enough to make the rub-on process less fun. Here is the finished product. I had to use two coats of topcoat because of the thickness of these.

This is the pack they came from. These are all pretty, but too thick. Purchased at Joanne Fabric & Crafts:

And here is the pack that contributed the little green butterflies and flowers (bottom left) to my first rub-on mani. Nice and thin and tranfered easily and completely - a pleasure to work with. Also purchased at Joanne :

And the pack below contributed the days, months, and little green heart. Nice and thin and easy to work with as well. Purchased at Big Lots:

So, I learned a lesson. I need to really try to gage the thickness of the rub-on transfers before purchasing - especially since I don't do any scrapbooking or card making!

UP NEXT: Something blingy

Nyx Girls - Perfect Grey

APPLICATION: Smooth
COATS: 2
TOPCOAT?: Yes - Beauty Secrets Fast Finish
SOURCE: Beauty supply store
COMMENTS: This is the color that picked up my mood on Thursday night when I was feeling down and had just put on a combination that made me feel worse. Such  a lovely calm grey... sigh...  No cleanup.

UP NEXT: Rub-on stickers - the not so nice ones...

Kleancolor - Golden Nightmare, Wet N Wild - Tipsy

APPLICATION: Smooth
COATS: 1 of each
TOPCOAT?: Yes
SOURCE: Beauty supply store and Rite Aid respectively
COMMENTS: This mani didn't last even 30 minutes on me. While I loved that the Kleancolor base took just one coat, I'd been feeling down that day, and this made me feel even gloomier. So after taking photos, I took it all off (a rarity for me - but that tells you how yucky my mood was) and moved on to the grey in the next post. With the grey on, I went to bed feeling so much better. Color therapy works!

UP NEXT: Something grey

Fingerpaints - Paper Mache (and fun from the craft store)

APPLICATION: A little thick, but smooth
COATS: 2
TOPCOAT?: Yes, Beauty Secrets Fast Dry
SOURCE: Sally Beauty Supply
COMMENTS: I certainly didn't plan to do a plain white mani - that would have been too stark. I've seen a few other bloggers do "newsprint" manis, and like the look of the print on the nails. I have no newsprint, so came up with my own version using rub-ons from the craft store (normally used for scrapbooking). I applied the quick dry topcoat after Paper mache, and when dry enough, rubbed the words/portions of words on, then some images.  Followed the rub-ons with a coat of INM Northern Lights - silver for a bit of sparkle, and finally a layer of topcoat. I love it! So simple but so awesome!

UP NEXT: Something black