Happy Hanukkah!!


So yesterday, as many of you know, was Thanksgiving. What you may not know is this Wednesday was also the first day of Hanukkah! I usually save my Hanukkah nails for December but I got this Zoya color in the mail recently and it seemed so perfect for the occasion that I couldn't resist getting a jump start. I did a simple stripe french for these because the holographic glitter in Zoya Dream really shines and sparkles and I wanted that to be the main focus. I hope you liked these and Happy Hanukkah to those who are celebrating!

Happy Thanksgiving!

thanksgiving


Well for those of you who reside in the US of A, today is Thanksgiving! Mostly that means food, family, parades and of course, being thankful!! I have A LOT to be thankful for this year.  I have a new job, which I love. I'm moving to a new city soon, which I could not be more excited for! My family and friends are healthy and happy! I could go on but it's Thanksgiving and...let's face it there is FOOD to be eaten!! Here are my quickie festive nails for today! I've got  a lot going on so I wanted something quick, simple, and easy to transition into fall in case I don't get time to change them!


I used Zoya Flyyn for my base on these and then added a bunch of different colors to create the waterfall! I really considered a matte top coat but since I'm doing some cooking and cleaning today I didn't want to risk chips. This is the FIRST Thanksgiving day I've had off in about 13 years so I'm NOT going to waste it doing touch-ups!


I hope you all enjoy them! Happy Thanksgiving to all my US followers!! :) I hope it's a day full of family, friends, and fun!

The banker always cheats...



It's Movember!! So what better a time to put a mustache on your nails? For those of you who may be unaware, Movember is the month formerly known as November, where men and women across the globe join together to raise awareness and funds for men’s health. Men grow and women support a Mo (mustache) for 30 days becoming walking, talking billboards. Movember supports world-class men’s health programs that combat prostate and testicular cancer.  When I got these little mustachioed water decals from Born Pretty to review, it seemed like perfect timing! The first thing that came to mind, after Movember of course, was Monopoly! Did anyone else play that game like it was your job when you were younger. So many fights with my siblings happened over a Monopoly board! 


I used the mustache water decal on my ring finger and then added a hat and a cane. For the other nails I kept it really simple and just did property cards. I started out with the idea of making them legible but I liked the sort of artsy version better!  I hope you enjoyed these! You can purchase the water decals at BornPretty.com. (These are design sheet 404) They're SUPER easy to use and go on just like a temporary tattoo. :)

Flashback Friday: Pokemon!

flashback friday

It's time for another Flashback Friday!! These nails are from March of 2011 and despite the fact that they are obviously awesome (since they are Pokeballs!), they are a tragedy!!  In 2011 I really wasn't blogging for people, it was more of a way for myself to keep track of my designs and I normally snapped pics directly after I had finished the artwork. Hence the messy cleanup. On top of I wasn't very steady with my hands and I didn't have any legitimate art tools so I was using all the wrong things to make designs. I REALLY love Pokemon so I wanted to do something for the release of Black and White and balls seemed the easiest. I remember at the time I didn't have many colors so a lot of these were mixed to create the different shades. These took an hour from start to finish. AN HOUR. I recall that the net ball (second pic, middle finger) was my favorite at the end and I was WAY too proud of that little "M" on my Masterball.  So...naturally they recently released Pokemon X and Y and I thought, what better time than to recreate these nails?  So here we go:


Biggest difference here (other than the cleanup and neatness!) is the shape of my nails!  I recently rounded them off and it never lasts but I really want to try to keep them rounded for a bit so I'm trying to do things that really work on round nails that might not as well on square ones. This is a great example. Pokeballs just look better round!  I realized after the fact that I also did these on opposite hands this time. Originally I tried to keep the easy ones for my dominant  hand so I wouldn't have to worry about fiddling as much with the difficulty of the design. But this round it didn't even cross my mind. I used my new Born Pretty brush set and also my dotters for these. Also used a Models Own striper for the black lines so that made it a lot easier to do. Additionally, I didn't have to mix any colors because my stash has increased times a thousand!

Here's another pic with the thumb included! For reference, from thumb to pinky we have the Masterball, Ultra Ball, Great Ball, Dusk Ball, and standard Pokeball. I really love how these turned out! And don't think I forgot about the other hand because I surely didn't!


My Luxury ball is still a little "meh" but my pinky nail here is my favorite of the bunch! Also realized this go round that my Dive ball should have had TWO shades of blue and not one so I made sure it was corrected this time. I was also able to use all cremes this time so that everything looked much more uniform. I think it made the Luxury ball look a little more luxe since it has the metallic finish throughout. It also made the little closes on the balls a little more noticeable.


From thumb to pinky we have the Repeat Ball, Dive Ball, Net Ball, Luxury Ball and Net Ball. Which is your favorite? Do you think they look better now or before?

Swatch This! Nails Inc. Disco Lane

disco lane


OK so I have a new series I'm starting up and this is the first post!  I have SO many colors and I realized when I was packing them to move that there are so many that I've NEVER used or that have never seen this blog! So.... starting this week I am randomly selecting one polish and swatching it for the blog. I hope to swatch one every month but we'll see how it goes! Anyway this is Nails Inc Disco Lane. It was part of a three pack that I bought like a year ago around Christmas time.  It's a black polish with holographic fine glitter. It reminds me a bit of butter LONDON The Black Knight but it's not the same at all.  It went on easily in two coats but it dries a little gritty and not really shiny. I added a coat of Seche Vite and this was the result. Stunning. I can't believe I don't wear this more often! Do you have this color? Do you love it or hate it?

Born Pretty brush set review


So it's not really a secret that I've been on the hunt for some new art brushes. I usually just hit up my local art supply store, grab some random brushes and go.  But I'm trying to do more flat art (freehand) in more intricate patterns and good quality paint brushes can be expensive.  So when Born Pretty offered me the opportunity to review their 15pc brush set, I jumped on it.  The set actually contains 14 brushes in various sizes and a little dotting tool. I thought the dotter would be a throwaway since I already have 11 different sizes but it turns out I actually didn't already have one this size so it worked out! Here's a close-up of the brush heads:


The fan brushes I've just learned to really use over the pat year and the sizes they offer in this set seem SUPER similar if not the same but I love the results you can get with them so I'm excited for new ones. From right to left after the white fan we have the small dotter, a nice long striper brush, a shorter and slightly fatter striper, four various sizes of smaller art brushes and then three smaller square brushes, a fine detail brush with an angled handle, and then two wider large square brushes.   I've already used most of these and they're really nice, especially for the price. They also clean easily. I really love that the smaller detail brush also has a fat handle so it's easier to make more intricate designs with it. You can see that a little more easily in the picture at the top.  Here is a size comparison of the smallest and largest thin brushes:


This small brush is the one with the angled handle.  You can see though, that the smallest is quite small and there is a lot of variation here so that makes it really easy to do almost any design!  I was going to test these all out for you but I've already used them in so many designs so I'm just going to show you some of what you can achieve with them instead. If you're looking for a good brush set, I can highly recommended this set. It's not super pricey, it has a lot of variation and they hold up well.

Here's a peek at what you can do with these! 


I used the long striper brush to make this design!


 A small square brush was used for the giraffe and a small detail brush for the tiger and leopard.


I used the fatter striper for this desgin!


The fan brush was used to make the stripes on the "pumpkin" for this design!

I'm STILL using these and I love them! I can't wait to see what else I can create with these!


You can purchase this set here: http://www.bornprettystore.com/15pc-nail-design-brush-dotting-drawing-p-439.html.


 

Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain...

dd

Well it's the final day of black and white week with The Digital Dozen.  Honestly when the theme first came up all I could think of were all the black and white films I so love watching! But I wanted to have a variety for the week so I tried to narrow it to just a few!  It occurred to me somewhere a long the way that one thing I love just as much as old films are films whose stories are told both in black and white AND color. Pleasantville, The Giver, The Wizard of Oz...I'm sure there are others but The Wizard of Oz is I'm sure one of the most recognizable black and white to color films there is. SO...I decided to do a little play on it and do a black and white to color design based loosely on the film. I did a field of poppies as my design so it would be something recognizable but simple as to not take away from the fade.  I hope you enjoyed the artwork this week! Please check out what the other ladies came up with for today! Thanks for following along! :)

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