Day 2 - Orange Nails

Alrighty ladies. I could have sworn that this color was going to be the death of me because I couldn't think of anything good for two days!

Then I did them last night and...I like them. Alot.

Right about now is the time when the leaves start changing to the reds and orange and it all has such a beautiful orange hue to them so naturally, this was my inspiration! I so love fall and this was a good mani for me to do.

I used Sally Hansen's "250 Lightening", SH's "Orange Impulse" and Revlon's "730 Valentine" for the base gradient. Then I used plain ol' black acrylic paint to draw the leaves on. Seche Vite to top it off with.

Sorry about the yellow tint on my hands, the polish seemed very attached to me...

Like I said, it took forever to figure out what to do, but this is def one I like!

Good - 1

Meh - 1

Alli

Day 1 - Red Nails

First day of the 31DC2014. Colors. Red Nails.

Hmm…

First off…It’s been like a long time since my last freehand mani. And I had coffee that day.That being said, I was a little disappointed with how this one turned out. I could have redone it but I felt that it would just been cheating almost and good to post it as motivation to do better.  

The base coat is Revlon’s “730 Valentine” which I have swatched before here.

For the gold lines and the glittery color, I used Nailene’s Artist Expressions Warm. In this kit is a clear, glittery polish that’s almost holographic, a gold stripper brush and a small tube of loose gold glitter. I got this years ago from my grandparents and this is the first time I’ve really used it.

This isn't the correct color..

But I used the stripper first and then filled in with two coats of the shimmer color making the red underneath look like it’s a totally different color. I liked the effect and I’ll definitely have to use it again.

Day 1 Complete! Good – 0, Meh – 1.

Date Night Sparkles

Hey Lovelies!

So the other day, my Hubby and I went on a date and I figured "Why not try something new with my nails?". So...I did and I ended up using 8 polishes total. 0.o

I've never really done the whole "most-fingers-one-way-and-one-accent-nail" thing and I was really curious to try it. So I looked at my dress that I was gonna be wearing and figured something off that. It's a real cute burgundy color that's A-line and ends above the knee. It has kind of a rectangle/triangle-ish design in it so I looked for something similar in my nail plate. (Yes, this involved nail plates.Yay!)

So I started out with a new base coat, Pure Ice - Bottom Line Base Coat, and did a base color of E.L.F.'s Metal Madness which is a charcoal black with holographic sparkles in it. I really only had to use one layer of this because it covers so nicely so that was wonderful.

Now for the nail plate. I stamped Bundle Monster 210 in Sinful Colors - Snow Me White on every finger BUT my ring fingers.

The top middle is the lucky design today...

Once that was stamped and dried, I used Revlon's 730 Valentine, Pure Ice Jamaica Me Crazy and Pure Ice Watermelon Ice(Which there will be more on this color soon...) in a gradient over the stamp. This obviously didn't effect the base color with it being so dark.

On the ring fingers, I used an un-named Melissa polish that has pink and silver flecks in it. It's old..So I had to wait forever on it to dry as well as re-do one because I smudged it.. This is a brand that's no longer in production unfortunately. :/ 

Finished up with a coat of Seche Vite Top Coat as always and there you have it! Loved them and they're now in my favorites list! 

Ta ta for now!
Alli

County Fair Nail Art Contest!

**Warning: This post has LOTS of pictures. 

Hello, my lovely readers!! I have exciting news! I won my first ever nail art contest!! It was part of our county fair and it was for amateurs so I thought it would be a great idea for me to do it. I figured that even if I didn’t win, that it would be a good experience and that I’d meet some people that were passionate about nails. And I got both! There were only two other people competing however.  The older one, Jana, was so nice and she was really good! She had only been doing nails for a month and I thought they were great!

                                                                              Here I’m getting ready…

                                                  Me being obsessive about where my polishes are…Heehee!

                                                                                    My cheer squad! 

                                                Starting the mani with my bangs in my face. Like always. :P

So concentrated. Earlier today, I had done the mani and I had had a stiff cup of coffee and was all jittery and it turned out great. So I figured that if I could do it all jacked up on coffee, that I’d be able to do it without jitters. Well….I was shaking the entire time. Literally. So it was good that I had a practice run beforehand. ^^

                                                                  Jana’s and mine finished product.

                                                                                           People…

                                         So happy that it’s done! It was a bit terrifying but SOOOO exciting!

                                                             All three contestants and the two judges.

                                                                 Me grinning out of shear joy. Nbd…..XD

                                                                                       And Jana and I.

So are you ready to see what I did?!?! Tada!

I did a gradient with blue and green for my base, used an brown and light brown for the tree, and just various colors for everything else. If anyone want an entire list, just comment and I’ll get it. I’m bushed right now and I don’t want to go see what they are all called. ^^  Lazy me…I will say that I used Sally Hansen, China Glaze, Pure Ice, some Revlon, Elf, Essie, Sinful Colors, aaaaannnnnndddddd......I think that's it. :D

                                   And I got this stellar ribbon! Bragging rights are actually really nice. Lol 

My prize was this really pretty goldish color by Pure Ice, Jaguar, and a gift certificate to the sponsoring salon for a manicure. 

Anyways, it was a blast and I’m ready for round two! I’ll have to think of some other things to do for next year and hopefully, I’ll be better than I am now. Oh, and I have several more new ideas of what I should do with my nails! Any suggestions are very welcome. :) Hope y’all had as good of a day as I did!

In Christ,

Allison

Nutella and Sunsets. Ahh...

Hello!

So I’ve been trying to become more diverse as of late by coming up with my own ideas, cuz I have a habit of being a copycat and putting my own twist too it.  And those who know me know that I love Nutella. Almost obsessively so. :) So…I cleaned out one of the containers and I’m using that as an idea shuffler! And I’ve got plenty of ideas. :)

Above is me cleaning it out with some hot milk and below is the end product.
 

It actually still smells like Nutella, so I’m a very happy camper. Heehee!

Anyways, I did this pedi a couple weeks ago before our staff training and I didn’t get any pics of it, except for this one…

And I was so bummed that I didn’t get any good pics, so I decided that I was going to recreate it! Ta-da!!

I think that this is one mani that I would probably do several times, just cuz I love it so stinkin’ much. I also really like the silhouette thing, so I might try something like that sometime. We’ll see. :)  And yes, i know, I have a big space in my toes. :P Anyways, it's Sally Hansen Insta-Dry Orange Impulse and Lightening, Revlon's Valentine and a black stripper pen. And I used the gradient technique. Hope y'all are having a great week!

In Christ,

Allison

Tribal Nails

Guten Tag!

So one of the last times I was on YouTube, I saw this talented lady do some tribal stuff and I decided that I was going to try it!

Since it was my first time trying the tribal stuff, I decided to just do exactly what she did in the video. So these are NOT my own ideas. I just wanted to get my feet wet so I could get an idea of what tribal stuff is like.  And trust me. There will be more!

Anyways, I used the Revlon 730 Valentine from my previous post and a white stripper pen from Art Deco. It was a very interesting process and I’m somewhat in love with it. Hmm… I really like how it’s kinda funky, but at the same time, it has that ancienty look to it, since it’s tribal. I don’t know. :) I have an odd look on most things..Heeheee!

So yea.  Yeah for new things!! Anything you’ve just recently tried that turned out better than you’d hoped?

In Christ,

Alli

Revlon 730 Valentine

Good afternoon!

So today, I’m going to do my first swatch! A few months ago, a friend gave me a few polishes, one being Revlon 730 Valentine. So here we go!

This polish is a deep, bloody red that I believe is considered a crème. Correct me if I’m wrong. Anyways, it went on very smoothly and there were no streaks.  I used two coats and that seemed to do a good job for opaque-ness.

It was, however, quite the bugger to photograph. It’s a bit darker in person that in the pictures. I really like this color and I have plans on using them again soon. Well, that’s all I have for today. :)

In Christ,

Alli

Gradient Using Sally Hansen Insta-Dry Lightening

Hey y’all!

As most of you know, there’s a popular trend going on lately called “gradient” nails.  I tried doing this earlier but I couldn’t do it without making a serious line in the nail where you dab it on.  Like so..

BUT! The wonderful Sam from Nailasaurus did an eye-opening tutorial here on how to do it and it was SO helpful! My second one was alot better.

I used Sally Hansen Insta-Dry Lightening for the base and did the gradient effect with Revlon’s 730 Valentine. Using the sponges for these mani’s are really easy and it gives it a really cool texture. You can use pretty much any combination of colors, like same color/different shades or contrasting colors or whatever. Very cool and I’m wanting to try out a multi-colored animal print with this technic sometime.

 What’s a technic you’d like to try sometime?

In Christ,

Alli

Jamaica Me Crazy!

So last week, I went to my friends house and did her nails and I don’t mean to brag, but I think I did  a  pretty good job on some of them! And she gave me a birthday gift! Errr….Birthday giftssssss. ^^

Pure Ice - Jamaica Me Crazy, Pure Ice – Cheatin, Revlon – 730 Valentine, and Revlon – 915 Crème Brûlée. Along with a Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen, in black. It’s really neat, but its not very good for a very detailed image. Or maybe that’s just my lack of talent. Heehee! It was so funny, cuz she said that she got most of them based on the names. Love her! The Jamaica Me Crazy is more of a deep fuchsia, with a nice purplely shimmer to it. So ready to try it out! She also got me…..

This amazing box! I actually have no idea what to call it, so box it is! And it’s so cute! It gave me A LOT of room and I have a place for most of my little accessories now! I love it.

So now that we saw those, on to her nails!!

On the thumb here, I did the most retarded butterfly wing. :P For the index, I did a white base and I stamped with Red Angel Plate 103, doing a multy color experiment with purple, orange and green. On the middle finger, we did sort of a retro type thing with a blue, what is supposed to be a bright pink and a nice purple.  I used my new magnetic polish for herring finger and it turned out pretty cool! Last, but not least, I used a Pure Ice Free Spirit as my base and just did some black and white polka dots. I love that color green. Next!

For the thumb, I did a cute little chick inside an egg. And now is where I’m realizing how sloppy of a job I did. :P Oh, well…I did a navy blue base(PI French Kiss?) and then I did the PI Free Spirit half way up and did opposite dots on either side. Laura, aka, friend who “volunteered” her hands for me, said that she thought it would have looked better with different colors and I think I agree with her. ^^  I think I used my new Revlon color for the base and I used my “Artist Expression” kit thingy…lol Ring finger time!! This is one of my favorite designs so far! I saw it on julep blog here  and fell in love! It was the most fun to do out of all of them. :) And on the pinky, we did China Glaze For Audrey with a blue glitter by Finger Paints. Laugh My Art Off, I do believe. 

Well, that’s all I have for nails today. :) I hope to have another post soon.  Let me know what y’all think, if there’s anyone there. :)

In Christ,

Allison