Valentine's Day Nails

I recently bought Nails Inc's base coat polish, and this was my first time trying it out.  I am throughly impressed!  After painting on the base coat I only had to use one coat of color on most of my nails!  With some of these polishes I've used up to three coats in the past!  Below are the polishes I used for this nail-do.  Left to right: Nail Inc.'s base coat, Urban Outfitter's Cupcake, Ulta's Encore Pink, Sally Hansen's Xtreme Wear Bubblegum Pink, Nails Inc's top coat, Sally Hensen's nail art pen in white, and a red permanent marker.  

I paint on a coat of the base coat, then I randomly painted my nails with the three different pinks.  Once those coats dried I painted on a second coat of color, just because I'm used to doing that, not because they really needed another coat.  Then once the pinks had dried completely, or so I thought I attempted to draw on some hearts with the nail art pen.  I quickly realized the polish had dried completely and decided to do polka dots on the other nails.  I thought I could get away with using the marker while the polish was still wet, but I didn't have much better luck.  Plus when I went to paint on the clear topcoat it bleed all over the place, and now my hearts look like they are bleeding.  

I seem to be ultra impatient when painting my nails.  I have a hard time waiting for my nails to dry, and end up with smudged messy fingers.  Polka dots are so easy though, and always look great.  They are my saving grace when it comes to painting my nails.  I always think my nails look nice when they are adorned in polka dots.  Hope you have a lovely day, chris!

Pink and Grey Nails

Happy New Years Day!  I should be doing a December Wrap-Up, but I didn't feel like putting in all that work.  So instead I painted my fingernails.  I used two colors I got from Urban Outfitters and Mermaid's Tale by Julie.  

I started off by painting my nails the grey color.  It took three coats!  After letting my nails dry completely I used green painter's tape to tape off the V's on my fingers.  Then I painted on two coats of pink.  I quickly removed the tape.  To finish the look off I added some polka dots, using a paperclip.  I did the dots a little differently on my ring finger and thumb.  

I like my nails look a little different between the fingers. I love a little quirkiness in life, even in the little things like a paint job on my fingernails.  

Hope ya'll have a great beginning to 2013, and happy DIYing this year, chris! 

Christmas Nail Art

My work's Christmas party is on Friday, so I thought I'd paint my nails today.  Of course I turned to google to find my nailspiration.  I found a ton of great Christmas inspired nail art, but I'm not all that talented, so I went for the simplest (yet fun!) thing I could find.  I really enjoyed this paint job I found on Polishpedia.  

I don't own any of those colors though, well except for white.  So these are the colors I went with instead.  From left to right: Funky Fingers in Zeppelin, Ulta Nail Lacquer in white, Julie in Mermaid's Tail, and Orly's Won't Chip.  I used the first color as my base coat.  It took two coats to get proper coverage, but it dried quickly.  Then I used the white with a paperclip to make the "snowflakes".  I used the Mermaid's Tail to make my Christmas Tree.  My tree isn't as perfect as Polishpedia's, but it at least resembles a tree and not a dark teal blob.  I finished off with a topcoat of Orly's Won't Chip, which I've said before I never go without when painting my nails.  When they say won't chip, they mean it.  

This is how my left hand turned out.  Sorry it's slightly blurry.  Apparently my arm isn't quite long enough to hold in front of the camera and get sharp focus on my finger nails.  

Next time I'll have to remember to break out the tripod.  It can be such a hassle though.  I really need to buy a remote to make it a bit easier.  Anywho, that's all for today. Happy DIYing, chris!

November Wrap-Up

I realized earlier today that I never remembered to do my monthly wrap-up for October!  Oh well, it's pass time now, but at least I'm remembering to wrap-up November today.  A day into December.  Here are a few of my favorite posts from this past month. 

My niece turned one on November 1st, and I took some first birthday photos of her.  I also made a paper chain backdrop for our little photo shoot.  

I've been experimenting with homemade face masks, and this month I shared a Coffee and Honey Face Mask.  

I also enjoyed this nail-do I painted this month.  I want to get better at painting straight lines on my fingers, especially on my right hand.  

My favorite recipe from Nom Nom Monday this month was the Chicken Tostadas.  Definitely added to my regular go-to arsenal of recipes.  

For my weekly Thirsty Thursday's I enjoyed the Pineapple Whiskey Bottom cocktail the most.  

My favorite DIY was this candle make-over.  

I've been fighting the winter blues, and though it can make daily life hard, it did help me produce a few lovely images I used for this post.  

I can't believe it's already December!  Another month that has run past me in a blink of the eye.  I can't wait for the calmness that comes after the holidays are over.  I feel like most people love Christmas, but I'm a bit of a Scrooge during this time of the year.  I'll try my darnedest to keep my 'Bah-hum-bugs' to myself.  Have a great first week of December, and happy DIYing, chris!

Nail Art

Ick, long day.  I'm failing at words. So here.  Nail art.  

I used Sally Hansen's Xtreme Wear The Real Teal, Sally Hansen's Nail Art Pen in white, and of course Orly's Won't Chip clear top coat.  I could never paint my nails without using this top coat.  I feel like it would be a waste spending the time painting my nails if I didn't use this top coat.  My right hand doesn't look half as good as my left.  I need to work on becoming ambidextrous.  

Have a lovely night, and happy DIYing, chris!

A New Attempt at a Nail-Do

A while back I said I wouldn't post another nail-do post.  I tend to have a lot more frustrations with painting my nails, than I have successes.  However, today I was actually successful in pulling off a really cute paint job on my nails!  

I'm totally loving this look!  I didn't even realize when I got dressed in the dark at five this morning I picked out an outfit that matched my nails perfectly.  My sweater matched the bottom coat which is Sally Hansen's Mint Xtreme wear nail polish.  

You can't see in these photos, but I have a tank top on that matches the triangles (Sally's The Real Teal).  I made the triangles with masking tape.  I finally learned that it is completely essential that your bottom coat of paint be dry before applying the tape.  It may even be wise to just paint your nails a solid color and go for that look for a day, and then add the triangles later.  You could even use the triangles to give new life to old chipping nail-dos.  

I made the pink dots with Sally's Bubblegum Pink, which was perfect with my work polo.  I dabbed the nail paint brush on a piece of junk mail, then I dipped a paper clip into the wet paint splotch, and used that to apply the pink to my nails.  Super simple, even I could pull this off!  I love these colors together, I'm so glad I bought these.  Maybe one day I buy grown up nail polish from Ulta, like some China glaze ... 

or maybe this Butter stuff. :)  

Well hope ya'll enjoyed.  I have a super long day tomorrow.  Not sure how much I will feel like posting when I get home.  Until then, happy DIYing, chris!  

P.S.  If you want better instructions on how to paint triangles on your nails, check out this post Dainty Squid did a while back.  I found it while I was trying to get some nail photo inspiration.  

Green Multi Nail Job!

Today was not a great day, and I didn't get half as much done as I would have liked.  I barely got my DIY done today.  I attempted to paint my nails.  I was inspired by this lovely nail job by Cupcakes and Cashmere.

I started out with a base coat of Sally Hansen's Mint color on my thumb, index, and pinky nails.  A base coat of Sally Hansen's Green With Envy color on my middle finger.  

Then I painted a clear coat on my ring finger, and quickly dusted it with Martha Stewart's Mint glitter over a paper plate.  I knocked off any excess, and painted a few clear coats over the top.  

Then using a white nail pen I drew lines on my pinky finger.

Once, the paint dried on my thumb and middle fingers I put a piece of blue painter's tape half way over them.  Then, with the opposite color of what I had painted each nail I painted one side of my thumb and middle fingers.   

Now this is where I messed up, the painted hadn't fully dried on the base coats or on the new layer of paint when I tired to peel it up, and up with the tape went my new paint job.  So I used some nail polish remover on those nails, and skipped the tape this time around.

Here's hoping you have better luck with this!  Happy DIYing!