Inktober Day 18: Trap

Trap was tough for me to figure out. I kept going back to a mouse trap, then I got really gory with the face trap used in the Saw movies, but then I thought of a Venus Fly Trap, and that parlayed into the Mario plant, aka the piranha plant! 

I used a few essie colors (Strut Your Stuff, Cascade Cool, Ruffles & Feathers, and Snap Happy), Can't Read Without My Lipstick (OPI), and my favorite INM black (Black Hole) and white (White Porcelain) for the little piranha plant. I liked the subtle dots I did on my "Rodent" post, so I did a little bit of that again with alternating colors.

Bubble Up

Happy New Year everyone! 2019...it's weird to say. I started this blog 8 YEARS AGO! 8 years ago, I thought what other girls were doing, sharing their nail pictures and playing around with graphic art in blog form, was so cool, that I gave it a shot. I figured, "Why not? I like nail polish too!" It was humble beginnings (check out this early post), and it wasn't really for anyone but me. If someone else read it, cool! If not, it was a good excuse to stay busy after work. Then, it exploded. Posts were shared, tutorials were shared, magazines picked me up, and before I knew it, I was switching career paths to pursue what I thought would be a silly hobby. And here we are, 8 years later.

I didn't make any resolutions this year, but I did get a little bit of an idea I'd like to try to keep up with. While shopping for a new planner, I came across a journal with 300 drawing prompts. Just half pages with words at the top to inspire you to draw. After having so much fun with Inktober, I tossed the book into my basket with the resolve to do some from time to time. No commitment, just some inspiration.

Then I did today's design. Which wasn't inspired by the journal at all.

It was actually an idea taken from this Born Pretty stamping plate. I just simplified it with some basic colors (Act Your Beige! and Black Onyx from OPI).

Bubble Up!

It's like champagne bubbling up from the bottom of a glass. So cheers...to many more years!

Hail Nails Polishes - Review & Swatches

I think it's safe to assume that everyone reading this blog, in some way or another, hails nails. We all cherish the feeling a fresh manicure gives us, and the crazy ones actually enjoy spending hours on nail art...eh hem.

So, we can all relish in the fact that there's a brand out there that not only is named for our love of polish, but is also rooted in nail art and everything surrounding it. Today, let's take a look at a new-to-me brand, Hail Nails.

I'm reviewing some random polishes from the line today, including some neons, pastels, and deep dark shimmers. It gives you sort of an idea of how varied the line is, which is good news for nail artists! Not all of the polishes are 3- or 5-free, but they are cruelty-free. If you'd like more information on a specific polish, you can contact Hail Nails directly.

The nail art I created was inspired by the colors. Street Dreams seemed like the perfect counterpart to Candy Rain, and felt vintage when I looked at them side by side. So I twisted a modern French to oblivion, and added a few geometric accents to pop it out more.

Now let's take a look at these colors on their own.

Cartwright's Blouse

I'm back! And I missed sharing things with all the readers.

For example, did you know that I'm shamefully running out of room for polishes as my collection grows larger and more colorful? Did you also know that I'm looking for a new pad for the summer? That means that my ever-growing collection will soon have a desk to live on, and an area to be stored in.

I've seen so many beautiful polish rooms, and so many great ideas for storage and organization of polish. Do you have a clever solution to your lacque-clutter? Tell me about it, I'd love to hear!

Tonight's look was inspired by an outfit I saw Karen Cartwright wear during a beautiful performance on "Smash" (a television show in the U.S.) Her red skirt had a gold embellished belt, and her blouse was a white silk number with black polka dots. It's almost a literal translation!

The colors I used include Peterhof Palace and Carmen (Zoya), and Alpine Snow and Black Onyx (OPI).

Winstonia Nail Art Tools Review

An essential piece of any aspiring nail artists' arsenal in my opinion is a good brush for detail work and something to use as a dotting tool. When asked by a company called Winstonia to review a set of tools including two of these, I jumped at the opportunity.

This is now my new favorite set of tools, and I highly recommend it for anyone wanting a set.

The set is 8 pieces: a satin bag to store everything in, a two-sided nail file with a 100 and 180 grit strength, 5 dotting tools with two different size rounds for dots (for a total of 10 different unique sizes), and three detailing brushes, also ranging in different sizes.

The whole set retails on the Winstonia website for $8.95, which is an insanely good price! I pay more for lunches when I make runs at work! For those of you with Amazon gift cards, there's also a Winstonia store at Amazon that also sells the set.

I would recommend buying from their actual website though, because they've given me a coupon to share with you all! For 10% off this nail art tool set (not your entire order), use the coupon code NAILEDIT. (This expires February 28th.)

The quality of all the tools and the bag they come in is very high-end. The dotting tools are all solid, no wiggling of the dotting heads against the surface of your nail as you place your dots. The sizes of each side of all five tools are different too. So you're literally getting 10 different sizes.
 

The brushes are AMAZING. They're brush tips are the perfect length, and the actual brush handle is round and thick, making it really easy to hold. It's also a less plastic-y feel, so I am hoping it doesn't melt in my acetone as quickly as my other brushes did.

I was really inspired to try something with a lot of detail for the nail art design tonight, so I chose to do a Native American design using the smallest brush. (I actually got this idea looking a a license plate on the road one night. I don't know what state it was, or if I was seeing things, as it was during a road trip, but I'm glad I finally got the chance to get it down on nails.)



The colors I used, starting from the darkest blue down to my cuticle are:

• Man Hunt (China Glaze)
• Ride the Waves (China Glaze)
• Blue My Mind (H&M)
• Blue (Zoya)
• My Boyfriend Scales Walls (OPI)
• Jacqueline (Zoya)
• Arizona (Zoya)
• Desert Sun (China Glaze)

Again, I HIGHLY recommend picking up a set of these as your first nail art set! I rarely use any other size brush besides a detailing one, so that, coupled with some awesome dotting tools is perfect.

You can buy this set at the Winstonia store here. Don't forget, enter NAILEDIT for 10% off! Please note: This coupon code only applies to the set of tools, not your entire order.

You can also get 15% off your order of $30 or more by entering EVERYTHING15.

They also sell other brushes and dotting tools, stamping plates, glass nail files, studs, false nails, fimo, stickers, microbeads, striping tape, rhinestones, and other 3D nail art decorations. I've added them to my Where to Shop page.

These products were sent to me by Winstonia. The reviews are based entirely on my experience with the products and were in no way influenced by anyone.

Back to Beautiful

With blog responsibility comes the struggle for creativity. I've been approached by a lot of different companies, both big name and indie-size, about doing reviews of polishes and tools and decorations. I always like to try new things and show you guys what's out there, so I'm usually inclined to say yes. With so much traffic in my inbox though, it's easy to lose sight of the nail art love behind the blog, and focus efforts on giving good reviews.

Tonight, I just opened up some drawers in my polish storage and picked out a few good colors. A simple pink, Parfait Day from Lime Crime, and my trusty Black Onyx from OPI, as well as Purity from Zoya. Pink. Black. White. Simple.

In keeping with the simplistic theme, what better than stripes and dots. Easy, clean, and refreshing.

Ah it feels good to breathe beautiful!

Inverted Dots

Polish disorganization is a terrible thing. Bottles get shoved in awkward places, and they get lost in the shuffle of glitter and bottle sizing. I'm suffering from this malady right now and it's unbelievably frustrating. My visits to Micheal's aren't paying off, and I keep coming up without Melmers, as much as I'm dying for one. We don't have the space for a Helmer, so a Melmer would do just fine.

One good thing did come from this unorganized mess though. I rediscovered the cuties from Lime Crime, and paired Crema de Limon, the yellow from the collection, with Calypso Breeze (ORLY). Nothin' fancy, just some interesting dots.

Shoving such beautiful bottles into a plastic container beneath the entertainment center is a far cry from the beautiful polish rooms of girls like Cristina and Caitlin. So if anyone sees a Melmer at their local Micheal's, let's talk.

Happy Little Clouds

I got sunshine on a cloudy day...

And cloudy it has been. The ongoing anti-Fall protest continues with a sunny bright manicure. It's a little something but nothing too fancy or special. I've got some major projects to amp up for, so I'm savoring these days of simple nail art in the meantime.

There's only three colors and a dotting tool involved tonight. Once in a Blue Mousse (Lime Crime), My Boyfriend Scales Walls (OPI) and The "It" Color (OPI).

Gradiated Dots

I've seen and done a fair share of dotting manicures.

I've seen and done a fair share of gradient manicures.

I've seen a few dotting gradient manicures.

But this is the first I have personally seen with this type of separated fading using different size dots.

I dig it. Diggin' the dots.

Bonus: It's all done with Zoyas! The base is Farah, the darkest pink is Reagan, then Lara, and finally Shelby. I have so many pink Zoyas, and a fair amount of neutrals, so this seemed appropriate.

The technique is surprisingly simple. As someone mentioned, these past few manicures have featured my right hand, so I've been trying to keep them simple enough to look as clean as a left handicure would look. Of course, dots are about as easy as it comes.

Class of Sation Limited II Collection

Remember the teaser class photo I showed you the other day? Well today's the day we get to see the graduates out of their caps and gowns, and out in the real world...on real nails! Try not to cry Mom and Dad, the kids are all grown up!

First up in this tearful reunion is Pyramid Princess. She's the glammed up gal on top of the class, clearly sucking up to all professors and maybe doing some less-than-honorable black mailing to ensure her valedictorian slot. Her life's probably busier than most, so sometimes, her appearance is a little scattered. She's got a little bit of glitter of all sizes, all colors, and all levels opacity. She worked so hard to boost her extracurriculars, all for this crowning achievement.

Pyramid Princess over I Vant to be A-Lone Star (OPI)

Hanging out below her is the far-left, a little awkward Most Hue-Nique. It's always a little hard to talk to Most Hue-Nique. He can't figure out where he belongs, but for the class photo, he decided to go with the bright group, one of which made it to this blog crowd. It's not his fault though. He has trouble concentrating, but he's just so handsome that he's loveable. Just...in that awkward way.

Most Hue-Nique over Light Mist (Savina)

One of Most Hue-Nique's newest friends is a cool kid who's made a name for herself, and is lovably known as Skater Dater. She's been channeling Avril Lavigne and it's worked for her. It helps that she's got such a bright personality.

Skater Dater

It's hard to compete with this next lady. Track Scarlet has everything going for her. She's got beautiful, golden hair and perfect proportions...of glitter. There's hardly any competing with her holographic hotness and gorgeous golden glow.

Track Starlet over Did You Ear About Van Gogh? (OPI)

Not to be out-shined, Miss Bling It On is constantly vowing for the top-slot in this class's hotness. She decided to use silver as her outlet to reach stardom and it's working, but her palette only works with some colors. She'll have to be careful as she ages.

Miss Bling It On over White On (Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear)

Finally, there's Class Clown. Guess which one that is in the photo? This goofball is tolerable by only a few. His humor is a little off color, so not everyone can just have him around. I personally love him. He literally made me LOL (as you can see below).

Class Clown over Twiggie (Color Club)

Ok, let's talk about these polishes. The colors are great. I love them all. However, I am not a fan of the consistency. They're all really thick (including the non-glitter, Skater Dater). If you don't have a quick-dry topcoat for these, they'll be dented in no time because they're so thick. I don't know if nail polish thinner will work for these. The one with the thinnest, most workable consistency is Track Starlet. That one's also my favorite.

One thing I loved about the collection, regardless of the consistency issues, was that this large nail polish company has embraced what's popular in the nail polish world - glitter mixes. You can really see it in the glitters I've shown you here.

You can grab these and the other Sation polishes from the Class of Sation collection at Miss's website.

These products were sent to me by Miss Professional Nail. The reviews are based entirely on my experience with the products and were in no way influenced by anyone.

All About Nailed It Color

Yesterday a fairly large sized fire broke out in Boulder due to a lightning strike. It's another fire to add to the growing list of those burning through Colorado. We're okay, and the fire fighters are really doing a great job of staying on top of it. Unfortunately with the wind and growing lightning, it's not out and barely under any control. Let's hope it gets under control quickly and that everyone stays safe.

On a brighter note, here's a very me-manicure.

These colors scream Katy, I just wish I knew exactly what they were called. I picked up these three and four others from Ross in a set for $7.99, but as with all Color Clubs at Ross, there's no labels. The box they came in says "All About Color", but that doesn't seem to be a legit collection. After more looking, the colors seem to be from the POPtastic: Color that Pops! collection. So I'll use those color names here.

The yellow is Almost Famous, the green is Twiggie, and the purple is Pucci Licious. I went a little crazy, but I love it!

Pretty Little Poppies

I think I've found the next best Nailed-It-Nail-Polish. I absolutely love this soft pastel blue color. It's from Avon, called Vintage Blue. It does look a bit vintage. I'm not sure if 50s is considered vintage yet, but it is to me. The Tupperware, the porcelain, the phones, the toasters, the dresses. But it also looks great with some little poppies.

Wedding for the Weekend

I apologize for not posting yesterday. There's been a huge swarm of events engulfing my life recently, and I just didn't have the time to post.

I did however create two manicures, which you'll get to enjoy today. One was on my own nails, while the other was for a newly married friend, Barbara. This weekend I painted her nails for the gorgeous and perfect wedding to her new husband Ron. I offered to help set up the wedding when some important family matters came up with their original wedding planner and my good friend Chloe. So with wedding beauty and planning came little time for posts.

I had to rush to do my nails the morning before preparation began, so I chose a simple manicure with a new color to my collection, Dutch Tulips (OPI). On a side note, I made an unbelievable discovery on Friday when we stumbled upon a nail supply store in Denver called Mile High Nail Supply. With a patient boyfriend in tow, I quickly bought up seven new OPI shades, all for $3.75 each. If you're reading Nailed It on Instagram, you've already seen my excitement in the form of this framed up pic:

Dutch Tulips is the non-metallic red, though it actually is a bit more pink in life. It's stunning. I can't stand it.

So with little time, I slapped on two coats of that and then added some dainty little dots.

Barbara had her own idea for a manicure after she saw Mixed Mama's Valentine's Day manicure on Pinterest. We got together about a week beforehand to discuss the polish choices and the details of what I'd be doing on the day of the wedding, and she chose Pink Imagination (Finger Paints) as the base for her heart manicure.

Appropriately, she wanted the heart on her left hand's ring finger. It turned out beautifully, and the wedding even more so. After vows, rings and kisses were exchanged, the fun began and we danced and laughed all night. Those two are going to have a wonderful life together! Congratulations to the happy newly weds!

As an added bonus, here's a picture of Barbara with her beauty team: Anne and I. Anne worked tirelessly all day to not only do the bride's hair (which you can see is amazing), but also her bridesmaids.

Dotstival and Blog Renovation

If you haven't already noticed, I made some changes to the blog today. Major renovation! I'd love your feedback about things, especially load times. I hate waiting for a blog to load when all I want to do is look at the pictures and read the newest post, so if you're experiencing any pain reading mine, let me know. Just as has been the case in the past, everything was designed by me. Do you like the added thumb ring touch on the fist?

After spending so long on the blog, I didn't have much time for nails, so I did a stippling manicure. The beautiful green is Navigate Her (Essie). I've had that sitting in a drawer for too long, so I needed to use it. It compliments my skin tone beautifully!

Today, Kayla featured me on her blog as well. I was surprised to see a rise in readers, but when I checked my news feed, I saw it was because she had used Nailed It as her blog of the month of May. I was delighted! Go check out the wonderfully nice things she had to say about my work. It's a pretty major milestone for me, to see one of the blogs I have so fondly read for so long actually give me kudos. Hard work pays off.

Pull Over Farah

I would absolutely love it if you took a second to vote for my submission to the Bundle Monster nail art contest! Thank you!

Onto the aaaaaaart (said in a deep, low, drawling voice, swirling a glass of wine or brandy, nose straight up in the air).

I wanted to use my dotting tools again. I love those guys.

The colors I used were Farah (Zoya), Cote D'Azur (Icing), and Pull Over (Sinful Colors). Ok, odd coincidence. As I typed that, an ambulance drove by outside somewhere, and the sirens echoed right into the windows. Cosmic voices from the nailiverse have spoken!

If you're around a Claire's, or a Claire's Club, or an Icing store, I recommend stopping in. While the formulas on the polishes are a bit lackluster, the colors actually are quite eye-catching. Plus, they're pretty cheap, and it's fun to relive your little girlhood with the goodies they have there. I went for the sole purpose of picking up Candy Shop, but wound up with four bottles of colors I was really quite excited about. It's worth the trip!

Born Pretty M71 Plate Review

Tonight I'm doing a review for you! Are you excited? You should be, it's good stuff.

Born Pretty has tons of amazing nail products, as most of you have seen and probably partaken in. One of these products is their stamping plates, which is what I'm reviewing today. In particular, I'm taking a look at plate M71.

The plate consists entirely of small images not meant to cover your whole nail. Perhaps the most famous and well-known design on the plate is the Hello Kitty head. You've seen it before though, so I decided to use a different design (more on that later).

The designs on the plate are all quite cute, and they design I tried is cut at just the right depth. Picking up the design was not an issue, and it transferred beautifully (taking user error out of the picture).

The plate is slightly larger than Konad plates, and is obviously a different shape. There is no backing on the plate, but it's never bothered me. Here's what I'm sad about, which probably won't affect anyone else. The larger size doesn't fit into my little round container where I conveniently keep all my plates. :( Sad.

In addition to the plate, they sent me a scraper and stamper.

 

The scraper measures and acts exactly as the Konad scrapers.

They're both metal, both easy to handle, but unfortunately, they both scrape the plates to death. I still recommend cutting up an old gift card and using that to scrape your plates.

The stamper's rubber piece used to pick up the design is the same size as both the original Konad stamper, and the extra large stamper, as you can see here.

The length of the tool itself is much shorter than the other stampers though.

At first I thought I'd hate the size, but it's actually nice to work with. You can kind of cup it in your free hand's fingers, and it maneuvers well. I don't like the texture of the rubber. It doesn't provide as much give when you're pressing it down on the surface of the plate, so if you've got polish you're stamping with that's a bit less thick in consistency, you won't have as easy as a time picking it up. I ran into this problem with the first polish I tried as stamping polish, and eventually wound up switching to the Konad stamper.

Like I mentioned earlier, the design transfers quite well with the right polish. I used Black on Black (Sinful Colors) for my design.

The base is Carey (Zoya) and the yellow dots are Happy Go Lucky (China Glaze).

Overall, I would recommend buying the plates. They go for about $4.00, and even if you only grab one, you won't have to pay for shipping. What's even better? You can use the coupon code given to those readers of my blog: C10X31 for an additional 10% off. 

Oh the good things just keep on coming!

The Born Pretty products shown in this post were sent to me for review by the company.

Eyelet Skirt

If you haven't already joined Pinterest, I suggest you get yourself an invite...quick! It's full of some of the best things on the Internet, especially when it comes to beauty. It takes out all of the work of finding the cute outfit, and puts that burden on its users, who happily and readily pin things they find interesting. Find the right board, and you're set! I used a pin I liked for the inspiration of my manicure today.

Pinned from http://www.spool72.com/58417/727604/Dresses/Heirloom-Eyelet-Dress.html

This was a relatively simple manicure to do, though I'm unhappy with how bumpy it wound up being. The layers are composed of mainly China Glaze's, including Below Deck, Life Preserver, and Peachy Keen. I've made a mental note to break out Below Deck more often. It was hiding at the back of my Helmer, but it'll be used more now that it has seen the light of day. The only non-CG I used was Beige Blast (Sally Hansen Insta-Dri).