it's been a busy few weeks, and there hasn't been much time for nail art on myself, but I took off my Shellac Purple Purple (which was still looking mighty fine.) yesterday and was in the mood for a Halloween nail action. Even after a couple weeks of not doing my own nails, I feel out of practice so I opted for a simple Frankenstein and his Bride inspired nails. I used SinfulColors Innocent and a black nail art striper to do the "stitches" on all fingers except the ring which is China Glaze Haunting with a white striper used to resemble Frankenstein's Bride's awesome hair. Nothing too crazy, but a little something to get into the spirit of Halloween. I hopefully will get some time to do at least three or four more Halloween designs before it's too late.
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Available at CosmoProf (Pro-only) or transdesign.com (general public) for around $15
Purple Purple is a gorgeous midtone-to-vampy purple with beautiful blue iridescent shimmer. The formula, Shellac, OMG. I cannot. It's so. freaking. amazing. Prior to this Seche Vite over polish was the most intense shine I'd ever seen on nails, but this looks like glass even days later.
You'd never think that someone like me, who changes their nails two to three times a week would ever break down and try CND Shellac, but I did it! I have heard raves and raves and figured it was a shame I'd never get to try it because my nail ADD would never allow me. Since I've been in Nail Tech school for the last few weeks, I've come to the realization that I just don't (and won't when I've got my own salon) have the time to do my own nails as frequently as I'm used to. I also was starting to get tired of ruining my own paint job with acetone, client's polish and acrylic that somehow manages to find it's way to my nails by the end of the day.
Click to read more about Shellac!
CONTEST NOW CLOSED
Winner: Courtney33!
I numbered all the entries and entered them into Random Line Picker and #7 was the winner.
Win a copy of the fabulous polish-centric book, Enamel Diction by Australia-based The Initiative. I have to be honest, The Initiative and Enamel Diction are both really an enigma. I don't understand quite what the Initiative is, but I know this book is awesome and a cool addition to your library if you're a nail and/or color junkie. it's filled with great quotes and references and it tells you what your choice nail polish says about you. It's a fun book, and The Initiative is giving a copy to one Beautopia reader!
Here's how to win:
Contest will run from now until Midnight on Saturday, October 8th, 2011. Winner will be announced the next day. Good luck!!
1) You must be a follower of Beautopia, either through Google Friend Connect or OnSugar. Both ways to follow are found to the right on this page. If you're already a follower; Thank you! You rock! Now, just write a comment on this post telling me what your favorite color of nail polish is. It can be a general shade, or a particular brand and color name. Let's see what everyone's favorite color says about them! If you want a second bonus entry, don't comment yet! Read on...
2) For your bonus entry just follow @BeautopiaBlog on twitter and tweet: "Win a copy of @EnamelDiction on @BeautopiaBlog! http://bit.ly/oZcz2O" To make sure that this tweet counts as your extra entry, please tell me in your comment that you tweeted it and your twitter name and I'll put you in an extra time!
It's been an eventful month for me at school. I've got exactly four weeks of Nail Tech school under my belt at this point, and in the meantime I've done a few Cosmetology students nails! There is only one other nail student at the moment, my buddy Nancy, and I've had fun doing her nails too. I've borrowed heavily from WAH for inspiration for a lot of these. I love WAH, but you know this already:P
Click to see the manis:D
OK so I am now watermarking my photos because 1) it's incredibly stupid for me not to have been doing so for all this time, and 2) I'm seeing my nails randomly popping up on my tumblr feed without credit to me and they're getting crazy amounts of hits and I feel like I'd like people to know they're my nails. Call me crazy, but... Anyway so I'm sorry about the watermark, I personally think they take away from the quality of the photos, but they're unfortunately very necessary anymore.
Read on for more pics and a sad nail story... :(
I've been somewhat obsessed with doing the angular/triangle half moons I did a couple weeks ago, and have been looking for another excuse to do them. Last night I did my nails with China Glaze Heli-yum and then on the thumb and ring finger did the little stained glass type design using Heli-Yum, Orly Snowcone, Color Club Twiggie, Puccilious, and Explosive, and a black Stripe Rite polish. I thought it looked pretty decent but all my other fingers seemed so naked, so I took it a step further (perhaps a step too far?). I added a coat of Orly Snowcone over Heli-yum to create the triangle moons then added some silver pyramid studs to top it off. I can't be trusted to judge whether something is too much, or just obnoxious, so I love it.
Click for more photos!!
I recently picked up Stone Cold from Orly's new Mineral FX collection and I wanted to use it in some nail art, so I decided to use it in conjunction with Orly Snowcone to do some drips. The soft creme juxtaposed against the rich jeweltone blue glitter was beautiful in person. Stone Cold is an interesting animal; it's not glitter and it's not shimmer, but it's super glittery looking. It almost looks as if it has a texture you could feel, but you can't. And it doesn't come off in particles on your cotton pad, they seem to disintegrate for the most part when you remove it. It's crazy, to be honest. I really like it. It's one of the most vibrant and gorgeous blues I've ever seen. it sort of reminds me a bit of Finger Paint's Surf's Up, which can be found in this post. I highly recommend pickup up Stone Cold if you're a blue nail polish person. Anyway, drips are a pretty easy way to do nail art, because you don't need special polishes or tools. If you are using a polish with a somewhat narrow brush, you just use what comes in the bottle.
From the China Glaze Halloween 2011 Haunting set comes It's Alive, a gorgeous glittery deep mossy green. I was afraid at first when I saw promo photos for this set that maybe it would be a rehash of Zombie Zest from last year, but as usual China Glaze has delivered big time and brought us something even better. The base color on this is a jelly, so the glitter shines through beautifully, but it's very pigmented and even so it only takes two coats for full coverage. The glitter is half small, half large and they all appear to be round and all the glitter is silver. It's just gorgeous, in this girl's opinion. The only thing that could make Halloween better this year is if China Glaze had re-released Spellbound, as I totally could not find it ANYWHERE last year. I am sobbing... Anyway, make sure to click the photos for full-size!
Click for more photos!
Well my first week of Nail Tech school is over, hence the lack of posting this week, and I'm pooped. I'm off on Sundays and Mondays so I'm looking forward to resting the next day or so. It's been incredibly fun so far, but I'm still tired. I'm looking forward to really getting used to my new schedule.
Because I'm now a beauty student, I can officially go into CosmoProf and I just feel like jumping for joy because of that. I've never even been in one, and for the last few years, every time I saw a CosmoProf I'd look at the door as if it were my nemesis and knew somewhere in my mind that one day I'd be walking through it, legit, with my own license. Well, right now it's just my student permit, but it's no less exciting. I went in today and got a ton of China Glaze polishes I'd been wanting including some Halloween ones! (!!!) and OPI A-Taupe the Space Needle which I wanted for the name but it's actually really pretty, too. I also got some hair stuff and I seriously want to go back ASAP for more. I could have stayed there all day... le sigh.
Anyway, this is my manicure right now. I used Essie Knockout Pout, Color Club Twiggie and Wet n Wild White On to colorblock the nails and then applied dots of contrasting color on each block and then made it into leopard with a Migi Nail Art Pen. It's topped with a coat of Seche Vite.
Click for another photo...
Inspired by a badass Fleury Rose Nails look she did for an MNWKA shoot, I made these eyeball and shooting star nails last night. I used Chanel Nuit de Russie as a base to make it look like a starry sky, then i added the eyeballs with some white polish, Sally Hansen Pacific Blue, WnW Black Creme. I made the red blood vessels with a Migi Nail Art Pen and then I added some silver foil stars and some "trails" with China Glaze Shooting Star. If I had it to do again, I would have 1) been in less of a hurry and taken more time with the blood vessels, 2) used a different base color as this one is shrinking up under the art terribly, and 3) add the "trails" and THEN the stars because they look largely obscured by the glitter. meh. Overall I like it a lot and i'll be trying it again. I think next time I'll add a little 3D eyeball action on a nail or two.
Click for another photo or two:)
