I should be studying, but I have a headache and I'm in a bad mood.

I should be studying, but I have a headache and I'm in a bad mood.  So... I edited my nail pics and here I am instead.  😬

I've been wanting to try my hand at doing marble / stone nails, but it's so hit or miss whether they turn out nice.  There are quite a few techniques that will get a similar look, but I never found one before now that would give me consistent results.  I did some for Shaun once that looked nice, but I couldn't make it happen again for myself with that same technique, so it was pretty frustrating.

I'm gonna keep this short because I am a tired grump and I have emails and other notifications to deal with, but believe it or not I did these WITH A SYRINGE.  I saw a quick tutorial on Instagram, so I was like "Why not?"  Funny thing is - this is the backside of the polish - the flip side of what the person in the tutorial had showing on her nails, but I liked it better, so whatever.  😜

I hope you all are having a good week.  I have not yet recovered from yesterday, but hopefully I will soon.  ❤

Research polishes

Last night was one of those nights...

Last night was one of those nights where even though my mani was hanging on I was ready for something different.  And I wanted something kind of moody, which is why my ring finger is wearing her lingerie.  😉  Her fishnets are ripped and she doesn't even care!  😳

"Sheer black" is a thing that was popular for a while.  It might be over now, but I still see it on nail art pages on Instagram, so whatever.  😜  At first I hated the way it looked, but I guess it grew on me.  I'm sure that someone sells a sheer black by now, but I mixed my own.  That's probably my first and last foray into frankening my own polish.  It's wasn't hard or anything, but it's nothing I care to do.  I just added drops of black polish to a bottle of clear until it looked about how I wanted it to.

Anyway, nothing new here - no fancy nail art techniques or anything.  I am wearing two of my most favorite colors; Kinbaku by Femme Fatale and Cyber Punk by Vapid, so in this case the polish IS the art.  There is really nothing else needed to make your claws pop when you have such pretty polishes to wear.  I am not sure if these will last the weekend - I'm almost certain that I will want to play in polish again, but Shaun has offered to let me paint him up, so I just might.  😁

Research polishes;
Research plates;
Embellishments from BornPretty;
Stamping technique

So these are the nails I did over the weekend...

So these are the nails I did over the weekend and despite them not coming out just how I envisioned I am quite pleased with them.  The plan was to have them start with purple and end with blue, but my nails weren't long enough for that many colors in the gradient.  I think if I'd used a striping brush to put the colors on the sponge I could have made it happen... but, I used the brushes from the bottles, so the lines of polish were thicker.

I feel so excited that I can do gradients now.  The colors of this one actually reminded me of one that I did FIVE YEARS AGO.  I went back and looked at it and OH MY GOSH.  I can't believe y'all were liking my nail posts back then.  🤣🤣🤣  (But thank you for doing it.  I needed the encouragement, clearly.)

Here is the link to that post, if you need a laugh.  I would say that I'm embarrassed of that photo, except that I'm not.  You gotta start somewhere and that was taken just maybe a year after I discovered nail art, so I was a total newb at many of the techniques.  So if you have room to improve, worry not.  Keep practicing and you'll get there.  Isn't it amazing how much we can change over time?

Various polishes;
BornPretty plate BP-67;
Stamping and Sponge Gradient techniques

Sneak Peek...

Sneak Peek at what just happened to my nails. They inadvertently look like the Instagram logo. 😂😂😂

I don't usually post nudes, but...

I don't usually post nudes, but... I am right now.  I am in shock and awe that these nails are attached to my fingers.  😳  I don't think they have ever all been this long and I know that they have never looked so healthy.

After a week with no nail catastrophes on Cindy with her stilettos I decided to go ahead and re-shape my right hand last night.  I also cleaned all of the polish off my fingers and toes so I have naked nails all around.  I'm about to have something to eat and then I'm gonna start painting.  😁

I think that my Bliss Kiss Simply Pure Nail Oil is finally taking effect.  I've been using it for months, but my nails still peeled and warped.  I have to take into consideration that Psoriatic disease affects not only skin and bones, but can ruin nails, as well.  So yes, I naturally have ridges and dents and brittle, peeling nails, but I think that the oil has helped tremendously.  That, and keeping them polished so they have some reinforcement.

Anyway, I'm off to go throw some paint down before I break one of these.  😂  Happy weekend, friends!  ❤

Ok, I don't normally take nail pics in full sunlight

Ok, I don't normally take nail pics in full sunlight (because of shadows) but considering that I did something weird and I'm not sure how long they'll last, I have made an exception.

So... this time, you get a surprise visit from my Cindy hand! (In the nail art world, Cindy is short for Cinderella - the hand that does all of the work, but doesn't get seen). In my case, she's the left one because I'm a south paw. She doesn't always match the right hand, and is often used as the "test" hand for me to make sure that whatever I'm doing is going to look ok for the hand I'm gonna post. 😜🤣🤣🤣 However, today I made a point of dressing her like the right hand so she would be somewhat presentable. My poor lefty is never quite as pretty (though I'm a good bit ambidextrous), because she is my dominant hand and those nails are always broken and that polish chips first, not to mention the testing.

If you haven't spotted the difference between them yet, here it is: I experimented with a new nail shape at about 4:30 this morning. 😳😳😳 Cindy is wearing baby stilettos! I have been updating my Pinterest with a lot of nail art recently (that whole cleaning out my bookmarks and folder of screencaps thing), and I guess I felt inspired to try something new. To be perfectly honest, I've never been happy with my nail shape, and I figured it was time to put some effort into it.

For those of you who can grow your nails long and they will stay even and pretty, I am jealous. Mine have never been that way. They start to curl once they reach a certain length. Some curl worse than others, so even if I have done the same thing to them all, it doesn't necessarily look as though I have. 🙁 I'm sure that some of this is genetic, but also when I was a kid I did bite my nails for a while, as well as pick the skin at the sides a lot, so I'm sure there is scarring from all of the mistreatment. ☹️☹️☹️

Since the curling happens at my edges, I thought "What would happen if I just took the edges off?" LOL I actually really like the way my pinky and ring finger look on my left hand. My middle finger took the brunt of my picking as a child, so it will probably always look wonky. And my pointer finger is almost always shorter than the rest due to breakage, but it did look better this morning. At some point during all of my painting and prep, it got caught in my scissor and nicked, so I had to file it down even shorter. If you are curious about my Cindy thumb, it is still round (because who cares about her, right?!). 😆😆😆

I read that this is not the strongest nail shape, but if it doesn't work out, that's ok. It's on good old lefty for testing purposes. 😂😂😂 I treat my nails a lot like my hair - if I hate it, I will cut it off and it will grow back. No biggie. But out of curiosity, what do you guys think? Fight to keep them round-ish, or maybe go with the stiletto shape? The ones that turned out nice (pinky and ring finger), I'm really kind of digging.

Also, this nail art is one I've wanted to do for like, THREE YEARS. 😳 I usually don't just straight up rip off other people's work, but I have so much studying to do that I couldn't dedicate my brain power to ideas today. Below is a link is to the blog where I first saw this, and I basically just copied what she did (not exactly, but so very close). She is one of my favorite nail bloggers, so hopefully it would be seen as flattery and not me taking credit for her work, especially since I am minding my internet manners and giving her credit for the idea.

Anyway, I'm off. I've got my nails done for the week, and Calculus is calling me. I'll be back later. ❤

Linky link:  https://www.thenailasaurus.com/2014/02/lacquer-legion-adoration-nail-art.html?

Research polishes;
Bundle Monster plate BM-315;
Gradient, Taping, and Stamping techniques

Nail pic! Woohoo! 😃

Nail pic! Woohoo! 😃

So this may not look that spectacular, but I tried a new nail art technique and unlike my nail fail the other day it turned out great. This is something that I've wanted to try for ages, but due to my packed schedule and never really feeling like I had time to "play" I just didn't get to it. I guess I'll go ahead and clue you guys in: The thing I wanted to try was gradient stamping!

The background image is stamped, but with 3 different polish colors (ranging from blue to green). It's done like regular stamping except that you put your chosen colors down in whatever pattern you want (as opposed to just one color covering the image) and then you scrape the excess polish off. I found that I needed to use a light hand so I could mix the colors during the scrape. Stamping polish notoriously dries fast (meaning that if you aren't quick, you can't pick it up on your stamping head - and even if you can, it might be too dry to stick to your nail), so you've gotta be quick. I scraped over each of these backgrounds about 3 times to get a nice gradient.

I tried this over white because I wanted to be able to see just how good of a job I did (or didn't) do. I'm not usually a fan of wearing white polish, but it's summer and these are bright so that's ok. I ALMOST decided to wear just the gradient, but by later in the afternoon I was like "Nah. Where's the fun in that?" 🤣🤣🤣

It feels kind of like a cop-out that I chose to wear another unicorn so soon, but I feel like this background was screaming for her. The plate was sitting on my table from being used previously and when I saw her little happy self - I just knew. 🦄🦄🦄 After that it was easy enough to paint in some stars for color variety.

Anyway, that's my mani for the week. I have no idea if / when I'll get to paint again, but I'm hoping that I will have time at least every weekend. It is such a stress relief and I don't really have any other creative outlets at the moment so I need this in my life. 💅💅💅😁😁

Various polishes;
Lina plate Make Your Mark 03, Harunouta plate L045, Sugar Bubbles plate SB 033;
Gradient Stamping, Layered Stamping, and Stamping Decal techniques

I wanted to share a big old nail fail with y'all.

So... I wanted to share a big old nail fail with y'all. I normally don't just rip off another person's nail art, but after seeing this quick Instagram tutorial I really wanted to try it. It looked pretty simple, but, well... It wasn't. Or either smooshy nails just aren't my jam. 🙁

Biggest upset is that I wasted a bunch of polish trying this. Nothing expensive or irreplaceable, though. I was probably just having a bad night. When I started (I was being super lazy, which is never the best way to start a project) I had my mat on a binder in my lap. 😳 Let's just say that an unstable surface with 4 - 5 bottles of open polish is not the best idea.

I knocked them all over several times. Thankfully none spilled, but they did roll through the wet decals I'd already made (a couple of which actually looked ok to me). 🙁 After finally deciding that lazy wasn't working for me I set up my nail table and kept going. I think by then I was already frustrated. Not the best way to continue trying to learn a new thing.

By the end of the night I had polish all over me from the elbows down - EXCEPT for on my nails. I cleaned myself and my polish bottles off with acetone, then picked one of the prettiest polishes I had and just put it on. Plain. In utter defeat. 😂😂😂

I may or may not try to do nail art to it tonight. We'll see. But if I do, it probably won't be this smooshy mess right now.

Apparently I am JUST NOW comprehending why I'd want to use Pinterest. 😂

Apparently I am JUST NOW comprehending why I'd want to use Pinterest.  😂  I put my jewelry up on it a million years ago and never really messed with it again aside from the occasional update.  WELL, that has changed!  I've been pinning and uploading most of the evening and apparently I've hit the daily limit.  😝

For a while now when I wanted to look at my stash of nail art photos that inspire me I just went [painstakingly] through my bookmarks.  I think I was bookmarking nail art on blogs before Pinterest was really a thing.  Needless to say - that was FRUSTRATING.  So is trying to organize a bunch of screen caps on my phone.  😳😒😒😒

I don't know why it took me up until a few days ago to realize that there was a better way to manage my pics because this has frustrated me for a while.  But now that I know what's up I'm excited to clean out my bookmarks and phone storage.  I've been working on it for a couple of days now so that's awesome.  I just kind of wish they hadn't stopped me today, though, because I was on a roll!  😛

It's late so probably no one will see these...

It's late so probably no one will see these, but that is kind of ok.  🤣🤣🤣  I like them because I like puke colors and nature, but I know that is not everyone's cup of tea.  😜  Anyway, I've decided that these are leaf cells.  If you look closely you can see some mitosis happening.  Yay for biology!  And spring!  😄😄😄  (This totally counts as a spring mani, right?  😆)

Gradients look SO NICE, but I've never been that great at them.  The sponge method doesn't work well for me because my C-curve is so strong that the edges of my nails usually don't get coated in polish.  🙁  There is a new stamping plate out - Make Your Mark 03 by Lina Nail Art Supplies - that has a blank rectangle in it.  The first time I saw the plate was on Instagram and a girl was putting stripes of polish in it and then swiping a couple of times to mix them to create a gradient.  It turned out GREAT.  Needless to say I had to have it.

So my left hand (my practice hand) doesn't look quite as nice as this one, but I gotta say that this method is pretty effective for gradients.  The polish that gets picked up on the stamper is super thin so doing a few layers builds it nicely.

Weirdly, the only thing I ended up painting on these was topcoat.  I did three thin layers of white, and then 2 - 3 of my yellow / green mix, and then the pattern, ALL WITH THE STAMPER.  😳  If you don't like the feel of thick polish then maybe you would like this, but you'd need liquid latex or tape or something to keep from having to drench your skin / nails in acetone trying to clean up the mess (which is what I did - woohoo for not planning!)

I tend to like thicker layers on my nails because they are thin and I clean a lot because of all of my ani-pals, so thicker coats protect my nails and stay on longer.  My nails feel almost naked right now and I'm not down with it.  I keep also feeling like this whole mani is gonna flake right off so I decided to get a pic and post it before I destroyed them.

Anyway, what do you guys think?  Too fugly for spring?  😜😆🤣

Research polishes;
Lina Nail Art Supplies plate Make Your Mark 03 and MagnoNails plate D;
Gradient and Stamping techniques

I took off my nail polish last night...

I took off my nail polish last night because it was peeling and I was gonna wreck my nails if I didn't.  Now I'm torn - polish or sleep?  I want both.  🙃

Nail pic time! 😃😃😃

Nail pic time!  😃😃😃

I have been waiting all semester to do something fun with my nails.  Then I had to decompress enough to feel creative.  Blegh, finally!

I feel like over the last year or two I've become more of a polish hoarder / collector than someone who does nail art.  It's really sad.  But on the bright side there are some beautiful polishes out there that I am more than happy to have come and live with me so I guess it's not all bad.  🙂

Since this is an indie polish I feel like I just need to say that Poetry Cowgirl Nail Polish did a great job on this one.  It's called "Faerie Wishes She Could Be Here."  It's an Indie Shop Limited Edition so I'm not sure if it's still available, but if you like it go and find out.

I love muted colors so this was a win by being grayish / lavender to begin with, but then it has these things (what I tend to call "opals" because they are not quite the same as glitter) that flash red.  THEN, ON TOP OF THAT AWESOMENESS it also has this crazy shimmer.  You can see the teal on my pinky and the lavender on my pointer finger.  I will also upload a blurry thumb pic of the pink.  It's SO PRETTY.

Anyway, I stamped with holographic polish because WHY NOT?  Then, I picked up a unicorn on my stamper and filled him in with a tiny paintbrush because that was obviously what needed to happen here.  😁🦄🦄🦄  I thought about adding stones and doing more stuff, but then I didn't.  The week began and I'm working and blegh.  Life force officially zapped.

So... I feel happy with this as a comeback.  I was planning to do something quite a bit easier, but then I went all out.  What do you think?

Faerie Wishes She Could Be Here by Poetry Cowgirl Nail Polish;
Sugar Bubbles plate SB 033;
Stamping, Layered Stamping, Reverse Stamping techniques

When you want to do your nails, but you have nothing to wear...

When you want to do your nails, but you have nothing to wear...

I know this sounds ridiculous, but...

I know this sounds ridiculous, but I can't stop thinking about doing my nails.  When this semester ends and I finally get to have a life for 3 weeks before school starts back... IT'S ON.

I finally have period poops!

I finally have period poops!

I've been looking for this for a while now. Super THANK YOU to my special nail polish friend with the insane memory for tagging me when someone decided to destash it. (I didn't tag you because I wasn't sure if that was cool in a post such as this, but you totally made my day. ❤️)

Just look at it, y'all. So pretty. So unashamed. I love it! 😂😂😂

I've been trying for almost 2 weeks...

I've been trying for almost 2 weeks to get good pictures / videos of my proposal polishes.  I have been failing, but I did finally get a wheel to swatch them on and since Shaun has a better camera and bigger hands for wheel-spinning I tasked him with making the video.  This is how the polishes look in outdoor lighting.  I'm going to try to get one more of them this week in indoor lighting because they are beautiful both ways.

Shaun worked with Lindsey, the magic-maker behind Tonic Nail Polish to come up with this.  His goal was to make a custom color for me that was a brown / olive green shifter.  "Marry Me Blu" was THE ONE, but the other prototypes turned out so beautiful that he asked to name them and buy them as a collection so that is what this is.

So without further delay - here is the Delta X Collection, given to me on 3.14.  The names of the polishes are math puns since I really dig math (despite my struggles this semester).

1:  Marry Me Blu 

2:  Trapezoidal Pool (Trapezoidal Rule)

3:  Convergent Seabreeze (Convergent Series)

4:  Functional Ambivalence (Functional Equivalence)

5:  Divinely Integral (Definite Integral)

6:  No Name (free prototype)

7:  Partial to Derivatives (Partial Derivative)

8:  Tangent Pine (Tangent Line)

9:  Differential Elation (Differential Equation)

Shaun had a custom polish made for me....

Shaun had a custom polish made for me. A whole collection, actually, but this is my favorite. 😃❤️

Peep that polish name...

Edited to add:

Y'all... OF COURSE I said yes.  We've been together for almost 9 years because we like each other a little bit.  😛

Wedding stuff isn't really my jam.  I don't have time to think about it right now, anyway.  I've gotta finish school for financial aid reasons first so it'll be a couple of years yet.  We do everything in our own time and in our own way, so no rush.  🙂

𝝿𝝿𝝿𝝿𝝿

Apparently, this has been in the works since January. There is a whole collection of polishes because he had a hard time choosing just one and he knew I'd want them all. 😂 Two of my very favorite colors are brown and olive green, so "Marry Me Blu" shifts between those two colors. It's PERFECT.

Today was a regular day. I had just gotten out of class and he had just gotten off work. We were getting ready to go to be adults and buy groceries and I was sitting in my desk chair getting my list together. He came in, was squatted down checking on Bruce, then turned around and said something like "How'd this get in the floor?" and handed a polish to me. I knew I had not lost a polish so I looked at the name. I know my eyes got huge and I was like "Are you really asking me?" and he was like "Yeah" so I was like "Fucking yeah, then!" 😂 We are so romantic. Then he gave me the rest of the collection.

This was super great. He's amazing and creative and supportive and thoughtful and I love him. We're nerds. He named the rest of the polish collection with math names because I like that. Here's to 9 years in, plus many more! ❤

My bottle of Cyber Punk is here...

My bottle of Cyber Punk is here and she's gorgeous. 😍😍😍

I've been waiting since January for her arrival. WORTH IT. 

If you can't tell what color she is, that's ok. She's every color. More than a holographic, more than a multichrome. I love her so much that I want to tape the bottle to my chest and wear her that way. 😂😂😂

I know that I've been so involved with school, but I've kept an eye on my second love, nail polish. Polish is easier than animals because once they get here they don't require upkeep. 😂

Here is a blog post so you can see swatches since I'm not quite ready to use mine yet:  http://www.lacqueredmama.com/.../vapid-lacquer-cyber-punk...

Ok, so it's a day later than I thought I was posting it but here it is:

Ok, so it's a day later than I thought I was posting it but here it is:  The paint job that I'm super happy with. 🙂 I guess that was my last big "Hurrah!" before school starts.

I took some time to throw down a watermark because a lot of my nail friends in groups and on Instagram keep telling me to. I would say that I'm not worried about people finding my photos and using them, but it's happened before. (I found my nails on eBay when I was shopping for nail stuff one day). LOL I was not upset, but I guess this way at least I could possible get some more traffic to my social media.

So I used another magnetic polish for this mani... actually, the same one from last time. I know it looks really different, but it's just layered over itself rather than black so that makes a difference. I did the flowers with a stamping plate from Bundle Monster and the (supposed to be) diagonal-ish lines with some cheap nail art tape I had.

Btw, these are not supposed to be French tips - I just wanted some color aside from the flowers. I used the magnetic polish again to add depth. I'm really digging that stuff! Also, I know these look spring and it's winter (so I SUPPOSEDLY should be doing snowflakes or whatever), but you guys should know by now that I do what I want. LOL

Anyway, that's it. Possibly for a while, but maybe not. I guess it depends on how this semester goes.

Tourmaline of Passion by Masura;
Bundle Monster plate BM-S183;
Reverse Stamping and Taping techniques