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