These probably look a little more fancy than they actually are...

These probably look a little more fancy than they actually are, but I don't mind that. LOL I did not want to go through the week with naked nails, so I sat down to paint them pretty late last night. Aside from the time issue, I used my new peel-off basecoat, Ready for Takeoff by UNT. I wouldn't have used that, BUT, I've been doing some damage to my nails lately. I don't know why, but I've been picking at them. Must be nerves or something, but anyway, this was an attempt to minimize the damange I'd do by picking my polish. So, since I wasn't sure how long my nail polish would actually stay on using a peel-off basecoat, I didn't want to put too much work into my paint job.

I got this glitter from Sally's. It's by Bitzy and it is called Funky Melon. Since the glitters are huge and neon and there was no purple in it, I decided to try it over purple. But first, I topped my purple with Fairy Dust by China Glaze, because DUH - everything is better with glitter! I wasn't planning to stamp over the glitter, but I really did not like the way it looked just plain. So I stamped this pattern, which was picked out by my son. I thought it would look horrible, but I actually kind of like it now. Funny how you smush a bunch of ugly things together and it sometimes turns out really cool. LOL

Anyway. My stamping is a little off on my pointer finger and thumb. I'm still using the second stamper I ever bought, back in 2011. It's a squishy eraser-colored one that I ordered from Germany, because I was having no luck with my konad stamper. I have some nice clear stampers, but they don't always pick up well, so there is no point in that. I have a few coming from Ali Express that I'm pretty excited to try, but we'll see how that goes when they get here. Maybe I won't be stamping crooked for much longer. Here's hoping! 🙂

UNT Peel-Off base coat, On a Trip by Wet n Wild, Funky Melon by Bitzy;
BornPretty plate BP-11;
Embellishment from BornPretty;
Stamping technique

I have been pretty quiet on here...

I have been pretty quiet on here, but I guess it's just because I feel about socialized out lately.  I'm not sure what it is, but I have a feeling that it's because I'm going everywhere and doing everything all the time.  Too much work.  Too much school.

At some point during all of that I have my kid and my ani-pals to take care of, chores, an online class, etc., to deal with.  Granted I'm not as stressed as last semester (yet!), but I just feel really anti-social.  In what little free time I have I've been watching nail art tutorials and nail art tool reviews on YouTube and lamenting my lack of time and money.  🙁

What I did for fun this weekend was stay holed up in my bedroom working on my Access database for Polish All the Things.  I learned a few things and it was cool.  Then I accidentally deleted part of it, but opened an older version and fixed my idiotic mistake and now I have a backup because I nearly had a heart attack when that happened and it was just super dumb to not have a backup.  Lesson learned.

Just finished my ethics homework for the week.  I think it's time to take a shower and then either work on my database some more... or possibly even paint my nails.  Nails is probably a safer bet because that ends.  I could sit here endlessly tinkering in Access.  😂

I hope you had a nice weekend.  I have no complaints.  🙂❤

Tried something new this weekend.

Tried something new this weekend. Instead of water marbling and dipping each finger I made one design, let it dry on the water, carefully took it out, and then cut it up and used them like decals. I don't know if I would always be able to make that work, but my nails are so short and nubby right now that it went just fine. I liked doing it that way because you USUALLY waste less polish, and it's USUALLY much less messy.

However, this time it was a huge mess. I spilled not only hot water on myself, but 3 open bottles of nail polish. EPIC FAIL. I was sitting there saying to Shadow (in an attempt to elicit help from him) "HOT WATER! NAIL POLISH!" Those are about all the words I could manage for a minute because I could not believe what I'd just done. He just looked at me like I was crazy until I screamed for him to get a towel.

I'm usually much more calm and prepared when doing my nails, but I had a "dying vole on my porch" type of situation to handle so I found myself suddenly chatting with Wild Mammal Care in the middle of my nail-doing. They asked me if she'd moved and when I got up to check I spilled everything everywhere because I am awesome. Also, my little porch vole didn't make it. 🙁 I'm not super surprised, though, because you don't see them out usually unless something is wrong.

So yeah. Nubs for now. That is what happens when I go a month without polish. My new nail / cuticle oil is doing a great job on keeping my nails from peeling, but having some layers of polish on is really what protects mine from breaking.

Also, pardon all the bubbles in my topcoat. It was getting too thick, but I gave my polish thinner to a friend so I just had to deal with it. LOL I gotta put thinner on my list of things to buy ASAP. Those bubbles drive me crazy!

Embellishments from BornPretty;
Watermarble technique

I've been out of school for almost 3 weeks...

I've been out of school for almost 3 weeks.  I had major plans to do crazy things to my nails, but as you might have noticed from the lack of posts, I have not.  To be honest I haven't really been feeling it.  😕

My nails were long and bothersome by the time school was out, so I shortened them and then shortened them again.  Then I tried this nail oil (Bliss Kiss Simply Pure Cuticle and Nail Oil, if you're interested) and it said to go a few days with naked nails while applying the oil many times a day to get moisturized.  So, I did that.  But I was also cleaning a lot (without gloves because I'm bad), so it took a little longer to get my nails to be in better shape.

I'm probably about to sound like a commercial, but that oil is the first one I've tried that ACTUALLY made any kind of difference in my nails.  My nails have no problem growing longer, but they will peel like crazy.  They are also naturally brittle, so will just snap off if I bump them on something.  Well, somehow, the oil stopped the peelies.  Even places that were already peeling up it seemed to seal back down somehow.  And they are little more flexible, so when I bump them I might get a new peelie spot (when un-polished), but they aren't snapping off.  So that is pretty cool.

I have no idea how things will go when I start painting again, but with as many layers of polish as I tend to use I've always felt that my nails were protected by it.  I am hoping that with them being in better shape AND polished that they will look really nice, as well as be stronger.  We'll see.

Anyway, if you're into nails and / or cuticles I would have no problem recommending Bliss Kiss oil.  I am not exactly a connoisseur of nail oil, but I did buy CND's Solar Oil a while back because it was highly recommended, but Bliss Kiss is better, in my opinion.  You can find it on their website or Amazon, whichever you prefer.

BONUS:  It smells faintly like an orange dreamsicle, which is surprisingly pleasant.  I think they have an unscented version if you're not into smells, though.

Check it out:  https://www.myblisskiss.com/simply-pure-hydrating-oil-pen

So... when I'm supposed to be sleeping but can't...

So... when I'm supposed to be sleeping but can't I sometimes go on YouTube and watch nail art videos.  I bet that's a shocker to you all.  😂

Well, I've never tried acrylics (wearing them OR doing them).  But I've seen some video tutorials and it looks REALLY fun.  I feel like I want to try my hand at doing them.  I have no time or money for that right now, unfortunately, but maybe I can go to school for that after I finish the school stuff I already started.

I don't think I'd have the patience to do that as a career, but I could definitely see me enjoying doing it for fun or for some side cash.  I don't want to do stuff like plain French tips, though.  I want to do the crazy stilettos and the aquarium nails and stuff like that.  OBVIOUSLY.  😛

I've been trying for several days...

I've been trying for several days to get a photograph of these to put up.  This is not the original manicure - I had more stones and one more finger full of hearts, but because I took so long to get pics a few fingers were starting to look crappy.  I decided to take them off and accent them in other ways since I don't have time to make more decals at the moment.  It's really ok with me - I'm digging these.  I usually have have pretty predictable "accent finger" patterns, but this time I think it's harder to tell what's an accent or not.  Maybe they all are!  Woohoo!  😂

Now I'm off to study.  Probably can't do nails again until after finals on Tuesday, but then I'm gonna go nuts!  THE END OF THE SEMESTER IS IN SIGHT!  😃

Research polishes;
Maniology plate BM-XL210;
Embellishment from BornPretty
Stamping Decal technique

This pink / purple / red glitter...

So I've been studying super hard for tests lately and two of them were yesterday.  When I got home from class - late though it was - I painted my freaking nails BECAUSE I DESERVED A TREAT!

This pink / purple / red glitter is a polish I bought on clearance from Sally's.  It's an Orly called "Explosion of Fun."  It's layered over some kind of bright pink L'Oreal that I will go look at and write the name of if anyone actually cares.  😛

Since I was so tired last night I used whatever was at hand.  The new Orly was within reach (as was my box of pinks), so I went with it.  I thought it looked kind of bright and tropical so I went with flowers as decoration.  I filled them in with white because it, too, was close at hand.  I probably could have been more creative with colors if my brain hadn't been fried from both a Biology and Trigonometry test in the same day, but it is what it is and I'm ok with how it turned out.  🙂

Members Only by L'Oréal, Explosion of Fun by Orly;
Born Pretty plate BP-54;
Stamping Decal technique

Well I did some things this weekend, but of course it's never enough.  I feel like I'm going to be perpetually behind until this semester is over, which is, thankfully, less than a month away.

I did take some time and clean up our hangout room yesterday.  My nail polish shelf looks AMAZING.  It took hours to organize my polish by color, but I think I'll like it better this way.  Fun Fact:  I have more blue polishes than any other color.  Green comes in second.  Purple comes in third.  Before yesterday I honestly had no idea!

With everything so clean and organized I'm fighting the urge to stop and do my nails, but I really need to get back to Trig and / or go to sleep.  I have Biology class in the morning.  I'm drowsy (despite having some coffee a little earlier), but I feel that it's a little bit ridiculously early to call it a night - especially considering how late I slept.  😕  I guess I'm gonna crack my book open and see if my brain wakes up or not.  I'm not in the mood to struggle.

I hope you all had a lovely weekend.  I do feel accomplished despite being behind on everything still so at least that is something.  🙂

I'm off to take (more) Ibuprofen and...

I'm off to take (more) Ibuprofen and maybe clean up our hangout room.  I've, um, made a mess in there.  😂  I had help, though!  My lap table had a ton of nail polish and other stuff on it and Boo Bear knocked it over while scratching his butt like an Actual Bear.  So nail polish, stamping plates, etc, are all scattered about.  I still have a box of pretties that I got around my birthday last year that I never filed away, either.  So now I'm contemplating a change.  Help me.

All of my nail polishes are grouped by brand / bottle shape.  My brain works well with that system, but most people tend to group by color.  I'm CONSIDERING doing that, but I just don't know.  It seems like a legit system - especially when you're looking for a color and you might not remember what all brands or bottle shapes you have that contain that color, but it might actually drive me crazy.  I have no idea.  But whatever I do it'll probably have to stay that way for a while because I'm about 99% sure that I topped 1000 bottles as of my birthday last year and I just don't have time for that much re-re-arranging.  Don't judge me.  😂

Suggestions?

The kitty cat nails didn't last long.

The kitty cat nails didn't last long.  The collar glequins and bowtie started coming off so then of course I started picking at them and just had to take all the polish off so that I didn't do actual damage to my nails from picking at them.  I'm the worst about picking.  Once I start it's all over with, so they just had to go.

So I did these last night.  I showed them to my guy today and he was like, "What made you do that?"  He looked truly baffled.   😂  Honestly, I saw something very similar in a blog and I liked the way it looked, so there you go.  They used totally different colors and no stones, but as you know I can't just leave well enough alone.  😁

I imagine that I will have the same problem with these as the kitty cat nails because of the stones, but that's ok.  I don't mind doing one last awesome mani before spring break ends.  😃

Research polish;
Research plate;
Embellishment from BornPretty;
Stamping technique