Thursday, June 27, 2013

Lovin’ My Blog?


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Thank you for your continuous support of my addiction!

3D Grape Nail Art


I've really been liking 3D nail art, and once I read that Katy over at Nailed It was having a 3D nail art contest sponsored by Born Pretty, I figured it was the perfect opportunity practicing my new nail art hobby :) I had a few things in mind, but narrowed it down to a few ideas. I decided grapes would be a fun and a relatively easy idea (plus I had a grapevine to use as a prop. Sadly, there were no grapes on it :( ).

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I didn’t have a nice grape coloured acrylic powder, so I mixed red and purple.

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My base colour is L'Oreal – Park Ave Luncheon. The leaves were made with a detail brush using China Glaze – Starboard and Nina Ultra Pro – Leaf Me Alone. The vines were made with a mixture of browns. I also added some shimmer to the leaves and grapes using different shimmery polishes.

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As you can see, the grapes don’t stick out too much, but still add a nice touch of 3D.

Thanks for reading and wish me luck! :)

Monday, June 24, 2013

Ripped Rainbow Animal Print Nail Art

 

Hey guys, today’s post is from a while ago, but I’m still trying to post all of my old manicures! This is a very summery gradient with torn scratch marks. I don’t know how much it actually looks like scratch marks, but I did get many compliments on it. I actually got the idea from this post from Rebecca Likes Nails. I didn’t have the plate she used, so I did a little free handing.

(Please excuse the orange cuticles! I didn’t have any acetone to clean them up!)

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For the gradient I used Funky Fingers – Electric Sunset, e.l.f. – Neon Yellow, e.l.f. – Neon Green, and Sally Hansen – Blue Me Away! For the scratch marks, I used a black Stripe Rite Striper to create the outline, then filled it in with a white Stripe Rite Striper, then took my black once more to create the leopard spots.

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I really like the colours used on this mani, and may be doing more neon nails soon. Neons just scream summer! I love it! Speaking of summer (or in some cases- winter), how’s everyone’s doing? Mine’s going well but fast :( I'll actually be camping most of next week with my friend, so I’ve been trying to conjure up some mani pedi ideas that will be camper friendly (we’ll be swimming a lot, so that means no embellishments :( Any ideas?

Thanks for reading as always and have a great day!

Thursday, June 20, 2013

KKcenterhk Holographic Stud Review

 

I have another review for you all, featuring KKcenterhk’s “N.NAIL Studs Rectangle Laser Purple 5mmX3mm Nail Art Decorations” [NNAIL-DRN657]. To put it simply, they are holographic purple rectangle studs.

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To be frank, I thought they would be hard to fit into a design, but it was easier than I though! I just placed them there! Easy as that, and it still looks gorgeous!

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For the base behind the studs, I used Nicole by OPI – It’s Alll About The Glam. For my accent nail, I used a base of Wet n Wild – Black Crème, then placed some striping tape down, and added one coat of Sally Hansen – Laser.

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I am very pleased with these purple studs KKcenterhk sent me for a review. They look great in the sun or shade, and lay relatively flat on my nails. They stay on pretty well too- I gave my dog a bath today, and they were all intact when I was finished (my nail polish itself, however, was not so fortunate). If you’d like to purchase them, follow this link!

Thanks for reading!

KKcenterhk Image Plate Review + Nail Art :)

 

Today I’m very excited to share a review from KKcenterhk with you all. I chose to review their “N.NAIL Rock Lovely Skull Bow Rudder Anchor Stamp Template Plate” [NNAIL-SPPQA03]. I’ve never tried stamping (aside from the [lame] “Salon Perfect” stamping kit they came out with a while ago), so I was very eager to try this plate out. I can honestly see myself using all but maybe one or two of the images. It has bows, anchors, skulls and a helm.

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The first design I came up with was inspired by the little bows on the plate that look like they have a stitched border. I’m calling this design “Cute as a button.” It has a bow stamp, buttons, and a needle and thread.

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Creating this look was a breeze. The bow stamp went on perfectly with no problem. As soon as I put it on, I thought, “Yeah, I’m going to be finding excuses to use this stamper quite a bit!” And, boy, I did!

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For the base of this design I used a franken polish I made. I was thinking of naming it “Poison Bluberries,” but my mom thinks “Mixed Berries” is more suitable. Which one do you think? Or, do you think you’re sooooo smart and have a better name?! Bring it!! (Seriously; I want to know what you guys think :) ). I’m not going to go through all of the polishes used, but let me know if you’d like to know any :)

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The other design I came up with featured the skull and crossbones image. I don’t know what to call this design, but I do know that I LOVE it! The hardest part of this design was picking colours I wanted to use. I decided to use Orly – It’s Not Rocket Science for all of my nails except my ring finger and thumb nails. For those nails, I used Essie – Sew Psyched topped with Julie G – My Private Palace.

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I was actually pretty uneasy with the colours I chose, but once I put the skull on, it brought it all together, and I didn’t want to take it off!

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So, my experience with KKcenterhk’s image plate [NNAIL-SPPQA03] was great. I never knew how much fun stamping was! I think I’ll be ordering some more plates in the future! I feel like the plate I chose was perfect for me since I love bows and nautical themed things :)

What is your favourite design?

Thanks for reading!!

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Brunch At Timothy’s Nail Art

First off, I would just like to say that I absolutely LOVE the title for today’s post! For some reason, it just makes me incredibly happy and smile uncontrollably every time I think of it, or look at it.

The reason I chose the title is because I initially started with a base of New York Color – Mint Macaroon, and added Wet n Wild – Kaleidoscope to my middle finger and thumb nails, then realized it looked similar to Tiffany inspired nails (However, a different shade of blue). I was not aiming for this, but thought if I kept adding features, the similarity would go away- I was wrong. My final attempt distinguishing a difference was adding the white peacock feather decal. Again, I was wrong; I still see Tiffany & Co. when I look at these nails! I finally gave in, and thought, “No, let’s play along with this…. How about ‘Brunch at Timothy’s’?!”
And thus, the name stuck! (in fact, the name alone makes me love these nails so much more than I originally did!)

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As I already stated, I used NYC – Mint Macaroon as my base and added Wet n Wild – Kaleidoscope for some extra glitter. I used silver striping tape for my pinky nails, added a white peacock feather decal* to my index fingers, and created a white bow out of white acrylic for my ring fingers. This was (basically) my first time creating 3D acrylic- what do you think of it?

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Wet n Wild – Kaleidoscope was one of the first polishes I bought when I started doing nails, and I still love it! Its from the Wild Shine line and for only $.99, it’s a steal!

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I’m really happy I decided to go for a mix and match theme today. I’ve been wanting to do 3D acrylic on myself for a while now, and have been waiting for a perfect opportunity to use my feather decals again!

I had a lot of fun creating these nails (even more fun creating a title!!! haha)!

Thanks for reading!!

*Provided by Born Pretty Store for a review. See review here

Pastel Rainbow Tie Dye Nail Art

Since you all now know that I go to cosmetology, it can easily be understood that I  have to know the colour wheel. We learned about hair colour and the colour wheel a while back, but once it got nice enough outside, we made tie dye shirts using only the primary colours- red, yellow, and blue. We had to create the other colours we wanted using only those three colours. I, of course, being the colourful person I am, wanted a rainbow shirt.

Although I own many tie dye shirts, this was my first time actually making one. Once the dye set in for 24 hours, we rinsed them and brought them home. I was so pleased with mine that I wanted matching nails!

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To create these nails, I started with a white base and then put some polish on a piece of paper, diluted it with nail polish remover, and dabbed it around with at small brush, creating a swirl. I also used this diluted, dabbing method in these tie dye nails.

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I’m not 100% sure (considering these nails have been on my camera for a while now), but I believe the polishes I used are as follows: L'Oreal – Pink Me Up!, New York Color – Peaches ‘N Cream, Sinful Colors – Unicorn, Nina Ultra Pro – Leaf Me Alone, Revlon – Coastal Surf, and Julie G – Dream In Pretty.

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The colours dulled a lot upon rinsing the excess dye out :( No problem though- I like that it makes it look vintage :)

On a side note- what do you think of the new layout? I was having some difficulties with the other- no matter what colour I changed the background to, it automatically created a red line outlining my posts. I’ve noticed this quite some time ago, but it hasn’t always been like this. …Not sure why it just started…

 

Thanks for reading, and have a wonderful day!!!

Monday, June 10, 2013

About Me

For unexplained reasons, I’ve never given out any personal information about myself on this blog- for the longest time I imagined it being as difficult as a pregnant teenager telling her parents she’s preggers. However, I  have now reached a point where I want you all to know a little more about me, so here we go:

Hi, my name is Abby. I’m currently 16 and attend high school, while attending a technical vocational school for Cosmetology. I started doing my nails about 4 years ago. I paint my nails every weekend, and my friends’ on occasion. I paint the girls’ nails that I babysit, as well :)

In the future I plan on going to college for salon management and hope to own and operate my own nail salon afterwards*. Once I finish college, I would love to visit the wonderful continent of Australia (see my love for it here :) ).

Very few people I actually know know about this little blog of mine. I like it that way- I’d rather keep this  a secret double life that only other polish lovers know about ;) Maybe in the future I’ll tell more people about this blog… “DOUBTING IT!” (that’s something one of my extremely close friends** says all the time. Nope- that friend does not know about this blog. haha!)

Just an FYI: I've officially been on summer vacation for a few days now, which means I hope to be posting on a regular basis, and whatnot :)   <<I mean it this time!!!

Phew! It feels nice, having told you all more personal information about myself!

Thanks for reading guys! I really appreciate it, especially considering this post doesn’t have any nails or pictures :))) That means you care <3

*I would actually much prefer to simply get paid for being Abby, but it doesn’t look like that’s happening…
**I refuse to claim anyone as a best friend ;D