Finding the Time...

Hey everyone! Sorry that it's been over a week since my last post! I meant to post earlier but my life has been hectic! I haven't had the time to even polish my nails in the last four days!!

I recently got a sort of promotion at work, so I'm working full time and only have Wednesdays off and every other weekend off. Before this I worked mostly nights, but now I'm working mornings. I'm still adjusting to this so I've been extremely tired lately and it's hard to work up the energy to post or paint my nails! As I'm adjusting, the posts will happen more and more!

My Grandma had surgery on Thursday and is still in the hospital through tomorrow morning. I've been spending my weekend off up in her room keeping her company.  I would have loved to paint my nails but I figured it would be frowned upon in a hospital! When she gets released I'm going to stay at her house with her until she gets a little more mobile. It may be difficult for me to post for the next couple of weeks but I'm sure I'll be able to figure something out. She has internet but her computer is so outdated that I can't stand to use it. I may have to bring over mine...

Anyways, last post you told me you wanted some nail art and who am I to deny you some nail art?

Since jaljen asked for simple nail art, I did as simple as I could.   And I'm going to tell you how to achieve it!

Here's the finished look:

And here's what you need:

A basecoat, one light color, one dark color, a bold accent color, top coat and blue painter's tape.

First, paint your nails with the light color. I used Damone Roberts 1968. My favorite mint green! I used two coats.

Clean up if you want, I did, and apply your topcoat. Let it dry. I added the top coat to make sure the tape didn't take off the polish.

Next, take a piece of tape and tape off the bottom half of your nails at a diagonal.  Paint the exposed top half of your nail with your dark color. I used Rimmel Black Satin. A dark brown would also look nice with mint green.

Remove the tape after the polish dries. I only used one coat of the dark polish, but depending on what color you chose you may need more.

Again, cleanup and apply top coat.  

Here's where it may get tricky for you.  You want to take two pieces of tape and tape off your nail so that only a small triangular piece of nail is showing. Make sure it's on the dark color, coming from the lower side. It should be wider towards the bottom and thinner at the top. Also, the section should only go about half way across. 

Paint that part with your bold accent color, I used Essence Nail Art Twins in Romeo, a great silver shimmer.  Once it dries, peel the tape off, clean it up, do any touchups (I had to straighten my lines with a dotting tool), and apply top coat for the last time. 

Voila! You've completed your nail art! 

I hope you enjoyed this look! If you do any variations, I'd love to see them! Email me pics! :)

Have a great night!
Kayla

P.S. I received Romeo in a swap with Tina from Fleur's Nails & Stuff! She was super sweet and got me amazing polishes! Go check out her blog! 

Dupes? Uh, no. & tomorrow's NOTD

Lazy day today. I've sat around watching Alice (SyFy Original Miniseries) on DVD. It's a great modern day twist on the classic Alice in Wonderland. I love the ending...I'm a sucker for a good romantic happy ending. Check it out! They also did The Wizard of Oz a few years back, Tin Man. Another great one to check out! Anywho.......


This gave me time to do my purple comparison. I didn't find any dupes. But they sure are pretty, so here's the results.

Once I lined up the five polishes--two pairs to test for dupes and one thrown in for fun--I knew they weren't dupes. Could have sworn they were twins when they weren't side by side. ;)

1st pair: Sephora by OPI Call Your Mother and Sally Hansen Plum's the Word

Middle: China Glaze Spontaneous randomly thrown in (cause it's pretty)

2nd pair: OPI Done Out in Deco and China Glaze Light as Air
Edit: Ugh terrible lighting. Sorry!

Do I even need to show you the results? Yup.

 

Same order as previous pic from thumb to pinky.

Two coats on every one but the pinky (which is three) because I needed to get rid of the Matte Magic. All lovely. All unique.

And here they are matte:

 

Simply divine. A matte purple makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. 

This look I just finished about an hour ago and it was a complete accident. I was trying to make a diagonal line across my nail and my tape moved (grr) so I took my art brush and swished it across my nail with anger. Anger quickly turned to, "Oh hey, that looks pretty cool". Et voila: 

 

This is Wet n' Wild Nocturnal over Orly Rage. Topped off with Matte Magic.

I was extremely frustrated with my camera. I wanted a super close up shot of this. This was as close as I could get it without it being blurry.  That brings me to the question of the day: What camera do you use to capture your nail art in full detail? 

Another thing that hinders great picture taking?

 

Yes, I have a hot pink wall in my room. And depending on the time of day, the whole room is tinted pink. 

Doesn't help that my curtains are also pink. That may need to change. 

I need a light box. 

Maybe I'll DIY it. Oh, who am I kidding?

New simple layout. Yay or nay? I'm experimenting with Photoshop again. Layout may change again. Or just the header.

Completely unrelated note:

Remember my Chuck post?  And how I said I would run away with John Casey? Well, next week's preview has him looking like a bad guy. If this turns out true, my heart is broken. Why, Casey? Why????

Kayla

It's a secret!

Hey!
Just a quick post to tell everyone that Trade Secret has OPI on sale: Buy one, get one half off! And if the Trade Secret near you has as big of a selection as mine did...you'll be there for ages deciding what to get.

I dove head first into the new Hong Kong collection and got Jade is the New Black and Suzi Says Feng Shui.

I also discovered that they sell Essie! The only place in town that I've found so far! Since Essie wasn't on sale I didn't grab any. Next time? Perhaps.

So here are my recent purchases:

 Orly: Rage and Gumdrop.

 OPI: Suzi Says Feng Shui and Jade is the New Black

 China Glaze: Light as Air

And here's Rage on my nails:

 

Matte Magic on the thumb to see how it looked. Meh.

Kayla