Week 36: Tape mani

Sorry if the pics aren't as good as they usually are. These are taken with my camera phone instead of my usual camera. The phone was/is convenient (especially since i can just upload to picasa from my phone), and the quality seems ok on the phone's screen, but we'll see how they look here.

Not really a big fan of using tape for straight lines... I feel like i can do better and faster free hand. I do want to try using decorative scissors to cut the tape next time.
I used Julep Otto, Julep Delaunay (both Trina Turk colors) and Sinful Colors Rain Storm. Not really happy about the whole photoshop scandal, but Sinful makes some great basic colors with decent formulas. All of these were one careful coat!

Nail nubs again :( But the Nailtek is helping a lot!

Well, that's all for now. My "new normal" is working 6 day weeks.....While I may not find time to post, I do make time to paint my nails, sew and vent...just a bit less than before :)
Later!
-Lynnette

Week 30 & 32: Marble Madness!

It's becoming more and more obvious that the real challenge in the 52 Week Challenge is NOT the nail art....it's the posting! It's pretty easy to do the challenge and get the pictures, but it's not as easy to edit the pictures and write about it. With me starting a second job soon, I may get even more sporadic with posting. However I am still having fun with nails....I'm just not showing you guys as promptly!

Week 30 (which I did, didn't get pictures, then skipped and re-did) was water marbling. LOVE water marbling, even if I am marbling nubs. You can get some crazy intricate designs, and every nail is different.
This is using Julep Elizabeth, Isla, and Piper. I find it best to prep the nails with one coat of the lightest color in your marble....which isn't always white (but in this case it was lol).

Week 32 was needle marbling. Now this one I hadn't done before, but I've seen some cool designs around the web. I'm ok with how mine turned out, but I think that I could have done better. Maybe I needed another color? I'm not sure, but here's the pictures. You'll have to excuse the state of the my cuticles....I had to clean my turtle tank and these pictures where taken mid cleaning (I realized that the mani was slowly chipping off because of all the water and I needed pictures ASAP!)
The base is Orly Decades of Dysfunction marbled with Grave Mistake. I really like these 2 from the Dark Shadows collection and I'm regretting not getting the other 2!

Well that's all I have for now. Today is my wedding anniversary, so maybe there will be something special on my nails for that!
-Lynnette

Week 20: Bows

This is a cute theme! I don't have a stamping plate with bows on it, so I had to free hand it. The only ideas other than the stamping plate bow I could find was a string type bow on the side, so I tried to mimic that. I did my ring finger to look more like one of those strings tied around your finger...you know to help you remember something. You know, that never worked for me....I was always left wondering why I had string on my finger lol.

This is Julep Mandy with bows done with a black Sally Hansen nail art pen. Gosh I wish that I would have tried one of these before! They are soo easy to use.....when your polish is DRY. If it's remotely wet/tacky the pen will drag or do some funky resist thing. If that happened, I just waited a little bit and went over it again.
Mandy is kind of a weird color, and hard to capture. This is the way that it looks most of the time, however in some lights it's more orange instead of coral-ish.

My nails are doing a bit better, and have actually grown. Still trying to resist the urge to pick and peel my polish off....Doing better with it. This mani actually has lasted since Saturday night.

Well, off to sew a bit before bed. Until next time.
-Lynnette

Dotticure take 2

"Next time" came pretty quickly lol. I figured I had better get these pictures up while I was on here posting, instead of waiting. I wore this before my Earth Day mani, right after the other dotticure lol. This is the other color wave that I was torn between....I really like them both, and think that both turned out great!

This is Ulta For Bitten as the base, with dots of Julep Jodie, Hayden, and Mandy (and even mixed Mandy and Hayden together!) with CQ Idyllic.....in other words, a LOT of dotting!
Well since my nails are currently bare, I am going to get off the computer and paint them with something pretty!
-Lynnette

Week 17: Earth day

So when I think of Earth day, I think of trees and furry critters. However these are not so fun to try and draw/paint on your nails. Since Earth is often times called the "blue and green marble" I decided to use those colors and do water marble nails! I used four colors for this marble: OPI Stranger Tides, Julep Leah, Sally Hansen Gray by Gray (which is really a grayed out blue), and Essie Dive Bar.

 Left

 Right

 Right Thumb

Left Thumb

I didn't do a set bullseye for this marble....I just kind of winged it. One thing that I learned is that the more rings your bullseye has the better. You really have to keep putting polish in the water until it stops spreading. Otherwise your polish dries too fast on the top of the water and you don't get as much color payoff. Overall I'm pretty happy with this marble since most of the fingers turned out pretty.

Until next time!
-Lynnette

Week 16: Dottiure and new house!

I really had fun with this one! I had a tough time picking between two really different color palates and I think that I'll do my other color wave when this comes off.

I started with a coat of Wet n Wild French White creme topped with 2 coats of Revlon Runway Pearl. Then I used my dotting tool (which is really quite small, but it's better than a toothpick) and dotted with Ulta Maine Attraction, Julep Megan, Marisa, and finally Susie. Topped it all off with one more coat of Runway Pearl and quick dry topcoat.

On one of my thumbs I decided to try out the flakies I finally picked up. This is Studio M, Covered in Diamonds and was only $2.99......I figured for that price if I truly hated it, I wouldn't feel so bad. Well, I'm not in love with it, but I don't hate it. I'll have to try it over other colors and see if I can find a combo I really like.

And finally a few new house pictures!
Kitchen:

 Bathroom:

 Bedroom (the bottom of this picture is the CLOSET!):

That's all for now....time to get more of the house unpacked/organized/cleaned!

-Lynnette

Week 11: St. Patty's Day!

So here's my green mani. I raided my stash for all my greens, and added Argo from China Glaze Colors from the Capitol collection, as well as Stone Cold (I'll talk more about that in my next haul post). I wanted to do a cool needle marble I saw on youtube, but it wasn't working out. So i whipped out a makeup sponge and sponged all the colors on.

This is one careful coat of China Glaze Stone Cold, sponged with Revlon Emerald City, Gosh Golden Dragon, China Glaze Agro, and Julep Leah. It needed 2 coats of topcoat to get it smooth because it was a little bumpy from the sponging.
Next time I'll have a haul post for you.
Until then!
-Lynnette

Week 12: Spring Skittles!

By now, you can probably tell when I have the day off from work because I get all my posting done lol!
As I mentioned in my previous post, I didn't/don't feel like doing St. Patty's day quite yet. So instead of falling a week behind on the challenge, I figured that I would skip week 11, and do week 12.

    I think this is my first time doing a skittle mani since I was in middle school. Usually I am pretty decisive on what color to wear and don't usually feel the need to wear more than one polish. Skittles was actually pretty nice. I did both hands the same (my brain couldn't handle doing them each different lol) and subconsciously did lightest to darkest lol.

So diggin the spring colors! What you see is 2 coats of:
Thumb- China Glaze Sweet Hook
Index- Fingerpaints Brushstroke Blush
Middle- Julep Hayden
Ring- my first franken (names anyone?)
Pinkie- Julep Charlotte
Then I topped all the nails with a coat of Julep Melissa to give them all the same finish (my franken has a slight shimmer that didn't blend well with all the cremes). I realized AFTER I was finished that my indexes could have used another coat of pink due to a slight visible nail line. However you couldn't really see it, and I can be incredibly lazy so I didn't re-do it.

Well, that's all for now. When my current color comes off, I'll do something St. Patty's (and green...ugh!). Until next time!
-Lynnette

Dragon Lady and a Hubbycure

First up, Gosh Golden Dragon by itself in it's beauty.

 This is a but more yellow-toned in real life and the gold shimmer really comes alive. A great color, but yellow and yellow-green doesn't play well with my skin all the time. So after a few days I did another layer.

This is with a layer of Julep Melissa on top. This made it more blue/jade/teal-ish....much more of a "Lynnette" color. However, with so many layers of polish it quickly peeled off (hence the naked first finger!).

My hubby saw the green, and said the next mani should be blue and yellow (his team colors). Since I don't own a proper yellow, I went with gold. This is 2 coats of Professional 10 Old Hollywood, stamped with Julep Marisa.

I let my hubby pick the stamping design.....he almost always picks this design lol! You get my right hand for this pic because it has longer/nicer nails....for the moment. Since this mani was designed by my husband, I call it a Hubbycure instead of a manicure :)

As a side note, I'm going to switch challenge weeks. I really don't want to do something for St. Patty's this far out , and I'm not digging another green mani so close to the last one.

Until next time!
-Lynnette

Recent Nail Mail

If I remember right, BOTH of my packages came late Thursday, or Friday....my days blur together and I can't remember what came when lol. I guess as long as they came right?

First up is my first contest win Gosh Golden Dragon, courtesy of the polish insomniac. I still can't believe I won lol. On to bottle shots....

All that pretty golden shimmer! This is what I'm going to wear next.

Then my mail carrier came back to my house, this time with my Julep Maven box!

From top to bottom: Julep Charlotte, Melissa, and Jodie. Kinda sad that Jodie came with that smear on the bottle, but the rest of the box was fine.
Hooray for nail mail! Now off to use Golden Dragon!
-Lynnette

Week 10: Polka Dots!

Hello there! Another challenge mani to show you, and this one I really loved! I wish it had stayed more than 3 days, but that's life. For this one I used 2 coats of China Glaze Sweet Hook, a lovely sweet creme. Nice and thick, but still manageable and easy to apply. Then for the polka dots I used Julep Charlotte and the end of a small paint brush.

Charlotte tended to make Sweet Hook look more pink, but I think they looked great together and I got a few compliments :)

Well, next on the agenda is to show you the nail mail I got late last week!
-Lynnette

Coming soon!

Coming soon to this blog:
-Swatches of Icing's Lemme see your Peacock (plus a mani featuring this)
-Nail Mail: Gosh Golden Dragon (my first contest win!)
-Nail Mail: March's Julep box
Yay! Hopefully I get the nail mail soon.....the mail carriers like to skip my house for some odd reason.
It's just too late to post the swatches tonight. Heck the mani might have to wait.....the horror of going to work with bare nails lol!

Well off to bed! Work will come around much too early....
-Lynnette

Week 8: Corset mani

This week I used 3 polished from my recent haul. I started with 2 coats of Ulta Maine Attraction, then did a coat of Julep Megan. Originally I was only going to do Megan on the sides and have Maine Attraction be the middle, but the two looked so close together that it would almost defeat the purpose. So I did a stripe of Marisa down the middle, then used my silver nail art stripper to do the crisscross. I didn't think a bow would turn out well so I omitted it.

Please excuse the tip wear....I did this Friday night, but it's worn well :).
Well, later!
-Lynnette

Valentine's Haul/Nail Mail

So my Valentine to myself was polish! I went out shopping at Icing and Ulta (which I didn't even know my area HAD and Ulta!), and while I was out my mail carrier brought me the two Julep boxes I was waiting on! So the nail part of my V-day was pretty great!

So here's everything I bought.

From Icing I picked up the grey/silver MagnetiX (with the wavy magnet) and Lemme See Your Peacock (clear base with cyan, green and magenta hex glitter).

Then From Ulta I bought (left to right): For Bitten, Jaded, Maine Attraction, and Lav-ish. Lav-ish came in a cute little makeup kit that was free when you bought $17.50 worth of Ulta brand products. The products in there actually aren't too bad, but I don't wear makeup a lot.

Then these were waiting for me when I got home:

 February Boho Glam box with (top to bottom) Julep's cuticle oil, Oscar, and Marisa. Marisa isn't as dark in person as it is in the picture.

January It Girl box with (top to bottom) Hayden, Leah, and Megan. These are actually the colors I was going to do my baby nursery in, then go lazy and didn't decorate lol.

If anyone is interested in joining Julep Maven for the first time, click here (it's my referral link) and use code SHAREONFEB to get your first Maven box for $1! Yup, only one dollar!

Well, that's the haul. There will be another post of what I'm currently wearing pretty soon.

-Lynnette

Julep Rachel

So this is what I put on after my challenge mani came off. I used 2 (careful) coats of Julep Rachel as a base; a lovely copper color). I do want to mention that part of what made the week 6 challenge more challenging is I was not careful enough with Julep Elizabeth. When that was dry, I stamped a lacy design with Julep Elizabeth, then added a coat of Julep Oscar. I wanted the stamping to stand out better, so after Oscar dried I did another stamping round with Elizabeth. I did use two different plates/designs (which of course I don't remember!), but they meshed really well together.

Next to each other in the bottle (and in my mind's eye) I thought theses would be more eye catching. On the nail however, they turned out to be a little......blah? I don't know, what do you guys think? I will say that Oscar with a coat of topcoat is lovely and smooth; no grit, no texture other than smooth!

Well until next mani!

-Lynnette

Week 6: Half moon mani and my Julep box!

I was so excited to see/receive my Julep It Girl box, I had to use at least one of the polishes inside for my weekly challenge. If you've never heard of Julep, they make you take a style quiz, then send you a monthly box with polishes and products based on your style profile. Click here to go to Julep's website (it's also my referral link). This month's box came with Oscar (gold glitter), Rachel (warm copper), and Elizabeth (midnight purple; the website says blue, but it's purple in all lighting). I've actually got a lemming for the box they first showed me;  Hayden (a peach), Leah (a leaf green) and Megan (Mediterranean aquamarine)...it's actually almost the colors I thought of for my baby nursery lol.

Anyway, week six is a half moon manicure. I used an OPI for the base color, I don't know the color name. It's labeled "Be a Dahlia wont You", but if you google search it that color is actually a bright pink.....nothing close to what this color is. Since I found this polish in the parking lot of a store that doesn't even sell OPI, I can't really go back to the store and ask them......If anyone is game to helping me figure out the real name of this beauty, I'd gladly snail-mail them a swatch! Then I used scotch tape to tape off the bottom portion (most how-to's say to use a circular sticker, but I had nothing close to that), and did one coat of Elizabeth.

This is how it looked in most lighting.....nude shimmer with black. Elizabeth is gorgeous, but very very dark. Was a bit disappointed with how this wore. I do my manicures before bed, and somehow got tip wear in my sleep....not cool! Then got more chips at work the following day. I retipped and topcoated that night, but the next day there was even more chipping.

So Monday night I caved and took it off and put on what I'm currently waiting. That will get it's own post soon :)

Again, if you want more info about Julep's Maven program click here (it's also my referral link). I believe that if you use code "NEWYEAR2012" you can get your first box for only a penny! Yup one cent! (If that code doesn't work, I believe Julep also e-mails you a code to get your first box for only $5....I just don't remember the code or if mine would work for others)

Until next time!
-Lynnette