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 28: Gradient Mani

This is a repeat mani for me, however a first for you guys because I never got pictures of it the first time around >.<
Seems like the words "gradient" and "ombre" kinda look the same in the nail world. So this is my take on the gradient mani.

Thumb- China Glaze Kinetic Candy
Index- My franken
Middle- Sinful Colors Why Not
Ring- China Glaze Blue Year's Eve
Pinky- Essie Dive Bar
All- Studio M Covered in Diamonds
For being five different polishes, everything blended together really well!

Now to do my rockstar mani....hopefully I can get that loaded up closer to on time. I may have wore this at the right time, but I definitely posted this late!

-Lynnette

Week 19: Floral

My nails have gotten pretty weak lately, so I'll be sticking to the challenge manis for a little while and not doing a whole lot in between.I've got to break the bad habit of peeling off the polish instead of removing it properly!

This nail art turned out kinda pretty. I started with 2 coats of Sinful Colors Social Ladder, a fairly sheer pinky/pearl shade. I like to use this as my "natural but better" shade. Then I stamped with Sally Hansen Plum Burst, China Glaze Sweet Hook and Kinetic Candy. The only thing I don't really like is that Sweet Hook is nearly invisible.

Nice and Girly!

In other news, I recently inherited my Grandma's Pfaff 7570 embroidery machine. I love sewing with this machine, and I've wanted an embroidery machine for a looong time so my focus has shifted a bit more to sewing. Soon I'll have a post up about all I've learned about this machine so that the information is out there for others (I wish that someone had posted this info for me when I was starting with this machine).

Until next time!

-Lynnette

Week 13: Ruffian mani (Updated)

So....I've been a bad blogger! I totally wore Kinetic Candy before I did this manicure, but didn't take any picture of it. Nope not even one. I will say that it's a great color, and the formula is like Sweet Hook from the same collection. However, I know that Kinetic Candy is one I will be wearing again, so I'll nab a picture then.

Another bummer.....I'm back to nail nubs :( After I took off Agro I noticed a hairline crack in one nail. Then as I was getting ready to put on Kinetic Candy, the nail fully broke. My slight OCD kicked in, and then all the nails had to go (this is a habit I've had since before I was a polish addict). This is another reason why there are no pictures of Kinetic Candy; I couldn't stand to take pictures of nubs :(

Anyway, on to the challenge mani! This week is a Ruffian style. I had to google this, and originally I was going to copy-cat a red and black look. Then over the weekend, I found some new Sinful Colors displays and changed my mind. I picked up Sinful's Cinderella and Glass Pink and used those as "undies" for Revlon's Whimsical and Starry Pink (I've also seen this called Popular). The Sinful "undies" have a TON of shimmer, that even shows through the Revlon!

 Left hand

Right Hand

This turned out ok, but I'm not in love with it. My "ruffian lines" are uneven, but masked by the milky glitters on top. Then there is just so many layers......2 coats of the bottom color, 1 coat of quick dry topcoat, 2 coats of the top color, then the glitter coat, and another coat of quick dry topcoat (I'm currently using Sally Hansen Insta-dry). Oh, and then on top of that, I woke up this morning to bubbles. Also trying to cleanly paint nubs is a joke; even clean up sucked (as you can see...my nails look horrible in the pictures). I would have skipped the pictures until I could try to make them look better, but I have a feeling that this isn't going to be staying on long. 

Ugh....At least I finally found "undies" for Starry Pink. I have been looking for a while, but hadn't found anything I liked.

Next time, I think I might show some of the polish strips I've been making.

-Lynnette

EDIT: This mani never. fully. dried! Even after I posted about it, this was still gummy and dentable. Yuck! Needless to say, this has come off to be replaced with Starry Pink over Glass Pink. Pictures to follow.