Primary Colors

Happy September, Kitschies!  How is it possibly already September?  Before you know it, it's going to be Halloween.  And then Turkey Day.  And then Christmas.  *sigh*  Time is moving impossibly fast.  And because of that, I haven't been posting much.  In fact, I didn't post at all during the entire month of August.  Shame on me!!

The highlights of August: Nate started 1st grade, I had my birthday, and the hubs and I got to go camping!

I know most of you aren't here to see pics of my handsome little boy or of my adventures around the state, so I'll get to why you're really here: the nails!

I'm going to start by saying that I have NO idea when I did this mani.  But, it's pretty and I like it, so I'm going to share it with you.

I believe I started with a base of white, but since it's been such a long time, I can't remember exactly.  It was either white or the yellow.

Anyway...

I liked the idea of this one more in my head than it looked on my nails.  I think I should've used a brighter blue rather than a navy.

This is my right hand.  I liked the pinky nail on this hand a lot.  And the thumb was good, too, until I knocked it on something and ended up with a big bald spot.  But, you know when you've finished a full water marble mani, you really don't feel like redoing one if it gets messed up.  Yeah.  That's what happened there.

See...if all the nails came out like this one, with the blue really bold, I would've liked it better.  Either way, it was a water marble and really...you can't completely go wrong with that.

And here's what I used.  I have yet to find a yellow that I really like.  A real, primary-type yellow.  Any suggestions?

So, there ya go.  I won't promise to post more but I can tell you that I have lots of pictures prepped and just sitting there, waiting to be shared with the blogverse!!

Happy September!

You're FIRED!

TGIF, Kitschies!  I'm so excited it's the weekend!!  It was a short work week, but it still feels like it took forever to get through.  Got plans for the weekend?  We do!  Saturday is my bestie's oldest son's birfday and then Nate gets to go over there and spend the night (YES!).  When I drop Nate off, the bestie and I are going to derby practice (practice for me, watching for the preggo) and when I get home, the hubs and I are going to crack open a bottle of wine and veg.  I might have to come in to work on Sunday, but that won't be until after I get to sleep in (the hubs says he'll cover Mason).  I can't remember the last time I got to really sleep in!  We'll see if it actually happens...


A while back, I got a wild hair and asked my hubs what he wanted to see on my nails.  He said he wanted to see flames.  *sigh*  Flames?  Really?  I thought about it for a while and couldn't come up with an easy way to actually paint flames on my nails.  Instead, I thought I'd give sponging a gradient a try.  I've tried sponging before and it didn't turn out the way I wanted it to.  And it didn't really work this time, either, but I took pics so I could share my sorta fail with you.

I started by painting my nails with a couple coats of Sinful Colors Let's Meet (yellow), then I sponged SH Xtreme Wear Crushed (orange) from the middle of the nails to the tips.  And to finish it out, I sponged ChG Vertical Rush on the tips.  The colors are good, but the pattern isn't very gradient.

The lines between the colors aren't subtle enough for me.  I liked the concept, but I didn't like the end result.

It's even more obvious in indirect light.  I wore it like this for a few days, then I posted a question on FB for those in the know.  I got some good suggestions and decided to try it again.

This time, instead of starting with an all over base color, I started sponging the darkest color (red) at the tips.  Then I sponged the medium color (orange), overlapping the red and taking it to about the upper third of the nail.  Finally, I sponged the lightest color (yellow) at the nail bed and out to overlap the orange.  

I am much happier with the way the second try came out.  Maybe I won't fire my fire nails after all!  For added sparkle effect, I added Nailtini Spritzer on top.  Spritzer doesn't stand out too much, so it wasn't all glitter bling in your face, but I like the effect it had - kinda pulled it all together.

You can tell the lines aren't quite so bold this time.  I was pretty happy with this one once it was all said and done.  And the hubs?  He thought it was cool, but he was a little disappointed I didn't actually paint flames on my nails.  I told him he must think I'm a better artist than I really am.


Well...I'm off to lunch!  It's a quick trip to WalMart for me - OH BOY!  Enjoy the rest of your Friday and I hope you have a relaxing weekend.

I have a little baby bumblebee...

Good morning, Kitschies!!  Can you believe it's May?!  And guess what?  New Mexico (central and north) got snow yesterday.  Yep...snow!  In May!  It didn't really stick, but it sure was a surprise to see.  Needless to say, we didn't get out much yesterday.  I don't think it go above 40* and today we had flurries first thing and it's supposed to get to 58*.  And, of course, it's predicted to get to 80* by the end of the week.  I guess Mother Nature is mad at us about *something*.

So, where are we?  Oh, yeah.  Nail polish.  Let me just say a little something about that before I get on to the pics.  Raise your hand if you're quickly getting over the whole crackle/shatter fad.  *raises hand*  Don't get me wrong, it looks awesome and it's easy.  But...starting with OPI and then ChG and now SH...how many do we really need?  Maybe I'm alone in this, but I get it already.  Enough with the crackle/shatter polishes.  I think it's more cool when it's not quite as available.  With that said, lets look at the last crackle mani I wore.

This is ChG Cracked Concrete over ChG Lemon Fizz.  The yellow is your typical pastel yellow (a pain in the butt to apply) but I didn't have to be too careful since I was covering it with Crackle Glaze.

Indoors with flash.  I liked how this turned out (just like I had imagined/hoped it would).  The colors remind me of a pastel or faded bee.  One of the docs said it reminded him of a giraffe.  LOL

Indirect sunlight; no flash.  And, obviously, this was done before my last water marble mani (my nails are long), but they're growing out pretty fast.  I've noticed that as long as I keep my nails polished, they grow and don't break quite as easily.

So, are ya with me on the whole being *over* the crackle/shatter fad?  What is your favorite color combo for shatter?

Anything But FAIL

Good evening, Kitschies!  It's Tuesday.  Right?  Yep.  Still Tuesday.  It feels like days ago since I got up this morning.  It was a busy day at work.  For me, anyway.  I spent a good couple hours working on the EMR program and 5:00 came *just* before my head exploded, so that was good. 

Now I'm home and I decided to do my nails (shocking, I know) and I've had nothing but failures.  I've attempted a purple gradient and a red/glitter funky french and they were both big FAT fails.  I finally decided to quit attempting to do something cool and went with a safe choice (Nubar Raspberry Truffle).  And to make sure that the fails of the night don't get me down, I'm sharing two manis that are anything but fails.

To celebrate the New Year, we had our besties over for dinner and games.  We used to do this a lot more often when we only had one kid a piece.  We try to get together at least once a month and when we do, either Wendi does my makeup or I do her nails.  This time I did her nails.  She knew exactly what she wanted and, of course, I had the colors we needed to pull it off. 

I started with the Color Club Electro Candy collection: Electro Candy (neon pink with turquoise flash), Pure Energy (neon blue with green flash), Ultra Violet (neon purple with blue flash), Volt of Light (highlighter yellow with blue-ish green flash), Tangerine Scream (neon orange with white flash), and What A Shock! (neon green with blue flash).

I paired the blue and purple together, pink and orange and yellow and green.  I overlapped each of the colors so they looked like they blended in.  Then I grabbed the black acrylic paint and striped each nail with zebra stripes.  How awesomely 80s is this?!

I'm still learning to take good pics with the new camera.  I've got taking my own pics down, but taking pics of somebody else's nails is a little more tricky.  In other words: sorry that pic is so blurry.

We realized later that the blue and purple nails match her awesome purple and turquoise ring.  WIN!!  I was so inspired by the way Wendi's nails turned out, I did my own nails similar to this the following week.

 

Instead of pairing up all six colors, I decided to just use the pink and orange.  I love it!!  These pics were taken indoors with flash.  I did this on a Thursday night and didn't take it off til tonight (that's 5 whole days)!

 It's kinda hard to see on the nails, but you can see in the bottle that both of these colors had a great flash/shimmer.  I know I've previously stated that I hate neon, but this collection has changed my mind.  I don't like the satin finish, but a coat of top coat fixes that!

This is indoors in indirect light, no flash.  The neon colors show up best when it's not in bright direct sunlight.  Its awesome in the dim first light of morning.

Indoors in more direct, bright sunlight.  The wear on this was much better than expected - especially since it's a neon.  Today I had a little bit of tip wear, but I did have a chunk pop out of the middle of my index finger.  I got tons of compliments about this mani.  It's so fun, so bright and so NOT winter.  LOL

I'm tired.  My hands are cold.  I have a headache.  I think it's about time to call it a night.  What do you think of my neon rainbow zebras?  They're definitely a horse of a different color.

Challenge Accepted - Part 2

Good evening, Kitschies! I can't believe it's Wednesday evening - even though it kinda feels like it should be later in the week. The hubs had to leave for an overnight out of town business trip so I was in charge of the kidlets. One of my patients asked me how I find time to work. Well, it's the only thing that keeps my almost 4-year-old alive. I'm only sort of kidding. If you have a kid around this age, I know you understand. I love the kid but he knows exactly what to do to get on my last nerve. Anyway...we went to McDonald's for dinner so he could run around and maybe get a little tired. He's watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse now, hopefully winding down to go to bed. Ah...the kids' bedtime. That's the best time of the day!

Enough with that. As you probably remember, I made a submission to PHD's patriotic challenge last week. She posted the submissions on Sunday - here's the patriotic challenge gallery - take a look at all the cool submissions from all over the world! Monday brought with it a new challenge - analogous. We have to use 3 neighboring colors from the color wheel she provided. I really love these challenges! It gives me a chance to do something with my nails that I wouldn't normally do otherwise (and get some colors I wouldn't normally buy). Just like last week, I went home and, once the kids went to bed, broke out the polishes and created away! I have quite a few pictures for this one because I snapped a pic at each step. I was afraid I wouldn't like this much because I don't like the colors by themselves, but I really like the finished product.



What I used (front to back): Sinful Colors in HD Nails, Wet n Wild in Envy and Sinful Colors in Let's Meet. All three are shimmer. Out of these 3, I like Envy the best - it has a pretty subtle gold shimmer. HD Nails and Let's Meet were both pretty pigmented and would only need 2 coats on their own. Envy, however, would definitely 3, if not 4, coats to be totally opaque. This kind of worked toward my advantage since I went for a staggered color approach.


After the Siche Vite basecoat, I did 2 coats of Let's Meet. Bright yellow. Blech. I really am not a yellow person. It doesn't look good with my skintone. But with the other colors, it isn't so bad. I'll probably end up using this as a layering polish or art some day. By itself? No way!


Second color was Envy. It's a lime green with a subtle gold shimmer which ended up working really well with the yellow. I started at the top outside corner of each nail and pulled it across in a diagonal pattern. This is 2 coats.


On top of Envy is 2 coats of HD Nails. This is a prettier green and I can see myself using this as the main color in another mani. HD Nails is a grass green with shimmer. It really tied the other two colors together. After I finished with the 3 colors, I felt like it was missing something. I dug out my gold glitter nail art brush and did a thin stripe between the yellow and yellow-green. That's what it was missing!

Indoors with flash

Outdoors, direct sunlight

The hubs took the pic with both hands - not bad, huh? I really do like the way this turned out. Today is day 2 with this mani and it's wearing surprisingly well. I was sure I'd have some chipping since there's basically 8 layers of polish here. No chips and no tip wear. On top of the good wear, I've had quite a few compliments! One person asked me where I got my nails done and she was shocked when I told her I did them myself. Happy Megan! LOL There you have it! Challenge #2 for me. I might even give this one another try! As with the other challenges, you have until this Friday evening to get your submission in. Check out PHD Challenges for all the rules.

Just a parting note. My BFF, none other than the beautiful Wendi from Makeup Zombie, and I were talking (well, we were texting, but that's how we talk) today and we decided we're going to do a crossover post for eachother. It's still in the very early stages of development, but I think it's going to be good. It'll be fun for us at the very least! Keep your eyes open for that one.

Whew! I'm beat! It's been a long day. My wrist has been hurting/aching - cross your fingers it's not the beginnings of carpal tunnel from all this extra computer work. To quote Invader Zim: "That would be...not...good."

Listening to: Presto (live) by Epica
Mood: salty