Full Sets At School :)

OMG you guys, I've been such a bad blogger!!!! Ironically, it's because I've been super busy with school- I've been taking the manicuring course at Paris Beauty College in Concord, CA and I haven't been able to finish my fall challenge or blog at all! Here are a couple of pictures of the acrylic full sets I've been doing at school the last few weeks. I don't know if I'll have a chance to blog again before school is over but I'm trying to continue to snap pictures if I can! 

This set is my hand model Chrissy's hands. She gets almond shaped nails because she's a vet tech and she wears gloves and has to pick up kitties by their necks and such. She loves 3D nail art of course and got tiny white bows on a few of her nails and clusters of multi colored half pearls on the rest. 

These are DUCK FEET nails. My first set of duck feet actually on someone else. In the beginning of school, I did a full set of duck feet on myself, but these were much better. Also, the girl that got these nails was going to homecoming that weekend so it made it super fun for me to do. I used forms instead of glue on nail tips to get this flared out look.

These are just fun two toned funky french acrylics with cut out stars embedded in the acrylic. I finally had to bring my drill to school because I think I'm getting RSI from hand filing. Sad, but it's so much fun doing acrylics at school. 

That's all for now, you guys, so hope I can get back to blogging once my busy busy schedule dies down a bit! 

Fall Nail Art Challenge Day 3: Fall Gradient

Well, I picked two colors that I thought were suitable for fall: Mink Muffs by Essie, a cool chalky light brown, and Meet Me On The Star Ferry by OPI, a brown purple shimmer. I painted on two coats of Mink Muffs and then used a makeup sponge to dab MMOTSF on the tips and working toward the nail bed. Even though it is a purple brown shimmer, it came out looking a little gold and I'm pleased with the end result.

Fall Nail Art Challenge: Day 2 Autumn Leaves

This one was so tough! I thought I had a stamp that had maple leaves, but I guess I just have the almond shaped ones from BM-19. I tried to make the leaves stamp change colors but I guess I'm not that advanced at stamping yet. I painted on OPIs Bling Dynasty (über pretty gold) and then in a bottle cap mixed neon orange and Bling Dynasty/green and Bling Dynasty) to make the gold turn colors a bit but stay the same kinda shimmery metallic. I lightly with a dry brush tapped random spots on the nail with my orange and green mixtures to give it an antiquey, messy feel.

Then stamped on the leaves in an old Sinful Colors black that's gone thick.

::phew!:: a lot of retries, and finally Day 2 is over!

Fall Nail Art Challenge Day 1: Metallic

First day of TinRoofNails Fall Nail Art Challenge Week is Metallics. I used The One That Got Away from OPI's Katy Perry Mini Set. It's a really bright purply red pink metallic with micro shimmer. I really like it but it was kinda streaky to apply. Was opaque in just three coats and dried fairly fast. This is my first published stamping attempt. I got a 2 stamping sets as a birthday present to myself. One being the first Bundle Monster set and the other was the 2012 BM Collection. I used the paisley design from BM-315 to do this design in a silver polish. I wanted to do black, but I didn't know if it would show up as bright on top of this red. The One That Got Away looked MUCH darker in the bottle and this was the first time I've swatched it; that's why I thought it'd be good for this 7-day Fall Nail Art Challenge. But hey, it's fall enough for me. Especially since it still feels like summer outside.See? It does look darker in the bottle than on my nails. ;)

Seven Day Fall Challenge!

Tin Roof Nails started a brand new challenge, just in time for the changing season! It's a quickie: a 7 day fall nail art challenge-

Here's the link to the challenge and check her blog out at Tin Roof Nails here. Spread the word before it's freakin winter already!

Matte Camouflage Accent Nail with Zoya Envy

Ahhhh, Zoya Envy, you are my favorite almost-black. I love this super dark green. It inspired me to do a sweet green camo accent nail that I matted out with ELFs Matte Finisher.

First, I painted all but my rings with 2 coats of Zoya Envy. Then 2 coats on the ring fingers of Essie Mink Muffs. I sloppily did squiggly horizontal lines of a mix of Mink Muffs and a green franken I conjured up a while back. A few squiggly lines of a dark green which has no name (from some kind of art kit), and a few squiggles of Envy to tie it all together. I did a coat of super shiny Seche Vite to smooth out the creases then topped with one coat of the Matte Finisher. Can you see me?

TWO YEAR BLOGIVERSARY plus Barbie Bows

Whelp, it's my 2 year blogiversary and I've been so busy working and saving up for beauty school that I dont have anything interesting to post. I did, however jazz up my boring everyday pink and whites by adding Sally Hansen HD polish in LCD to the pink parts for a lil sparkle and blue shimmer. I painted on tiny lil now shapes in Zoya's Barbie and added a lil half pearl in matching pink to the center. All topped with INM's Out The Door topcoat (I'm out of Seche Vite).

Furthermore for my blogiversary, I would like to thank my hand models and very good friends (in alphabetical order so there's not confusion about hierarchy): Audrey and Chrissy. You are my muses. Without you my blog is a shameless, boring, self centered catalog of animal prints and boring funky French's. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for inspiring me and pushing me to try so many new things I dare not try on myself. Thank you for all the love and support and natural nails to play with. May there be many more nail designs to come.

Last but of course not least, thank you to all my followers and fellow bloggers! Your creativity and support had first inspired me to start my blog two years ago and keep going strong until now. Thanks!

Bye, Bye, Birdie

My hand model, Oddrey came over with an idea for these swallow or birds flying silhouettes. I looked up a couple pictures of bird silhouettes and decided on this design. Just two coats of a white creme, and painted these on with this dark teal color my gf Megan brought me from China. It doesn't have a name but I will swatch and post a picture of the bottle in another post! Enjoi.

I love Zoya's Barbie

I'm officially in love with Barbie by Zoya. A light creamy pink with blue undertones, this polish is a dream. The consistency came out streaky but smoothed put by the second coat, and perfectly opaque by the third. My only qualm with Zoya is that sometimes I feel the dry time is too long for me. But it is sped up with a coat of Seche Vite .
I bought this polish strictly on its name alone and was happy that it is as Barbie as I wanted it to be! Thanks Zoya.

Americana Nails <3

Ya, I know I'm a lil early, but the 4th of July is my favorite holiday do I'm going to start doing my red, white, and blues now!

Just a simple stars and striped funky French. Blue tips with white stars stamped from the 1st Konad plate on the thumb and index; white tips with shakily painted red stripes on the pinky, ring and middle. All detailed with a delicate outline of silver glitter to hide the imperfect smile lines. More USA nails to come!

Kawaii Nails for Fanime

Fanime is today and tomorrow in San Jose and my gf/hand model Chrissy asked me to do light purple rounded kawaii nails to match her Espeon costume! I did clear acrylics and just painted on French tips in a light lavender color, added some purple 3D acrylic bows, glitter, rhinestones and some metallic pearls. Ohhh la la.

Marvels The Avengers

Oh yeah. I did some Avengers logos for ya. Hulk, Iron Man, Captain America, Black Widow, and Thor. And that's that.

Would you trust this bottle of Seche Vite?

I was at Sally Beauty Supply and they were completely sold out of Seche Vite dry fast top coat but I found this weird bottle that didn't have writing on the glass. The cap had the logo on it and the sticker on the bottom was there. But I'm confused how this unmarked bottle made it to the store. I tried it out and waited a minute to test if the inside was legit and it passed my test. I know it wasn't a mismatched base coat bc their base cost is not dry fast. It was glossy and dried fairly fast so I bought it. The girl was really confused while ringing me up too.

Would you trust this? Would you still buy it if you saw this was the only one left?

St. Pattys Mani!!

I painted my nails just 2 coats of Mint Sorbet by Sally Hansen. And added green iridescent heart shaped glitters in the shape of a clover. Four hearts with their pointy parts together make the cutest little lucky clovers! I adhered them with brush on nail glue and layered a few coats of Seche Vite to seal them in.

Kat Von D True Romance Poetica Eyeshadow Palette Review and Swatches

Here are the swatches from the Kat Von D True Romance Poetica eyeshadow palette. Sorry, my arm is gross and has freckles! From left to right: "Forgiveness" a super shimmery white with gold sparkles in it. I couldn't see the gold at all in the pan until I swatched it and I was very surprised at how much gold is actually in it! "Sand Timer" is a light shimmery sand/greige, that almost doesn't show up on my skin. "Chandler" is a super reflective rust, which I think is my absolute favorite in this palette. "Tijuana" is a black with purple and rust colored micro glitter. "Wonderland" is a glittery dark purple with light purple micro glitter.  "Shiba" is a greyish purple with the same light purple shimmer as "Wonderland". "Babe" is a super bright purple with an iridescent blueish sheen to it. This is my second favorite, because I love bright colors, but don't have any with a sneaky iridescent finish to it. And last but not least "You Alone" is the most matte of the bunch, a creamy off white, leaning on the beige side, having only the slightest bit of shimmer to it. Almost not even qualifying as a shimmery eyeshadow. It's an in-betweener. I think "You Alone" would be the perfect color in this palette to use as a base color from lashline to brow. 

 

Above: With Flash

Below: Without Flash

As for what I think: Not going to go into detail reviewing each shadow, but I'll just tell you what I think of the palette as a whole. First of all, I love the packaging. The outside panels are a cool matte metal with an embossed design and has a great weight to it. The inside has a huge mirror the size of the whole case and the eyeshadows are a large and generous pan size. It has a little well for the Kat Von D "Autograph Pencil" which is a super black eyeliner pencil, included in the set. The quality of the pencil is very smooth, creamy, and blacker-than-black. I have nothing bad to say about the eyeliner really, however haven't tried it out so can't report on its staying power or smudging. Some shadows are "better" than others and I can say that they are all really pigmented, they blend easily, they are interesting and fun colors, but the one bad thing is there is quite a bit a dusty fall out on most of the shadows. And I believe I'm losing quite a bit of product each time  I dip a brush into a shadow. I give it a 4 out of 5. There's a range of colors to make multiple different looks and they're pretty good quality blendable shadows. Other than it does create a fair amount of fallout, maybe that's why they give you pretty large pans of each color! :)

 This was given to me as a gift from my boyfriend's mom who gives pretty trendy gifts. Thank you!

Pink Glitter & White French Mani

Classic pink & whites with a twist! I accidentally grabbed my sparkly pink glitter vomit mix instead of my regular clear pink I use on my nail bed. There's all kinds of glitter in there: pink metallic tinsel, pink and purple dust glitter, iridescent hexagons and stars. Basically the kitchen sink. I placed the white cut out acrylic tips sort of lower on my nail bed than I usually would so it has room to grow out for a couple weeks. I used Krazy Glue to adhere my tips on and it was so bad! It took forever to dry! I only put my acrylics back on because I had found a fresh bottle of Krazy Glue in my craft box and I have been out of glue for over 2 months now! Well, that's all folks, and prolly for a little while unless I feel inspired to dress up these nails enough to post!

Last Vday Mani (#5) Heart Stamping and Argyle

This last mani for Vday has a little but of everything. My base color was a bright pink Dream Poppy by Wet N Wild. I used that color with a bit of white mixed in to make the triangles of the argyle accent nail and for the stamped hearts (m03). And silver striping tape cut to make the lines for the argyle. *So over Valentines Day already*

Valentines Mani #3 and 4- Heart Print

So I grouped these two nail designs together because both of them have a heart print design made from a dotting tool. The first is the NYC crooked "O" LOVE sculpture painted in Dream Poppy by Sally Hansen, on top of a base coat of Raise Awareness by Essie. The other is basically the same dotting tool heart pattern on a French. I can't write much because I'm on my phone so I'll edit and update later with the colors and more instructions. Sorry, readers <33333

Valentines Mani #2: Jungle Funky French

This wasn't what I had in mind when I sat down to do a second valentines mani- it just happened. It's a super sparkly animal print funky French that had tiny pops of pink (it looks purple but it's pink) inside the cheetah print. I used metallic pink hexagon glitter to and outlined it in black to make a cheetah print. Underneath this is a white French tip, covered in Metallica by Wet n Wild, with an unnamed silver glitter on top of the silver part. Then I added a black zebra. It's fun, sparkly and is definitely a contender for actual Valentines day nails.

Valentine&apos;s Day Mani #1!!

Ahhhh.... Valentines Day... One of my favorite holidays because I love pink and hearts! Hopefully, I'll get flowers for that vase I got for Christmas (wink, Kevin!! ;) so here is my first mani for Vday! I painte on 2 coats of Blazed by Wet N Wild, and a coat of LCD by Sally Hansen HD. I then used a dotting tool to make white dots that touch in the shape of a heart on my ring finger. I filled this in with red striper polish, and used clear coat and a dotting tool to cover the red part of the heart in 1mm red hexagons. I used a black polish to paint on the "T+K" carefully and added black heart cut out decals to match! The T+K stands for Tina plus Kevin! Tina plus Kevin Forever! ;)

Striped Nail Art Inspired by New Striped Apron

I've had this brightly colored pink, black, and green fabric for a long time now and always thought about using it for an apron but never got around to it. I've been wanting a new full sizes apron as my other one is white and horribly stained. So I whipped this cute pink and black one up today and did a quick (albeit, sloppy!!) nail art to commemorate!

I used a hot pink Baby Cakes by Jessie's Girl, light pink Raise Awareness by Essie, lime green Green WIth Envy by Sally Hansen, and strippers in green, pink and black. I just followed the pattern on the fabric to make vertical stripes as carefully as possible and topped with lots of topcoat to smooth out the seams. :)

ELF Matte Finisher Review (and some nail art)

I decided to try out this nail trend and I thought it best to buy a matte topcoat vs matte polish. That way I could make any of my polishes seem matte. I bought ELF Matte Finisher for just $2 on eyeslipsface.com and was pleasantly surprised at the quality. As I have read in reviews, it smells horrible!!!!! I couldn't handle it the first night I tried it out. In the picture that only shows 2 nails, I painted them all with Black Out by Sally Hansen. Then on my ring finger I did one coat of the Matte finisher then striped on regular glossy top coat in a zebra pattern. The difference between the matte and the glossy is subtle but very interesting to look at. Today, I painted my nails with Ash Wangsday, my franken, then did a black and white cheetah print leaving the ing finger solid as my accent. Then I layered a thick coat of the Matte Finisher and I'm not sure how I feel about matte over nail art. It smoothed the seams but not as well as with Seche Vite, so I just layered on Seche Vite on top, and it was like the matte never happened. All in all here's my review key points...
Pros:
Inexpensive
Does exactly what it says it does
Cons:
Horrible smell
Little streaky, unless you apply one thick coat

Hope this review helps you! Try it out if you haven't tried matte polishes or top costs because it's the best deal for its price.