Egyptian Eye of Horus

Hello my ladies! I am so sorry I have been away for almost a week!  I had the greatest manicure using Glitter Goblin and I was never able to get around to photographing it, let alone blog.  I have recently discovered that my daughter has ADHD and have been doing everything I can to help her and to keep her out of trouble.  Being a former teacher the signs were pretty obvious but after doing a lot of research the bells really started to go off. It has been exhausting, but it is working :-)  We have less fights and she just seems happier.  I am so glad I figured it out before she heads off to school next year.  I know its never going to be easy but its better and it feels good to know! If you have children and ever need advice in this area feel free to ask.  I have taught many children over 9 years with a plethora of learning disabilities and disorders. I am a great listener and counselor.  I'm not just nails you know :-P

Anyway, onto the nails.  I really had no idea what I was going to do for E.  I even posted in the Llama Nails group hoping to get some suggestions and I did.  Some great ideas came my way, but none of them felt right.  I finally decided that I was going to do eyes, but was stumped on how to do them (cause I felt like doing something pretty instead of cheeky or fun) Then all of a sudden a light bulb went off and I thought of the Eye of Horus.  The history behind the eye of Horus, as with most Egyptian history, is simply too complicated to explain here so instead if you want to know more click on the Eye of Horus link. Then I realized, oh snap, Egypt starts with E also! I love everything Egyptian.  I am pretty sure I was an Ancient Egyptian in a former life. I love the crazy mixed up insestuous lineage of the Pharoahs, the beauty and colors of their fashion, architecture, and art.  I even love the mystery of the tombs and the aestetics of the heiroglyphic written language.  I have been wanting to do Egyptian nails for a while now and its funny how I completely forgot that when it came time for week E.  

For this manicure I started with a black base on all nails but the accent nail.  I did my accent nail in gold and free hand painted the Eye of Horus (which looks good on my left hand, but the right leaves something to be desired) I then painted the tips of each of the other nails gold and free hand painted a intricate Egyptian inspired pattern into it with a teal color.  I can totally see Cleopatra or Nefrititi wearing these nails.  They are definitely fit for a Queen.  

Base-Milani Black Swift
Accent Base-Loreal Amazon's Flash over Milani Gold Dust
Eye-It's so Easy black striper using a very small brush
Tips-Amazon Flash & Its' So Easy teal striper using small brush

I was super nervous about doing the tiny intricate design on my tips, but I think they turned out pretty awesome. I was unable to duplicate that design on the right hand...seriously how do girls do it! But it still matches.  So pretty cool. don't ya think?  

Thanks for stopping by!  Don't forget to check out the other awesome E mani's.  There is even another Egyptian mani by Jackie at MeMa's Manis :-)

Goblin Blood

Hello my dears! It feels so good to be able to write blog posts two days in a row. Especially since I've been so busy to begin with.  I just love October.  Halloween, fall, and so many birthdays that I know...including my own. This means the Sally's $10 off coupon :-) I have been eyeing the Wicked Collection from China Glaze for quite some time now, so I went to Sally's to purchase it for my early birthday present. I perused the shelves I was super disappointed when they weren't there and the sales lady said they weren't for sale. I then proceeded to pick out some other beautiful polishes to try to appease my sadness when from the back of the store I hear "Oh! We do have them!" Why the hell they weren't on the shelves I don't know.  But she had to call her manager to see if she could sell them to me as the set. I still can't believe the price. $8.99 for four China Glaze polishes. Awesome. And they are even more gorgeous in person.  So, I had to do a manicure with them right away.  I used Roguish Red and Bizzare Blurple over a NYC green.  I did drips to make it look like I dipped my tips in some kind of ooey gooey goblin blood.  Man I love Halloween and the fall.  So much inspiration for cool nail art!

Base-NYC Luxury Lime Creme
Drips-China Glaze, Roguish Red & Bizzare Blurple

I totally love these.  Fun and icky at the same time.  What is your favorite time of the year to get inspiration for your nails?  

On another note, I am so ridiculously happy at how my cuticles and skin look now that I have been taking better care of them.  Can you tell the difference?

Thanks for stopping by! 

Pet Semetary

This post has two agendas.  #1 promote another of my Halloween Llama Lacquers.  #2 Do a manicure for the Crumpet's Nail Tarts Halloween Challenge.  I seriously can't remember the last manicure I did for this group.  BTW....this is the group that did the Summer Challenge, previously named Purple Crumpet Fairy Challenge.  It's kinda like Prince, the artist formerly known as Prince.

Anywho.   Today's challenge was black cats. I was tempted to use my one cat stamp, but as I just used it I simply couldn't do it.  Instead I decided to make a zombie cat.  I'm a little obsessed with zombies at the moment if you didn't know.  Been watching season 2 of The Walking Dead on netflix and watching the Resident Evil movies.  I have also been planning a zombie party that is going to be epic.  So I've got zombies on the brains. BRAAAAAAIIIIINNNNNSSSSSS.  Again, I digress.  One of my Llama Lacquers polishes is called Pet Semetary (yes, I know how to spell. In the book, that is what the sign at the cemetery read) It is a silvery based polish with grey, green, and brown glitters.  All the colors a rotting animal corpse would contain.  Nice visual I know.  I put this over a metallic green on all nails but the ring finger.  This I put over a matte grey.  I then hand painted a lovely little black zombie cat.  He looks a little like a rabbit I'm afraid.  I tried to make his one ear look like it had been chewed but instead it looks more like a drooping rabbit ear.  Ah well, what can you do.  It's a cat.

Bases-Sinful Colors Moss Have & NYC Sidewalkers on the accent nail
Glitter-Llama Lacquers Pet Semetary

Here is just the Pet Semetary on my right hand

I really dig (hehe) this polish and it is just perfect for a fall halloween manicure.  I hope you like it too! Make sure to check out my other polishes at Llama Lacquers on etsy.  

Also, here is what the rest of the Halloween Challenge looks like.  I am going to try to do as many as I can. It's getting harder and harder these days to do a bunch of manicures, but I will try.

As always, thanks a bunch for stopping by. Check out the other beautiful black cats that some lovely ladies did.  

Everyone loves a Dotticure

Let me begin with another congrats to my giveaway winner Angie at Our Painted World.  She is super talented and I was excited to see that she had won! She chose two awesome Llama Lacquers,  Redrum from the Halloween Collection and Strawberry Susie from The Girls Collection.  I can't wait to send it all out.  Another hearty thank you to all that entered!  I truly appreciate all your support and the wonderful comments you left me.  I hope you stick around while I continue my crazy nail journey.  I'm sure I will have another giveaway in the future :-)

Ok, so on to my ABC challenge post.  This week was the letter D, and once again I knew what I wanted to do from the beginning.  I love a dotticure and there are so many different styles of it that I want to try.  I know it is nothing original, but having polka dots dancing on my fingers puts me in a good mood.  I decided to use some dark colors for this and they didn't show up as well as I would have liked them too, but I like it nonetheless. I am finding that because it is fall I have to use dark fall colors.  No more pastels for a while.  

Base-Finger Paints Bauhaus Burgundy
Dots-Orly Space Cadet and Black

See, nothing too fancy.  Space Cadet is actually a holographic polish that came in a french manicure kit and looks really cool in person. I couldn't get my lighting right and got a lot of glare.  These were the best two pictures I could get.  

Thanks for stopping by.  Make sure you check out the other ladies.  A lot of dotticures today :-P