ABC Challenge-W & X

I cannot say that these are my most creative or unique manicures, but I do like the colors on both.  I was both in a hurry to get two done in one sitting as well as I am so ready for the next challenge that my imaginative juices were not really flowing for these.                       

So W is for White Dots. Like I said, nothing too creative.  I do love this color though. Sinful Colors Have a Latte.  It kind of reminds me of bowling pins :-)

X is for well.....X.  I used one of my favorite colors Mossy Britches by Ultra Pro.  I then striped on black X's and added a rhinestone to the middle of each.

  

Hope you enjoyed these two posts.  Y will be up tomorrow......unfortunately my nails broke and are down to tiny little stumps.  They are cute and tiny and each time I look at them I tell them to grow faster! 

Have a wonderful Tuesday all!

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 :-)

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

Cats in Corners on a Colorblock

I knew from the day I started this challenge I knew what I wanted to do for C.  I love a colorblock manicure and I never do them.  The first and the last one I did was for my trip to NYC and I got so many compliments on it.  And this was before I was really any good at doing my nails :-P  I also wanted to throw in another C word into these nails, but wasn't sure what.  Cookies?  Caterpillars? Caligraphy?  Nope, Cats. Plain old cats.  A black cat even....cause it's almost Halloween and I want to do everything Halloweeny right now.  I really wanted to do some orange, green, gold, fall colors, but changed my mind in the end and went with some bold and darker colors.  I think it turned out pretty great. The only thing about color blocking is that with adding so many colors it gets messy and requires a lot of cleanup which in turn dries out my cuticles. Other than that I really like this one.  Its cute and a bit whimsical.  What do you think?

Colors-Hard Candy Frenzy, NYC Manhattan, NYC Sidewalks, Nicole OPI Give Me the First Dance
Stamp-BM04 using Kleancolor Black

So, I am thinking about having naked nails for a while as I fix the dryness around my cuticles.  They just look awful and even with a great manicure, all I can see is the bad cuticles.  Other than that, I hope you enjoyed this one.  I think it's pretty darn cute!!  

Thanks for stopping by and check out all the other Creative and Cute manicures.  

'B'ows and zom'B'ies

Bows and Zombies.  Those two things absolutely go together, right?  I made the decision that they do after trying to come up with something unique for week two of the ABC's of nails for my Llama Lacquers group.  I have had zombies on the brain for a few days as I am planning a zombie party for Halloween.  I could think of nothing but zombie zombie zombie. Zombie does not start with B.  Someone suggested doing Braaaaaaaiiiinnns and I love that idea, but I couldn't figure out how.  So I decided I wanted to do bows. Yes, not anywhere in the realm of zombiedom, but I made it work.  I figure some girl zombies have bows in their hair.  I mean, they don't choose when they turn into zombies.  It could be on prom night, or out on a date, or even their wedding for crying out loud.  So my nails are a tribute to those poor zombie girls who got all dressed up and never made it to their fancy ball.  Forced to roam in search of brains and human flesh, still adorned with their beautiful bows on their heads :-P

I started with a french manicure using a zombie flesh colored polish by Essie and then topped it with my very own indie polish Rick Grimes, Zombie Killer.  I also used this on the accent nail.  The zombie skin effect is awesome!  I just love how it looks all rotting but sparkly at the same time! I then freehanded some bows on the tips of each nail.  I added some sparkly red to look like blood dripping from the bow. Poor zombie girl.  

Base & Tips-Essie High Spirits topped with Llama Lacquers Rick Grimes, Zombie Killer
Bow-It's So Easy Striper Black
Blood- LA Colors striper red glitter

I left the right hand unzombified so you could see the awesomeness that is my new polish.  If you haven't already done so, please go check out my polishes on etsy.  Llama Lacquers

I hope you liked me zombie BOW nails.  I sure had fun making them.  There are so many more Halloween themed mani's coming in the next month, I just can't wait.  Do you love Hallween as much as I do?  

Thanks for stopping by and I appreciate all your comments.  Make sure to check out the other 'B'eautiful manicures by the other ladies. 

A is for Autumn

In case you don't know I have recently started a new group on facebook called Llama Nails. We are a group of fun loving nail girls who just want to have fun with nails and keep the drama for the llama :-)  If you haven't seen....here is our adorable little mascot llama.  You know she wants you to do her nails, right?

So we have started a new challenge today called the ABC of Nails.  We will be going through the alphabet one week at a time! Each week we will post a manicure that contains something from the letter of the week.  It can be a polish name, a polish brand, an item on your nails, or even a technique.  These posts will come to you on Wednesdays! 

Obviously to begin with we are starting with A.  I wanted to do something different, but had a hard time coming up with something. The weather here yesterday was so beautiful.....almost fall like, so I decided to do an 'A'utumn manicure.  I love Autumn, don't you?  The smell of pumkin spice, crisp leaves, apple cider.  The sound of rustling leaves and kids playing outside.   Even the gorgeous colors of Autumn.  They have to be some of my favorite color combinations.  Russet oranges, dark reds, golden browns, and coppery colors.  I recently purchased an indie polish from Hit Polish called Autumn Harvest which is a gorgeous combination of sparkly fall colors.  I used this over gold and then did a gradient using some colors found in the polish with a leaf stamp on top.  I really like this gradient and I think it looks just beautiful next to Autumn Harvest and the gold stamp! I am so glad I get to keep this on for a couple of days!! Doesn't it make you want to take a walk in the brisk fall air and step on lots of leaves :-) 

Base-Milani Gold Dust
Glitter-Hit Polish Autumn Harvest
Accent Gradient-Ultra Pro Mossy Britches, Ultra Pro Burnished Bronze, & Finger Paints Picasso's Puce
Stamp-BM04 using Maybelline Bold Gold

Sorry if my cuticles aren't quite up to par :-(  Alas, so many other things going on!!

So, what's your favorite thing about Autumn??  

And hey....I have opened my polish store on Etsy, so please stop by and check out some of my Princess Bride inspired polishes! It's called Llama Lacquers :-)

Thanks for stopping by and I appreciate all of your comments! Please check out the other ladies participating in this fun challenge.  Lots of really cool 'A' manicures!