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!

ABC Challenge F-V

Ok, so not going to go into a lot of detail.  Just going to post the pics.  If there is one you want to know more about, let me know.  I will be happy to tell you how I did them.

F is for Forever Hannah by Llama Lacquers

G is for GORE.  These were done for our zombie Halloween party which was  legendary btw

H is for Halloween

I is for Intricate design

J is for Jewels

K is for Key to my Heart

L is for Llama Lacquers....this is You'll Shoot Your Eye Out

M is for Matte (not my best)

M is also for My Mom's nails :-)

N is for Night Sky...my favorite of this challenge I think

O is for O Christmas Tree

P is for Penguin....wait maybe this is my favorite!

Q is for Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland

 R is for Roses

S is for Scroll Work & Stamping

T is for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles by D & R Apothecary

U is for Umbrellas

V is for Valentine's Day

Well, there you have it! I am still behind as we are on X, but I will get there I promise. This is a step in the right direction I think for getting back into blogging.  

Which of these are your favorites?  I would love to hear what you think! Thanks :-)

New Challenge for Llama Nails

Hello!!  Oh, how I've missed you all.  I wish I could say that I have gotten my shit together and have time to do this again, but alas the time I have to blog is being taken by my wonderful family.  My husband has been working crazy hours and when he is home I want to be with him, and when he's not here I am crazily busy with my kids.  My 1 1/2 year old who is ALL BOY and always into everything, and my sweet and very active daughter who is now involved in cheerleading, gymnastics, and getting ready for kindergarten! Lately I have also been doing a lot of organizing and decluttering of our home.  It looks fabulous now and my daughter even has an adorable reading nook in her closet. 

With all that said, I have a plan to make my blogging work.  I won't go into the details but I believe that by the time our new challenge for Llama Nails begins I will be able to not only be on time with my manicures but  actually blog about them!  

Wait, what? A new challenge, you say??  Hopefully some of you have also been following some of the other bloggers out there who have been participating in the ABC challenge.  We are already on X, which means only two more weeks left.  (I hope that I will be able to do a big post with the pics of all the manis I have done since my last post for the ABC challenge) This also means a new challenge!  Llama Nails is proud to announce our next challenge that will all be inspired by important Time Periods of history.  

As you can see we will begin with the Jurassic Era, which means dinosaurs and prehistoric awesomeness and we will be ending with Futuristic manicures which I just can't even imagine the creativity that will come out of this one. There are going to be so many other interesting manicures in between.  I personally am most looking forward to.....oh soot, I can't pick! As Tes said, this is going to be EPIC!

If you haven't joined our group yet and want to participate you can find us here at Llama Nails.  We are happy to have anyone no matter your experience or ability.  Just come without any drama :-)  

Llama Lacquers Holiday Collection

Well hello ladies!!  I can't believe it has been over 2 months since I have blogged.  Wow how life has gotten away from me!  But I am back and I have some great news for everyone :-)  Llama Lacquers has a new Holiday collection based on the best Christmas story in the world, A Christmas Story.  It has long been a tradition in my family to watch this movie only a few hundred times on Christmas day.  I love the characters, the simple story line, and the awesomely descriptive and exaggerated voice over of an adult Ralphie. There were so many inspirations for this line I had trouble narrowing it down but in the end I went with some of the most famous parts of the movie.  I have many pictures to show you and even a manicure for each.  I am quite pleased with the outcome of these colors and I think they all look so festive! Take a look and then let me know what you think.

From left to right:
* Deranged Easter Bunny-a gold base with tiny rose hex and gold square glitters
* Triple Dog Dare-a clean base with fine rainbow, large white and bright blue hex glitters
* You'll Shoot Your Eye Out-a clear base with red bar, large white, gun metal grey, and red hex glitters
* Fra-Gee-Lay-a clear base with gold bar, small black hex, and square black glitters
* Daddy's Gonna Kill Ralphie-a clear base with fine white, red bar, and red and green hex glitters
* Fa-Ra-Ra-Ra-Ra-a clear base with white, red, silver, and aqua glitters

Here is a closer look at each

Deranged Easter Bunny

Base-Milani Gold Dust & Milani Black Swift
Glitter-Deranged Easter Bunny
Nail Art-It's So easy Stripers

Triple Dog Dare

Base-Sally Hansen Brilliant Blush
Glitter-Triple Dog Dare
Accent Nail-Spoiled Correction Tape base & stamp m59 using Sally Hansen Co-Bolt Blue

My nails are all all weird so this translucent polish doesn't cover up the yellow good enough.  Alas, there must always be something weird going on :-P

You'll Shoot Your Eye Out

Spoiled Correction Tape & You'll Shoot Your Eye Out

Fra-Gee-Lay

Sinful Colors This Is It & Fra-Gee-Lay

I love this one as it also dupes as a Steelers polish. In fact these are my mom's hands and we are watching the Steelers game today :-)

Daddy's Gonna Kill Ralphie

NYC Tribeca Silver & Daddy's Gonna Kill Ralphie

Fa-Ra-Ra-Ra-Ra

Finger Paints & Fa-Ra-Ra-Ra-Ra

So, which one is your favorite?  These make great stocking stuffers in the minis and starting tonight I will have 15mL available! 

Cyber Monday sale starts tonight and everything will be 20% off.  Also, the holiday collection will have a straight shipping fee of $2.50 no matter how many you buy.  Hope to see you there!!

Llama Lacquers

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!