Designer Nails

Hey everyone! Sorry for the long absence from the blog - I've been at home for a week and now have a lovely sinus infection. Anyways, I did my nails before the break at an attempt to do "designer" nails. It didn't work out too well due to my lack of ability to paint tiny logos... but it was fun nevertheless!

OPI Tease-y Does It

Hello everyone! I hope you are all having a great week and for those with you with final exams, hang in there! I'm actually going to take my chemistry final in 2 hours... ahh!!! My roommate's alarm went off this morning (she's not here today) at 7:45 a.m., an hour before I had to wake up. I could just kill her! Okay, I love her very much and at least I got a little extra time to blog this morning right?

Today's polish is OPI Tease-y Does It from the OPI Burlesque Collection. I LOVE this whole collection, but so far I only own Tease-y Does It and Ali's Big Break. They all look gorgeous though!

 

Isn't the color gorgeous? It's a mix of chocolate, burgundy, gold and pink sparkles... hard to describe; just know this is an awesome color. These pictures were taken 1) in a rush 2) without my light box.

I can't wait until Thursday when my exams are done! I'm already planning a super cute nail art manicure and I can't wait to do it and show you all!

China Glaze Sour Apple

Sorry I have been M.I.A.! I'm preparing for my last two finals in biology and chemistry - wish me luck! First semester sophomore year has been mad stressful, but very satisfying. Going to visit one of the medical schools in the area today was a real wake-up call (in a positive way) and only made me feel more motivated.

Anyways... on to the nail polish! I've had China Glaze Sour Apple for a long time (one of my first China Glaze polishes), but I never blogged it. It's one of the specialty collection glitters and is worth the pain in the butt to remove (even though it's super sheer). Also, it's highly staining when I put two layers of China Glaze Paper Chasing under... my nails turned YELLOW. Atrocious!

Two layers of Paper Chasing + two layers of Sour Apple.

Good luck with everyone else who is taking finals!!!

So Fly

Hey everyone! So I know a lot of you have been asking about my light box. I don't want to disappoint, but... my light box looks totally ghetto! As many of you know, I am currently in college and don't have many resources to scrape together a light box. I used what I had around my apartment and it works beautifully for me! I will be posting the tutorial in my next entry (I started off doing this as nails and light box, but the post was just too long).

First... my "So Fly" manicure! This is THE manicure that inspired me to start doing my nails. I had gotten my nails done in Taiwan in a similar color and design. I loved the edgy look, and it started me on my love for nail polish, particularly dark and interesting shades. It was also the first (and only) time that I got acrylic nails done - I just don't like the feeling!

Here is the original nail design:

(with my cousin's nails in pink!)

Now in with the new... Chelsea Kaleidoscope! The color is a gorgeous purple/green/gray duochrome.

And now with my version of the feather-y design. I admit, I am TERRIBLE at doing feathers!

Don't you just love duochromes? I think duochromes are my favorite "kind" of nail polish - it's just so much fun turning your hand and seeing the colors change!

Stay tuned in my next post for the light box! I did take photos of it, I'll post it as soon as I can!

Light Box

After seeing all you wonderful ladies post about using a light box, I Googled how exactly to get one of these things that would make my pictures look better. I ended up making my own little light box! It's a little too small right now, so I'm trying to find a bigger box to make another light box. So far, I haven't done my nails for the last week because I've been completely swamped with exams (although I did pretty well!), but I'm going to do my nails on Saturday, at the very latest. I feel like I deserve a manicure after the chem and bio exams.

Anyways, while I didn't take any nail pictures, I took some bottle shots and pictures of random objects lying around my room, just to test out the light box and my camera! I'm still working on learning how to use my camera completely, but so far I love my little pink Canon PowerShot!

I had some fun trying to make little captions and a "watermark" of my blog! I hope to improve on the design and make it cuter, but for now these are a couple samples!

And now for some random spam of objects that I thought looked cool in the light box! I'm also missing a light bulb right now, the lighting looks really off. I'm open to any suggestions and comments about the photography! This has been a fun stress reliever for me!

My sorority!

What do you all use to take your nail photos? Do you find it extremely frustrating that some colors (*cough* China Glaze Custom Kicks) just won't look right on your camera?

OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui

I bought the Hong Kong Tiny Takeouts as part of my last nail polish giveaway, and OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui caught my eye. The color was so pretty that I decided to buy a full bottle of it for myself! The color is so soothing... I can't really explain it! The formula is great, this is a one-coater (shown here with only one coat, as I've gotten really lazy).

Next up, I have a special set of guest nails! My roommate and I had a nail date, so I did her nails! Excuse some of the parts where the nail isn't fully covered or I made some mistakes - I'm still learning how to do other people's nails better! I've improved so much with doing my own nails since the summer, but I only do other people's nails on occasion. If you do nails, you know it's different because you're at different angles!

I call this sweet confection Cotton Candy. I used China Glaze Light as Air as the base, with various different nail polishes for the designs! I got the cupcake idea and the stripes from another blog (http://emeraldsparkled.blogspot.com/); I love her designs! Thanks for letting me *attempt* to duplicate the designs!

All my pictures have been not as good, because I never have time when the sun is out to take pictures of nails. Flash/indoor lighting makes for not as pretty pictures!

China Glaze Light as Air

I absolutely LOVE this polish. Yes, I know we're mid-autumn right now and China Glaze Light as Air is totally a spring shade, but I needed a pick-me-up before the onslaught of exams. The polish is a gorgeous light purple (very, very light), and the application is smooth as butter (and a one-coater too). I feel like pastels can be thick and difficult to apply, so I braced myself for chalkiness. The polish totally proved me wrong! I'm in love!