MY OWN NAILS

These are actually my own nails! I do not do my own nails because it is so nice to have someone else do them for you. I did however paint the stripes on myself. What can I say I just started playing around with my striping brush and this is what happened.

On these nails I used nebula acrylic and fushion fire sparkles. I added polish stripes to add even more fun. You really have to click directly on this picture to get the full effect of how cute these sparkles really are.

VALENTINE'S NAIL ART

So I guess this is what happens when you are done with winter! We are moving on to bright fun colors and even some Valentine's nails. Woo hoo! I am just too excited to do Valentine's nails. I couldn't help myself. This is pink acrylic in "barbie". The little red hearts I embedded into the acrylic and I painted on the red and white stripes.

These nails have 3 different colors of purple clay dots. The dots are from oaktreedollshouseminiatures.com. I also added a little coordinating clay flower on the ring fingers.

These are acrylic nails in purple passion. I added all sorts of different pieces of glitter strips, dots, sparkles, and sequins. They are extremely sparkly!

Metallic Sponged nails

I hope you, guys did not get tired of my painted nails, it is just so much fun to do this one stroke on the nails, that i just cant resist. My konad is crying is asking me to come back...
Those painted nails are just so cool looking in real life, especially now, that i am getting better at it. Do you guys miss my Konading?
For this manicure i used China Glaze Khrome and sponge - i mean for background. I did not believe that this was gonna work, but in fact turned out that those metalliks are so cool lookign for sponging.

Naked Nails - Letting them breathe.

Yes, as promised, those are my naked nails. Last night I took off all the glitter and stones, filed and buffed and then just let them be. As you can see, they're not in very good shape after being slathered in polish for an entire year - normally I let them "breathe" at least every six months, but had too much fun with the nail art last year. I have no idea if it's recommended or not, but I do know my nails seem healthier when I give them small breaks from polish once in awhile.

First I removed the polish -my favorite nail polish remover is Zoya's Remove plus, with the flipper top. If you haven't used one of these bottles, you're missing out. You just push down on the top with a cotton ball, and remover wicks up, so there's no mess or fuss. Super simple. Aside from that and cotton balls, I use my favorite metal cuticle stick to gently pry off any stones or art bits that don't want to come lose. Normally for a good manicure, I'd dip my hands in the paraffin bath a few times and let that cool right after this, but I didn't plug the paraffin in early enough to get it melted. Next week, for sure! After I remove the polish, I wash my hands/nails good, scrubbing over and under the nails with a brush.

 

This is the rest of my nail care "kit" - I have an electric file, my crystal file, cuticle nippers, clippers, and my trusty metal cuticle stick again. I normally don't use the electric file on my fingernails - but it works great for my tough toenails. I did use it to buff my fingernails this time. I use the crystal file on the edges, and when I'm polishing, I use it to rough up the nail surface too.

I broke my thumbnail this past weekend - snapped the tip right off. I had to cut the remaining supportive tissue off with my cuticle nippers to align with what's left of my nail...painful, but it just looked too bad to leave it.

After the edges are done (crystal file), I started buffing the tops. First a light touch with the course sander over the whole nail (I could say filing drum, but really, we all know this is sandpaper for nails, right?).

Then a more fine grit - again over the whole top of the nail to smooth out ridges, nicks, etc.

And finally the smooth buffing tool to shine them up a bit.

Voila, bare, slightly stained nails that are smooth and about as good as they're going to get for the moment.

I'll leave these bare for the week, and will probably break a few (the polish really protects the tips from breakage in my case). I'm going to indulge in a few paraffin baths, keep my hands and nails well-hydrated, and hopefully they'll be looking better next Monday night when it's time for polish again. Before and after photos next Tuesday (and a new design).

With any luck, I'll get used to typing again sooner than that - polish makes my nails "heavier", and when I take it off, they feel incredibly weird for a few days. Makes typing odd. 

Do you ever feel like you need to just let your nails take a break from all the polish? Are you self-conscious about leaving your nails "naked"?

Garden Rose

I have been drawing many roses recently, here is another instance.
Unfortunately, the paint is not very contrast on the pictures.
I base is sponged Zoya polish, i realized that sponging works really well as a base for painting, because it creates a nice background and also uneven structure, that allow paints lay better on the nails.
I think this manicure is very tender and nice looking.
Now i only spend about 20 minutes on left hand and about 25 on the right. However drawing on the right hand is still not an easy task for me. I hope you like this manicure

What is on nail right now

Hello dear, nail-Art lovers!
I did some more nail painting today.
So, this is what i have done today and this manicures is actually on my nails right now (i dont know for how long)
I ope you too think that i am making some progress in painting, and some manis comes out nice.I am finally starting to get some depth in my drawings. I also just realized that i need to use more contrast colors for better results



This is my right hand, and i think i did a really good job on this one. usually painting with the left hand is a disaster for me

PARTY!

The question isn't what did I do on these nails but what didn't I do? I went all out on these. I used 3 colors of acrylic that I placed randomly on the nail. I added blue, pink and yellow mylar. I also used some glitter pieces. After I filed and shaped the nails I painted on the purple and white swirls then I finished with a gel top coat. They look like a party is going on right on her nails!

This is an icy blue acrylic by ez flow called venezia. I added little glitter strips into the acrylic and finished by painting on some snowflakes.

On these nails I used black acrylic in nebula and faded sparkles nail products glitter in black & white ball at the smile line.

These nails also have black acrylic in nebula and I used another glitter from sparkles nail art faded into it. Love love love the sparkles.