Gothic Black and Fuchsia Nail Art - WIDW

Hey y'all!

So uhm... it's been a while.  My bad.  I had a rough month, and to be honest, I'm not sure I still have the blogging spark that I used to have.  I'm hoping that some time off will ease that and help me get back in the groove, but at this point I'm not going to make any promises to you or to myself.  Mostly this month has been consumed with me practicing my acrylic sculpting, going to the BeautyUK show in Birmingham to pick up some goodies for said acrylic practice, earning my certificates for hard gels, gel polish, and a few other nail procedures, and trying to clear out some old stuff from the house to make a little money and make space.  I'm also considering going into practice as a mobile nail tech, unless I can find a suitable position in a nearby salon first, so I am seeing my available free time starting to shrivel up and frankly that's what kept me blogging for the past 2 years (having a lot of time on my hands).  In any event... I have a few posts to finish off this month and the first of those is this WIDW look with Sinful Shine's Royal Flush - a gothic black and fuchsia look with studs.

Doctor Crafty's Green and Orange Abstract - NCC Recreations

Hey y'all!

It's finally Friday!  This makes for exciting news for most of the us, and today I'm excited to be able to bring you my final recreation for this month's Nail Challenge Collaborative theme, celebrating 3 years of nail art goodness.  Today I've decided to recreate Doctor Crafty's Green and Orange Abstract Geometric nail art, which I thought was a really unique and colorful, fun look.

Purple and Gold Vortex Nail Art - WIDW

Hey y'all!

It's hump day again, and that of course means it's time for What I Did (with it) Wednesday!  This week I created nail art from a swatch of Octopus Party Nail Lacquer Witches Get Stitches.  I decided the plummy purple needed a bit of gold and some stamping, so I turned to my semi-recently-acquired chrome finish polishes for help to create this look.

Hey, Swatch It! Octopus Party Witches Get Stitches

Hey y'all!

First off... happy birthday to me!  I am turning 39 for the very first time this year (because I will not be going through the door marked "40"), so that's pretty momentous.   I'll be giving you a recap of the birthday festivities on Monday, but today is all about the swatching.  Last fall, I bought several of Octopus Party Nail Lacquer's Halloween line, and I've already swatched all the full-size bottles I bought, but I also grabbed some minis because I wasn't sure if I would love them or not.  Unfortunately they've been sitting in my untrieds for 6 months now, so I figured it was time to show a little love.  The first one I have to show you is Witches Get Stitches.

Texas Recap!

Hey y'all!

A few of you will already know this, but Mr. Faff and I spent the last couple of weeks back in Austin, visiting my family and friends.  We returned Saturday morning, retrieved Isis, and spent the rest of the weekend unpacking and catching up on sleep, and of course, I put a little time aside to write up this post for you!

Hey, Swatch It! Nail Pattern Boldness Allons-Y

Hey y'all!

Funny story... I am obviously not as organized as I should be.  I was rifling through my box of untried indie polishes to find a pretty one to showcase today, and I selected a polish, swatched it, photographed it, and put it away as I usually do.  It wasn't until I actually started editing the photos that I realized, I've already swatched this polish!  OOPS!  However, I think my swatches of Nail Pattern Boldness Allons-Y today look a bit different than they did back in May, so I'm gonna run with it.  Also, I have a macro shot this time, so... there's that. 

Hey, Swatch It! ILNP Peace (H)

Hey y'all!

Happy Saturday!  For today's Swatch It, I have another gorgeous Ultrachrome polish from ILNP, made extra special by the addition of a bit of holo sparkle!  This is the holographic version of Peace.

Chrome stamping over glitter bling nail art

Hey y'all!

Once again, another holiday has completely snuck up on me, and for no good reason other than I've just been in my own little world, but that's okay.  Last year I was quite surprised to discover that Mardi Gras isn't a "thing" as we 'murkins know it in the UK, but they call it "Pancake Day" and the premise is pretty much the same.  I got my ingredients together over the weekend, and tomorrow I'll be griddling up some fluffy pancakes for dinner, because yum!  While today's nail art isn't exactly traditional for Mardi Gras, I think the festive flair and spectacular blingyness make it totally appropriate for living it up on Fat Tuesday tomorrow.

Hand Care You'll Love: Sunny's Body Products

Hey y'all!

Being a nail blogger basically means people are going to be scrutinizing your fingers, and as such, we probably put more effort into making them look nice than the average person.  We all have stashes of potions and epoxys to keep our cuticles moisturized and our skin smooth and glowing, and every blogger has her (or his) own array of swear-by products but we're always on the look-out for that magical balm that will work, feel good, and smell great.  Because I knew I was going to be doing a number on my hands with that month-long challenge I just wrapped up, I decided ahead of time to invest in some new stuff to try to help my hands in shape during all those polish changes.  Thank goodness I found Sunny's Body Products!

31DC-D27 - Recreate One Of Your Old Manis

Hey y'all!

Today's prompt for the 31-Day Challenge has us revisiting our archives to recreate a look we've already done.  I had a hard time deciding between remastering a look I flopped the first time around or revamping a look that I got right, and ultimately decided that I had to recreate one that had a request for a tutorial which I never got around to.  I still haven't done the tutorial, mind you, but at least I'm dusting off the original look for another go. 

31DC-D15 - Green Base

Hey y'all!

We're just about halfway through this 31-day challenge, and the fatigue is starting to show on me, but I still feel like I'm accidentally coming up with some cool looking nail art, so on I persevere.  Today's prompt is Green Base, so I grabbed a handful of green polishes in different finishes, and went to work adapting an older technique to suit my purpose.

31DC-D14 - Holo

Hey y'all!

Happy Humpday!  Today's prompt in the 31-Day Challenge gives us Holo, short for Holographic.  There are a few different ways to go about achieving a holographic nail art look, but I opted to take the most traditional (and really, most fun) by selecting two indie polishes stacked with holographic glitter and pairing it with a neat stamping image.

31DC-D10 - Glitter Base

Hey y'all!

Happy Saturday!  I hope you're all staying warm and keeping safe.  Today's prompt in the 31-Day Challenge is Glitter Base, and I was feeling truly uninspired for a very long time until these started forming in my head while looking at one of my new indie polishes.

31DC-D5 - Dotting Tools

Hey y'all!

Monday's here, and I guess it's officially time to get back to the grind - the holidays are over and we've got a brand new year ahead of us.  I hope if you made resolutions and/or goals that you've not already given up on them.  Remember that even if you stumble, you can get right back up again and keep going!  This year I'm going to start working on getting out and interacting with my new community more than I have been thus far - between the culture shock and my own social anxiety, it has been incredibly hard for me to try to make new friends here locally, so it's become a goal of mine to change that.  I have no clever segue from that into today's nail art, so I'll just say that today we're working with the theme of dotting tools, and I created this fun look that I'm calling a peanut butter and jelly dotticure.

Hey, Swatch It! Black Cat Lacquer Aries

Hey y'all!

Happy Caturday!  Okay, so I'm never the cat meme girl to be honest, but I had to do it in honor of today's Swatch It brand - Black Cat Lacquers!  A couple months back, I did some clearance retail therapy online and found some great US indies through UK stockists.  I went back and forth on this particular polish because it's not *really* my shade of red, but ultimately I broke down and got it because it was so pretty and because it was created for my particular astrological sign.  This is Black Cat Lacquer Aries.

Holo Leopard nail art

Hey y'all!

Happy Black Friday!  Today I have a quick and easy nail art look for you that will sparkle and shine without requiring too much effort from your food-coma'd state.  This leopard print is done in autumn/fall friendly shades, and doesn't take an art degree to pull off!

Fall-ing for Nail Art: Elegant Gold and Purple

Hey y'all!

Happy Humpday!  Today's prompt for the Fall-ing for Nail Art challenge brings us to Fall Inspired Colors.  Now, most people tend to think of reds, oranges, yellows, and browns when it comes to fall colors, but I went a different direction to create this look.

Hey, Swatch It! ILNP Black Orchid

Hey y'all!

Happy Saturday!  Last week I showed you Iconic, ILNP's rose gold holographic polish.  Today I have another holo from the Fall 2014 collection, and this one's a personal squeeing favorite.  Black Orchid is a dark eggplant holo gem that I just couldn't stop staring at!

Hey, Swatch It! Octopus Party Nail Lacquer Ink or Swim

Hey y'all!

Happy Saturday, once again!  Can you seriously believe we're already halfway through November, and Christmas is less than 6 weeks away?  I just don't even want to think about it!  Now that I've put that cheery thought in your head, how about I show you a gorgeous indie polish?  Octopus Party Nail Lacquer came on my radar earlier this year, and it appears that I was not alone.  Dave has a knack for mixing absolutely gorgeous colors and glitters, and I have truly felt lucky to own the ones I have, including this shiny pretty, Ink or Swim.

Texas Traveling Nails

Hey y'all!

Happy Friday!  I've been gearing up behind the scenes to power through the rest of the year, and hopefully to start posting to my neglected YouTube channel again on a weekly basis.  My hope is that I'll be able to do nail polish swatches and art here on the blog, and use my channel to do tutorials for polish nail art and... acrylics/gels!  Since taking my tech training, I've been gathering supplies and practicing with them so that I can hopefully start those weekly videos before the end of the year!  I'm waiting now for my gel supplies to arrive, along with a training practice hand, which I'll use for the videos since I've decided I'm rubbish at keeping my own hands in frame while I'm working on them.  In the mean time though, I've still got a lot of polish nail art to show you, and I'm starting with the nails I did last month before setting off on our trip to Texas.  I wanted something sparkly and burnt orange and white (because I'm a Longhorn, afterall), and threw these together the night before we left (in a rush because I still had to pack!).