What a Stitch!

I'm sure that a lot of you have noticed that a good portion of my ideas for nail art come from things going on in my daily life, today is no exception! I do a lot of cross-stitching, which is kind of nerdy, I know, but I've done it since I was a kid, I love doing it. I am currently working on a cool cross-stitch project that I'll show you all when it is completely done. I like it, and it goes against all traditional cross-stitch. :-P For today's nail art, I decided to go old school, and do a simple floral border type cross-stitch pattern.

I used Color Club Coastal Creme as a base, with A Beautiful Life Poison for the red, American Apparel Manila for the yellow, and Nubar Forest for the green. Topped it all off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

Also, today is my friend Boz's birthday and tomorrow is my roommate Maris's birthday, so everyone wish these two awesome ladies a Super Awesome Happy Birthday!! :)

On the Dot

Today's nail are my interpretation of paint swatches, except I didn't do rectangles, like they usually are, I thought it'd look cool as a dot gradient. :) I've had this idea rolling around in my head for a couple of weeks now, and today I thought I'd do it! :) My favorite is the orange one- I think it turned out the best. :-D (plus orange is one of my FAVORITE colors...sooooo yeah, that might be why)

Despite today being Friday the 13th, I had a surprisingly good day. I had an interview for a design job, I got an awesome deal on zippers–only 50¢ each vs. $1.50+ each. (sounds odd, I know, but the cosmetics bags I sew need zippers!) Plus, since my 16 year old sewing machine died, I was able to get a new machine!! (My parents got it for me- how awesome is that?! Thanks mom and dad- you totally didn't have to, but you know I appreciate it!!)

I used Essie Bone Chilling White as a base, with CND Electric Orange for the first row of the orange, then Zoya Jancyn for the second row, then mixed with Essie Bone Chilling White to make the rest of the shades of orange on the thumb. For the blue nails, I used CND Anchor Blue for the first row, then mixed with Essie Bone Chilling White for the rest of the blue shades. For the magenta, I used Essie Foot Loose for the first row, and again, Essie Bone Chilling White to make the shades lighter with each row. The first row of green is Nubar Forest, with L.A. Girl Army Green for the second row, and mixed with Essie Bone Chilling White for the remaining rows of lighter green. On the pinky, I used American Apparel Manila for the first row of yellow dots, then mixed with Essie Bone Chilling White in varying amounts for the remaining two rows. Topped everything off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

I'm all dotted out. I only slept 3.5 hours last night, I think I was anxious/excited for my interview! :) Time for bed, kids...as my mother used to say when I was a kid, 'Good night, sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite!'

Double Crossed

I was going through the apps on my iPhone earlier today looking for games to play to burn a few minutes of my day, and I stumbled upon a crossword app, and thought it might make a fun nail design. Mind you, I'm positively wretched at crossword puzzles. Give me Sudoku, Cryptograms, etc any day of the week, but crosswords? Never. I tried to incorporate some of my favorite brands of nail polish into the puzzle, but could only fit parts of some (I'm lookin' at you China Glaze).

I used Essie Bone Chilling White as a base, with American Apparel Hassid for the lines and filled in squares, and CND Anchor Blue for the pen/writing. Topped it all off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

Now who knows how to fix sewing machines??!!?

The Suite Life

No, no, no, not that Disney Channel show... I'm talking about the AWESOME suite... Adobe Creative Suite! :) Being a graphic designer by trade, the icons are something I'm fairly familiar with, and I thought they'd be a fun manicure! :-D From thumb to pinky are Dreamweaver, InDesign, Photoshop, Flash, and Illustrator. I think with all this free advertising, Adobe should give me CS5. lol *JUST KIDDING* <---(unless you work at Adobe and really want to send it to me, :-P)

 I used L.A. Girl Army Green as a base for the thumb, then mixed with Essie Mink Muffs and Nubar Forest for the gradient. For the index finger, I used Essie Foot Loose as a base, with Color Club Ms. Socialite for the gradient. On the middle finger, I used Orly Snowcone as a base, then mixed with Orly Cosmic FX Lunar Eclipse for the gradient. The base on the ring finger is Eyeko Saucy Polish for Naughty Nails, with A Beautiful Life Poison for the gradient. Lastly, the pinky was Zoya Jancyn as a base, with CND Electric Orange for the gradient. For all the letters, I used Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud, then topped it all off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

Do you live the Suite life?

Disclosure: Eyeko Saucy polish was sent to me for consideration by the manufacturer. 

Da Da Da Da *SNAP* *SNAP*

They're creepy and they're kooky, mysterious and spooky, they're all together ooky,
The Addams Family!

Today's nails are special, some of the colors that I used to create them were created by Bebe Neuwirth with Essie polish company for charity! They're part of a limited edition set called 'Morticia's Nails'. The set contains 3 polishes, Blood Curdling Red (dark red), Bone Chilling White (white), and Midnight Tango (deep metallic navy). The cool part is that 100% of the sale goes to charity... The Actor's Fund to be exact. The Actor's Fund is an organization that provides health and social services to any and all people in the entertainment industry (actors, screenwriters, stagehands, makeup artists, etc.) that are in need. This is a cool polish set with a good cause, and a must for Addams Family fans!!

Today's nails were based off of the art on the theatre program for The Addams Family musical, which stars Bebe Neuwirth as Morticia! :) I did Uncle Fester on the thumb, Morticia on the index, Pugsley on the middle finger, Gomez on the ring, and Wednesday on the pinky. I plan to review these polishes on the Daily Nail: Reviews site in the next couple of days.

The inspiration:

The nails:

I used Essie Bone Chilling White as a base for all nails except Pugsley, which I used Orly Mirror, Mirror. For the dark blackish color, I used a mix of Essie Midnight Tango, American Apparel Hassid, and American Apparel Factory Grey. Shaded the white with that mixture mixed with some Essie Bone Chilling White. Topped everything off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

Disclosure: Morticia's Nails was sent to me for consideration by the charity.

Let Me Have a Crack-le at it

I remember when I was just a youngin' (think 12,13,14?) and I was just starting to get excited about nail stuff, and Cover Girl had a product out called 'Crackle' which, when applied over another polish (they say it has to be their own, but it doesn't) created a crackled paint effect. Back then, the one I had was a royal blue color if I remember correctly. A while back, I managed to find and snag one from an awesome swapper on Makeup Alley, and today I decided to use it!! The crackle polish I have is an orangey yellow color, and I tried it over turquoise, which in my mind was amazing, but the crackle is super sheer and streaky, sooooo it didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped, but I still think it's rad. :-P It was SUPER hard to clean the cuticle edges up though- that Crackle doesn't even dissolve in acetone!!

I used China Glaze Flyin' High as a base, with Cover Girl Crackle Jack-O-Lantern over top. For the red line, I used Eyeko Coral Polish for Resort Nails, then I used American Apparel Manila for the dots. Topped everything off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

If you love Eyeko polishes, be sure to use my code to get a free gift when you order!!

The Eyeko polish used in today's post was sent by the manufacturer for consideration.

Tropical Zebra

The other day I was wandering around the Fashion Show mall here in Las Vegas, and as I passed by a store creatively called 'The ABC Store' I saw a huge display for a brand called Island Girl Cosmetics. I remembered Michelle of All Lacquered Up mentioned that her friend Christine was excited by them, so after a million times just walking by that store, I finally went in...and man, I'm glad! They had some awesome color changing polishes, some fun glitters (shapes and flakies), and some great and bright colors. Best of all, the normal polishes were only $2.99! For today's nail art, I wanted to show a few of the color changing polishes. I've even included a video (don't mind the silly), of it in action! :)

I used Island Girl Color Changing polish in 2006 for the base (it's a shimmery tangerine color that changes to neon yellow), then used Konad Plate m57 to apply Island Girl Color Changing Polish in 2009 (a bright blue that changes to turquoise). Topped it all off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

Hot water...cold water....hot water...cold water....:-P