Little update

I got too busy to post again.  I've slowed down taking Clients and hardly even snap photos anymore if I do.  I've still got this shitty blackberry camera but I'm probably getting a new phone soon, we'll see if that's any better.

I also had to change my photo storage since Flickr demanded I sign up for Yahoo and well, Yahoo demanded I give them my cell # which will happen over my dead body.  Fuck you Yahoo and Flickr for taking my access away from my own photos!  Anyways, this is OPI Gelcolor Black Onyx with red holo foil dabbed on and this pic doesn't do it justice.  I loved wearing this.

I visited my sister in Delaware and picked up the CND Shellac Additives Paradise collection and tried it out over white Gelaze.  I picked up probably 8 Gelaze polishes down there as well for $5 a pop with my pro card when they were bogo in March. They're pretty good value at their regular $11 or whatever they cost anyways.  They are much thicker than other gels but I found they lasted just as long as other gels and no problems with removal at all.  I did test them out with a base coat and they ended up peeling.

Now this one is one of the LeChat Mood Gels in Twilight Skies.  It's neat but not my colour really.

Also while in Delaware I gave my sister gel extensions and painted them with Gelaze.

I've been so bad with taking photos you'll find many of my photos have a weeks worth of wear.This was my first mani with my brand new OPI LED light that I picked up in Delaware for a steal. I can now do my own nails in half the time with the LED light!

I used Gelish Mint of Spring with the new CND Sizzling Sand additive, Gelaze Turned up Turquoise and some silver holo glitter.  This was fun to wear.  Love the Sizzling Sand additive, I've used it several times.

I gave my other sister a crazy neon french with Gelish colours.  Just did a sloppy freehand job on them.

And of course my niece wanted rainbow nails just like mommy.  Even more sloppily done with just Billie polishes.

This one is Gelish Gossip Girl with black additive scrubbed in.

This was the last of my almond shaped manicures.  I'm just too lazy to maintain the shape. But I did really enjoy them.

And lastly I've gone back to my old standard squoval nails. This is OPI Gelcolor Can't Find my Czechbook with CND Additives in Midnight Tide.  Just a crappy rushed job.  Maybe I'll find some more time to post this summer, but then again maybe not.

Later
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I'm still alive

Just lazy is all.  So here's a whopping post for ya.

This is Vinylux in Masquerade with an accent nail in OPI Designer...De Better.

This one is OPI Gelcolor in Lincoln Park After Dark with Shellac Haute Pink Additive scrubbed in and a water decal on the accent nail.  I hated wearing this for some reason.

This is an ugly xmas sweater manicure done in Shellac Red Baroness with konad stamping.

This is a gel rockstar with Martha Stewart glitter (blue), holo glitter and OPI Gelcolor Kyoto Pearl with konad stamping.

This is Shellac Cream Puff with Ice Vapor on top and a holographic glitter accent nail.

This is Gelish Night Reflection with OPI Gelcolor All Sparkly and Gold (Mariah Carey) accents. I stamped 2014 (barely visible) on them in an antique gold random polish.

I wanted to try and create a 'dragon scale' manicure and ended up failing miserably.  I started with 2 coats of Shellac Pretty Poison, then I took some garlic netting, placed it on the nail and brushed on random spots of gold, brown and black mineral shadows.  I topped it off with Gelish Matte coat and you could barely see the effect.

It was somewhat better with a proper top coat but still a fail since you really couldn't see the design unless you looked closely.

And this is the point at which my old blackberry (camera) died so I missed a whole shitload of manicure photos but did take a random few on my crappy phone:

I've been having a lot of trouble keeping my nails from splitting/breaking and decided it was time to change the shape so I started working on growing them almond shaped.  This is Vinylux Gotcha.

This is Shellac Lilac Longing with Iced Coral on top along with zipper water decals and Gelish Seafoam zipper accents.

And here I am rocking the almonds in OPI Do you lilac it? with OPI Designer...De Better accent.  I am testing out the Vinylux Top Coat on different polishes.

I didn't enjoy the round shaped nails I tried awhile back but I am seriously loving the almond shape.  I may just keep them like this.

Sorry I still won't be posting regularly but I will pop in every once in awhile!

Later
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Simple nail art

This is 2 coats of OPI Gelcolor Wooden Shoes Like to Know.  I added a fade with Additivies - Blush Bronze and Burning Ember, then dotted OPI Topcoat, cured and wiped with alcohol. The effect was very subtle.

The first time I tried this effect I used Gelish Structure Gel and it turned out great but had a pretty bumpy finish.  So I tried using Topcoat this time but I find that the dots ended up running together in some places.  So I will definitely not use Topcoat again.

I felt my nails were yellowing slightly since I wore regular polish for a couple of weeks and decided to go with something light for a change.  This is 2 coats of Shellac Cake Pop and some water decals.  I put the decals over the 'finished' gel manicure and then top coated with Seche Vite.  I didn't think I'd want to wear this for the full two weeks and I was right....

I ended up removing the decals and stamped with one of my new Bundle Monster plates using China Glaze Cranberry Splash which I also used to paint an accent.  Definitely my favorite red ever!

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More water decals

I seriously love these things!  So easy to use and they look amazing.

This is two coats of Vinylux Lilac Longing with daisy water decals.

The decals come about 20 to a sheet and they have slight variances in the designs.  My order was for 100 sheets in about 15 different designs for 20 cents each!  The zippers were 50 cents each but still a bargain.  It's a cheap way to upgrade nail services and it's fun at the same time.

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Zippers

So my order of zipper water decals is quickly depleting.  Everybody wants them!

I wore a few on myself and got TONS of compliments on them.  I even had the girls at the local beauty supply order some from me!  This is Gelish Garden Teal Party with Shellac Ice Vapor on the accent nail.

This is Gelish Night Reflection with Shellac Lilac Longing on the accent nail.  If I'd known these were going to go over so well I would have tripled my order.  Now I have to wait another 3-4 weeks to get more from China.

They are pretty fun though.

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FFS

So being too busy and lazy to re-do my soak off, I've been wearing a lot of regular nail polish.  So guess what happened?  I broke a friggen nail of course!

So I'm sporting one acrylic nail now - the middle one obviously.  I don't even remember the last time I broke a nail this badly.

Funny how it looks completely different under different lighting.  Anyways after I fixed my broken nail with acrylic I painted a fresh soak off manicure.  This is Entity One - Test Shot with CND addititive Haute Pink scrubbed into the bottom half and then the accent nail is OPI Gelcolor Pompeii Purple topped with Akzentz Aurora Pink Sparkle.  Not really a great colour combo so I ended up painting over them all (except the ring finger) with regular black polish but didn't take a photo.

This is similar to one I've done before.  It's Gelish Seafoam but with one of the new holiday additives - Plum Love scrubbed into the tips.

And I added a little water decal accent again.

Simple, just the way I like it.

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Crazy post

Oops I haven't been around in awhile. I also haven't done many nails worth posting but here's a bunch of random ones:

I've worn quite a bit of regular polish lately since I've been consumed with stuff and can't take an hour out of my day for a soak off manicure.  This is 2 coats of OPI Peace Love and OPI.  Nothing special.

And another RNP - Vinylux in Cake Pop with a water decal.  This was my first stab at water decals and can I just say that I absolutely love them!!!  I actually ended up ordering 100 packs of decals for $.20 each from China - it's a steal considering most 'nail sites' sell them for $2-4 each.  I won't post the site but you can message me and I'll gladly share it with you.

And some more water decals on black and China Glaze Spontaneous.  These decals are pretty fun.

These are the Princess of Poo's freakish nails.  She's got natural duck feet lol.  I used an orange OPI and sponged on China Glaze Mahogany Magic.  She wanted something for Autumn.

I added some bundle monster stamped leaves in an old antique gold polish and finished it off with Seche Vite.  I believe she wore this longer than any manicure I've ever done for her.

I'll save the gels for the next post.

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Gel fun

Here I've started with 2 coats of Shellac Lilac Longing on pinkie and index.  2 coats of Shellac Silver Chrome on middle, and 2 coats of OPI Gelcolor Kyoto Pearl on ring and thumb.

On the tacky layer I've scrubbed holo glitter into the middle finger and scrubbed  a purple and blue fade into the ring finger with additives/loose eyeshadow.

Before I cured I dotted Gelish Structure Gel on the ring finger thumb and Top coated the rest, then cured as normal.

After curing I wiped them all off with Isopropyl Alcohol to reveal the dotting pattern I made.  The alcohol completely removes any powder that wasn't covered in cured gel...pretty cool eh?  Anyways, after curing I top coated the whole manicure again to finish it off.  I have a ton of ideas using this method now and can't wait to try them.

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Playing with additives

The last trip we recently took to the US, we went to Buffalo.  We typically go to Port Huron, Michigan but we had to drop someone off at the airport in Buffalo this time.  We've found that Buffalo shopping sucks other than the fact that they have a Chipotle!

This trip was no exception.  I purchased the OPI Gelcolor Matte Topcoat and when I got home found it was hardened and unusable.  But fortunately I begged the girls at Cosmoprof in Canada to let me exchange it for this - OPI Gelcolor Wooden Shoes Like to Know.  I'm curious...does the rnp version of this drop the 's' because that's just weird?  Anyways, I thought this was a creme finish but it actually has a subtle shimmer.

I also picked up the Forbidden Additive Collection in the US and decided to try out Burning Ember over some striping tape.

I probably could have done a better clean up job here but eh whatever.  There's just something a little off about this colour combo for me.  I'm not sure why, but I seem to have a really hard time coordinating colours, it frustrates me.

Also when I got home from this US trip I noticed that one of my shirts still had the friggen ink security tag left on it!  How annoying is that?  Now I have to track down a store here that can remove it for me without damaging the shirt!  You know I learned a long time ago to always twist open nail polish bottles in the store before I buy them since I've been burned before.  I have no idea why I didn't do it this time.  I need to start being extra careful of things I buy in the US because it's not so easy to return!

Pink overload

I've been too busy to re-do my gel lately so I went with regular polish for a few days.  Vinylux again.  It still doesn't work well for me but since I purchased about 10 of them I might as well use them, right?  This is Tutti Fruitti and Gotcha as an accent.

I wanted to practice my acrylics on the Princess but she came to me with such nice nails I decided to do the 'make it look fake' nails on her instead.  I squared them off a bit and did a glitter french.

I used Gelish Gossip Girl on her tips and scrubbed in some raspberry holographic glitter.

I also embedded a fimo slice on each accent nail.

And then the little Countess wanted some pink stamping but couldn't decide between hearts or stars so we did both!  I used Kleancolor Metallic Pink to stamp.

Later
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