Thursday, January 31, 2013

Heart Shaped Ikat for V-Day!

I decided to do some heart ikat nails to get in the Valentine's Day spirit!
These are done just like the regular ikat design, except in a heart shape instead of the typical oval!
Colors used:
OPI - "Pink Friday" (base color)
Black & white nail art stripers
Sinful Colors - "Fusion Neon" (pink inside of the hearts)
Essie - Luxe Effects glitter topcoat "A Cut Above"

What are you doing to get into the Valentine's Day spirit? :)

Monday, January 28, 2013

Pink Gradient & Hand Painted Lace!

Hand painted lace over a pink sponge gradient! :)


Here is the pink gradient before I added the lace

Colors used, from darkest to lightest:
Love, Charlotte - "Hot Pink"
Sinful Colors - "Fusion Neon"
Pastel Pop - "Pink"
OPI - "Mod About You"
& the black lace was done with acrylic paint :)

Monday, January 21, 2013

Tutorial: Leopard Print

This week's tutorial is easy & simple Leopard Print nails!

How To Choose Colors For This Design:
You can use any colors you'd like!  I chose 2 bright contrasting colors and then a black for the outside borders of the spots.

Suggested Materials:
ANY brand is fine, listed below are the ones used for this particular mani
- Base coat - Seche Clear
- Fast dry top coat - Seche Vite
- China Glaze "Turned Up Turquoise"
- Sinful Colors "Fusion Neon" (pink)
- Spoiled "Visually Slimming" (black)
- Nail dotting tool, such as the ones pictured above.  (image via)
- A clean, small paintbrush or cotton swabs, for cleaning the cuticles afterwards (optional)
- Nail polish remover (optional)

Before You Begin Painting Your Design:
These steps are optional, but definitely recommended!
- Put down some paper towels in your work area, in case of any spills.
- Be sure to remove any old nail polish.
- Gently file nails into desired shape and remove any ridges with a buffer.
- Push back cuticles with a cuticle pusher or orange wood stick and trim if desired.
- Apply a base coat to protect from potential staining from color polish; wait for it to dry completely.

 **- If you have never worked with a dotting tool before, you might want to practice by putting some drops of polish on a piece of wax paper, and do a few test dots on the paper before moving on to your nails!!**
Step 1:
Apply 2 coats of base color & allow to dry 

 Step 2:
Using the largest nail dotting tool you have, create large spots on your nail with the second color.
You can do the entire nail or just part of the nail, that is up to you!

Step 3:
Using the smallest dotting tool you have, use the black polish to create borders around the color spots.
The best way to do this is to do a bunch of small overlapping dots right next to each other, forming a curved line down each side of the large spot.

Step 4:
Using the small dotting tool still, fill in any blank areas with tiny black dots.
This works best if you do almost a triangle of small overlapping dots.

Step 5:
If necessary, carefully clean up cuticles using polish remover & a small paint brush or cotton swabs.
Top it all off with your favorite top coat!


Here's the final product!
I simply alternated the base color and spot colors :)

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Sunday Social!

Sunday Social is a fun & simple way to help your readers get to know you a little better.
You can link up with your blog at ashleylately or acompletewasteofmakeup and join in on the fun! :)
 This week is questions in 3's

1.  Top 3 favortite kinds of food?
Pasta of any kind! Mac & cheese, spaghetti with tomato sauce, I love it all!
Bagels (I am a carb addict) and Mozzarella sticks or anything with cheese!

This was what I made for dinner last night!  Bacon chicken ranch Macaroni & cheese! 

It was really good!

2.  First 3 things you do in the morning?
Tinkle (of course!), take a shower & brush my teeth!


3.  Last 3 things you do at night?
Wash my face, brush my teeth and kiss my boyfriend goodnight!


4.  3 TV shows you NEVER miss?
 Sons of Anarchy, Game of Thrones and Boardwalk Empire
image via

5.  3 places you want to visit?
Only 3?!?!  Honestly there are SO many places I hope to visit in my life:
Japan - My boyfriends parent's live in Yokosuka
Philippines - My boyfriend has a ton of family there
Italy - a good friend of mine lives in Trieste
(Alaska and Hawaii are on my list too!)
image via

6.  3 people you can always count on?
I can definitely count on my boyfriend, that's why I love him so much.
But the only person I can count on 100% of the time is myself.
I've learned not to depend on others.
Make sure you can take care of yourself and you will never be let down!

Have a great Sunday :)

Saturday, January 19, 2013

Springtime Watermarble!

As you may know, I've always struggled with the water marble technique.
I wanted to practice, so here's a little something I did the other day!
Colors used:
Essie "Mint Candy Apple"
Essie "Off The Shoulder"
Essie "She's Picture Perfect"

The colors are very cute together & remind me of Springtime!
I think I am getting a little better, but no matter what I try I can not perfect it!

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Fashion Inspired: "Neon & Nude"

 I typically hate nude colors on myself but..
I was inspired by a recent post by my BFF Cassi over at the fashion blog The Granny Treatment!

She was discussing the fashion trend of mixing nudes and neons, and it just so happens to be a fabulous combination!


She also mentioned that if you don't want to dedicate your entire outfit to this trend, it could me really cute as a mani!

Well here is what I came up with.
Colors used:
Nude - "Sand Tropez" by Essie
Purple - "Dream On" by Sinful Colors
Yellow - "Yell-Oh!" by Color Club 
Blue - "Aquamarine" by Sinful Colors
Pink - "Fusion Neon" by Sinful Colors
Orange - "Orange Knockout (Neon)" by China Glaze

Tried to do it as a tape mani but it was not cooperating so I ended up hand painting the chevron -_-

I absolutely LOVE this color combo!
 It's totally perfect to get into the mood of springtime :)

Would you rock nude & neons?

Sunday Social!

Sunday Social is a fun & simple way to help your readers get to know you a little better.
You can link up with your blog at ashleyscarnivalride or acompletewasteofmakeup and join in on the fun! :)
 This week is questions about my blog.

1.  What is the name of your blog?  How long have you been blogging?
The name of my blog is Bad Luck Barbie, it was my AOL screen name since I was like 14 and for many years afterwards.  I just always kept using it as my username for almost everything.
I've only been blogging since September so I am still fairly new!

2.  Why do you blog?
I blog because I hope that my designs will inspire creativity in others!

3.  What is the first blog you ever followed?
The first blog I ever followed was The Nailasaurus.
I was googling "gradient nail tutorials" and her blog came up.
 I loved how great her nails were and she takes really excellent detailed photos.

4.  What is your favorite post you wrote in 2012?
My favorite post would have to be the Sunday Social when we wrote about what we're thankful for

5.  What are your blogging goals for 2013?
My blogging goals for 2013 would definitely be to stop slacking!
It's been challenging to keep up with my blog, reading blogs that I follow, school, having a broken phone and not being able to upload photos, and on top of it all.. I've been having to drive my boyfriend to and from work because his license is suspended because of some B.S. insurance thing back in Ohio.
I promise to be more active!

6.  Name your top 3 favorite blogs.
I'm a little biased because Cassi is my BFF, but I really love her blog because she's a great writer. I have no clue about fashion and she keeps me up to date.
She is so funny, really cute and always has awesome posts!

She travels a lot and posts really amazing pictures from around the world.

Monday, January 7, 2013

Bob Marley/Jamaica Themed!



 I FINALLY got a new phone so I can take and upload high-quality photos of my work now!
Here are some Bob Marley/Jamaica nails I did for a contest on Instagram!

There is a peace sign painted over a watermarble, "One Love" over watermarble, Bob Marley's face over a sponge gradient, Jamaican flag tape mani and the Rasta flag/Lion of Judah :)

Polishes used for this mani:
LA Colors Color Craze "Berry Red", Avon Nailwear Pro "Sunshine" and Sinful Colors "Happy Ending".
All of the black details are  hand painted using black acrylic paint and a paint brush, then topped with Seche Vite topcoat!

Also, I have ran out of ideas for "Tutorial Tuesdays" so please feel free to request a tutorial.
Simple patterns tend to work best for making a tutorial :)

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Happy New Year!

So sorry for my lack of posts, I've been busy with the holidays and also very sick for a few days - I even had to stay home from school :(

Here's a few photos to show what I've been up to recently:

On Christmas Eve I went to visit my best friend's mom who also lives in Florida!

Then, on Christmas Day we drove over to Orlando and went to Universal Studios Islands of Adventure park!
It was awesome, because there is a Dr. Seuss and Harry Potter section of this park :)
 Seuss Landing :)
 Paul standing in huge crowd of people!
I met the Cat in the Hat!
 Hogsmeade

 Ollivander's Wand Shop
 Standing in front of Hogwart's
 Hagrid snowman
 Hogwarts Express train!
 All of the pictures talked and moved, just like in the movies!
 Various stuff from the classroom
 Dragon skeleton from the classroom

The Hogwarts ride was freaking amazing - even though we waited 2 1/2 hours on line!

My mom got me a really cute crock pot slow cooker for Christmas, and I already made chili and pulled chicken in it!


Here is my New Year's Eve design, a glass of champagne and a martini!

How was your holiday/New Years Eve? 
I hope you all had a great time :)