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? :)

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 :)

1st Place!!

I'm very happy to announce that my Grinch nail set has won FIRST PLACE for Best Overall Creativity :D

This week so far! UV Gel & Acrylics.

 Here's what I did in school this week!

We had a representative from professional nail product company Young Nails come to the school and do a demonstration, and I got to be the model!

She gave me a bunch of different Holiday themed nails :)

 Here's a simple holiday mani I did on a class mate.

It's UV gel as a base with Shellac gel polish on top, and on the accent nails I added some encapsulated glitter and hand painted candy cane stripes!

Here is a full set of tips, each nail is a completely different design!  There are various inlays of acrylic including marbles, mylar flakes, glitters and confettis :) 

The shiny stuff on her cuticles is actually just cuticle oil, I always use cuticle oil to help replenish any moisture that might have been lost during the nail service!

Another view!

 This is a sculpted set of stiletto nails.  There were no nail tips used, instead I sculpted the acrylic on a form into the shape that she wanted!  

On the accent nails there are 3D acrylic black roses and hand painted black chevron tips over OPI's "Pink Friday" polish.

Chevron is a style of a French tip, in the shape of a V rather than the classic U shape, and I suggested it to her because I thought it would look very sexy on a stiletto shaped nail!

We also did a variation of "Louboutin" nails, but instead of red bottoms, we went with black bottoms to match the pink & black theme!

I really love these nails!

You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch!

We are having a "Grinchmas" themed nail/hair competition at school, so this is my entry! 

There are 7 nail tips across the bottom covered in acrylic and painted as the floor.

The Grinch, his dog Max, the bag of toys, presents, train cars, tree & ornaments are all sculpted out of nail acrylic! 

I hope I win! :)

 Sorry the photo is so big, I wanted the small details to be visible!

Tutorial Tuesday: Candy Cane

So sorry I've been slacking on the tutorials, I am having a lot of problems with my phone and that's what I use to take photos & watermark my tutorials :(

I wanted to do something fun and simple for the holidays, so this week's tutorial will be for Candy Cane design.

**There are TWO ways you can do this pattern.**

- One would be to hand-paint the stripes with a brush, and that's what this tutorial will explain.

- If you don't have a steady hand with a striper brush, another option would be to do a diagonal tape manicure using a white base and red polish over the tape!  My tutorial for the Tape manicure can be found here!

image via

How To Choose Colors For This Design:

I went with a typical red & white, but you could get creative and try to emulate one of the colorful candy canes!

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

- Nail color - Sally Hansen Insta-Dri "Whirlwind White"
- Stripe Color - red nail art striping brush

- 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.

 

Step 1:

Apply 2 coats of base color & allow to dry

 Step 2:
Begin painting your stripes on a diagonal.
I chose to start as close to the cuticle as possible.
You can do all thick stripes, or you can alternate between thick & thin.
Thicker stripes will be easier but if you are comfortable working with a nail art striper brush,
try to challenge yourself & alternate with thin stripes too!

 Step 3:
Make sure you have equal amounts of space in between your stripes.
If you are alternating thick & thin stripes, you can do 1 thick and 2 or 3 thin, since this is a very common pattern!

 Step 4:
Continue your pattern, spacing it out as evenly as you can, until you fill up the whole nail & top it off with your favorite topcoat.  Clean up cuticles for that extra finishing touch!
  
If you want to try this as a tape manicure instead of hand-painting the stripes, here is my tape manicure tutorial
Enjoy :)

Sponge Gradient Mini Tutorial & Winter Wonderland!

 Since I've moved to Florida and it's been 75-85 degrees every day, it doesn't really feel like the Holiday season to me!

I figured I would do a snowflake design to try to invoke some holiday spirit hehe

Here is my version of a Winter Wonderland!

 Indoor shot with flash.

Outdoor shot, natural sunlight.

I achieved this Winter Wonderland look by doing a dark/light blue sponge gradient, a coat of multicolored glitter and then hand painting each snowflake on top with acrylic paint and a tiny brush :)

This isn't a traditional tutorial but I think it can be explained pretty easily!

What I used, in order from lightest to darkest:

- Essie "Ballet Slippers"

- Essie "Bikini So Teeny"

- Sinful Colors "Aquamarine"

- China Glaze "Sexy in the City"

- Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear "Disco Ball" for the glitter

- Seche Clear base & Seche Vite topcoat

I am not that great at doing sponge gradients, but here is a brief explanation of how I do it:

 1. Choose whatever colors you want to do a fade, it can be anything but I find it easier to do a gradient of 1 color since it will blend easier.

2. Cut a nail-sized piece of a make up sponge.  I use the wedge shaped ones and cut off a corner.

3. Use any base coat, let it dry.

4. Paint 2 thin coats of the LIGHTEST color from the fade & allow to fully dry.

I used a coat of Seche Vite fast drying topcoat to speed this up!

5.  Paint a stripe of each color across the sponge in the order of however you'd like the gradient to go.

6.  Dab the sponge in an up-and-down motion along the length of the nail.

It will look kinda crappy at first, but the more you dab it, the better the colors will blend.

7.  It's damn near impossible to do a sponge gradient without getting polish all over your cuticle/skin, so don't be alarmed if you are making a royal mess!

Once you are happy with your gradient, and you've finished off with a topcoat, you can begin your cuticle cleanup!

Simply dip a clean, small paint brush or cotton swab in nail polish remover and swish it around a bit to clean up your cuticles.

Be sure to avoid getting any on the design, so you don't ruin it.

*If your colors are a little light, just repeat steps 5 & 6 until the desired color is achieved!*

I went over these about 3 or 4 times before I was finally happy with the colors, so please don't be discouraged.

Here is the gradient pre-snowflakes..  I'm really not great at it but it makes a good enough background!

If you'd like to try to hide some of the imperfections in your gradient, it's great to use a small/fine glitter topcoat.. it will help the colors to appear more blended and smooth! :)

Enjoy!

Learning: Glitter Acrylics!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my friends & followers!

I hope you are all having a wonderful day, and watch out for crazy people if you are doing any Black Friday shopping!!

Just thought I would share a pic of what I learned in school yesterday!

 

These are super fun glitter acrylics!

The two on the left are 2 colors faded together, and the others are french with 2 colors faded into the french tip :)

I tried to blur out the creepy fingers to enhance your viewing experience lol.

Enjoy!

Theme: Thanksgiving Water Marble!

I am really awful water marble nail art.

If you are unfamiliar with water marbling, you can read about it here.

Basically, you put drops of polish into water and it spreads on the surface and you swirl the colors together.

I have tried for hours at a time... but for some reason, it never works out very well for me!

I wanted to give it another shot using some Thanksgiving colors.

After 2 attempts tonight, here are the results:

Not too great, but I do like the color combinations.

Colors used: Essie "Sew Psyched", "Orange It's Obvious" & "Very Structured", Avon "Sunshine" and LA Colors "Hot Blooded"

I noticed that the Essie polishes did not really enjoy being put into water, and were very resistant to spreading on the surface.

I think next time I water marble, I will try to avoid Essie.

Theme: Thanksgiving! Gobble Gobble!

Here is a silly turkey I did for Thanksgiving!

The base color is Butter London "Wallis", 

the turkey is hand painted with acrylic paints, 

and stuck on some googly eyes from the craft store :D

Gobble gobble!

Happy Veteran's Day!

Here's some hand-painted, patriotic goodness to celebrate Veteran's Day!

My grandfather was a Korean war vet,

My boyfriend was in the Marines and his father served for 30 years (it was also the USMC's 237th birthday yesterday!) 

And my cousin who is practically like my sister, is in Army boot camp as we speak.

THANK YOU to the brave men and women who serve our country, especially those who've made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom!

  

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 all about Halloween!  YAY!

1.  What was your favorite Halloween costume as a kid?

I think I was 7 years old.  I can vividly remember my mom's friend making me a Cleopatra costume out of felt and sequins and I think it had some sort of headpiece.

I don't think anyone really knew what I was supposed to be which is understandable because honestly... how many 7 year olds even know who Cleopatra is?  But I thought it was totally awesome!

2.  If you could go back and dress up as anything what would it be?

Two or three years ago I bought a bunch of stuff to make a Jem costume because I absolutely loved that show as a kid, and I have pink hair so that was a no brainer!  

I never got around to sewing it, but I really wish I did!

3.   Favorite costume as an adult?

 Definitely would have to be my dead Marie Antoinette costume from 2 years ago!!

She was executed by guillotine so of course I tried to make it look like my head was cut off :)

 

 Me, my sister on the left, and another Marie Antoinette we met at a bar!

4.  Favorite Halloween candy?

I always hated candy corn as a kid but now it's grown on me and I find it to be oddly addictive.

5.  Favorite Halloween memory?

I don't really have just 1 favorite memory.  

Halloween is my favorite holiday and I've partied almost every year with my sister & our friends. 

6.  What's your favorite scary movie?

I would have to say The Blair Witch Project because it was the first movie where the audience wasn't sure if it was real or not, but all of the trailers suggested it was real footage.  

It was filmed from a first person point of view, which made it seem even more authentic.

We were pretty young when it came out so of course it genuinely scared the crap out of us ...until we found out it was fake!

Tutorial Tuesday: Blood Drip Nails (Perfect for Halloween!)

This week's tutorial is for Blood Drip nails.

I wanted to do something simple yet spooky so you can try it out for Halloween.

These nails are popping up everywhere, and I can see why!  They are the perfect combination of scary & sexy.

I've seen them done dripping down from the cuticle or dripping from the tip of the nail.

I chose to do it dripping from the tip of the nails so it looks like I just clawed someone :)

How To Choose Colors For This Design:

I've seen this commonly done with clear coat as the base color and only using red polish, but I chose to use a neutral base color.  Either way, it looks great.

Suggested Materials:

ANY brand is fine, listed below are the ones used for this particular mani

- Base coat - Seche Clear

- Top coat - Seche Vite

- Base color - Essie "Sand Tropez"

- Any brand of red nail art striping brush - I used red acrylic paint & striping brush
- Nail dotting tool (optional)

- 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.

 Step 1:

Apply 2 coats of base color and allow to dry.

 Step 2:
You have a few options here.
You can either use a nail dotting tool, the edge of a regular polish brush or a nail striping brush.
Using any of these methods, make a few large dots across the top half of your nail.
Varying sizes works best!

 Step 3:
Using the nail art striping brush, begin to round out your dots and pull them towards the end of the nail, making an elongated teardrop shape.
Try to keep these lines fairly thin if you can.

 Step 4:
If you are comfortable enough working with the nail art striping brush, you can make smaller teardrops in between the larger ones.
If you're not great at using the striping brush, you can skip this step :)

 Step 5:
Using the nail art striping brush, begin to connect the elongated lines of the teardrop shapes.
I did this by making a U shape that connected from line to line.

Step 6:
 Fill in the rest of the tip of the nail with red.

Step 7: (Forgot to take a picture!)

This final step is completely optional, but it will really help to achieve a neat & clean looking mani.

You can use either a small paintbrush or cotton swab, dip it in nail polish remover, and use it to remove any excess polish on your cuticles and skin.

Be careful not to use too much remover, otherwise you will risk ruining your design.

Finish off with your favorite top coat and you're done!

For all past Tutorials click here!

Halloween Themed Nails: Nightmare Before Christmas!

The Nightmare Before Christmas is one of my absolute favorite movies, so I've been wanting to do these nails for a while.

Being a bit of a perfectionist, I knew it'd be time consuming so I kept putting it off.

After 2 hour of painting & a matte topcoat, they're finally done!

 I did Jack & Sally together in the graveyard, Jack, Sally, Zero, Zero's grave stone/doghouse, Lock, Shock, Barrel in their masks, Oogie Boogie, and of course the bug in the cage that gets fed to him!