Winter Nails #2

Well, I didn't get as many nail art ideas as I wanted to do... I just get too tired and exhausted anymore. I had some time last night and I made myself do my nails just because I had to have something for Christmas! Hopefully they last that long... Since I didn't get to all the ones I wanted to do, I just kind of combined all of my ideas into one. The candy cane striping didn't turn out exactly as I had wanted... My brushes just aren't that good. I'll need some new ones. But the middle finger turned out the best for the striping! At least I got 1 out of 5! :)

The thumb is just little snowflakes. Then there is a Santa hat, holly, a snowman and a Santa belt. I had wanted to do some art with all holly berries and a winter scene with the snowman and trees. Oh well, another time. 

So I started with my new favorite base, the Sally Hanson Triple Shine-Great White. The candy tips are Sally Hanson-White On and ELF-Red-y-or not. I used the same red for all of the red, same with the white. Those are the major ones anyways. I forgot to look and see what the blue for the scarf was. Well that's all for now. I doubt I'll get any more art in until after Christmas so Merry Christmas!!

KH

Winter Nails - Number 1

Well, it's that time. Time for a ton of winter/Christmas themed nail posts! I need to make a list of the ones I want to do. It helps with the motivation. Being 7 months pregnant makes doing nails difficult. I can only sit for so long before I just start to hurt. So here is this weeks nail art!

As I said about not being able to sit for too long... That's what happened when I got to the snowflakes on the pinky nail, so just ignore that one. :)

Sorry about the terrible lighting on this last picture... The base is Sally Hanson Triple Shine - Great White, my new favorite polish! I sponged Sally Hanson - White On onto the tips, even thought you can't see it very well, then I added Sinful Colors - Ice Dream to the tips. It was the first time using the Ice Dream. It's actually really pretty. I usually don't use a lot of glitter or blue colors, but this one I really liked. It has the big blue glitters and the rest is tiny silver glitter. It is very glittery! I did the snowflakes with a white nail art pen. It has a very fine brush which I need to find. None of my brushes are that fine. So anyways, I like how these turned out for the most part. They definitely look wintery.


KH

Sally Hanson Triple Shine swatch

Normally I don't wear just plain polish. I always add something, but when I saw this new Sally Hanson polish, I just fell in love with it. I seriously couldn't wait to put it on and try it out! I got the Triple Shine-Great White. I loved how it looks so shimmery, like snow! Oh, ignore the bad cuticles... I have a bad habit of biting around my nails and not moisturizing enough... especially now that's it's winter time...

It is a pretty sheer polish... This is actually only 2 kind of thick coats. I've seen where some people need 3 or 4. I could have used 3 probably, especially on that pinky nail, oops. But I just love this! So there is probably the one and only plain nail polish post I'll ever do! :) Guess, I can't really say that, but still. 

KH

Camo!

Hi! It was so nice to have a three day weekend! I need those more often... actually being over 6 months pregnant, I really should start cutting back my hours a little. With each passing week, I get more and more achy. My hips hurt the most, same with my lower back... Oh well, it's all worth it!

So it's hunting season and I have been wanting to go out for an easy hunt, but things just haven't worked out for me yet. I'm hoping this weekend I'll get a chance to go out and hopefully get my deer quickly! :) Ha, wishful thinking, but ya never know. So in honor of hunting season, I had to do camo nails.

I started off with a clear coat for my base, Sally Hanson-Flawless. I sponged some gold next (elf-Blushing Beauty) then randomly added dots of other colors. The green is Sinful Colors-Beau Khaki, black is Wet N Wild-Black Cream and I added extra blobs of the gold color to bring it out more. So there you have it, cute, simple camo! 

KH

More one stroke flowers

This weekend was pretty relaxing for me. We picked up some car seats for the twinsies Saturday morning and I spent the afternoon doing nothing! It was so nice. I had time to sit and do my nails and I decided that since it had been so long since I tried one stroke flowers, I would try again. Only one really turned out like what the pictures on the internet show, but that's ok. The rest turned out alright. I needed a smaller angled brush and I tried using a smaller straight brush, but neither worked that well. Guess I'll have to try to look up more nail art brushes one of these days!

The picture above is the one that looked more like how I wanted it to, and for some reason I was able to do it with my left hand!! Odd... but it's what I was trying for.

I was trying for the look like the one that actually turned out, but for some reason, I just couldn't get it to work right. Like I said, it could have just been that I needed a better, smaller brush. I would rinse it off in nail polish remover after almost every flower. I'm sure that is the wrong thing to do because the brush would get really stiff and would just smear colors instead of painting them on nicely. Oh well, maybe the next time I try they will look better. Oh I used Sally Hanson- Champagne Toast as the base (two coats) and the flowers were done in elf- Red-y or Not and Sally Hanson - White On. I can't remember what the leaves are... Sinful Colors - something... 

Halloween

It took me a while to figure out what to do for my Halloween nails. When I finally did decide, I kept messing up and when I finally got done, I spilled a bottle of polish on my table. I was cleaning up and when I checked to make sure it wasn't anywhere else, sure enough there was splashed polish across two of my finally finished nails. So once again, I had to redo them. At least it was on the clear part so all I did was wipe off the base coat, but left the tip. It worked out just fine. Can't even tell :)

I had a more elaborate idea with spooky trees and bats and ghosts, but I just didn't feel like going all out. This was simple and cute and I like how it turned out. I was going to do ghosts on the tips, but they just weren't turning out out right. So pumpkins it was!

I used Sally Hanson- Flawless as my base, it's just a clear coat. The Black is Wet N Wild- Black Creme, orange is Wet N Wild-Sunny Side Up and the silver is Wet N Wild-Silvivor. It's my favorite silver!

KH

Fall Flowers

Hi all. Well my pink and blue hearts from last week should have been just blue hearts. Guess I will be having two boys! I was a little disappointed, but I still already love my boys, even if I will be outnumbered!

I had some time yesterday to sit down and do nails again.This look didn't take very long at all actually. I wanted to do some flowers, but make them more fall-ish. So orange and yellow seemed to be the best choice! I couldn't decide what hand looked better, but I think I like my right hand better...

You can't really see it, but after the base coat, I did a little bit of a gold gradient. I should have gone up a little higher with it, but since the base is already shimmery, it's hard to see the gold...

Base was Sally Hanson-Champagne Toast. Gold gradient-ELF Blushing Beauty. For the flowers the yellow is Sally Hanson-Mellow Yellow mixed with S.H.- White On. The orange is Wet n Wild-Sunny Side up mixed with White On. The brown centers is ELF-Smokey Brown and the leaves is Wet n Wild-Sage in the City. 

KH

Gender Reveal Day!

Well yesterday marked 20 weeks along!! Over halfway there! Today is the anatomy scan for the twinsies and I finally get to see them again and find out what they are! As long as they cooperate that is. I decided to do my nails with pink and blue hearts. I would like one of each I think, but really as long as they are healthy, I don't care what they are!

I just did a simple french tip with pink and blue hearts. It was pretty easy and didn't take long at all!

I started with the usual base coat. Sally Hanson- Sugar Coat, white is Sally Hanson- White on White. The pink is mixed Elf - Read -y- or Not and White on White. The blue is Wet n Wild and the tiny bit of glitter you can barely see on the white is another Wet n Wild, but I forgot to look at the names of them.You can see the glitter better in person, but it just gives it a little something extra! So here's hoping is a boy and girl!!

KH

Roses and an update

Wow, it has been a really, really long time since I've done my nails. I've had a good reason though. I'm expecting TWINS in February!! I'm a little over 4 months along, 17 weeks 3 days to be exact. So the last couple months have been kinda rough between just being busy, and being nauseous and sick ALL THE TIME! I'm really hoping that phase has passed. I still have nausea in the morning, but it's not all day like it used to be. Thank goodness!

Well there is the update part, now to the nails. I decided to do these little roses because, well, who doesn't love flower nails! They are my go-to. And for it being the first time doing nails in months, I wanted something I knew I could do. They aren't perfect by any means. That's what happens when you don't practice, practice, practice!

I started with a base of Sally Hanson - Spun Sugar. I made the pink for the roses with elf-Cherry Bomb and mixed it with Sally Hanson - White on White. The darker red/pink is Cherry Bomb. I did the leaves with a Sinful Color polish and did some outlines with a Sally Hanson black.

They turned out ok for having not done nails in forever. The petals aren't as sharp and defined as I'd like them to be. From a distance they look fine! :) The pointer and middle finger are the best in my opinion. I'm hoping to try to get back on track and do my nails at least once a week. We'll see how that goes...

KH

Elephants!!

I saw a picture the other day, browsing on Pinterest, of a baby elephant. It was a drawing so it wasn't a real picture but I thought it was just so cute. So i decided to try to do elephants on my nails! I was so excited to get home and start working on them! It was a little harder than I had thought, but I kept it pretty simple and I just love it! I can't stop looking at the cute little guys!
Anyways on to the nails!

It's kinda hard to tell, but the little ring finger guy is an elephant sitting down. It was hard to get little detail lines in there. The thumb one is supposed to be an elephant sitting down and facing front. It's much harder to draw the design on a nail than it is on a bigger piece of paper!

Aren't they just so cute! I just love them. I wish the thumb would have turned out a little better,but I still like it. Doing theses left handed for my other hand was not as easy. I'm usually really good at painting left handed, but these ones were a little harder to get down. They are still cute, but I didn't take a picture of that hand.

 I used Wet 'N Wild - Sugar coat as my base. Sally Hanson XtremeWear- White Out was the french tip. The dots are Wet ' Wild - Rain check, for the blue, a mix of elf - Cherry Bomb and the same white mixed for the pink, and the silver is Sinful Colors - Out of the World. The elephants were done in with the SC polish then outlined with elf - Misty Haze. I added some Sugar Coat to the ears for a little bit of pink. I think it's one of my most favorite designs! I seriously can't stop looking at the little ring finger guy :)

KH

Been Awhile! Gradient Nails

It has been a long time since I did my nails. Summer comes around and I just get busy. So summer nail art is always sporadic. But last night I decided it was just time to do my nails. I wanted to do a gradient since I have only tried it once and I did really like how it looked. So I decided on a pink and gold gradient and had to add some flowers because I just love flowers!

For the flowers, I tried for one stroke petals, but it didn't work out exactly as I had planned. But I still like them.

For the base, I used my favorite pink, Sally Hanson - Sugar Coat. For the flowers I mixed elf - Cherry Bomb and Sally Hanson Extreme Wear - White On. The gold was elf - Blushing Beauty.  Hopefully I can get to my nails a little more often. I almost forgot how fun it is to create pretty nails!

Bright flowers

I didn't really know what to do for my nails. I wanted something pretty, but quick and easy. Que the flowers, my go-to art. These are simple flowers made with a dotting tool ( that didn't work like I thought it would). But they are fun and springy, like the weather finally!

I thought my dotting tool would work more like the end of a bobby pin ad make nice little circles. I guess the one I have it for pretty tiny dots or something because it didn't work that well. I had to really get a lot of polish onto it so my little flowers aren't perfect. But I still like them! I used a Sally Hansen quick dry for the the base. I think it's White on White maybe? I'm so bad at remembering the names. Then I added all the dots, starting with the petals and doing the centers last, all with Wet 'N Wild polishes. For the leaves I used two different colors. I started with the darker green, Sinful Colors is the brand I think, then I added a dot of a minty green, another Sally Hanson. I really like the contrast on the leaves. I think I'll use a creamier white next time though.

KH

Paint Splatter

So I've seen these nails done before and I really wanted to try them. I finally had the perfect opportunity! I ran the Color Me Rad 5K on Saturday! It's a race where along the track, they throw colored cornstarch on you and spray you with colored water. It was so much fun and my shirt ended up looking a lot like these nails! Worked out perfectly. :)

I didn't do a very good job cleaning up because it was so messy and took forever to clean up as much as I did. I should have taped around my fingers like you would do with a water marble, but partway into doing this I felt like it was too late and it was already messy. But it was a lot of fun to do! Trying to get the right amount of polish into the straw to blow onto my nails was kinda hard though, sometimes I would blow and nothing would come out and sometimes (like the case with the ring finger and the yellow) a big blob would just come out. I could have redone that one, but I didn't really feel like it. I forgot to look at the names of all the colors I used but I know they were all Wet 'N Wild colors. I'll update later with the colors. 

I loved how this turned out though. It was different and a lot of fun! The middle finger (minus the dent) and thumb are my favorite and the ring finger is definitely my least favorite. I can't wait to try this with other color combos! 

KH

Silver French

I actually had time to do my nails! Well, a little bit of time. I did my nails really fast. It's a pretty simple design so it didn't take me that long to do. I've done it once before, but that picture is on my old phone so I can't see it, but I know I used a different silver.

I used Wet 'N Wild Sugar Coat as my base and did the french tips and dots in Wet 'N Wild Silvivor.

 I really like the silver french tip. It's just a little something different without being too bold. I haven't been able to find a bold color that I really like on me... I'll have to keep looking I suppose! There are more polishes out there!

KH

Flowers!

Here is more flower nail art! I just love doing flowers. Some flower designs are hard, but some are really easy like when you are doing small clusters of flowers. You just do some dots and and some lines, easy!

I do really like how this turned out. I wish I had some more shades of pink though. This is actually red and white swirled together. 

I started with my favorite pink basecoat (it's Wet 'N Wild - Sugar Coat) I added three dots of red (no name, it is a very old nail polish that I found) and a dot of Rimmel - French Tip white to each of the red dots and just swirled them together. Since they are such small flowers they don't have to be perfect. When I do bigger swirl roses, I try to add more petals and whatever they need. Next I added some blue (I don't remember the name) dots and the green leaves highlighted with a stripe of darker green (again, don't remember the name) I'll update later. Hopefully I have some time to do my nails this weekend!

KH

Feathers!

It's been quite awhile since I did a post! It's also been awhile since I even did my nails. I thought they could use a break and between that and just life, I've just been busy. But I finally sat down and did my nails this weekend!

So, my sister has a bird. I'm not a fan of birds as pets personally, but it is pretty. I've always liked the colors. When it was a baby it was this really pretty bright blue and now I think it's more of a green/light blue. But either way, Kadie came up to visit and brought some of the feathers with her. She thought maybe I could use them on my nails and I've seen it done so I thought I would give it a try.

It didn't work out all that great.... Feathers are kinda hard to work with! Once I did a clear coat and got the feather on them they would stick ok and when I put some topcoat on to seal them, it completely changed the color of the feathers. Some of the pretty light green ones turned brown and just not pretty. I redid these a few times until I finally knew which of the feathers were bright enough to not change colors on me! They were a little plain so I did a stripe of silver.

From more of a distance though they looked really pretty! You can't see the rough edges as much. Pretty colors right?!

The main problem with these was that the very edge of the feathers wouldn't lay totally flat, even after 2 coats of topcoat. So after about 5 hours I was picking at the edges and pulling them off. So it didn't last long and if I try again, I'll maybe lay them differently or something. Overall, from a distance, they did look pretty good though! 

KH

Pastels - major fail

These definitely are not by best. It was late when I started them. I wanted something Easter-y but I couldn't really think of anything that I wanted to do. Last year, I went all out with bunnies, eggs, Easter baskets... But it's one of the ones I took on my old phone and on my new phone, it is really blurry otherwise I would post it. Oh well.

I had to redo the ring finger and I only did two coats of my pink instead of three so you can see the nail line and I didn't apply the topcoat very well... It was late like I said.

The design could have been done a little better... but I like the colors together. My minty green is really really light so I had to draw it out with white first, then go over it again with the green. Usually I wear the same thing for almost a week (if i haven't picked it off by then. A very bad habit), but these ones didn't make it nearly that long. I'll come up with something better next time!

KH

Watercolor Nails

Busy, busy, busy! I finally had time to sit down and paint my nails last night! I've seen this watercolor method and really wanted to try it with pastel colors. The only problem with that is that is doesn't show up in the pictures very well. Probably because I use a phone for picture taking! :) Either way, I like how this turned out but my right hand looks better than my left. Weird since I'm right handed, but I'm always more careful when I use my left hand so the designs look better sometimes.

I used a sheer white basecoat then added a top coat. I read somewhere that doing that will protect the basecoat from getting ruined when you watercolor with the acetone. I started with pink blobs of polish and used a paintbrush dipped in acetone to fade out the color. I added a minty green (which you can't even see really), a bolder white and a little turquoise-y blue. It looked fine by itself, but I thought it needed a little something else so I added some white watercolor looking flowers. That was the hardest part actually!

My basecoat was a little too thin. You can really see my nail line on some of them.

I tried to get a good picture of how the colors look, but I just couldn't get the picture to capture it properly. In person you can really see the pinks and blues better. Oh well, I'll have to try this again with darker colors maybe.

KH