WHAT HAVE I BEEN DOING WITH MY LIFE?!

WHAT HAVE I BEEN DOING WITH MY LIFE?!  I have almost 200 nail blogs unread in my reader.  😳

Ok, so I am not usually one to just knock off someone else's manicure, but when I saw this I knew I had to do it.  I already had the image plate so I was going to use the trees eventually, but when I saw the way she used it I just had to have the same on my nails - at least once.  I LOVE THIS!  So the idea credit goes to Chit Chat Nails.  😃  And I can't think of a more appropriate time to wear it!

I'm also not usually a huge fan of glitter polish.  I don't know why - it's just never been my thing.  BUT, Loaded Lacquer has some crazy neat glitters so when I found out that their polish, 40 Below, was the base for this mani I had to get it.  I've been holding on to this for a couple of months now waiting for the time to be right for me to use it.  And that time has come!

So this was pretty easy.  It took about 3 coats of the base to get the it as blue as I wanted.  Then I stamped on the trees and then dotted "There's Snow One Like You" by China Glaze at the bottom of the trees.  Topcoat dried it and made it all shiny as shown in the left photo.  Matte topcoat softened and matted it as shown in the right photo.  As always I can't decide how I like it best so one hand is shiny and the other is matte.  😂

I think it's really pretty and I hope I get a couple of days of wear out of it.  Sometimes too many coats will make it peel up, but maybe I'll get lucky.  🙂

This is a paint job I just threw together...

This is a paint job I just threw together kind of at the last minute when my blue flakie started peeling.  It had so many layers that I wasn't quite prepared to take it off and do something fancy, but I knew I had to remove it or I'd end up picking at it and damaging my nails.

So, this happened.  I kind of wanted to see if I would have any better luck photographing my flakie polish, but I didn't really.  Oh well.

I don't understand...

I don't understand how I should be photographing a flakie nail polish to make the colors show.  I look at my nails and they are colorful and pretty... and I take a picture of them and they don't look like what I see.  Am I crazy?

I am not a photography person, but I would assume that since all the nail blogs can swatch them and show the colors that it is not rocket science, right?

My thought when I did these nails was "cold winter night."

My thought when I did these nails was "cold winter night." I think that's pretty accurate!

This paint job is a lot of layers. First the base color, then sponged glitter on the tips, then put my flakie coat down, then stamped on top of that.

I hate it when I have to say this, but these REALLY look a lot better in person. I couldn't get my flakie coat to photograph worth a crap. Below there is a swatch by polishallthenails that really nails it. My flakies look nice and colorful IRL, but I couldn't capture it in a photo for anything.  🙁

Holy shit my nails are awesome right now. 😳

Holy shit my nails are awesome right now. 😳

Went to Sally's today to check out the new China Glaze Crinkle Chromes...

Went to Sally's today to check out the new China Glaze Crinkle Chromes. While the idea was neat I was not impressed with the product. It is basically metallic polish with the fuzz coat and texture polish bits mixed in. If you have either of those kinds of polishes plus a favorite metallic you could easily get that look by layering your polishes - without needing to buy anything else.

I tried the lavender one out on my thumb. I'm not a huge fan of the way it looks, either. I don't think I'll be buying any of those.

As backwards as it sounds I love it when polish collections fail to wow me. It just means I won't be lusting after them or spending my money. I feel like I've won. 😂

As you can see I have nubs here.

So... I've gone like 3 weeks without doing anything noteworthy to my nails.  I have over a hundred nail blog posts to catch up on reading in my feed.  HOLY COW.

As you can see I have nubs here.  I have been working around the house a lot and using my hands a lot.  Like, I'm always cleaning stuff and washing my hands, but lately with the house repairs and re-arranging that was just above and beyond what my hands and nails were used to withstanding.  So most of my nails broke off.  I'm sure that the neglect, (in addition to all of the abuse), didn't help.

As much as I dislike it they'll grow back, and la la la.

So this is something I've wanted to try for a while.  It took minimal effort.  All it required was a few different shades of nail polish.

What you do is put down your bottom color and make sure it's a nice coat or two.  Then with the rest of the colors when you pull the brush out of the bottle wipe off as much of the polish as you can.  Like, get it as dry as you can without going too crazy.  Then smudge what's left onto your nails.  I think this is called a "grunge" look, but I am 3 weeks out of the loop so don't hold me to that.  😛

I kind of wish I'd used more color under the black.  You can see it, but not really enough.  I was afraid I'd end up covering all of the yellow, but I'll know better for next time.  Kind of looks like vomit, doesn't it?  😂

This gives a similar effect to the crackle polishes, but in this case you can control how much of the underneath colors show.  With crackles you just have to put them down and let them do their thing.  And you can't really layer those too well.  So, just a little something easy to try.  Post some photos if you do!

Plain nails again tonight.

Plain nails again tonight. It's a really pretty color, at least; Strike Up A Cosmo by China Glaze.

I haven't made my nails fancy in a LONG time. We've been re-tagging samples at work for the last two-ish weeks and that is really rough on the nails. Peeling up stickers, tying tiny knots, replacing tiny stickers, trimming things, using chemicals to remove old marker... I basically have nubs right now. I broke a few nails and ended up cutting them all off. I hate it when they are all different lengths.

I don't really mind my nails being short, but I don't feel like I want to put any effort into painting them fancy if I'm just going mess it up the next day. I like to get a few days of wear out of something neat. So... plain it is. We should be done with samples after this week so maybe I'll get to do something cool to them soon. I sure hope so. I am having nail art withdrawals. LOL

Went to Tractor Supply for some cat food...

Went to Tractor Supply for some cat food... and the girl at the register complimented my nails. I was like "Whattt?" They are painted a plain nude color. They literally look like nothing. NOTHING.

I started doing something last night, but got tired so they are totally unfinished. Maybe I'll have time to finish them tonight.