Confession Time:

Confession Time:  Shaun had to damage my scale nail before I could bring myself to take it off.  😂  I had all of my other nails naked and ready to be painted - EXCEPT FOR THAT ONE.  I guess I was making a big deal about it so he said "Let me see it." and then proceeded to dig a chunk of it off me with his big, hard, man nails.  😳  I mean, I guess that was an effective way to make it easier to take off... at least I didn't have to murder it with polish remover for no reason.  😂

Anyway.  I wanted to use my succulent decal before it dried out since it was more work to make than the cat.  If I had waited any longer I would have missed my chance.  It was already very brittle and the application of it did not go smoothly.  😕

First of all, I had to apply a clear polish to the back of it to soften it up.  Secondly, I dropped it on a fuzzy blanket right after applying the clear polish.  THEN, when I was trying to shape it to my nail, it cracked.  Thankfully, I had the good sense to use the same base color as the background of the decal; otherwise, you'd probably be able to spot the crack.  It was almost a huge nail fail.  🙁  But lots of patience, acetone, and topcoat saved it.  🙂

Overall I think it looks nice, but I'm not as in love with it as I was with the scales.  I'm glad I could make it work, but I'm bummed that my decals aren't storing so great.  I knew they wouldn't last forever, but I didn't even get a solid week out of that.  I guess I can't make them too far in advance for now.  I read that one polish blogger stored hers inside sheet protectors for 10 days.  I was thinking that surely a closed-off stamper would be more air tight, but I guess not.  😕

For anyone who's interested - my pointer finger is FingerPaints Nail Color Ink-Cognito, my middle finger is China Glaze Nail Lacquer Below Deck, and my pinky is the lovely Barry M. in Dusky Mauve.  I wanted that polish for ages before I finally bought it.  I know that the shimmer isn't showing in that one on the nail in photos like it is in the bottle, but I promise you it's there.  It is SO pretty and I'm so happy to finally call it my own.

I know this is yet again not my best photo...

I know this is yet again not my best photo (yay for cloudy days and crappy house lighting!), but check out my freaking decal.  I made it by myself with only nail polish and stamping plates.  I don't know if every stamping plate would allow me to make a decal this well, but I'm betting that most of them would work - meaning that I have a binder full of images just waiting to be filled in and worn in a whole new way.  😳

I'm really missing this thing called "free time" right now because I want to do this about a thousandy more times.  😂  The filling in of something so tiny is really tedious, but I think it's kind of meditative for me.  And right about now I think that's something I need.

Anyway, I read that decals can be stored for about 10 days before becoming too brittle to use so IN THEORY I could make decals for you guys if I have something on any of my stamping plates that you'd like to wear.  Best of all you could probably stick these down yourselves because that was the easy part.  🙂

To stick it down I put down a clear polish on top of my base color, let it dry a little, then stuck the decal down.  I trimmed as much of it down as I could with cuticle scissors, then buffed it off the tip of the nail, then used a thin brush dipped in acetone to clean the edges and seal the sides down.  Threw on a nice topcoat after that and I was good to go!  (I know that might sound like a lot, but there was really nothing to it.)

Anyway.  I felt like that was pretty freaking neat.  Jamberry ain't got nothing on me!  😃

I'm getting better at making time for nail painting!

I'm getting better at making time for nail painting!  🙂  These are chipping off now, but thankfully I got a nice photo before that started.

Check out all the colors in this one polish.  It's a new FingerPaints Nail Color.  They have them at Sally's right now.  I can look up the color if anyone is actually interested.  🙂