These are the nails I tested on Shaun...

These are the nails I tested on Shaun - chrome powders over magnetics.  They look really neat!

I tested out using gel polish to make stones for jewelry.

I tested out using gel polish to make stones for jewelry.  I'd say it worked.  :D  The stone on the left is just the holographic chrome powder Lust by JReine over black.  I definitely need to make sure my sticky coat goes down smooth.  You can see some brush strokes in that one.  It was the first one I made so the second one came out smoother.  The stone on the right was made using the same method as my dandelion nails, except thatw I didn't put the dandelions on it because it was just an experiment.  It turned out so well that I kind of wish I had, but I'll know better next time.  Now that I know this works I'll probably make some jewelry using these methods.  I'm excited to once again have more to paint than just my nails.  I am slowly but surely working towards re-opening my Etsy and I'm really excited about that.  I definitely need a creative outlet in my life.

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These are the nails I did...

These are the nails I did after seeing a new layering technique on the 'Gram. The bottom layer is a sheer purple, then over that is a silver cat-eye magnetic, then it's topped with a chrome powder, and finally sealed with topcoat. The product of that layering reminded me of a summer sunset, so I added the dandelions blowing in the wind for good measure.

I played with this technique on Shaun's nails over the weekend and found some really pretty combinations. I'll bother him for a photo (or video!) at some point soon.

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👀

👀

I learned a new polish-layering technique...

I learned a new polish-layering technique on Instagram and I am OBSESSED. Shaun likes his nails done, so he's volunteered as tribute to let me experiment with more combinations. I'll post my nails probably tomorrow. They have a summery, sunset vibe. 😁❤️

Me all day:

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I never did anything else to these.

I never did anything else to these.  I just haven't been energetic lately, and that's probably because I'm not allowed to exercise.  So this is what I'm wearing this week.  No complaints.

Taken in direct sun to show the holographic flame

 Taken in indirect light to show the chrome shift

Work in progress.

Work in progress. This is a holographic chrome powder over black. It's GORGEOUS on its own, but I would at least like an accent nail. Currently trying to decide what to do...

Suggestions welcome.

It's been such a long time since I've done any nail art for myself.

It's been such a long time since I've done any nail art for myself.  As lame as it may sound my one and only goal for this weekend was to do nail art on ME.  Before this the most I could manage was to put on a pretty color (there is a reason for that).  It's nice to have a pretty color to look at, but it's not the same a being able to flex my creativity.

Since the polish color I used (Sakura by Ethereal) was kind of sheer I decided to put down a couple of layers of a milky white gel polish by Beetles.  Then I painted my pinky, pointer, and thumb with Sakura.  I used stamping plates to get the outline of the floral shapes onto a stamper head.  I let it dry, then took a super tiny brush and filled in the colors of the flowers.  After that dried, I put a clear coat on it to make it into a decal and let that dry.  After THAT, I put down the same clear coat on my nails, let it dry just until it was tacky, then placed the decals onto my nail using the stamper.  I cleaned my edges and topcoated, and this was the final result!  I am pleased with how it turned out!

There are so many other techniques I want to play with and try, but since I'd already spent basically all day on my nails (removing hard gel and putting down polygel) I decided to keep it simple.  This nail art was (obviously) inspired by spring.  I'm so into the flowers and plants right now.  Everyone is showing out and I love it, so this is my tribute to spring. 💮💗

Between last night and today...

Between last night and today I swatched all of my burnishing powders that are used with gel polish. I swatched them over both black and white polish because they look dramatically different depending on the base over which you put them. I have ~50 powders, so x 2 colors, that's ~100 swatches. 😳

This wasn't a huge "need to get it done" type of task, but I rarely use my powders because I didn't have an easy way to see what they would look like. The powders usually come in little pots with an eye-shadow type brush to apply them, and those two things usually come in a small bag so they stay together. At one point I'd starting swatching them on an old nail wheel and snapping off the nails to go in the bag, but the bags weren't always clear and the nails would sometimes be turned around where you couldn't see them. And if I ever wanted to take the nails out to compare one powder to another, there was always the risk of getting things mixed up. It just wasn't effective.

You would think that in the years I've been messing with nail polish that somewhere along the way I'd have finally started using swatch sticks with labels, and you'd be wrong. That is a thing I started doing literally YESTERDAY. But it makes so much sense and it's so much easier to compare colors without worrying about getting things mixed up. I'd love to eventually swatch my whole nail polish collection, but that's not a task I'll be starting anytime soon. 😅

Anyway, this is my drawer of powders, and my swatches over both black and white, with and without flash. Now that that's all organized and lovely and satisfying I have no reason not to use my powders and I'm pretty excited about that.

I've done a bunch of miscellaneous...

I've done a bunch of miscellaneous "getting myself in order" over the last few weeks. This is a fun part of that - swatching my gel polishes. All of them came in black bottles that look exactly the same with little information on the outside. I decided to swatch the polishes on an old crappy nail wheel that I don't care about so I could remove the nail forms and glue them to the bottles.

The first photo is magnetic colors. If I get good with a magnet I'll be able to make designs other than a line, but that will suffice for swatch purposes.

The second photo is neons, obviously. You can tell that I legit used a crappy nail wheel to swatch on because the nails were thin and you can see through them. (I didn't want to waste multiple coats of polish on doing this - I just needed to be able to see what was in the bottle).

The third photo is my boyfriend being a great helper. 😂 He's seriously been into everything with me lately. Me and Kira were going through polish the other day and he wanted to look at them, too. He bit some of them. I don't know if that means he liked them or not, but that's always a positive sign coming from me. 😂😂😂

I've only got about 20 gels to go. I'm hoping that I get them finished up tonight. But for now we've gotta run some errands so I'm off to do that. Later, friends! ❤️