Ok, I don't normally take nail pics in full sunlight

Ok, I don't normally take nail pics in full sunlight (because of shadows) but considering that I did something weird and I'm not sure how long they'll last, I have made an exception.

So... this time, you get a surprise visit from my Cindy hand! (In the nail art world, Cindy is short for Cinderella - the hand that does all of the work, but doesn't get seen). In my case, she's the left one because I'm a south paw. She doesn't always match the right hand, and is often used as the "test" hand for me to make sure that whatever I'm doing is going to look ok for the hand I'm gonna post. 😜🤣🤣🤣 However, today I made a point of dressing her like the right hand so she would be somewhat presentable. My poor lefty is never quite as pretty (though I'm a good bit ambidextrous), because she is my dominant hand and those nails are always broken and that polish chips first, not to mention the testing.

If you haven't spotted the difference between them yet, here it is: I experimented with a new nail shape at about 4:30 this morning. 😳😳😳 Cindy is wearing baby stilettos! I have been updating my Pinterest with a lot of nail art recently (that whole cleaning out my bookmarks and folder of screencaps thing), and I guess I felt inspired to try something new. To be perfectly honest, I've never been happy with my nail shape, and I figured it was time to put some effort into it.

For those of you who can grow your nails long and they will stay even and pretty, I am jealous. Mine have never been that way. They start to curl once they reach a certain length. Some curl worse than others, so even if I have done the same thing to them all, it doesn't necessarily look as though I have. 🙁 I'm sure that some of this is genetic, but also when I was a kid I did bite my nails for a while, as well as pick the skin at the sides a lot, so I'm sure there is scarring from all of the mistreatment. ☹️☹️☹️

Since the curling happens at my edges, I thought "What would happen if I just took the edges off?" LOL I actually really like the way my pinky and ring finger look on my left hand. My middle finger took the brunt of my picking as a child, so it will probably always look wonky. And my pointer finger is almost always shorter than the rest due to breakage, but it did look better this morning. At some point during all of my painting and prep, it got caught in my scissor and nicked, so I had to file it down even shorter. If you are curious about my Cindy thumb, it is still round (because who cares about her, right?!). 😆😆😆

I read that this is not the strongest nail shape, but if it doesn't work out, that's ok. It's on good old lefty for testing purposes. 😂😂😂 I treat my nails a lot like my hair - if I hate it, I will cut it off and it will grow back. No biggie. But out of curiosity, what do you guys think? Fight to keep them round-ish, or maybe go with the stiletto shape? The ones that turned out nice (pinky and ring finger), I'm really kind of digging.

Also, this nail art is one I've wanted to do for like, THREE YEARS. 😳 I usually don't just straight up rip off other people's work, but I have so much studying to do that I couldn't dedicate my brain power to ideas today. Below is a link is to the blog where I first saw this, and I basically just copied what she did (not exactly, but so very close). She is one of my favorite nail bloggers, so hopefully it would be seen as flattery and not me taking credit for her work, especially since I am minding my internet manners and giving her credit for the idea.

Anyway, I'm off. I've got my nails done for the week, and Calculus is calling me. I'll be back later. ❤

Linky link:  https://www.thenailasaurus.com/2014/02/lacquer-legion-adoration-nail-art.html?

Tried something new this weekend.

Tried something new this weekend. Instead of water marbling and dipping each finger I made one design, let it dry on the water, carefully took it out, and then cut it up and used them like decals. I don't know if I would always be able to make that work, but my nails are so short and nubby right now that it went just fine. I liked doing it that way because you USUALLY waste less polish, and it's USUALLY much less messy.

However, this time it was a huge mess. I spilled not only hot water on myself, but 3 open bottles of nail polish. EPIC FAIL. I was sitting there saying to Shadow (in an attempt to elicit help from him) "HOT WATER! NAIL POLISH!" Those are about all the words I could manage for a minute because I could not believe what I'd just done. He just looked at me like I was crazy until I screamed for him to get a towel.

I'm usually much more calm and prepared when doing my nails, but I had a "dying vole on my porch" type of situation to handle so I found myself suddenly chatting with Wild Mammal Care in the middle of my nail-doing. They asked me if she'd moved and when I got up to check I spilled everything everywhere because I am awesome. Also, my little porch vole didn't make it. 🙁 I'm not super surprised, though, because you don't see them out usually unless something is wrong.

So yeah. Nubs for now. That is what happens when I go a month without polish. My new nail / cuticle oil is doing a great job on keeping my nails from peeling, but having some layers of polish on is really what protects mine from breaking.

Also, pardon all the bubbles in my topcoat. It was getting too thick, but I gave my polish thinner to a friend so I just had to deal with it. LOL I gotta put thinner on my list of things to buy ASAP. Those bubbles drive me crazy!

This pink / purple / red glitter...

So I've been studying super hard for tests lately and two of them were yesterday.  When I got home from class - late though it was - I painted my freaking nails BECAUSE I DESERVED A TREAT!

This pink / purple / red glitter is a polish I bought on clearance from Sally's.  It's an Orly called "Explosion of Fun."  It's layered over some kind of bright pink L'Oreal that I will go look at and write the name of if anyone actually cares.  😛

Since I was so tired last night I used whatever was at hand.  The new Orly was within reach (as was my box of pinks), so I went with it.  I thought it looked kind of bright and tropical so I went with flowers as decoration.  I filled them in with white because it, too, was close at hand.  I probably could have been more creative with colors if my brain hadn't been fried from both a Biology and Trigonometry test in the same day, but it is what it is and I'm ok with how it turned out.  🙂

Finally uploading my nail pic from last week. 🙂

Finally uploading my nail pic from last week. 🙂

My accent nail was not so easy. Using a stamper I created a decal by painting on the back of the stamped image while it was still on the stamper. They are SUPPOSED to transfer pretty easily to the nail, but my nails are very curved so you can see the distortion near the top at my cuticle. I think I need more practice with this technique! I liked the way it looked so I'll definitely be trying it again. When I can find the time, that is. 😕

P. S. I see that I have an ass-ton of notifications, but I can't jump into that right now. I have SO MUCH HOMEWORK. I'll try to make time later this evening. Thank you to everyone who has written me! ❤

I literally haven't painted anything...

For the first time in what feels like ages - I relaxed.  I didn't do ANY WORK yesterday whatsoever.  Didn't clean the house, mow the lawn, do schoolwork or study; worked no craft shows or festivals...  It was SO NICE and I NEEDED it.

My skin is far from beautiful, but man, it looks and feels a LOT better.  I am so thankful for that.

So what DID I do this weekend?  Friday I played Rock Band because I have missed drumming so bad.  I also danced like a fool because I had the house to myself and I just needed to.  I don't get much in the way of exercise anymore and that is what I used to do for entertainment back before I had the Internet.  I have always felt so much better after dancing myself to exhaustion.  I'm sure a good workout would make me feel the same, but where's the fun in that?  😂

Saturday I sat down and painted some stones.  I think they are mostly pretty - I used these really amazing flakie polishes that I bought myself (on sale!) for making all A's, but there are a few stones I'm not too keen on.  I don't like the bottom 2 pink ones so I may remove the paint - I am not sure yet.  Opinions welcome, but go easy on me. I literally haven't painted anything (not even a fingernail) in months.  🙁

So I'm obviously still hung up on that purple...

Gotta do some yard work so I thought I'd photograph my nails before I jacked them up. 😃

So I'm obviously still hung up on that purple I've been wearing. I bought a back-up bottle because I love it so much. I think it's one that is being discontinued so if you like it - go find you one NOW.

As for the blue, that is one of the China Glaze Hologlams I got on Friday. See the rainbow? It's so pretty in real life, but you can only see it in the sun and certain other lights. I'm gonna be looking at my hands ALL THE TIME with this stuff on my nails.

My three favorite things about summer: 1) Lizard walking, 2) holographic nail polish, and 3) 4-day work weeks. Woohoo!

I ❤ beetles. 🙂

I saved my favorite polish from Janet for last!  It's GREEN LIKE A JUNE BUG!  👀  I hadn't had a chance to use my little gold balls so here they are.  FINALLY.  😃  The whole paint job - color and lumpiness - makes me think of beetles.  I ❤ beetles.  🙂

Two more colors that Janet sent me.

Two more colors that Janet sent me.  🙂  I really like the aqua - that one is really similar to a color I was considering buying online.  They have aqua everywhere, but this one has a shimmer that makes it really nice.  Of course, I really wanted the shimmery one.  😛

All I can say is that these are NOT my style.

Wow.  All I can say is that these are NOT my style.  This is the first time in my life I've ever worn a "French" type manicure.  My nail tips are generally pretty white on their own (unless stained by some wonky polish) so I have the French look when I have naked nails - which I usually end up covering with polish.  😛  I know that this is not my best photo ever, but my flash was making my tips not appear as they really do, which was making them totally NOT look nice with the stone.  In any case at certain angles and in certain lights this shit matches - as you MIGHT be able to tell.  This is another pretty color-flipping polish from the lovely Janet.  It goes from pink to purple to blue.  😃

This lovely color-flipping polish...

This lovely color-flipping polish is one that Janet sent me, and I ❤ it so! Greenish brownish goldish purplish - all at once! I had the HARDEST time last night trying to figure out which one of the 9 she sent me to use first! I guess that's not a bad problem to have. 🙂

I'm really into these studs, too. SUPER easy to put on, and dresses up any paint job without a lot of hassle. This is what I've got on today and until it starts chipping. I really like it! 😃