So Now What?

The nail art challenge has ended and it was a fantastic learning experience for me.  I am hoping to do more in the future.  But now the question I've been asking myself is....what do I do with this little blog of mine?

I originally created it so that I could talk about our trips to Malta and all my friends could read about it for themselves, instead of my retelling stories over and over.  Then I used it to vent my spleen a little bit after a trip to the mall.  And, finally, the nail art challenge.

I've had a couple friends say I should just keep doing a nail blog.  My reply had been that there's already sooo many nail related blogs out there, why add another? Especially one by someone whose nails rarely look perfect, is an amateur at nail art and doesn't even have all her nails the same length (my nails break easily due to Crohns mal-nutrition, so when I get one to actually grow out I consider it a triumph).

But then again, why not?  I mean, this blog was only supposed to be for friends and family to start with and they're the ones who ask me questions.  Why not answer them and talk about this stuff?  And if anyone else happens to enjoy reading something I've written..hey, bonus, right?

So here it is.  My manis won't be perfect, any attempts at nail art will be hit or miss (not that I'll really be posting my disasters).  But I can talk about what works for me and what I've seen/heard works for others.  And if I don't know something, I can almost certainly link people to the blog of someone who DOES know.  I think I have enough Indie polishes in my collection to talk about them and, hopefully, encourage others to support independent polish makers....likewise, I have more than enough 'main stream' polishes to give my honest opinions on this brand or that.

At any rate, yeah....I think I'll keep it going.  And maybe somewhere along the way others will dabble a bit and find that they like this little polish hobby as much as I do.  There's a community here and so much information to be had if one is willing to look for it. 

Okay, Kim, where should we start looking?

Easy.  The infamous Nail Board of makeupalley.com.  You'll learn a lot if you hang around long enough, plus you'll get to see some awesome creations posted by some very talented people.  There's tips and tricks to be had, and products you've probably never heard of before suggested.  You'll also learn one of the most important words in the polish world.....Lemming.  A 'lemming' is the term for something that you REALLY want. Asking someone to 'feed' a lemming is to ask for others to encourage/support/tempt you into purchasing something.  To 'kill' a lemming is to ask for others to dissuade/discourage you from purchasing.  Most lemmings are killed when others have related bad experiences with a particular polish/polish maker, or if a 'dupe' for that polish is found.  There's another new word for you...'dupe'.  It's pretty self-explanatory.  When someone asks for a 'dupe' of something, they usually mean a substitute that is either cheaper or more readily available.  For example....Orly Smolder is one of the closest 'dupes' for Chanel Malice (I own both and the differences are minor).  Smolder is also cheaper than Malice and, for a while, was a bit easier to get as most dept. stores ran out of Malice almost as soon as it was released.

Another blog you want to read is Loodie Loodie Loodie. This blog is a treasure trove of information regarding nail care, from articles about nail strengtheners/hardeners, right on down to how to file your nails properly to get the shape you want without damaging them.

One last word for your new vocabulary.  MOISTURIZE.  You need to be moisturizing your nails at least twice a day.  What products you choose are a matter of preference, but you want ones with Jojoba Oil in them.  Two fantastic suppliers of cuticle products are:

Simple Nail Art Tips. This stuff is awesome and does exactly what it says it does. Get the starter kit and take Anas 'Get Naked' challenge. And trust me, you'll LOVE how good it smells.  You can see several before and after photos of people who've done the challenge if you go to her Facebook page.

365 Days of Color. Ah, Sunny. How I love her. Her polishes were my first Indies...the Hocus Pocus collection.  All her hand/nail products are homemade and her balms/oils are to die for...and the scents!  Wow.  Some of them will make you want to eat your fingers. Her polishes are beautiful and if you happen to stop by when she's selling some of her holiday 'mystery' bags, be sure to snap one up cause they're always worth it.

Anywho, I think that's enough for now.  I hope you enjoyed this post and maybe I'll see you back again for the next one!

Nail Challenge Day 9

This is the final day of the nail art challenge-Recreate Your Favorite. After checking with Erica, it was decided that we would be allowed to treat this day as a kind of 'do over' if we liked. So my 'do over' day is Inspired By a Tutorial.

The tutorial I'm using for my inspiration is the Dotted French Tip Glitter Ombre by My Simple Pleasures, which can be found Here. In my version however, I've decided to change it up with different polishes than she used and have added more dots. I realize my color choices are more suited to Fall and Halloween, but hey...it's nail art which means anything goes at any time.



Polishes used were:

-Orly 'Flare'
-Orly 'Flicker'---Untried
-Orly 'Smoulder'---Untried

I'd like to take this time and thank Erica for hosting this challenge. It's been my first and I've really learned a lot and gotten to play around with manicure ideas that I may not have chosen to do otherwise. I look forward to honing my skills, such as they are, and taking part in more of these in the future!

Nail Challenge Day 8

And here we have Day 8-Polka Dots!

Another toughie. But after poking around, I decided to try my hand at this dotticure by Lucysstash.



It was a bit of a bear to photograph because the dark purple (which is actually more of a neon IRL) didn't want to show up. All in all though, I think it turned out quite pretty despite the fact that I did it while suffering from the plague.

Polishes used were:

-Nails Inc. 'Granville Place'---Untried
-Nails Inc. 'Holland Park Road'
-Nails Inc. 'York Street'
-Some random #17 white

Nail Challenge Day 7

And here we are at Day 7--Inspired By a Tutorial.

This was difficult in that there's SO many tutorials out there...it's really hard to settle on only one.  But I wanted to do something different, so I went with this sheep nail art tutorial by Chalkboard Nails.

I tried it out on the nail wheel first and just couldn't get the eyes and mouth right.  So I did some Googling and found this sheep manicure by Holymanicures and ultimately combined the two. And with no further ado....



This was a really fun, and easy, manicure and the sheep were done entirely with dotting tools. Please forgive the zombie black sheep...however I do think he's on the appropriate finger ;)

Polishes used were:

-Picture Polish 'Kryptonite'
-Essie 'Sexy Divide'
-Orly 'Flare'---Untried
-Orly 'Miss Conduct'---Untried
-Picture Polish 'Cosmos'---Untried
-Essie 'Blanc'
-A-England 'Camelot'
-Barry M 'Mushroom'

Nail Challenge Day 6

The challenge this time is a gradient nail. At first I wasn't too sure, cause I haven't really done many of them. But it was surprisingly easier this time around and didn't take much time at all. Only thing I can say about the pictures is that they're a bit darker than this mani actually looked *kicks camera*.





Polishes used -both untried- were:

-A-England 'Elaine'
-A-England 'Princess Tears'

Nail Challenge Day 5

The next theme is Valentines Day. I was hellbound and determined to do a water marble for this. I won't go into what a pain that turned out to be (I have no luck when it comes to water temperature). I managed to get it done, but the next day I decided I could do better so I took it off. Anyway...a few hours, much cursing and way too much wasted polish later, I finally managed something I was happy with:



It's not the best, but it's not the worst either. I plan to really practice doing these once the weather warms up and room temperature water is easier to come by (old house, drafty, etc.). Boiling the water and letting it cool to room temp. helped a lot, as did setting a bottle of it in hot water for a while. But since I'm lazy, I'm going to wait until Mother Nature is more willing to lend a hand (no pun intended).

I'm dubbing this entry the 'Magical Mystery Marble' because the polishes used were:
-Essie Mystery Polish #1.....Found it at TK Maxx w/no name. It's pinkish white.----Untried
-Essie Mystery Polish #2....Same as #1, but a nice red.----Untried
-OPI 'Skyfall'----Untried

Nail Challenge Day 4

This days challenge is 'Inspired by a pattern'. And let me tell ya, I struggled with this one. Mainly because I can't paint a straight line using my left hand. The eliminated at least 3 ideas I'd had. Somehow, once again I found myself looking at Mardi Gras related pictures and found this:

See that white, purple, green and yellow diamond one in the lower right corner? That's what I decided to go for. 'I can just use striping tape' I thought to myself.

Epic fail for reasons unknown. Finally, I kept playing around and came up with this:

Please excuse my finger in the way in the second one.

Polishes used in this were:

-Models Own 'Gold Rush'
-Essie 'Sexy Divide'-----Untried
-Models Own 'Purple Haze'-----Untried
-Picture Polish 'Kryptonite'
-Nails Inc. 'Piccadilly Arcade'

Nail Challenge Day 3

Day 3 of the month long challenge is 'Glitter Loaded'. Which is fine, cause I have LOTS of glitter polishes so it was easy to fill the untried part of the contest requirements. My inspiration was Mardi Gras. I had some colors picked out and my friend Angie Tordoff said they looked like MG colors, so I had a look at some masks, switched one of the colors for the green and this was born:

Out of all the manicures I've done (contest and otherwise), I think this is my favorite. I wish the pictures did it justice, cause this is one of those manies that has you staring at your hands most of the day.

Polishes used were:

-A-England 'Camelot'-----Untried
-Revlon 'Scandalous'-----Untried
-Butter London 'Shambolic'-----Untried
-Orly 'HALO'-----Untried
-Picture Polish 'Kryptonite'
-Nails Inc. 'Piccadilly Arcade'

Nail Challenge Day 2

And now we have Day 2 of the challenge, the Half Moon manicure:

This was a bit of a tough one due to having to use those round paper hole reinforcement thingies like this:

I actually ended up cutting mine in half which helped keep them pressed onto the nail a bit better.

The polishes used for this were:

-Models Own 'Gold Rush'-----Previously untried
-Illamasqua Phallic

I know the Phallic looks almost black, but it's actually a really cool blue as you can see in this picture from Scrangie:

Overall, I'm pleased with the way this came out despite all the cursing I did while trying to get those damn stickers lined up properly.