September Manis

Pastel Palm Trees

So I am still stuck on summer. I wanted to do a fall design, but ended up with a rainbow on my nails instead =P and I decided to mute it down and add palm trees. This time, instead of a black striping art polish, I used acrylic paint and a stiper brush and another small, short brush. I think they came out better this time, for the most part. :)

For the background of this design, starting at the top, I used:
China Glaze - Sun Worshiper (orange)
Sinful Colors - 24/7 (pink)
Sally Hansen - Lightning (yellow)
Zoya - Mitzi (green)
Sinful Colors - Gorgeous (teal with some craft glitter on top)
China Glaze - The Ten Man (muting silver glitter color)

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Feather Nails

I am a big fan of the feathers (that are/were the popular summer) trend. I love the look of feathers on the nail, in-cased by a beautiful color and a shiny topcoat, so I had to try it out. Most that I have seen (when using natural-colored feathers, which is the look I prefer) use a Tiffany's blue type of color, but I wanted something a little more minty so I went with Sinful Colors in Mint Apple and got a package of craft feathers in tones of brown. I absolutely LOVE the way that this turned out!! I think one of my favorite parts is that, even after 3 layers of topcoat, the texture of the feather is still very visible. Of course, I was hoping that they would have kept their white areas, but even though they became transparent and show the green beneath, I still love this look! :)

I had no idea I had that hangnail on my middle finger until I started cropping these pictures. =P I took them at school in the parking lot, so I wanted to crop out any license plates.

I think my pinkie is my favorite when it comes to the outcome of the feather shape. It stayed together really well and actually LOOKS like a feather!

Left Thumb

Right Thumb

I love these nails so much that I couldn't stop taking pictures from all different angles!

I love these nails from the side, from the front, I love everything about them!! :)

Lastly, my overall favorite nail, my left middle finger because it shows the feather texture the best!

These nails make me feel very in-touch with my Indian (I don't have to be politically correct and say Native American, it's my heritageical [hush, it's a new word in my book] right) roots and every time I look at them, I start singing Tim McGraw's "Indian Outlaw" in my head!

What do you think of these nails? Or feather nails in general? Or for that matter, about the whole feather trend?

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Feather Nails Tutorial

I LOVE getting requests/being given new challenges! =) So... Here is a tutorial I put together for feather nails:

Step 1: Measure the feather to either fit your nail perfectly or to hang over a bit and trim the feather.

Step 2: Apply a top coat and place the feather, being sure to press down all of the little fly-aways. (After base coat and color [the lighter the color, the better] have dried)

Step 3: In no particular order, apply 2-4 more coats of top coat on top of the feather and trim/file away the excess or sticky-out bits. When the first coat of top coat is tacky you can take the opportunity to press down any other fly-aways if needed.

Video Tutorial:

Thanks for stopping by. If you try out these nails, let me know, I would love to see your take on it!!

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Half Moons in Kleancolor Reds

My first impression of the half moon look was a mixed one. It was a mix of "oh, a backwards French, kinda neat" and "wtf would you want to do that on purpose for!?". The look has been growing on me though.

Well, I decided to try it out, but wanted it to be very subtle so I went with a red and a red glitter. I used Kleancolor Neon Fuchsia for the base color. This color was decent, but it took a century and a half to dry. Plus, it's red... not fuchsia. Someone needs to purchase a labeled color wheel for Kleancolor's naming department. 

I used page hole protector stickers to do the half moons in Chunky Holo Poppy on every finger but my ring finger, which got a Holo Poppy French instead. This glitter has a very firey look to it, I kind of like it.

Thanks for stopping by! Anybody else love/hate the half moon look?