Golden Moss Garden manicure and Sephora Christmas Presents!

I had quite a bit of fun making this design and it all started with the strangest bit of inspiration and an amazing Christmas present. I saw a beautiful teal gradient in the hair of this drawing and it gave me the perfect opportunity to use my new colors. I started this look out with a base color of Llamasqua's Viridian which looked lovely by itself I must say! I then sponged The Parking Meteor Expired by Spoiled around the tip and the cuticle leaving the center untouched and alternating a top bottom and a diagonal pattern. I then sponged Ho Ho Holly by Color Club in the center of the nails. I then used a color of my own creation called Jade which is a nice jelly type of green polish with no real shimmer in the dead center. I then took Melon Green by Klean Color to add a highlight in the center and topped it all of with a thin coat of 18k Gold flake topcoat by Sephora! My haul from Sephora is a the bottom of the post so please make sure to take a look and please forgive my dry skin.. I know it doesn't compliment my nails. 

 

French Wrapped Christmas Present nails

I really am enjoying this look, its probably my simplest one to date and my first manicure where half of my nail was virtually colorless! I found the inspiration on a Google image search for holiday manicures and decided to make it my own. I started out the look with a coat of Snowflakes by Color Club to get a nice subtle shimmer as the base. I then used alternating Ho Ho Holly by Color Club and Bite Me by Klean Color for the tips and used Pearl Silver by Klean Color and Winter Wonderland by ORLY for the swirl of silver accent. 

Snowfall on Red Velvet

 I really love how these turned out! This is the first time I've really utilized the Matt Me Crazy by NCY and really allowed Bite Me by Klean Color to shine, well without a shine of course. I used my snowflake stamping plate with Lux by ORLY and little dots of Winter Wonderland by ORLY to add an accent of sparkle. Hope you guys love it!

Ribbon Candy manicure

Pinky: Peppermint; Ring finger: Cinnamon Chocolate; Middle finger: Lemon Lime; Index finger: Peppermint again; Thumb: Red-Hot Cinnamon

 I really enjoyed making this design and am actually quite proud of how it came out. I had originally planned to only do a striping design on 1 nail per hand in peppermint colors. After doing the base colors on each nail and striping the peppermint one I found that I really loved the way the striping came out! I started out going from pinky to thumb I used Winter Wonderland by ORLY with a coat of Snowflakes by Color Club over top and Blood Red by Klean Color hand striped on it. For my next finger I did several coats of Glitter Goblin by China Glaze with a coat of Snowflakes by Color Club over top and stripes of The Parking Meteor Expired by Spoiled and Winter Wonderland by ORLY. Next I did Ho Ho Holly with stripes of Lux by ORLY and Winter Wonderland by ORLY. I repeated the design on my pinky for my index finger. And finally for my thumb I did several coats of Glitter Goblin by China Glaze with a coat of Snowflakes by Color Club over top and stripes of Blood Red by Klean Color and Winter Wonderland by ORLY. 

I really hope you enjoy this manicure as I am quite proud of how it turned out and it may actually be my last artistic manicure for a while if my job hunt turns me toward waitressing as that will be taxing on my nails. So wish me luck!

Sugerplum Dreamscape manicure

 Well let me start with saying thank you to all that are still reading my lovely blog after my long hiatus. It has been really tough for me lately and while Ive been doing my nails I haven't really had the energy or oomph to post them. But now I'm back and it should be for good.

Now about this lovely manicure, I had quite a bit of trouble coming up with an idea and the only thing I really knew was that I wanted something with a bit of my as of yet unused Matt Me Crazy polish. So after much tinkering around with my art paper (I test all nail designs on art paper before ever painting my nails) I was using my dotting tool and accidentally made a firework type design on the paper with Christmas colors! It was then that my idea struck, and I began painting my nails. 
 I started out with 2 coats of Winter Wonderland by ORLY on each nail, completely covering my nails and when that had dried I applied Fast Dry topcoat by China Glaze to each nail. Then I carefully applied a nice amount of Liquid Leather by China Glaze from the middle of my nail to the tips being careful to keep the edges where the white and black meet nice and jagged to symbolize a horizon between snowy ground and dark sky and when that had dried I took my Matt Me Crazy polish and applied it only over the black. I then took my Bite Me by Klean Color and did a nice dot on each nail, following out in a firework like pattern with Lux by ORLY and finally Ho Ho Holly by Color Club.  Now unfortunately as the paper and my nails are quite differently sized canvases my pattern did not turn out quite as firework like as I would have hoped I am in love with my nails nonetheless :)

By the way what does everyone think about the pictures? I took these with my new phone that has a 5.0 megapixel camera :)

Max Factor Giveaway at Love Lies Pretty Things!!

http://liesllovesprettythings.blogspot.com/2012/11/merry-max-factor-giveaway.html?showComment=1354141846142#c1534910218396879421

I'm very sorry.

I have to apologize to you my lovely followers, I have been dealing a lot with my life lately and I have been too stressed out and too emotional over everything to do proper nail art that is worthy of showing to everyone. I am not giving up and I have a feeling that my next nail art design will be blog-worthy and I will post it here so that it can be enjoyed.

Thank you to everyone who is keeping up with me and I look forward to surprising everyone with my latest manicure!

Ja ne!

Golden Midnight manicure

 I really love how this mani turned out. I started out with my new favorite non shimmery polish Liquid Leather by China Glaze and then did a coat of Love Each Other by ORLY and finished off with Watch It Glitter at the tips. This has to have been my most simple manicure that I've done in a LONG time but I really love the end result!

Please forgive the chip wear on this one guys..I love how it came out and everything but it does have a fair bit of tip wear.

 

Autumn Sunset manicure

I really had fun with this look. I'll admit that they tree limbs could be thinner and now I have the new brushes that can allow me to achieve that. But in the meantime I really love the background color for this look. It was a fairly simply made gradient and yet I really enjoy the end result. I used from base to tip Winter Wonderland by ORLY, Torrid Shimmer by Sephora, Harvest Moon by China Glaze and finally Blood Red by Klean Color. I used Liquid leather for the trees and Luxe by ORLY for dotting on the leaves and Watch It Glitter by ORLY for the other leaves.

By the way oh lovely readers of mine, I really appreciate you guys that are still reading as I know I haven't been regularly posting as I should. Things have been rather stressful lately and I really haven't had the energy to post my art. Hopefully things will get better soon.

I'm still alive

I'm sorry for not posting lately everyone. I've been very much buried in work and the stress level has been at an all time high. I've been doing manicures as per usual but sadly haven't had the time to make a good quality post and don't want to just toss something together. I promise that in the next week il have a post or 2 to make up for the lost time.

 <3 to all who keep reading!!

Falling into Moonlight

 I am in love with this (my current) look, it was really fun to do and hides a cool little secret. I started out with 3 good coats of my loooovely Glow In The Dark polish by China Glaze after doing my base coat. Then I took my secret weapon polish that I hadn't had a chance to try yet Date in The Moonlight by Essence and painted a good thick bit at the base near my cuticle and painted it around halfway up the nail. I then took Winter Wonderland by ORLY and put a generous amount from the rest of the nail up and took my makeup brush and carefully brushed the colors up to create a faded gradient. When the colors had dried enough I took Love Each Other by ORLY and put a nice coating of it overtop the gradient. I then took my dotting tool with a brush at the other end and then carefully using combinations of Blood Red by Klean Color and Harvest Moon by China Glaze, Lux by Orly and Blood Red by Klean Color and Blood Red by Klean Color with Harvest Moon by China Glaze. It was very difficult to paint these leaves and I had to do a bit of googling to get them right but I am overall pretty happy with the results! I would have used my nicer camera to take the pictures but yet again my cell captures the colors the best, especially in combination with my lamp for my Kindle Touch 3g.

Snow Dragon

This manicure was one of my favorite looks that I've done so far. My only regret is that the photo's don't show the beautiful fade of colors that I worked on. I started out with Winter Wonderland by ORLY and did SEVERAL good coats of it because it was fairly translucent. Then I took Lux by ORLY and placed a couple of decent sized drops midway up the nail and did the same with a few drops of Winter Wonderland at the base and took a makeup brush and carefully brushed the colors forward to get a good gradient going. Once this was mostly dry I took Sheer Brilliance by Essie and did a good coating of it on my nails and then a good couple of coats (its so thin it takes a few) of Love Each Other by ORLY and finished off with my current favorite topcoat by China Glaze.

Wishing Well manicure

 I'm terribly sorry everyone for vanishing off of the face of the earth. I've been completely scatterbrained and while I've been doing nail art on the regular I have not had the focus to create art blog post for you lovely readers. I had quite a bit of fun with this sponged look, I tested out the technique of soaking your makeup sponge in water, wringing it out and then using it for sponging and found it did help with the sponge eating all the lacquer! I layered my polishes in a flame like pattern on the sponge starting from base to tip with: (my first non glittery polish I've bought since becoming a lacquerista) Liquid Leather by China Glaze, Watch It Glitter By ORLY (love this color, found a similar color by Essie but this was 1.50 less and had more polish!), finally Lux (not only my first ORLY color but my first gold polish) by ORLY. It took several coats of sponging to get an opaque look but I really love how it turned out. I then did a coat of my new favorite color that I plan to NEVER run out of (even though I hate the chosen name) Love Each Other by ORLY it looks like a bottle of rainbow moonstone!  Btw I apologize for the blur in the camera but at the time of the manicure I didn't have a working card reader for my normal camera so I used my cell and honestly, the cell caught the colors better in my opinion!

Also a side-note, I will be re-running my contest and revamping it a bit next week since I was unable to reach the winner. So stay tuned so you can have a chance to win and current entries will be allowed to be modified to be entered in this contest.

Possible solution to stamping woes

Well ladies I think I have a solution for detailed nail art and when you just can't find a stamp for the design you want. 

What you need:

• Something to pick up a pattern. One of the stampers from a kit is best but if you can find something around the house that'l pick up a pattern and transfer it then go for it!
• Your favorite nail polish
• a plastic baggie or small sheet of tinfoil
• your topcoat of choice
• a fine tipped brush or whichever brush you feel comfortable painting a design with.

 So lets say you want a detailed design but its hard to draw on your hands and its not in your stamping plate set or you just don't have one. What do you do?  Draw it yourself.

Draw the design you have in mind on a plastic baggie or small square of tinfoil carefully and then take your stamper or improv tool and press it against your design, check to be sure it is intact and place it on your nails! Now this may take trial and error and I'll admit this is based mostly on theory and research right now but I do plan to try it myself with my tutorial here and post my results. 

So please give this a shot and post your results! I'm really interested to see how this works for people!

We have a new look!

I would like to do a big thank you to a lovely person, Liz Reitz! Thank you so very much for your hard work on redoing the look for my blog. You have done an absolutely wonderful job and I couldn't be more in love with the new look. I know I'm a bit biased but I have to say that my blog is the best looking blog around :) *no offense whatsoever to all of you lovely bloggers out there, you are oftentimes my inspiration for making my blog the best and you have beautiful blogs, I'm just a bit partial to mine :)*


on a side-note please followers try and be patient as the changes are happening to my blog, things will vanish and be added as she continues her work making my blog more beautiful :)

Starry Mosaic Nail Contest Winner Announcement!!

So after much deliberating and reviewing the lovely entries to my first ever contest I am happy to announce Audrey Higginson has won a free bottle of nail polish 10$ value shipping included from Copius.com! Congratulations! I truly wish I could have picked more winners but sadly money is very tight right now so multiple prizes aren't in the budget. So Audrey please choose your prize from Copius and either post in the comment section below or message me and I will have your prize sent to you in 1-2wks. 

Please remember if I don't hear from you in 48hrs Audrey I will have to go to our second place winner and give them the prize, so please contact me asap!

Thank you so very much for entering everyone and I will have a new contest coming soon so please keep reading!

My journey to the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow

 This manicure was so much fun! At first I was desperately scouring the internet for inspiration trying to find something to paint that I would fall in love with.. When finally after looking at my colors I saw that I finally have a flawless rainbow so I thought what the heck? But to make it interesting I ended my rainbow with the perfect twist.  I started with Blood Red by Klean Color and then went to Harvest Moon by China Glaze, then Metallic Yellow by Klean Color, Agro by China Glaze, Up All Night by China Glaze, Deviantly Daring by China Glaze, No Plain Jane by China Glaze, Pearl Silver by Klean Color, Charcoal by Klean Color and finally my pot of gold Tart With A Heart by Butter London. Now to keep it interesting I sponged the transition of colors on each nail to make a seamless gradient like transition, and to make it more beautiful than just a clean line I took scissors to a makeup sponge and put grooves into the sponge to get a nice flickering line of color for the sponging. Then I finished my look off with my extra holo powdered Northern Lights top coat and Seche Ultra V. This was also my first time cleaning up my mani with q-tips and non acetone nail polish remover and I don't think I did half a bad job.

Bohemian Wonderland

 Well I really enjoyed this mani while it lasted.. but sadly I think that between my inspiration funk I've been in and my index finger that is infamous for being the first to chip.. this manicure didn't even survive a week. But no worries as I had fun making it! I used No Plain Jane by China Glaze as my base color which sadly took several coats to get full coverage but I still enjoyed the final color.. although I have to say this is probably the most feminine color I've worn so far. I then took Party All Night by China Glaze, Agro by China Glaze and Deviantly Daring by China Glaze to handpaint the flowers then took Stroke Of Brilliance by Essie and Tart With a Heart by Butter London on the tips at an angle. Please forgive the air bubbles guys.. my Seche Ultra V caused them.. Btw as some of you may wonder, why the name I felt that it reminded me of Alice in Wonderland because of the wimsy but Bohemian because of the colors, also hope you enjoy Captain America's cameo in this :)

I set fire to the rain! And painted my nails with it.

So laqueristas.. I've been in a creative slump lately and this was kind of an emergency mani. I used Bluey by Butter London as the base which let me tell you was NO EASY JOB! It took 3 coats to get it completely covered and it refused to dry! After nearly 2 hours under my UV Lamp it still wasn't even tacky! I don't know what caused it.. it wasn't even that hot out! Well after finally getting Bluey to dry I used Chunky Holo Poppy by Klean Color and my dotting tool to get little dots of my favorite to date holo jelly color, its beautiful little orange holographic bits of chunky glitter suspended in a orange transparent base, it shimmers like living flames. I tried to capture the color changing properties of the dots in my pics. Enjoy :)



So followers.. what do YOU do when you need an emergency mani (your current one flakes past repair) and inspiration is missing?

Contest reminder! Don't miss out on free nail polish!

So I have decided as I've seen more people becoming followers everyday so in order for more people to have a chance at this lovely prize I am extending this contest. And in light of that extension I want to give more people a chance to win this lovely giveaway.Please don't miss out! I will no longer be accepting entries as of midnight est on9/7/12 and will be announcing a winner 9/13/12 The winner will receive an email from me and if I do not receive a response in 48 hours I will go to the second place winner.

edit: fixed the date

This contest is officially closed, the winner will be announced on 9/13/12 so please keep an eye out for an email from me!

nailXchange: nailXchange's Big Purple Giveaway

 Saw a pretty amazing giveaway on a fellow blogger's blog and thought I would share it with you guys :)

nailXchange: nailXchange's Big Purple Giveaway: How about a giveaway for all my fellow purple freaks?! Yes?!  I'm sure some of you out there love purple everything as much as I do, right?...

Blue Moon Butterfly mani

This was so messy but so worth it! This was my first succssesfull watermarbeling! I made this beautiful look with the following colors Deviantly Daring by China Glaze, Bluey by Butter London, Up All Night by China Glaze with added holo powder, Agro by China Glaze with added holo powder and No Plain Jane by China Glaze. I also to add to the look used Stroke Of Brilliance by Essie at the tips and Tart With A Heart by Butter London overtop that and finally a healthy coat of Seche Ultra V. I really love the different swirls that I ended up with and after the cleanup the look turned out quite beautiful! Plus I finally had a reason to use my Tart With a Heart by Butter London! T

Blue Morpho butterfly wings mani

I had a lot of fun doing this look especially since it was my first time doing the butterfly wing design. I love the base color, it was my first time doing marbling with the polish already on my nails. I started out with one coat of China Glaze's Deviantly Daring and adding a drop of Party In The Penthouse by Nicole and Bluey by Butter London and used my dotting tool to marble the colors. I then did the lines with Charcoal by Klean Color and instead of white dots I used Stroke of Brilliance by Essie. Now when I completed the lines and accents I found that the lines didn't show so I used Chunky Holo Poppy to accent the lines and of course a generous helping of Seche Ultra V to finish off the rest!

Now confession time.. I wont say that this is my best look and it didn't really feel like it came out the exact way I wanted it and plan to try the monarch wing design again at a later time with some tweaks.

Firepower at my fingertips

 I had so much fun designing this look! I am truly proud of how it came out and it kinda represents how my life is right now. I started out sitting there and staring at polish completely unable to decide where to start. I couldn't decide what pattern and what look to go with, the only thing I could decide on was my colors. I knew I wanted something warm, fall like and full of color. I thought of doing the feather like look that's been a fad lately but it just didn't click for me. I finally decided on a gradient and trying to use a sponge to get my perfect look. Unfortunately the gradient was just missing something... it didn't have that fiery autumn feel. So I finally got an idea to cut and trim bits and pieces away and then painted the colors on. I started out with Charcoal by Klean Color and painted a layer of Blood Red by Klean Color and a layer of Metallic Orange by Klean Color and a layer of Harvest Moon by China Glaze and finally some Metallic Yellow at the tips, now the whole time I was building this in an arch and flame shape and finally the sponged look was these beautiful flames. Now I tried stamping some critters in the flames for symbolism.. such as a Salamander or a Hummingbird for flying or walking through flames but the stamps didn't like the sponged texture and just didn't fit. So I finally decided to try a coat of Chunky Holo Poppy by Klean Color and that REALLY made the flames roar! I am in love of this look! Now with all the sponging it took a few coats of Seche Ultra V to get the shine and smooth texture but I am truly in love with the final look. 

Now to finish off this post I have a question for my lovely followers.. when do you finally decide that its time to change your polish? Is it one big chip? Or is it when one whole nail of polish peels off? What is your final straw that makes you change it up?

Taken under LED light and while holding the main 3 polishes involved Harvest Moon by China Glaze, Blood Red by Klean Color and Chunky Holo Poppy by Klean Color

Added tips to Starry Mosaic~

 So as you all know I just got 2 lovely colors by Butter London yesterday Bluey and Tart With A Heart and I have been just ITCHING to try them out, especially since they were 14$ a bottle! So after much tinkering around with my stamping plates and a piece of art paper to test out possibilities before actually applying them to my manicure, I decided to just do a thin french tip on each nail with Bluey by Butter London. I adore the look, it provides a nice contrast to the holographic topcoat shimmering over the rest of the nail while the color works perfectly with the blue and silver shimmering mosaic pattern. So with no further ado here are some pictures

Also just a reminder I am still running that contest to win 1 free bottle of nail polish  please don't miss out!

My first Ulta visit and latest haul!

from left to right Tart With A Heart, Harvest Moon by China Glaze(got from Sally's) Bluey

 So I finally went to Ulta for a little treat and OH MY GOODNESS I have never been more overwhelmed with joy and excitement, especially in a store! Its crazy especially since I used to be a tomboy for the longest, if it wasn't for my obsession with hair, that led to eye makeup and finally my nails I would still be shying away from any feminine obsessions. I just couldn't believe the variety that they had at Ulta.. the brands, the makeup and nail polish.. it was just beautiful! I just wanted to buy it all! I was so tortured though when I found the Essie polishes.. since I had never had the joy of owning any Essie and I desperately wanted the infamous Shine Of The Times polish but sadly as the salesperson had explained to me they were out of most of their Essie polishes because of a shipment problem. I didn't let this setback get me down for long as soon as I drooled my way to the Butter London polishes and oh the JOY. I finally understand why all you lovely laquerista's shell out the big bucks for this lovely brand! I finally decided on Bluey and Tart With A Heart and they are gorgeous, especially layered together!

I also got as you can see some beautiful eye makeup by NYX that looks and feels gorgeous and didn't cost an arm and a leg! You can also see my beautiful stamping plates that I ordered off of Amazon combined with the ones that came with my set from Sally's. As a bonus you can see a lovely pic of this beautiful butterfly that allowed me to pick it up off the pavement outside and the picture shows my current lovely manicure :) 

Well keep painting readers and please don't forget my amazing little contest 

its an amazing way to get a free bottle of polish! 

More pics after the cut

Starry Mosaic nails and Stamping Tips! **Contest Inside** **1 week extension on contest!**

So this post is very picture heavy as you can see. I had quite a bit of fun with this design as it was my first time playing with stamping plates.  I used 2 good coats of Pearl Silver by Klean Color as a base color and then carefully stamped the starry pattern over my nails using Party All Night by China Glaze with holographic powder added in. Now my first tries with stamping came with quite a bit of issues, namely with the patterns made to fully cover the nail rather than those that are just one object. The patterns for full coverage were very difficult to get to come off of the stamping plate all in one piece let alone trying to get them on the nail all in one shot. So what I found worked was doing several placements using a technique similar to sponging to get the effect and get most of the stars intact. I really love the look as it reminds me of a mosaic of stars and the look became even more beautiful when I added my Northern Lights holographic topcoat as it truly gave the appearance of the nights sky. Now as you may also see in my pictures I decided to feature my Luke Skywalker's Force Effects Lightsabre as holding it just added a bit of nerd to my look. I just couldn't help myself as I am most definitely a nerd at heart! 

Also on a side-note in case anyone like myself has yet to have the opportunity to enjoy lovely stamping plates you can get a starter kit at your local Sally's Beauty for around 10$ and if your like me you will want more variety in the plate selection and you can find some real steals on Amazon for stamping plates under 15$1 I managed to get 25 plates and next day shipping for 14$ I can't wait for my other stamps as I'm hoping there will be one that allows me to do a snakeskin look or even some leaves for an Autumn style. 

Also I don't know if this is an across the board sale but you should definitely if you get the chance stop by Sally's Beauty for they're 50% all red sticker clearance sale. I managed to get a lovely color called Harvest Moon by China Glaze for $.70 (after my Sally's card discount). I swear I'm starting to realize there is only one thing to do with my addiction to nail art... feed it!

**On one more note I figured a Q & A would give me an opportunity to get to know my lovely followers so I have a question for you! What is the #1 thing that drives you to do new nail art? What inspires you lovely lacquerista's to create? What is your muse?

Please type your answers in the comment section below.**

And just to make things interesting the person who gives me the best, most thought out and interesting answer will win 1 bottle of nail polish (priced under 10$ including shipping) shipped directly to them! 

Here is the website that the winner will choose their prize from 

Choose your prize!

Please try to have 2nd or 3rd choices in mind as the color you choose may have already been sold out.

The winner will be chosen on 8/31/2012

So I have decided as I've seen more people becoming followers everyday so in order for more people to have a chance at this lovely prize I am extending this contest. I will no longer be accepting entries as of midnight est on 8/7/12 and will be announcing a winner 8/13/12 The winner will receive an email from me and if I do not receive a response in 48 hours I will go to the second place winner.

Thank you to all of my wonderful readers!

Thank you to all that keep up with A Touch Of Polish by Jennifer! We are finally at 800 views! I just can't wait til we have 800 followers! Lets make it happen!

Siren Song sponge gradient manicure

I am truly happy with this creation. I started out with Party All Night by China Glaze with holo powder as a base color. Then I took a makeup sponge and painted Agro by China Glaze on the sponge and sponged a fair coat in a stripe on my nails, then after doing enough coats to make sure the color was prominent I took Pearl Silver by Klean Color and sponged that onto the tip, finally I took Party All Night by China Glaze again and sponged that carefully on the base near the cuticle to blend the gradient. I really love the colors and how they contrast and blend.

Announcement!

     So it has been brought to my attention that some of my followers would like to make posts of they're own on my blog as a way to get the message out or just show off works that they're proud of. 

    So with much thought and consideration I've decided that having guest posts is a wonderful idea and I will try to have a guest post once a week. To keep things fun and to encourage more readers I will randomly select guest post ideas from my followers and they will earn the spotlight guest post of the week! Now if no guest posts are received I will send an invitation to one of my lucky followers to come up with a guest post and give them the opportunity for a spotlight. Now please don't feel that this is all about how lucky and fortunate you are to post in my blog, far from it I want your feedback and would love not only the opportunity to collaborate with other artists by having them post a guest post in my blog but also to give people a chance to be appreciated in they're own spotlight!
 In order to submit your guest post ideas please either post a comment with a link or the text to the post and I will turn it into your very own blog post on my blog!

My Entire Collection (so far!)

This is my entire nail polish and topcoat collection thus far, some of these polishes are over 10 years old! I have polishes that are Revlon, Sally Henson, Klean Color, Magnetic Polish by Sally Henson and by China Glaze, Del Sol, Nicole by OPI and a few others that the labels have long since worn off. Its pretty amazing to think that my collection was half this size a couple months ago!

A well rounded update

current length, please forgive the pj's

      Well first off, just wanted to throw a thank you out to all that have stopped by my little corner to view my posts and to those that have joined! 

Also wanted to recommend 2 little goodies that I have tried recently that just make you feel like you've died and gone to the spa!

My Honey Facial Recipe

    Well as I promised in my blog description I love to share homeopathic tips and here are some great DIY ways to have amazingly soft skin and a few that are store bought but still amazing!
So for amazingly soft skin I have found the first start is to clean up and get back to basics, with a Honey Facial. This facial is amazing for deep cleaning of your pores as well as moisturizing, it helps with people that have issues with blemishes and the rosemary and peppermint leaves help to invigorate the skin and give your skin a healthy glow.

Jeweled Forest gradient manicure

  I had so much fun with this beautiful look. Its simplistic and yet so pretty, especially with the holographic powder in the colors. As you can see I did 2 different gradients on my nails here. For the green I used Charcoal by Klean Color at the base and Agro by China Glaze with holo powder next and finally at the tips Holo Green by Klean Color. Now for the purplish blue nails I used Up All Night by China Glaze with holo powder for the bottom and next Latticed Lilac Crackle by China Glaze for the middle and finally Midnight Seduction holo by Klean Color for the tips and finally Seche Ultra-V for the topcoat. I used a simple slightly fanned makeup brush to apply the gradient as it has made it much easier than my actual nail art blushes to get an even coat of the colors.

Neverending Rainbow manicure

 This has to be one of my most favorite things Ive done with nail art since I began to truly dive into the field. The steps to create this beautiful look were actually pretty ingenious if I do say so myself. I started out with one color of the rainbow covering each nail so that my hands themselves made a rainbow. I then took the color that followed the base color of the nail in the sequence and painted a layer on that to make a new stripe and did so for each nail and continued to get the results in these pictures. I am truly proud of the beautiful design and may try it again in the near future. If I do then I will most likely use my nail art brushes to really make more artful stripes on the nails. Please forgive the mess on the edges, the pictures that were pre-cleanup came out neater and expressed the colors more beautifully. Here is a list of the colors I used: a Burgundy of my own making, Metallic Orange by Klean Color, Dessert by Klean Color, a Jade Green I created, Superhero by Del Sol (with a bit of my own modifications), a Smoky Lilac that I created and finally Party In The Penthouse by Nicole and Northern Lights holographic Topcoat

Dragon Scales manicure

 Iridescent dragon scales, done manually with small nail brush and regular brush. This was my first attempt and pics were taken with a cell phone  Colors are Klean Color's Charcoal for the base with Pearl Silver, Metallic Yellow, Metallic Orange and Melon Green for the scales and Northern Lights holographic topcoat. For any interested in how I achieved this look, I simply did little crescent moons that aimed away from the cuticle and resembled scales and simply layered them as much as I could without ruining the colors.

Mystical Swirls manicure

 This was done with Charcoal by Klean Color as the base and Party In The Penthouse by Nicole for the main bit of the swirls and Metallic Green by Klean Color for the accent and Northern Lights holographic topcoat. This was an early experimentation with nail art for me but I truly love its colors and the way it shimmered in the light.

Silver, Gold and Black Koi Fish nails

 This was my first attempt with nail design brushes and my first use of Seche UV topcoat. The colors used: for the water I used a color by Nicole called Party in the Penthouse (if I recall correctly) and a color of my own design I call Bermuda Blue that has Del Sol qualities and turns lavender in sunlight. For the fish Metallic Yellow by Klean Color, Pearl Silver by Klean Kolor and Charcoal by Klean Color. Please forgive the picture quality as I used my Sony Cybershot for several of them and they came out blurrier than I would like where the Cell pics came out great.

Grayscale Sunset nails

I did this little beauty last week but as it is a favorite of mine I figured I would give it some blogging spotlight. It was done with fan brush technique using a makeup brush. The colors that I used are Pearl Silver and Charcoal by Klean Color and using Northern Lights holographic topcoat. This is one of my favorites and I love the simplicity of the black to silver gradient, its so beautiful it makes me wish that the movies hadn't ruined the word Twilight or else it would be a perfect word to describe this manicure.

Thank You

    Wow I just want to thank all of the viewers who have looked at my little corner of the internet!

                   I can't believe the reception that I've had with my first blog! I truly promise to make it worthwhile to all of you that take the time to keep viewing my bit of paradise. I plan to not only post bits of nail art, tutorials and the like but also organic recipes for you to try that are perfect for low budget households. I will also be posting bits of photography, artwork and whatever bits of crazy that enter my head. I hope that you will all join the Diamonds in The Rough and take a seat and enjoy.

Again, Thank you everyone for stopping by, for in the trying times that are today you have made my day!

My Fanfic Obsession of The Day

Metamorphosis by King Baka (link to the rest of this wonderful story at the end of the post) 

****WARNING THIS FANFICTION DOES HAVE ADULT CONTENT IN OTHER CHAPTERS***


Disclaimer: I don’t own Inuyasha or any of the publicly known characters, plot, etc.  I’m just renting them from Rumiko Takahashi, Viz, etc.   I do own the plot of this story and any original characters I’ve created.  I will make no money from this fic; I write for my own enjoyment and the enjoyment of my readers.  This disclaimer applies to all the chapters in this fic, though I will probably post abridged versions in every chapter. 


Fanfiction of the Week:  Chronicles, by Sueric. 
Just finished rereading this one, and I don’t know how it happened, but somewhere in between my first read and now I forgot just how amazing this story is.  If not my favorite fanfic ever, definitely top three.  You name it, this story has it.  Action, drama, adventure, romance, topped off with just the right amount of angst.  And Sueric writes the most beautiful lemons I’ve ever seen (though you have to wait a long time to get them…but trust me it’s worth it).  A must-read for any Inuyasha fan; just don’t expect to get it done in one (or four) sittings! 


A/N – well here it is, the beginning of the story I’ve been looking forward to writing since I first contemplated writing fanfiction.  This might not turn out to be the best fanfiction with the title Metamorphosis—that distinction probably belongs to Sueric—but it was the title I liked the best.  This story takes place sometime between episode 151 (Kagome’s Innate Choice) and the end of the anime.  I thought about diverging from the later manga chapters, but there are certain things I want to do with this story that make this impossible.  Now, on with the show!
**Important 2010 Update

My Fukai Mori (deep forest) nails

         
           To create my Fukai Mori (deep forest) gradient I used Agro with Silver Rush holo powder by China glaze for the bulk of the nail and Charcoal by Klean Color at the base of the nail and with Holo Green by Klean Color at the tips to make this gradient. I call it Fukai Mori or deep forest after a beautiful Japanese song by Do as Infinity that is used in the anime Inuyasha and is a personal favorite of mine. I picked the name because the gradient resembles the deep greens of a forest with hints of sunlight sparkling through and exposing the hidden beauty that is nature. This is most certainly my most favorite nail art I've done so far with my new brushes and colors. Here are some pictures of Fukai Mori some are pre-cleanup and others are after. Please forgive the poses as the color is so dark that only a few lights show it and I had to use my Kindle light to catch the beauty.