Layering Fun

            Well, today was the first day of work, and it was kind of a disaster. LOL. First, I woke up like fifteen minutes before I was actually supposed to be there...thankfully, the place was only around the corner from my dorm, so I wasn't late. But the person who hired me forgot I was coming, and he was like twenty minutes late. I totally rushed for no reason. Then, they didn't have anything for me to do...I ran one errand which took about ten minutes, and then I sat at the reception desk and studied for the next three hours.  A bunch of my professors came in and were just looking at me like, hey you girl who never answers questions in class...da hell you doing here? O_o.  So I awkwardly had to explain that I work there now...apparently, no one mentioned it to anyone. Then when my time was up, I left the office, only to be greeted by the second coming of Noah's flood. So my hair currently looks a mess, and I don't think my flats are going to make it. At least my nails were looking fierce through it all. But the weather was crazy, so the pictures suck. I got like twenty minutes of sunlight (fifteen of which were spent fighting with my camera) and then it was cloudy/rainy for the rest of the day.

This is:

1 coat of Color Club Groove Thang

1 coat of Zoya Charla

1 coat of Sinful Colors Nail Junkie

1 coat of Nfu-Oh 52

Sunlight, no flash.

Sorry for the tip wear..it's been a few days. 

Natural light, no flash.

Natural light, with gentle flash.

This one is kind of blurry, but I like it because it brings out more of the green that I see most of the time on my nail. 

Natural light, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Why yes, that is a chip. I have a bunch more on my right hand...I'm not sure who to blame, because these polishes have always been good to me. Maybe they just don't like one another.

Natural light, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

My inspiration for this was like...an underwater cave. Like this:

     Ahh I love this! It definitely took the best of each of the polishes I used to create it...the darkness of Groove Thang, the foil-y quality from Charla, the coppery/gold glitter from Nail Junkie, and the duochrome flakes of the Nfu-Oh. Everything shows the perfect amount, and it just looks so good, if I do say so myself. I especially love the gold glitter peeking through, and the duochrome flakes. The gold doesn't show in the pictures, but it looks awesome...like treasure. And the flakes give the polish a greenish-cast most of the time...it looks more like dragon hide than an underwater cave, which is okay because I love dragons. But when I tilt my hand a certain way, the flakies are blue, and I get my cave. I'm so mad that my pictures suck today...of all days. x_X

    But the good news is that the search is officially on for a new camera...I still can't afford one, but when I can, I want to be ready. Do you have any suggestions? I'm thinking a Canon, Panasonic, or Sony. Kodak is open too...my current one is a Kodak, and it's served me really well. Now, it's an ancient POS, but when it was still young, it was so wonderful...such beautiful pictures it made. But I feel like I want to try something new. My last camera was a Kodak too, so maybe it's time to branch out? Bleh, idk. What do you guys think?

But that's all I've got for today. Have a lovely night! 

ETA: Wait no, I lied. I got moah. Breast Cancer Awareness month is almost over, and the Breast Cancer Site is still a far way from reaching their goal of 500 mammograms! Please click that link at the top of the page and help them out? It only takes a second, doesn't cost a dime, and this month, your click is doubled. Thanks!!

Orly Galaxy Girl + Fauxnad

            Instead of removing Galaxy Girl yesterday night, I opted to do some stamping over it. There was no real reason...I just feel like I have a ton of nail art stuff and I never use any of it. So here's me trying to use some of this stuff. LOL. Also, the weather was so freaking blah today....it was raining rats and frogs all day, until the evening, when it suddenly stopped. So please excuse the blurry pitchas. 

I started off by stamping on the full nail ivy pattern from plate BM20, using China Glaze Let's Groove. Then, I used Color Club Pretty in Platinum to stamp on the like...flower string at the cuticle. That pattern came from a plate called B14. There's no brand name, but I got it from Hong Kong, and it looks like this:

I miss those nails.

But anyway, to finish it off, I stuck a purple gem in the center of each flower, and finished it off with one layer of Poshe.

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

The duochrominess kind of blends in with Let's Groove, which is unfortunate. 

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

      I'm quite fond of how this turned out. It does look kind of like Beetlejuice, but I feel like many of my attempts at nail art come out looking like Beetlejuice. I guess it can't be helped, and at least it's not ooglay. I think once more, my favorite part is the background. The color and pattern are very subtle, and I like how the blue shimmer peeks through the empty spaces. It's also a little optical illusion-ish, like you don't know which color is the base and which is the stamp. Me gusta.

  And that's all I've got for today. Have a great evening, guys!

KoFauxnad + New Children!

            I have only a quick post today, because I have a test tomorrow and I am soo not prepared. I've been studying, but I feel like I know nuftin. LOL.  So first, I'm gonna show my NOTD, and then I'm gonna show the goodies that Jesus, USPS, and Fed Ex collectively dropped upon my doorstep today. And then I'm gonna go run, study, and pray a little. 


  So first, the slight ooglayness:

Yesterday, I didn't have time to do a whole color change, so I just did a quick konad + fauxnad (kofauxnad?) job over Emerald Sparkle. First, I stamped on a full nail floral pattern from BM16, using Nubar Conserve. It looked really good at that point, and I should have left it alone, but noo...not I. So I used China Glaze Robotika to stamp more flowers from Konad S9 at the tip.

Sunlight, no flash.

The little girl from S9 also came out to play. And so did a little bow-shaped gem that I go from Rite Aid. I don't remember the company though.

Sunlight, no flash,

Detail on ring finger.

I stamped her on with Color Club Pretty in Platinum. 

     I kind of like how this came out. The background was my favorite part, and the flower tips were my least. It probably would have looked better on some longer nails...on my little ones, it just looks cramped. Or what would have worked better is if I started the flowers closer to the edge. Whatever though. It wasn't really ooglay, so I'm happy. 

   And any unhappiness I may have felt was washed away at the sight of the emails from the package depot. Look what finally came!

Ahhhhhhh!!!! *swoons*

I do have to say that I'm getting a touch of cold feet about Mash...it's more brown than I expected. I'm just hoping that enough gold comes out to where it doesn't look crazy on me. And Zulu looks like perfection. 

And this is a minor complaint, but sheesh Nars. Tree killers much? They use so much unnecessary packaging...there was like a booklet in each box of polish that had some advertisement about their topcoat and basecoat. And they had the nerve to print that little advertisement in every language known to man (I'm pretty sure they had heiroglyphics and cuneiform too), so the booklet is huge for no reason. And then there was a random square of paper with some quote from Francois Nars about makeup. Okay, whatever, I don't even wear makeup like that, soo....why did I need this? They could have printed it on the box if it was that important. I'm ranting now, but seriously...unnecessary packaging just gets on my nerves. 

And then my swap came in!

Ahhhhhh!!! *swoons again* I had to give up two of my children for this little guy (girl?) but it was worth it!

So pretty! I took these in the dying light of the evening, so it doesn't look all the way right, but in person, it's super spectacular. Love!

And a big shoutout to Steph from Imperfectly Painted for encouraging me to find someone to swap with, because truth be told, I had kind of given up on this one.

What is that noise, you ask?

Ohhoho...tis the death rattle of lemmings. Such a magnificent sound, no? ^_^

Happy Nails for a Sad Day

          Yes indeed...this is a sad day. It marks the one year anniversary of Michael Jackson's untimely death, which as far as I'm concerned, is a sad. It's true that he sometimes acted in bizarre ways and had some personal issues, but nobody can deny the incredible talent he possessed or his huge influence over music and dance. There are so many modern musicians who have built entire careers off of MJ's stuff. I'm looking at you, Usher. At you, Ciara. And at all of you, Chris Brown, Justin Timberlake, Beyonce, Ne-Yo. And for decades to come, people will still be gathering inspiration from what he left behind in this world. 
      I personally owe MJ a debt of gratitude, because when I was a little kid visiting relatives in Nigeria, he saved me from going outside, laying in the main road, and waiting for a car to run me over. That's how damn bored I was. We had been there for two months. There was one more month to go, and I was getting to the end of my rope.  I had exhausted every book I brought with me. I colored in all my coloring books, traced the pictures on fresh paper, and then colored those too. I played Ludo and cards until I wanted to die. I chased my grandparents' goats and chickens until my mom made me stop. The only thing that still held my attention was a collection of Michael Jackson videos on VHS. I watched that tape over and over again, and I thankfully never got tired of it.  That tape legitimately saved my life,  and if not that, then it certainly saved my sanity.
       I don't have any nice Michael Jackson themed nails today, but it wasn't for lack of trying. The stuff I attempted came out ugly, and I didn't have the right materials to execute some of my other ideas. I do have errands to run today, so I had no time to keep on trying, and settled for a sucky konadicure. Here it is:

I started off with three coats of Milani Hi-Res. First, I used Color Club Groove Thang to stamp the floral full nail pattern (the one with the stems) from Bundlemonster plate BM16. Then I put on the white leaf flower things from Konad plate M20, using Wet n Wild French White Creme.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

     I don't really think this is sucky. It just wasn't what I wanted. But objectively, I like how this looks, especially because I've never tried any like...layered stamping before. I would have liked to go a little further with it too, but I didn't know what else to do, and was too scared to try any more experimenting. Maybe I'll try more later, when there's more time. 

    But at the moment, I've got to poof,  so I'm just going to finish this by posting my five favorite MJ videos. 

And of course,

Bow in the presence of greatness, ya'll.

RIP, Michael!

Orly Star of Bombay + Fauxnad

           Yay, it's Friday!!
           .....is what I should be saying. Unfortunately, I am saying no such thing because in my quest for summer employment, I lazily went through the city-run agency that places students with employers. Today, they're making me come in (for the third time in as many days) and get "counseling" about how to conduct myself in a professional environment and how to manage my credit. So I get to go to spend my Friday afternoon in a sweltering, noisy, and messy office being lectured about things that I already know about. I kind of want to just not work with them, but a bird in the hand is better than two in the bush and all that jazz. Since I woke up in a bad mood thanks to these people, I wanted to wear something dark on my nails and chose Orly Star of Bombay, from the Gems Collection.

Star of Bombay is a deep, jewel-toned, shimmery, navy blue. Like, if you've ever seen one of those borderline black sapphires, it looks like those.

Like this. 

Sunlight, no flash. The picture is washed out, but the color is accurate. 

Natural light, no flash.

Natural light, flash.

     I really like Star of Bombay. It's all deep, dark and mysterious, and bright sunlight really catches the shimmer and makes it glow from the inside. I admit that indoors, it could be mistaken for black, but if you look closely, you can still see that it's blue. Looking at it makes me think of the ocean at night.

    The application and formula were really nice too. The pictures are with two coats of color and one layer of topcoat. The coats applied really smoothly and easily, and full opacity could actually be achieved in one thick coat. I only used two because I wanted something to do besides think of this afternoon. 

After painting my nails and a few episodes of Reno911!, I felt a little better. It really doesn't take much to improve my mood. Since I was happier, I didn't feel like wearing a funeral on my nails anymore. But I didn't want to take Star of Bombay off, because that would be such a waste. So I fauxnaded over it. I wanted to use Orly Snowcone...I love the look of konads with dark and light shades from the same color family. But I don't have Orly Snowcone, so that wasn't going to be possible. I ended up using Color Club Revvvolution instead, and I think that turned out pretty well. 

I used the floral pattern from BM20. Because it's skinny and small, and my thumb nail plate is wide, I had to like...quadruple stamp it to get all the corners and edges.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash. Sorry for the dry cuticle corners.

    I like this look. It's really simple, but the holo makes it more interesting. And it reminds me of one of those old couches that you always find in nursing homes. And best of all, they're Ravenclaw colors!! When I was in the Harry Potter club in high school, I got placed in Ravenclaw and we had so much fun. We did nerdy things, like spending Friday night eating and watching the whole DVD set of Planet Earth , but we surely had fun. I'm not into Harry Potter anymore...I didn't even read the last book and am not remotely interested in watching the latest movies. But I will always look back on my Ravenclaw days with fondness.

   Okay, I'm off to my awesome counseling sesh. I hope everyone else enjoys their Friday afternoons more than I will!  :)

Color Club Swatches

           I was looking through past posts, checking for typos (I hate typos), when I realized that I do not have any Color Club pictures on this thingy. That's really sad, because I love all my Color Clubs. I've worn some of them too. I guess I just neglected to take pictures. But today, that all ends. And in the interests of space, I omitted the whole hand pictures. 


First up is Tru Passion, from the Glitter Vixen Collection. 

Tru Passion is a lavender round glitter in a clear base. There are also a few holo glitter pieces sprinkled around in there, although they're not visible in the pictures. In real life, you can see it. Actually..if you look at the top of the nail, you can see a couple. It's showing blue. 

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

  I only have one thing to say about Tru Passion: *_*

  Okay, that's not it. But from the first second I saw Tru Passion, it touched my soul, son. So freaking sparkleh!! And even though I tend to prefer deeper purples, I actually do like the pale purple of Tru Passion. Getting it to be this opaque was kind of hard though. This is with four thick coats. And I dabbed the polish, swirled the brush and did everythang...it still took a long time to be opaque. But I don't care. Finally, it dried nice and smooth, so I only needed one layer of topcoat to enhance the shine. 

More goodies after the jump!