UPCOMING: Bridal Nails!

Given the amount of friends I have with impending nuptials (okay, just two, but that's way more than usual) I want to do a whole post on nail options for brides. Ranging from subtle twists on the french manicure to ones full of sparkle to ones that are a little more edgy and funky. I'll make sure to incorporate nails with and without stamps to accommodate those who are stamp-challenged (meaning those who do not own any) but I will also try to post a link to where you can buy each stamp I use.

To whet your appetite; here is a video (that I did not make...) with an wedding nails tutorial.

These are done by a youtuber who goes by cutepolish. I recommend checking out her tutorials. Because they are absolutely awesome. And adorable. Most are also doable even for the artistically challenged, although the final result looks as though it were extremely difficult. Thank you Shreya for sending me one of her links!

Special Easter nails!

Happy Easter everyone! Despite the severe allergies I had this weekend, this Easter was probably one of the best of my life. I felt spiritually and emotionally fulfilled. I actually was much more moved by the Good Friday service than the one on Easter Sunday, although the Sunday service was nice too.

The youth of our church ran the service for Good Friday, and I cannot even begin to describe just how fantastic it was. It involved our youth choir, our youth dance team, along with some heartfelt monologues from the persppective of various people who interacted with Jesus on his last days. Witnesses to the trial, a Roman soldier and a carpenter are the few I remember. I wish there were a video because I wish I could share it's powerful message with other people who would be interested. I do not consider myself to be the more religious person and only recently have found myself reconsidering the idea of having faith in a God, but this service made me cry. I even found myself able to answer a tricky religious question I had been asked a few weeks previously. A friend of mine asked me why we mourn the death of Christ, as it should be a happy thing since we believe he sacrifices himself for his sins. I had never questioned that, since it always made sense to me, as we, mortals that we are, always mourn death in some way. But she had a point and I puzzled over it for the next few weeks. After seeing this service, it clicked for me. We are not exactly "mourning" his death as we do know it had to happen. Instead we are "sad" in order to appreciate the magnitude of the gift of sacrificing your own life. That sadness is the only tool we can use to try to understand just how awesome that sacrifice was.

Sunday's service was fine; a typical service in a more formal setting. The best part was the childen's moment. Not only was there this little girl who was, as my dad would say, a "ringer." At every question that was asked of the children, her hand shot up and she would give a remarkable adult and throurough answer to the question. For example, the question as posed, "Do you guys know what happened on Friday?" Had I been sitting up there, my answer would have been, "Jesus died." Techinically correct but this little girl immediately answered, "Christ sacrificed his life on the cross to save all of us." This girl cannot be more than 5 or 6. Amazing. 

Anyway, the part I am sure most of you are much more interested in, the nails I did!

I recently acquired an Anne Klein white suit at a thrift store for $12 along with a funky pair of bright blue pumps. Given my love of hats and knowing that hats for women on Easter is traditional, I of course had to wear a hat with a ribbon that perfectly matched my shoes. 

The nails I did had to at least compliment that blue, but I also wanted to incorporate yellow, the nail polish color that is the absolute bane of my existence, especially if I want to stamp. Usually yellows are not opaque enough to stamp. To make matters worse, I had the perfect blue, but it only in one of those striper bottles. I painted my nails 4 different times before I figured out a design that incorporated everything I wanted. Some of the yellows couldn't stamp or wouldn't dry quickly enough for me and one of the stamps was difficult to stamp without smudging.

There is no such thing as too many colors in a manicure!

However, I was pleased with the final result. I love the faux-randomness of the little daisies; while I did use a stamp, it almost looks like I painted each one individually. I'm a sucker for french tips in colors instead of nudes and whites, and I'm a sucker for a small stripe below the main line of painted tip. This has two colors of lines AND a bright base color! I even managed to incorporate the striper, the perfect blue to match my shoes and the ribbon on my hat.

I cannot rave enough about how well the Sally Hansen Insta-Dry colors stamp. They are available in every drug store I've ever been to, along with Walmart and Target. The fact that these colors are supposed to be perfect with one coat means they are guaranteed to have the perfect opacity and fast-dry formula for stamping. Plus, since the brush is so wide (in order to allow you to theoretically do each nail with one stroke), you usually can cover the entire design on the stamping paint in one coat which helps tremendously in increasing the amount of time that the paint will be wet enough to stamp. Even the yellow stamps well, as you can see. YELLOW! Veteran nail painters understand just how amazing that fact is.

If only there would have been a digital version of the service I could share with my friends who were not there, this would have been the perfect Easter. But as it is, it was pretty darn good.

Denim nails

I love, love, love, love, love these. Of course I need to improve my photo skills as usual. But eh, life goes on. 

I had bought a few different blue colors at one of CVS's semi-annual sales (that they don't advertise) where random make-up and nail polishes are on sale for 50% and 75% off. They reminded me sooo much of denim, since they were blues with a sort of warm gray undertone if that makes any sense. Thus I had to create denim nails!

Cute little white stitching! Gold is more classic on jeans, but all the colors I had looked  bad as stitching.

Not as cute pocket stitching. But you can see my attempts at using gold.

Figuring out the right colors took a lot of tries, so despite how easy they were to actually do, the whole process took a long time. However, once I finished the decisions on color it went rather quickly. Sometimes I make a gradient on my nails, and ideally I like to use makeup sponges. But disorganized as I am, I often end up using cheap socks that don't fit as they can be found in abundance on my floor. When I am doing a usual gradient, this means I need to be very careful not to let the knitted pattern on the socks show. But in this case, that pattern was exactly what I needed!

That blue on the end, such an amazing color.

I "stamped" about 3 different colors onto my nails, a China Glaze navy called First Mate, and two of those warm Revlon blues. A light and a dark, called Chic and Fashionista, respectively.