My friend Rena's nails

Rena was my roommate sophomore year.

That was a very fun year.

Rena is amazing.

On an unrelated note, Rena lets me paint her nails for fun and practice!

This post is dedicated to Rena. :)

One day, Rena came over to watch TV and just hang out.  Unsurprisingly, I hijacked her hands and she let me go to town and paint whatever I wanted!  I gave her a blue ombre manicure, and I think it turned out very well! These shades transition very nicely together.

I used, left to right:
OPI What's with the cattitude?
OPI No room for the blues
OPI Suzi says Feng Shui
Barry M Cobalt Blue
Maybelline Denim Dash

The paler hand is mine. 

This manicure was definitely a success. It is simple ans subtle, but still striking and attention-catching.  In fact, Rena told me some of her male friends even commented on it! To me, that means it must be something really special, if they noticed it.

We had fun after this manicure!  The nail polish drying dance:

A few weeks later, Rena asked me to paint her nails with a running theme, since she is an avid runner.  She has a fantastic blog over at http://milehogger.blogspot.com/ and her posts are always so much fun to read! She makes me wish I could run.

On her thumb, a replica of her actual running shoe.

On her other fingers, from left to right, a gold medal (made with striping tape), her Garmin GPS, a galaxy nail (her choice), and her specific water bottle.  I'm sure she will remind me of all the acutal names for these things, because I forget them.  My brain is busy speaking polish-speak, about dupes and CPs and layering and holos... no room left for running vocab.

 The ring I love:

 Posing like a nail blogger:

 All ten nails:

So, Rena, when can I paint your nails again?

This has been a public service announcement, reminding all us polish-aholics to remember about all the potential nail art canvases on our friends hands! :)

Maria

Halloween prep

Hello all,

Happy Halloween!! Yeah, I'm a little bit early, but I've always been very enthusiastic about holidays.  I like extra reasons to be happy.

Today's manicure wouldn't be possible without the glorious franken, Pumpkin Patch, that I bought from the wonderful blog My Nail Graffiti.  Her husband made these four frankens!! I bought Pumpkin Patch and Magic Dust, for $3 each, what a deal!

Since I am so fond of orange, and it is Halloween-time, I used Pumpkin Patch first.

It was very close to opaque in just one coat, and you could probably be ok with one if it were a thick coat.  I did two thin coats for these pictures.  And - guess what - these pictures are after four days! There's hardly any tip wear! Color me impressed.

The is the cute bottle: 

And a close up:

 

Notice not only the various sizes of green glitter, but also the gold microshimmer! How unique! I can easily say there is nothing else like it in my collection.  It is so interesting (in a good way) and I loved looking at it.  

Plus, did you notice I got a new camera? I'm still working on figuring out macro settings, but I can definitely see an improvement!

Pumpkin Patch, indirect sunlight, after FOUR days of wear:

 

*lalalalala I don't see that unevenly short nubbin lalala*

I had intended to do nail art on these on the second day, but I came down with a very bad cold. 

Using Barry M Spring Green, Finger Paints Cordur-orange, and a pumpkin-shaped glow-in-the-dark neon orange: (woops I think I had left it on macro, heh)

Here's what I put on today:

Cute, eh? A cross between preppy plaid and Halloween.  The green stripes, freehanded, really bring out the green glitter.  And the jack-o-lantern (awkwardly on my middle finger since it is still short) glows in the dark!

What do you think?

 

Maria