Winstonia Store Nail Foils Review

I have another review to share with you all today! I also received some nail foil from the Winstonia Store to try out and it is so fun! I have wanted to try nail foils for months now and have contemplated so many times just going for it and buying a bunch of colors. 

These foils are #17 from here and I also received some nail glue (which I believe you need to make these foils stick) which is free when you purchase 3D nail art supplies to the end of the month. It took me a few practice trial runs to actually figure a good technique to make these work, but in the end I really like how they turned out. 

To apply these, I cut the foil into small rectangles big enough to cover my entire nail. Look how pretty the foil is by itself! There is a TON of it too, so you won't feel like you're wasting anything. 

I initially tried applying the nail clue with the brush that came with the glue, but was failing miserably when I went to apply the foil. It wouldn't stick and I was getting super frustrated. I realized that the trick to making the foil stick lies with the glue being basically dry and tacky. I ended up applying the glue with a different brush which allowed me to paint a super thin coat of the glue that dried fast (and stays tacky). I think placed the foil over the glue and used a damp Q-tip to rub the foil over my entire nail. You can use your finger or an orange stick for this step, but I really liked using a Q-tip. If the glue has dried enough, the foil will transfer with ease and you'll be able to have a uniform look. 

If you do pull the foil up and it's not perfect, don't worry! Just reapply some more glue over the spot, let it dry, and replace some new foil. Once you find the right combo of glue thickness and wait time, you'll have success :) 

One thing I should mention, I used a fast dry top coat over these, which as you can see, wrinkles the foils - a look I happen to really like. If you want a smooth foil application, use a regular top coat or clear coat so that it doesn't shrink and cause crinkling. 

Has anyone else tried nail foils? How did the application go for you? If you'd like to try some nail foils yourself, use the code WONDROUSLY to receive 10% off of these :) You can find them here!

Happy Polishing :)

31 Day Nail Art Challenge - Day 14: Flowers

So I've failed yet again at posting on time for this challenge :/ If anyone is waiting with bated breath every Tuesday and Friday...well, I'm sorry I'm always late! haha I actually had this manicure painted and photographed late last night but I had some misgivings about posting them. I decided to sleep on it and after looking back over my photos, I decided to use these as my flower nails!

What were my hesitations, you ask? Well, I was putting a ridiculous amount of pressure on myself for today's mani. I feel like on the whole I am relatively good at doing floral manicures but that has become a bit of a double edged sword! I feel like I've got to outdo myself every time I do florals and I've managed to let it stress me out - sad right!? ;) Please tell me I'm not the only one who is crazy and does this to themselves!? 

I was also a bit hesitant about using this design for my flower look because I don't think they are immediately recognizable as flowers. They are very abstract and more of a sketched and messy look (Meghan and I were totally on the same brain wave with our flowers!) and I thought that maybe I should stick with a more realistic look. In the end, though, I'm really happy with this mani. 

I just got all the cremes from the OPI San Francisco collection and was itching to use them! I started out with a base of Skull and Glossbones and added a top coat (I like doing this because it lets me easily remove errors with acetone). With First Date at the Golden Gate, I painted the red flower petals, followed by In the Cable Car-Pool Lane with the smaller purple petals. The leaves are several messy lines of A-Piers to be Tan and then with a tiny tiny detail brush and black acrylic paint, I did all my outlining. I didn't worry too much about how clean my line-work was or if I painted outside the lines because I wanted the messy, sketched look. 

What do you think of these? Do you prefer realistic flowers or more artsy looking flowers? 

Happy Polishing! :)

An InLinkz Link-up

Heart Skull

Illustrator, Joanna Carrero apparently loves(hearts) skulls as much as we do. Enough to give her heart design it's own set of skulls. A beautiful design combining the symbols of life and death into one.  A lovely idea at that.  Thanks for sharing it, Joanna!

Acrylic DJ Skull

This skull has got the party jumpin' with vibrancy and energy. Eliza Monks of Bridgeport, CT is raising the volume on our site by a few levels with this acrylic painting that explodes with movement.  Now, DJ Skull commands you to pump up whatever jam you're listening to and give a huge shout out to Eliza.  Thanks for sharing!

Lucy's Stash Guest Post

I'm so excited to share that the lovely Lucy over at Lucy's Stash asked me to do a guest blog post for her while she was on holiday for a few weeks - and of course of said yes! I feel so incredibly honored to have been asked...but it made me stress about producing something worthy of being posted on her blog! 

I ended up creating what I've seen called a "knit sweater" pattern (but also seen in tribal print design) and I've been wanting to share it since I did it! Do you know a better name for this pattern? Be sure to check out the blog post to find out more about this look and I would love to hear what you think either hear or on Lucy's post! 

Happy Polishing :)

Yoga Ruins Your Life (Video)

I fell across this video on my Tumblr feed and I just had to share it. Everything he says in this video I just keep nodding and goes "YES! That, exactly!" Yoga ruins your life in so many ways and it's fantastic.

Yoga Ruins Your LIfe from Yoga Workshop on Vimeo.

Manicure Monday - Darling Poppy Inspired Print

Happy Monday, everyone! Hope your day is flying by so that you can run home and relax tonight. My latest Mani Monday tutorial is now up over at the Lulu*s blog and I wanted to share with you guys what I put together! I put together a look inspired by this Darling Poppy print dress and I've hopefully made it easy for you all to recreate it as well :) You can find the tutorial for this here. What do you think of this look?

Happy Polishing! :)

Medical Skull Drawings

Kathleen Sawyer drew these ladies for a recent competition. The drawing are postcard size. I love the pinup and medical themes of these drawings. The level of detail is impressive, especially considering the size of the paper. Though these ladies are nude, they are tastefully done. These would be a great series of prints, especially if you had a penchant for medical artwork.

"Surgery"

"Diagnosis"

"Recovery"

Winstonia Brushes review - Sofa King Bueno Girl

*Products provided in exchange for an honest review. Please see my disclosure policy for more info.* 

Today I've got a review of a brush set from the Winstonia store! So far I have used the brushes and dotting tools from this set and I can not say enough good things about the quality of these brushes for the price. After doing a few manis with these brushes and tools, I knew I wanted to do something detail oriented to see just how far these brushes could go. I can safely say I was not disappointed! 

This weekend while visiting home, I had a fabulous wine from a local winery, Chronic Cellars...and I fell truly, madly, deeply in love with their labels! I don't know what it is about the skeleton girl on this label, but I knew I needed to recreate her on my nails and it was a perfect opportunity to do this review. 

The quality of the brushes is surprising considering the $9 price tag for every thing in this set - from the brush hairs to the handles, these just feel good. I used the #00 and #000 brushes for this look and both of them were great. Very little struggling with the hairs to do what I wanted. I did make one small alteration to these brushes as I worked with them a bit - I trimmed 1-2 long hairs off the end - and then they were perfect. They create a fine tip and allow for more detail than you would ever expect. 

The dotting tools are also great. I used them randomly throughout this mani but also in several others over the past few days. They are pretty much your standard dotting tools, but I really like how small the smallest tool goes. I have a few other dotting tools and I can easily say these are the best ones. The kit also comes with a nail buffer that I haven't had a need for yet, but the fact that it is included in this kit is just another plus. On the whole, this kit is an excellent deal for the money. I'm still shocked at the amount of detail these brushes produced! 

If you'd like to grab one of these kits yourself, use the code WONDROUSLY at checkout to receive 10% off this item :) If you don't yet have a set of nail art brushes, I'd say this is an excellent starter set (or normal set!). 

What do you think of this mani? Do you like the wine label or is it not your thing? Would you find nail art brushes like these useful? 

Happy Polishing :)

Hunt The VMAs - Katy Perry inspired look!

How's everyone's Sunday night going? Did anyone watch the VMAs? I partnered up with The Hunt to do a mani inspired by Katy Perry's VMA dress and I am pleasantly surprised with the outcome :) She wore a leopard print dress that was covered in gold dragonflies and it seemed like such a daunting and tough look to replicate! I tried a few different looks but eventually ended up with leopard print and an accent nail with a gold dragonfly! The dragonfly is actually 6 different stud rhinestones that I got from the Born Pretty Store and it seemed like fate that I had all the right shapes to make this happen!

I used OPI's My Vampire is Buff as the base, Zoya's Flynn as the brown center dot, and black acrylic paint for the outlines. I actually really loved the leopard print so I also painted the accent nail with them!

What do you think of these? Pretty out there but somehow, I think I really like them! ;) 

Happy Polishing :)

Change to Disqus for Commenting

Hello, all! I just wanted to write a quick post about a change that has just occurred on my blog! I've decided to switch to Disqus for commenting on my blog and I hope you'll all be okay with the change!

To quote a favorite movie of mine, A Knight's Tale, I've got something to say to Blogger's commenting system: "You have been weighed, you have been measured, and you have been found wanting." In other words, commenting via Blogger sucks. Majorly. It's incredibly inconvenient to figure out if someone has responded to your comment and I don't think that it is very conducive to open communication between the blogger and the reader. 

I know that everyone has their opinion on Disqus, but hopefully everyone feels more favorably about it than not. I want to try it out for a bit and see how the whole process goes. Disqus allows you to sign in with several different social media accounts, as well as create your own Disqus account (which I recommend because it provides a whole new level of notification and interaction!). I hope you'll bear with me if you have a really strong dislike of the commenting system! 

I am not unreasonable though! If you guys get in there and find that the whole commenting process is cumbersome, irritating, and an all around terrible experience, shoot me a comment or email and let me know! I would love love LOVE to receive feedback from you guys (good and bad) about how this new system works.

I looked through some of the past comments that have been imported into Disqus, and it does look like they are a bit wonky for past replied comments, but hopefully moving forward it will all be fabulous! 

Whew! Apparently that wasn't that quick of a post...here's a picture of Fonzi being adorably handsome as an apology ;) 

Happy Polishing! :)

31 Day Nail Art Challenge - Day 13: Animal Print

I'll start this entry with yet another apology - I'm so late with this post! I made an impromptu trip up to my parent's house (4 hours north of where I live) and was gone Friday and Saturday. But, I'm posting now!

The latest theme of the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge is animal print, and as Meghan had also mentioned in her post, animal print is not really my thing. This is in fact the very first animal print I have ever done - I've never had the desire or need to do it before now! 

When I think of animal print and nail art, leopard print and maybe zebra print and the two that really come to mind. I like a lot of the leopard print ones that I've been seeing lately that use unique colors and varying textures and really contemplating going down a similar route for today's look. However, I decided that I wanted to go with a print from either one of my favorite African animals - Giraffe or Elephant. I was going to make an attempt at the wrinkly and wise skin of an elephant, but as that is not really a "print" per say, nor is it a very recognizable design, I went instead with Giraffe print!

I considered making these bright and fun colors, but when it comes to animal print, I'm a purist and really like print that looks exactly like that of the animal. I used Zoya's Flynn as the base color and Zoya's Louise for the spots and really think these two colors were made to be a giraffe print together ;) I'm a little bit bummed that I had some smearing of the colors on my ring and pinky finger, but alas, things happen. 

I free-handed this pattern with one of my Winstonia brushes (these ones, I love them! You can use the code WONDROUSLY for 10% off of this whole kit!) and it was much easier to create than I thought it would be. I randomly chose the starting place for the first spot and then just made sure to keep a consistent distance between each spot, while varying the size and shape to add interest. For those who don't know, a giraffe's spots are similar to a person's finger prints in that no two giraffe's have the same spots so it felt perfect that I was creating my own unique spots :)

What do you think of these? How do you feel about animal print nail art in general? 

Happy Polishing! :)

An InLinkz Link-up

Sunday Simulacra - Version 7.13

Today's simulacra are really leaving their mark....

This paintball splash skull was shot by Riki from Toulouse, France....

...and this perky chap was snagged by Job.

I guess some skulls make their presence a little more known that others. Have you captured your own sneaky skull simulacra? If so then be sure to submit it to us. We be as thankful as we are to Riki and Job. Thank you!

Skulloctopus From Outer Space

Plaseebo is at it again with a couple of wonderful new custom skulloctopus figures.  Bob Conge is the creator of these unique creatures using glass eyes, a clear vinyl head filled with cosmic debris floating in space slime illuminated by an internal motion activated color changing LED unit.  I love the bright ideas that these little critters give me.  These are as comical as they are creative.  Thanks for sharing them, Bob!

Natural Selection: Sneak Preview

Here's a sneak preview of my upcoming solo exhibition Natural Selection, opening October 17 at Krause Gallery in NYC. More info to come soon...

Skull Pillow

Danijela Tanaskovic created this skull pillow. I'm a big fan of embroidery and love seeing how people use this classic medium to create artwork. The skull is a fantastic example of anatomy and stitches. The addition of the flowers adds a great textural element for this decorative pillow. The design appears simple, but has a strong impact. I'd love to see more of Danijela's work!

Birthday Skull

freakSTATIC made this card for their mother's birthday. They explained, "It went down really well, she used to sing the Birthday Dirge to us when we were small!" I has to look up this "Birthday Dirge" song for the message on the card to make any sense. Now, I'm hooked. You'll have to give it a listen. It's not a normal birthday song, but for us skull loving people, it's appropriate. I need someone to sing this to me on my next birthday.

Mosaic Skull

This flat faced skull is the handy work of Glen Francis aka - "Mount Rockula" from Victoria, BC, Canada.  Placed together like the jagged pieces of our own skulls and held together with a "skin" of grout.  I only wish we could see the rest of the work that this little fella gets to look at everyday.  Thanks for sharing your skull with us, Glen!

31 Day Nail Art Challenge - Day 12: Stripes

I can't believe we're already on day 12 of this challenge! I'm so happy that Meghan and I are sticking with this - I'm still really loving this challenge :) 

For today's stripes theme, I thought about doing something complex with striping tape and going crazy, but in the end, I settled on classic vertical stripes. I recently bought the China Glaze Avant Garden collection and I've kind of been obsessing over the colors since I got them. I used 38 strips of striping tape for this hand alone and I felt my eye start to twitch in frustration after about the 12th strip being placed on my nail! How is it that the tape suddenly acquired a magnetic attraction to my nails for this mani!? 

I don't normally like vertical stripes on myself, but I think I like how these turned out. They sort of remind me of Candy Striper stripes! The colors are subtle enough that it still feels "right" if you will. I'm so relieved that there was little to no bleeding of the colors in the stripes. My secret for fixing any bleeding under the tape is to use a top coat over your base color. This lets you use a brush and some acetone to carefully remove any misplaced nail art polish without taking up the base polish and having to restart. 

I used 7 China Glaze polishes for this look and I'll share them from the darkest/brightest pink up to the darkest blue/purple stripe. 

Base Color - Keep Calm, Paint on

Brightest/Darkest Pink - Passion for Petals

Life is Rosy

Pink-ie Promise

Tart-y For the Party

Fade into Hue

Fancy Pants

I really love these colors together and while this is a super simple look, it took me a long while to get my tape where I wanted it. How do you guys feel about major tape manis like this? Worth it or would you rather forgo the insipid task of taping this much and attempt some freehand? ;) 

Happy Polishing! :) 

An InLinkz Link-up

Best Twin Nails with Amber of LeftCoastLacquerista!

Hello my dears! I hope your Tuesday is going fabulously :) Today I've got a quick post about a fun trend going in the Instagram community! Bestie Twin Nails (identified with the hashtag #bestietwinnails) is when 2 nail art fiends collaborate and come up with a nail art concept that both artists complete. I've done a few of them over the past month or so and this will be the second one I complete with Amber of Left Coast Lacquerista :) We decided on dream catcher nails and I am just in love with what we came up with! I think these are both so cute! 

Here is my version: 

 And here is Amber's version - aren't the cute!

I used OPI's My Vampire is Buff as my base color, black and white acrylic for the dream catcher and accents, and the pink is China Glaze's Life is Rosy. I used a new Winstonia brush for this look and I am pleasantly surprised with the quality of the brushes from them! I will have a full review of them up soon :) 

Happy Polishing! :)