Grim and Frostbitten Blashyrkh

Good day!

I got some inspiration for nail art on Tumblr not too long ago and I had to try it. (I cannot believe the idea did not occur to me before!!)
Anyway, I have a bit of backstory. I am a metal Lamb and I love me some black metal. One of my favorite black metal bands is Immortal. They are a great band but, I'll be honest...they look ridiculous. So ridiculous that they have become an internet favorite for memes. Allow me to show you:

I always knew Abbath had a sweet tooth.

There are so many more and they are all amazing. But it was this picture that inspired me:

Via: deathisalonebeholder

This is what I decided to do in spite of my not so very good manual dexterity:

Ring finger is WNW Mad Styles with Art Club striper for Abbath's corpse paint

All others are L.A. Girl Matte White and Revlon Powder Puff

with Diamond Cosmetics Matte Smoke and Sally Hansen Black Patent Leather

sponged.

I'm really pleased with how this turned out. I freehanded the corpse paint which is a huge for me. I have shaky hands and I can't draw. Abbath's corpse paint is probably the easiest to replicate but as I said, I don't have much dexterity. I didn't want to do all my nails because I felt it to be too much. Which is why all my other nails are grim and kvlt. I didn't add more the eyes only because the idea of the corpse paint is too look dead and eye whites kinda ruin the effect. And...I was afraid if I did, I would royally jack this up.

So, yeah.

I will definitely be doing this look again so I can get better. It's also really fun and really funny. 

That will do it for today. I have five million errands to run before Matt goes on another business trip.

I leave you with this classic song by Immortal:

DUCKing Hostile

Good day!

I have for you my most recent Duck Day mani for September 24. In case you didn't know, Oregon won over the Arizona Wildcats 56-31. We had my sister and my nephew, T.J. over to watch the game with us. I mention T.J. only because he was on fire that night. He was cracking me up! We had a good time together and there was some funny business with the nails. Before I get into that, allow me to show you my mani!

Base is Ulta The Jungle Look, three coats

Stamps are Konad Special Polish Yellow and WNW Mad Styles

Used Fauxnad plate D01 and K06

I have been needing a good green creme and The Jungle Look fits the bill. It's actually a bit jelly-ish but it was fab! It applied lovely and dried really quickly. I got it on sale for two dollars so that makes me even happier!

Now, a little bit more about T.J.

I was doing my nails right before the game and he was fascinated with my Konad/Fauxnad stuff. He couldn't help himself and he wanted some stamps too.

He decided to have me paint his nails and then he chose stamps and colors.

This is isn't the first time I've "done" his nails. We did them two years ago before another Duck game and that was super fun. 

Here's what happened:

 We chose black for this hand because it was "manly" and rock & roll.

Bonus is my thumb that I used a different stamp for and forgot to take pics of. Oops!

T.J. chose this red and we mattified it to make it "manly."

This stamp is a four leaf clover that didn't come out so well.

Mind the messiness. It's hard to paint little, stubby, rough boy nails. Especially when that boy is cracking jokes and making you laugh. Once we were done, T.J was on a roll. He kept calling Matt, "Rhonda" and offering to do his nails. You really did have to be there.

T.J. is just the funniest kid. One minute he's all about video games, military history and skateboarding and the next moment he's sweet, funny and seems born to be a stand-up comic. I adore him.

BTW, if there's anyone who wants to talk some smack about me painting my 11 year old nephew's nails: Step off. I will eat your face off. He was having fun and I see NOTHING FUCKING WRONG with it. 

And that is all, yo.

Ends on such a cheery note, huh? That does indeed, do it for now. Hope the day treated you well and I will see you soon!

Into the fire

Good day!

I'm back into another LOOONG work week and I have some catching up to do. What have I been up to?
Aside from practically living at work, I celebrated my fifth wedding anniversary on Friday and spent that day wandering around Portland. (I love Portland...I should live there...) I got lots of new pretties and enjoyed a gorgeous day with the man of my dreams. Not too shabby, eh?

Anyway, here is a first of some catch up posts. I did a sweet mani combo that surprised me with how pretty it was.

 Index, middle and pinkie are Orly Emberstone

Ring is CQ Rustic Dream

All are three coats over ridge filler.

This is intentionally blurry to capture some of the beautiful color shift

of Rustic Dream.

It was also taken at 5 a.m. by the light of my laptop. 

The above were taken in late afternoon sun after work.

Love the reddish-brown Rustic Dream was throwing.

If you have been reading my blog long enough, you know how much I love Orly. I have NO complaints with Emberstone. For me, it applied just as beautifully and was as gorgeous as any fabulous China Glaze glass fleck. Also? I look really good in jewel tones, so this works for me.

I've reviewed Rustic Dream before and I cannot rave enough over it. If you love duochromes, you MUST own this. I love getting an amazing duochrome that applies great for under ten bucks!

That does it for today, y'all. I have more coming up soon! Hope everyone's Monday treated them well.

Progenies of the Great DUCKalypse

Good day and GO DUCKS!!!

I fell behind last week in bringing my other duck mani so there are two this week.

Allow me to present last week's mani:

Base is Color Club Almost Famous, three coats

Crackle is Cherimoya 2012 Crucify

I really love the Cherimoya crackle. I accomplished this with the aid of blue painter's tape and my craft hole punch. I punched the basic round shape in the tape and essentially made a stencil. Placed the strip of tape over the nail and then painted my crackle. Voila! 

Almost Famous was incredibly streaky on me this time and I prolly should have laid down a coat of white before. I did not and eh, what are you gonna do?

This week I did this:

Index and Ring are BB Couture Redwood Forest

Middle is WNW Black Creme with

RBL Yellow Fever and WNW Mad Styles polka dots

Pnkie is Revlon Powder Puff layered with Sinful Irish Green

I wasn't very pleased with my pinkie. I should have gone with Redwood Forest. Meh.

Also, the pinkie is FIVE coats of polish. Too much. No like. 

That will do for today. Matt and I are headed to the store to get fixings for White Trash Bean Dip before the game starts.

Have a great day and GO DUCKS!!!

One minute no collapse

Good morning!

I've noticed that I've been choosing lots of dark polishes that are matching my dark moods.
So I wanted to break out of that funk and have something whimsical and SPARKLY.

Alternating coats of Orly Here Comes Trouble

and L.A. Girl Crowd Surfing

Base of Gelous and Nail Tek II

I had to give Here Comes Trouble another shot mainly because I did a nice layering with Bubbly Bombshell.

This is still quite sheer, hence the VNL but I was okay with it. 

I achieved exactly what I wanted with lots of light and pretty color.

See how sparkly???

I wore this for a full day and then I added a couple of coats of Love & Beauty Rust. I completely forgot to take pictures. (Or I didn't bother since I had a long day at work, had to water the garden and cook my lunch before bed. Like you do.)

So...yesterday I decided to some sponging that looked HORRIBLE. I was still so sleepy when I did it so I didn't bother to photograph. What I did capture was my ring finger that I had made an accent.

I covered each ring finger with ChG Cracked Medallion and I loved what happened.

So sorry about the tip wear!

That thar is a snazzy combo! It turned out so well that I wished I done all of the rest of my nails like it.

If you are wondering why I didn't show you those little fails, well, it looked like Cookie Monster vomited on my nails. No, no bueno. 

Now, it's time to enjoy removing this glorious glitter shield and get my house cleaned before my dear husband comes home from Arizona. 

Thanks for looking and have a great day!

You Must Work In Symmetry

Good day!

I wanted to show you some sweet layering I've done recently as well as some mani refreshing.
As you know, I've had some issues doing my nails since...well...work has been so much more challenging.
Here are some wins:

This is Glam Rock layered with Color Club Snowflakes. It was a brilliant choice for layering especially when the sun was at its most blazing. (Like, two weeks ago. Sometimes Oregon REALLY sucks.)

Do  you love this glittery goodness??

This was such a glitter bomb and I was in mad love. So much so, that I was loath to remove it. So I did some MOAR layering instead.

Index and ring are Cherimoya 2012 Crucify

Middle and pinkie are ChG Crushed Candy

I chose these two crackles to coordinate with a top I was wearing that had green and blue-ish flowers on it.

I'm not gonna lie, I was looking pretty cute that day. (It was a special little date night with the hubs...)

I enjoyed how this came out and I love how the Cherimoya crackle was a bit translucent which gave a jelly sandwich kind of effect. 

I'm pretty bad about changing my pedicures. I have been known to wear the same color for two weeks, refresh and go for about three more weeks. Anyway...I stumbled upon a super sweet layering combo that I also had to try on another color I'm in love with. It's what I currently have on my toes but I m not going to show you that.

Index is Orly Royal Navy w/ L.A. Colors Jewel Tone and Love & Beauty Rust

Middle is Revlon Royal w/ the same combo as the first

Ring is Royal Navy w/ only L&B Rust

Pinkie is Revlon Royal w/ Rust and Kleancolor Chunky Holo Teal

All of this layering made me realize that L&B Rust and Revlon Royal could be a pretty close dupe to Barielle Falling Star. (Which I have not received...YET. Don't ask.) I will def have to try it out.

Eventually, I will have Falling Star. It's my number one lemming since I've come so close to owning it and still do not have it.

That does it for now. I'm ready to unwind for the evening. Hope everyone has had a great day!

Odin will provide

Good morning!

As promised, I have some nail fail to show you along with a couple that turned out okay. My high stress level has taken its toll on my nails. They are rough! Not only that, I can't focus long enough to do a decent job painting them as well as cleaning up. Which you shall be seeing.
Let's go ahead and dive in.

Base is Paul and Joe Orchestral

Sponged with Orly Dazzle and Claire's no name sheer blue glitter

What you see above is a mani I attempted in honor of Fernando Ribeiro's birthday. (Who is Fernando? Just the singer of my favorite band, MOONSPELL. He is also beautiful. Yum!)

This is one of the few times I can truly say that this looked better in real life. This just did not want to photograph. 

Anyway, I tried to sponge a full moon on my index and crescent on my ring. They were okay.

Where I really screwed up was trying to free hand an "M" on my middle finger. No bueno.

As you can also see, this was a major bish to try and clean. Partly due to having briefly misplaced my best clean up brush. I was so disappointed. Bleh.

Base is three coats Milani Rad Purple

Topped with one coat L.A. Colors Jewel Tone

"Hearts" are WNW Mad Styles

I got some craft hole punches and I found that I could use them on blue painter's tape and make a stencil.

Where I messed this up was not having the tape sealed down enough and using too much polish. I did the same thing with my Moonspell mani in the first pic. I'm disappointed because I had great success with it for a pedi. As evidenced by this:

Yes, it's a toe nail. I am not sorry.

See? It can work. Better when I'm relaxed and truly feel I have the time to do it. Eh.

Perhaps, it's time to show some successes. Be warned that you will be seeing manis from the end of my day.

I have no good light when I am doing my nails at 4:30 in the morning so my photos suck.

Base is Sinful Seaweed

Dots are WNW French White Creme,

ChG For Audrey and Claire's no name sheer blue glitter

Nailene flower decals

This was super cute. I went overboard on the glitter on my ring finger but, oh well. It was still sparkly and cute. I was so happy to have something turn out much like I envisioned. Not happy I had to take a photo after work BUT my day started at 3:30. (No fun having to be at work at 5:00 a.m.)

Finally, I have a sweet layering combo that made me very happy.

 Do you like my terrible lighting in my kitchen?

Base is Maybelline Jungle Green (HTF)

Topped with L.A. Colors Jewel Tone

Yay! Pretty and sparkly! I am really enjoying Jewel Tone. It's lovely blue and pink glitter in a clear base. There's lots of glitter so you get great coverage and it dries quite fast. This was probably my best mani of the week. Not saying much, I know.

There ya have it. A new week is beginning and I hope for better. Thanks for coming by and I hope your week goes well!

Are You DUCK Enough?

Good day!

It's official, Duck Football season has begun! Today we will be taking on LSU and I am super excited.
I'm also super jealous because my best friend, Pixie, is in Dallas for the game.
Oh well.

Today's mani is inspired by the new "Pro Combat" uniform that was unveiled recently and will be worn in today's game.

 These gloves are awesome sauce.

Anthracite with neon green accents

The neon green appeared more blue based green in the photos published in the newspaper. Here, it's clearly a super yellow based green. I went through all of my neon greens in my stash and the only one that would work was Color Club Twiggie. All the others I had were either too blue or much too yellow. No happy medium there.

Anyway...I give you the first Duck Day manicure of the 2011-12 season and let us welcome back my rubber duckie:

Ring finger is Color Club Twiggie

All other fingers are Orly Iron Butterfly

"O" temporary tattoos from The Duck Store

This is a really minimal look for me but I wanted it to echo the minimalist design of the uniforms. Iron Butterfly is far and away the only choice to match up with the anthracite color. Black creme would be too black and a gunmetal grey would be too light. Twiggie isn't really the best choice for this but as I mentioned before, it was the only one in my stash to do the trick. 

Overall, I'm pleased and so proud of myself for showing some restraint.

I'm off to get things ready for tonight and catch some of the Nebraska game. Have a great day and...

GO DUCKS!!!

Hey, hey baby

Good morning!

Can you believe this? I'm actually posting! Shit just got real, yo.
I actually tried to post a couple of weeks ago but Blogger misbehaved BIG time and I was quite angry.
Not that I had much to post. I had several spectacular manicure fails, only picked up a couple of new polishes and in general was a miserable, stressed out screechy harridan. Basically, the difference was that my nails didn't look as good.
Rather than get bogged down in a litany of complaints, I have a new polish to show you.

I went to Roseburg to visit my in-laws a few weeks ago and took advantage of the time to go shopping with my sister-in-law. There is not a Kmart in the Eugene-Springfield metro anymore. You have to go north to Albany or south to Roseburg to find one. I wanted to go because I know Kmart sells Milani and I desperately wanted a Lip Flash pencil. (Got it and adore it!) While I was there, I spied a Jordana display and I was so happy! Can't find Jordana anywhere in Eugene either so this was fabulous.

Jordana Purple Glam

Three coats, no base or top

This is a great red based purple jelly with blue shimmer and loads of holo glitter. The glitter itself is a mix of bar and fine. The glitter tends to apply randomly ensuring nails are not uniform. The more coats, the better but it's not too hard to coax some other bits off the brush without ruining your mani. 

Macro

Blurry to show the sparkly!

What I find most interesting about this is how the glitter gets covered with each coat. It looks totally suspended but it's fab shiny, holo goodness is not subdued or diminished. The blue shimmer is brilliant because it helps with opacity and gives the polish an almost metallic look.

This applies nicely and dries fast. It is interesting that it dries satiny, I really did not anticipate that!

This being my first Jordana, and trying it without expectation, I am so pleased. This is making me want to drive the extra hour to Roseburg more often! 

That does it for now. I have a few more things coming up because I am not afraid to show when I fuck up royally. Trust me, some of these are just not right. Anyway...I will be playing with some other nail art today because tomorrow is the season opener of Duck football! So stay tuned for the first Duck day mani of the season.

P.S. As much as I love football, it makes me sad to see the end of summer. Do not want cold weather!!