I'm Going to Nail School!

Over the last couple of years, I've really started to love nails and polish, and especially nail art. I figured I would have to wait for my youngest daughter to start school (in 3 years) before I would be able to go to nail school. Then I heard about a school in town that was going to have a night class! Now with some amazing friends and neighbors, and my wonderful, supportive husband, I'm making my dream come true! 

The first thing I did was go and take a tour of the school, I decided I needed to have awesome nails for the occasion, so I went with a neon gradient with chevrons! Because who doesn't love chevrons right now??

I used SquareHue- Kalver Straat and P.C. Hooft Straat for my gradient, then stamped the chevrons with Milani- White on the Spot and Messy Mansion plate MM12.

 After taking the tour, I was really excited. It took awhile working with the bank to get the finance side all figured out, and then the day came to go in and fill out paperwork and sign a contract! It was finally really going to happen!

For these, I randomly sponged on Sally Hansen Insta-dri- Pink Blink, Essie- Mint Candy Apple, Loreal- Meant to Be, and NYC- Water Street Blue. Then I stamped with Milani- White on the Spot and Pueen 26.

Then came my first day of school!

I used SquareHue- Placa Catalunya and Rambla de Raval for my gradient, and I absolutely loved how that turned out! Then I stamped with Konad Black and BM-223. 

I'm so excited to start this new phase of my life. And to turn this hobby into a career!

Arabesque Stamping Plate Review from Born Pretty Store

Today I have something new and exciting to share with you all! 

I'm happy to have been given the opportunity to review some items from the Born Pretty Store. The first thing I have to share is a new stamping plate! I love stamping, there are so many fun possibilities! This is the Quirky Arabesque Plate. It's only $2.99 on their site! Isn't is awesome!?

 I used Konad Special Black stamping polish, and the whole plate stamps amazing! Look how crisp and beautiful that looks!

 I decided while stamping that this would be the perfect time to try the leadlighting technique I've been wanting to try! So I grabbed some jellies and dotting tools and got started! I used OPI- I Theodora You, Loreal- Berry Nice, and LA Colors- Aquatic. I definitely need some more jellies to try this again, but it was a lot of fun, and I love how it turned out! I can't wait to play with this plate more!

Bonus!! You can use this code: JPQX31

 and get 10% off your order!!

Don't forget to check out all the awesome things the Born Pretty Store has to offer!!

Girly Zebra with a holo topcoat!

I saw a post recently in the Polishaholics Annoymous Facebook group about a holographic top coat. The ability to make every polish holo? Tell me more! Jenn, the maker of Daily Hues Lacquer posted some swatches of before and after applying Ricca, her holo topcoat, and I was sold!

Here's my first look using my amazing new discovery. This is 3 coats of SquareHue- Happy creme, topped with 2 coats of Daily Hues-Ricca. So much gorgeous.

 I added some zebra print with BM-223 and Essie- Watermelon.

 

I just LOVE how this one turned out. I didn't get a very good picture of it in the sunlight, it was overcast the entire next day that I was wearing it. The lightbox just doesn't do it justice. It's incredible. 

To get your own bottle of Ricca, GO HERE!! She also just listed her new summer line, and they are gorgeous as well!

butter LONDON- Scallywag

Awhile back on my Facebook page, I mentioned that butter LONDON was having a sale. I picked up two polishes for 50% off! This is one of those.

This is two coats of Scallywag. Isn't is incredible?!? It's the most gorgeous teal glitter. It's really dense, so you don't really need undies with it. It does dry a bit gritty though, so I used a thick coat of HK Girl on top. It really enhanced the sparkle too!

 

 A blurry shot to show that sparkle!

I added a simple stamp so I didn't cover up all that gorgeous glitter. I used Sinful Colors- Snow Me White and BM-313.

I love this color so much, but it chips like crazy! I can usually get a pretty solid 4 days out of a polish without a chip, this polish was chipping the next morning. Such a disappointment :(

Zoya-Tinsley with Pueen Stamping

Awhile back when Zoya had their big sale, this is one of the colors I got. I'm so glad I did because it is gorgeous! I love the golden shimmer it has.

Seriously, I can't get over how pretty this is.

I have been craving some new stamping plates, so I got the Pueen Love Elements set. I love all the girly images! Lots of hearts and swirls. This ruffled image I've seen others use before and loved it, so it was the first one I tried out. I used Sinful Colors- Snow me White and Pueen 32.

Simple Swirls

I did these nails a few weeks ago, on pretty short nails. The base color is a mini that came in a 7 pack from Ross. They don't really have a brand, but the color is called Cranberry. I stamped with BM-314 and Sinful Colors- Snow Me White.

In other news...after the big share the love event last weekend, my Facebook page just hit 500 likes! I'm in shock! Before the weekend, I think I had 73! I'm so excited and hope everyone likes my work! I also started posting a little on Instagram. You can find me there @kickacetone.

Double Holo Houndstooth

Sometimes I just don't want to do "seasonally appropriate" nails. Sometimes I just want something that will make me happy. And what's more happy than sparkle, holographic, and pink!

I started with 2 coats of Orly- Miss Conduct, by far one of my very favorite polishes. I stamped with BM-322 and Color Club- Cloud Nine.

I love how this looks in direct light, as well as indirect.

Miss Conduct is a scattered holo, and Cloud Nine is a linear holo, I wasn't sure how they would look together, but I think it turned out pretty awesome!

Now those are happy nails :)

Holo Snowflakes

I've been wanting to do a winter nail art look, but wasn't really feeling like the usual blues and grays that go with winter. I needed something happy and fun. So I went with China Glaze- When Stars Collide, a beautiful, rich, holographic purple. I used Sinful Colors- Snow Me White and BM-323 for the snowflakes.

 I really love how these turned out. They're very "happy winter". I like that.

Last Hurrah

 Since it's the last day of the year, I have to get a post in. I cut it pretty close on this one. I'm putting Christmas and New Year's Eve all in one post since it's kind of my last shot.

On the left is my sweet little Chloe's nails. She's 4 and really wanted some Christmas nails, so we did these one evening while she watched Mulan 2. She loved them and was excited to take pictures just like Mommy. On the right are my Christmas sweater nails. A very popular trend this season, I really liked how they turned out. I used Color Club- Berry and Bright, then stamped with Sinful Colors- Snow Me White and W120.

 Next up is my look for New Year's Eve. My mom bought me a pack of 7 mini polishes at Ross awhile back. I don't know what brand they are, but this is one of them. It's called Grapevine. It's such a gorgeous dark purple and in direct light you can see the beautiful pink and blue shimmer in it. I just love it!

 I started with 2 coats of Grapevine, then decided to do a skittle, something I rarely do. On the index finger I added Hard Candy- Hip Hip Hooray, very fitting for party nails, I think! The other images are stamped with Pure Ice- Silver Star and BM-311 and W117.

Better late than never, right?? 

My goal for my blog in the new year is to start posting more regularly. Hopefully we're doing with sickness and surgeries for awhile, so things can calm down. I do my nails, I just have trouble finding the time to post! Maybe once the older kids go back to school, I can start carving out some time during Sesame Street for blogging :)

Happy New Year everyone!!

Holographic and Monochromatic

I've been really lacking inspiration lately. I keep sitting down with the intent to do some Halloween looks, and I'm just not feeling it. I end up doing bright, sparkly, very non-fall looks. So I handed my binder of stamping plates to my husband and told him to design my nails. He decided on some dots and said I should do something dark with a little lighter stamp of the same color, and this is what I came up with...

I started with 3 coats of SquareHue- Iron Horse. Then stamped with Color Club- Beyond and W112.

In this first picture, you can really see the gray on black combo I was going for. This is how it looked indoors most of the time or in the shade.

This is in the lightbox, where you can see the holo-y dots!

I'm always amazed by how great the Halo Hues stamp! Even over dark colors!

Welcome to the World!

I got two new nieces within 4 days of each other! My younger sister had her first baby, unfortunately, she lives in Tennessee and I live in Idaho, so I haven't been able to hold baby Brynlee :( But they're coming home for Christmas so we can meet her! My oldest brother had his little girl 4 days later, and I got to meet baby Dani the next day. Naturally I had to have some super girly nails for the occasion!

I used 2 coats of SquareHue- Happy Creme, sponged China Glaze- Ahoy! on the tips, and added some dots with Sinful Colors- Snow me White. Stamped the bow with Snow me White as well.

And this one is just the sweetest! Me and Dani showing off our nails :) I was wishing I had some polish with me, she could have had her first mani!

 And of course, I had to show off the gorgeous girls!!

Brynlee Hope

Dani Lynn

Congratulations to Lisa & Larry and Chad & Tasha!! I love you all! And welcome to the world Brynlee and Dani!!

The results are in!

Hello all! I'm so sorry it's been so long since my last post. This summer has been so busy, the last month with the kids returning to school being no exception.

This post may be a little text heavy, this mani has a story with it.

Awhile back, as I was getting into bed one night, I had a tender spot on my right breast. I started feeling around and felt a lump. I decided to wait a few days and see if it would go away, maybe it was just a sore muscle. A few days went by and it no longer hurt, but the lump had not gone away, so I made an appointment with my OBGYN. She checked me, and based on my family history, which has a lot of cancer, she scheduled me to get a mammogram and an ultrasound. I was starting to get nervous, I mean, I'm only 27! A couple days later I had an appointment with a surgeon, he reviewed the scans and said they weren't very helpful, and the only way to know for sure what it was would be to biopsy the lump. Two days later, I went to the hospital for surgery. While coming out of the operating room, still quite drugged up, I heard one of the nurses say, "She did awesome." So naturally I chimed in, "I am awesome." :) Then I'm pretty sure I fell back asleep. Then a bit later, a male nurse was going to get my husband, so he asked, "Are you married?" I said, "Yep, sorry." Then fell asleep again. Apparently I'm a little sassy when I'm drugged up! 

The night before I went in for surgery, I did my nails. And what would be more appropriate for a breast biopsy than breast cancer awareness ribbons? I started with two coats of OPI- My Boyfriend Scales Walls. Stamped with Calvin Klein- Sheer Sparkle, added dots with Color Club- Blushing Rose, and topped with HK Girl. They were perfect. And the nurses loved them.

About five days after my biopsy, I got a phone call from the surgeon's office and the biopsy was negative for breast cancer!! A huge relief after a few very busy, very stressful weeks.

My Birthday Nails!

I turned 27 yesterday! Woohoo! It's really not nearly as exciting these days as it was when I was little. I'm just starting to feel old. But, it was a good excuse to do something bright and fun on my nails!

I started with one coat of Sinful Colors- Snow Me White as undies. Then sponged China Glaze- Fancy Pants and Ahoy! for my gradient. You can't see much in these pictures, but they both have the same amazing pink shimmer in them, it was really cool how the shimmer was all the same through the gradient, I wish I could have gotten it to show in photos. The stamp was done with BM-315 and Snow Me White.

And last, but not least...my birthday haul! This is all a combination of polishes from my Mom, my friend, Sarah, my kids, and some that I picked up with birthday money :)

Ahh....aren't they beautiful?!?

Mint Manis for Talia Joy

It's always sad when cancer takes a life, but even more so when it's a child. This look is in honor of Talia Joy. I'm sure you've all seen a lot of mint manis today. Her last Instagram photo was of mint nails, so it seems only fitting for us all do to the same. I read this from Nicole at Nail Polish Wars...

Talia was a beautiful thirteen year old girl who was battling two horrible forms of cancer, neuroblastoma and preleukemia. She was also a supremely talented make up and nail artist.  You might have seen her amazing appearance on the Ellen DeGeneres show, where she was also made an honorary Cover Girl!

I started with 2 coats of Sally Hansen- Mint Sorbet. On my ring finger, I added one coat of Orly- Sparkling Garbage. On my middle finger, I stamped with BM-02 and Essie- Go Overboard.

#mintmanisfortaliajoy
‎#TaliasLegacy‬

4th of July!

A few days late, but better late than never, right?! This is what I wore on my nails for the 4th of July this year. It was also my 4th wedding anniversary! And I'm still quite fond of my sweet hubby :)

I started with 2 coats of Milani- White on the Spot. Then I used hole re-enforcers to tape off the half moons, and sponged Calvin Klein- Bombshell and Wet 'n' Wild- Denim Chrome on the rest of the nail. Then I stamped with White on the Spot and W-107 from the Winstonia set.

I really loved these! They turned out just how I imagined in my mind, and they were so festive!

Geometric Double Stamping

We're leaving for Vegas this morning! Woohoo! Watch out Sephora, here I come!

I really love abstract or geometric designs in pretty much anything, so I've been wanting to use this design for awhile and finally got around to it!

I started with 2 coats of SquareHue- Day Glow, then stamped with Konad Special Black and BM-203. I wasn't quite satisfied with that, so I stamped again with Sinful Colors- Snow Me White and stamped the design upside down over top of the black. Topped it with one coat of HK Girl. I really love how this one turned out, it was really striking in person as well

 

See you all when I return from vacation!

Holo Leopard Print!

Oh my goodness! Almost 2 weeks since my last post! Sorry all! 

For this look, I started with 2 coats of Calvin Klein- Sheer Sparkle. Then stamped with Color Club- Cloud Nine and BM-221. Topped it all with one coat of HK Girl.

I just can't get enough of these holographic polishes and I wish I could buy every one of them!

New 31DC Day 29 & 30: Inspired by a blogger/fave technique

I may be cheating ever so slightly with this one :) I'm combining days 29 & 30. One of the first blogs I started following was A Girl and Her Polish, and I'm always impressed with her amazing work. So I chose this look of hers as my inspiration. I wanted to try both double stamping, and stamping over a texture. Stamping is also my favorite nail art technique, so you're getting a two-for-one in this post since I'm already a couple days behind.

I started with 2 coats of China Glaze- Bump and Grind. Aside from Crackle, this is the only textured polish I own so far. I'm still not sure I'm a fan, but I absolutely love the color of this one. My husband says it looks like Rhino Lining. I tried this just after I bought it, and every picture I took, it looked orange. So, I made myself a little homemade, makeshift light box, lit with a flashlight app on my iPhone. Pretty hi-tech right? It's made such a difference! I couldn't even believe it!

I stamped with BM-316 and Sally Hansen- Blue Away, then again with Milani- White on the Spot.

I added a coat of HK Girl to see if it would smooth out the texture a bit. It still kind of drives me crazy. It did a little, but could probably use another coat. Oh well, I think I'll just tough it out this time. Maybe I'll learn to love it?

Holy Holo!

Holographic polish. Oh my goodness. I need them all. This is awesome.

I started with 2 coats of Color Club- Cloud Nine, a beautiful light pink holo. I stamped with BM-320 and Milani- White on the Spot. Topped with one coat of HK Girl.

First a picture I took in the house....pretty right?

And then we go outside....and I die!

My favorite...

 

I can't get enough. Every slight change of position showed even more rainbow. It's so beautiful.