HANDS, NAILS, ETC.

Very cool.

rockin!

You want to hear a very cute story about nails that maybe made me tear up a little? I went to my nail lady for Shellac not last Friday but the one before that and we wound up talking and I told her what's going on in my life. By the time I'd left she said that for the foreseeable future until I adjust to being on one income etc. she's only going to charge me her Groupon price (which is $15 < than the normal price) because she wants me to keep coming and knows how good having nice nails can make you feel. It was so damn sweet.

wow! that's a really lovely gesture

Right?! I totally protested and told her I wouldn't let her but she was really adamant about it and it was just a really nice sweet thing.

Aw, that makes me happy! It's nice to know that people are so kind, and that someone is caring for you in that way (and having nice nails do make you feel better imo).

Aww, E! What a sweet gesture.

Rad nails, L!

OPI and Butter have both gone up in price. I haven't noticed if any other brands have.

My local beauty supply store has stripers in a world of colors for $1.99 each, and a bunch of cheap brands of polish that I don't know anything about for like $5 or something, so I hadn't even noticed!

OMG, Juliana Hatfield just responded to my nail polish question on Twitter.

QUESTION HERE, PLEASE. And the response, naturally!!

^^^

‏@julianahatfield
this is what happens when i go to sephora
@soybombyx
@julianahatfield what shade/brand is the pink one?
‏@julianahatfield
@soybombyx dior lucky, maybe? it's brighter in person

I wanted to know because it looked similar to the one I am wearing now.

I think I am going to go buy Matte About You and also that OPI Onyx stuff that everyone seems to love so much and do black black matte nails for a minute.

(where do I get all this stuff again?)

Sephora or Ulta for sure, or some drug stores sell OPI and Essie.

I've ordered the bulk of my nail stuff from amazon.com at discounted prices from beauty supply stores.

Ya, it'd be difficult for me to pay retail after seeing that both of those products can be gotten for like $5/ea on Amazon (though shipping ain't free)

What I do is usually make a list of the colors or things I want and then see how many of them I can get from the same 1 or 2 beauty supply companies. Usually I can group things together. Doesn't have the instant gratification of retail purchase but then again retail means taking a $2.25 subway ride each way so it probably evens out.

I've been playing with neon-colored matte polishes and these striper brushes in black and silver, it's definitely very compelling, but I miss the graphic simplicity of the geometric paint jobs.

i noticed last time i was at the bookstore that there is a whole fashion magazine devoted to nails now

http://24.media.tumblr.com/e3768fb45d6db1d2485b91c566c7aedf/tumblr_mjb8qeH3Rd1qgp36ro1_1280.jpg

whoa

Galaxy nails!! They are so awesome. I haven't tried 'em because I've never gotten started on sponge-painting, but I might have to.

experimenting with planets/nebulae would be preeeeeeetty cool too
i might try that shit myself tbrr

I want galaxy nails!

Another nail fad I saw mentioned somewhere is turquoise nails, like marbled to look like the stone. It seems to involve a water marble that you spray with hand disinfecting spray, which breaks the surface tension and opens up a bunch of holes.

Aha. http://www.spektorsnails.com/2013/01/turquoise-stone-water-spotted-nails.html

OMG those are amazing.

I can't figure out how to show blogspot imgs but here's another good set: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2iXYwFbEGT8/UQ1rD4mS4bI/AAAAAAAAAu0/keDlUlhu66s/s1600/tumblr_mhiyp835lA1qzw2pco1_1280.png

wow that looks like some kind of weird marble/granite

Anyway, current mani, simple but POW-levels of bright.

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e66/LimitedLiabilityGirl/Manipulative/Loudstripes_zps1ebbc4fb.jpg

waant the galaxy nails but what is she doing in the 2nd pic? (between pic 1 and 2)

Sponging a metallic color on, I think?

totally gonna try it once i'm done with this air-force-blue I just put on

http://m2.paperblog.com/i/151/1519401/nail-art-2__-galaxy-planets-moon-and-stars-L-ZlKyHl.jpeg

Ulta is carrying Deborah Lippmann nail polish now. I like this shade

I think I saw this on reddit(?) and thought it'd be a fun way to try my first French manicure & use my dotting tool. I'm quite fond of them!

http://instagr.am/p/WpAKHNDbGh/

And... Yes. I belong to nail art subreddits.

http://24.media.tumblr.com/8bf2a1e431015c5c054d990dc3747745/tumblr_mg52a32Ola1roiifvo1_r1_500.jpg

dang

Woo woo!! I've been wanting to do some faux-drips but I don't think I have the skilz. You're tempting me!

My current partial leopard:

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e66/LimitedLiabilityGirl/Manipulative/PartiLeopard_zps619478f6.jpg

those are fab

nice detail work on the print, damn lady!!

Aw thanks. In retrospect it's actually too busy, next time I will make it with fewer leopard spots so they're more distinct and so you can see the background french nail color, which in this case is lemon yellow.

I tried the galaxy nails and they didn't go quite to plan, mainly because sponging on the (green, pink and purple/blue) coloured polish didn't get much colour on there (also seemed to lift off the underlying colour in one spot? I blame the base coat). Also I was too cheap to find that glitter polish so I used this cool silvery one and smudged it which made a layer of lots of tiny glitters more like spray paint. So it kind of looks like spray-painted shiny motor oil or something but it's ok. Can't get a v good pic.

Apparently there is a whole thing now where some ppl hand-paint their nails to look like either geological formations or difft kinds of cells under microscopes.

http://24.media.tumblr.com/7400a0cdff7fe9d87e1dd7e27828f625/tumblr_mj7mkfW0xF1ro61zvo1_1280.jpg

http://25.media.tumblr.com/27e4039722ca276ca77349abf1582d11/tumblr_mj7mkfW0xF1ro61zvo2_500.jpg

Liver cells:

http://25.media.tumblr.com/a0be05ee25607a27811fb251bdccb237/tumblr_misqk52JCD1ro61zvo2_500.jpg