garland

Dec15 by Cheryl Cheryl

It was supposed to be a candy cane. I promise. LOL….. I have no clue why it looked so different in my mind when I was devising it.

After the first nail was finished, I determined it looked like some tinsel-y garland wrapping around a foil tree… which suits the holiday theme just fine.

so there you have it. I’ll try a candy cane theme again in a couple days. and see what it ends up looking like. ha ha

OPI “Designer De Better” (Muppets Collection)

I almost stopped right here. This foil polish is so pretty, so so pretty…

however, I pressed on in my quest to summon some holiday cheerfulness. I attempted CANDY CANES!!!!!… ended up with garland. smh. if it wasn’t an acceptable garland…… that would have been a MESS.

I’m just saying…. it was supposed to be a candy cane design! lol

happy holidays

Shock Value

Dec14 by Cheryl Cheryl

funny that people are paying attention even if you don’t think they are….

my coworker commented that I didn’t do a design on my nails “today”….. but my “new french” manicure (from yesterday) IS a design!!!!!! classic…. but still a design, no doubt….

I had an extremely long day, so, to unwind, I had to stir things up. And “do a design” lol.

this color just caught my eyes. and the new purple paint I got this weekend was waving over there from the side, so I splashed some dots on. I can tell when I really like my nails….. I look at them over and over……. I can’t keep my eyes off these.

Sinful Colors “ Hazard” w/ purple acrylic paint dots

French Newness

Dec12 by Cheryl Cheryl

It’s crazy when you do your nails yourself, you become straight impatient.

Another twist on that classic French.

I couldn’t wait to get off work to go home and try @boutique_nails’s design:

I saw the photo around lunchtime…. which meant I wasn’t going near home for a good 8 hours. smh. I wasn’t even anxious to remove the current design…. but testing out this new one was all I could think of!

FINALLY!!!!! home…. manicured Smile and loving it.

Essie “Sand Tropez” w/ white tips

A Dream Deferred

Dec12 by Cheryl Cheryl

expression…

good for the soul??

concept better than reality:

Nicole Miller “French Vanilla” (base)
OPI “Green-wich Village” & dark pink acrylic paint (applied w/nail art brush")
Color Club Nail Art Striper “Crème de Razzery” & “Glitter Hologram”

Reality better than expected:
OPI “Sparrow Me The Drama”
green acrylic paint & Color Club white nail art striper

inspired by:
TopCoatIt’s "argyle nails”

new attempts:

OPI “You Don’t Know Jacques!”
Color Club Nail Art Striper “Crème De Razerry”
Stripe Right green nail art striper

i love it.

Essie “Chastity” (base)
Color Club – Nail Art Stripers “Mint” & “White”

Sally Hansen–“Gray by Gray”

Dec11 by Cheryl Cheryl

Blue. I thought it was blue. But the name is “Gray”. so, ok: Blue-Gray. Or maybe Dark Gray with a very blue base?

Very creamy. Opacity on “10”. The formulation and applicator brush (wide and flat) is similar to the Sally Hansen Insta-Dri colors. And it dried fairly quickly, so that’s a #win.

I added a few light blue dots just to set off the color. I think the light blue dots made the gray look even more blue. lol. I just can’t give up on the idea that this is blue – not gray!

BLAH!

Dec8 by Cheryl Cheryl

I just didn’t really like ANYTHING today. Everything is going awry right now. I can’t focus, can’t make well thought-through decisions, can’t figure out what to eat, what to wear, what to do next…. so not having a solitary clue what color to paint my nails shouldn’t have surprised me.

My nails are already back to their high-maintenance length. The tips of the nails will be an extension of my fingertip and therefore, polish will undoubtedly chip…. every day. So, they’re definitely getting new polish each time…. However, I’m exhausted and have way too much to do. my brain is on overload. Good thing polishing my nails is a soothing activity.

I removed the contact lenses that were completely irritating my eyes and tossed them.
SO WHY DID I PULL OUT MY GLASSES TO FIND THE FRAMES BROKEN IN TWO?!?!?! wth?!

I taped the frames back together so I could finish working.

After that, I gave up.
I was frustrated, sleepy, irritable and overall BLAH!! So, I just put it on my nails.

My muted and autumn neutral OPI spread

Separately these colors are stunning. Together….. they are just BLAH! Perfect expression of my feeling. Enjoy. – __-

OPI
“Jade Is the New Black” (Hong Kong Collection)
“Stranger Tides” (Pirates of the Caribbean Collection)
“You Don’t Know Jacques!” (La Collection De France)
“Suzi Takes the Wheel” (Touring America Collection)
“A-Taupe the Space Needle” (Touring America Collection)

Thank you….from Diedra

Dec7 by Cheryl Cheryl

Contributor Dee Dee gave me the nicest thank you card last week. That isn’t really surprising… she’s thoughtful like that.

The card was so pretty I couldn’t get the envelope print out of my mind.

And then it kinda ended up on my nails. Smile

I tried to keep it simple, so I only tested out the hologram top coat on the nail of my ring finger. It’s SOOO pretty. It took all kinds of self-control to keep from slathering that beautiful topcoat across the other nine nails…well (I did slip. I put it on the pinky nail of my other hand. I couldn’t resist.)

The base color is OPI - “Malaysian Mist”… dark pink, brown and orange acrylic paint applied with a dotting tool.

Top Coat – INM’s Out the Door – “Northern Lights” (Hologram Top Coat ‘Gold’”)

Smiley

Dec6 by Cheryl Cheryl

When I started, my plan was just some basic cheerful nails…. because I really need a mood lift. .

As the task progressed….. do you realize how many ways there are to make a flickin’ smiley face these days??!!

Emoticons are taking over…. except ones with botox -__- LOL!

it did improve my mood… and is teaching me steadiness with a nail brush.

Sexy Silhouette

Dec5 by Cheryl Cheryl

China Glaze. Pretty deep vibrant shimmery pink. Magenta-ish. Definitely in the red family, but more pink than red.

This color made my hand feel very sexy. *wink wink*

China Glaze “Sexy Silhouette”

Snow!

Dec4 by Cheryl Cheryl

When I saw the snowflakes “falling” on the main page of the blog site (yay!), I immediately got excited. I LOVE snow. Love is an understatement.

Now mind you, I’ve been practicing good snowflake designs for like two weeks. And still no presentable snowflakes in sight for my nailbeds. 😦

Now this one from cutepolish vids is adorable….

…. and though I love her designs, and I love using my dotting tool – it seemed too simplified for my lofty expectation of my artistic ATTEMPTS… As I still haven’t mastered even a “neat” snowflake.

then I found this snowflake tutorial. I liked. More dots, but it was a tiny bit more complicated.

I ended up with a sort of in-between snowflake from the two… and I could only withstand the painstaking task on the fingernails of my ring fingers…. this nail art is work! Smile I used the appropriately named “Avalanche” for the base color, and white polish with a very skinny nail striping art brush for the snowflake. I used a glitter polish with a dotting tool for some sparkly spots. When it actually snows here in Chicago [I wish it would hurry up and snow!!], I’m doing a snowflake design – again. (does this one count?)