Finger Paint Swatches and Review

Hello Lovelies! I know it's been a very long time since my last post, I am still alive I've just been really busy. The end of my pregnancy was drawn out for an extra 10 days. On Monday, April 18th at 10:32pm I gave birth to a healthy 8lb 3oz baby boy. We named him Theron Atticus and we are all in love with him. If you follow me on Instagram, I'm sure you've seen pictures. As we are getting settled in with the new babe, I have had little to no time for even the most basic nail care. With the almost obsessive hand washing, my nails look atrocious. They're heavily ridges, splitting, pealing, cracking, and incredibly dry. 

However, before I gave birth I had swatches some polishes I won from Finger Paints back in March. I thought I'd share them with you now.  As usual these swatches are photographed indoors under LED daylight lamps. 

A-Cry-Lic a Girl

This is a super girly bright bubble gum pink. It has a slight iridescent shimmer to it. 

This was mostly opaque with one coat but swatched here in two coats. 

The Mural of the Story 

This is a very pretty mint green creme polish. I have been needing a green like this so I was very excited to get it. 

This is mostly opaque in one coat but swatches here with two coats for good measure. 

Umber-Ella

This is a very glitzy condensed glitter polish. The bronze/gold holo micro glitter pieces are suspended in a slightly gold tinted base. 

I applied this in two brushed on coats, though a sponged application would have intensified the glitter. 

Dye-ing to Know

This is an awesome neon berry red! 

This is swatched in two coats without white undies. The color is still very bright, I think with white undies it would really pop!

To the Plinth Degree

As you can see this is a super bright neon yellow, that requires you wear a pair of shades to look directly at it 😎. 

Regrettably I did not use white undies because I wanted to see how this polish held up on its own. I ended up swatching this in four thin coats. So I would highly recommend using white undies under this polish. 

Clay on Words

Another neon lovely, this orange shade has a pretty iridescent shimmer to it, similar to that in 'A-Cry-Lic a Girl'

This was swatched in three thin coats. Three is one more than I typically like to do, so white undies wouldn't hurt under this polish. 

Off to Collage!

This is a fun hex glitter topper full of random sized pink, blue-ish purple, and iridescent pieces. Swatched here in one brushed on coat over 'A-Cry-Lic a Girl.'

I am so Enameled by You

A similar glitter topper to the previous but without the pink hexes and there are holo hexes instead of iridescent pieces. Swatched in one coat over 'The Mural of the Story.'

These are my first Finger Paints and I really like them. The formulas are very smooth and the glitters are not really thick or too watery. The neons are nice and bright and with some white undies could really be phenomenal. All in all, I am very pleased. 

As for the future of this blog, I am not through with nail art or polish. However, with the new family addition it's difficult to say how often or exactly when I will be posting. For those of you who have stuck with me, through this blog and/or my various other social medias, I thank you for all your support. As things settle in here and I get to catch up on some sleep, I'll be able to post more frequently and consistently. Thank you for stopping by, see you next time. 

Your fellow Plebe,

Paisley Print DIY Decals

Hello Lovelies!  I hope you all had a safe and happy holiday weekend (or a nice weekend for those of you who don't celebrate Thanksgiving)!  I finally got around to finishing the final prompt of the Weekly Nail Art Challenge (#WNAC) from Instagram.  The last prompt was Paisley print, which I have always wanted to try but wasn't sure I could make it look good.  I think I did pretty well, what do you think?

Materials I used:
Basecoat - SuperChic Lacquer 'Bring it On!'
Base polish - Milani 'Gold Glitz' (Dollar Store find)
Calligraphy pen and black ink
UberChic Beauty Uber Mat
Topcoat - SuperChic Lacquer 'Marvel'

I started off with two coats of my sparkly gold glitter polish.  I wanted this design to be blingy yet mature and I thought this made the perfect base.

After practicing with both polish and acryclic paints and a small brush to try and create a paisley design, I got frustrated and switched to my calligraphy pen.  Lately, this has been my go-to drawing tool because the ink is much like acrylic paint and I have much better control.  Using my Uber Mat,  I started with a generous layer of topcoat, which I let dry completely.  I drew a couple of paisleys for each finger and filled in the voids with swirls and little things that look almost like commas.

For those of you who would like to see a brief video of me drawing this pattern, checkout my Instagram account.

Once, I was satisfied with my decals.  I removed them from the mat using a pair of tweezers.  I applied a layer of topcoat to my nail and placed the decal carefully on my nail.  If you've made your decal too thin it will most likely tear and give you problems during placement, that is why I recommend using a generous layer or two thin layers of topcoat for your decal base.  After carefully pressing the decal down, trim some of the excess decal away with cuticle scissors or nail clippers.  Dissolve the remaining decal away using gentle acetone and a brush,  don't forget to do this around the free end of your nail as well.

I topped this all off with a final layer of quick drying glossy topcoat.  This is important to ensure that the decal is sealed down onto the nail, and it helps smooth out wrinkles that my occur during the application process.

For those of you who haven't tried calligraphy nail art, I highly recommend it.  For those of you who have tried it and found its not your thing, but you also don't like using a paint brush, I recommend trying a gel pen to create this and similar nail art designs.  I personally haven't tried gel pens yet but it is on my nail art bucket list.  I have heard from many other nail artist that gel pens are really easy to work with.  I'm curious, have any of you tried calligraphy or gel pens in your nail art yet?  What did you think?

When I first started creating this nail art design, I didn't think I would be pleased with the final results.  However, I love the way they turned out and I hope you do too.  Thank you for stopping by, see you next time.

Your Fellow Plebe,

Leopard Print Glitter Tint

Hello Darlings! Sorry for my brief absence, I had a busy weekend full of friends and flying.  It was a really great weekend!  I hope you all had a wonderful weekend too.  I actually started this nail art on Friday, but I never finished it and the glitter base I had applied was destroyed by the time I got back to it, so I had to start all over again today.  I created this nail art for this week's Nail That Technique Instagram challenge glitter tint prompt...

Materials I used:
Base Coat - Yellow Stopper (because this is a peel off base I typically only use it for glitter designs or designs I don't intend to wear for long).
Latex Mani Mask - Ellagee 'Lickity Split Latex Mani Mask'
Glitter polish - Ciate 'Confetti'
DIY Tints - I used Sinful Colors 'Clear Coat,' 'Dream On' (purple), 'Endless Blue,' 'Happy Ending' (green), 'Let's Meet' (yellow), and Sephora by OPI 'What Aura Gonna Wear?' (pink).
Black polish - Sinful Colors 'Black on Black'
Make up sponge
Small brush
Small dotting tool
Top coat - Rica 'Glam Gloss'

I just wanted to take a minute and give you a pointer on applying glitter polishes.  I personally have a love-hate relationship with polishes.  I hate applying them and I hate taking them off, but I love the way they look.  Well, when I first applied this glitter polish I Friday I was too lazy to get all my nail art stuff out so I just went ahead and applied it using the applicator brush in the bottle.  After four coats I finally had the opacity I was happy with... (Please excuse the dark picture, I didn't have any of my photo set up out either.)

In my opinion four coats of any polish is way too much, three is usually pushing it for me.  So, when I re-applied this glitter polish today I started off by prepping my fingers with my favorite latex mani mask from Ellagee.  Just a note on latex, don't let your fingers touch where the latex is applied.  It sticks together (duh!).  I had to re-apply the latex after this picture because it pealed off most of my fingers when I separated them.

I then used a makeup sponge and sponged the glitter onto my nails, pretty much in the same manner that you would sponge a gradient.  Except I was aiming to apply glitter to my entire nail.  How is this any better or easier than using the applicator brush?  Well, the sponge absorbs much of the suspension base that the glitter is in, so when you apply it to your nail you get more glitter and less base.  With the sponged application I applied two coats versus the four with the previous application.

Because I don't own any tints I had to create my own.  This is very easy to do, and doesn't require many supplies.  You simply need a clear polish and colored polishes of your choice.  Some people mix the tints right in the bottle.  However, I am not that committed to anyone or few colors, so I just mixed mine in a painters pallet.

I mixed all my colors up front so that I could just get right into painting.

With my colors mixed and ready to go, I used a small detail brush and randomly applied tint over various areas.  I didn't do a specific pattern and I didn't worry about colors overlapping.

I repeated this process on all my nails.  I thought my tints were a little too thin so I did about three applications to get the opacity that I wanted.  When I was happy with the glitter tint, I applied a layer of top coat.

When my top coat was dry, I used the smallest dotting tool I own and created a leopard print.  This is essentially random weird circles, most of them open as well as some oblong random dots.

On my ring finger I created the print on my entire nail but on the rest did a cascading pattern.  After a couple minutes of drying time I applied a final layer of topcoat.

Sadly, because I am falling behind on my nail art challenges I only did one hand for this nail art design.  I usually do both hands and wear them for a couple of days but I don't want to get much further behind on my challenges.  But I did put together a little macro collage to give you a close up of the glitter, glitter tint, and glitter tint with leopard print.

I really like the nail art design, it is something I'll definitely be recreating again in the future.  I really wish I had more time to wear it.  I hope you enjoyed this nail art design as much as me.  Thanks for stopping by, see you next time.

Your Fellow Plebe,



Lattice Glitter Gradient

For Christmas, my best friend got me Sally Hansen Triple Shine 'Dream Sequins.'  I love copper tones so this was just perfect for me.  It has been sitting in my untried stash for far too long, but I was having a hard time deciding what to do with it.  This is what I finally came up with...

I started off with OPI 'Thank Glogg It's Friday' and a quick drying top coat.  I was originally going to use a black base color but I decided that this rich burgundy color would give this nail art design a more sultry look.

Once my polish dried I applied stripping in tape in a criss-cross pattern near my cuticle. With the tapes in place I sponged my 'Dream Sequins' over the lattice.  I did this in 3-4 coat applications, concentrating nearer to the cuticle with each layer.  Of course, I then removed the tapes, performed some clean up and applied a final layer of top coat.

 I am really glad that I went with this burgundy base color instead of the black.  Though the black and copper would have been nice, I think this combo is slightly more unique.  I'm also glad I finally got to use this beautiful glitter polish (though I know I'll be complaining later when I have to take it off).

I hope you enjoyed this simple yet glitzy nail art design.  Thank you for stopping by, see you next time.

Your Fellow Plebe,