MSMD, my take on RLN

Happy monday!  I'm kidding.  But it is memorial day, and that's something to be happy about!  Wait, no it isn't.  But it's so festive, with barbecues and seeing family, hanging out outdoors, burning your skin to a crisp...

But more important than that (to me) it's Monkey See, Monkey Do Monday!  For today's mani, I took inspiration from Rebecca Likes Nails' blog post on her modified leopard french!  I love hers being nude, but as she explains in her post, her nail stains were magically gone is what sort of inspired her to do this as a nude french.  Mine are here to stay lol I was quite happy with how this turned out, and I will be recreating this again in the future, but alas, I was busy getting posts together for this challenge, so this was worn for all of like 20 minutes.  Yeah.  Dedication.  Look it up. oh yeah, click that pic to go see her post=]

As a wise young lad once told me, "Here you go!"

This is my very first free handed leopard print done on myself, and I had only done one other on my little cousins bitten way down nubs so I thought it would be super easy to do to myself.  It was, but the thing is I spaced my brown dots waaaay too close together.  Definitely gonna remember to disperse them further apart next time.  Other than that, I have no qualms with this manicure=]

This is three coats of Deborah Lippman Footloose, I taped off and did my tips in Color Club Disco Nap.  For my brown dots I used OPI A-taupe the Space Needle, and the black leopardness with Sally Hansen Hard as Nails..whatever the name of that black is. it's just black y'all!  I did all that little stuff with my teeny dotting tools.

I topped this off with Poshe, and started with Sally Hansen Double Duty.

What do you think?  Is anyone else going over to their grandma's house for memorial day?  Are you gonna wear sunscreen?  Um, even if you don't celebrate you should still wear that.

On a different note, I start cosmetology school on Tuesday!  OH MY GOD.  My mom took me makeup shopping yesterday, because she loves me and knows I'm broke.  Since I got home from that, I haven't been able to sleep.  Remember those first day jitters from high school, and even college?  Did you ever get them so bad two days in advance?  Seriously.  I cannot freaking wait.  I'm going part-time since I'm still gonna work full-time, so it's gonna take me about two years.  I think it will be fun=]  Any other cosmetology school veterans out there? Tips, tricks?

Oh ps- that definitely means a makeup haul post is in the making

...it mostly rhymes with shmrevlon. =]

Summer Challenge: Day 2!

Today is the second day of the Purple Crumpet Fairy Summer Challenge!

The theme for this mani the Chelsea Flower Show!

I know nothing about flower shows, but I have plenty of floral stamp designs in my Cheeky collection, so here it is:

 Sorry for the blur! I could not get my camera to focus on these at all..I think i messed with the settings the other day and just messed everything up..

Quick note before the specs:  I've been using my Sally Hansen double duty base and top coat for a few days now, and for someone who changes their nails daily, this stuff seems to do the job!  My nails are no longer chipping off at the tips and looking a little rough..they just look normal when I take off my polish! anyway..

This is two coats of Revlon Fearless on all fingers except the ring, which has two coats of Maybelline Color Show Porcelain Party.  Then I used two designs that seemed to go well together, and stamped on my thumb and index fingers with Sally Hansen French White, and Revlon Fearless on the ring.  Topped off with Sally Hansen double duty, and then Seche Vite because I was sleepy=]

I am in love with this red.  To me, this is a true red. It could be a little bit deeper, just a teeny bit and then I would classify it completely as true, but I don't care I love it.  It's the perfect pin-up red, and the rockabilly girl that lives in my mind wears this all day long.  I really should let her out more often..

What do you think?  Check out the other lovelies participating, and join in if you want!

Debbie @ The Crumpet - http://thecrumpet.blogspot.co.uk/

Danielle - http://lbobeauty.blogspot.co.uk/

Neivys - http://maquiclubgirl.blogspot.com/

Jo @ Northern Nails - http://therockchicksrambles.blogspot.co.uk/

arlene @ http://euzefelus27-nailart.blogspot.com/

Helena - http://nailwish.blogspot.com.es/

Cuti-CLUE-les - http://cuti-clue-les.blogspot.com/

Katee - www.agirlandherpolish.blogspot.com

Alyssa at Fancy Phalanges - http://fancyphalanges.blogspot.com/

Sarah - http://www.ynails.blogspot.co.uk/

bec - http://lacquerdreams.blogspot.com.au/

Misha - www.enigmatic-rambles.blogspot.com

Sharon - http://whatcolorismycoat.blogspot.com/

Melissa - http://www.misadventuresofawannabemartha.com/

Laurie http://dressedupdigits.blogspot.com/

Lucie @ Lucy's Stash www.lucysstash.com

Emma @  http://manicurity.blogspot.com/

Caitlin - www.caitlinscreativecorner.blogspot.com

Jane- http://absolutevarnish.blogspot.com/

Vic @ Glowstars http://glowstars.net

Jackie- http://memasmanis-jackie.blogspot.com/

Rychelle @ Colorsplash Nails- http://colorsplashnails.blogspot.com/

Stella - http://mywetnails.blogspot.com

Missy @ http://missysmanis.blogspot.co.uk/

Kim @ http://apolishedaddiction.blogspot.com/

Christine @ http://lost-in-my-reverie.blogspot.com

MSMD takin' notes from the Chalkboard

This is my first Monkey See, Monkey Do Monday!

Here is the link to the fb page with the list of other bloggers who participate! (Aka- i forgot to do this last night when i was writing this post and am now on my tablet which makes everything a little different)all the cool kids!

I got my idea from this post from the seriously talented Sarah at Chalkboard Nails! Her title Ants at the picnic! is an accurate description of what this manicure represents.  Here you are, chillin' on your gingham blanket (why have I never seen one of those in real life?!) munchin' on some grindage, and your watermelon-y goodness is just waaay too much for these little dickheads to keep away from.  Hide your melons, hide your glasses of sweet southern iced tea!

I couldn't completely replicate the manicure, but really who wants to totally copy someone else? I had been wanting to do something with watermelons ever since I picked up my bottle of Finger Paints Louvre This Pink.  It is THE perfect shade for watermelon!  Then I came across that post and I was like oooh I gotta try it.  I'm glad I did!  You should hop on over and look at the original photos of what this mani SHOULD look like lol

 Alright, so I have a shit basket.  I did not keep the basket.  I tried, I really did! I think having more colors would have helped?  I just don't think mine were very baskety.. My basket is a base coat of OPI A-taupe the Space Needle as well as lines of French Quarter For Your Thoughts, and then some of A-taupe the Space Needle mixed with white for some..depth? Geez I dono.  At one point I said screw it trying to make little perforated lines and just vertical and horizontal.  And that's what makes a shit basket, y'all! I took that off, and had a different idea to try.

 For my take, I painted half my nail in Sally Hansen Hard as Nails French White, two coats, then stripes in Finger Paints Gogh Red! (maybe, I'm pretty sure that's what it is..)  and Pure Ice Black Rage for my ants.  For the grass I used China Glaze Turned Up Turquoise (I think this one is a neon..I got it so long ago)

For my index and pinky, I did the same as my thumb, just without the grass.  I tried to get the ants to march in line and to be following the sugary trail.  For my middle and ring fingers I did a base of Finger Paints Louvre This Pink, then painted on with Color Club Age of Aquarius right above the rind, and then my other no-name Maurices polish, some shade of dark teal.  For my seeds i used Pure Ice Black Rage.  I topped all of this off with Seche Vite, because it was time to go do laundry and upload these pics, and all that involves a trip to my parent's house. 

My seeds look a little irregular, and I do think I should have made way fewer of them.  Pretty much all of this except the base and top coats were done with my super teeny tiny nail art brush that I got at Sally's.  My right hand which I didn't take pictures of actually looks the same as my left, if not better.  I love my tiny nail art brush =]  Overall, it doesn't look perfect (uh probably because I did it) but it looks way better than what I could've done a while ago, without the right tools.  So I'm happy with it!  Perfect for summer=]

I am really enjoying posting..do you know how happy I am that 12 people wanna follow me?  Okay really ten because when I set it up I wanted to make sure it worked so I followed myself from both my accounts.  How lame am I?  TEN PEOPLE! =]

I am also now on facebook, I will soon be getting a button or something put on here to link to that www.facebook.com/ambersnailblog  Can you believe that nevernakednails, never.naked.nails, and nevernakednailsblog were supposedly "taken" fb names?  I looked em up, they don't exist! whatever..I decided if ambersnailblog didn't work I was just leaving it the way it came lol

Thanks for stopping by =]

Dot Experiment

As I said before, my dotting tools are here and I have begun the fun!
My skills are still needing improvement, both in the steady hand area and placement and whatnot of said dots...
this ain't my old high school pointillism assignment!  Though it could be, and that's an idea I'm putting into my head..someday it will become real.

Anyway, here is the mani that I had to completely redo because I realized I was basically subconsciously copying off of a friend, and that's just lame!  This is my cheap-o base coat (i think it's LA Colors..) plus two coats of Sally Hansen's HaN French White on most of my nails, and then for my accent nail I used Kleancolor Neon Aqua for my bases.

Next, I grabbed a dotting tool and started dottin'!  I went over my white nails with mediumish sized blue dots in the Neon Aqua, and decided that could not be enough.  I went back with a much smaller dotting tool and used Finger Paints I have no idea what red I used still.. and randomly put them in white spaces.  I even made a little heart at the tip of my accent nail, by making two dots next to each other with a tool and then just drawing them together to make the heart bottom. I went over it all with a nice coat of Poshe, and viola!

 

Sorry about the messy clean up, I really thought I got it all and then my camera tells me otherwise...

I still haven't really swatched my Kleancolor mini collection, except for my blue accent nail above.  From what I can tell from doing that one nail, it's a nice creme, opaque in two coats with a nice shiny finish.  I don't have any full-sized Kleancolor polishes but the brush is surprisingly nice and wide for the little bottles.  I will definitely be wearing these colors this summer! 

Anyway, I'll post more about my even better Kleancolor dotted manis tomorrow!

Pictures, and a little about me as well:

First off, I'm still new to this game.  My nail polish collection has doubled (probably a little more than doubled..) in the last couple of months.  I'm 21, and I've loved doing my nails since I was a little girl.  The thing is, Once I turned 16 I had to get a j-o-b and damnit if I had to go and get one at a fast food chain that doesn't allow fun in my uniform.  Oh, I got by with the little things.  Getting my nose pierced, dying my bangs ultraviolet.. but for some reason you just could not have your nails done in any sort of polish!