Nails and Friends

I finally got to see one of my awesome friends, Gabi, before heading off to my grandma's for Thanksgiving, so of course I did her nails.  Unfortunately I didn't have my whole collection with me, so I couldn't do the Galaxy Nails that she wanted :( Still, we had a nice time visiting (and plotting).

Isn't she pretty? :)

I used Turquoise and Caicos by Essie, and Stroke of Brilliance, also by Essie.

Thanks to Gabi for the use of her fingernails!

Matte and Shiny

To create this look, I painted my nails with Black Out by Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear, painted a matte top coat over it, and use plain clear nail polish to create shiny polka dots.

Birthday Nails

It's time for birthday nails!And they just happened to match my camera strap...

I used Cleopatra by China Glaze, Re-fresh Mint by China Glaze, and Jet Set to Paris by L'Oréal.

Galaxy Nails

A while ago, I saw some awesome nails here, but never felt like actually bothered to try it.   Mine are supposed to look something like this:

pretty pretty!

I used a piece of a dishwashing sponge and dabbed the colors on one at a time before adding the white spots.

I used way to many polishes, so I'm not going to bother to list them all :)

I've also been using my DSLR camera for the pictures in the last few posts, instead of the iPhone, because the resolution is higher.  Let me know which you prefer!

Matte Gradient

I never wrote an update on my Halloween costume, did I? Well, the party was tons of fun and I won the best individual costume prize that I didn't even know about!  So I got a cute little bucket with some candy and stickers as a prize.  I also had some Halloween-y nails:

I used Let's Talk by SinfulColors and Black Lace Creme by N.Y.C. (neither are brands I would recommend, but they were the colors I wanted to use)

Since a gradient of anything (color, sparkle, etc.) seems pretty popular these days, I tried to do something that wasn't too crazy, so I used a soft brown color, gold sparkles, and topped it off with matte top coat.

I used Steel Grey by Rimmel London, Cleopatra by China Glaze and Matte Me Crazy by NYC.

V Nails

I love all those manicures out there that use tape, but it takes so darn long and I usually mess it up.  But I got me a new Essie polish, so I thought it would be a good time to try it out again. The trick is to take the tape off RIGHT AFTER you paint over it, so the polish doesn't get sticky. Isn't it fun? 

I used Jet Set to Paris by L'Oreal and Brazilliant by Essie.

Water Marbling? I think yes.

I've never tried water marbling successfully, it usually ended up as a massive glob of goo on my finger nail.  Only this time, I found that if you keep your nail underwater until you whisk away the rest of the polish on the surface of the water, your nail only picks up one coat of polish and it looks pretty coooll :)

Unfortunately, I used Vikings colors, something I didn't notice until I was completely done with both of my hands.  I hate football.  All football.  I don't discriminate.  Here's a good video, although it's not a classic marble pattern.

I also had a couple of spaces on my nails that didn't get covered by the polish, so I just filled them in with a bit of gold glitter polish.

I used Let's Talk by Sinful Colors, Sunshine by Avon, and Cleopatra by China Glaze.

Micro-lending Rocks!

So over the past couple of years, I've been trying to consistently lend money through a website, Kiva, to individuals around the world.  It's really an awesome cause and a wonderful feeling when you are able to reloan the money once it's repaid.  Kiva's mission statement is:

"We are a non-profit organization with a mission to 

connect people through lending to alleviate poverty. 

Leveraging the internet and a worldwide network of

microfinance institutions, Kiva lets individuals lend as

little as $25 to help create opportunity around the world."

Sound pretty good, right? So far, I've lent to 3 people.

It's an amazing organization, and if you ever need to, you can withdraw your money once it's been repaid (but who would ever want to do that?).