Making that leap

Well today I have no real new nail art. I just felt the need to share what it is I have been doing instead of blogging lately.

Over the last year I've had so many friends and family give me feedback that it's too bad I don't live closer. More than a few are aware that you can buy nail art and have asked - when am I going to start selling them? The girl at my local nail supply has even asked - Do you do that? I've even gotten requests for different designs through my website. Up to now, I have hesitated to go that route partly because of just outright fear of failure and partly because I wasn't sure what would be involved in making that happen. What are the up front costs involved for materials, where to sell it, etc?

When I started getting it from my Dad and my husband, that was it, I needed to seriously look into it. Just for the sake of simplicity, ideally I would like to have used my website. I already have a merchant account through my provider and currently use that account to accept Credit Cards for my services. I have been known to take risks to try something new, but at the same time, I like to keep an eye on my bottom line.

After a few very frustrating days, I was able to determine that my website provider required that I pay an additional fee per month to add a web store to my site. My inner cynic tells me that it's great I have so many supportive people around me, but will I be able to sell enough per month to cover the cost??

Ultimately, I decided that it wasn't worth the risk. So I looked at other options; ebay, etsy, craigslist, etc. In the meantime, I was finally able to purchase some supplies I would need and I got to work. In the end I decided to go with ebay since they are no longer charging you for a basic listing with them as a seller. Of course, that does have some limitations, but those limitations are more than acceptable to me since I'm not bringing a huge amount of inventory to the table right off.  

I took some pictures of my product and this morning I set everything all up. You'll notice I've added a link above to a complete listing of what I have available. Linked it all to my website as well...posted a few links to facebook and here I am.

I thought I would feel more nervous about this venture than I am. I'm less anxious about anyone buying them and more relieved that I did it. It's like I did it and now I can focus on making it work. I've been a firm believer that whatever you put into the things you do is what you get out of them. That's a philosophy that had one pretty good for me so far.

What do you think? Am I nuts? Would you or have you ever put yourself out there like that?

Let me try it one more time!

Good Morning and Happy Hump Day! It's Wednesday and today I'm a little sad. It's my last day being the primary teacher at my daughter's preschool. After this, I'm only scheduled to be "hall monitor/time out" and then the school year will be done. My babygirl is growing up and I'll miss spending my mornings with the other kids too.

Since I'm a little bummed, I decided to post more blue squishy goodness to cheer me up! Yay! Yah, I really am that easy to cheer up.

I stamped this one, but in hindsight, I probably would have done better to use my dotting tool. I just wanted to try out that plate and see how it looked. 

I just can't stress enough how awesome this looks and I have gotten many compliments on these. Ok, one more just because I can and it's awesome.

I hope you enjoyed my blue squishy love fest this morning and thank you for reading!!

Delicate Bridal

Good Morning and Happy Monday! I'm off teaching preschool today, I was supposed to have the day off but I volunteered to cover for one of the other mom's who sprained her wrist. Poor girl has this HUGE splint on it and she really can't do anything with it. Besides, I like teaching these kids and there's not that many weeks left in the school year.

On to today's nail art. This is one I did during Valentine's but I find it still very much appropriate for the bridal season.

I decided to do today's pix large because this is such a delicate design, I really want you to see it properly.

The base color is a Gelish color, Taffeta with red and green polish stamped over it.  A little regular nail polish remover and the bride is sporting a low-key but pretty look for the honeymoon! 

That's it for today, tomorrow I will show the mani I have planned for my own wedding this summer. To say it's a bit non-traditional would be an understatement. Thank you for reading and have a Groovy day!

Hearts and Brides

Good Morning! I hope your Sunday is going well, I apologize for the lateness of my post but I'm a bit sick. With that in mind, I'm going to really short today. Enjoy!

Here I stamped the hearts in red, then stamped over them again in white to give the design the illusion of depth.

That's all I have for today, I hope you enjoyed. Have a great day and thank you for reading!

Who doesn't love a good matte look?

Good Morning and Happy Friday Eve!! I stayed up a little late last night doing this mani and my mani for "Fish Egg Friday". Starting tomorrow, the theme for all my nail art for the next week (if not longer) will be Bridal! What better way to start than with a caviar mani??

That all begins tomorrow, I have not forgotten today's Nail Art!! I have been dying to try a matte stamping design and I finally worked out one that I really really like!! I hope you do tooo.

I am just sooo in love with this look!! That's "Riveting" from China Glaze's Hunger Games Collection. It's second only to "Ruby Pumps" as my favorite polish. Adding the matte top coat was really what made this look for me.

You know I took more than a few pictures of this, so I'm going to show them all.

That's all I have for you lovelies today. Don't forge that this week is bridal week and spread the word to those friends looking to get married this summer! ;)

Spring Cherry Blossoms

Good Morning and Happy Hump Day! I'm so very much into the spring vibe this week, even though we don't actually have "spring" this far south in Florida. We have two seasons, hot and wet; hotter and wetter. Spring and Fall are just hotter and wet. All that being said, I still like the idea of spring - it just makes my creative juices flow!

Today I did some Cherry Blossoms. I've never done these before but it is simple and straightforward and the effect is just sooo pretty. I started out using Orly's "Snow Cone" from the Sweet Collection, and I think this one may be discontinued but it's such a pretty light blue.

I added the flowers and the branches using acrylic paint.

That's about it for today's nail art. I hope you enjoyed it because I know I certainly enjoyed doing it. It's all cheery without being loud! 

Spring Green

Happy Monday!! I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend. I certainly did! I changed my gelish last night and it was completely weird! Usually when I remove my old gelish, the product sometimes completely comes off on the cotton and nothing is left on my nail. I opened my foil to discover that I had broken a corner of my pointer fingernail on my left hand and the gelish had been holding it firmly in place. The broken nail was actually still stuck to the gelish on the cotton ball. In retrospect, I should have taken a picture because it was just soo unusual!

I was too tired last night to do more nail art, whoever, I did an extra one the night before! woohoo! On to the pictures!

This is such a cute delicate design and I finally got around to it! I like the overall look, but I was sorely tempted to use a matte topcoat on the green - and I may still try it. I'm on the fence about it. I just love Emerald City so much! 

That's pretty much it for today. I hope you enjoyed! I'm already planning my "Fish Egg Friday" Mani and I've got everything ready to go. So many ideas and the need to copy designs I've seen from the other ladies that I've had to write them all down so I don't forget! lol

Have a Groovy Monday!

OPI Ink Stamping!

Good Morning! I hope you enjoyed yesterday's Fish Egg Friday post. I certainly enjoyed doing it and reading what everyone else came up with!

This morning's NOTD nail art is OPI's OPI Ink with a stamped design in silver.  I was trying out different full nail stamp designs from the recent plates that I purchased. I got so many that it's going to take awhile for me to get through them all. Take a look!

The design on the plate had half the nail covered with the stamped color as the background base color as a cut out and then switched on the other side to the exact opposite. No matter how many times I re-did it, I could not get the stamp to show the outlined flowers, only the cut-out side. Even though the full design didn't come out I still kind of liked it.

I tried to do it so you'd get different coverage on each nail, just to demonstrate how different it can look depending on how much you cover the nail with the design. I also took lots of pictures from different angles.

I hope you enjoyed today's post and thanks to everyone for their comments yesterday and the great participation from all the readers and the bloggers!!  Have a groovy Saturday and enjoy the weekend!

Fish Egg Friday!!

I'm baaaaack!! I decided to go ahead and double post today and bring you "Fish Egg Friday"! This was a last minute blog community event and I'm very glad I decided to do this. I've never done a caviar manicure and I'm certainly glad I gave it a shot!! Look for more of these style nail art manicures in the future.

This style nail art first appeared on the runway last year at Mercedes Benz New York Fashion Week and you can read about  Dashing Diva Pro's avant guarde look here.  This is the specific look I attempted to replicate today! I apparently need to be clear about that since there's a DIY kit available by Ciate, a brand from the UK and it very much differs from the original look. Now on to the pictures!!

These were all taken in bright sunlight to highlight the glitter and to demonstrate what a difference it makes to the overall look. Personally, I feel that without the glitter, the look risks looking like nothing more than a smudged up black nail from any distance. Let's be honest here, our nails don't get noticed up close unless we're in the habit of poking people in the eye.

Here in the second shot, you can see how the glitter as become part of the texture.  I used Orly's "Shine On Like a Diamond" as a top coat here both to get the glitter effect  and to secure the beads to my nail firmly. I have previously discovered from working with micro-beads that using a fast dry top coat can sometimes effect the color of the beads by almost leeching the color from the beads and making it bleed into your design. If you want to skip my rant, just jump to the end to get a list of all the other gals participating today!

~Rant Time~

I am going to take a moment to talk about why I decided to participate in "Fish Egg Friday". I am a professional nail technician, I am licensed by my state and this "Ciate caviar manicure" product is not marketed to me as a professional. I also don't do product reviews except in the most incidental manner (I used this, I don't use that, etc.)  This product is not even available in my area except online. The recent unprofessional conduct of their PR dept toward the beauty bloggers as a whole embarrasses me. Outside the fact that I am a former DIY-er who made the transition to professional, One of the things I enjoy about my profession is the industry as a whole and the professional code of conduct that doesn't include that sort of behavior. We don't put each other down publicly or behave negatively towards each other. This industry attracts certain types of people and those that flourish are caring, supportive, positive bundles of energy.

This is a unique industry. It's one of the few industries where duplication and imitation is what helps us grow, evolve and push us in new directions while still offering quality, iconic products/services. Offering consistent quality and accessibility is what gives your "branded technique" staying power not legal action against those who chose to not promote your product to achieve a look you didn't create. One has only to look into the history of the "French Manicure" to see an example of how it really works. Exclusivity and trademarking is not what has made this field the biggest growth industry at a time of world-wide recession. It has been it's accessibility of quality to the average person at every level which has made us all flourish.

I expect the folks at Ciate to follow in the footsteps of Max Factor and Orly and their "french manicure" and re-orient their PR staff appropriately. This type of behavior may work in other industries, but it doesn't fly in this one. Here, the rule of the day is either adjust the quality or adjust it's accessibility (price).


Thanks for hanging around to read my rant! Here's a list of the other bloggers participating in today's "Fish Egg Friday" be sure to check out their GREAT manicures cuz this is a amazing line-up!! The list keeps getting longer so be sure to check back and see all these new great caviar manis! You can also keep up with everyone else on twitter who's jumped in using #fisheggfriday!

Can you be subtle with a color this vampy?

Happy Friday everyone! I hope you have a groovy week and are ready for the weekend!

I'm a huge fan of Sammy and her wicked stamping skills, and some of my favorites of hers are done with darker colors, so I decided to give it a shot. I love what I do, I love doing fun bold designs on myself, but I am a professional and it's usually not my tastes that I need to be catering to! I'm not a fan of dark nail polish colors but I just loved this one in the bottle since the moment I laid eyes on it. I was disappointed in how little glitter actually comes out on the nail - but those non-glittery clients I have (yes, they do exist!) actually like it that it isn't so glittery and sparkly. It's these gals that I had in mind for today.

I picked that stamp design because it's much more subtle without being almost invisible.The nail color is OPI's OPI Ink.

Here's another angle with the light coming from a different direction and you can see how the color goes from a bright blurple to almost black. It's not a duochrome but you definitely get different looks depending on the lighting.  I find it much more suitable for a club than anything else but everyone has their own aesthetic.

I hope you enjoyed today's post and thanks for reading! See you tomorrow! 

Funky Retro NOTD

Good Morning and Happy Hump Day! Today's NOTD is definitely retro and funky. I am in a springtime mood but that seems to be expressing itself in contrasting colors with retro and funky stamping designs!  I've decided to not fight that at all and just go with it and see where it takes me.  Now, onto the pictures!

Sadly, no amount of adjustment using software is ever going to really show that awesome light pink. It's a bubblegum pink with a gold shimmer. It's Milani's "Sunkissed glow". I often call it my "barbie pink" lol

I did a few more of these designs yesterday, so look for them this week. I chose this color combo for my Mani of the week that I'll be walking around with for the next few days and I'll be showing off that design later in the week too!

Enjoy and have a groovy hump day!!

Sock Monkeys!!

Good Morning and Happy Monday!! Today's NOTD nail art design is Sock Monkeys.

Back in the 40's the toy "sock monkeys" were a easily home-made toy out of socks. Here's an example.

Now most of us older people and a few younger people remember these toys. I saw this done on the internet somewhere and I just KNEW I had to do it!! Because who doesn't love sock monkeys????

I wore these for a week until I had seriously worn the tips off, you can see some of that in the pictures because I foolishly didn't photograph them right after I did it. But I LOVED wearing this and I will likely do that again. I know being a teacher all last week that the kids loved it too because I incorporated my monkey nails into songs about monkeys.

I hope you enjoyed today's nails and I'll be back with another nail design that I'll be wearing this week. I am absolutely in the mood to be rocking some spring themes!!

Easter Designs

Good Morning and a Happy Easter to those that celebrate it!

I have two designs for you today! One was inspired by one of the other mom's at my daughter's school and the other is a culmination of all the things I've done this week. First I'm going to start with the one inspired by Kelly. She's a deeply religious christian gal and a real sweetheart. Her family celebrates the Easter season as a religious holiday only. That is what really inspired me to do this mani.

That one is for you Kelly!!

My second one is the one I did for myself to wear today and tomorrow at the school Easter Egg Hunt. I decided to do a little of everything with this one. I loved the color polishes I chose for the Kelly inspired design so I went ahead and did that again for this one too.

My pre-schooler really likes this one and I did it more for her than for me.  I hope you enjoyed today's designs and enjoy the holiday (for either religion) or if that's not your thing - you just have a great day!!