Game of Thrones

Hello fine readers! Today's post is bond to be long. I never intend to write long posts, it just happens. It doesn't help that today's post is about my latest obsession; the book series/ TV show, A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin, better known as Game of Thrones on HBO. I am currently enjoying the third installment of the book series, A Storm of Swords, and with the second season of the series just wrapping up, I wanted to do a nail art design in celebration of the awesomeness of the books and show.

If you have not seen the show nor read the books than I would like to warn you of SPOILERS! I'm going to explain my design and I would hate to ruin anything for anyone, so here is your warning.

The setting for my design is book 2/season 2. I wanted to do a nail art design for every "King" (despite my feelings for some of them *cough Joffery cough*) and I also wanted to represent most of my favorite characters. Sadly I had to leave out the onion knight, but I'm sure to do more designs later.

Tattoo Nails

Hello everyone! Today's post is tattoo nails! What that means is that I used temporary tattoos on my nails. I got the one's I used from a quarter machine, so this is a relatively inexpensive design. I never thought to try this technique until I saw this Cute Polish video. It's a very simple and cute idea! I plan to do many more in the future for those days where I am feeling lazy but still want something pretty to look at. 

 So all you need to do is paint you nails a base color, preferably a light color or white so that the tattoo can show through. I went with essence A Lovely Secret. It's a beautiful light purple color, with little flakes of purple glitter in it. I would have used white, but I really hate white nail polish. It just doesn't apply well to my nails. I used a color that was light and present within in all of the tattoos that I used.

Once you have your base color is dry, cut out the image you want to put on your nail and remove the cover that protects the tattoo. Place the tattoo down on to your nail like you would your skin. Dip a Q-tip or cotton ball in water and place onto the back on that tattoo. Hold for 30 seconds, at least. The tattoo should come off easy. Seal with a top coat and you are done! Easy peasy. 

What I used:

Base coat: Essie Ridge Filling Base Coat

Base color: essence A Lovely Secret 

Temporary tattoos

Water

Q-tips

Top coat: Seche Vite

Cute polish also did another video where you uses temporary tattoo paper and creates her own tattoos. I was so excited by this! Next time I got to Michaels or any craft store I am going to look for this paper and I'll price it for you guys. I doubt it's horribly expensive. How cool is that? To be able to create your own tattoos, how awesome. It's really cool what people come up with.


Until next time,
☮Erin 

Galaxy Nails

Hello! Today's post is about galaxy nails! I decided to try galaxy nails in honor of the 25th Anniversary of the television series, Star Trek The Next Generation. The cast is doing a tour for the anniversary and some of them made a stop at the Phoenix Comicon, so I was also to see the anniversary panel and a couple of the side ones with some of the cast. It was SO fun, I went to all four days of the event and I had the best time!

On to the nail art! The first picture below is actually of my second attempt at galaxy nails, which I wore for the last three days of the con, while the second picture is of my first and failed attempt, which I wore for the first day. Gosh do I hate how my first attempt came out.

Second attempt (success) 

I really love how the colors blended in this second attempt. This post would be far to long if I explained everything I did, so I'll just summarize for you. I first painted all of my nails black (two coats) and then I sponged on the beginning of the nubulas with white. After that is where it gets complicated, basically I just sponged on a few more colors and then did a layer of glitter polish for stars and then a top coat. I found my inspiration for my nubulas from the tutorial that I found on Copythatcopycat. As for what I used, besides the usual- base coat, top coat, I used a makeup sponge and glitter polish. 

First attempt (fail)

For my first attempt, I found my inspiration while watching this Cutepolish video. Cutepolish always has some cute tutorials and this one was good but I wasn't a big fan of how my big stars turned out. I also used two different glitter polishes, one with silver glitter and another with purple and blue glitter. It was glitter over kill in my opinion. If I had left out the ugly big white stars and the colored glitter, this design would have been cute. The only addition tool I used for this first design was dotting tools.

And as I mentioned, Phoenix Comicon was so much fun! I must thank my best friend Tara again for paying for my pass. Being unemployed is really crappy and depressing, so it's wonderful to have such a great support system. She supports me in many ways, like my nail polish addiction and my need to see all the Star Trek people. I couldn't ask for a better best friend.

My favorite part was sitting second row, near center, to the panel for Michael Dorn. Michael Dorn is the actor who played Lt. Worf on both TNG and Deep Space 9. I've always loved the character and after listening to Michael Dorn gush about aviation, I am completely smitten with him as well. My boyfriend might have to watch out haha ;) Here's a picture I took of Michael Dorn. He looks as if he is staring right at me! It was so cool and next to him in a picture of him in his Klingon makeup.

Michael Dorn/ Worf

Now that I have finished gushing about he very sexy Michael Dorn, I have some questions for y'all! Have you ever attempted galaxy nails? Did you like your outcome? What technique did you use? I was very happy with my second attempt at galaxy nails and I hope to do more in the future, possibly a tutorial as well. What is something you geek out about? I defintly geek out about a lot of things, like Worf haha. :) I also found a great video for all who are interested. It's the taping of the panel, the whole hour! If you like Michael Dorn, you will enjoy this!

Until next time,
☮Erin 

Nature and it's Elements

Hello people! So today's post is a little bittersweet. I just love my design but it comes with a story that doesn't end so happily. Bundle Monster was having a nail art contest on Facebook last month. The rules of the contest were to use Bundle Monster products, such as their image plates, to create a design and submit it on Facebook. What I am bitter about is that this contest turned into a popularity contest. It wasn't about talent at all! So many great entries (including my own) didn't even make it to the finals because of the voting process! Ugh. With contests like this I wish the contestants would just vote for each other and not have to get friends and family involved because I feel like it is not fair. Most of my friends and family are lazy, so my votes were minimal and like I said, so many great entries didn't make it to the final voting and some really crappy entries did. Anyways enough complaining.

So about my entry...I wanted to do something different and exciting, and for some reason I was channeling Captain Planet. To my delight, I had images for every element! If you don't know who or what Captain Planet is, he's from a cartoon I watched as a kid. The elements used in the show are earth, fire, wind, water, and heart. Basically there are some kids from around the world who can control an element and when they combine powers, they summon Captain Planet. The point is to save the world and protect the planet because Gia (who is essentially mother nature) needs help preserving the planet. Unfortunately, Iwas unhappy with the way 'heart' was coming out so I just decided to go with nature itself.

Despite the outcome of the contest, I was very happy that I entered. So let's take a look at my entry.

Asian Inspired Nails

Hello! I have a fun design for you today. It's my boyfriend's birthday and to celebrate we had a get together last night at a sushi restaurant. For the occasion I wanted to be festive, so I made this Asian stamping design. I just love layering stamps and I am very happy with the way this layering combo came out.

First I painted my nails with my base coat and then with two coats of a sheer gold polish. With the two coats, this polish almost looked like a foil but it applies sheer, therefore it cannot be a foil right? There are so many different kinds of finishes and some are still a little confusing to me, despite tutorials haha. Anyways, it's a nice gold and it's cheap! I just love Sally Hansen because it's on the cheaper side and I have never had a negative experience using it. In fact, I love it because it applies easily and there is a variety of colors. Once dry, I stamped on red fans and then the black symbols. It's always so nice when stamping combos work!

What I used:

Base Coat: essie Ridge filling base coat

Base Color: Sally Hansen Golden-I

Fan Color: Ulta Non-stop Red

Symbols: Konad Black stamping polish

Top Coat: Seche Vite 

Stamps: Fans (BM 215) Symbols (BM 203, BM 206, and BM 225)

Curious about what the symbols mean? Me too! So my smart boyfriend pointed out that these symbols are Kanji, which to my understanding, is a written form of Japanese. 

友 ---> which I'm thinking means friend or friendship, are the symbols on my pinky fingers, right middle finger, and thumbs.

愛 ---> which I think means love, is the symbol on my middle fingers and thumbs.

The last symbol, located on my index fingers and ring fingers, is a mystery to me. After researching I was unable to identify it, so if you know what the symbol means, please let me know! I really want to know what it means. Also, I didn't realize there was another symbol on BM 221, darn! Next time... I hope you enjoyed my post! I have a few posts lined up to share with you, so keep a look out. 

Until next time,

☮Erin