Hello again team iPhone!

I had the Samsung Note 4 for years, but it was time to move on. For many reasons, I decided to go back to having an iPhone again. I’m pretty glad I did, and one of the main reasons is that camera is so, SO much better than the Note’s was!

Can you tell how much nicer this photo is from the ones in my last post? The old photos look so much more yellow, and this one also looks crisper. Super happy about this. Here I’ve got another no chip french manicure, using OPI “Alpine Snow” but switching it up for the pink and using “Bubblebath” instead of “Passion”. There’s only a tiny difference between the two, but “Bubblebath” is much more pink where as “Passion” is more of a peachy toned pink. Both are very transparent. The smile line is completely hand painted, and I didn’t even use any brushes to clean them up.

Unfortunately, I don’t remember what the names of these gel polishes were, but they were both from Essie. How gorgeous is this color combo though??

Now OPI’s “Are We There Yet?” is a borderline nude color, which if I haven’t confessed before I kind of loathe nude nails, but this color is peachy enough that I like it. It also has the most subtle goldish shimmer to it which takes it from kind of boring to classy.

 Seeing as I follow a billion nail artists on Instagram I’ve noticed this mirror effect chrome powder trend going around. How could I pass this up?! I almost immediately ordered some to try out. I talked about it at school and all my teachers were just as excited to see how it worked so I brought it in for a demonstration once it arrived. Like it was meant to be, one of my teachers was already wearing a plain white no chip so she was my hand model.

I wasn’t sure if it would work since the mani was a couple days old, so I applied one thin layer of clear top coat, cured, and wiped the tacky layer off. Using the eyeshadow brush that came with the chrome powders I buffed the silver onto the nail. I tried to blow off the excess, but beware this stuff is kinda messy! Lots of hand washing involved after but totally worth it. Applied one more layer of clear top coat to seal the chrome in and finished off like any other gel polish mani. Make sure you use a top coat you don’t mind messing up, as it will leave some tiny little silver flakes in the topcoat that will transfer to every other color you use this topcoat on.

But I mean, mirror silver nails. How cool is that? I’ll have a dedicated chrome top coat to have mega-shiny nails!

Is it 2002 again?

Pretty much from the beginning of when I started painting my nails regularly, my go to polish was black- possibly with a glitter top coat. I was pretty into the punk/metal/grunge look much to my parents dismay. Even now when I really can’t make up my mind and don’t feel strongly about doing my nails any certain color I still head for the black or so dark they might as well be black bottles.

This is a great combo, and would have delighted my 8th grade self.

Gel Polishes Used:

ASP “Black Beauty”
ASP “Shimmer Top Coat”

Even more exciting news!

The last couple months have just been so busy! Kyle and I have started planning our wedding, which will have lots of diy that I will be sure to post about afterwards. And for the last month I have been in nail school! Finally!! I’m still so thrilled that I’m finally able to pursue my passion. I’m really enjoying school, we’ve been zipping through the basics, and I can’t wait to move on to artificial services and art.

the first few days of polishing and french tips

I’ll post more of my school nails soon! I’m going to try to find time in between work and school to get back to blogging, but if you want to see more of my nails faster- follow me on instagram @nerdyfornails 🙂

Selling on Etsy again!

I’ve decided to try to sell on Etsy again since I’ve got some stuff I’ve made lying around again. So far I’ve listed some hats I’ve made, and I’ll probably be putting some jewelry up there soon too. Please go check it out (and of course I’d love for people to buy and enjoy the things I’ve made!) 🙂

Above is what is currently in my store! https://www.etsy.com/shop/grablax

Valentine’s Day Nails

I’m sorry I haven’t had much time to blog lately! I’ve just been super busy with work and family stuff and haven’t even had time to be doing my nails, much less writing about them!

I did get to go out to a super fancy Italian restaurant for Valentine’s day though, which was a much welcome break from the craziness February has been. My boyfriend Kyle and I went on a double date with his brother Richie and his girlfriend Taylor to Vivere in the Italian Village downtown. It was super classy and everything was delicious.

Bathroom selfies are necessary when you get this dressed up…

Since I haven’t done anything neat with my nails lately, I felt like I needed to step it up for this dinner. One of my favorite nail artists I follow on Instagram is @getbuffednails, who inspired the swirly heart nail with one of her sets.

I used Lechat mood changing gel polish “Heart’s Desire”, which in this picture you can see the different shades on my pointer finger. The dark red is the color of the polish when your hands are cold, and the bright red is when your hands are warm.

Cold Lechat “Heart’s Desire”

I used Color Club Halo Hues “Harp On It” for the base of the bling nail for extra sparkle, as well as the base for the negative space heart on my ring finger. I outlined the heart in ASP “Selfish” with a very thin coat so some of the holographic-ness still shows through.

Warm Lechat “Heart’s Desire”

We also went to the Chicago Auto Show afterwords, and I was super tempted to pretend I was one of the models showing off the cars. Can I please have that little red car? Haha.

 

Gel Polishes Used:

ASP “Selfish”
ASP “Black Beauty”
Lechat “Heart’s Desire”
Color Club “Harp On It”

Seven Years!

Today is a special day, Kyle and I’s seven year anniversary! It’s been a nice relaxing day off, we went out to breakfast and wandered around town since this is a freakishly warm December. We’re going to go rent a couple movies and cuddle on the couch, and later tonight he’s going to cook me a fancy dinner!

I can’t wait to spend many more years with the love of my life!

Throwback Thursday: Neons done with my left hand!

I’m mostly right handed, and in this case I smudged my left hand so I decided to take a picture of my right hand without cleaning up to show how much I’d progressed in doing nails ambidextrously.

The great thing is, since this I’ve gotten even better at painting with my left, hand, I’ll have to post another right hand picture soon!