what I’m wearing and my poll results

Just a quickie post today to show you what I’m wearing on my nails.  But also to give you a little update on that poll I put together last week.

I kinda wish I was still wearing those peacock nails from my last post.  They were epic.  But the base coat I was wearing made the design peel right off.  Boo freakin hoo!  I will have to fill you in on this lamo calcium-building base coat soon.  But anyway, since the work week is in full effect now… I went with a quick mani sans nailart.  It’s a nice purple holo that I swatched only once here and have been wanting to wear again.  It’s called Aurora by AVON and it’s from their special Cosmic Collection.  I have been obsessing over every AVON polish I’ve gotten recently.  Their formulas are great, and the brushes?  I dunno what it is about their brushes, but I love them, especially when it comes to painting my dominant hand.  My AVON manis come out looking so clean and professional, even on my “Cinderella hand”.

Originally I wore two coats of Aurora and got perfect coverage.  It dried so fast that I was able to go to bed afterwards without seche vite on top, and still, I got no sheet marks in the morning!  That is unheard of for me.  I think I must lay directly on top of my hands or something because sleepy Jacqui can be a real manicure wrecker!  That’s why I cannot live without seche vite.  But this quickie dry polish was a nice surprise.  AND THEN…. then today I broke two nails!  Whhaaa?  Yup, two.  I think that calcium builder I’ve been using really sucks. So I had to file my nails down, to get them to all match.  But I’m okay with it, they don’t look too short.  So after filing them down I added another coat of Aurora to nicen it up.  So these photos are: one crappy base coat, and three coats of AVON Aurora, and no topcoat.  But really, you should only need two coats of this one.

Now, on to my poll results.  Remember last week I asked your opinion on changing my font?  Well, the results are in and it’s been a really close call between B and C!  Initially after posting this poll I got cold feet about changing my font… I thought I was really gonna miss my little hearts from my current Craftynail logo.  But you know what, my readers have spoken and it’s time for change!  I’m going balls to the wall and taking it one step further too!  I’m changing the whole look of my blog!  I’m keeping the shabby chic appearance, but I’m doing a full re-vamp.  So stay tuned.  Within the next week I should be unveiling my new and improved Craftynail blog !

And I just wanted to say thanks for all your support.  I love you guys. 😀

 

Crazy ash nails!

I didn’t know what to call these nails.  It’s kinda hard to summize them in a couple words!  So my title kinda rhymes with something.  I like to keep my blog G-rated, ya know? 😉

This is one of those manis that had no plan.  I just went for it.  I started with a basecoat and two coats of AVON Coral Reef.  Coral Reef is one of those coral shades that has a lot of pink in it.  It’s too pink for my mom so she gave it to me!  Shweeeeeet.   Then I stamped a Bundle Monster (BM-403) geometric shape with a silvery AVON shade called Platinum… but it didn’t show up too well.  So I did another stamp from that same plate using black nail polish.  That second stamp kinda looks like cogs inside a machine.  I like it.  I like it a lot.  (imagine Jim Carrey’s voice to get the full effect.)  Then I did a border around each nail in different colors.

Is it me, or does this nail art kinda look Indian somehow?

Also, I just finished my nails for the BIRDS theme of our Nail Art Ideas Linkup.  They came out wicked.  I wanted to post them tonite but I don’t have the energy to make that happen… so you’ll see them this weekend.  In the meantime, here’s some of the other nailarts from this month’s linkup.  For your viewing pleasure:

31st March – 6th April : Rain (April Showers)

7th – 13th April : Birds

 

Sugar skulls and alien heads!

Wait, sugar skulls and alien heads? YUP!  These kinds of noggins don’t normally go together… but these two designs were on the same bundle monster stamping plate… so why not?

These images you see on my nails are actually little diy decals that I made with nail polish.  They are so cute I’m glad I finally got a chance to wear them!  But it’s been two weeks since I made them (original post here)… and they got a little brittle.  Plus, my house is cold and that seems to make them even more brittle.   So I tried to warm them up before I applied them to make them more pliable.  I have one of those neck warmer things that you microwave, so I set my decals on that for a minute so they’d be more bendy.  That actually did help in getting them to fit the curve of my nail better. Oh, and two coats of seche topcoat helped too. 🙂  I also added studs at the end by sticking them into my topcoat while it dried.  The studs really made the mani come together.  Before studs- meh.  After studs- wicked!

Also, I don’t want to neglect mentioning my awesome base colors.  Under my decals I’m wearing two different AVON cosmic collection nail polishes.  The blue is called Celestial and the yellow is called Starlight and they’re both scattered holos.  I swatched these cosmics in the past (here) and I needed three coats.  But now that my nails are shorter, they only needed two coats.  Or maybe the polish thickened a little over time?  I dunno, but it works for me!

I hope you like my nails! Talk to ya soon!  Next time you hear from me we’ll be talking about the April prompts for the #NAILLINKUP. 😀

 

AVON Easy Press Nail Dryer

I recently set up nail station in the downstairs of my house.  I’m so happy to have a dedicated area to paint my nails!  I have my desk all organized but it seemed like I was missing something that could potentially make my station awesome!!!  A nail dryer.  I honestly didn’t even know where to start looking for one, or if there are different kinds, etc.  So when I spotted one in my AVON catalog I had to order it!

The AVON Easy Press Nail Dryer was $9.99 and they had a sale for buy one, get one for 99 cents.  So I ordered 2 of them and it came to $11.  Not bad.  It runs on 2 AA batteries.  Your supposed to put your hand under the dryer and then press down to have it automatically turn on.  I have found that you have to press pretty hard though.  I usually press down with my other hand’s pointer finger… that way I don’t have to press too hard with a wet hand. The fan is not super strong… but for an inexpensive plastic thing, what do you expect?  I like the purple color and the cheap price.  For me, the fact that it runs on batteries is nice since I was looking for something that didn’t have plugs or wires.

Do you have a nail dryer?

Abs Challenge, #NAILLINKUP, and AVON!

ARE YOU INTO PHYSICAL FITNESS? I go to group fitness classes a lot and I’m always trying to get in better shape. If you are too then you should follow my pinterest board right here: FIT QUEST. I feel like I need an extra boost right now to whip me into shape though. Spring is around the corner! My fitness-partner-in-crime Vanessa (who has debuted her nails on my blog with her skull nails right here) put together a cool ABS CHALLENGE calendar for us. She printed the calendar for me and I’m going to check off each day that I do the workout. She based our calendar on this abs challenge shown below.  I’m going to start the challenge today, March 1st 2014.  At the end I’ll be doing 125 situps?  Yikes.  You should think about it though (if you’re into that kinda stuff) and lemme know if you try it!

Speaking of challenges!  If you are into nail art challenges….Brijit and Eeeek and I will announce the March Nail Art Ideas Linkup (N.A.I.L.) themes tomorrow Sunday March 2nd!  I love our graphic for the March N.A.I.L.!  Brijit did a great job on it- wait til you see it.   🙂

Oh, and the February N.A.I.L. is almost over.  The inlinkz are open through Sunday March 2nd.  That means I’ll be sneaking in my last mani for February pretty soon!  I can’t believe that I haven’t done my week 4 GLITTER theme yet!  I have 24 hrs left, but have something awesome planned for when I stop typing.  I’m gonna try a dark funky glittery french!  So that will be my next post.

I also wanted to show you some new stuff that’s in the latest AVON Campaign 6 catalog that I got from my AVON lady.  I scanned them on my flatbed scanner and they came out okay.

Avon is now selling these cute little gradient sponges for $1.99 >>

I don’t need this product since I use makeup wedges… but I think this is pretty cool!  Especially for someone who’s new at nail art.

Don’t you love the pale shades she’s wearing in this pic?  They’re called Serene and Honeydew Dazzle.  Here’s another shot showing what the bottles look like.  I might have to order Serene!

So, if you don’t have an AVON lady this is the kinda nail stuff you are missing out on!  They also have crackle toppers on sale right now for $1.89.  Insanity!

That’s all for now!  See you later tonite with my glitter french manicure!

AVON Brushed Metals

I got this polish from my AVON lady in December’13 on sale for $3.99.  It’s from the 2013 Brushed Metals collection and they don’t sell them on their website anymore.   But you never know…AVON may still have a few bottles kicking around so if you see them in the Outlet brochure you should snag this one up!  Because check it out…

The other colors in the collection look like textured pastels.  I may have grabbed the best one!  This one looks gold but AVON calls it Burnished Copper.   I love this color!  This is one coat.  Yup, ONE COAT!  I topcoated it and it’s almost smooth.  A little bumpy but I wouldn’t consider it a textured polish.  Isn’t it glimmery and gorgeous?

Bright and pretty nails!

I’ve got some pretty colored nails for you today! I used a mirror shine nail polish from AVON as my vibrant pink base color.   Then I applied some pretty water slide decals that I got from my friend The Nailinator.  This is my first time trying water slide decals.  I thought they would be more fragile and sticky.  But once I realized that I could grab them and move them around and re-place them several times without messing them up… then I got the hang of them quickly.

This small sheet of decals is labeled ‘Beautiful Finger’ brand and I think they will last me a while.  After cutting several decals out of it, I barely made a dent.  And aren’t they pretty?  Rachael sent me these decals all the way from the Philippines.  For anyone who’s interested, she recently posted an update on her blog after Typhoon Haiyan devastated areas near her.  Click here to see her Philippine Flag Nail Art and to hear how you can help those in need.

I also wanted to post a swatch of my base color.  Shown above is two coats of AVON Blaze.  Blaze is a pretty magenta/pink foil from their Mirror Shine collection.  It’s funny to see how AVON cycles through their products and brings them back every so often.  Blaze was released maybe 6 months ago and I happen to have an old Mirror Shine from back in 2003.  That’s right, I still have a bottle from 10 yrs ago!  It’s silver, not pink.  But still….  It’s funny to have two bottles side by side that are ten years apart.  The old one still wears nice.  The bottle shape and size is identical, only the label has changed in ten years.  Just goes to show….AVON- I will still keep buying your products over and over again. 😀

Well, my weekend’s almost over.  Get ready for monday morning y’all.  Good luck!