Thanksgiving feather nails for #NAILLINKUP

Today I’m sharing my last mani for the November NAIL Linkup. That means the announcement for the December themes is right around the corner! If you are getting in the spirit for holiday manis then you’ll want to keep your eyes peeled to the blog! Brijit and Jemma and I will be posting the themes real soon! And if you’re not into the whole ‘santa thing’ don’t worry – because we’ve got some non-denominational fun for you. That way you can make your nails as Christmas-y or Non-Christmasy as you’d like!

Here’s my week 4 mani for N.A.I.L. Linkup.  The theme is FEATHERS:

My two middle fingers are painted a deep brown shimmer called Sunrise by Kardashian Beauty.  This is my first time trying a Kardashian nail polish.  Not impressed.  At all.  The end of the brush bristles were cut at a slant so I couldn’t get a clean curved paint line around my cuticles.  I think the brush was defective.  Also, the bottle was sealed with a little bar code sticker that left an icky glue-y reside on the outside of the bottle.  I probably won’t wear this polish again.  Which is a shame since it’s a really nice dark color, but the brush really turned me off. UPDATE ON THIS DEFECTIVE BRUSH!

I painted some thanksgiving-colored turkey feathers over top of my dark brown Kardashian color.  My feathers were done in orange, yellow and green polish using what I like to call my ‘splash design’.   Then I painted little black lines inside the splashes to transform them into feathers.  I like doing splashes- they’re really easy for me to do and I like their retro feel.  You can see my other splash manis here and here.

The Kardashian polish was a pain so I painted my other nails with an OPI liquid sand called What Wizardry is This?  I think Liquid Sand applies so easily and has such a lovely texture.  That’s a good enough excuse for me to throw some texture in my manicure. 🙂  At first I was turned off by texture since you couldn’t use topcoat with it.  I am super impatient so I always wanna use quick-dry seche on top of my manicures.  But, textured polishes seem to dry very fast and also do not show dings and marks… so I’m cool with it now.

There’s still some time left for November though- so please feel free to add your manis to the inlinkz below.  Did you do a Movember moustache mani yet?  If not, I hope you jump on the bandwagon!  Or else you may have to wait a whole ‘nother year to do some seasonally-appropriate moustache nails. LOL!

Solar Eclipse :

Movember Moustaches :

Animals & Pets :

Feathers :

My new pointy nails!

My Craftynail blog turned one year old yesterday.  So I wanted to do something new and crazy, like a blogiversary makeover. 🙂  I decided to change my nail shape!  I’m dying to show you my new pointy claws…

Beforehand my nails were squoval, but now they’re so different!  Would you call these almond shaped?  I’m not sure the exact term… but I think I’ll call them pointy.  To shape them like this I used a sturdy glass file- I made sure to use one that had a tough grit in hopes of making the filing go faster.  I know you’re not supposed to ‘saw’ your nail back and forth- they say you should only go in one direction when filing.  But honestly, I didn’t want to be here all night…so I used the sawing technique.  I know, bad girl!  But even still, it took a good 50 minutes or so to file them down!  They came out looking shorter than I expected….but I like the cute pointy shape!  It feels very appropriate for halloween too.  I also like not having any ‘corners’ on my nails to bump into things or bend.  The corners are always the first place my polish chips too.  So I’m really enjoying the new feel of my pointy nails.  It’s easier to use the pads of my fingers to get things done and my nails aren’t getting in the way as much.

In these pics I’m wearing Orly Naughty, a cool-weather oxblood sorta color. I also used some nature props to show you what fall is like here in NY right now.  It’s extremely sunny out, the old giant maples in front of my house are gold and burnt orange, leaves are falling all around me and there’s pumpkins and apple cider donuts at every farmstand.  Ahhh it’s so nice today.  I wish today would last all week and maybe we could skip the whole work and weekday thing!

I was thinking of doing a ‘year in review’ post to summarize what happened with Craftynail this past year.  Maybe show you which of my nails designs were my faves, which of my articles is the most popular or gets the most hits, etc…  Let me know if you would be interested in reading something like that!  Oh and lemme know what you think of my pointy nails.  Unless of course you don’t like them, then I don’t wanna know at all.  hahaha!  See ya!

Abstract Fall Leaves based on a tutorial

First I wanna say that there’s only about two hours left to enter my giveaway!  Get your free entries in right here!  Sometime tomorrow I will announce the winners via email, and I’ll put out a blog post too.  Can’t wait to pick the winners!  Good luck everyone!

The prompt for week 2 of October’s Nail Art Ideas Linkup is Autumn Trees.  I’ve had so many great ideas for this theme and decided on an abstract leaf design that MrCandiipants came up with.  You can see her youtube tutorial here.  Someone commented on the vid and said that the design looks a little weird on square nails- so I wasn’t sure how I would pull this one off!  Then yesterday, I had a major nail snafu on my thumb!  I had to file the side of my thumb nail way down after a section of it cracked off.  😦  I was being a scaredy-pants but I managed to file my nail to a semi-stilletto shape to disguise the break.  It came out great!  I loved the way my pointy nail looked!  So I did my other thumb too just for spits and giggles.  I’m really contemplating making all my nails stilletto.  But get real Jac…. who am I kidding?  I won’t have the guts!  But my new thumbnail shape is a great reason for me to try out MrCandiipant tutorial now.  Well, on two nails at least.  So here we go!

I used a variety of colors for the leaf design…and it was a little hit and miss.  I changed my mind a few times and in the end I wound up using similar shades to what Candiipants used.  Here’s a list of my colors:

dark orange ♥ Art Orange from AVON

light orange ♥ Orange Creamsicle from AVON

yellow ♥ Inspire from AVON

green ♥ Limelight from Ulta

teal ♥ Read my Palm from Sephora by OPI

black ♥ Liquid Leather China Glaze

Is it okay that I only did my thumbs?  I really didn’t know how to make the design look nice on my other square nails… so the others are painted nice and simple with Kalahari Kiss.  I’ve been dreaming of getting Kalahari Kiss for a while now…. and when I recently placed an order on Cherry Culture I had to add this one to my cart.  That site sells China Glaze real cheap!  I think it was $3.99 and I had a discount code so I made out like a bandit!  Kalahari Kiss is one of those fugly kinda colors… but I’m so glad I got it.  It’s versatile, smooth and opaque and will be very handy for nail art I think.   Believe it or not, I only needed one coat for this mani.

Here are the other prompts for October.  Join in whenevs!

30th Sept – 6th Oct Breast Cancer Awareness :

7th-13th Oct Autumn Trees :

14th-20th Oct Things That Go Bump in the Night :

21st-27th Oct Treats and Sweets :

28th Oct – 3rd Nov Hallow E’en :

My new indie – Witching Hour

I’ve come to the realization that I haven’t tried enough indie polishes.  It’s like a whole other world that I need to explore more.  Nail polish created by extreme nail polish enthusiasts?  YES, please!  So I recently ordered some indies from Brijits Digits Boutique.  She doesn’t franken a lot of over-the-top glitterbombs like a lot of other indie makers.  Of course she has some lovely glitters, but right now Brijit’s Digits offers a lot of hand-blended cremes, shimmers, holographics and even thermals.  I bought this thermal polish from her shop too and I can’t wait to try it!  I’ve also been using her affordable cuticle oil for a few months now and I just love the scent and it’s little roller-ball applicator!

One of the polishes I ordered is a nice deep dark shade that’s perfect for autumn.  It’s called Witching Hour and it’s an eggplant aubergine color with a touch of scattered holo added in.  Witching Hour is so seductive!  To bring out it’s sex appeal I had the bright idea of adding some painted studs.  I transformed some gold studs from Claire’s Boutique by painting them with a couple coats of Witching Hour and then I left them to dry.  I shoulda done a better job at this, because I see some of the gold poking through on the corners of the studs- oopsy!  It still looks hot though!  🙂

Shown here is two coats of Witching Hour.  I applied the painted studs on top while my second coat was still tacky.  Then I slathered on some seche vite topcoat to smooth down the studs.  I did the best I could with my seche topcoat- I am down to the very bottom of my bottle!   How scary!  My amazon order better come soon- I ordered the big mamma jamma 4 oz salon-sized bottle of seche.  Once it comes in the mail I won’t be running out of seche for a long time!  It will be good times.  Here’s another shot of my monochromatic witchy mani…

I like how the studs look from this side view.  I’m really looking forward to wearing this mani out in the real world tomorrow.  Today it’s a lazy rainy sunday and I will NOT be leaving the house.  Yes, I have hermit tendencies, and i like it. 

I love Witching Hour.  It only needed two coats and it dries fast.  It’s a dark vampy shade but it actually looks good on me.  Even though I love dark shades, I feel like they oftentimes make me look pale and pasty.  Not this one though.  It’s very flattering.  It also kinda reminds me of all those holographic A Englands that I’ve been dreaming of for a while now.  And even though it shipped all the way from La France… it got here real quick!  Plus, now I secretly feel fancy since I’m wearing french nail polish.  lol

Hopefully soon I can swatch my thermal from Brijit’s Digits.  It’s getting colder here in NY and I expect some serious thermal activity since my nail bed will be much warmer than my chilly nail tips!  Oh I love thermal!

‘Til next time 🙂

October NAIL Linkup

Hey ladies and gents!  (What? A blogger can always hope!)  Nail Art Ideas Linkup is still going strong!  This October Eeeek! Nail Polish!, Brijit’s Digits and Craftynail are bringing you 5 themes instead of the usual 4.  You won’t run out of ideas for nail art this month!  Here’s what’s going on…

We’ve simplified things a bit for October.  We won’t be utilizing the VOTING tool any longer… so no more crowning a NAIL GENIUS each week.  Sure, we all voted on a bunch of amazing manis, and it was so much fun while it lasted, but we don’t want you to feel like this is a competition or anything!  Just a great way to share our designs with each other!  Plus, simpler is better, don’t you think?  With that in mind, our themes will not close at the end of each week either.  You may remember that you previously needed to submit your nail art within a 7 day period or the linkz would close.  Well, not anymore!  All 5 inlinkz will be open all month.  This way you have flexibility with your submissions.  The dates for each week are now simply suggested dates- so go ahead and post when you can.  Easy, right?

Did you know that October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month?  That brings us to the first NAIL theme of October!  Don’t put those pink nail polishes away for the winter just yet- Breast Cancer Awareness week starts tomorrow.  That’s right, the October NAIL Linkup starts tomorrow! (hashtag #naillinkup)  Here are the links:

30th Sept – 6th Oct – Breast Cancer Awareness :
7th-13th Oct – Autumn Trees :
14th-20th Oct – Things That Go Bump in the Night :
21st-27th Oct – Treats and Sweets :
28th Oct – 3rd Nov – Hallow E’en :

Polish Alcoholic Autumn 2013

I’ve got a sneak peak sampling of Polish Alcoholic‘s Autumn 2013 collection!  I’m showing you two new shades that just scream AUTUMN!   You’ll be able to find these handmade (3-free) polishes right here at PolishAlcholic Etsy Shop starting October 7, 2013.  Polish Alcoholic ships internationally and the items arrive beautifully wrapped in pink, purple and ribbon! Use code JACQUI10 to get a 10% discount on etsy! 

The first polish up is called Veni, Vidi, Vici. It’s an orange jelly with black and white shredded glitter.  This jelly needed three coats to reach full opacity.  The amount of shredded glitter in here is just perfection.  Look at how effortlessly the shreds spread out over my nails (they lay flat too)!  Shown here is one coat of Orly Ridge Filler, three coats of Veni, Vidi, Vici and one coat of Seche Vite. ↓

I received a lot of compliments on this manicure.  Veni, Vidi, Vici looks so good on me, if I must say so!  I can’t wait to wear it again!  Especially since Halloween is right around the corner…

The next shade is called Cum Non Tum Age, a blue shimmer with gold and orange glitter.  Cum Non Tum Age is a bright blue that leans a little purple.  I love the blue and orange color combo especially since they’re opposites on the color wheel.  The formula of this blue is much thicker than the orange jelly.  Cum Non Tum Age dries to an almost textured semi-satin finish.  It’s not a metallic nail polish, but it almost looks like one since it has so much sheen!  Shown here is one coat of Sally Hansen Maximum Growth as a base coat, two coats of Cum Non Tum Age, and one coat of Seche Vite. ↓

Cum Non Tum Age dries fast!  In fact, both of these polishes do!   Because of this, I had better luck when I painted my nails quickly and with as few strokes as possible as to not drag the drying polish.  I found that the surface was dry to-the-touch within minutes!  I didn’t ding or dent my mani in between coats. 🙂

Here’s another shot of Cum Non Tum Age.  You can see that it has a unique finish to it.  It’s not glossy.  It’s got more of a textured satin finish that glows!  Oh, and this blue did not stain my natural nails!

Did you notice that both of these shades have intriguing Latin names?  The whole collection does and they’ll be available soon on the PolishAlcoholic Etsy shop.  If your tempted to place an order online don’t forget to use my code JACQUI10 to get 10% off (discount good til October 31, 2013).

So what do you think of these autumn glitter polishes?  And have you tried any of Polish Alcoholic’s indies before??

*Both of these polishes were provided to me for my honest review.

Fall French Manicure and Pinterest Changes?

I really wanted to do a galaxy mani for Chalkboard’s nail challenge since that was the theme for today.  Galaxies are so much fun.  But I had a horrid headache tonite after my aerobics class…. so I watched some corny horror movies with my boyfriend and laid on the couch all night.  Ever seen The People Under The Stairs (from 1991) or Child’s Play 2 (it’s one of those Chucky movies)?  Ahhh I just love netflix 🙂  You get to watch super-cheese movies without the embarrassment of having to rent them out in public.  Anywho, I kinda gave up on the idea of doing my nails tonite… but once my ibuprofen kicked in I got my second wind!  Rather than going nuts with a galaxy mani late at nite I figured I’d try a nice simple french mani.  And since fall is coming I reached for my rich evergreen-toned essence polish called Deap Sea, Baby!

For this french mani I tried out my new Essence French Manicure Brush that Viviana sent me.  You may know Viviana as Nail-art Addict!   What a doll she is!  I was ooohing and aaahing over how cool this little brush looked in one of her posts so she kindly sent one my way (all the way from the Netherlands!)  If you haven’t seen the Nail-Art Addict’s blog, you’ll want to check it out.  Her nail art is the bomb but so is her blog design as she’s a webmaster in real life!!  Oh, and to top it off- she blogs in two languages.  Whereas I’m just lucky to manage one! 😀

So, my manicure looks fine but I did have some troubles with this little brush.  Some of my nails seemed too wide for it.  It was the perfect size for my pinkie though LOL!   Despite this, it’s an innovative little thing, isn’t it?

I used the brush along with Deep Sea, Baby to paint my tips.  If the brush didn’t reach the edges of my nail I did some touch-ups to get the green where I needed it.  Then I topped it off with one coat of a gold Sephora by OPI glitter called Only Gold For Me.  This glitter is smooth and didn’t require a topcoat (maybe because it’s already labeled as a topcoat right on the bottle) and I think it pairs nicely with the deep green for a nice fall look.  I really enjoy a french mani with a twist from time to time.  I used to be intimidated by french manis, but now I find them relatively simple.  Practice makes perfect I suppose.

I also wanted to mention the new changes to Pinterest.  Pinterest will soon start pinning ads for businesses.  Have you heard of this?  I don’t really know what to think just yet.  I guess I’ll have to see it in action before I can pass any judgements.  (Oh, and if you’d like to follow me on pinterest here’s my link.)  Below is the email notification I received tonite …what do you think??????

Just over a year ago, my wife and I welcomed our son into the world. Since his first day, I’ve been pinning fun things we can do together, right now while he’s still little and later when he gets older. I know many of you do the same. Pinterest is where you keep your wishlists, vacation plans, dream home ideas, and other things you want to do soon and in the future.

That’s why for us, it’s so important that Pinterest is a service that will be here to stay. To help make sure it does, we’re going to start experimenting with promoting certain pins from a select group of businesses.

I know some of you may be thinking, “Oh great…here come the banner ads.” But we’re determined to not let that happen. While we haven’t figured out all the details, I can say that promoted pins will be:

• Tasteful—No flashy banners or pop-up ads.
• Transparent—We’ll always let you know if someone paid for what you see, or where you see it.
• Relevant—These pins should be about stuff you’re actually interested in, like a delicious recipe, or a jacket that’s your style.
• Improved based on your feedback—Keep letting us know what you think, and we’ll keep working to make things better.

For our first test, we’ll promote a few pins in search results and category feeds. For example, a pin for a Darth Vader outfit from a costume shop might be promoted in a search for “halloween.” Nobody’s paying for anything yet—we want to see how things go and, more than anything, hear what you think.

Thanks so much for all your support these first few years, and we hope you’ll keep pinning with us for many years to come!

All the best,
Ben

IDK!  What do you think of all this??