My nails for the V-Day Nailart Contest!

Polish Alcoholic  and Beauty Expression by Luchessa are hosting a valentines day nail art contest (more details here)!  I cannot resist this kinda fun, especially when you throw an indie gift cert into the mix. 🙂  Here’s what I came up using my new Formula X by Sephora polishes….

These nails were intended to look more valentinesy because I was trying to do a heart-design water marble.  Shaaaaa, as if.  I kinda suck at water marbling. But I figure I have to keep trying or I’ll never get better!

I used black and clear in my marble.  I really like to use clear in my marble just to be different.  I like how you get a gap between the swirls so the base color shines through.  And these vampy base colors are stunning for v-day so I def want them to shine through!  The rules of this contest are to use at least three polishes so these are the three I’m wearing….

Black Cream- Dark Matter by Formula X for Sephora

Metallic Gold- Bond, Ionic Bond by Formula X for Sephora

Red Glitter- Atom + Eve by Formula X for Sephora

Wish me luck, and for your viewing pleasure…here are the other fantastic entries:

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!

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 🙂

Super Shiny Smooth Berry Swatch

I have a beautiful AVON Nailwear Pro polish for you today called Smooth Berry.  I spotted it in the avon catalog and ordered it on a whim.  What a nice surprise when my order came in…. Smooth Berry turned out to be a jelly!  Well, I suppose it could technically be called a crelly… but still, it has that nice glassy translucent effect that I love. 

I used 3 coats of Smooth Berry to get it nice and opaque.  I’m not too keen on how this dark maroon shade goes with my skin tone though.  I think it makes me look like I have pale skin and long vampire fingers!  But this polish has something that I absolutely love….  SHINE!  It’s super duper glossy and shiny!  It didn’t need a topcoat at all, but I did apply some seche vite just so it would dry fast.  Honestly, I can’t remember the last time I wore a polish this shiny!  I have been wearing it for two and half days now and even though I have a bit of tip wear- it looks just as fresh n shiny as when I first applied it!

Do you have an AVON lady in your life?  If not, their website can link you up with one!  Or if you’re not into the personal service part of avon… then you can always order online too.  Last week they had free shipping on orders over $10… so check back to see what deals they have coming up.  I have toyed with the idea of becoming an avon rep myself… It could be kinda fun!  I could hand-model all the products to get better sales numbers lol.  I’m a little afraid to invest a lot of my time if I’m not sure of the monetary payoff though. So for now I will flip through the brochures and email my orders to my avon lady!  How easy is that?  I just ordered 5 different spring polishes for $3.49 each!  Can’t wait til she drops it off on April 4th!

Copycat: Evanora’s Nails from Oz

2 copycat posts in a row?  I’m really on a roll!  So, I finally went to see that movie Oz the Great and Powerful.  All the hype from the OPI Oz Collection really piqued my interest and I was hoping to see some awesome nails in the movie.  Well, I totally loved it- but suprisingly, there was not much nails to look at.  There were only a few main female characters and Rachel Weisz’ character Evanora was the only one with a real mani!  So today I’m copycatting her!  I found the image of Rachel Weisz here at this source.

The one thing I noticed about her look was the very drab base color.  It was a dull murky grey, but still very sheer.  I think it’s closest dupe would probably be a coat of OPI My Pointe Exactly.  Since I don’t have a sheer polish like that I had to mix one up myself!  I really wish I had a paint palette or something to mix paint on… in the past I have used soda bottle caps.  But since I have none left I used a plastic spoon… which worked fine.  I mixed a sheer topcoat, a grey polish, and an off-white polish and stirred it up with a toothpick.  Then I used an old artist’s paintbrush to paint one coat of this concoction on each of my nails.  The result was pretty good- my basecoat was dismal and eerie.

For the black accents I decided to not use tape since that would make the shape too triangular.  Evanora’s black strips aren’t too exact so I decided to free-hand them.  I used NYC Nail Enamel in Black Lace and a nail art brush.  Then for the dark green/gold sparkly outline I had to mix up another franken in a spoon.  Hmmm maybe I need to buy more polish lol?  I mixed up some China Glaze Smoke and Ashes and Julie G My Private Palace.  I striped that on with a nail art brush along the rim of my black triangle.  I didn’t want to make the sparkle too evident, because honestly, I could barely see the glitter in the movie.  Then I topped it off with a nice thick coat of Seche Vite to give it a smooth and even surface.  Lastly, I buffed all my finished nails with the medium side of a nail buffing square just to tone down the glossiness a bit.

Now I have long and pointy wicked witch claws! Come here my dear… would you like an apple?  Buahahahahahaaaaaa!

While googling for Evanora images I found this simple tutorial by cutepolish.  If you’re tempted to try this creepy look check out here video here.

Houses of Parliament Magnetic Effect

Do you love magnetic polish as much as me? Here’s a swatch of nails inc. magnetic polish called Houses of Parliament.  The polish initially goes on a medium greyish purple and once the magnet hits it changes to dark purple.  It’s kinda vampy and edgy and looks just as great in the shade as it does in bright lighting.  The magnet that’s built into the top was so strong that it actually pulled some of the polish up off of my nail- I quickly learned not to hold it too close!  I’ve reviewed another polish from this collection called The Strand which was a really pretty blue, but Houses of Parliament seems to have a different formula…

This one takes forever to dry.  Maybe it’s because my 2nd coat was thick, but the surface of my nails still felt tacky after an hour.  The polish also dried weird and had the tendency to shrink back or even rub off if you touched it.  I got some crazy tip wear right from the get-go!  And within 24 hrs I had A LOT of tip wear.  Oh well, this won’t prevent me from wearing Houses of Parliament again.  Magnetic polishes are fun for when you want an awesome-looking manicure without having to fuss.  To top it off- you’re pretty much guaranteed to get some compliments and/or questions about your magnetic nails!  🙂  And don’t we all love when people look at our nails?

naughty and nice french mani w/ scotch tape!

Naughty~ my tips are painted with an oxblood shade of Orly called Naughty.

Nice~ my pink topcoat is a pretty little bottle of Zoya flakies called Chloe.

NAUGHTY- Orly Naughty on tips

I used the scotch tape technique for this mani. Why have I not tried transparent tape til today??  I applied it on my bare nails and it was fool-proof!  The taping process took just seconds…

NICE- Zoya Chloe pink flakies

I just tore off a piece (maybe an inch long) and then placed it near my nail line.  Before I pressed down hard to secure the tape… I tugged up a lil bit on the sides of the tape to make a slight curve to the line.  Once my tape was pressed down nice and tight, I painted a base coat on the tips and then two coats of Naughty.  I was nervous when I peeled the tape off but I got a beautiful clean line! Scotch tape- I LOVE YOU. So much easier than those tiny nail guide stickers!  Then to finish it off I applied a single topcoat of Zoya Chloe.

in the shade

FYI~I ran out of Scotch brand tape and had to switch to Rite Aid invisible tape in the middle of my manicure.  What a difference!  The Scotch worked way better than the store brand! Who woulda thunkit?