Candy Cane Hearts

Whoa!  I have not blogged in so long!  I officially finished another semester today.  I am extremely happy to be done.  After my exams, as I waited for my sister to get out of her exams, I sat in the library and ate some fudge and a mini candy cane.  It was quite nice.  So, without further ado, here is a Christmassy manicure:

Candy Cane Nails!

My cuticles are a bit of a mess.  The dry weather is taking its toll.

I started out with a coat of Essie Protein Base Coat.  I then applied two coats of Revlon Rain Forest, a dark green, glittery polish.  The white part of the candy canes is white acrylic paint that I painted on with a small nail art brush.  The red stripes are Rimmel Stiletto Red.  I used a toothpick and applied the stripes with a stippling motion.  I finished off the manicure with two coats of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.

This doesn't have much to do with nail art, but I don't know if you guys have heard of using coconut oil for skin care.  I bought a jar from Target for only a bit over $6, and was planning on using it to make a moisturizing lip scrub.  It comes in a jar like this:

It's solid, but melts really easily.  I saw people on the internet using it in lieu of lotion, so I wanted to try that out.  I have been using it instead of lotion on my face for almost a week and I am loving it!  You only need to use a teeny bit.  It absorbs really quickly and doesn't leave your face looking shiny and oily.

I have mild hormonal acne, but coconut oil is not supposed to make acne worse.  I have read that it is actually good for helping to control acne!  And, from what I have experienced so far, that is true!  I also started using it as eye makeup remover and I am never going back to using any other remover.  It didn't even leave my eyes feeling blurry.  I used my fingers to massage it over my eyes until the makeup was all broken down.  Then I used a damp cotton ball to wipe off the makeup residue.  That worked better than any other makeup remover I have used!  I would highly recommend this!  I bought the same brand that is in this picture (Spectrum).  It's a great product with a ton of uses!

Shamrocks!

I wanted to get on the bandwagon and make some Saint Patty's Day nail art.  My right hand came out better than my left hand this time, so I have included a picture of each hand:

I started out with a base coat of Sally Hansen Double Duty.  Then I applied two coats of Revlon Rain Forest.  When that was dry, I carefully painted on a coat of Nicole Glitter in my Stocking so that some green near my cuticles was left uncovered.  I had never done this before, but this was surprisingly easy to do!  I think it depends on how thick or thin the polish you are putting on top is, and what the brush of the top polish is like.  This glitter is thick, so it didn't run anywhere, and the brush is pretty good.

For the shamrocks, I used NYC High Line Green.  I used a dotting tool to make three hearts into the shape of a shamrock.  I got better at the technique and placement by the time I put them on my right hand with my left hand (which is my non-dominant hand), so that it why I included a picture of both.  The way I made these was by dragging the dotting tool lightly for each stroke, so it took me two strokes to make each heart shape.  I finished this manicure off with two coats of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.  The glitter is scratchy, so I also wrapped the tips, which means that I glided the top coat over the very tips of my nails.  
Happy Saint Patty's Day to anybody who celebrates it!  I don't do much for the holiday, but I will probably have some corned beef, cabbage, and Irish soda bread.   =)

Christmas Trees

I only have one more exam for school and then I am officially done with this semester.  The exam can't come soon enough.  So, anyway, I saw this picture of Christmas tree nails on Pinterest a while ago and decided to try them out.  I did a variation of my own, though:

I started out by painting two coats of Rimmel Caramel Cupcake on all my nails.  Then I applied a coat of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly on my ring finger and thumb.  On the other fingers I applied a coat of red glitter.  Then I finished those nails off with a coat of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.

I put masking tape on my ring finger and thumb so that I could achieve a neat triangular Christmas tree.  I painted a coat of Revlon Rain Forest for the trees and immediately removed the masking tape.  Then I stuck on some 1.5 mm gold studs from Born Pretty Store (which I shall never shop at again--I will tell you about it at the end of this post) for the stars at the tops of the trees.  I stuck them on with some Dries Instantly.  I finished those nails off with two coats of Dries Instantly.  Studs stay on your nails for much longer if you apply a suitable amount of top coat.  If I apply only one coat, they usually get scraped off more easily.  Two coats makes it almost impossible for the studs to come off, unless you are scratching at them very hard to try to remove them.

So, here's a little heads up about Born Pretty Store:
They sell great stuff for great prices, but most of their merchandise ships from Asia, so, depending on where you live, it can take a very long time to get to you if you choose free shipping (which I always do.)  Well, on October 4th I ordered some tiny hexagonal sequins for my nails.  They, apparently, shipped on October 9th.  I have still not received them, though, and my credit card was charged when they shipped.  Generally, things from Born Pretty Store take no more than one month to reach me.  I have contacted Born Pretty Store three times now to ask for another item or a refund and they have been of no help at all.  I am truly not cranky when it comes to mail mix-ups.  I am not at all annoyed that there was a problem with the package.  My complaint is that the customer service is terrible and I can't order anything else there because I do not want to risk something like that happening again.  Good thing my order was just a little over $5!  It would be awful if it was a lot more money than that!  I guess I will be sticking to Amazon for all of my nail art needs from now on.