Candy Corn Nail Art

Hello!

Yes, I know...candy corn nail art isn't exactly new. But after a few failed attempts at it a few weeks ago, I was finally prepared to do it, and do it right. And I finally pulled it off! Although when I showed it to someone, they asked me why I didn't include brown so it would look like a candy corn...what?? I don't know about you, but until today, I was completely unaware that there was a chocolate candy corn.
What you see below is, to me, based on a standard candy corn!

Candy Corn Nail Art

Materials Used:
Orly Bonder Basecoat
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mellow Yellow (2 coats)
Wet n Wild Scratchiti (1 coat)
Quirius French White (2 coats)
Seche Vite Top Coat

Thanks for stopping by!

Frankenstein Inspired Nail Art

Hey guys!

Last night, I didn't know what the heck to do with my nails. I must have cleaned nail polish off of my nails about 4 or 5 times before I finally settled on the color I'm wearing now, Sally Hansen Xtreme wear in Green With Envy. I don't often wear green polish, but I really liked this one. After looking at it for a while, I was reminded of Frankenstein. At first, I wanted to do an accent nail with the face of Frankenstein. Unfortunately I didn't have the time or the dexterity for such fine detailing, due to the consumption of a couple of after work celebratory beers ;). In the end, I decided to just draw stitches, and they look awesome!
I'm pretty sure I've seen something like this done before, but as usual, can't remember where I saw it originally. Please pardon the appearance of my cuticles in these pictures. I take my best pictures in my mother's little garden, but I usually I don't make it over there until after nearly a full day of work. I wash my hands almost every 5 minutes at work, so my skin dries out really quickly during the day. I can never remember to lotion my hands after every hand wash, so my skin suffers for it :(.

 I used a Kiss nail art pen to draw the stitches, but I'm sure a fine tipped sharpie would work just as well. Just make sure that the underlying polish is completely dry before you try to draw on it. I made the mistake of drawing on nail polish that wasn't completely dry yet, and ended up having to clean the dented mess off my nail and start over.

Frankenstein Inspired Nail Art

  I decided to use the glow-in-the-dark top coat on a whim. But I realize that the glow in the dark factor isn't even that big a deal,  now that I'm actually wearing the polish. I'm not in the dark often. I found myself closing the bathroom door and turning out the light just so I could see the glow in the dark effect, and felt like a total idiot both times.

These nails proved to be quite a distraction to some of my co-workers. I work with mostly women, so my nails get looked at a LOT. People think I'm absolutely crazy. And I'm just crazy enough to be happy about that :)

 Materials Used:
Orly Bonder Basecoat
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Green with Envy (2 coats)
China Glaze Ghoulish Glow-Glow in the Dark Top Coat (1 coat)
Kiss Nail Artist Fine Art Pen in Black (to draw stitches)
Seche Vite Top Coat

I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I didn't announce that The Walking Dead is back on AMC! And the second season is proving to be as awesome as the first so far. The show follows the life of Sheriff's Deputy Rick Grimes, who was shot on the job, fell into a coma, and woke up maybe a month later in the hospital to find that the world had been taken over by flesh eating zombies, or "walkers". It's a fantastic show, and I'm not just saying that because I'm a horror fanatic and an even bigger zombie fanatic. The show is about so much more than zombies. It's about people and their struggles, while in a hopeless situation. It shows both the ugliness and the beauty of the human spirit when pushed to extremes. I love love love it!! The first season is available to watch instantly on Netflix, but I'm sure free episodes can be found online. If you felt like just jumping in and watching from where it is now, new episodes come on every Sunday at 9PM EDT on AMC. If anyone out there already watches it, I'd love to hear your thoughts on it!

Thanks for stopping by!

Jamaican Flag Nails

Happy Labor Day!

First of all, I want to thank my followers! I never thought I'd have even one when I first started this thing, so thanks you guys for motivating me to keep working at making my little blog better :)
I'm super happy today because I unexpectedly got the day off from work! In NYC, the annual West Indian Day parade is held every labor day. Even though I didn't go, I thought I could still represent my West Indian heritage at home:

Jamaican Flag Nails

Materials Used:
Seche Rose
Sally Hansen Insta Dri in Lightning
L.A. Colors Art Deco Nail Art Lacquer in Bright Green and Black (for flag)
China Glaze Paper Chasing (index finger)
Wet n Wild Fast Dry in Ebony Hates Chris (pinkie)

Black represents hardships and the strength of the people to overcome them
Yellow represents the golden sunshine
Green represents the land of Jamaica!

Yah Mon!

-SmokE

Dominoes!

Hey!

These days, I find nail art inspiration in everything. I saw some people playing dominoes recently and the rest is history.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to take pictures until after work, so there's some tip wear. And a couple of the dots streaked when I applied my seche vite top coat :'(
The white polish is a Kiss polish that came in a french manicure kit I bought a while ago. I used Wet N' Wild black creme for the dots and horizontal line. For some reason, a lot of people at work today thought they were dice! Weird, they look like dominoes to me.

Thanks for looking!

SmokE

Nail Art Challenge Needed!

Hi,

I don't know if its just me, but oftentimes when I open up my nail treasure chest, I have no clue what to do with my nails. I was thinking that it would be cool if there were weekly themed challenges to motivate and inspire, and where fellow nail fiends could showcase their themed nail art.
Well today I found out that such a group DOES exist...but on Facebook. I erased my facebook account about 2 years ago, and have not looked back. And as much as I love the concept, I refuse to re-join facebook...personal reasons. So I've been on the hunt for nail art challenges on blogs. I found a monthly nail art challenge on Bluekaffe.com which seems pretty cool. To participate, your nail art must be hand painted. So no Konad, Fimo, Stickers, etc. It seems like a good one to be a part of if you want to brush up on your self produced nail art skills.  Also, Lindsey of Neverland Nail Blog is starting a weekly nail art challenge.
I'd love to start a nail art challenge of my own, but of course I can't do it alone. My challenge would be on the first and third Friday of the month. All forms of nail art would be acceptable as long as it followed the general theme. I want to do this! But again, I cant do it alone. That's where you come in.

Help!

SmokE

The Walking Dead Returns!

Great News.....(gasps for air)
Season 2 of the walking dead... (wheezes) coming back on October 16th....must get people to watch this show so it stays on the air!
Seriously though, I can't believe that someone made a zombie series that's actually good. I recommend it highly.
On to nails...

Lately I've been trying to improve my handpainting skills. Konad is great, but there's nothing quite like drawing a beautiful design yourself. And since I don't really like to change my nails every day, I practiced on some fake ones.

  I'm particularly proud of the cherries and the cherry blossoms, and hope to incorporate them into a full manicure soon. The purple with black slanted french kinda reminded me of a dinosaur egg. I kept thinking "Dino" on my head  whenever I looked at it :)
The trouble with nail art is that there's no limit to your imagination, but we only have 12 nails to decorate. I don't really have anyone's nails but mine to decorate, so all these ideas are just floating around in my head waiting to be materialized. Thanks to my new dotting tool, I'm going dot crazy...so expect some dotty designs!
More l8r,

SmokE

Pac Man Nails

Hello!

I recently bought some acrylic nail art paints and brushes from amazon, and have been DYING to do something with them. Lately I've been wanting to express my love for video games on my nails. With a little help from the hubby, I came up with my proudest, self produced artwork yet: Pacman Nails!

Please pardon my messy cuticles, I was feeling a little too lazy for the cleaning process at the moment.
I used Wet n' Wild Black Creme as my base, and acrylic paint for everything else. Used a dotting tool for the pellets.
Love!

SmokE