HANDS, NAILS, ETC.

Bored now.

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e66/LimitedLiabilityGirl/Daggers.jpg

RAD

my nails are short and unadorned and a bit scraggly because i am so into climbing right now. but i'm going to do them fast and simple right now bc it's party season! :)

WOW!!!!!!!!!!

The angles are really hard! And if the black part is off-center, the silver part will never line up either. So my technique could be better, but it's presentable, at least?

oh SHUT UP
you know that is a spectacular job!! so deco!

Yeah, but my goal is for it to be indistinguishable from a professional job. A regular manicure is around $15 in these parts, but an art one starts at $40 and goes to like $100 and up at a place that specializes. I'll never do the designs that are actually free-hand representational sketching, because I'm awful at that, but I should be able to get the geometric designs as well as anywhere once I work out how best to peel the tape off, how thick to make each color, how to find the center, what looks best, which polishes interact funny.

this is like when you told me that mod people are all sizing up each other's clothes -- totes not a world i live in! i think your nails look super duper great!

this is a cool idea - might test it out on the regular sharpie markers I have kicking around here.

http://thebeautydepartment.com/2012/12/mani-monday-new-favorite/

I went a little nuts at Sephora but the set of 15 mini Nails Inc polishes was $22.50!!

And I got some Illamsqua polishes.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8213/8295625544_c469680a5c.jpg

Don't be mad, but one in orbit did my nails, and then I went to my (second) work xmas party with my nails did (and I managed to get my hair really big, and I wrote tall boots) and I felt pretty badass.

That's not a good pic - the base color is a really pretty dark denim blue and the glitter is silvery gold. Perfect for holiday parties.

whoa those are badass orbit nails
#jealous

That looks fab! Great work io!

I painted my nails red, I think I might turn them into presents tomorrow with the help of some silver polish "ribbons." Let's get festive!

someone do snowmen nails plz

ooh absolutely!

Want to see present and snowman nails!

carl, you got a great picture! I don't have a phone/camera that will focus at that close a range, mine are always fuzzy. Will do Lechera's later, woo.

No one has ever taken this amount of care with my hands/nails -- not ever! I have only had 2 professional manicures in my life, but in orbit's was the most caring by far. We did the base part and now I am getting the glitz added today after we go grocery shopping.

I am totally sold on this nail business btw. Going to learn how to trim my cuticles at least.

aw :)

yay!

look, even someone with little shovel-shaped nails can have super fierce dagger lacquer!! thanks L!!!!

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8219/8300689824_1c41b6119a.jpg

pretty!

Aw you have nails like me

I took my favourite red polish to do at my parents' and it's gone gloppy and horrible >:(

My pleasure! I spy a cup of coffee on that table. Jealous tbh.

they looked so pretty, but now i have jacked up my nails to the point of no return -- i'm afraid it's endtimes for this mani

also this

http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/188ym7db6vgmejpg/xlarge.jpg

wow Jay-Z and Beyonce nails!!!

Who will be the first ilxor to sport the penis manicure.

the phrasing of that is amusing me greatly

Hahaha LL I saved that exact picture from the gawker post <3

My relatives went deliciously nuts with the nail polish, I got about 10 full size bottles and another 20 minis? No little Jay-z/Beyonce faces though. :( I also got a motorized nail shaper/buffer which I tried the other day & seems amazing. And a little hand dryer that doesn't inspire much confidence but is fun all the same.

My mom surprise-got me 3 E Lauder nail polishes under the guise of buying make-up for herself. I love my China Glaze but I have to say, the amount and intensity of the pigments in these is stupendous. I might be a convert to insanely expensive nail polish brands soon.

Trying out my new colours. My application technique leaves something to be desired... also I think it's the Seche base coat that is making some of my polishes go on weirdly :(

http://i49.tinypic.com/2mos753.jpg

I like that purple.

I bought some Seche Vite topcoat at in orbit's recommendation and I like it a lot better than the Sally Hansen combo base and topcoat I was using. It's shiny, it evens out the boundaries between different polish colors (I did black nails with sparkly red tips for NYE. And today since I haven't gotten around to taking it off yet) and my nails still look good today.

I'm thinking about buying an Esse base coat that was highly rated on MUA. We'll see if Target has it.

That was the royal "we." I'm going to Target with Old Bess.

I left my beloved Seche Vite behind so used an Essie fast-dry top coat for the manis I did on holiday but SV is a secret weapon in the war against imperfect paint jobs.

I'm glad it worked for you, carl.

If I don't wash a sinkful of dishes or put my hands in sand or corn meal or scrape at things with my nails, Seche Vite manicures usually last around 3 days in perfect-or-really-good shape and addl days with just a little wear. Also when it starts to chip it tends to come off in rly big pieces bc the top coat holds it together.

If I love a mani and don't have time to re-do, I spot-fix with the base color and then put another layer of SV over the fix to even out the lines, like carl said.

Also when it starts to chip it tends to come off in rly big pieces bc the top coat holds it together.

yup
also when a nail got ruined like that, i just removed the fancy polish and then painted it black until i only had pinkies left with the fancy design (because who uses pinkies to actually do anything?)
is that gauche? i thought it looked alright.

I think "accent nails" are all the rage these days so you're good.

I think it sounds mad stylish plus my heart is warmed that our little project has survived so long.

I just attempted my first fancy paint job and I have two things:
* electrical tape works just as well as masking tape
* making triangles look even and consistent is not as easy as it looks.

I got better toward the end of the 2nd hand but yikes, there's some mess in there.

Still, not as difficult as I expected, which is good for a first try. But there's no chance I'm going to get good at this, that's for sure.

Triangles are the devil, also how many times did I say how much easier they were on another person? A lot. A lot of times.

I can see how this could be fun, that's for sure! You should do little video tutorials for the ILS blog.

Funny, I did chevrons last night! I was lazy & didn't want to wait for the base layer to dry enough for tape, so I free handed it. Turned out well but a little shaky. Annoyingly, I bought myself a beautiful blue Essie polish & that's what I used for a second layer.. what watery, lumpy crap! Just smeared a bit when I put too coat on too, 12 hours later.. sticking to cheap Sally Hansen bottles from now on.

I had a dream last night that LL came over and we compared our nail polish collections.

Anybody tried Zora brand? I bought their black polish to replace the streaky, cruddy Essie polish I had bc it turns out, I wear a lot of black nail polish. I haven't used it yet, though.

Zora gets high marks from nail art blogs! Tell us how you find it to be when you get around to it?

Working from home Monday so probably then. Excited, tbh.