A first post? Really?

It's finally happened. It started out easily enough. I've always loved color, but nail polish would never stick to my nails. I would paint my nails carefully, taking the time to make it as perfect as possible, but by the end of the first day my polish would be peeled up in giant sheets. No matter what I tried, polish just wouldn't stay on!

I tried for years, off and on. I'd see a new kind of polish that guaranteed to stay on for a week and I'd buy a bottle, usually a deep sparkly red. I'd try again, and soon be devastated because it just didn't stick. finally I gave up, realizing that it just wasn't meant to be.

I'm not sure what made me try again. I'm older now, and my skin has gone from being incredibly oily to actually being dry for much of the year. I don't know why, but I picked up a bottle of polish again and did my nails, not really expecting anything. I waited, and waited, and waited...

Finally, after 8 days, I gave up and bought a bottle of nail polish remover. It's the first time I ever removed a color before it mostly came off on its own! And with that, I was hooked.

My name is Laynie, and I am addicted to nail polish. My friends are sick of hearing me talk about it, my husband thinks I've lost my mind, and every time I pass the cosmetics section of a store, I have to go drool at the pretty colors. I look at my nails when they're done with a sense of giddiness that makes every day just that much brighter, and I spend entirely too much time surfing through nail polish blogs, devouring other people's pictures and pretty stories.

And so here we are- I've started my own nail polish blog, and it's all about my ups and downs with nail polish, the weird stories I have (like how I wind up with nail polish in the strangest places when I get distracted), the manicures that make me want to sing with joy, and the disasters that make me want to bang my head into the wall. I'm also a photo freak, so while I don't have the prettiest hand or nails, I will have much-photographed ones. Also, I'm hoping to do some videos, both tutorials and just plain pretties, like how my holographic nail polish sparkles in the sun.

For now, I'll leave you with some photos to show what I've done and where I'm going. I've got a serious love for rainbows and bright colors. You should get that idea when you see what I do...


This was an idea that was better in concept than in execution. I may need to get some dotting tools, or make some better ones than I'm using at the moment. I used a bright, deep pink and Gosh holographic polish.

I used bamboo skewers to make the dots. Unfortunately, they came out all different sizes, and I'm just not happy with the dots overall. They're too random, too... I just don't like the way they're done. Maybe next time...



This was fun! I'd seen a drawing of a cupcake that really simplified the lines, so I wanted to try it. This particular nail is pretty tiny, so there's not a lot of room to work, but even so! The cupcake is basically the width of my pinkie fingernail.

I wish I'd used better colors on it, though. These don't say "cupcake" to me, but again, it was more a test to see if I could do it. The result? Yes, but it's gonna take practice. That's ok. I like cupcakes enough to practice. :D



This set is love. Just a random set of practice nails I did, trying to get used to my brushes. As you can see, I'm figuring out how to paint gradients that look pretty. I've got one more gradient nail to photo, but these give you a nice idea of what I've been playing with.

I'm using acrylic paints, not nail polish to get those gradients. I wish I had that many colors, in a way, but then again, I'm kind of glad I don't. This way, I can mix any color I want, just about, other than fluorescents. I may look into additives for acrylic paints one of these days, just to get more interesting effects. But right now, we don't have a lot of disposable income (read- any), so I'm making do with what I have. It's still more than enough to have fun with.

That's one reason I'd like to do some tutorials. I know I'm not the only one who needs to save some money these days, and acrylics are so much easier to use in some ways. This way, maybe I can inspire some people the way other people have inspired me!



Finally, there's this- this is what I'm wearing right now. This came about because I'm absolutely fascinated by the sky. I love the daytime sky with the blues so vivid that they hurt your eyes and make you feel so happy that your chest feels like it's going to swell and burst with joy. I love the nighttime sky, deep and mysterious, filled with the magic of the universe. I know it's sappy, but I really love the sky.

So, I may make a tutorial on the various ways I make these gradients. They're really pretty easy, and the resulting look is pretty spectacular, I think. Best of all, they don't take a million colors of polish. I've got three blues, two reds, a pink, a yellow, black and white. With those few colors, I can make any color I want, just about.

So stick around- things may get interesting! :D
♥ Laynie