Pomegranate Nail Lacquer - Curator

This is Pomegranate Nail Lacquer
in Cardigan.

Hi again! Today I have another review for you, and this time it's sort of a mixed bag. I struggled with this for a while, trying to decide how to present this (or if I should present it at all). I decided that I need to be honest with you guys, no matter what. So, take this in the spirit in which it's intended- this was my experience, and I'm sharing the pros and cons with you as I see them.

Recently I was sent two bottles of polish from a new-to-me brand called Pomegranate Nail Lacquer. I was able to choose which colors from their fall collection I wanted to try. I had a hard time choosing, but I finally settled on Cardigan and Curator. Today I'm sharing my experience with Curator.

I found Curator really interesting in the bottle. Pomegranate describes this as a "luxurious black polish ... packed with gold and silver glitter." I think this is a fantastic description, because as you can tell it does look absolutely packed with glitter!

As you can see in this bottle shot, Curator is packed with tiny gold glitter and larger silver glitter. On the nail it's harder (for me, at least) to distinguish between the gold and silver. Instead, it ends up being a homogenous mass of luxurious velvety sparkle. This polish is seriously sparkly, and takes black from what could be dull and flat into something that's perfect for a night out. I can see wearing this for New Year's Eve... it's flashy and extravagant enough for the occasion while still being simple and quick to apply.

Unfortunately, I had a strange issue with this polish that I've never had before. This could be a problem with this particular bottle, or this batch. When I applied this color, though, it behaved very strangely- the polish was stretchy, almost like trying to polish my nails with Silly Putty, or maybe warm taffy.

This was so incredibly frustrating for me. I would brush on the polish only to have it stretch out in peaks from the tip of my nail. Then the polish would clump up and be hard to distribute across my nail. It was downright bizarre to me!

I'm not sure if it's a reaction between the polish and my base coat or just a weird bottle of polish. It might need thinning to loosen up the formula, or it might be something else entirely. All I know is by the time I got my nails finished, I never wanted to use this polish again!

Of course, once everything had dried and I'd smoothed the tips of my nails with an emery board to get rid of the pointy bits I absolutely fell in love with Curator. It really is a velvety-looking polish, and I keep finding myself drawn to it. I love how the glitter peeks up through the sheer black polish, giving it a sense of depth and mystery. I also love that even though the black is sheer, it gives complete coverage in two coats.

And let's not forget wear. This polish has been wearing like a trouper. I've seen no flaking, chipping or peeling, so maybe the weird application issues could be overlooked. Ask me the next time I wear this.

So, overall? I have to give this polish a thumbs-up, even with the weird consistency. It's absolutely gorgeous, even if it did cause me to say quite a few curse words while I was applying it.

Pomegranate Nail Lacquers are available for $9 each on the Pomegranate website. Bottles contain 16.5 milliliters/0.56 fluid ounces. For reference, a bottle of OPI contains 15 milliliters/0.5 fluid ounces.

Polish was provided by Pomegranate for consideration.

See my disclosure statement for more information.

Sparkling Hearts

Salon Express plate #21, Zoya Lara, and a silver
Sally Hansen Color Quick nail polish pen.

Whee, I'm back with actual nail art! So exciting, even though this is not exactly a groundbreaking design. Still, it's fun and maybe I'm back in the saddle again?

This look started out simply enough. I was sick of looking at my bare nails, so I reached for my Sally Hansen Color Quick polish pen. Unfortunately, I have no idea what this color is called because this is the pen I keep in my purse for emergency manicures. You never know when you're going to need to paint someone's nails!

As a result, this pen looks like it's had a very interesting life! At first I wasn't very fond of these pens, but then I figured out how to use them. It's important to press the button enough times to have a drop of polish visible at the top of the brush. It will ease its way down the brush fibers to apply beautifully. If you don't have that much polish, you'll struggle to get the polish to apply even though the brush looks like it has enough color. Once I figured that out, I was really happy with these pens.

I've had this pen in my purse now for over a year, so I guess that's a good example of how sturdy they are. It's never leaked, either, and the cap stays on wonderfully. I definitely need a few more of these!

So, back to today's nails. Once my nails were painted silver, I realized I wanted a bit more something on them. I decided to go with Zoya's Lara, from the Summer 2012 Beach collection. It's a gorgeous pink creme that applies like a gorgeously. As you can see, it stamps nicely too!

I wasn't sure what sort of design I wanted to use, so I decided to go with the clustered hearts on SE21 from the Salon Express stamping kit. I've had trouble with the larger stamps, so I thought it would be good practice as well as being cute.

Also, instead of stamping the whole image in the center of the nails, I decided to place them more near the tips of my nails. This actually worked pretty nicely, and although I liked the final look, I felt like there was something missing. (I bet you can guess what it was, too, if you've been reading me for very long!)

That's right... I decided to add some glitter! I couldn't find a glitter polish that worked well with Lara's pink tones, so I pulled out my loose glitters. I ended up using a pot of glitter that Melissa from the Daily Nail sent me last halloween. It's a fun hot pink that seems unsure if it's a deep hot pink or an electric purple. Whatever it is, though, I absolutely LOVE it!

To use it, I put a few drops of clear polish onto a palette (the back of my stamping plate in this case), then put a bit of glitter on top. A quick mix and I had custom glitter polish to dab on top of a few hearts! This added just the kick I felt they needed, and I was finally happy with this look!

So what do you think? Does the glitter take it over the top? Is it something you'd wear? Leave me a comment and let me know what you think of this one.  I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Polishes were provided by the brands for consideration.

See my disclosure statement for more information.

A Cinderella Story

Let me tell you, I feel so relieved being able to post a simple, beautiful look after my previous fails. I find it very frustrating when I can't translate what's in my head to what's on  my nails. Thankfully, that wasn't a problem with this look!

Also, I'm still feeling pretty icky, so I didn't do my usual photoshoppery to fix my poor pathetic cuticles. I apologize in advance, but I feel the look is princessy enough to forgive. I hope you agree!

So- this all started with an email I got from KKcenterhk. I almost missed it, because it somehow wound up in my spam folder! Thankfully, I saw it, because they wanted me to try their water decals. I said sure, and after browsing for what seemed like hours, I finally decided on N.NAIL-WDHHC069-Silver- a set of metallic filigree designs.

In all honesty, I wasn't sure what to expect. The water decals I've seen and used prior to this point were very thin, and I couldn't imagine a metallic water decal actually working. But I was optimistic, and eagerly awaited the chance to try them.

Click this one to see the detail on these decals!

Once they came in, I was absolutely floored. They're absolutely gorgeous, shiny metallic silver and so delicate! The only problem I have with them is that they were too darned hard to photograph- I must have taken 20 pictures and this is the best of them!

They are slightly different than other water decals I've worked with, though. Instead of coming loose after seconds, they take a few minutes to really turn loose from the backing paper. I actually used a pair of plastic tweezers to peel them off once they were saturated, but they're very sturdy and held up beautifully.

However, once I had them in hand I couldn't decide what to pair them with! I wanted something simple... no holos or duochrome to take away from the delicacy of the design. I also knew I wanted to put a stone inside the circle of the design. It just seemed made to be accented!

Finally, I decided on a polish I didn't think I'd like at all- Kinetic Candy by China Glaze. It's a pretty enough polish, it was just too pale, too blue, too  Easter for me. I decided to add a coat of Love My Nails Dazzling over the top, and a tiny blue gem from my Fing'rs Nail and Body Jewels.

I don't know if I've mentioned this lately, but this is probably my favorite set of nail gems. They're tiny and so sparkly, plus there's such a fun variety of shapes! This set was provided by the kind folks at Fing'rs ages ago, and I keep finding new uses for it!

You see the end result here... this blue sparkles like Cinderella's ball gown, and I don't want to hear the clock strike 12! I've had this on for days and don't want to take it off. It's so shimmery and delicate, and I am just in love!

Who knew I could be a pale blue, Easter kind of girl? Certainly not me! I also left the Dazzling off my thumb, just to show the decal a bit more clearly without all those sparkles.  I'll let the photos tell the rest of the story.

Water decals were provided by kkcenterhk.com for consideration.

See my disclosure statement for more information.

The Dotted Line- an experiment in black and white nail art...

Man oh man, was last night rough. I think I should be sleeping right now, but I'm too tired to think about it. I was up all night with nausea and praying to the porcelain god, and I didn't even have the fun of getting drunk first! Oh body, why do you have to be so eager to host such disgusting viruses?

As a result, the fun nail designs I've been working on are stuck in a holding pattern while I get over this ick. Good thing I've got some stuff in the archives I hadn't posted yet! Today I'm showing a look I did with black, white, and silver holographic glitter. I mean hey, glitter is good for everything, right?

Don't answer that... :D

This is a super-easy design and you don't need that much to do it with! I used my Wet n Wild white polish, a silver from a Sally Hansen gift set I grabbed a couple of years ago on sale, a black striping polish, silver holographic rhombus glitter from Born Pretty, and a black stone from Viva la Nails.

It's super simple to do, too. I'll list the steps in order...

1. Base coat. Always always always use a base coat to protect your nails and make your manicure last longer!
2. Paint entire nail white. Use 2-3 coats to ensure opaque coverage.
3. Paint one side of nail silver. I painted around 1/3 of the nail silver.
4. Paint black stripe dividing white and silver. This can be as wide or as narrow as you want.
5. Add white dots down the black stripe. I used a dotting tool, but you can use a bobby pin, a toothpick, a ball point pen... use what you've got!
6. Add silver glitter pieces in the shape of a flower. If you don't have the glitter, you can paint flower petals on.
7. Place a black stone in the center of the flower shape.  Again, if you don't have the stone, you can paint a dot, or use a drop of glitter polish, or a piece of glitter from a glitter polish. Do what you like, make it your own!

Of course, this could be done in any colors you like- pink and blue, red and black, green and yellow... That's one thing I love about nail art... you're free to pull inspiration from anywhere, and tweak it til you like it. Have fun with it, it's only nail polish!

Til next time!

The glitter and stone were provided by the shops listed in exchange for an honest review.

See my disclosure statement for more information.

China Glaze Eye Candy Collection- Winter 2011

Nothing excites me like glitter. I don't know why... maybe I was glitter-deprived as a child. Whatever the reason, I now find myself drawn to glitter like a magpie, clucking to myself over the pretty sparklies as I fight the urge to hoard them.

Unfortunately for me (or is that fortunately?), the Winter 2011 China Glaze collection Eye Candy has my inner magpie in a tizzy! These six shades of multiple-sized glitters will have you covered for almost any holiday event you could have. Ranging from a deep graphite with holographic glitter to vibrant red, this bunch is for those who love the bling!

The only thing I'm not so sure about is the bar glitter. Yes, once again those hairy little things are infesting glitter polishes everywhere. Hopefully since they're mixed into other forms of glitter it won't be quite so... hairy-looking this time? We'll see...

Check out what the folks at China Glaze have to say about this collection.

Forget diamonds!  This winter China Glaze introduces a nail industry first: utilizing 3-D glitters in its new “Eye Candy” collection.  Inspired by Marilyn Monroe and her timeless allure, this innovative new glitter technology provides a knock-your-eyes-out, super sparkly effect to your manicure.   Multi-sized and differently shaped glitter particles are cleverly combined to create a sexy, super decadent, 3-D finish in six bright, eye-popping shades.  Whether you prefer gleaming gold or glamorous smoky grey, China Glaze’s “Eye Candy” collection adds a dazzling finish to your holiday look with a glimmer that is sure to catch everyone’s eye!  Colors in this collection include:

·        Love Marilyn: Vivacious Red with Shimmering Silver Particles
·        Blonde Bombshell: Glistening Multidimensional Gold Flecks
·        Lorelei’s Tiara: Sterling Silver Infused with Blue Sprinkles
·        Material Girl: Posh pink with Holographic Bubblegum Glitter
·        Some Like It Haute: Graphite Gray with Holographic Glitter
·        Marry A Millionaire: Alluring Amethyst with Multi-tonal Fibers

The China Glaze “Eye Candy” collection will be available in an amazing 3-D 12-piece counter display and as open stock colors.  China Glaze is free of DBP, toluene, and added formaldehyde. China Glaze nail lacquers are available through salons and professional beauty supply stores nationwide. For more information, visit: www.chinaglaze.com or follow China Glaze on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ChinaGlaze

Do you think you'll be picking up this collection? I have to admit, I'm strongly tempted... Leave me a comment and let me know!

Images and information were provided by the manufacturer for consideration.

See my disclosure statement for more information.

Broadway Nail Dress with a twist, and an explanation of where I've been

Wow, two posts in one day! This might become a habit again! Consider this a sign of improvement!

Gee, I didn't realize how wordy this post would be
til I got started writing! Sorry for the mental vomit!

Some of you may know that I've got fibromyalgia (along with a few other weird-but-not-deadly issues), and that I end up seeing a lot of doctors. Because my fibro pain got to such a debilitating point,  I eventually started going to a chronic pain management clinic. Hands down, it's the best decision I ever made, and one of the hardest ones.

Like many other people, I had the wrong idea about what a pain management clinic was. I imagined it to be basically a place to go get pain pills, and that's not what I wanted. Overall, I wanted to manage my pain, lessen it, but I didn't want to commit myself to expensive drugs and narcotics and who knows what. I was terrified I'd become an addict, that people would know what I was doing and look down on me for it.

Then my pain got to the point I couldn't function anymore. Couldn't dress myself without assistance, couldn't take a bath without help, couldn't cook dinner. I fight really hard not to whine too much and try not to bring people down, but I reached a point where I realized that frankly, life as an addict would be better than what I was going through and I had nothing left to lose. I called the clinic my general practitioner recommended.

Imagine my surprise when I found out that no- they don't like handing out pills any more than I like taking them. They've supported my choices to experiment with exercise, diet changes, weight changes. They've given me medication to control the pain when I need it, and have helped me taper off the meds now that I don't. And suddenly, I'm living in a world where even though I'm seriously out of shape and some days I hurt too much to do things, I have more days when I don't hurt too much to laugh with my family, or go on a picnic, or just snuggle in bed while we watch a movie.

Those things? For me, those are what make life good. They're the important things. The rest of it's just stuff, you know?

So- why have I been gone the last few weeks? Long story short, I've been taking methadone for pain management for about 2 years now. It worked, it was cheap, and since I don't have insurance it was the best option at the time. And now that my pain has improved, I've been very slowly tapering down for 5 or 6 months. Finally, I took my last dose 2 weeks ago, and it was so incredibly momentous...

... and crappy. Did I mention crappy? Yea, it's improving now, but after having taken this daily for 2 years, it wasn't a fun process. Add to it a bad reaction to an anxiety med I'd started the week before and I spent a few weeks pretty depressed and miserable.

However, it's improving, so I'm excited about that! I'm getting excited about life again, which feels absolutely amazing, and as a result, I'm hoping some of this will spill over into blogville. Keep an eye peeled, things might get fun soon!

Anyway, the reason I wanted to share the talk about doctors is because a funny thing has happened! My team at the pain management clinic have gotten to know me over the past couple of years, and now whenever I go in, several people will come up to me wanting to see what fun nail art I'm wearing! Some of them even read this blog! (Hi!! *hugs*) It's a wonderful feeling, knowing that even though I may be having a rough time, I can still bring a little bit of happy into their lives, so I find myself thinking about what I'm going to wear on my nails before every appointment!

For my last appointment, I wanted something fun and festive, but also sort of understated. (Ok, understated for me. Deal with it!) Also, I was feeling pretty gross so I didn't have a ton of energy to spend on my nails. So, I decided to break into a pack of Broadway Nail Dress sticker-thingies. Also, since I wanted a bit more flash, I decided to add some crystals from a limited-edition packet of Kiss Nail Art Paint. If I'm not mistaken, some of the kits still come with the sheet of french manicure guides and rhinestones- just check the back of the box when you get them.

I know, it seems like I use a lot of Kiss and Broadway products. But they're really good! Honestly, it seems like I reach for something from them any time I'm doing nail art, partly because they're affordable and available, but mostly because they're the best product to achieve my goal. There is SO much love in my heart for these products!

Ok, enough blabbing about that... There's not a lot to say about applying these. They're different from the nail polish appliques like Sally Hansen Salon Effects and Incoco strips. I'm not sure what these are made of, but they're almost like a plastic film. They don't seem to stretch as well as the nail polish strips, but they're not harder to put on. It's simply a matter of select a strip that looks just a bit wider than your nail, pull it from the paper, line it up with your cuticle, and apply.

Such a mess! You can even see one
of the leftover bits inside!

However, I do have one tip for application. When they show the nail file going straight down at the end of your fingernail, they do mean straight down. If you let it go at all toward your cuticle, you will end up with a tiny streak of bare nail at your fingertip. It's not pretty, so be very aware of how you're holding the emery board to remove the extra. Go slow and it should work out fine.

Once they were all on, I decided to add a bit of bling with the rhinestones. Since this pattern reminded me of netting, I decided to put a crystal at each joining. I started with a larger one sort of in the center, and then as I worked my way out, I used gradually smaller stones.

They turned out looking almost like dewdrops! I really did like the look, although it was sort of odd. I topped everything off with a coat of Seche Vite and called it finished! Unfortunately, these were almost impossible to photograph!! They're so shiny, with a sort of brushed-silver background and a metallic silver net pattern. Gorgeous, but my camera HATED me!

I did get a few pics to show sort of how they looked, but it was rough! Still, in person I liked them a lot. There was just enough interest to keep me happy without being all BOOM POW RAINBOWS IN YOUR FACE! The ladies at the doctor's office seemed to like this manicure as well, which is also fun. And next time?

Who knows. Maybe a monster manicure, or turkeys, or... who knows? I'll figure something fun out. I always do!

Can you believe this picture (like all the others) gets even bigger if you click it? :D

So, long story short- if you're fighting with chronic pain, you do have options. Talk to your doctor, talk to your family... even if it feels like there's no hope, you might be surprised. And you are definitely not alone.

Til next time!

Items were provided by the manufacturers for consideration.

See my disclosure statement for more information.

Seeing Spots- some nail doodling to tide us over...

Hi y'all! I'm still coughing my fool head off and feeling gross, so I dipped into my photo archives to share something I did not too long ago while I was doodling. Sometimes I enjoy just putting various polishes together to see what I can come up with.

I'd love to tell you what polishes I used for this design, but I can't. Most of those colors I mixed myself from various polishes in my collection, and I honestly don't remember how I achieved them. However, this is a very simple look to achieve.

First, I imagined a V going down the center of my nail. I painted the three base colors, one in each triangle. After that dried, I began adding dots with whatever color I thought would mesh well with the backgrounds. I started with the large silver center dots on the turquoise bit, then added smaller pink dots on top of the silver ones. Finally I filled in the blank spaces with the sparkly blue dots. The side triangles are more simple. Finally I added black stripes to better separate the three sections. A quick coat of topcoat finished things off!

Hopefully I'll be feeling enough better to get a post up soon. If not, I'll dig into the archives again! Til next time!

The robots are coming to take me away!! :D

See my disclosure statement for more information.

I Love Born Pretty!

Ok, I have something superawesome to share. Several weeks ago, I found a cute little web store online called Born Pretty that had an interesting selection of nail art goodies with pretty nice prices. I sent them an email introducing myself, and we exchanged a few emails back and forth. The result? I got to pick a few goodies to have sent to me, to evaluate whether I thought this was a company I'd like to showcase.

See, I get emails pretty often from companies offering goods, this or that, but I don't want to showcase anything on the blog that I don't actually like, or wouldn't use myself. I respect you guys too much, and I don't wanna spam you with blogs about lowering your insurance rates or ... well, I think you know the sort of stuff I'm talking about. Besides, I don't think I could write about stuff I don't like!

So... back to Born Pretty. I'd gotten a bit worried because shipping took a long time. I was really eager to get my goodies, but they did get here, and they were packed incredibly well. When I opened the packet, my husband was laughing at me because I was squealing like a child. Guys, this stuff is SWEET!! I immediately hauled out my camera to photograph everything, even though I felt like a truc had run over me. (Yes, this was mid-fibro flare, so trust me... it took a lot of excitement for me to photo this stuff!)

The first item I pulled out was a packet of gold-plated false nails. I was absolutely drooling over the photo of these on the website. If you look at the photo on the website, they look absolutely stunning. However, they're listed as 24k gold electroplated, but they only cost 50 cents? Surely they couldn't look that pretty in real life... could they?

I looked at the box closely as I pulled it out. It's cute, with badly-translated English phrases on it. Still, the nails looked very interesting... I couldn't resist. I opened them before I pulled anything else out!

I am so happy with these. While my photos look a bit yellow, in reality these match my gold wedding band perfectly. They're so incredibly shiny you can see my reflection in them! I also dry-fit them to my nails, and they seem like they'd fit well.

I'm considering painting over these, doing an animal print (or combination of animal prints) over them. I think that could be delicious... let's see, right? :D

Next I pulled out the packet of nail brushes I got. Now, let me be honest here- I wasn't expecting a lot from these. I was hoping, but realized that for $2.55 these were likely to be kind of ... well, not so great.

Unfortunately, they seem to be exactly what I was expecting. I haven't used them yet, but I'm not expecting a lot. However, this isn't a bad thing. Consider this me taking one for the team... you know to pass up this set for one of the more expensive sets. I'll be trying more as time goes on, hoping to find one I'm happy with. You'll know as soon as I find some I love.

Next, I pulled out a rhinestone wheel- my first! If I was a bit disappointed with the brushes, this wheel more than made up for it. These are SWEET!

This wheel cost a whopping $3.33, and contains 1800 rhinestones in 12 colors. I was a bit worried that the rhinestones would have been able to shift around inside the wheel, so that they'd be mixed up. Thankfully, they're all nicely separated by color, and what a selection of colors!! I am one happy camper!

I put a few out on my paper just to show them. They're a good size, not teeny tiny but not so big as to be hard to use. I'm also really happy with the color selection... there are black stones, pink stones, a gorgeous lavender... so many colors to choose from! I'll definitely be using more stones in my designs now!

And finally, if you know me at all, you'll know I had to get some glitter. It was hard to choose, because there is an absolute TON of glitters to choose from. But when I saw these gold and silver rhombus-shaped glitters, I knew they had to be mine. $3.69 gives you both bottles, and I actually have no words to describe how amazing these two are. The holographic glitter reflects the colors of the rainbow, as do my favorite holo polishes, and the rhombus shapes are large and interesting.

One thing to be concerned about though- these are packaged in the same sort of vial that liquid medications are, like my son's insulin bottles. Opening them is not easy, and the metal rim surrounding the rubber stopper is sharp! If you're not careful, you can slice the crud out of your finger. Just be careful opening it, and you should be ok. If I can do it without needing stitches, you can too. :D

I couldn't resist pouring a bit of these out as well. Honestly... is this fabulous, or what?

Now that I've shown you the wonderful goodies I was sent, I get to share the good news! Not only are the prices at Born Pretty, the people there are super nice too! They're so nice that they're giving readers of my blog a 10% discount! Just use the code LAYNIE20 when you order- how cool is that? This code is only good through March 31, 2011, so be sure and order before it expires!

Oh, and if you order? Tell them Laynie says hi! :D

All items in this post were provided by Born Pretty for consideration.

See my disclosure statement for more information.

Happy Holidaze the seventeenth- they weren't ALL winners...

Hi again! I've shown a lot of fun looks of varying degrees of difficulty in the last few weeks. Some were more successful than others, but I'd like to think that all of them were decent. However, tonight I'm going to share with you the designs I feel weren't quite so successful- the fails.

Everyone does it. No matter what the medium, if you're working at learning a craft you will have projects that turn out badly. There will be cakes that don't rise, woodworking projects that don't fit together correctly, paintings that are unrecognizable. It's part of the learning process, and it's totally ok to fail.

However, most people will shake their heads and say, "Whew, I'm never doing THAT again." They're thankful no one has to see their mistakes, and they carry on happily. I, on the other hand, think it's fun to haul out the horrible projects, the ones that make people say, "Good grief, Laynie, what were you smoking to come up with this?!" These aren't quite that bad (although I've had some that are), but they're still nothing I'd want to wear in public.

First, let's look at the humble snowflake. You saw the one that worked, but you didn't get the see the two prior trials that didn't quite work. See, I had envisioned these tiny snowflakes gently floating down from the sky, stark white against the evening sky. Unfortunately, my first attempt looked more like snowflakezilla, ready to eat the town and the inhabitants before letting out a large, snowy belch.

It wasn't good.

"HELP, the giant mutant snowflake is going to eat us!!"

I'm still not quite sure why it turned out so large, so blobby, so shapeless. I used a tiny brush, the same brush I've painted tiny details with in the past. But this time, it just got bigger and bigger, until it was... well, until it was what you see here. "It's ok," I thought to myself, "I'll try something different..."

I'm not sure what I was thinking here...

Do I have an explanation for this? Umm... no? I didn't even have a dotting tool at that point, so I used something I'd decided would work as a stand in. It didn't, really, as you can see. those are the wonkiest dots ever, and speaking of dots... since when does a snowflake look like dots?

I have no answer. I did, however, realize that this just wasn't working. I knew it needed... I don't know, something. Help is clearly what it needed, but no, I wasn't going in that direction. I decided to do what I always do when I'm not sure something isn't working:  I added glitter.

It didn't help.

Moving on...I also tried to do a plaid look. This one isn't horrible, but my color choices aren't the best, and I think I needed to try it on paper first to make sure I got all my overlaps right. All I know is that this is just not pretty.

Yes... it's definitely sort of plaid... ish...

To be fair, the photo is a touch dark, but I think you can tell that this just didn't turn out nicely at all. The lines are so LARGE! The overlaps are also confusing as heck to me. I'll end up playing with this on paper one day and see if I can come up with a better look once my new nail art brushes come in, but that's a story for another blog post. Don't worry, they should be here soon. :D

I also tried a Christmassy look using both red and green on the nail and trying to put silver scrollwork between the two colors as a divider. The idea isn't horrible, but man, the execution just failed miserably.

Poor, pathetic attempted swirlyblobs. You could have been so beautiful...

Can you see where I was going with these? It's a cute idea, with lots of shimmer and pretty and a touch of silver. But man oh man, it just didn't WORK! I can't even explain why it didn't work, but it definitely didn't, and when I tried to touch it up it kept getting worse and worse. This one I ended up cleaning up before I could snap a picture of it, so you don't get to see the silver bar as wide as the "scrolls" that I ended up removing! I bet you can imagine it just perfectly, though!

But I've saved the *cough cough* best for last. This one... I'd explain it if I could, but I don't even remember what I did to make it so damned ugly. It's black polish with gold glitter and more black polish. Lots of black polish. It's like an uber-goth Christmas. After someone's dog died.

♪ ♫ ♪    It's Christmas and I'll cry if I want to...    ♪ ♫ ♪

So just remember- it's absolutely ok to fail, and it's ok to paint a nail design so ugly that even brain-damaged chimpanzees with a seizure disorder could do a better job. It's only nail polish, and it comes off. Relax and have fun with it!!

Oh, and one more thing... don't try these at home. They're pretty icky. :D