Prom Nails

I recently helped a friend of mine out by doing the nails of 3 lovely ladies that were going to prom. She hosted a "getting ready" party at her house for them with lots of delicious finger foods and pampering. They each did each others hair and makeup while I came up with designs for the nails! I tried to bring out the detail from their beautiful dresses.

Left to Right:

Lacey, Autumn, & Mackenzie

Lacey has some of the most gorgeous natural nails I've seen in a while! She takes great care of them and grows them long and strong. She already had them filed to this elegant oval shape, so I did a gradient of several gold glitters to the tip. Then I added Milani Jewel FX Gold on top.

Autumn wanted something baby pink to pop against her pewter colored gown. We used Sinful Colors Flutter and China Glaze Snow Globe because she wanted some extra glitter!

Mackenzie is a nail biter, so her mom took her to the salon beforehand for acrylics. Salons around here use a really thick application of acrylic, that's just what they do. :( That's why these nails look a little bulky. We used Essence Dress To Party because it was the EXACT shade of her dress. Then a little Milani Jewel FX Fuchsia on the tips. 3 clear rhinestones on the accent nail. I used these 2 colors together before, and these older pics came out more color accurate.

All of the girls loved their nails and had a great time at the pre-prom party! I hope they had just as much fun once they got there!

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Nail Art Party

Friday evening my friend had the grand re-opening of her vintage store. Her store, Far Out Vintage, has been open for 3 years now and she just had an amazing location change (and, for people not in Rochester, she does ship items, so take a look at some of her stock on the link above). She was initially in a relatively slow paced plaza and she moved to a store front on a very busy street. To help celebrate her big move, I set up a free nail art station and did tons of nail art for customers and friends. I did eight people's nails, three of which were children under the age of 12. I loved working with the kids, but it did reinforce a belief I had. Everyone always says to me, "oh my gosh, you should do kids parties with those nail art skills." Well, I love the idea of doing an occasional kids party, but it's not the career I want to hold, and here's why: Kids have tiny little nails that aren't good for tons of detail, kids move around a lot which makes my lines pretty wavy, kids want cutesy things when I sometimes want to do creepy things. Anyways, I painted everything from panda bears, to mod flowers, to stripes, but most excitingly I had two firsts. Here's a photograph of my first first:

That's right, I did leopard print nails! This was a total first for me because I don't think I've ever done any animal print. I was worried that it wouldn't look random enough but I ended up loving the look. In fact I love it so much that I think I might wear around some leopard print nails for a while! 

My second first was that I did diamonds on another set of nails. Unfortunately I don't have any more photographs. This is because of two reasons: First, I was so busy that I hardly had time to snap a photo, and second because I didn't want to be intrusive to the little girls by taking their photograph. 

Hope you enjoy! I know I did!

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Layered Beauty

At the P&P Party we swapped some polishes too. Well, mainly they all gave me their old neglected bottles. Which I'm totally ok with! ;) One of the unique colors was this one by Sally Hansen Diamond Strength #17 Platinum. It's kind of boring on it's own, just a opal/pearly color. Very sheer. I wanted to show them how amazing these type of polishes can look layered over black. So here is one coat of Platinum over one coat of WnW Black Creme. So many pictures to show just how many colors it reflects!

Purple, Pink, Orange, Green, the list goes on and on.

Much more exciting over black..... Lesson learned.

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Pampered & Polished Party!

Yay! It was a success. I hope everyone learned some things and enjoyed themselves. I tried to take pics to share with y'all here, but I got tied up and missed some bits. I tried to keep it to a small enough group to be manageable in my size apartment. It ended up be 11 women total (I think). I tried to set up everyone a station. We removed old polish, used an exfoliating scrub provided by Jackie from Oma's Favorites, pushed back cuticles and filed, then polished & embellished! Here are my pics. Sorry if some are fuzzy or funny colors, I'm still learning how to work my new camera in non-macro mode!

My baskets of polishes sorted by color to let them choose easily.

 The lineup on my bar, before it made it's way to the stations. I love these twist and lock pumps to put remover in. I got them at Sally's for $4.99. It's great because it pumps the polish directly into the cottonball without risking spilling it everywhere.

 My mom (in the black shirt) was in charge of food. She made all sorts of crazy finger sandwich combos as well as some chips & stuff.

 Each seated where I carefully covered all of my furniture so that remover wouldn't damage anything.

 Jackie testing out Sally Hansen "So Much Fawn"

 CocoPuff is back again! Trying her hand at stamping (and failing miserably, lol!) I tried to tell them it takes some practice. There is a learning curve!

 Hold the phone! If that Kim trying something other than pink!?!?! Shock of all shocks! She went with Orly Ancient Jade!

 B already has a plan in mind involving colors to coordinate with a new purse and shoes! I like it!

 Ah! And rhinestones! :)

 CocoPuff is making a bigger mess, Jackie still can't decide and has changed her color ten times....

 B's nails turned out lovely!

 CocoPuff went with China Glaze Pink Voltage Neon, OPI Black Shatter over the top. Tonight was not the night for stamping after all....

 Sorry I didn't get more pictures of the completed manis. Some left before I thought about my camera again.

And these are the goodies I get! R gave up her whole stash because she doesn't do her nails much anymore. Even though some of the polishes are from back in the day, they're still nice. (One is "Love my Nails" anyone else remember that brand? Lol) I can use some of the polishes as bases for frankens! She even had a few OPI's! I was floored! She gave me Pearls of Wisdom & Loyalty Islands Lilac. Loyalty is apparently from back in 1997. Awesome of her to give them to me. Thanks again!

Overall it was a lot of fun and I encourage all that can, get a group of your friends together to do a spa party. It's great association.

More about → Pampered & Polished Party!