Sooo ... obviously I did not meet my goal of catching up by the end of the year. But one of my resolutions is to be better organized, so getting caught up is a good place to start with that =)
These nails are from about a week before Christmas - I wasn't totally happy with them so they only lasted about a day (& that's also why there's not many pics), but still a fun & festive look. Base color is L'Oreal Amazon's Flash, the tree is done with Ulta Salon Formula Envy, and the lights/ornaments are done with Nubar Fire Sparkle:
Here's the tutorial:
My next look also involves Christmas trees, but done with stencils rather than freehand =)
This is the manicure I did as part of the Let it Snow collaboration on YouTube back on the 5th. If you'd like to see some of the other amazing entries, check out my Let it Snow Playlist HERE.
I kind of knew everyone would expect a marble from me, so I wanted to do something completely different. I stumped myself until I decided to play around with some small sequins. I couldn't remember exactly where I got them but I went back to look & finally figured out I'm pretty sure they're part of the 10 wheel Bundle Monster rhinestones from Amazon. The black base color is L'Oreal Raven's Strength. I was really, really happy with this manicure, the sequins give such a different look in different lights:
The only thing I would change, in retrospect, is that I would have put 4 points on my index finger, and I think it would have been a bit more balanced than it was with only 3. Relatively minor in the grand scheme of things LOL.
Here's the tutorial:
And here are a few shots of my experimenting, trying to figure out what exactly I was going to do with the sequins & if I wanted to include any rhinestones or glitter polish over the black base:
The rant has to come first. Because I have been SO PISSED OFF for like 3 days. Partly I can only blame myself, but mainly I'm blaming Canon & Microsoft.
SO - I did just enough research, in looking into my new camera, to know that it shot videos in a different format than my old camera, and that Movie Maker does not support that format. OK, so I'll have to switch to a new program, Live Movie Maker was supposed to support it. SUPPOSED TO. So I shoot, not one or even two but three different vids - a tutorial, a haul & a vlog - & I download Live Movie Maker ... and then, THEN I find the ugly truth: If you can actually get it to work with .mov files, you have serious luck & have won the codec lottery.
Everywhere I look online are people having the same problems. First it imports the video but I get no sound. I updated my codec pack, and then I get nothing! No sound OR video. So I try converting it using my normal video converter - one format was half-crap with the sound unsynced, the other was total crap quality although the sound mostly matched. WTF. Canon, why would you do this to me & everyone else who's not running a Mac that will actually accept this format without a fight?
Eventually, after digging around online & searching forums, I found a work-around solution. Turns out ZoomBrowser - which is Canon's software - actually has a feature I never had cause to use before, and can convert .mov's to .avi's. After my first attempt I wasn't to optimistic but I gave it a try with crossed fingers. Wonder of wonders it mercifully worked. However, I thought I'd then be able to use them in trusty old Movie Maker - nope. Denied. So I still had to learn Live Movie Maker.
I still hate it so far - it's all icons & no real (apparently now "old-school") drop-down menus, much like Office 2010. But I managed to fumble my way through editing this haul vid together. I hope you guys like it because it's made of blood & sweat & tears! I'm still not 100% happy with how the quality ended up after conversion, and I'm still working on lighting & stuff, but ... here's my first vid with the new camera (I do recommend checking it out actually on YT if you can since the widescreen is a bit more of a smoosh than the 4:3 was):
On to the bottle pics - like last time, I didn't try to keep every shopping trip separate for the pics, I just sorted them out by brand. First up are these gorgeous Sally Hansen Gem Crush glitters, several of which look like dupes to my eye for colors in the China Glaze Eye Candy collection:
Top row: Showgirl Chic, Cha-Ching, Big Money, Bling-tastic (Best polish name EVAR! You guys know that's my word LOL) Bottom row: Glitz Gal, Lady Luck, Razzle Dazzler, Be-Jeweled.
On to the China Glaze - as a side note, I don't remember if I mention in the vid but I only found the Eye Candy collection at one Ulta, so it may be more widely available now, or you may have to search it out:
Butter London, from the absurd Dressing Table box set ... I tried, I really did, to resist - I left them behind once but the second time I just gave in to the contrast of dark & light blings:
So, I'm all set for a while I think ... until I give in to that urge for more magnetic polish, hmmm... =)
As a side note, huge wide screen vids take eons to upload. I prepped most of this before bed, but the vid took like 3 hours so that's why it's getting posted in the morning before work. I'm really hoping we're in good enough shape I won't have to do 10 hours today - if I get home at a reasonable hour, I'll be catching up my posts &, if you people would like, posting the tut for the manicure I'm wearing in the haul vid. Thanks for reading
It's almost the middle of the month & this is only my 2nd Halloween look! I'm going to run out of time for everything rattling around in my head LOL.
Candy corn is such a traditional part of Halloween, but I did a candy corn inspired water marble last year & so I wanted to do something in a different direction. I started with a base of Wet n Wild French White & Orly Twilight, then did the yellow & orange with L'Oreal Yellow Seahorse & Coral Starfish, and the outline with Wet n Wild Black Creme:
Overall I'm pretty happy, although I have a tendency to pick apart my freehand art. This one, the biggest mystery is that my right hand seems to have turned out better than my left somehow! Maybe because I am even more careful when I'm painting with my off-hand?
Tutorial:
I know I said last post I wasn't going to tease about what I had coming tomorrow but I can't help it ... I went & got the Nails Inc magnetic polish at Sephora! & I am very excited to try it =)
This is from L'Oreal's Summer Siren collection - Blue Marine on first glance reminded me a lot of Zoya Charla, but next to each other they are different enough that I didn't even end up taking any comparison pics, Charla is darker & has gold sparkle to it, while Blue Marine is slightly greener & has a flash of like, glowy lavender duo-chrome that did not want to cooperate very well with my camera:
Only a few more manis until the chop! I'm almost looking forward to it in a weird way LOL. Just to see if it will feel as odd as I anticipate to have shorter nails again.
This is all the result of a failed mission - a search for the yellow Sally Hansen Hard as Nails that they show in the display picture. I did find the display a few times, and picked up some other colors, but the yellow eluded me.
These were from the first Walgreens that I hit:
Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Pumping Iron, Frozen Solid, Sturdy Sapphire, Unbreakable Heart & Hard to Get. Sally Hansen Crackle Overcoat in Ink Splatter, Fractured Foil & Antiqued Gold. Sinful Unicorn & Let's Meet.
These came from a couple of CVS's:
Wet n Wild top: Collecting Pollen, Bird Bath & Sunburst. Bottom: Ocean Grotto, Waves of Enchantment & Magic Trident.
Ulta, I had to stop & pick up a gift card also:
L'Oreal Pink Shells from the Summer Siren collection.
I really don't remember if this batch was a Walgreens or a CVS:
Revlon Black With Envy, Tangerine, Blue Lagoon & Sunshine Sparkle. Sally Hansen HD Digital, Three D, Lite, Hi-Def & Cyber.
And finally Sallys, because a free bottle of China Glaze is too good to pass up:
Finger Paints Chrysanthe-Mum's The Word, Outta Sight Orange, Psychedelic Sunshine, Prints & Printsess & China Glaze Reggae to Riches.
I decided that it's time for a no-buy ... I don't really think I've enforced one in a very long time, but I've really been buying a lot of polish lately. Here's the vid:
I thought at the time I walked out of Ulta, and at the time that I recorded the haul vid, that I would be set for a while ... then my mom came home talking about this new Sally Hansen display she spotted - and I went on a mission that ended up with some ne Hard as Nails colors in weird new bottles, and some of the SH crack polish colors that I thought weren't due out until June =) So stay tuned for that haul probably later this week. Thanks for reading.
but next to each other they are different enough that I didn't even end up taking any comparison pics, Charla is darker & has gold sparkle to it, while Blue Marine is slightly greener & has a flash of like, glowy lavender duo-chrome that did not want to cooperate very well with my camera:
