It's About TIME!

Without a doubt, the #1 question people ask after seeing my nails is:
"How long did it take to do those??"


So for this blog post, I set out to take pictures with my watch as I went through making this design - Royal Flush Poker Nails.  Here's a peek at the finished design:

*click HERE to go see a BUNCH of pictures of these*

Alrighty - here we go...

 8:45 pm - I sketched out my design on paper before I began.  I don't always do this, but since I wasn't sure at first where this was going, I started with pencil and paper.  I sketched out several designs before deciding on the Royal Flush.

    8:50 pm - Foil Method.  I put acetone on half a cotton ball on top of each nail, then wrapped in foil.  This makes removing polish a breeze!  I leave the foil on for about 5 minutes, then gently twist each foil covering and pull to remove polish.  Then I touch-up any corners or sides where polish is tricky to remove.

    9:00 pm - Clean Nails!!

    9:05 pm - (sorry, no clock)  I use an old toothbrush to clean out extra 'gunk' hiding under my nails and get them nice and clean before putting on new polish.

    9:15 pm - Base coat.  I use Sally Hansen Double Duty.  After the base coat, I let it dry really well before adding polish.

    9:25 pm - First coat of Wet n Wild Shine French Creme.  And then drying time...

    9:30 pm - Second coat of French Creme...then lots of drying time....

    9:50 pm - Black card outline with Kiss Nail Art Paint in black and a few spots with white to cover up my "oops".  I think this was the hardest part of the whole thing!  I'm still getting used to the way striping brushes work, so making the slightly rounded edges of the cards was a bit of a trick.

    10:00 pm - Just finished painting on the Hearts on my left hand (using my dominant right hand) using Pure Ice Crimson and toothpicks

    10:10 pm - Just finished painting the Spades on my right hand (using my non-dominant left hand) using Wet n Wild Black Creme and toothpicks

    10:20 pm - Finished painting green outside the cards with Wet n Wild Fast Dry Sage in the City and a small brush on both hands

    10:30 pm - Finished putting a second coat of Sage in the City on both hands.  Then I used a cotton ball dipped in acetone to clean-up around the edges.  Let it dry for quite a while, then added a topcoat of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri

    11:00 pm - DONE!

So......"How long did it take you to do that?"  Just over 2 hours!!  But most of the "time" is spent just waiting for things to dry!

Wanna see more pictures of this one???  GO HERE NEXT!

Everlasting Mani - Crackle over Beetle

I've had Hard Candy Beetle on my nails for a few days and I'm still loving it.  I didn't want to take it off just yet....so I added to it....CRACKLE!

(Sorry for the yellow-y indoor lighting.)

(It was dumping buckets outside when I was taking these pictures!)

I LOVE how different the Beetle looks in these two photos (above and below)!
Beetle changed colors every time I moved!

Purple up there and Green down there!

And in this one (below) you can see how Beetle looks green at the base of the nail but purple at the tips....just because of the lighting angle!

You can see Beetle here before I added Claire's Teal Crackle,
and GO HERE to enter to win Beetle and others in my Giveaway!!

Hard Candy BEETLE!!

O-M-G!  I'm in L-O-V-E!  Hard Candy Beetle is just FULL of multi-chromal-goodness!!!  Have you entered my GIVEAWAY yet?  THIS polish is one of the prizes!  So go enter....like NOW!  


The pictures below are all 3 coats with a topcoat.  2 coats would have been okay, but I wanted it to be really full of multi-chrome, so I went with 3.  I took these outside in sunlight by just slightly changing the curl of my fingers so you can see all the different colors this thing has in it!  I can't stop staring!!!


I'll let the pictures speak for themselves....

And here's a mash-up of all the above photos so you can see all the colors in one pic.  

Did I mention you can WIN THIS POLISH and others by entering my GIVEAWAY??  Ten more days to enter....so go....now!  You could win BEETLE!!

Facebook Page Launch and GIVEAWAY!! - CLOSED

NoJunkNail now has a FACEBOOK PAGE!!!

You can go "Like" it by clicking here.

And to celebrate the launch of the Facebook page...a GIVEAWAY!
To enter the GIVEAWAY, click over to the "Giveaway - 'Hard Candy' and 'Pure Ice'" Tab at the top of the blog, and fill out the form.  Be sure to read the Official Rules at the bottom.... gotta comply with the Federal Trade Commission!  

GIVEAWAY CLOSED 11/14/11

I'm trying to make this GIVEAWAY friendly to both the "Polish-aholics" and the people who I know in real-life who follow my blog. So....the polishes aren't anything too fancy, but I think they are polishes people would enjoy having.
Giveaway ends November 14th.


There will be TWO Prizes! A "Hard Candy" Prize and a "Pure Ice" Prize

"Hard Candy" includes Beetle and Matte-ly in Love. Beetle is a FANTASTIC multi-chrome to die for. Matte-ly in Love is a matte topcoat that makes any polish into a matte finish. LOVE these two!

"Pure Ice" includes Busted, All-Nighter, Gold Dust and Celestial. Busted is a sheer shimmery purple/pink. All-Nighter is a shimmery deep red. Gold Dust is a beautiful light-bronzy gold. Celestial is a shimmery deep blue. A great set of four polishes!

THANKS to all of you for Following my blog and now the new Facebook Page!!

Purple People Eaters (with Tutorial!)

Well I saw the thing coming out of the sky
It had one long horn and one big eye
I commenced to shakin' and I said oo-wee
It looks like a purple people eater to me
It was a one-eyed one-horned flying purple people eater
one-eyed one-horned flying purple people eater
one-eyed one-horned flying purple people eater
Sure looks good to me

I've been hearing this one on the radio as the stations ramped up for Halloween, and it got me to thinking....NAIL ART!  (cuz let's face it, everything makes me think ;nail art'!)  Plus, as I've mentioned before I don't do the scary part of Halloween.  So Purple People Eaters sounded like a really FUN and CUTE Halloween idea!

TUTORIAL:

1.  Start with base coat.  I used Sally Hansen Double Duty.

2.  Apply a french tip with white.  I used Wet n Wild Shine French White Creme'.  It doesn't have to be perfect, because part of it will be covered up, so don't stress about an even edge.

 3.  Add a 'blob' of purple.  Again, no need to be perfect.  It'll be covered up in a bit.  I used Pure Ice No Means No.

 4.  On foil (or other palette), swirl together several purple polishes.  I used Pure Ice No Means No, Cover Girl Grapevine, Wet n Wild Shine Eggplant Frost, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Deep Purple, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Lacey Lilac, and Pure Ice Frosted Ice New Lilac.  Use a small brush to swirl.

 5.  Dip brush into several shades of purple, then dab or blot onto nail in random patterns to make a 'fuzzy' look.  Dab brush up over the bottom line of the French tip.  All of this is the "fur" of the Purple People Eater's face.

6.  Using a small brush or a small dotting tool, make the Purple People Eater's 'horn'.  I used a small dotting tool and a mixture of Wet n Wild Fast Dry The Gold and the Beautiful and The Wonder Yellows.

7.  Using a large dotting tool, make the white a part of the 'one eye'.  I used Wet n Wild French White Creme'.

8.  Use the small brush and some purple mixture to cover just a small bit of the top of the eyeball to be the eyelid.

9.  Use a large dotting tool to make the iris of the eye.  I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Ivy League.
10.  Use a small dotting tool to make the pupil of the eye.  I used Wet n Wild Shine Black Creme'

11.  Use striping brush to paint mouth.  I used Kiss Nail Art Paint in Black.
12.  Use a small dotting tool to make a 'tongue.'  I used Wet n Wild Shine Frosted Fuchsia.

13.  Add topcoat.  I used Sally Hansen Insta-Dri.

14.  Add a matte top coat.  I used Hard Candy Matte-ly in Love.

 (Another picture before clean-up)

 And another before clean-up...

15.  Clean up!

 Here are the polishes I used....all SIXTEEN of 'em!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Itsy-Bitsy Spider Nails

Full Disclosure #1:  I am not a fan of Halloween.  I don't do scary.  At all.  
Full Disclosure #2:  I am not a fan of Arachnids.  I don't do spiders.  At all.
Now that we have that out of the way, I did Spider Nails!
(and this morning, at the church where I work, there was a HUGE one near my office!!  I think I "conjured" it with these nails!  Wait a minute...I think I'll try bags of money next to see if I can "conjure" those.....LOL)


Polishes used:  Sally Hansen Double Duty basecoat, Wet n Wild Blue Moon, Nina Ultra Pro Orange Flame, Hard Candy Matte-ly in Love, Pumpkin Polish GLOW-IN-THE-DARK, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri TopCoat, Kiss Nail Art Striping in white and black, Pure Ice Crimson (hourglass on spider), Pure Ice Creme' Wild Thing (spider's eyes)

(Shade)

(Full Sunlight)

The webs all glow-in the dark!  And the background behind the spider, too!!  It looks SO COOL, but my camera doesn't take very good glow-shots.  :(  

On my right hand, I skipped the white and painted the glow-in-the dark right on the blue.  Looks pretty spider-web-y, but doesn't glow as brightly as the white.