Quickie - P&W's

Hey everyone!  I'm just going to go ahead and post a set of Pink and White acrylic nails that I did today and I promise to do a whole post about them soon - but for right now I'm exhausted (but i had to share these with you).   This is probably my 3rd or 4th set of pink and white acrylics in the last 5-6 years, and they turned out great, so i'm geeked :)

Enjoy!

Neon Zebra Gels after being gone faaaaar too long

*sigh*  I've been absent from blogging entirely far too long for my liking.  I wish I could say that I actually have a good reason, but I don't really.  Yeah, I was stuck on a ship for what felt like forever, and I moved in with the bf, so i have far less time to myself than i once had, but those are pretty crap-tastic excuses in my book.  Anyway, I've done SOME nails since I've been on land - not many, but its a start.  Oh AND I started working part time at a salon I worked at during highschool - A Finished Appearance.  I've got to say, it feels amazing to be back behind a real nail desk instead of at my kitchen table.  But enough about me, lets get on to the nails.

It took me a whole week after being on land to get around to filling my 8-week-grown-out-nails... if you could even call them nails at that point.  So I went ahead and filed off all the gel so that I could start fresh.  I chose 6 neon/bright colors (Light Elegance Glitter Gels) and then applied them to half nails in order vertically, so  yellow/orange on the pinkie, orange/ pink on the ring finger, pink/purple on the middle finger - you get the point.  I added some tiny reflective mylar and capped all of that with clear gel, cured and filed them into shape.   I gave them a light buffing before stamping them with Konad white stamping nailpolish and a zebra stamp.  Dry, and then a nice gel top-coat and I ended up with some pretty spectacular nails.  Unfortunatly the camera doesn't do them justice.... seriously, I've been told so by people who have seen the FB pictures and then saw me in person later lol.  Oh well.  Sometimes technology is just completely against us.   So without further rambling, on to the pictures.

Nail Diva: Nga Huynh (Ruby)

I've got another wonderful Nail Diva for you today.  She goes by the name Ruby, but her formal name is Nga Huynh.  She's a nail technician who has been working in St. Paul, Minnesota at "Chicago Nails" for the past 6 1/2 years.  She's Vietnamese and got into nails for a variety of reasons including being able to feel comfortable with other Vietnamese co-workers, the quickness of being able to be licensed (3 months of training + licensing) and that there were plenty of salons hiring in her area.

Ruby says that she did pretty standard nails up until 2009 when she worked at a salon called "TJ Nails".  95% of her clients at this particular salon wanted acrylic nails with every finger being a different design, so she had lots and lots of practice and opportunity to do artistic nails.  When she started working at "Chicago Nails" she got the opportunity to improve her marketing and social networking skills.  She's grown and improved in so many ways in the last 6 1/2 years and loves to share her hobby with everyone!

Specifically her favorite are to do is freestyle art, marbling, 2D and 3D flowers.  She'd like to improve on animal and illustration art.  She does all typles of salon services and does not have a favorite to do.  She loves to work with OPI, Color Club, and China Glaze because of their quality and bright colors.  Also she loves doing water marbling with Orly nail polishes.

If you like the photos in this blog feature, please go visit Ruby's Facebook page or Nail Magazine's Nail Art gallery to see more of her fantastic work.  And a huge Thank You to Ruby for allowing me to do this blog feature, you were a pleasure to work with and feature!

I'm Back!

I know, I know, I've been slacking.  Really!  But honestly it wasn't my fault!  My last ship went from bad to worse when the wireless internet broke and no one bothered to finish it - so that officially put an end to my FB sharing and blogging life for a while.  I've been home about 5 days now, and I just got my new computer (because yes, my old one just completely up and died - seriously, it was impressive).  So I'm here to tell you that I will be back later today, or possibly tomorrow morning with a blog post WITH PICTURES!  *gasp*  I mean really, who needs pictures of nails on a nail blog? :)  Thanks for bearing with me folks!  Working the the Falklands was.. special.  I'm glad to have gone, but I'm insanely happy to be back on land and back to the nails :).

Silver Nails Series

Its long past due that I wrap up what i like to call my "Silver Nail Series".  Really, I just did 3 nails out of the same silver glitter gel, and this is the 3rd and final nail that I did... cause seriously, who could ever be done with the silver?  Not me, for certain!  Anyway, this last nail was a sculptured gel nail.  It was done by sculpting the pink nailbed from LE cover pink with glitter mixed in and then by adding the silver gel tip in LE's "Icicles" and topped with a clear gel.  I was pretty happy with how this one turned out - definitely something i'd wear on myself if i could sculpt smile lines with my left hand *sigh* but I'm not quite that good... yet :)   Anyway, the first two pictures are close-ups of the silver nail, followed by a few pictures recapping all 3 nails that I did. 

As for me, I'm still out to sea near Antarctica, and this will probably be my last post until I get back to land... this took FOREVER to load.  With me being on days, and our internet being what it is, its just too hard to find time when the internet wants to work.  Picture your old dial-up days... but worse!  Anyway, until next time... which is hopefully soon!