Newspaper Nails

  I decided to try something different.  I was poking around last week and found a video of how to make your nails be newspapers.  Her accent was a little hard to understand but I'll put the steps out here.  Sorry but I am unable to find the original video.









Materials:

• Top Coat
• Newspaper
• Nail Polish remover
• Cotton Balls/Swabs
• A bobby pin or two

  First you want to use the nail polish remover and the cotton balls to take of ALL of your previous manicure.  You want your nails completely bare.
  Next you want to take the newspaper and rip it or cut it into very small pieces.  You want all different shapes or sizes.  For instance, you want long and skinny ones, you want short and fat ones, and you want short and skinny ones.  Some of mine have only a word or a few letters on them because thats how small I  needed them to be.  Like I have "guess", "tight", "ning", "pun", "emy", "them", "choc", etc. As you can see, very small words.  Thought you want to make sure that this is that thin newspaper paper because high gloss paper won't work.
  Next you want to put top coat on ONE FINGER.  No more than ONE FINGER AT A TIME.  You want to lay the little newspaper pieces down on that WET nail.  You might need your finger or a bobby pin to make it stick.  All the edges need to be fully down.  You then lay more newspaper pieces on that finger in all different directions like a mini collage or mosaics until your nail is covered.  Note to reader: TRY TO NOT HAVE ANY NEWSPAPER STICKING OFF OF YOUR NAIL. YOU WILL REGRET IT.
  Repeat previous step for the rest of your fingers.

 Once the top coat underneath the newspaper has dried and the newspaper is stuck onto it, put a layer of top coat over it.  Personally, I needed four layers of top coat over it.  You may or may not need that many layers.

  Voila you have newspaper nails!

  Personally I love them and so does my oldest bro and his hest friend.  My parents hate them and think that they are stupid.  My friends have already said "Wow, I think I might steal this from you," which makes me think that they like it too.

  This is not for a person who does laundry or hard work every day.  My guess is that this is going to chip off.  Don't be hard on this manicure because it will come off.

NOTE: The pictures do not capture its full awesomeness.  Be aware that my camera is not turning on so these were taken by my MacBook Pro and my cell phone.  It is a lot cooler than it looks.  Trust me!

Happy newspapering,

Em

The ABC's of Me

I wasn't tagged to do this but I felt like doing it anyway.

A. Age: 15.  But people always think that I'm 17 or 18.
B. Bed Size: Twin. Heehee it's tiny.
C. Chore You Hate: Dishes. I refuse to do dishes.  Cleaning my room comes in a close second though.
D. Day: Saturday.  I can always sleep late and go to the mall for hours.
E. Essential Start To Your Day: Cell phone.  It is my alarm clock :P
F. Favorite Color: Blue.  All shades including royal, navy, turquoise, baby, sky, etc.
G. Gold or Silver: Silver.  I buy everything in sterling silver.  Somehow I have misplaced my gold jewelry...
H. Height: 5'3.25" I'm short and it annoys me and my friends.
I. Instruments: Flute definitely (5 years) and guitar I'm learning but I technically do play. Oh! And I played many different percussion instruments in like 5th grade for chorus.  And piano by ear (thank you flute for being a concert C instrument!).
J. Job Title: Student. Ick.
K. Kids: Technically I am one.
L. Live: Tri-State area.  We have the worst drivers.
M. Mom's Name: Carol but I call her mom.
N. Nicknames: Em, Emie, Emy, Emmy, Little Sister, Freshie, Small Hands, Shortie, Emy-lee, Little One, Taffy-Chun, You, etc.
O. Overnight Hospital Stays: I don't think that I have had any.
P. Pet Peeves: Sarcasm and people who stand in the middle of crowded places and make out.
Q. Quote from a movie: "So, Mr. Tipton, how could it take you 5 minutes to cook your grits when it takes the entire grit eating world 20 minutes? I'm sorry I was all the way over here I couldn't hear you did you say you were a fast cook, that's it? Are we to believe that boiling water soaks into a grit faster in your kitchen than anywhere else on the face of the earth?  Well, I guess the laws of physics cease to exist on top of your stove. Were these magic grits? Did you buy them from the same guy who sold Jack his beanstalk beans?" -My Cousin Vinny
R. Right or Left Handed: Right handed. I'm decent with my left hand though.
S. Siblings: I have two very different older bros.
T. Time You Wake Up: M-F 5:30am unless I oversleep. Weekends anywhere between 6 and 12 depending on the day.
U. Underwear: Please
V. Vegetables You Dislike: Mushrooms, spinach, brussel sprouts, beets, and a few others.
W. What Makes You Run Late: Oversleeping, power outages, can't find something, traffic, others are late, the usual.
X. X-Rays You've Had: I think only dental.
Y. Yummy Food You Make: Popcorn. Only 2:10 until goodness is in your bowl :)
Z. Zoo: Haven't been to one in like 7ish years but I don't approve of them.

Funky Fingers Review: 450 Dark Knight and Art Club Review: 001 White

  Alas, my past manicure did not last too long.  I am hard on my nails and the side of a few chipped on Wednesday.  Since I had put many coats on, it was very different having part of my nail with polish on it and part without.  So I started picking at it.  By the time I got to school this morning, I had only a few chips but by the time I got home, I had no manicure.  But that's just me.
  So I have been waiting to do a zebra stripe.  I'm pretty fond of animal prints so I thought that this would be a fun task.  Honestly, I put all my new nail polish bottles (ended up being 11, eek! 3 china glaze, 3 finger paints, one that I don't know the brand of, and 4 sinful colors.  since one of my finger paints was only a top coat, I interpreted that as zebra) in a bag and picked one out to be the color that I was going to do.
  The reason that I don't have very expensive nail polish like OPI (I have 7 mini bottles of it but plan on buying a few big ones) is because I go through nail polish very quickly.  I used to be a biter, sometimes I still am, so on average I would walk into school with a manicure Monday, a different one on Tuesday, and a different one on Thursday probably.  But then the next Monday it would start all over again...
  These two colors I got hmm... Had to have been a while ago.  I can give you an exact date though.  May 1, 2010 (was with friends out for my birthday when I bought it).  Shortly thereafter, I bought the white.  This is the first time I have done a zebra-type thing.  I know that it really doesn't look like zebra but whatever.  Two coats of black, two coats of stripes, and two coats of top coat. Eek! that's a lot!

  Bad pictures, yes, I know.  They are from my cell and don't have better than 2.0 quality.  But that's okay!
  I don't hate this manicure but I won't be devastated when it chips or peels off.  As long as I don't bite it off, then I'm content.  As you can see, the nails on my middle and ring fingers are longer than the rest because those are the only ones that haven't been bitten or broken in the part month.  I'm just waiting for all of them to finish re-growing out to do a French Manicure (can't wait!).
  Not the best polish.  The Dark Knight had a very thick consistency but then again, it's pretty old in my book.  I've used it for several dozen manicures and usually works out pretty good.  One problem that I had with it this time is that it didn't dry as quickly as I had hoped it would.  I might've just put on too thick coats.  Usually, if you put on thin coats, then you are off to a very good start with this brand.  It just smells a lot.
  I love love love the brush on the White.  It is super thin and so is the polish I guess.  Its just thick enough to be a good consistency but its just thin enough to not be gloppy.
  Neither of these colors is particularly matte or sheer.  Black has a little bit of a sheer finish but not a noticeable amount.  The top coats make it look a lot more sheer than it is which is what I like.
  I am estimating that this manicure will last between next Thursday and a week from Monday.  So an estimated seven to eleven days.
  UPDATE: This morning (Saturday morning) when I woke up, there was already a minor chip on one nail and a big chip on the other.  I am honestly not very pleased with this.  I do not blame the actual nail polish but I do blame my top coat.  The first coat (Revlon) made the white very streaky and I am not used to being less than pleased with this brand of top coat.  The second coat (Finger Paints) never really dried.  Even after a few hours it was still a little squishy.  I do not expect this manicure to last long.  Even if it is still in tact by next weekend, then I am probably going to remove it anyway.

Looks more like a gothic candy cane than a zebra right?

Happy Painting,
Em

Sinful Colors Review: 946 Happy Ending and 52 Cream Pink

  I got these at Target a few weeks ago for $1.99 each.  I had to pick up a bunch of bright colors for a mani pedi party that I was having but I didn't feel like spending $10 a bottle for them.  So when I went there I saw Sinful Colors.  I had never heard of it before but the colors were very girly and bright so I thought that I should get them.  But I knew that I was taking a risk by buying them because I had never used them before.
  This nail polish is great!  I had gotten an assortment of 32 colors for me and my friends to choose from and they were arguing about only getting to keep two because they loved the colors so much.

  I ended up choosing Happy Ending and Cream Pink as my two colors.  Cream Pink was this soft but very neon-ish pink.  In the bottle it looked slightly dull but as you see it had a neon finish to it and was sheer in some places on the nail (see right side of every nail) but was overall a very good color.  Though the color didn't become very true-to-itself until the second coat.  I had put two coats of that over three coats of Happy Ending.
  I LOVE HAPPY ENDING!  I'm not a very "green" person, but this is my favorite.  I like it because it's not an emerald green, its more of a medium, glittery green.  It is not as sheer as I thought it would be which is great because I was using it as the base/undercoat for the pink.  I was going for a watermelon-type look (hence the pink and green).  I loved this color so much that I put it on my toes too!  Over the Happy Ending and the Cream Pink I had put two coats of Finger Paints top coat but it didn't dry fast enough and had bumps in it, so I put on one coat of Revlon top coat.
  I would recommend this nail polish to everyone.  This brand and these colors are awesome!  The green is a little bit lighter than it is in the bottle and the pink is a little bit darker.

Happy Painting,
Em