Criss-cross Gradient Overlay Nails

I actually didn't really care for these nails when I first did them. But they are starting to grow on me :)
It was an experimental design. I created a mini-tutorial below; they were actually super easy to do, but took a little time to wait for the polishes to dry.

1. I started out by doing a gradient design with a sponge. You can use any 2 contrasting colors you want, I chose a light peachy pink and a bright hot pink because I like the way they looked with the black. To do a gradient design, first I painted my nails with the lighter color pink. Then I took a makeup sponge with a flat side and painted some of the hot pink mixed with a bit of the light pink onto it. I started tapping the nail about halfway down. When that was nearly dry I took the sponge again with only the hot pink polish and tapped it on the last 1/4th of the nail (the very tip).

2. When they were completely dry I took some striping tape and made 3 criss-cross, or X's down the center of the nail.

3. Next I used a black polish with silver sparkles and painted the entire nail, right over the tape.

4. After it was completely dry, I carefully removed the striping tape. Voila!

5. (Optional) Last I added a dark rhinestone to the center of the middle X. In the center of the top and bottom X's I added a silver microbead(on the ring finger I just used 3 rhinestones). They didn't show up too well in the photos though. Finally I stuck a light purple bow on the thumb because somehow my polish ended up purple-ish looking, no idea how that happened lol... Finished with a top coat of Seche Vite. :)

I wanted to add a bow to the ring finger, but then I started having flashbacks of when my nails were getting stuck on everything & tangled in my hair when I ingeniously glued bows and flowers all over them the last time. <sigh>
Anyways...thanks for reading :)

MYO Makeup Pigments from Ebay - Soul Set

I have been wanting to try some pigment eyeshadow for a while now. My budget does not allow me any high-end makeup to play around with right now(only the basics! ;) so I thought I'd give one of these online indie brands a shot! I looked at a few and their order times were so long, some were almost a month! And others were way too expensive for 1 color. So I turned to ebay (what did you expect from me?). I was looking for a small set of pigments at a reasonable price. I ordered a couple from China, I think 12 pigments for like $2 lol, but those haven't arrived yet. I found these:

 The brand is called MYO and I purchased them HERE.
They arrived quickly, another pleasant surprise. The containers are small, but not tiny. The makeup is pigmented enough to where these will last a regular person a very long time! You do NOT need that much of these! Applied over a good primer (I prefer UD Primer Potion) these will last all day. Two of the colors are matte, the bright blue and the black. The other 8 are shimmery, some more than others.

One of my favorites (not the yellow:)

I did not use any primer under the swatches

 If you're a fan of the Urban Decay Sustainable Palette (the bamboo one) you may recognize some of these. 4 of the colors are pretty close, less glittery dupes of YDK, Half-Baked, Kiddie Pool and Flipside. Which is fine with me because I loved the shit out of that palette and hit pan on every color, they're pretty much gone. So I was very pleasantly surprised by this palette! This is called the "Soul" set btw, there are a few more, including a super bright set! I chose this because I wanted a shimmery lilac/violet and a shimmery taupe/brown color. And I wasn't disappointed. I recommend this for anyone on a budget, a great buy.

Lens Giveaway!

Want to win a pair of lenses?? Not just any lenses, but Uniqso lenses! Uniqso is my favorite place to shop for lenses. Not only is their iFairy selection huge, but they are so friendly and helpful. A great lens shop! The blog, LBD and Onesies is hosting a lens giveaway, its really easy to sign up!

Update!

I know I claim to have a deep & undying love for shoes, but I don't really talk much about them! My birthday just passed and I spent a portion of my birthday money on shoes <3 So I think I'll do a post all about shoes, maybe like a shoe collection! That would be fun. I love going on youtube and other blogs and seeing people's shoe collections, makeup, OOTD's. That will be fun to work on! :)  I also got FIVE pairs of new lenses to review. Even though I still have some in my collection that I haven't reviewed yet....<sigh>....It's hard to find time to do anything with my school schedule. I'm doing horribly in College Math II, time to suck it up and go to tutoring.... me + trigonometry = bad. I'm also thinking about trading in my car. I have a 2 door car and according to the insurance companies, it's a sports car. So my car insurance rates are ridiculously high, I can't afford it anymore. So I'm looking at 4 door cars atm...those car salesmen can be sooo pushy and annoying. I wish I never contacted them and just went to the dealership, they won't stop calling, emailing, its ridiculous! So between that and school life has been pretty busy! I didn't even get to do my nails last week....Anyway...enough whining lol, hopefully I can start working on this stuff soon! :))))

Shabby Chic..or vintage rose nail art :)

So I was browsing my new obsession today, Beautylish, and came across this video while looking at nail designs:
I'm a big fan of vintage looks or "shabby chic" so I fell in love with this. I thought there is no way I could do that, but I tried anyway and.... I am actually really happy with it! I didn't think it would be so easy. So if I can do this, anyone can!

Didn't have the jade green she used in the video so I used a light blue.
Also used a coral hot pink and a light pink mixed with white instead of the red color.
(I actually like mine better heehee!)

With flash