Kell's DIY Nails

A few weeks back I shared with you an update on my life; I was experiencing a lot of Ups & Downs. One of which was a fellow polish fanatic who was struggling with cancer. I'm very saddened to report that she passed away shortly after my update on November 13th. It is always so surreal when someone passes away; even though Angela & I didn't know each other too intimately I still got used to seeing her Facebook posts and seeing her comments on blogs we both followed. I feel like I have a hole where she was in my life (if only my social media and blog life). Angela and I are also very like-minded so we didn't ever take issue with each others' personal posts on Facebook. Or if we did we knew how to be adults about it and move on. Angela's favorite color is purple so I thought I would compile some of my favorite purple manis in her memory. China Glaze, All Aboard & Picture Polish, Lizzie.  Salon Perfect, Razzle Dazzle.  Glam Polish, Elvir...

Sometimes I don't make any sense and this is one of those times; I'm getting ready to watch the Season Premiere of The Walking Dead but I put a Buffy The Vampire Slayer polish on. I'm not sure why I did that but this combo was just calling out to me and I like to listen to my polish. Well, it's got the Apocalypse in common... If The Apocalypse Comes Beep Me is a magenta purple jelly packed with various fine pink and purple glitters, there are even some flakies throughout. This was a rough one to apply; for some reason this polish separates really quickly; the middle gets really thick and goopy with the glitters so I found I had to add some thinner and still had to shake it/roll it quite often to keep it workable. I used 3 coats to even everything out; it tended to apply patchy. The brush also didn't want to cooperate too well. But after you get it to this point you can see how incredibly complex this is. It's so deep and beautiful. In This photo you ...

Check out this awesome red/orange neon my friend, Abbey, sent to me! Sunlight. It was super hard to get a good picture because it is so bright it freaked out my camera/phone. Sunlight, again. Pool Party is from the Poolside Collection which was released for the Summer of 2010. I've also got Kiwi Cool-Ada & Flip Flop Fantasy from this collection. Formula is a little on the sheer side and I did have some visible nail line but it wasn't enough to bother me. You can always use an opaque white base under neons but I honestly don't mind a little bit of VNL; especially when the formula self levels well (which this did). I used 2 coats for most nails but a few nails did require a 3rd coat, for some reason a few of them looked sheerer than the rest but that's probably due to my application. Consistency was on the thin and runny side but I didn't experience any pooling at the cuticle because I didn't load up my brush too much. The first coat was ...

We're back with another Wear Test! I told you I would be trying China Glazes' new EverGlaze Extended Wear nail color and that's exactly what I did. This wear test actually turned out quite a bit better than my last. I'm sure you can already see that from the above photo. So, let's get to it.

Where have I been... I went crazy. Not like clinically insane but I kinda put a little too much on my plate. I think I'm having a bit of a 'What am I doing with my life?' crisis. Is that also known as a mid-life crisis? I don't know because I'm only 35. Could 35 be mid-life crisis time? Someone please let me know. I've slacked a bit on my nails because I either don't feel like doing them (Gasp!) or I just don't have time. I've been really pushing myself on some other projects of mine so some things had to fall by the way-side. Towards the end of June and through the beginning of July I did these really cool 'Mermaid' looking nails. Both of these glitters are by Barielle ; from the Bling-It-On Collection . The Teal with large gold hexagons is called Sea Urchin . It's a frost and the formula is a little thick but I didn't have any application issues. It also has a duo chrome shift to gold. The other hexagon glitters are teal ...

Hey Gang! I've been back from vacation for a week now and I'm ready to go back! Anyways, whenever we go to the river we always make several trips to the Walmart in Bullhead City, AZ to grab necessities and snacks (oh, and water too!). I also love to check out their Cosmetics Department because many times I find things there that I don't see at my local Walmart stores. Every trip I end up picking up something and this trip was no different. I actually found all three of the Hard Candy Eye Palettes in Sassy Eyes, Smokey Eyes, and Neutral Eyes (FYI: These are really great little palettes that remind me of the Tin Palettes from Too Faced; check 'em out if you get a chance!) as well as Salon Perfect's The Manicure System . I hadn't spotted this locally so I thought I would give it a go and we can see how well it works together! Sound like FUN?!? This system consists of a Nail Cleanser, Bonding Base Coat, and High-Shine Top Coat. The Nail Cleanser is ba...

What do you think of my play on words, there? On my Index & Middle: China Glaze, But Of Corpse . A metallic green apple or lime green. On my Ring & Pinkie: China Glaze, I Love Your Guts . A metallic berry pink. This complimentary pair of polishes are from the Apocalypse Of Color Collection and they are quite unique. I'm not sure if you would call them frosts, metallics, textures, or glitters. The base is a frosty metallic loaded with fine black glitters. They are gritty glitters that give a very unique finish to the polish. It's textured but not as heavily as most textured polishes. A few notes on the formula: These thicken quite quickly as you polish your nails and I found thinner coats worked best. If I applied a coat too thick it would crack much like a Crackle Type polish. Otherwise I found the formula to be fine, not spectacular, but fine. These also dried quickly. I applied a coat of ACI's In A Hurry Air Dry Top Coat and surprisingly it still kept it's t...

Today I have a polish from China Glaze's Apocalypse Of Color with an accent nail from the All Aboard Collection. These two just seemed to scream out at me as a cool combo. No Top Coat. Getting To Gnaw You is from the Apocalypse Of Color Collection and it reminds me a lot of Wet n Wild's Cougar Attack from years ago except GTGY has a much more opaque and black base. If you missed out on Cougar Attack and are still kicking yourself I would highly recommend this one. I like it better. It only took two coats and dried very quickly like a texture polish. In fact you could rock this as a texture or your could top coat it. Formula was very easy to work with. On my accent nail I have Stop That Train! from the All Aboard Collection . This frosty orange is pretty enough but as you can see this shows brush strokes. I love orange polish but this left me a bit bored. I used 2 easy coats; formula was quite easy to work with.  With Illamasqua Matte Top Coat. I read about a trick (I belie...

Hey Gang! Can I just tell you how stressful this move has been?? Moving is stressful; no news there... But when you go online to U-Haul to reserve a 26' truck on tuesday and this happens: (If you dont want to bother with this part just scroll down) - U-Haul Rep calls to go over details on Wednesday; it's a mess. - U-Haul Rep says they will call you on Thursday to let you know where you can get 26' Truck. - No call from U-Haul Rep on Thursday. - Call U-Haul Rep on Friday and ask whats going on. They say we will have the truck tomorrow morning ready to go. - Go to pick up U-Haul Truck; Not Available.  GRRRRRRR... - Go home; call another U-Haul. - Finally talk to someone who knows what they are doing and set-up reservation for Monday. This guy covered everything the 1st did not.  - Got it on Monday (Yay!) - Load up truck; drive to new place.  - Begin unloading; notice huge wet spot under truck. - Transmission fluid all over driveway (this is a rental sooo...) - Call U-Haul t...

Today I'm rocking another shade from China Glaze's All Aboard Collection . I applied 2 coats of What Are You A-Freight Of? to all my nails. This is a really unique color to my stash. It reminds me of Zoya, Kelly but this one leans more of a red-toned purple. It's dark but it has a muted dusty quality that makes it really nice. Formula was a little on the thin side but still incredibly opaque. Use caution to avoid cuticle pooling, be sure to wipe excess polish from your brush. If you like to apply thicker coats this could be a one coater but I used medium coats so I added a 2nd coat to even things out. It self levels nicely but does take a little longer to dry for some odd reason. On my index and middle nails I dabbed one coat of Lumina Lacquer's Peculiar Pumpkin Posse . This glitter bomb features orange and black hexagons, orange holographic hexagons, large silver circles, silver holographic crescent moons and even a few silver hearts. All that in a clear base. The s...

Here's two more polishes I have to show you from the All Aboard Collection . Don't Get Derailed - A dark murkey olive green creme. AMAZING formula; thin and easy to apply. Very opaque. This is 2 coats on all my nails. Mind The Gap - This is a shimmery olive green with flashes of gold. Formula was nice and easy to apply. It is a little on the sheer side so I layered one coat over Don't Get Derailed on my ring nail. This reminds me of one of the new NYX Wicked Lippies ; Trickery. So far I am very impressed with this collection, how about you?

Are you guys as excited as I am?!? Do you know what I'm talking about? Well, let me fill you in! Tonight is the Season Premiere of The Walking Dead ! Been waiting months and months for this day... Can you guess why I am wearing an accent nail of Lizzie? If you watch the show you know that one of the most explosive episodes last season was 'The Grove' . If you are behind on the show and don't want any spoilers you should cut out now. Lizzie was a young girl who basically had a mental breakdown and began seeing zombies as people. In this episode she kills her sister so she will turn into a zombie. It was quite a mind fuck. Since Lizzie was a clear danger to those around her (and shrinks don't exist in the zombie apocalypse) she was directed to ''Look at the flowers" and was dispatched. If you know what I mean.  On 3 nails:  All Aboard  is a muted deep purple creme. It's very pretty. The formula was a little on the squishy side but still opaque in 2 ea...

We have a rogue pumpkin vine growing in our backyard and it has these bright yellow/orange blooms all over it. So I wanted to do something like that on my nails. Icing, Watermelon is a polish I picked up on a whim. It's a soft orangey peach crelly (cross between a creme and a jelly). It took 3 coats to cover up some staining I had on my nails but still looks very squishy. Formula was very easy to apply due to the very jelly-like consistency. Even the huge brush wasn't a problem. It did dry to a very odd finish though; it had some very fine texture particles in it, almost like some neons have. A top coat is necessary. On my Middle & Thumb nails I applied 2 coats of China Glaze, White On White . I then stamped these Lilies from Bundle Monster plate BM-314 using Wet n Wild, Black Creme . Since Watermelon is on the sheer side it worked well to fill in the Lilies with a very fine tipped dotting tool ( once again using the Led Lighting technique ).  I topped all my nails with 2...

I recently participated in an online Jamberry Nails party. I got some samples to try (but still bought some full sets before trying the samples... Doh!) and I thought I would do a black and white monochrome skittle with them. Thumb: 2 coats of ManGlaze, Matte Is Murder . Index: Started with 2 coats of China Glaze, White On White . One coat of Picture Polish, Atomic . Middle: Jamberry Black and White Chevron nail strip. Ring: 2 coats of ManGlaze, Fuggen Ugly . Pinkie: Jamberry Black & White Quad nail strip. I top coated all my nails with In A Hurry (sadly, I got some bubbles). I've been watching lots of grav3yardgirl 's videos lately and I think that's where I got the inspiration to do these. She loves her black and white nails! I got these samples from my Jamberry Nails Consultant, Theresa Brown . 

Week 7 of the Polish Swap Society's Nail Art Challenge is Pattern!   Find a dress, pattern, painting to inspire you to create a mani to match. Please also post a photo of the inspiration. I had made a previous attempt that was a FAIL . I thought I would try a different pattern but after some thought (& time on YouTube) I wanted to try the same pattern. I've been hearing about the Led Lighting Technique for about a month. This video helped me to better understand what exactly it is. It's a stained glass effect. Why they call it Led Lighting makes no sense to me but whatevs. In case you didn't see my FAIL post my inspiration is my new Victoria's Secret Forever Sexy Convertible Halter Bikini in the Blue Paisley print. Not the easiest print to replicate but I love the colors.  I applied 2 coats of China Glaze, White On White to all my nails and let it dry completely. I stamped on the Paisley Print Image from Bundle Monster Plate BM-315 using Barielle's Tres C...

Due to circumstances outside of our control the Polish Swap Society's Nail Art Challenge will experience a bit of a delay. The last two challenges will be done every two weeks. That turned out to be a good thing because I had an idea to try a new stamping technique as seen here but it turned out not so great!  I was lucky enough to get a new Victoria's Secret Swimsuit  (in zither Blue Paisley print) and I loved the pattern so much I wanted to try to replicate it for the challenge. Using Bundle Monster Plate BM-315, the paisley print image, I stamped Barielle's Tres Chic onto my stamper and let it dry. Tres Chic is a very dark navy blue with a touch of purple to it. It's a cream and very opaque. I filled in parts of the image using my smallest dotting tool with Barielle's Peach Popsicle which is peachy coral cream and Illamasqua's Cameo which is a periwinkle blue cream. I then allowed this plenty of time to dry on the stamper. I painted my nail stick with on...

I'm back with Week 6 of the Polish Swap Society Nail Art Challenge! This weeks theme is:  I AM SO SPACED OUT! Pastel Galaxy nails sound fun for spring/summer right? Using this tutorial, create a set of galaxy nails! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZGHOIsMmxA I just got Spellbound Nails , Visions of Sugar Plums in a swap with a fellow member of the Polish Swap Society and I thought it would make for a great base color for this challenge. It's a very pretty dusty purple jelly with what looks to be small and medium matte white hexagons. It also has either matte white or silver stars; I'm not 100% sure because the base actually covers them and makes them look light purple. The formula was pretty thick so I applied each coat nice and slow to get even coverage. I used 2 medium coats but luckily it didn't take too long to dry and it was pretty opaque after 2 coats. I did have to fish to get the stars out but it wasn't too difficult. Lots of shaking and turning the bottle...

So where have I been lately... Oh just running around like a chicken with my head cut off is all! Had some 'life' come up and so nail stuff got sent to the back of the line. I almost missed a week but to be honest the submission was not up to blog standards so I didn't even post it here. I'll post it at the very end of this one in case you wanna see it. So for the 3rd week of the Polish Swap Society Nail Art Challenge the theme is a sweet treat inspired mani. Cupcakes, sprinkles, whatever you like! I looked up a few different tutorials on Google and such and found this one:  http://www.beautylish.com/v/sriuj/candy-frost-nail-art-tutorial So here are my tweaked version of frosting nails. Frosting is perfect because my husband is notorious for simply buying a tub of frosting. Makes me wanna gag. I always ask him why not get a cake mix too so he could cut his frosting a little. LOL I used a base color of Pokerface by NARS . Oh. My. Goodness. I'm now hooked and need mo...

The Polish Swap Society Facebook Group is having an 8-week Nail Art Challenge and I decided to join in. Week 1 is Party Animal Theme. Basically you choose an animal of your choice. I decided to do my 2 Dogs and my Cat!  I used 2 different tutorials and adapted them to fit my vision: Cat: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QsRnVDhY5bo Dogs: http://www.nuthinbutanailthing.com/2013/08/dog-nail-art-tutorial.html I practiced fine tuning my idea on some swatch sticks. Translating the colors of my dogs was the hardest part. My tuxedo cat was easy-peasy. I started with a base color of  Essence Nail Art Twins in Bella . These are HTF and I recently got lucky and got them from a stash sale. My main reason for choosing this color is that it is easily a one coater and it would dry quickly so I could start the nail art. I also knew I would be using the glitter in Edward on a few of my nails. (No, I am not a Twilight fan; I just love the color of this set) Thumb: My cat...