Saturday, June 4, 2011

The Daily Nail - Surf's Up, Dude!

The Daily Nail - Surf's Up, Dude!
My first time in a MAC store EVER was in January 2005, and it was at the Pro Store here in Las Vegas - before I even moved here! I even remember my first eyeshadow that I purchased - Melody! My love affair began way back then, and since, my collection has grown to a ridiculous amount - over 70 full-sized pigments, 5 15-pan palettes full, quads galore, almost every color of fluidliner, and pencils, paints, lipglosses, glasses, sticks, etc. galore. It's a tad ridiculous, honestly. I'm a makeup hoarder, though I've gotten much better about passing up most or all of a new collection, even if it's LE, because generally I have a color that is so close that the layperson wouldn't be able to tell the difference, or because it's merely a repromote in different packaging. :-D (I do fall for them on occasion - can we say Wonder Woman Ruby Woo?!)

Needless to say, I fell for the new Surf Baby collection, taking home Short Shorts e/s (I'm forever on the hunt for a Pollen dupe - my fav MAC e/s ever), Surf the Ocean pigment stack, Hangin' Loose nail polish, and Surf Baby! Cheek powder with the amazing gold hibiscus flower on it. The only thing I'm not loving is the pigment stack - SO difficult to work with!! (Was the gold supposed to be mousse-like?)

Anyway, because I LOVE the colors of the packaging and the hibiscus in this collection, I HAD to do a nail design based off it! :) Hope you like it!!





I used American Apparel Cotton as a base, with Lotus Herbals in Code Orange for the stripe as well as the hibiscus on the ring finger. For the yellow I used CND Bicycle Yellow, and for the grey/taupe, I used Essie Chinchilly. For the gold on the hibiscus, I used China Glaze Hi-tek. Topped everything off with two coats of Seche Vite top coat.

The Daily Nail - 2011 Las Vegas Weekly Awards!

The Daily Nail - 2011 Las Vegas Weekly Awards!
 This past Wednesday I was invited to attend an event held by the Las Vegas Weekly, a weekly magazine here in Las Vegas. I was selected as the recipient of the 2011 'Best Blogger' award in the 2011 Weekly awards!! SO exciting!! :) Of course, since I was going to the event, I had to do Las Vegas Weekly nails, so I used one of the copies of when the story about me was in the Weekly last May to work into the manicure. (I was a tad overzealous in getting spare copies to keep, so I had a few issues to spare :-P) Check out the blurb about the award here!

Forgive me for not including my thumb in the picture- I swatched another color over it without thinking before I got around to photographing it. Stupid me. For the texture in the background, I transferred bits of the original article using alcohol onto the white background, then painted the Las Vegas WEEKLY logo over it. :)




I used American Apparel Cotton as a base, with Claire's Stiletto for the red, and American Apparel Hassid for the black. Topped it all off with two coats of Seche Vite top coat.