Ruffian? What is this?

Greetings Children of the Night and Happy Hump Day.

Hope y'all have had an exciting, or at least  productive week thus far. The Vuppy, (vampire puppy. It's the nickname I've given to the teething chihuahua puppy) The Boy, and I are all awaiting the newest episode of Monster Man tonight. While I miss my Face Off, this show rocks! If you haven't seen it check it out tonight. It's in the Face Off time slot (10pm) on SyFy.

Gratuitous Vuppy Picture

Anyway, in my journey to find a new project I ran across many pictures of what is being called the Ruffian manicure. I know for many nail bloggers this is old news as it first appeared on the runway for Fall 2010, but seeing as how I'm new to the nail world, I had never seen this before. In fact, the idea of watching fashion shows for the latest nail craze and the fact that polish companies like China Glaze and O.P.I have seasons is all news to me. Shoot, I just discovered companies like Butter LONDON and Deborah Lippmann!

I figured while I was giving the water marbling a break I would try this. Now keep in mind I *bite* at doing a free hand french tip so I was very very tempted to break out the guides and not attempt to do this free hand. However Laquerized provided an amazing how to so I figured I would give her directions a go and*voila* perfect (well nearly perfect) Ruffian.

I'm also calling this the coffee mani. I did one coat of Nail Life Gripper, one thick coat of Sally Hansen Mochachino, then two thin coats of Sally Hansen Insta-Dry Expresso. While staring at my nails I was moved to add a little something more... SPOTS!

Using Sally Hansen Hard as Diamonds Amethyst Diamond I put random shaped blobs of color and partially outlined them with my Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen. A final layer of Sally Hansen Super Shiny and I am more than happy with the results.

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I was very sad to find out that Mochachino (the bottle in the pictures) is a discontinued color. I love the shimmer, almost metallic, quality of this polish. I also love how close Amethyst Diamond and Expresso are in shade. The spots just take on a shimmery quality without actually changing the color. At this angle I think you get a really good view of the contrast.

So how many of you follow the latest nail trends? Anything y'all would like to see me attempt from this year's spring collections?

Water Marbling, my new foe

Greetings Children of the Night and a big hello to my new followers! Thanks for reading.

As I'm sure most bloggers are, I'm a junkie for other blogs. Eventually I'll get around to posting some of my favorites on here. I've been seeing a lot of buzz lately for water marbling. It seems to be the new 'it' thing on nail blogs everywhere. I read up on it, watched *tons*of YouTube videos and thought to myself, "hey self, that is a really cool effect and looks really easy. Let's try it!" So I did. *snorts* Easy it is not!

  I figured I would do peacock colors. I picked out a dark navy chrome, a purple shimmer, creme teal, shimmering green, and a really pretty deep metallic gold. I used many different brands (maybe that was my problem?) but it was the Finger Paints that refused to spread. My water may have been *slightly* too warm.

Left (non-dominate) hand

I love the way my pinky came out here. You can really see the green and gold.  Even the thumb looks OK.

left thumb

My polish wouldn't spread, it dried way too fast and then I ended up with some really muddy marbling.On this hand though, you can see all the muddy-ness and the air bubbles. Again though, the ring finger and pinky came out pretty good.

right hand

right hand

Over all, it came out *ok* for a first attempt. I'm not giving up though. I will win! *brandishing fist* Ahem, yeah enough of that. Have any of you tried water marbling? How did yours come out?

The Green Eyed Monster

Top O' The Morning My Children of the Night!

Honestly if you're anything like me you have a tendency to curse the day star. All the same, St. Patrick's Day happens to be one of my favorite holidays, right next to Halloween. That meant I just *had* to do a themed mani. I had a good friend post a picture for me on Facebook of some really lovely inspiration. When I tried it, it really didn't work out for me so I ended up doing something slightly different.

Image source

 Instead, I started with one coat of Nail Life Gripper then a shear lime green color and did two coats. It's from the L.A. Colors shimmer brights collection. The color itself doesn't seem to have a name. After that I did the top third of my nail in two coats of Finger Paints Key To My Art. Once those had dried I used a cosmetics sponge and sponged Finger Paints Sketch an Etch in the middle of the nail. This ended up giving me a really cool ombre effect. After they all dried I put two coats of Sinful Colors Green Marsh over the top. Green Marsh is an ancient color I can't even find on eBay. It's a lovely green and silver holo bar glitter in a clear base.I ended with two really thick coats of Sally Hansen Super Shiny.

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 In this picture you can really see the holo/rainbow effect in the silver bar glitter.

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indoors with flash

I think you can really see the gold tips from Key To My Art and the ombre effect. I love Key To My Art in the bottle. It looks like liquid gold.

indoors no flash

Green March #175

Here is the bottle of Sinful Colors Green Marsh. My mother bought this for me when I was still  in high school as a St Patrick's Day gift. I had *completely* forgotten I even had it until I found it in a box of goodies at my mothers house. I added a little cheap clear polish and *voila* it was just like new! I guess my Sinful Colors obsession started young.

I really wanted to go back to my nail art roots and do a little free hand design but I just haven't been able to find the time. I've been cleaning like a madwoman for the company we're having on Saturday for dinner. At this point I'm just hoping that my mani will last until Saturday.

Have a wonderful holiday and enjoy a pint for me.

Valentine's Day

Hello to my Children of the Night. I hope y'all had a bloody good Valentine's day. I ended up spending it with my folks instead of the boy (really not sure how he felt about that, he's been kinda snarky.) He an I however, went to a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert the Sunday prior so I'm going to count that as our 'date' *giggle*.

For the evil love holiday I was going to paint my nails black but I had a girlfriend request I do something for her. She wanted hot pink, red, and black. I immediately figured I would try to do an ombre (seeing as how that's hot this spring.) Oh my word what a complete fail! In the interests of full disclosure I am going to post the pictures of my fail. Don't worry I did NOT leave the house with my nails like this. I ended up with a red glitter paint with gold stamped hearts. Silly me though broke a nail before I got really good pictures of it. I may be able to find a crappy one on my phone to post.

First I put down a base coat of Nail Life Gripper and two coats of Sinful Colors 24/7. After that I added Sally Hanson Rapid Red tips. I really should have just stamped on some red and white hearts and called this a good job. Oh no, I had to be 'creative.' *rolls eyes*

 I then used a make-up sponge to blur the red farther down into the pink. This is where I started to go wrong. My lines are far too clean. There isn't enough bleed through.

  Here it *almost* looks promising.

After that dried I added Sinful Colors Black on Black tips with the make-up sponge. Again there isn't nearly enough bleed through. I just ended up with really harsh lines and a Toucan Sam effect.

 In an attempt to blur the lines I added two coats of Sally Girl Disco Ball and that just gave me a shiny toucan. *snicker* Yeah this was not one of my better attempts.

Well here is the final product with the bottle of Sinful Colors Black on Black. Yeah.... not really my best attempt. I'm glad I went with a red after all. I'll have to check if I took a phone picture and sneak it into my next post.

Night now my nails are bare *ACK* and I'm out of ideas. This weekend is our Bay Area Renaissance Festival and I might be going on Sunday, depending on how I feel. I've been plagued by really nasty headaches lately but I have friend how is a massage therapist who has offered to help me out. First time for me, so we'll see how it works out. I'm trying to decide if I want to do my nails to match my Ren Faire costume. It's a green stripe skirt. with a white top. Maybe green and white french? Eh we'll see.

Thanks for reading. 

Face Off was on last night. Hopefully I can have my Face Off post up tomorrow.

BOOTS!

Hello My Children of the Night.

Sorry I missed yesterday. Honestly I've spent the last few days feeling rather under the weather. I'm still not at 100% today but I couldn't justify another day off.

Today I'm going to share with you a little alteration job I did. As you know (or may not) I am a Plus Sized Princess (PSP) and this, at times, can make buying clothing difficult. It makes buying tall boots damn near impossible. About two years ago I had a lovely woman offer to sell me a pair of thigh high boots fairly cheap. She couldn't wear them and so wanted to get rid of them. Knowing they didn't fit her I have *no* clue what possessed me to say I'd buy them. These became an obsession. Over two long years we traded jabs and pokes, Facebook messages, and only heaven knows what else over these damnable shoes. I finally bought them off of her, got them home, and *shock* they didn't fit! I was not to be detered though. I am the queen of alterations. There is nothing I can't fix so i set to fixing these.

Here is what I started with (sorry no actual before picture)

(image source)

and here is my after!

 

As  you can see I did some alteration. There was a seam down the back of the boot. I took a *very* sharp pair of Gingher sewing scissors and split that seam. I then inserted a panel of stretchy lace 7" by 12" into the opening creating a rather sizable gusset. IN the picture you can see the lace peeking behind the laces.

After I inserted the gusset ( I own a Husqvarna Viking machine that went through that vinyl like buttah) I started to add the eyelets. The eyelets are large 1/4" eyelets. There are 15 up the sides of each boot, so 30 per boot.

Finally I bought 3 yards of ribbon and laced it up the back of these boots. They are insane. Why a 5'11" woman needs 6" thigh highs I have no clue but I cannot wait to wear them. They have become a source of joy and pride. I'm the only one who owns a pair that looks just like this.

Have a Terrible Tuesday and thank you for reading. Leave a comment with the craziest alteration you ever did to a article of clothing.

Vampire Mani

Hello to my Children of the Night!

I am  very glad to hear that the blackout protesting SOPA/PIPA was so successful. Today I added a little something to my http://originalzombiemadam.blogspot.com/2012/01/oh-black-polish-youre-still-my-favorite.html mani.

I love... no I ADORE vampires. Everything about them. The myth and legacy, the movies and books, after all who wouldn't want to live forever? I will put the note here that I am a fan of the Anne Rice style Southern Gothic vamp. This also includes your True Blood vampires as well.  *ahem* Vampires do NOT sparkle!

I originally saw this concept as a tribute to True Blood and I really can't remember where (I mean no disrespect) and knew I just had to try it. The lips should have been a true red but instead I went a little brighter with a mini of Lancome Vernis Absolu in Extrovert. The teeth were done with a Sally Hanson nail art pen in white. I am very proud of this one. 

I went to dinner with a girlfriend that night who had to have a picture of it. She asked my why I don't work in a nail salon *blushes*. Honestly folks I've been doing the nail art thing for about 6 months. I highly doubt too, I could find myself a salon where I wouldn't have to paint pretty little flowers and I don't do (as of yet) pretty little flowers.

I probably won't post again until next week so y'all have an amazing weekend and I'll see you again on Morbid Monday.

Oh Black Polish, You're Still My Favorite

Greetings my children of the night!

I know, I know it's a bit cliche but I adore black polish. There is just something vampy and sexy and mysterious about black nails. There is just a little tinge of bad girl about it too. After all, black is not exactly your grandmother's polish color. 

For Christmas my mom gave me (in addition to a beautiful set of nail art brushes) a set of three Orly mini polishes. These were all from the new Orly holiday soiree collection. I got a mini Ma Cherie, Oui, and Androgynie. Oh how much I really adore Androgynie. Eventually I’ll end up doing posts about Oui (a purple jelly base with a gold shimmer) and Ma Cherie (a jelly red) but this… this… oh it takes black to a WHOLE NEW LEVEL. 

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It has silver and gold micro-glitter and larger multi-colored hex glitters in a smoky black base. These pictures are two coats of Nail Life Gripper, two coats of Androgynie over one coat of Sinful colors Black on Black. Then one coat of Sally Hanson Top Coat.  While this color can stand alone, it takes three or four coats. I found it a smidge hard to work with because all the lovely larger hex glitters settled to one side of the bottle and I’m having a hard time getting them out. However if that is the worst I can say about this color… I’m sold. The polish itself has a beautiful texture, not at all gritty. That's why I only needed one coat of Top Coat.

In the shade picture you can really see all of the hex glitter. It may be a few days before I do another nail post. I'm not taking this off for awhile.  


Have an amazing Terrifying Tuesday.

Gore & Glitter

Happy New Year to my Children of the Night. I know I've been away for a long time. I had to take some time to reevaluate, and decide what direction I really wanted to go in. It was in this vacuum, that one of my dearest friends dropped a single statement, "Gore & Glitter." I thought, why not?

I may love my gore, horror, and things that go bump in the night but I'm also a plus sized princess on a mission. I want to make goth chic again; think Morticia Addams (in a size18). I love my black clothes, dark eyeliner, and pale complexion. Just because your look is Gothic inspired doesn't mean you have to scare the neighbors. I must admit I still have my moments of wanting to freak out the norms, but that's not an everyday thing.

So here enters my new direction: fashion, gore, make-up, and glitter. In the next month, I'm going to starting a YouTube channel to post video tutorials for my nail and make-up looks, along with recipes. 

To those of you who stayed, I thank you. To anyone new... wait as Something Wicked (and glittery) This Way Comes.