Top 12 Nail Art of 2012

I was only planning to do MY favorites and YOUR favorites Top 12 of 2012 lists, but as I was going through my posts, picking out your favorites based on view count, I noticed that some of my nail art posts have gotten a considerable amount of views! So I decided to throw together a post of your favorite nail art looks, based on post views, and here are the top 12! Click on the title of the picture to be taken to the original post. 

12. This Is Halloween Nail Art Challenge: Watermarble. Tied for 12th place with 35 views. My first attempt at a watermarble, and I was pretty pleased with it!

12.5. 12 Days of Christmas Nail Art Challenge: Holiday Movie. Tied for last place with my watermarble- 35 views. This was a rather lazy attempt at showing the Griswold Family Christmas lights, and my first attempt at a glequin manicure. 

11. 12 Days of Christmas Nail Art Challenge: Christmas Trees. 36 Views. I really like this one, as it has more of a cohesive feel than many of my arty manis do.

10. 12 Days of Christmas Nail Art Challenge: Holiday Song. 38 views. Was TOTALLY at a loss for this one, so generic music symbols it is.

9. 12 Days of Christmas Nail Art Challenge: Candy Canes. 51 Views. My second ever watermarble. I've only ever done two of them, and they're both on this list- I must be doing something right, right?

8. This Is Halloween Nail Art Challenge: Zombies. 58 Views. This was a bit of an abstract mani, but I loved it, and wore it for days, even though I hate the feeling of matte polish. 

7. The Zombicure! 64 views. The only true nail art I've shown that wasn't part of a challenge, and I still love it :)

6. This Is Halloween Nail Art Challenge: Bats. 67 views. I love the shimmery white base on this one, and repeated it for one of my holiday manis. 

5. Back to School Waterslide Decals by Designer Piggies.  79 views. Also not part of a nail art challenge, but I didn't actually do the art on this one :) I loved these decals, but need more work on placing full coverage waterslides.

4. This Is Halloween Nail Art Challenge: Gradient. 81 views. The only true gradient I've done. Not Halloween specific either!

3. This Is Halloween Nail Art Challenge: Horror Movie. 84 views. I was, and still am, SO proud of the burnt flesh look I created on my Freddy Kreuger mani!

2. This Is Halloween Nail Art Challenge: Ghosts. 94 views. It's odd- I participated in 2 Halloween nail art challenges, but every one of the top nail art posts was from this challenge. Must have been more fellow challengers in this one :)

1. Easiest Nail Art Ever by Long Changed.  Your number one favorite, with 97 views. So easy vinyl nail art decals. Stick on and go!

Were any of these YOUR personal favorites? Is there a favorite of yours that didn't make the list? 

I've gotten behind this week, so you'll get a post-a-palooza over the next two days! Stay tuned for New Year's Eve mani ideas, your top 12 favorite polish and MY top 12 favorite polishes of the year!

Back to School with Designer Piggies Waterslide Decals

Continuing on with my nail art themed weekend, this morning's post is brought to you by Designer Piggies and my joy at school having finally started again! I don't have kids, but I DO work retail, and my product specialty is office supplies. So the last month, and doubly so the last two weeks, have been hell on me! So to celebrate the kiddos going back to school- and my job returning to normal!- on Tuesday, I did this mani. Sorry it took so long to post, but I had issues with editing- as you'll see :)

I did not think to take photos before I started testing. Sorry. But this is the full sheet of Designer Piggies waterslide decals. There were 6 full coverage composition book decals, 6 full coverage pencil decals, two full cover notebook paper with an A+ decals, and 14 French tip colored pencil/crayon decals. For a grand total of 28 designs! Almost three full manicures!

This is why editing took so long. This is the most flattering picture I was able to take. I have some more detailed ones to show you, but the mani was a bit of a fail on my part. As I'm sure you're aware by now, nail art is a whole new concept to me, and I'm pretty horrible at it. Hence, my new fascination with decals! But this was my first attempt at full coverage decals, and they were a bit tricksy. 

I began with two coats of a plain white creme (which is necessary, because the decals were sheer. My first attempt was over bare nails with a red accent- no can do!), then topped the white with some Out the Door to dry it. I trimmed the decals very carefully, then dipped in water for 10ish seconds, and applied to the nail. I had some trouble getting the decals to stick to the nail. Cynthia says these are not supposed to go onto wet polish, but it just kind sat there when I tried to apply it to dry polish. So I added a regular clear coat (not quick dry) and let it dry for a minute or so until it was just tacky, then smoothed the decal onto that. As you can see from the photo, I put the pencil on crooked, and tore the composition book :( Everything else went on great. After the Piggies were all smoothed out and pretty-like, I sealed them with another coat of Out the Door. 

Note: Make sure you trim the decals well. I didn't trim this one closely enough, and you can see the black background line that I missed. 

As you can see by how far down my thumb the French tip came- these designs are perfectly suitable for longer nails! I had to trim down the full nail designs to make them fit- in retrospect I should have saved the trimmed off parts and kept them for later use as French tips! 

The bottom line on these is this: Don't blame the Piggies for my user error. They are a bit daunting for someone with little or no experience, but they did apply smoothly and evenly, and were absolutely adorable- I got TONS of compliments on these at work! I'll definitely be back for more- I'll use my leftover Back to School decals to practice with, and then come back and show you how much better I've gotten with them :)

If you have experience with waterslide decals, or nail art in general, I'm sure these would be a breeze. And even if you don't- they're quite affordable enough to learn with! If you are still unsure: Cynthia has created a tutorial video on how to apply Designer Piggies decals. 

Designer Piggies are available for sale through Etsy, Facebook and the Designer Piggies blog. A full set, which includes 14 full coverage and 14 tips, only run's $5- about $1.67 per manicure. Less if you use them as accent nails! There are also mini sets, featuring only the 14 full cover decals, for $3, and a customizable option for $15! There are tons of cute geometric, everyday designs, like argyle and houndstooth, plus seasonal designs, such as these Back to School ones and a candy corn design Halloween set! 

Support your indies, ladies!

                                                                            Cheers, 

-Liz-

*This product was provided to me for an honest review. 

The Zombiecure! Featuring CFS Nail Decals

Well, ladies- it is officially September! That means it is (to me, at least) officially fall, and I am officially allowed to start freaking out about Halloween! I've already posted about my costume, and I've done a fair bit of shopping for it so far, but that needs so much work that it's in a whole different category :) But now that Fall is here, I'm excited to play with other Halloween things- like the Zombie-cure!

If you've read a few of my posts, you know that nail art just isn't my thing. I'm not good at it, and I'm too impatient to try over and over again. However, in the past few weeks I got my first ever stamping plates (courtesy of some Copious credits) and several different nail decal designs, plus a set of real live dotting tools. So this is my first real attempt at nail art- please be gentle with me!

All the base colors here are my own, from the Zombie Collection- thumb middle and pinky are Flesh, middle and ring are Bone. The dots on my ring finger are (from bottom up) Dessicate, Liquify, Flesh, Putrefy, Blood and Dessicate again. The glitter on my thumb is Eye of Newt from my Witch's Brew Collection. Pinky is topped with Pretty & Polished's Bubble Tea (which will get it's own proper review). The index finger stamping was done with Blood and a plate whose brand name I don't know, but is #QA26.

The middle finger features Blood blood drips, drawn on with a dotting tool, and a Zombie Hello Kitty waterslide decal from CFS Nail Decals- how cute is she? Wondering if I'd get to a review, weren't you? I don't have much experience with waterslide decals- I've pretty much only ever used those horrible stickers you get in a giant pack at Walmart! These were super easy to use- I cut the decal off of the sheet and set it in a Dixie cup full of water for about 10 seconds. When I pulled it out of the cup, the decal slide right off the back, and I placed it on my nail. Drew on the blood, coat of Seche Vite and I'm done!

The decal lasted the whole two days I wore the Zombie-cure (I'm hoping to spawn a word here!), and laid completely flat- for the most part. Next time I'll trim the decal down closer to the actual design- there was a bit of wrinkling near the top of the decal, but I just cut a chunk off of the page. I think there was way too much unnecessary empty space, and proper trimming would eliminate that issue. This was definitely a positive start to me waterslide decal experience, and I've already started to expand my collection! For someone with no talent or patience for nail art, these are an amazing way to jazz up a basic manicure.

CFS Nail Decals can be purchased on Etsy.  A set of 10 decals runs $1.95, and there are tons of designs to choose from- Moustaches, puzzle pieces, Mario, Batman- even an option to make your own with pretty much any logo out there. Super cheap and easy! 

What are your experiences with waterslide decals? Have you tried any from CFS yet?

Support your indies, ladies! (even the non-polish ones!)

Cheers,

-Liz-

*Decals were provided to me for an honest review.