Taping Time!!

Hello my friends!
Remember how I said school was starting? Yup! It indeed did and took all of my free time with it! Thank goodness for 3 day weekends! =D
I haven't taped for a while I wanted to do something super elaborate, but figured I should start out small. Haha. Also, omg, I got outside pics! They are the nicest! Outside has such pretty lighting. =)

This is some very simple, yet imho very awesome art. It stands out but didn't actually take too long or too much planning to do. People love it and comment about it a lot. Yay! Enjoy!

 The whole time I was editing these I just kept thinking "Omg, outside, you make things so pretty".  Daytime nail art is rare for me, but so much better!!!

This is 4 lovely shades of Zoya: Blu, Kristen, Yummy, and Breezi. Blu is the light shade on all of the nails. It's such a pretty shade, and one of about one blues in this shade(that I've found!). Kristen has a much more blue/grey tone. I didn't have a better in between shade so I went with it. I like it. Yummy is a nice true sky blue, and Breezie is my favorite shade of blue!

Blue is actually my least favorite color, wouldn't you know?

Don't forget to check out my brand new Instagram! With this here redone blog, I've added neat little social buttons over there ~---> so do all of those. =) Especially follow this blog in general with the google blogger!!!

Thank so much for reading!
♥Jo

Dark Side of the Moon nails - Tutorial

Hey everyone!!! A few asked for a tutorial of my most recent mani, so I thought I'd deliver!!

This is the finished product of a few days ago. I LOVE it matte. Glossy was great, but This is my favorite, I think.

Let's begin!!
You will need a red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. Also white, black, and tape!
I used Venique The perfect Accessory, Zoya Jancyn and Creamy, CG Gaga for Green, Zoya Robyn and Mira. Venique Wingtip White and Zoya Storm!

Start with a white base. Put striping tape on your index and middle fingers for the shaft of light going into the prism. I've outlined where I've placed scotch tape so you can see better. You will want to wait for the white to dry completely(or cheat with Seche Vite) before doing any taping. You want to start with white, especially for the rainbow! Colors don't like to go over black and show up very well...

Tape over this with your black! Remember to remove the tape quickly, while the polish is still wet. If your lines went crooked or flooded under the tape, you can touch up the white later with a tiny brush.

These are some of the pieces of tape cut for prism and rainbow outline. Shoutout to Masha's tweezers! You'll get them back...Eventually. ♥

You can do the prism with the small triangle scotch(as I did), and then using that as a guide for striping tape and carefully fill in the middle. OR - you can simply use just striping tape from the beginning. But that's harder, I think.

Top it! Your index and middle are done, now it's just the rainbow left!
Hint - The shaft is supposed to be smaller. So, instead of starting with white, start with black on those fingers and tape off a tiny line to fill in with white. Not much more work involved with that, but it's more true to album cover, so try it! The only problem is the ring finger. you may have problems because it needs to start white for the rainbow. But we are all beautiful and creative, I'm sure we can do it!

Tape off the prism edge for the next steps. This way you get a clean edge for the rainbow! Using striping tape on the BOTTOM, use a tiny brush for each color. You have to eyeball it to get the 6 colors in there evenly, but that's not so bad. You can do it!

Use tape only on the bottom, because the top will have a small ridge from the previous tape. Just be careful with your small brush and this ridge will help you guide the next color in!
For crisper lines, use tape on top and bottom. The downfall is that you have to wait until it's perfectly dry before adding any tape.

I accidentally used yellow next, so you'll see that on the tape. Oops. Oh well, nothing the orange can't cover!

 Go all the way down. No tape needed for the purple, as I already have a guide on the top and bottom!

Remove tape and top it off!

Crap...I realized after I finished that I forgot to document the diffused light shaft in the prism. Let me just explain! Tape off the area from the top of your light shaft to the top of the rainbow, as well as bottom to bottom. My rainbow is WAY too high on the prism to do this, so my diffused light is lower. Be sure to keep that in mind when you first place the tape for the rainbow.
Using a tiny piece of cosmetic sponge, sponge on the white. You may want to dip your sponge and sponge away excess polish before using it on your nail as this is such a tiny space.
Or - using your small brush, just make little strokes in your prism going about halfway, starting from the light shaft.

I wanted a different finish this time than last time. This is Hits Hefesto. It's a pretty holo topcoat! It's so hard to capture this in a photo, but you get the idea.

You know, because Zoya Storm just wasn't glittery enough...

Thanks to everyone who commented and gave critique on this, from here and Reddit! Thanks to those who asked for a tutorial, as well! Hope to see TONS of Pink Floyd manicures popping up. ♥♥

Jonochi

Bonus!!!

I mattified the Hefesto. Not sure how I feel about that. It sure loses a lot of it's holo effect this way.

Thank you, Venique!

Hiya!
So here is something awesome... Here we have the Venique Holiday Collection 2012. These colors are great and work very well with each other! I'm super excited to share this with you. This collection is gorgeous!

 This is Studded Holiday Surprise. It's a super pretty gold shimmer top coat. I wanted to show you what it looks like on it's own. Even that is darling!

 Down the Chimney. This needed a lot of shaking. The bottle was pretty separated. But a lovely outcome! I love purples, though.

 Studded Holiday Surprise over Down the Chimney. Super quick and cute look. I went a day with this on! No doubt it won't be my last.

 Wrapped in Jewels. I don't know if you know this, but I don't have a thing for dark blues. This color is super pretty though. It's much brighter depending on the light, or darker otherwise. I have a new favorite dark blue. (more like, 'Look! I have a dark blue finally!' =D)

 Heels of Dazzle over Wrapped in Jewels. I really don't know what to do with glitters like this. I have no creativity to use them except what you will see a bit later on. I just wanted to show you how the glitter goes on with one coat. =)

 Another angle.

 Twinkling Glitter over Down the Chimney. Wow. Again, I don't know what to do with glitters, but I almost didnt take this off! I was just staring at it and moving around to see the different colors it gave off. AWESOME multi glitter. I think I will totally use it in the future for galaxies!

 Another angle.

The final project. Down the Chimney with a gradient of Studded Holiday Surprise and Twinkling Glitter, and 3 coats of SHS over tape for the tree! I saw that tree somewhere; I just had to do it! A bit of hand placed glitter from the glitter bottles on the tree. Merry Christmas!

With these polishes, I also received a topcoat. I've used it, but found it to be too slow drying for my taste. No picture for the fact that it's clear. =)

This is my first experience with being sent product for review. I want to reiterate my disclosure policy and reassure you these views are mine alone. I am super grateful for this opportunity!

Don't have any Venique? I know, I've said it before, but if you have any kind of cosmetology license get to CosmoProf! You need this stuff!
♥

 All polishes in this review were generously donated by Venique. The donation in no way has influenced my review on the product. Please review my disclosure policy.

Stripe mani - Tutorial!

Hey! I felt like it was a good idea to show you how I did my last mani!

Recap of that:

(because, you know, 10 hours ago was sooooo long!)


Start with one or two coats of base. I used Zoya Avery for this.

Next take your striping tape and cut 5 little strips, long enough to hang over the edges, horizontally.

 Here is the tape I used, you can get some on eBay Here!!! If anyone know of a lacquerista selling this stuff, that's better to support, so let us know! I don't remember which one I used, but they are all fairly cheap. Also there are many many uses for this stuff! =D

Apply the tape with an overhang on the sides.

 Paint in the sections you wish. If you want all different colors, you may need to use a smaller brush!

Take the strips off with tweezers while the polish is still wet, and apply topcoat(after it's dry enough, or course)!

I applied topcoat too soon, so it ran...So I didn't take a pic...But you get the idea!!

I'd love to see some super pretty stripey manis. So please share if you do this!!!♥
PS - Check out my friend's brand new blog! She doesn't have much up, but what she has is killer!!

-Jonochi

That mani where you think, "What am I even doing?"

Hey everyone! So here this is..I was going along when I realized I had no idea what I was doing. I started with something else in mind entirely, but then this happened! Didn't turn out so bad, I must say. I kinda like it!

So I picked these 3 colors for whatever else, but then I ended up with this. If feels similar to something I've done before, but different enough!

This is OPI I Have a Herring Problem, Zoya Yara, and Zoya Neeka. All 3 of these have a really cool finish. I've been wanting to use this OPI for a while now. I think this turned out pretty good!
I need to get another tiny striper brush...The one I used to have broke and this one doesn't work as well..=/


I'm beginning to run out of short nail ideas. My poor nails are having a hard time getting long. Too much hooping, maybe? Naw!!

As I was selecting pictured for this..I got to thinking. Why do I take so many to choose 2 or 3? Then, why do I even feel obligated to show the mani at 3 or 4 different angles? Hm. Oh well, I still will! =D

Happy Thursday!


<3

I Got Craft Scissors!!

Thank you all so much for your awesome comments! =D
I love reading what you have to say, compliment or constructive criticism! you all rock!! I love looking at other blogs, and do often. Don't mind me if I don't comment as often as I should.. =(
I should start doing shout-outs, yes? Yes. I'll find a blog and next post, they will get a shoutout! =D

So I finally picked up some craft scissors, as the title so says!
I got 12 pairs for 7 bucks at Michael's. So you could imagine they probably suck..They do a bit!!
But I don't care, it worked perfectly for what I wanted!

These are the designs it came with. I couldn't pass this up. Even though quality does not go hand in hand with quantity on this one!

But they are sooo pretty! =D Check out those COLORS!!

This is the mani I created with one. I wanted different greens, but I work with what I have. Now I suddenly have green cremes of various shades on my wishlist!
I used Orly Lucky Duck, and Sally Hansen Green With Envy(which of COURSE looks too yellow in this..=/ )

Let me share with you some tips I found, especially with working with the cheapy scissors:

 Fold down the edge of the tape just a bit. I've folded it a lot more here than I should, just to show what I mean.

 Place the tape to a paper. One that is more slick works the best! I used a Kohl's advertisement that the tape will peel off of easily. Cut the paper into the size and shape you are looking for.

 All size pieces work!! Peel the tape off the paper using the folded edge you made.

And there you have it! Use the tape however you like it. Don't forget to remove the tape while the lacquer is still wet, or it won't work nearly as well!

Edgy French

Hey friends!
You won't believe it, but that purple mani I had going on lasted like 4 days! Crazy right?
There was one in between, it lasted about a day. I never finished it either, so no pics. =(
But here's this! I love matte! This one was super simple and super fun to do!

So I used Venique Dominating Thigh Highs for black. My Sephora NOPI mattecoat, Venique The Perfect Accessory is the red!!

In order to get the red as bright as I wanted, but not too bright, I put Sally Hansen Wet Cement down first. That's just a nice, light grey! It was better than white = Too bright! And better than black = waaayyy too dark!

Quite a fan! I think it turned out nice!
I taped the red (and grey) after the matte had dried. I thought it needed more so I used a cheapy little glitter striper as well. At that point, I could have gotten away with freehanding the red, no problem.

I've been watching a ton of Fullmetal Alchemist lately with the SO. AWESOME anime, in case you were wondering. I watch the subs, so I can't do my nails at the same time...Hence the delay and long lasting purple mani!! I'll be thinking of ideas for the next mani watching Ed and Al! =D

What do you think? How's the matte doing it for ya??
<3 Jonochi

Candy Stripes

Hey everyone!!

The giveaway has closed!!! I will be announcing the winner soon!! <3 I have to go through and clean up the entries first.
Until then, here is a super cute mani I did today; complete with more pictures than usual! Woohoo! Tim says that his first thought was star burst, but not the candy! Then I thought of candy... and then it looked delicious!
I've been thinking lots of polish looks delicious lately...Whimsical anyone? =D

So I wanted to do something more colorful than what I have been wearing. I made a cool green franken on Thursday, but it's super fall-ish. I'll share it with you later!

This is Zoya Dana, Zoya Jolene, and Essie A Cut Above.

Zoya Dana is so pretty!!

After Dana, I used tape to apply Jolene. I'm a bit sad because Dana and SV weren't totally dry, wrinkling them a bit under the tape, and making the lines uneven..Boo.

While that was super pretty, I decided glitter. Right?? That's always a good finishing move!!!
I tried to gradient this, but it's not got enough glitter in it to gradient very well. But still so pretty!!!

Both of these Zoya are from the Flash collection. Check it out here!!
<3 <3