GRADUATION!!!!!!!

Yeah!!! Finally finished with school!! All 1200 hours, all the perms wrapped, all the color applications done. Hair has been cut, style, dried, curled and backbrushed! Now I gotta study, study, study and pass my state board exam!! I'm ready to get licensed and start working!!

Sara and Maddie are almost finished with school too! My girlz and I are gonna hit the styling world with a force!! After all the hard work we did its time for a little goofing off!! :D 

I think these would be perfect pictures to  posts with their licenses!!!!

Never a dull moment when Kats around either!! 

These girls grabbed our practice hands and the laughs never ended!!

North Florida Academy has been my home away from home for the past year. I have learned so much and made some really great friends. The memories from school will always be with me. 

 

My next post will be as a Licensed Cosmetologist!!!

Happy Polishing!!

Spooky Sparkle!

Its that time of year again! Time for haunting ghosts and then decking the halls! Just a few designs I have been kickin around! Hope you like them!

 Halloween Spooky faces!!

Holiday sparkle!!

Glittery Holly!!!

More designs in the works!! Let me know if you have any requests!!

Happy Polishing!!

Breast Cancer Awareness

I worked on a project to do some nail designs for Breast Cancer Awareness and Jacksonville Jaguars. 

My favorite was this one with sculpted glitter acrylic pink ribbon!! I'm so glad there are so many people now promoting awareness of Breast Cancer and working towards a cure!!

These designs were chosen to be used in the ad for my school, North Florida Academy. The ad was in the Mint Magazine, I'm official! I'm Published!! :D

I worked on another design in memory of 9/11. Always remember the heroes!!

Happy October Everyone!! Happy Polishing!!

Gold and Caviar!

One thing I love about nail art these days is there are no rules and there are so many new polishes and products that give you unlimited options.

 My latest splurge was for the new .007 Skyfall movies collection that OPI has put out. And top of the list is the "Man with the Golden Gun" topcoat that has pieces of 24K gold in it!! Such a luxury!!

I did a Pedicure with OPIs Suzi Likes Cowboys as my base color and accented my big toe with the Golden Gun gold fleck polish!! 

And whats as luxurious as Gold? Caviar!!! The caviar nail style is a unique treatment for a special occasion! I did not use the Ciate brand that developed this look. I used clear microbeads to get the style. The clear beads are kinda cool because they pick up the color of the polish  use as a base! 

It is not recommended to use a top coat with the caviar look because it takes away from the texture the beads create. I tried it with and without but liked the look better without. It stayed on my toe pretty well for over a week, but not my finger. If your someone that picks at rough sots on your nail this look is not for you. I picked all the beads off by the next day!!! lol

Looking for more inspirations!! Happy Polishing!!

All About Sara!!

My nail buddy is such a talented artist!!! I love sharing her beautiful work!!

These are a couple designs she did for a project we worked on. It was for the Jacksonville Jaguars and Breast Cancer Awareness. She did a football with a pink ribbon wrapped around it and the most beautiful Jaguar face with a pink ribbon hanging on his ear!!

This is a design she was working on for a lush wave 

And she was so proud of a full set she did at school!! Gorgeous!!!

Great Job as always Sara!!!

More to come!! Happy Polishing!!

Fun with Acrylic!

Acrylic nails have made huge advances since back when they first became popular! They are thinner and look more natural! But acrylic aint so plain anymore!!! There are a plethora of colors and glitters available to nail techs to add into their polymer powder to customize a look for each guest.

I created some glitter acrylic and worked on using it to spice up some french styles.

Maddie had some fun ideas that inspired me to make these Halloween tips with a fun surprise! From the top it looks like black glitter tip, but turn your nails over and its ORANGE!!

I have seen his technique in NailPro magazine and wanted to try it. It is inlaying a ribbon of colored or glitter acrylic into clear to create this look. Still need practice, but I think it looks pretty cool!! 

Another trend in acrylic techniques is sculpting the acrylic into shapes and forms. I have seen some very extreme creations for art contest that push the boundaries of nail art!! I started simple teaching myself as I go. I made this cute paw print. It was for a design that mixed Jacksonville Jaguars with Breast Cancer Awareness.

Another Jaguar inspired design for the new owner of the Jags Shad Kahn. He has a huge trademark mustache, although the mustache logo is all over these days.

These are a few of my early designs I did at school when I was first starting to play with sculpting acrylic. Hello Kitty accent nail and the pink french with the bow on the other nails.

 Worked on making some simple flowers with it too

 

I got lots more to practice on! More to come!!!

Happy Polishing!!

Special Requests and Challenges

The fun thing about doing nail art is when you get to share some special designs with friends and step up to challenges when people think polishes can't be used.

Nina, a friend that is a staff member at my school, loves the New Orleans Saints! She said she would love a nail design that had the Fleur de Lis on it....so I did it!!

I love the look of gradient nails and I LOVE GLITTER!!! I tried my version of a galaxy nail, mixed with blue and purple colors swirled with gold glitter!

I also did a subtle green gradient with green polish and glitter.

Sara told me about a great sale on OPI polish that I couldn't resist! All of the colors were dark fall colors. One of the colors was a deep olive green, the store manager said how ugly the color was and would never be pretty.....challenge accepted!!! Sara said it would look cool as camo.

 I think it turned out so cool.... I did a pink camo too!!! Just goes to show, don't judge a polish by its bottle!!

I wanted to try some art on a pretty nude polish I got, I spiced it up with a classic cheetah print. This is a fun design in many colors, but I think brown and black is classy! Maddie gave me a couple of silver glitter polishes that I blended into a gradient with fine and chunky pieces. 

Well that's all for now!

Happy Polishing!!

From Summer to Fall

Its getting cooler outside, even here on the Southern east coast!! Feeling the change of seasons inspires nail art to remember to remember summer and welcome fall!

My good friend Maddie has showed an interest in doing nail art. She had a fun time doing some summertime designs. A quirky palm tree on a sandy beach is a fun accent nail. Surfs up as waves crash across fingers for a full hand of painted waves.

Now its time for some fall flowers!! I did a simple accent nail with some flowers in deep red and gold. The single red flower with falling petals would look great w red or gold nails. I did a manicure and pedicure with a golden sunflower. I alternated red and black polish on my toes and fingers for a fun twist!

More great designs to come! 

Happy Polishing!