Birds in Flight

Miranda and Vilkas are helping me bring to life a body paint project that will also be displayed as a series of photos as well as incorporating some performance pieces. Above is Miranda painted with black birds and also impersonating one ;) Below is a layered image of Miranda w Vilkas that shows what the performance would feel like :)

April Nail Art Challenge - Flowers

Apparently it's already April?! When did that happen?? Ever since I've graduated from College, I feel like time is speeding by. I think it may have something to do with the fact that I no longer have quarters keeping track of my life. 

Anyway, April means a brand new nail art challenge! Aren't you all excited? I know I am. I am really excited for the themes this month as well - galaxy, earth day, and braided are particularly exciting since I have yet to do anything like those yet. 

The first theme is flowers and if you've been following me lately, you'll notice that I've had an ever growing obsession with painting flowers. Needless to say, I was stoked to dig into this challenge :) 

I am really loving the look of a light background and then pops of color with my flowers so, while I've done this is the past, I think these are still unique enough from other designs I've done. I'm really digging the color combo and I honestly can't stop staring at them! :D Isn't it great when that happens? 

I've been trying to be good lately and do both of my hands...I will slowly become ambidextros! It is my goal! For now, my dominant hand is just sort of have sadder version of my left. I'll get there one day ;)

I used Lime Crime's Milky Ways as my base color and the red flowers are Essie's Snap Happy. The leaves are Zoya's Audrina, Wet n' Wild On a Trip, and the yellow is actually a combo of Zoya's Pippa and China Glaze's Kalahari Kiss (I promise there is yellow! My camera just struggled with getting the right colors today :/ ). For the centers of the flowers I used China Glaze's Call of the Wild. I never thought I'd use that brown but lately it's finding its way into a bunch of my manis. 

What do you think of this look? Are you going to try and of the April Nail Art Challenge?? You should!! :D

Happy Polishing :)

Stitched Skulls

Aj / Melia in the Colorado Rockies shared a pair of cross-stitched skulls that she created.  The first is a traditional sugar skull pattern and the second is a creation celebrating the winter solstice.

Diagonal C says:

I find cross-stitch to be a fascinating medium to create with.  The skill of using one repeating figure in different positions truly mesmerizes me in to looking at objects in a different perspective.  Thank you for sharing your creations with us.

Gradient and some free hand stripes!

On Sunday I had a friend tell me that they would love to see pink and blue together in nail art so I decided to create a gradient using the two colors! Well, if you'll remember your kindergarden lessons of how colors work, when you blend red (or in my case pink) and blue together, you get purple! Oh Lindsey, sometimes your brain doesn't work, does it? 

Despite my gradient turning more into a pink to purple gradient, I like how these turned out. As a friend put it, they are FIERCE! ;) I added a matte top coat for good measure as well. 

I also got the inkling to create a quick tutorial (I also put together one for how I do my gradients but I am undecided on whether or not I'll post it since I feel like so many people have great gradient tutorials already. Besides, I'm crap at explaining things!). You'll need a striping brush or nail art pen (which, lets face it, is still a brush...I don't know why they call them pens -_-) and base color completely dry. I suppose these could potentially look cool if you chose to do nude nails underneath the black ;) 

 1. Create a 'V' at the end of your finger, making sure that the point of the 'V' is at the very middle of your finger. 

2. Create a smaller 'V' just inside the larger 'V'.

3. Paint a straight line down the middle of your finger and stopping once you reach the middle of your nail (the point of the 'V').

4. Add additional stripes equidistant and parallel to the first straight lines you made. 

5. Finally, add your favorite top coat (or matte top coat) to complete the look! 

 Be sure to check out the Born Pretty Store and use my coupon code for 10% off your order in addition to free shipping world wide! :)

Happy Polishing! :)

Born Pretty Store - Discount Code!

Hi loves! So I have something exciting to share with you all! I was recently contacted by a great nail art supply company called Born Pretty and they have been kind enough to give me a 10% off discount code to share with you all! 

If you haven't shopped with them before, they have some really great nail art products at a great price AND have free shipping world wide. They are based out of Hong Kong so it will take a little bit longer for the product to reach you, BUT I think that the price and the quality of their products in great and makes the wait time worth it. 

I know I sound like an annoying infomercial, but I wanted to share with you all this opportunity. Whether or you're just getting started with nail art, or you've been at it for awhile, I think the store has something for everyone. I just ordered some stud rhinestones and a phone case (they have everything haha) and I'm contemplating trying out these brushes for my next order. I can't wait to share with you all the studs when I get them! Yee!

Happy Polishing :)

Skull "Scope" Logo

Mark Redondo is a graphic designer from Sacramento, Ca who is currently working full-time for 5.11 Tactical.  He used the company's scope logo to create this "scope skull".

That is a good motto to have in life, and you can remember it more often with this.  Mark has more stuff to scope out here.  Thanks for keeping us in your sights, Mark!

[CONTEST] Win a Human Skull

APRIL FOOLS! I found this lovely skull on National Geographic, this morning. It was photographed by Ira Block. According to the description it is "of Liujiang man, a Homo sapiens sapiens." and was found in "Tongtianyan, Guangxi Autonomous Region, People's Republic of China." Thank you to everyone that played along. I enjoyed reading your responses. If you are interested in your own human skull or reproduction, visit the companies at the bottom of this post.

Noah recently had an office built in his backyard, to make more room inside his house for other things. While the office was being constructed, the workers found a surprise buried, a human skull. Now, he's gone through the proper measures to make sure having it is legal. Since he already has one in his collection of oddities, we thought this found one would be a special thing to giveaway to one lucky Skull-A-Day fan!

PRIZE INFO: One authenticated human skull with accompanying paper work.

HOW TO ENTER: Leave a comment below telling us what is the weirdest thing you've ever dug up. For example, I've found several moonshine jars and arrowheads in a friend's backyard.

CONTACT INFO: The winner, chosen at random, will be contacted via email by one of the Skull-A-Day editors within 7 days of the end of the contest. If that winner doesn't respond, another winner will be chosen. With your comment, please INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS!!! Entries are only valid with this information.

WHERE TO ENTER: All entries must be made on this blog post, on Skull-A-Day.com. You CANNOT enter this contest by commenting on Facebook, Twitter, or Google+.

CONTEST CLOSES: 11:59:59 PM Eastern USA Time Friday, April 5th, 2013.

NUMBER OF WINNERS: One

PRIZE SHIPS: This contest is open to all skull lovers around the world.

IF YOU DON'T WIN: Since this is a one of kind thing, I suggest contacting the people at Obscura Antiques and Oddities in New York, NY for a real one. Another great alternative is Skulls Unlimited International, which makes great reproductions!