Nail Art Tutorial: Doctor Who-Hedgehog Tutorial

Say what?! A Doctor Who-Hedgehog nail art design?! Well ok. It’s a Doctor Who-inspired hedgehog tutorial LOL. I don’t have any hedgies falling out of TARDIS’ or anything. That would be animal cruelty, and I don’t promote that.

This is what you’ll be aiming for. And I’m sure you can do SO much better than I did. I suck at using my dotting tool, and I hadn’t eaten so I was pretty shaky.

Here’s what you’ll need:

You’ll need at least five colors of your choice. I kept it kinda matchy-matchy. I have all China Glaze polishes (except for the two Zoyas, dur) L to R: China Glaze Holographic Strap On Your Moonboots, Ruby Pumps, Go Go Pink, Electric Beat, Fast Track; Zoya’s Purity and Raven and China Glaze’s Good Witch. Oh, and your topcoat of choice. I’ve got my trusty Out the Door here. You’ll also need a scrap piece of foil or a pallet and a dotting tool.

Step 1.: First off, you take your first color and draw a jaunty little outline of what you think your hedgies hair will look like. Do this in each color on each nail. You want to take it at least midway up your nail, leaving the bottom part of your nail blank.

Step 2: Then take the outline color and fill it in. Sometimes, depending on the formula of the polish, you may have to do a second pass. Sometimes you don’t. Like I said, just depends on the polish you’re using. (Sorry about the fuzziness of the picture. I was trying out a new way of taking photos of my tutorials and it looks like this one didn’t pan out. I’ll try again next time!)

Do this on each nail

You’ll end up looking like this.

Step 3: With your flesh tone, or brown tone (I used CG’s Fast Track), put their cute little hedgie faces on the bottom part of your hedgie’s hair.

Step 4: With your red, draw a dot in the middle, then little triangles on each side to mimic bows. Put them in the hair for the girlies, down at the edge of the nails for the boys.

Step 5: Using your white and your dotting tool, dot on the eyeballs on each hedgie. I stuck pretty well in the brown parts.

Step 6: Then using your black, dab in the pupils and their noses. Cover with a good topcoat and you’re done!

Now doesn’t he make a cute Doctor?! LOL Like I said, this was Doctor Who-inspired, not realistic in the slightest.

If you have any ideas for any future tutorials, please let me know!

Polish Review: LynBDesigns newest Doctor Who collection- Innuendoes in Space

Ugh! What a busy week it’s been! Now that it’s Saturday, I can take a breath and give you guys a nice long review.

I have the brains behind LynBDesigns on the blog today to answer a few questions that you might have been wondering about.

Q and A

Good Witch Q: What made you start making polish?

LynB A: I started making polish simply out of boredom and lack of variety. First it was frankening and when I hate run out of my personal nail polish I bought my first supplies and in January of 2012 I listed my first collection. It also filled my need for a job. I lived in a small town and since moving I live in an even smaller town. Jobs are hard to come by, and I decided to create my own.

Good Witch: What inspires you the most?

LynB: Oh, what doesn't inspire me? Right now I'm making a collection based on the county I live in for a local store, of course my nerdier side inspires things. Anything and everything has the ability to inspire me. I have a five page long document of future collections that I'm constantly adding to.

Good Witch: If someone copies one of your polishes, is that flattering or insulting?

LynB: Hmm, that's a tough one. I don't think I've had to encounter that yet. I think on some level I'd be impressed and flattered, but also a little ticked off. For me personally, I try to not look at other people's polishes when I'm creating a collection. There have been a few that I made that were really close to others, and when I found out, I quickly changed them.

Good Witch: What are some of the new polish trends going around that you like and what are some that you cannot stand?

LynB: I LOVE linear holographic polishes and just recently added two to my store. I just can't get enough holo polishes. There aren't any others that I'm in love with for myself. I love the look of texture, but I can't stand it. I'm a nail picker and if my nails aren't smooth, I pick them. It's not a good thing. I really like the look of matte nails on others, but on me, it always looks weird. There's one that I hate, and it's caviar or bead manicures, and really any 3-D nail art. I prefer things smooth and even.

Good Witch: Do you have anything awesome in the works for your customers?

LynB: I have several things in the works that I'm pretty excited about. There will be more linear holographics, and a collection that's really close to my heart. It's based on gemstones. I'm a major rock and mineral nut.

Good Witch: What do you do outside of the polish world?

LynB: When I say nail polish is my life, I mean it. It's my job, and it's my passion. I've wanted to be an artist since I was in 2nd grade and that's what I am. I have three associates degrees, and I want to go back to school and get my degree in Art History with a minor in Marketing.

Good Witch: What type of base coat do you use or suggest? As well as top coat?

LynB: I use Nailtiques Formula two for my main base coat. It has helped my nails so much, if I weren't using it my nails would be minuscule and brittle. I also use Seche Clear for swatching. I alternate top coats, I use Seche Vite half the time and for special manicures I use Digital Nails Ain't Nobody Got Time for That. It has the special ability to smooth and shine almost anything.

Good Witch: Is there any nail-related ritual you can't skip when you're doing your nails?

LynB: When I'm doing my nails, I have to moisturize my hands and my nails. I use hand creme and cuticle oil. Simple, but effective.

Good Witch: Do you have any manicure secrets you'd share with us?

LynB: Manicure secrets? What I've learned is all info stolen from others. Because I have brittle nails I started taking biotin every day and I can't tell you how it's changed my life. When it comes to painting or taking care of nails, I'm a bit of an idiot. I'm lazy and tend to skip things, but when I see something I like, I make sure that I do it every time I do my nails.

That gives you a little glimpse into the creative genius Jennalyn is. I have always loved her polishes, ever since I was a fledgling in the polish world, her polishes have always been in the forefront of my indie madness. And the fact that she puts out some awesomely wicked Doctor Who polishes ranks her up pretty highly in my book.

I am relatively new to the whole Doctor Who fandom. I haven’t seen many of the newer episodes (but I am thoroughly excited that we’re getting BBC America when we get DirectTV- if that EVER happens) but I’m still a Whovian at heart.

The first one we have up is Slim and a Little Bit Foxy. Jennalyn describes it as a darkened silver with some slight color shifting sparkle.

To me it’s almost a pewter or gunmetal grey shimmer.

I’m not usually a fan of grey polishes, because they wipe out my skin tone like none other. But the shimmer in this makes it not so heavy and doesn’t wash out as much.

Like I said, not so bad. I’ve got two coats of Slim on my nails with a TC of Out the Door. There’s no bubblage, limited streakage and the opacity is top notch. This picture was taken indoors with artificial lighting.

With the flash there is minimal streakage, but it’s honestly not enough to make me go EWWW. I hardly noticed it when looking at it myself.

Here’s a close-up in natural light outdoors. Beware, my cuticles are a mess! I am always fighting a never-ending battle with my cuticles.

This is seriously a gorgeous grey polish. Like I said, the opacity is top notch, coverage is awesome.

Next up is Always Take a Banana to a Party. Jenna describes this polish as a creamy pale yellow base with silver, brown, black, and yellow micro glitters.

I was on the fence on this one. It looks very unassuming in the bottle. Almost mottled-looking. I kinda cocked my eyebrow and went on.

The more I looked at it, the more it reminded me of a crelly form of Floam. I just didn’t know what to do with it.

I tried it out under Zoya Purity….

While it wasn’t bad, it wasn’t all that spectacular either.

Just kinda fell flat.

So I decided to re-do it and not use an undie.

Ahhhh much better. ABABTAP goes on relatively opaque at two coats, so the coverage is way better than I had figured it would be, being a crelly and all. And the more I wore it like this, the more it grew on me.

It really is a very pretty polish. Now, it would need a good coat of Gelous, then your topcoat to be completely smooth. Unfortunately, I’m at the tail end of my bottle of Gelous so it’s starting to get stringy and nasty so I’m not able to use it anymore. But with a couple of good, thick coats of Seche or your other favorite TC you’d be good to go.

Am I Ginger? is up next.

Described as “reddish orange jelly base with linear holographic tendencies”, Am I Ginger? is, well… Spectacular.

Totally unassuming in indoor lighting….

It totally pops with a flash and shows its linear holo goodness in a full rainbow of glory!

This is just two coats, which in her shop she says it takes three to reach opacity. So yay me! I am not a big fan of orange, but this polish is right up there with Literary Lacquers’ Carrots! Carrots! in my book. The more these gorgeous oranges come out, the more I find myself  being reverted!

How can you not like that?!?!?

It even sparkles in indoor lighting as well!

The last polish I have for review is Big Friendly Button.

Jenna describes Big Friendly Button as a black jelly base with small white and red glitter, white stars, and big red dots.

And that’s pretty much spot on. I love how it looks in the bottle.

It translates somewhat well onto the nail. Sometimes it gets a little clumpy, but that is the nature of the beast with larger glitters. It’s really easy to get a good amount of glitter, like the stars and circles, onto the nail.

I originally had tried this over Zoya Raven, and it would have been spectacular, but the OTD I was using was old and it trapped bubbles underneath the surface which REALLY peeved me.

This is really a magnificent polish after I got the first few kinks worked out of it.

The whole collection is awesome, to say the least. And at just $8, it’s a steal. Plus, she has a discount code that is good until the 1st. Use the code NIFTYFIFTY for 50% off your entire order!

A new look?

Yeah, I figured why not. Thanks to my friend over at JennaFroggy.com I finally learned how to add tabs to my blog. So later this evening, I’ll put the blog sale and a couple different tabs up there so you can keep updated.

Ugh. Today has been… Well it’s been something… Woke up this morning having to make a call to DirectTV to get our satelite installed. Yeah, that didn’t happen. They called on Saturday while I was in Wichita and I wasn’t able to confirm the appt. So it was canceled. Soonest they could come out is Sunday. GRRR.

Then we had a HUGE storm. Thunder, lightning, tons of rain. And I mean tons of rain… This estimate only shows 4-5 but NWS is saying we got around 8 inches of the wet stuff, with more to come over the next few days.

EEK! We’ve been under a major drought for the last year and a half. We’ve been getting closer to edging our way out of it, but we need all the help we can get. But 4-5 inches in an hour? Uhm. Not fun. The electricity at our water treatment plant has been knocked out and I haven’t seen a new update on it. But as of right now we’re under a water conservation emergency. They shut down all the resturants, beauty shops, barber shops, car washes, laundromats, dentists offices and any other business that uses water frequently. Pretty much the entire town is shut down, and of course, this has induced an area wide panic. People are flocking to Walmart in droves buying up all the bottled water they can get. We tend to get a little worried since 2007.

So, I’ve been updating the blog in between power blips and flashes. Working on this post between updating between posting warnings for Cirrus Weather. I hope y’all like it. I’ll tweak it further once I figure out how to do more things on it. I’m still a newbie when it comes to stuff like this, so you’ll have to bare with me.

This last weekend, we made a trek to Wichita to my niece and nephews birthday party. And of course, we had to stop and take pictures. Our first stop was in Howard, Kansas. My grandpa lived there for a few years when I was a teenager and I spent many a day walking the lonely roads of the small town, lost in my own angsty thoughts. The picture above is the old bank building, built in 1887, is now sitting derelict and in need of some major renovation work. But she’s a beauty.

Across the street is an old gas station, which I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the first in Elk County, Kansas. They’ve really cleaned it up a lot since we moved out of town a while back.

On highway 99, on the west side of the road, sits “Hubbles Rubble”, a little “art show” one of the natives puts on with his handmade creations. I always loved seeing new pieces being brought out and was pleasantly surprised to find Snoopy, and what I figure is a rattle snake?

This is a shot of the first house built in Elk County, KS. Back in like the 1800’s. I can’t find the exact date. If I ever do, which I have a book on Elk County History, I’ll update this entry.

My mom LOVES windmills. Always has. And I have been meaning to stop every single time I drive to Wichita and get a picture of this one lone windmill. This time I actually remembered. And voila! Instant Kansas Karma.

On the way home, I noticed this awesomely wicked cloud with a long rain band coming down across the prairie. I had to stop at Beaumont and get a picture of it. I love how barren and majestic this picture looks.

Oh look! More clouds!

And you guessed it. More clouds. There were some awesome mesas boiling up on our way home. Little did I know of the squall we’d be coming home to!

This is either one of the first views, or one of the last views, travelers get of the Flint Hills. Aptly nicknamed the “Kansas Ozarks”, these vast rolling hills were once home to a booming cattle industry. Now, the railroads are all gone, the cattle have moved to greener pastures (there still are cows, but not as many) and us Kansans are left with these beautifully breathtaking vistas. This one in particular was my grandpa’s favorite. He loved the way the land looked in every season.

But could you imagine how bone-weary and tired you would have been by the time you got here if you were on a wagon train? The miles of unforgiving landscape, the rocks, the canyons… The illness, the storms, the plagues that followed you everywhere back then would have been horrendous. I shudder to think how many people made the Flint Hills their final resting place.

Because no matter how beautiful the landscape may be, it can be cruel at the same time.

On our way back home, we were chasing this huge thunderhead that had formed over highway 400. We decided against going that way home, seeings that there are quite a few low water crossings between where we were and home that fill up REALLY fast during a torrential downpour. We were awarded by a gorgeous rainbow, which at one point, was a triple rainbow. I was only able to capture some fleeting images of the specter. I thought it was completely serendipitous that it just happened to end behind the old house. I was just in photographic euphoria. So excited.

I took this shot in Howard again. Notice the white rain bands at the bottom of the picture. I was entranced by these rain bands pretty much the whole way to the 160 turnoff. They looked almost tornadic for a time.

 

On the way home I found this slightly ominous cloud following behind us…

When I got out of my trusty van Kiki, I was greeted by this weird sight. I have NEVER seen a cloud like that in my lifetime. To get the full effect of it, you may need to click on the picture to get a better look at it.

After we went to eat, it started getting nasty, so of course I had to get my camera out and snap some shots. My wonderful son decided to show just how special he was while I was in the middle of taking a shot.

I can’t tell you how many pictures I took that night trying to catch the lightning. It was KILLING me. I was always a second too late. But I did manage to get one teeny tiny bolt of lightning. Meh. You take what you can get, I guess.

So that was my little bit of excitement. Not much, but enough to make me happy. I’m going to go start working on some more blog posts. Stay tuned for a review of some Dr. Who inspired polishes