Water Marble!

My own nails are far too short right now to pull off a proper water marble, and since I can't do traditional acrylic extensions right now with my pregnancy, I decided to make a set of falsies to wear.

I do this from time to time and I can actually get some decent wear time out of them if I'm careful. :)

These are quite a bit longer than I'm used to, but I'll see how long I can handle them before I need to file them down. So far so good!

I started with a white base on the nails. For this, I used China Glaze White on White. Just one coat, which I let dry most of the way. For the marble, I alternated Rimmel Posh Pink, OPI Rumple's Wiggin & Butter London Slapper. Slapper wanted to spread out a lot, so I had to be careful with it. First few tries weren't great (I have those on my right hand, lol) but they weren't bad. Once I mastered the swirl, oh man...

I'm officially in love with doing water marble now. *__* I finished these off with a coat of Model's Own Indian Ocean (pictured) which really made them pop. I love this polish so very much. 

One of the biggest tips I can give those who want to do water marble is this: use hot/warm water and clean the water once every few nails with clear polish. I also dumped my water after five nails and started over. Living in Florida and not having a water softener, I have fairly mineral water so I also had to wait for it to settle just a bit before I began (the few little spots are from trying to early). 

I plan on doing a set of water marble with art for St. Paddy's Day, so stay tuned for that! I'm also going to start selling these on my Etsy when I get the supplies I need. :)

NOTW: Neon French Twist!

Anyone who gets the colors (and why they're in that particular order) and why they are this week's NOTW gets fifty internet cookies. :)

Colors used (thumb to pinky) - Aciiied, Purple Passion, Bubblegum, Top Turquoise, & Pink Punch (All Model's Own)

I was thinking about adding some art but honestly I like the simplicity of just the french. I sealed it with gel so if I want to I can add art later without ruining the french! (And this way, I have to keep them for a week before I fill! HA!)

Model's Own Update

Finally caught up with Model's Own's customer service (had to forward my email to them because of their moving offices) and they've taken care of the issue and will be sending me the three polishes that are missing from the Beetlejuice set.

While it's been a pain in the ass having to wait nearly 2 months for all of the polish I originally ordered, their customer service IS good about things (they could have just brushed me off and told me there was no proof, etc, etc, instead of sending the missing polishes and not asking back the ones that were sent by mistake.)

I will definitely be doing business with them and look forward to being probably the only nail tech in my area (hell maybe even all of Florida) that uses Model's Own.

Heck, maybe in the long run when I'm working at a salon that allows it or running one of my own, I'll even see about being a distributor. I really do love their polish a ton.

Model's Own It! Or Not?

Back in Mid-March, I decided to splurge a bit for my birthday and bought three sets of Model's Own polish. Not the cheapest purchase ever, given the exchange rate, but seeing as it was quite a few polishes and in colors I did not yet have, I figured it was worth it.

I got an e-mail almost immediately after letting me know one of the polishes wasn't available from the neon collection and they gave me two other options. I picked the cream one instead of the shimmer. Cool, waited about two weeks and finally my order came!

Except it was ONLY the neons, even though the packing slip showed the other two collections, AND the cream name written down. I got the shimmer instead of the cream. I checked my email just to make sure I'd said the right name, which I had. Okay, shoot off another email to see if perhaps they shipped separately or what.

No, apparently they had never been shipped. They sent them out immediately, apologizing and stating that they would be filled according to what was advertised at the time of my order. Cool beans!

I got the pastels and the Beetlejuice collection finally today (over a month from original order date, mind you). Pastels were great - Beetlejuice? Not what I ordered. The set I ordered is what is currently listed on the site now - I remember this specifically because they had Indian Ocean and Copper Pot in the collection, which was DEFINITELY not in what I got. I only got 3 out of 6 right - Aqua Violet, Pinky Brown & the Top Coat.

Another e-mail has been sent as of tonight (when I got home from school and realized that the colors weren't right), so here's hoping the rectify this. I hate to be such a pain about it and they've been pretty good with their customer service so far but...two shipping mistakes in a row kind of make me wonder.