vacation nails

one of my favorite things to do is paint my nails. it's so relaxing and soothing and makes for a nice, colorful accessory. i just recently got back from vacation for two weeks on a lake in canada and here's what i did with my nails while on holiday. yes, the top picture is the standard "look where my feet were on vacation" photo that everyone seems to take. my feet were being lazy on the beach while supervising lake swimming. i love the orange and red combo in the bottom corner, so bright and sunshiny. the metal looking grey that i have on my toes and fingernails with tips added is from the opi pirates of the carribean collection - it's a great grey and i tipped my toes with a darker grey and my fingernails with a silvery shiny grey. i also used the silvery shiny grey as tips on the white polish in the middle - which i actually painted on the car ride home. and finally, look at the awesome houndstooth nails with the red tips. those are actually nail stickers by sally hansen. they come in all kinds of patterns and colors, of course i tried the houndstooth first. they come with 16 stickers in a sealed package (they are made from real nail polish so they will go bad after the seal is broken) of varying sizes to fit your nails. they were really easy to use: size up your nail, take off the backings, place on your nails stretching a little while smoothing out (don't stretch too much or you'll distort your pattern), then file the edges to remove the excess sticker. they were seriously easy, placement may take a tiny bit of practice (especially on your dominant hand since you'd be placing them with your opposite hand) but i didn't have any wastes. make sure you top coat these stickers though because they are fragile and will peel and chip immediately without. but if you top coat them they'll last longer than a regular polish. i even had enough leftovers for my four year old's nails (if you're careful and use both ends of a sticker to cover two nails, you can get a whole set of child's nails done with all the leftovers).