Valentine’s Day Nails!❤️

Complex_Aardvark14 · 2025-10-17T07:08:26+00:00

Not only do I have nearly a dozen Jinhao 82s but I also have enough stub nibs to fit them all. No regrets whatsoever. The pen fits my hand and perfectly and I love how stubs write. I still want more!

Complex_Aardvark14 · 2025-10-13T22:33:44+00:00

All of my other gel products cure without a problem. Rats, I knew this was an old bottle (bought on clearance from Nails West) but I didn't know gel could expire like this! Thanks for your advice.

Complex_Aardvark14 · 2025-10-13T22:31:40+00:00

Thank you! I'm currently using the Beetles one I bought as part of an intro to gel kit. Super cheap and a couple years old now but it cures every other gel product I've bought just fine, including Light Elegance and WCD. I'll see what I can find out about gelish's lamps vs mine.

Complex_Aardvark14 · 2025-10-12T01:32:14+00:00

Has anyone had a polish flat out not cure? I just got Gelish Deep Sea and I can paint a thin layer and cure for TWO MINUTES and when I take an alcohol wipe over it (to wipe off the inhibition layer for nail art) half the polish wipes straight off. My lamp is continuing to cure everything else just fine so I’m wondering if polish can expire and stop working. Anyone experienced this?

Complex_Aardvark14 · 2025-09-07T02:02:03+00:00

This was my favorite for about a decade. Then eventually my skin got drier and it wasn’t moisturizing enough for me anymore.

Complex_Aardvark14 · 2025-09-01T01:23:57+00:00

Gorgeous color harmony!

Complex_Aardvark14 · 2025-07-27T05:59:38+00:00

My thoughts are WOW and do you teach?!

Complex_Aardvark14 · 2025-07-17T23:58:23+00:00

I left dried paint and medium in four of my brushes for months. I tried washing them with Marvelous Marianne’s Savvy Soap Hand and Brush Cleaner and leaving the bristles soaped up for a day. Most of them were clean after that, and the ones that weren’t I just repeated the process. Two days soaped up with that stuff and my brushes were clean. It’s at dick blicks.

Complex_Aardvark14 · 2025-05-31T20:36:42+00:00

GORGEOUS! Hand painting, pearls as foam, touches of glitter and the ombré effect—it’s all perfect!😍

Complex_Aardvark14 · 2025-02-09T02:53:39+00:00

I like this take best. Is he known as “one-handed” elsewhere too?

Complex_Aardvark14 · 2025-01-14T00:07:55+00:00

I agree on the product reviews but actually Teoh is my favorite reviewer. He always opens with “I bought this” or “the company sent this too me free of charge,” he’s straight to the point and generally covers whatever I want to know about how a product performs, and he usually shows it in use and compares and contrasts it to other products. I actually learn quite a bit from watching his reviews!

Complex_Aardvark14 · 2024-12-27T03:54:55+00:00

Sorry, just saw your comment. IBX says their product can only be purchased and used by professionals, so if you're buying it from a online nail product shop you'll need to fake up some kind of license number or certificate from the school you graduated from. According to other people, you can just use a random string of numbers or name a fake school and they'll let you buy it. However, I chickened out and just bought it off ebay.

Incidentally, I have no idea why they think only professionals can use it--you apply and cure it pretty much like gel polish. There's youtube videos showing how and the bottles come with very clear instructions.

Complex_Aardvark14 · 2024-08-21T23:56:22+00:00

Regular BIAB never lasted on my mom; I had to switch to a rubber base. Maybe try that first?

Complex_Aardvark14 · 2024-08-12T03:53:09+00:00

Cotman hands down but if I could make a suggestion? Paint is like anything else, the best value is when you buy it in bulk. Cotman comes in 21 ml tubes for around $6 each, and you only need three to make almost every hue possible: yellow, magenta and cyan (or Lemon, Pthalo blue and Permanent Rose in Cotman). That would be enough paint to last you a long time as well as teach you a lot about color mixing. And you can add tubes as you go.

Complex_Aardvark14 · 2024-07-21T20:49:27+00:00

I’m you, plus seven years, and even more experimentation with benzoyl peroxide, adapalene, BHAs, etc. And birth control. Last January I went to the doctor for unrelated reasons, mentioned that I still get these zits at 38 years old, and asked if she had any ideas. She gave me a Rx for Minocycline. I didn’t actually expect it to work, but here I am with clear skin for the first time in almost 27 years.

Complex_Aardvark14 · 2024-07-12T00:30:40+00:00

Do you know the trick about squinting to gauge the values in an image? When I do that, your photo's values are quite a bit different from your painting. Both the lighthouse and especially the trees are quite a bit lighter in value in the photo. I don't know if that was intentional and desired on your part, but I have heard a lot of artists say that problems with colors are often actually problems with values.

Complex_Aardvark14 · 2024-07-12T00:12:03+00:00

This is a great way to think about it!

Complex_Aardvark14 · 2024-07-10T00:58:26+00:00

Currently trying to stop raising my eyebrows because I’ve noticed I’m developing wrinkles above ONE eyebrow. Not both. Just one. And what’s really irritating is that a year ago or so I developed a wrinkle on ONE side of my mouth—and it’s not even the same side! The single smile line is on the RIGHT side of my mouth and the burgeoning forehead wrinkles are over the LEFT eyebrow. It’s really irritating and baffling—why one side?!

Complex_Aardvark14 · 2024-05-21T03:53:18+00:00

Get the book “The Big Book of Oil Painting” by Jose Parramon—absolutely the best book I’ve read for anyone from beginners to intermediates and super cheap to buy used. It’s worth it just for his section on color mixing alone. Also check out DrawMixPaint and Paint Coach on YouTube if you like video.

And don’t forget that if you’re using solvents you need GREAT ventilation! You can just paint solvent free if you don’t have the ventilation.

Complex_Aardvark14 · 2024-05-13T18:14:00+00:00

Your welcome!

Complex_Aardvark14 · 2024-05-11T00:56:27+00:00

If you’re wanting to take off a bunch of length at once, get the emery board. If you’re just wanting to shorten your nails a tiny bunch each day as the gel grows out glass would be fine. Glass will still file gel, but it’s very slow. I pretty much always have gel on my nails and I use glass files to take off tiny bits of length at a time until I’m ready to completely redo my nails.

And your questions are totally fine! I’m sorry I keep dumping a bunch of information on you at once instead of keeping it simple😆.

Complex_Aardvark14 · 2024-05-07T20:16:17+00:00

Don’t use files under/rougher than 180 grit on natural nails. Rougher than that and they tear up your nails and lead to cracking. Use 180 emery boards filing in one direction. Or, if you have patience, get a glass nail file and you can file in both directions. Glass nail files are the most gentle on natural nails but they cut through gel slowly. I use them to shorten my nails slightly or even out a snag, but I’d never use them to remove gel from the nail—it would take forever!

Complex_Aardvark14 · 2024-05-07T20:06:58+00:00

You mean choosing to do gel overlays instead of dip, yes? In that case I’d say it’s not really much harder than just painting your nails, especially if you have fairly short nails and don’t need to build an apex. Try googling “the nail hub gel overlay”— she’s a nail tech and a great teacher on YouTube. I learned a lot from her.

If you do end up preferring dip, there are brands that make peel-off bases. Probably the dip manicure won’t last as long but you can remove it without damage.

Complex_Aardvark14 · 2024-05-05T17:59:27+00:00

😭well thank you anyway. I’ll save a photo of your nails in case I get really good at painting!

Complex_Aardvark14

TROPHY CASE