Keeping Up With Melissa

While I am no wear near as interesting, dramatic, rich or gorgeous like the Kardashians, I will still call this post Keeping Up With Melissa :) Here's whats new...


My mom and I attended a "one-on-one" class from the Amazing Amanda at Young Nails in American Fork.  It was fabulous!  We brushed up on the basics and classics, perfected our skills, and learned some new techniques... definitely a day worth spent!  As you probably know... continued education is huge to me and I love to attend classes and shows every chance I get!!

I have the new CAPTION CONVERSION from Young Nails!! Ahh so exciting!  So this product converts all of their Caption Nail Polishes into GEL POLISH (and yes of course I own every single Caption color :) )! This is revolutionary people.. no other company has technology like this which is one of the many reasons I love Young Nails.  This opens up a whole new world of art possibilities such as better ombre nails (cuz it's so much easier with nail polish), matching your nail color perfectly with your stamped art color and much much more!!  Plus, who doesn't love having more colors to choose from ;)

I LOVE SPECIALTY SHAPES!!! Okay, so that's not anything new, but I wanted to touch base on it because it's so popular right now and it's probably my favorite thing to do right now!  Coffin (Ballerina), Stillettos, Almond, Almondetto, Lipstick, you name it, I love it.  Actually, just kidding.  I don't like duckbill, fan, shovel, whatever you want to call it, I don't like that shape.  Don't ask me to do it.  Seriously, don't.  I hate them :) Anyways haha These shapes can be achieved in both acrylic and hard gel so don't worry, you don't have to change from your faves to try it out.  Here's a few fun sets I've done!!

AND last but certainly not least... I have Swarovski Crystals!!!  These are stunning and SOOO much prettier than traditional rhinestones.  Not only are they incredibly shiny, but they stay on better!  I am going to post a video soon of these and the rhinestones side by side so you can see the difference.

I do have an announcement coming soon.. one that I will not publicly announce until the end of April, but it's super exciting and you guys are going to love it!  I can't wait to share it with you all!

Until next time... :)

Lets Play Catch-Up!!

So I've been a little MIA lately here on the blog.. so sorry!  I've had quite a bit going on!  Having a baby turning into a toddler, full work schedule and a few exciting changes coming (can't wait to share.. no I'm not pregnant :) ) I've had a lot on my plate.

Anywho... for the next few days I'm going to be playing catch up here.  SO here it goes!

Here's what you missed for the holidays we just had... St. Pattys and Easter!


To kick it off, these are a few "Flashbacks" of last year.  Flashbacks is a new thing I started doing, which I will post them here in a few days.  It's been really fun to reminisce and remember some great designs I've created before.  It's also fun to see my progression, things I've improved over the years.  Oh how fast 7 1/2 years have gone!

Pinterest find!  Gotta love Pinterest!  I used Young Nails Mani-Q white, black, emerald 101, emerald green glitter, shimmering sands glitter, Color Trak Goddess, and Light Elegance Lime of the Party.  All handpainted.

Not exactly St. Pattys, but they are green!  Zebra, Fox Racing, White tips... so fun!  I used Young Nails White acrylic powder, Young Nails Mani-Q black and True Gel green I can't remember the name of... :/  All handpainted of course

This gem was a flashback that you can see in the first picture of this post.  I think these are so cute!  This is an example of something that is fun to see my improvement on.. the chevron.  Oh the dreaded chevron.  I've gotten much better at lineing those points up and making it look a lot nicer.  However, I still think this set is pretty cute :) hand painted of course

Love the Coffin/Ballerina shape!  We went for the Irish flag here.  And we all know I love glitter fades :) I used Young Nails white, incredible green and lava.

These are all gel! Built with hard gel and gel polish on top.  Hard gel is so much more natural than acrylic and is my absolute favorite!  I used Young Nails Mani-Q Emerald 101, Aloe 101 and Shimmering Sand Glitter. Shamrocks handpainted of course with a little jewel accent

Once again, I love glitter fades! I used Glow In The Dark neon green from Elegant Glass and Young Nails Incredible Green glitter.

Now lets jump into Easter Nails.  Sad to say there are very few straight-up easter only nails I did this year.  Everyone was mostly going for "Spring" but still work for Easter, so those will wait for my Spring post.


I look at these and think "Here comes Peter Cottontail... hoppin down the bunny trail... Hippity Hoppity Easter's on it's way!!!!" ... ya.. gets stuck in my head lol
These are hard gel with gel polish.  Colors used are Young Nails Mani-Q Pink 104, Blue 104 and White 101.  All handpainted.

Love Love Love.  So simple, yet so fun!  I honestly don't remember the exact colors I used.  I know they were my IBD pastel gel polish though.  And all handpainted >> idea from pinterest

Little Easter Ears :) Orange is glow in the dark which is actually really cool!  It's from Elegant Glass, as well as the purple one.  The full nails and painted colors are Young Nails Mani-Q White 101, Ultimate Pink and Blue 104.  All handpainted

Well that is it for today!  You can look forward to a post for Spring Nails, Hair and "Other" nails and and updates :)  Thanks for taking the time to check out my work!

Coffin of Love

Acrylic Nails - Coffin Shape

Colors Used:   Young Nails Acrylic Powder White, Young Nails Rainbow Red, Young Nails Royal Red, Steele Glitter

Small hearts with Young Nails Impression Tools, 3D hear and bow with Rainbow Red

Copied from a picture, not sure who the original nail artist was to give credit!!