NOTD: Blue Plastic Bag Manicure!

I think this is the first time I've done anything nail art-ish since I started school... I've always loved this technique because of how simple it is, and combined with the colors I used, I'm in love.

Polishes used:

Sally Hansen Pacific Blue (cobalt blue crème - original formula)

Essie Style Cartel (dark teal-ish blue crème)

Essie Blue Rhapsody (metallic blue)

So this is a plastic bag manicure, even though I didn't actually use a plastic bag for this... Let me explain - I started with two coats of PB (Sally Hansen reformulated this color and it doesn't look the same now, so Essie Butler Please is a good alternative). Then I cut a sheet of saran wrap into little squares. I like to use saran wrap as opposed to an actual plastic bag because I can cut it smaller, and it's more flexible; In my opinion it's easier to work with since it wraps around your nails better. Then I randomly blobbed each of the three colors onto my nails (working one nail at a time), placed the saran wrap on top, and smushed all the polish together. A lot of the time I don't really like how it turns out once I lift off the plastic wrap, so I'll either put the wet polish still on the plastic wrap back on my nail again and then take it off, or I'll add a bit more polish onto my nail and squish it with the plastic wrap again. Once I did all ten nails, I cleaned up around my cuticles and finished with two coats of Essie Good to Go.

I looooove this manicure. I mean cobalt blue is my favorite color, so I'm always obsessed whenever I paint my nails with it, haha. I really love the marbled look that this technique gives, and I really like the pop of metallic blue; I think it works beautifully with the other colors!

Thanks for reading!

Young the Giant "Mind Over Matter" Nail Art!

So apparently the time has gotten away from me again... I completely didn't realize that it's been almost two weeks WHOOPS. I've had midterms the past week and a half so I've been mainly focused on those. This past weekend though, I saw my favorite band (Young the Giant) in concert for the second time and they were AMAZING. I didn't have any time to do nail art though, but I do have a manicure from about a year and a half ago when I first saw them live!

Polishes used:

Sephora by OPI Break A Leg-Warmer! (dark gray crème)

OPI Alpine Snow (white crème)

Wet n' Wild Black Crème (black crème)

I was inspired by the cover art for their second album, "Mind Over Matter" (images here). I started with two coats of BAL-W and let that dry. Then I took a slightly spongier sponge (that's the best way I can describe it haha it's not a regular makeup sponge in the sense that there are more holes / squishier and smushier in a way... I got them here), dipped a piece of it in the black, and sponged it randomly on my nails. I did the same thing with the white. I think I went over all of that with a little bit of gray sponging to make it look a bit more blended. Then I took a small nail art brush, dipped it in white, and made the words; "Mind" on my right hand, "over" between my two thumbs, and "matter" on my left hand. I finished by making straight white lines across my nails, like how it's shown on the album cover. I sealed everything in with a coat of Essie Good to Go top coat.

I really wish I had done some kind of nail art for the concert this weekend. I was just so busy the couple days before the show that I literally had no time to paint anything other than a single color (Essie Style Cartel, by the way... which I still have on haha). Having nail art on would have made the whole experience even better, especially since we ended up MEETING THE BAND, or at least 3/5 of it haha. We waited outside after the show for a couple hours, and we ended up meeting one of the guitarists, the drummer, and the lead singer. I can't even begin to describe how absolutely amazing that was; they literally are my all-time, ride or die FAVORITE band ever, and I got to meet them! It was just the most incredible weekend ever!

Here are the pictures I took with them because why not :)

Eric Cannata - guitar

François Comtois - drums

Sameer Gadhia - lead vocals

Side note - check out the band WIldling; they opened for Young the Giant and they're really good!

Thanks for reading!

31DC2014 Day 27: Inspired by Artwork

I remember I did these nails the same day I did the "Inspired by a Pattern" prompt since I was a day behind on the challenge. This is probably my least favorite day of the challenge that I did, mostly because it was just too simple. This was one of those days where I just couldn't be bothered with doing nail art, haha. But I needed to get it done quickly, so this is what I came up with!

Polishes used:
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri OMGhost (white crème) - I used the Sally Hansen one even though I'm holding OPI Alpine Snow... I just think the OPI bottles are prettier!
Wet n' Wild Black Crème (black crème)

Keith Haring has always been one of my favorite artists, even since way back in elementary school! And since I love dogs, I decided to recreate his barking dog on my ring finger. I started by painting my nails with two coats of white. Then I took a thin nail art brush (that I trimmed myself to make even thinner) and painted the dog with black polish. That's pretty much it besides finishing it off with a fast drying top coat. I've used Essie Good to Go top coat for like 3 years, it's my absolute favorite.

While I'm not happy with how this design turned out, as I'm writing this post it's giving me the idea to do a whole Keith Haring inspired mix and match manicure. I think that would be pretty cool!

Thanks for reading!

31DC2014 Day 26: Inspired By A Pattern

So turns out I didn't actually have time to do part of the challenge this year (oops). I've just been super busy with school and stuff that I've only been painting my nails like, twice a week! Anyway, I have the next day of the challenge last year to share. This was one of the days where I really could not be bothered with doing nail art, so I just did something super simple, haha.

Polishes used:

OPI You Don't Know Jacques (taupe crème)

Wet n' Wild Black Crème (black crème)

This is actually the polish I'm wearing right now! It's honestly one of my favorite colors to wear during fall. But for this design, I just painted two coats of YDKJ and waited for it to dry a bit. Then I took two dotting tools, a large one and a small one, and alternated dotting those sizes in rows on my nails. I finished with a coat of Essie Good to Go.

While I know this isn't anything super complicated, polka dots are still some of my favorite designs to do since they're really quick and easy!

Also, I'm still trying to figure out a good blogging schedule while I'm at school; Please bear with me, I'll get there soon!

Thanks for reading!

31DC2014 Day 25: Inspired by Fashion

Here it is! My favorite day of the challenge last year! I had always wanted to do a Louboutin manicure but I was always kinda scared to. Well, for this day of the challenge I just decided to go for it, and I LOVE IT.

Polishes used:

Wet n' Wild Black Crème (black crème)

OPI Alpine Snow (white crème)

Zoya Kristi (red crème)

I started by applying base coat (Orly Bonder) to the tops of my nails as well as the underside of them. Then I painted the tops with BC. After letting that dry, I used a small nail art brush dipped into AS to paint underneath my nails. Since Kristi can lean on the sheerer, jelly-ish side, I used a white first so that the red would pop more when painted on top. After letting AS dry for a little while, using the same small nail art brush, I painted two(?) coats of red on top of the white. I finished everything with one coat of Essie Good to Go on the tops and undersides of my nails.

Even though this manicure is so ridiculously simple, there's just something about it that I'm obsessed with. It was honestly painful to take these off, I loved them so much. I'm definitely doing these again sometime soon since I've been keeping my nails a bit longer lately!

Thanks for reading!

31DC2014 Day 24: Inspired By A Book

I'm back! I finally got everything set up the way I wanted it to and I think I've figured out my schedule enough to blog regularly again! While I don't have any new nail art to post (since I haven't had the chance to do any), I still have the rest of the 31 Day Nail Challenge to post (shocking, I know). Hopefully, since the challenge is still going on right now, I can jump in and do a few days here and there. Anyway, here's day 24 of the challenge from last year:

Polishes used:

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri OMGhost (white crème)

Wet n' Wild Black Crème (black crème)

In case you don't know what this book is, it's The Missing Piece by Shel Silverstein. I chose this book as my inspiration because it was probably my favorite book growing up. I always loved anything Shel Silverstein wrote, but The Missing Piece was by far my favorite.

So for this nail art, I started with two coats of white and waited for that to dry. Then I took a really thin nail art brush (one that I trimmed myself) and painted a (slightly) bumpy line across each nail. I had to line up my hand just right while painting so the line looked like it continued from nail to nail. Once that was done, I painted the circle with the same thin nail art brush on my index finger. After that, I actually "erased" some of the line that was on my ring finger (I painted over some of it with white) so I could paint the wedge. Once I was finished with the wedge, I topped everything off with a coat of Essie's Good to Go top coat.

I love how this turned out. I think it's just so stinking cute! This day of the challenge was definitely one of my favorites by far!

Thanks for reading!

Quick PSA

I know, I know... Long time no blog! There's a reason I swear! I got a new laptop less than a week ago (MacBook Pro) so I've been setting it up and getting used to all the little nuances. I also tried transferring all my nail pictures from my old Toshiba to it, and apparently it didn't work! I still have to mess with a few things on my new laptop since I don't have it 100% completely set up yet. I also moved in to school, which has kinda forced me to push my blog to the side temporarily.

But DON'T WORRY! I'll have everything back to normal hopefully within the next few days with some new posts :)

Thanks for reading (and for your patience)!