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)!

Purple Tweed Nail Art

Last week at camp was color war week, so choosing what color to paint my nails with was a piece of cake! While I didn't get to do what I originally set out to do due to lack of time (I wanted to do a different pattern on each nail), I'm still happy with how this turned out!

Polishes used:
OPI Do You Have This Color In Stock-Holm? (royal purple crème)
Butter London Molly Coddled (light purple crème)
Essie Go Ginza (light lilac crème)

So if you couldn't already tell, I was on the purple team (duh). The whole week was purple vs. yellow, and I was secretly hoping that I was gonna be put on the purple team since I have way more purple polishes than yellow!

I started by painting my nails with two coats of DYHTCIS-H? (weirdest acronym ever wow). Then I took MC, wiped almost all the polish off the brush, then brushed that onto my nails vertically and then horizontally. I did the same thing with GG, and then with DYHTCIS-H? one more time. I finished with one coat of Gelous top coat to smooth everything out, followed by one coat of Essie's Good to Go.

While I've done a bunch of dry-brush manicures in the past, I've never done it with horizontal drags before. I love it so much more! It reminds me so much of a tweed pattern, hence the name of this post!

Thanks for reading!

31DC2014 Day 23: Inspired By A Movie

So this day in the challenge was when I started to really get not inspired to do anything at all haha! I had ran out of ideas and I needed some form of inspiration desperately, so I did what I usually do when that happens: I turned to Cutepolish!

Polishes used:

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mellow Yellow (yellow crème - original formula) - base color

Sephora by OPI Iris I Was Thinner (light purple crème - lighter than what's shown in the photo) - base color

China Glaze First Mate (navy blue crème) - yellow minions' pants

Wet n Wild Black Crème (black crème) - purple minions' pants, mouths, pupils, goggle straps, & yellow minions' hair

China Glaze Mahogany Magic (medium warm brown crème) - yellow minions' eyes

China Glaze Grape Pop (medium purple crème) - purple minions' eyes

(?)Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Lacey Lilac (lilac crème - original formula) - purple minions' hair

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri OMGhost! (white crème) - eyes and teeth

OPI Haven't The Foggiest (metallic pewter) - goggles

I knew I wanted to do something from an animated movie, and since Cutepolish has two different minions tutorials, I figured why not do those? I pretty much followed her tutorials for the yellow minions here, and the purple minions here, but with a few differences. I didn't use an actual googly eye, so I just painted the eyes on using polish and dotting tools. I also added colored irises, I used a metallic grey for the goggles instead of a crème, and I gave the yellow minions hair, too.

While this wasn't my favorite day of the challenge, I still really like how it turned out! It's super cute!

Thanks for reading!

NOTD: Leopard Print With Complimentary Colors!

So this manicure was the result of the classic "I'm stuck between two colors and I have no idea which one to chose" dilemma. I ended up just going with both since I really couldn't decide!

Polishes used:

China Glaze Too Yacht To Handle (bright teal crème)

China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy (neon coral-y pink crème)

Wet n' Wild Black Crème (black crème)

I actually started by painting all my nails with one coat of TYTH. Then I was thinking "I've really been wearing a lot of blues and teals lately... I need something different." So I pulled out FFF, stared at the two bottles for a while, then decided on just doing some accent nails! I removed TYTH from my middle and ring fingers on my left hand, and my index and middle fingers on my right hand. Then, I re-painted them with FFF.

I used the same technique for the leopard print as I explained here. I used the same dotting tool, which was the smaller end of the yellow dotting tool from this set. Once I finished though, I used two coats of top coat instead of just one. It may be because I just got a new bottle of top coat so it's still pretty thin, but I find that even with a generous amount, there's still some texture that shows through from the leopard print. So, I used two coats to avoid that.

Honestly, I was a little concerned that this manicure wouldn't look good since the colors are so different from one another (in neon-ness and in color), but I think the leopard print really tones that down and kinda pulls it all together!

Thanks for reading!

31DC2014 Day 22: Inspired By A Song

So it's been over a week since I posted anything... Um, whoops? Honestly the time just got away from me since I didn't do any nail art this week, even for the theme day at camp. This week was Pirates vs. Ninjas, and since I wore my Tae Kwon Do uniform on Tuesday, I painted my nails just matte black (at the request of my co-counselor). So, since I have no new content to post, here's the next day of the 31 Day Nail Challenge!

Polishes used:

Wet N Wild Black Crème (black crème, wOW WHat a shocker)

OPI Alpine Snow (white crème)
OPI Don't Touch My Tutu! (sheer white jelly)

I was inspired by the song Starlight by Muse, which is one of my all-time, if not, my favorite song ever. I started by painting two coats of black. Then I used a thin nail art brush and painted two diamond-ish star shapes on each nail. After that, I took the larger end of the green dotting tool from this set and placed a large dot of DTMT! right in the middle of the stars to make it look as if they were glowing. I finished by dotting different sized white dots in the empty black spaces, and sealed everything in with one coat of Essie Good to Go top coat.

Looking at this manicure now, I really with I could have added something else, like Fairy Dust by China Glaze. Especially with a name like Starlight, I feel like it should twinkle at least a little bit. I still really like this manicure, though! Especially since I think of my favorite song whenever I look at it. I'll definitely do it again, but next time with a little sparkle!

Thanks for reading!

NOTD: Orly Sparkling Garbage

To be honest, I bought this polish only because of the name. "Sparkling Garbage" just has a nice ring to it, don't you think? I mean, I didn't buy this entirely because of the name... I thought it was really pretty, too!

Polish used:

Orly Sparkling Garbage (light dusty green jelly with holo glitter)

First, please excuse the background. I had to take photos while on my break at work, the table wasn't the cleanest (because of the arts & crafts activity we did), and I forgot to move my water bottle. And the color in the photo looks a lot different than it does in real life (wow this post is a mess haha)... Just imagine it a bit more green and less teal.

I can't put into words just how awesome this polish is! I used four coats for this manicure and each coat went on like a dream. It wasn't quite fully opaque after four coats, but the holo glitter masked any visible nail line that there might have been. In direct sunlight though, it looks gorgeous. It looks like it's almost a hybrid of a linear holo and a scattered holo. It's so pretty.

This polish also worked with the camp theme for the week! This week was Monsters vs. Aliens. I dressed up as Mike Wazowski and this color worked perfectly!

Thanks for reading!

First Look: China Glaze "The Great Outdoors" Collection!

I went to my local drugstore on Monday (Harmon to be exact) because I needed to pick up a few things that I was out of. Of course I also needed to look at the nail polish since I was there! My Harmon always has a really good selection of polishes and is usually really good with keeping up with new collection releases from the big name brands (Essie, OPI, China Glaze, Color Club, etc.). China Glaze was only a recent addition to my Harmon, so I was shocked to see this display hiding in the back!

So this is The Great Outdoors collection that China Glaze is releasing for Fall 2015. It has a good variety of crèmes, duochromes, metallics, and with one glitter thrown in.

I was not expecting a new release from China Glaze this soon, especially since my Harmon only got the Electric Nights collection in about a month ago. Even on China Glaze's Snapchat, they said that this collection was "coming soon." Confused? Me too. But oh well!

Polishes L-R top row to bottom row:

Check Out The Silver Fox (silvery gunmetal metallic)

S'more Fun (bright chartreuse crème)

Cabin Fever (bronze/cranberry duochrome)

Wood You Wanna? (warm taupe metallic)

Take A Hike (hunter green crème)

Gone Glamping (dusty bronze/olive duochrome)

Let's Dew It (blurple microglitter with tiny pewter hex glitters) - swatch below!

Sleeping Under The Stars (deep blue crème with pink microshimmer)

Pondering (blurple/green/slightly pink duochrome)

Free Bear Hugs (oxblood crème)

Change Your Altitude (lilac-y grey crème)

My Lodge Or Yours? (dusty mauve crème)

While I wanted to pick up all of these, sadly my wallet only had enough room to spare for one... So I picked Let's Dew It!

Even though I really wanted this polish just because I thought it was pretty, I thought it would also go perfectly with my Mermaid Man costume for camp! This week was our Nickelodeon themed week and everyone dressed up as different characters on Tuesday. The seashell bra that I made, I painted with a medium purple paint that's right in between a warm and cool purple. So to match that, I used a warmer purple (China Glaze Plur-ple) underneath Let's Dew It. It matched perfectly!

The formula was a bit thick, but the glitter payoff was awesome. It's pretty much impossible to not have a thicker formula with a polish like this, especially since it can reach full opacity in about three coats. I used two coats of Let's Dew It for the picture above, but sponging it on would easily make it opaque.

Overall, I'm really pumped about this collection and I can't wait to pick up some of the other colors!

Thanks for reading!

NOTD: Tie Dye Nail Art!

It seems that I'm quickly becoming the counselor known for her nails at the camp I work at. Every week we have a theme, and on Tuesdays we dress up as that theme for our weekly Spirit Day. This week was "That 70's Week," and literally every single one of my coworkers suggested that I paint my nails tie dye. So I took their advice, and now I'm obsessed.

Polishes used:

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri OMGhost (white crème)

China Glaze Pool Party (neon hot pink crème)

China Glaze Sun Worshiper (neon yellow-y orange crème)

Color Club Under The Blacklight (neon pastel greenish yellow crème)

China Glaze Treble Maker (bright medium cool-toned green crème)

China Glaze Ride The Waves (bright medium blue jelly)

China Glaze Plur-ple (bright medium cool-toned purple crème)

I have to make it a point to say that I didn't come up with this technique on my own. I drew inspiration from knailart (video here) because I didn't want to screw these up, and because I remember seeing these nails on my Instagram feed ages ago. I only watched a tiny bit of the video just to see how she started the design, and then did the rest on my own.

First, I painted my nails with two coats of white. I started the tie dye with the lightest color (the yellow) and made a spiraled line going outwards from the center of my nail with a little nail art brush. Then, using the same brush, I starting painting over the line I just did to make it look jagged. After doing that, I did the same thing with the green, blue, purple, and pink; I finished with orange to connect the whole spiral together. After cleaning up around my nails, I finished with a coat of Essie's Good to Go top coat.

This is honestly one of the few manicures I've done in the past couple years that have stayed on my nails longer than two and a half days. I really love the fact that these are just so obnoxiously LOUD. Saying that these are really bright is a gross understatement. Literally the past two days I've worn these I've gotten compliments from my coworkers, my campers, campers who aren't even in my group, random cashiers, I've been asked if they were stickers, and I've even gotten stopped by random strangers who wanted to see these nails. I can safely say that this my favorite manicure that I've done in a while!

Thanks for reading!

NOTD: 4th of July Nails!

This is actually a manicure I came up with for the 4th of July last year. I'm working at a summer camp now, and yesterday (Friday) was our red, white, and blue day. So, in addition to wearing huge blue sunglasses, fuzzy white leg warmers, a tiny sparkly hat, and various beads and whistle necklaces, I decided to redo this nail art from last year because I loved it so much then!

Polishes used:

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Pacific Blue (cobalt blue crème - original formula) - thumb and middle

OPI Alpine Snow (white crème) - index and ring

Zoya Kristi (red crème) - pinky

I started by planning out which colors were going where, and then painted two coats of them on each nail. I used the red, darker blue, and clear iridescent glitters from this set from Born Pretty Store. On the middle nail, I did a basic glitter placement using the darker blue glitter. This glitter placement is different from the other one I posted a little while back, because instead of lining up the corners of the glitter pieces, I lined up the edges so the entire nail would be covered.

For the flag, I started by placing a line of red glitter down the center of my nail. Then I took the darker blue glitter and starting placing it next to the red line, stopping after (I think) seven pieces. I continued with that part of the flag, the next row being an alternating pattern between the blue and clear glitters for the stars. I placed another row of just blue glitter after that one, and the row after that I alternated with the white again. After finishing that part of the flag, I finished the rest of the nail by placing stripes of white and red glitter. I finished my manicure with two coats of top coat for the glitter nails, and one coat for all the other nails.

I still love this manicure as much as I did last year! The kids in my camp group as well as some of my coworkers (including one of the camp directors) thought these were stickers and that they were fake nails. I don't know about anyone else, but when someone asks if my nails are fake, I consider it to be an awesome compliment!

Thanks for reading!

31DC2014 Day 21: Inspired By A Color

Right before my friend went to college, she came to my house and said "I was at Zoom with my sister and I saw this nail polish and thought it was so ugly so I got it for you!" Right away I knew that I was going to use it for this day of the challenge!

Polish used:

Sun Struck Yellow to Orange (medium yellow with slight shimmer / dusty-ish orange with slight shimmer)

It's just so UGLY. I LOVE IT. I mean, despite the fact that it made my already abnormally pale skin look about as white as chalk dust. The yellow is what it looks like in the shade; This is what it looks like in direct sunlight:

I tried to get a shot of both the yellow and orange at the same time, but it only kinda worked a little:

But the most hideous aspect of this polish is not the fact that it took five (yes, five!) coats to reach (somewhat) full opacity, it's the transition color going between direct sun and shade:

I mean just look at it. Bask in the glorious ugliness that is this weird mustard-y orange slightly shimmery color. I don't know why but this color somehow reminds me of olives (the pimento maybe?).

I think ugly colors are so fun. While I probably would never wear this polish out (especially after it took FIVE COATS to get it opaque enough), I really do appreciate the thought from my friend that went into this little gift. :)

Thanks for reading!

31DC2014 Day 20: Water Marble

I honestly can't believe that it's been over a week since I've posted anything! I've had the week off from work so the time has just gotten away from me. Anyway, here's day 20 of the 31 Day Nail Challenge!

Polishes used:

Essie Mint Candy Apple (minty blue crème)

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

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Lacey Lilac (light lilac purple crème - original formula)

I'll admit I'm not the best when it comes to water marbling. I've always been a perfectionist, and I can never get my water marbles to end up looking perfect. While this manicure is no exception to that, I was pretty happy with how it turned out though; Especially with how these colors worked together!

I learned how to water marble about 4 years ago by watching My Simple Little Pleasures on YouTube. She does a great job of explaining how to do it and has a whole playlist of different water marble techniques here. I really recommend watching those videos because she does a much better job at explaining how to water marble then I ever could haha!

Thanks for reading!

Doctor Who Inspired Manicure!

This manicure is one I did WAY back in August, specifically for the premiere of series 8 of Doctor Who! That was a very big day for us whovians since that was the first time we would see the new Doctor in action! So, to get myself excited for the twelfth Doctor, of course I painted my nails!

Polishes used:

Thumb and pinky: full list can be found here (I used pieces of holo hex glitter for the stars instead of white dots, which I fished out of Techno by China Glaze)

Index: OPI My Vampire Is Buff (off white crème)

Wet n Wild Wild Shine Black Crème (black crème)

Middle: China Glaze First Mate (navy blue crème)

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On (white crème)

Wet n' Wild Black Crème

Ring: Wet n' Wild Black Crème

Essie Penny Talk (metallic copper)

Essie Good As Gold (metallic gold)

I started off by painting my nails with each base color I was using (in order from thumb to pinky: Smoke And Ashes by China Glaze, My Vampire Is Buff, First Mate, Black Crème, and Smoke And Ashes). 

I'm pretty sure I did the galaxies first, since those take the longest. I explain how I do my galaxies here. I really do prefer the look of the galaxies with pieces of holo hex glitter as opposed to white dots.

For the Silence inspired nails, I remember I had to use three coats of MVIB for it to reach full opacity. Then I took a really thin nail art brush (that I trimmed myself) and painted a bunch of messy looking tally marks. I wanted it to look messy and random since that's how River, Rory, Amy and the Doctor wrote them down on their bodies in the show. I remember I actually didn't look at my nail when I was painting these, just so they could look as authentic as possible.

The TARDIS nail was actually super easy. I painted two coats of FM and waited for that to dry. First I took a black striper and made a stripe right down the middle. Then I took a thinner nail art brush and painted white rectangles on either side of the stripe down at the base of my nail. I took an even thinner nail art brush and painted six more rectangles (three on each side) coming down from the white ones. Then I painted a smaller square inside the first black rectangle on the left side for the "Pull To Open" sign, and made a white dot with a small dotting tool inside the rectangle on the other side for the Saint John Ambulance symbol. To finish the windows, I painted three lines on each white rectangle with FM: two going down and one going across. I straightened out any lines I needed to with a nail art brush dipped into FM.

I seriously love how these Dalek nails turned out! I started off with a black base and let that dry completely. While that was drying, I prepared my rhinestones. I don't remember where I got them, but Amazon and Born Pretty Store sell them for pretty cheap. I knew I wanted my Dalek to be copper, so I was originally planning on making their little circle stud thingies copper as well. Then while looking at photos of them, I realized that their studs are a bit lighter than their bodies, so I decided to make them gold instead. I laid out nine yellow rhinestones on a piece of paper and painted over them with my gold polish. It doesn't really matter which color rhinestone you use, but a similar color will mask mistakes or imperfections better. I moved the rhinestones around a bit with the tip of my orange stick so they wouldn't dry in a pool of polish and then get stuck like that. After doing that, I placed three pieces of striping tape down on my nail, making sure they were both evenly spaced apart and far enough down from my cuticle. I painted over all of that with the copper since metallic polishes are usually opaque in one coat. I removed the striping tape immediately after painting the copper to get the cleanest lines. After letting that dry for a bit, I used a cheap top coat, dotted it where I wanted to put the rhinestones, and placed them under the black stripes. Then I took a piece of large blue hex glitter that I got from Borough Babe Supply on Etsy (I don't think she sells this type of glitter anymore though...) and placed it on top of a little blob of top coat for the Dalek's eye.

To finish everything off, I added one coat of Essie Good to Go to each nail.

This is honestly one of my favorite manicures that I've ever done. I always love mix and match manis, and a Doctor Who inspired one just makes it that much better!

Thanks for reading!

NOTD: Waterdrop Manicure Take Two!

Super quick post today, mostly because I don't feel like posting more of the 31 Day Nail Challenge just yet, and I don't have any new nail art to show other than this, even though it's something I've already done before. I had taken pictures of this to put on my Instagram, so I figured I might as well share it here, too!

Polishes used:

Essie Nothing Else Metals (metallic lilac)

Gelish Top It Off top coat

To create these, I followed the exact same steps as I did the first time I did this manicure. One of my kids at work really wanted me to do this nail art again, so I did! Of course she was absent the day I had these on, but that's beside the point... I like how these ones turned out so much better than the first time I did these. I think making much smaller dots in between the bigger blobs makes it look like more realistic water drops. I also think that the metallic base is really cool and super spring-y!

By the way, the cup I'm posing with is that purple and blue duochrome-y Starbucks cup that pretty much every other person in the nail community seems to have. So of course I had to buy one too haha!

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31DC2014 Day 19: Galaxies

This is one of my favorite days of the whole challenge! I've always loved doing galaxy nails, ever since I first tried them about three years ago. Although thinking of the first time I did these makes me shudder now... I've definitely improved since then!

Polishes used:

China Glaze Smoke And Ashes (black with blue and green flakie-ish sparkles) - base color

China Glaze Too Yacht To Handle (bright minty teal crème) - galaxies

(?)OPI You're Such A Budapest (light lilac with subtle shimmer) - galaxies

OPI Alpine Snow (white crème) - galaxies and stars

China Glaze Frostbite (medium blue shimmer) - galaxies

China Glaze Fairy Dust (holographic micro glitter) - glitter around galaxies

I started off by painting my nails with two coats of SAA and waited for that to dry. Then I ripped a little piece off a makeup sponge and holding it with tweezers, dipped it into a blob of TYTH, and sponged a random shape onto each of my nails. With a new piece of sponge (I used a new piece for each color I used), I dabbed YSAB over only some spots where I placed TYTH. Then I lightly sponged a teeny bit of white only over certain spots of the galaxy shapes. I finished the galaxy shapes by sponging Frostbite around the edges to lightly fade it into the base color (Cutepolish does a great tutorial here). After that, I painted some spots of Fairy Dust around the edges of the galaxies, and dotted some larger white dots as closer stars. I finished with one coat of a fast drying top coat (Essie Good To Go).

While I really love doing galaxy nails, I have to admit that I'm not entirely happy with how these ones came out. I realized after doing these that I prefer to use pieces of holographic hex glitters (I fish them out of Techno by China Glaze) for the larger stars. I did a Doctor Who inspired manicure a while ago where the galaxies I did turned out so much better; I'll post those soon because I really like the manicure as a whole!

Thanks for reading!

31DC2014 Day 18: Half-Moons

Super quick post today since there's not really much to say about this nail art haha, it's so simple!

Polishes used:
Essie Blue Rhapsody (metallic blue)
China Glaze First Mate (navy blue crème)

I first painted two coats of BR on all my nails and waited for that to dry completely. I purposely chose a metallic polish to use for the base color since metallics tend to dry faster than other polishes. Then I took paper hole reinforcement stickers (the ones you can buy in any office supply store), cut those in half, and placed one of those halves at the base of each nail to block out the half-moon shapes. After doing that, I painted one (maybe two?) coat(s) of FM over the areas of my nails that weren't covered by the sticker. Working one nail at a time, I removed each of the stickers while FM was still wet to ensure a nice, crisp line. I finished with one coat of a fast drying top coat.

I'm not that into half-moons to be honest. I just feel like they look a little weird on me. That doesn't mean that I don't appreciate them, though! I happen to really like this color combination and the fact that the half-moon is metallic; I think it makes it pop a little bit more.

Sorry for the lack of posts by the way! I'm trying to get better at posting more frequently but life keeps getting in the way (plus I've been binge watching Game of Thrones so...).

Thanks for reading!