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!

Thanks for reading!

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!