Mish Mash Challenge: Blue

Howdy everyone!  This will be the second time I write this post this evening, since I somehow managed to delete it after I finished it and was proof-reading.  That's pretty much how this week has been going *sigh*  Ok, enough of the pity party, on to the polish!

This week's Mish Mash Challenge is "Blue".  I have tons of blues, because it's one of my favorite colors, so I decided to pay homage to one of our other Mish Mashers, Chantelle of A Polished Prance.  A few weeks ago, for our "Least Expensive Polish" Challenge, she did an awesome dotticure using 73(!) different Ulta3 polishes!  I figured I had almost that many blues and wanted to give it a try.  The result?  Take a peek:

 

It turns out I only had 33 blue polishes.  At least, only 33 cremes and jellies.  I decided not to use metallics, shimmers, or glitters, just because they don't "dot" as well for me.  If you're interested in which ones I used, I'll include a polish list at the end of the post for you to peruse at your leisure.

I love the way this turned out!  It reminds me of the Wonder Bread logo, even though there's no red or yellow in it.  I'm weird like that :)  A big thanks to Chantelle for helping me make my nails look great this week and for being the creative genius that she is!

Please take a look at the other Mish Mashers' manis this week.  I can't wait to see what they've got going!  You can find them via the thumbnails below and, as always, thanks so much for reading!

Polish List:
Sinful Colors~ Aquamarine, Burning Bright, Endless Blue, New Wave, Ocean Side, Rain Storm, Sail La Vie, Savage, Shock and Awe, Sugar Rush, Sweet Nothing, Tidal Wave, Why Not

China Glaze~ First Mate, Ride The Waves, Secret Peri-Wink-le, Sunday Funday

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear~ Blue Me Away!, Breezy Blue, Pacific Blue

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri~ Blue By!

Nina Ultra Pro~ Blue La La, Cobalt

Wet ‘n’ Wild Wild Shine~ Listening to Blue Reed, Teal Slowly and See

Revlon~ Dreamer, Royal

Essence~ Let’s Get Lost

Zoya~ Rocky

Orly~ Snowcone

Barielle~ Swizzle Stix

O.P.I.~ Can’t Find My Czechbook

Cynthia Rowley~ Blue Jelly(no name)
Base polish is Essie's Blanc 

ABC Challenge: X is for Xenopeltidae (Sunbeam Snakes)

Howdy, everyone!  We've reached one of the most challenging letters of the alphabet in the ABC Challenge this week; 'X'.  This was a tough, tough letter.  Very polishes start with X, E-X, yes, but just X?  Not so much and certainly nothing I have in my stash qualifies.  I did some internet searching and was lucky enough to find this guy:

 Meet Xenopeltis unicolor, the Sunbeam Snake.  Xenopeltidae are a species of snake that lives in Indo-Asian countries and kill their prey by constriction (non-venomous).  Their most distinguishing feature is their shiny, iridescent scales which give that "oil slick" look.  I'm kind of a weirdo in that I like reptiles.  I used to have a ball python named Methos and I used to catch lizards out at my family's farm pond when I was little.  So, a manicure inspired by a snake seemed appropriate.

I started with 2 coats of Essie's Case Study followed by stripes of China Glaze in Kalahari Kiss on the sides of my nails.  I thought I had a stamping plate with a snakeskin pattern, but it turns out I don't.  Instead, I used my dotting tool to create the pattern.  I dotted first with China Glaze in Mahogany Magic for the base color of the scales.  I went back in on top of the MM scales with Sally Hansen's Nail Prisms in Turquoise Opal, Coral Amber, and Amber Ruby and Max Factor's Fantasy Fire.  It may seem silly to use all those fabulous polishes for dots, but I knew they'd give a great flash of color and I wasn't disappointed!

The more I look at this mani, the more it grows on me.  These aren't normally colors I'd put together, but that's the fun of being inspired by something, right?

Please take some time to check out the other participants in the challenge.  You can find them via the thumbnails below.  I can't wait to see what they came up with for this most challenging letter! 

Thanks for reading :)

Nail-aween Challenge 2: Matte Dotticure

Howdy, everyone!  Can I get a "hooray" for Friday?!  I had the day off today so I took myself down to my favorite brunch spot for some pecan apple pancakes and then to Target for some afternoon shopping.  And now I'm tuned into my favorite Friday night TV show...Ghost Adventures!  I may have mentioned that I love Halloween.  Well, I pretty much love anything spooky or supernatural.  GA is quality entertainment value, imho.  Zak, Nick and Aaron crack me up on a regular basis and I will admit I still can't watch the Bobby Mackey episode all the way through.  I'm so sad that I didn't know they were here in Chicago during the NATO summit.  It would have been worth facing the rioters to meet them in person :)

Ok, ok, on to the nails!  The second challenge for Nail-aween is a matte dotticure (I think it looks better spelled this way than "doticure", but I'm not sure which the correct way is?).   I remembered seeing a manicure awhile ago that used dots to a cute, spooky effect and so I decided to recreate it.  Take a peek:

I'm calling this the "I always feel like somebody's watchin' me" dotticure.  I started with 2 coats of MAC's Black Enough? which has a matte finish.  I used a larger dotting tool and Sinful Colors in Pull Over for the yellow irises then a small dotter and BE again for the pupils.  Aren't they cute??  Here's another look:

Unfortunately, I'll have to change these tonight as tomorrow is a K-State game and I can't jinx them with non-purple nails, but I wish I could wear them at work so I could get some folks' reactions.  I might have to redo this mani at a later date.

I will, of course, be posting the aforementioned K-State nails most likely tomorrow night.  I know I've done a couple of those already, but I love my Wildcats and tomorrow is a big game.  The Sunflower Showdown between K-State and KU is always a big deal.  KU isn't fantastic this year, but knowing the underdogs as we K-State fans do (because we usually are the underdogs), it would be stupid to underestimate them.  In any case, EMAW!

Thanks for reading!

25 of 31: Nails Inspired by Fashion

Howdy, everyone!  Gosh this 31 Day Challenge is just whizzin' right along, huh?  We're on Day 25 already, I can hardly believe it!  Today, we are inspired by fashion.  Now I have to admit, I don't know from fashion...I like what I like and that's what I like.  Whether anyone else cares for it doesn't interest me much.  That being said, I am an avid Project Runway viewer and I enjoy clothes overall.  Being in love with Pinterest as I am, I looked back through some of my fashion pins to see what jumped out at me.  Here's what I found:

These tights are from an etsy seller, Gal Stern, whose store can be found here.  I love pretty much everything she has listed even though I do hate to wear stockings myself.  For my manicure on the left, I started with 2 coats of MAC's Black Enough?, a  polish with a matte finish.  Then, using Orly's Luxe and my homemade dotting tool, I added some half moon dots and the pattern on my accent nail.  This is really simple, but I LOVE it!  Black and gold is such a great color combo and I think it's a great complement to the tights.  Whaddya think?

Thanks so much for reading and look out for tomorrow's post, inspired by pattern!