Mish Mash Challenge: Rainbow Nails

It's Hump Day!  That means it's Wednesday!  That means it's Mish Mash Challenge day!  I skipped last week's challenge because I spent so much time on my Sanderson Sisters manicure, then I almost skipped this week because of another Halloween manicure I've been working on (which will also hopefully be posted tonight!), but I didn't want to skip two weeks in a row...especially on the Rainbow Challenge!  I know there are going to be some stunning designs this week and I can't wait to see them!  After all the nail art I've done lately, I just stuck with some simple skittles for this week's Challenge.

I did dress these up a bit by using linear holographic polishes so you get rainbows with your rainbows!  Like I said, they're pretty simple but I like 'em!  I'll list the polishes at the end of the post so you can check 'em out if you'd like to.  Though I think a lot of folks were unimpressed with the China Glaze Holographics collection, the ones I've purchased (on half off of clearance at Sally's...woot!) are really pretty in my opinion.  They aren't in-your-face crazy holos, but the linear IS there and it's quite nice.

I apologize for the lack of sunlight in these photos but that's been in short supply lately here in Chicago.  If Apollo manages to drag his chariot into the sky tomorrow, I'll snap a quick one to show you the linear rainbows.

Polish List:
LynBDesigns~Am I Ginger?
DifferentDimensions~Tubular 
China Glaze Holographic~Not In This Galaxy, OMG A UFO, Strap On Your Moonboots 

Please take a minute to peruse the other Mish Mashers' work this week...I'm betting it'll be pretty!  You can find them via the thumbnails below.  Thanks so much for reading!

Try It On Tuesday: Rainbow Honey's Hoof Wrassle

Good evening!  I'm in on the 11th hour (quite literally) with getting my Try It On Tuesday post up, but I'm gonna get it done!  If you'd like to join in the Tuesday fun, all you need to do is "like" SassyPaints on Facebook and every Tuesday, post one photo to her wall of your TIOT polish pick with a link to your post/instagram/facebook/etc. and the name of your pick.  Super simple, yes?  

My TIOT this week is Hoof Wrassle by Rainbow Honey.  I actually won this lovely in a giveaway a few weeks ago hosted by Esther's Nail Center.  I was pretty excited about winning it, since I don't own many RH polishes and this will actually be the first one I've tried.

Part of RH's The Equestria Collection, Hoof Wrassle (aside from having that awesome name!) is a sheer warm orange base with a golden shimmer.  It's got a gorgeous, perfect-for-Fall, glitter mix of copper, orange, and gold hexes and squares and some holographic bits thrown in for good measure.

HF is very sheer, I'm wearing 3 coats here over 2 coats of Sinful Color's Skylark as undies.  You *might* be able to build this up to opacity, but I'd expect it to take at least 5 coats.  I'm totally in love with this polish!  It makes me think of autumn leaves crunching underfoot and warm, cozy sweaters.  Can you tell that I'm jonesin' for fall like nobody's business?  Temperatures are in the 90's for most of the week here in Chicago, but it's looking like we might get a breath of autumn come Friday or so...yay!

Anyway, I'd highly recommend grabbing Hoof Wrassle if you'd like a fun, glittery autumn layering polish.  You can find it on the Rainbow Honey website retailing at $5 for a 10ml bottle and $10 for a 15ml bottle.  

Be sure to check back in tomorrow to see what the Mish Mash Challengers have up our sleeves for this week!  Thanks so much for reading!

Turq-ish Delight from Hit Polish

Hiya, folks!  Having a good weekend?  It's chilly and rainy here in Chicago...again.  I'm a little tired of the dreariness lately.  Fortunately, all my over spending at Memorial Day means that nail mail is at an all time high!  I'll have plenty of new pretties to show you all for the next few weeks, yay!

I'm starting here with a pretty crelly glitter from Hit Polish (formerly D&R Apothecary) called Turq-ish Delight.

TD is a smoky turquoise crelly base with varied bright orange hexes, fuchsia and teal dots, and holographic micro glitter throughout.  The turquoise base in this polish is very interesting, ranging from a bright, true turquoise in certain light to a deeper, smoky blue in others.  The glitters are amazing!  The hot orange contrasts so well with the turquoise and you all know how much I dig the dots.

The formula was good, opaque in 2-3 coats (I'm wearing 3 here).  I did have a little trouble getting the larger hexes out of the bottle, but that's to be expected.  I was impatient and didn't turn my bottle upside before application, which usually solves that issue.  In any case, I love this polish so much, I just don't care lol  To make the orange pop even more, after my final coat had dried a bit, I used a small nail art brush and a little acetone to brush over top of the large hexes.  This cleaned off the light layer of turquoise base and just let the orange shine through a little more.  As with most crelly glitters, there was a little bumpiness without a top coat so, I used two coats of Seche Vite to smooth things out a bit. 

All in all, this is a gorgeous polish and I can't wait to try out the other polishes I snagged from Hit Polish, including the free mini they sent with my order as a "thank you" for helping them reach 10,000 sales.  I love getting free polish, especially when it's unexpected!  If Hit Polish keeps making gorgeous polishes like Turq-ish Delight, I imagine their sales won't stop at 10K ;)

Have you tried Hit Polish?  What did you think?
Thanks so much for reading!

ABC Challenge: T is for Tiers of Teeny Tiny Triangles

Hi there, folks.  I want to start my post tonight with thankfulness that my friends and family who live in Oklahoma are safe and sound.  I know there are a lot of people who cannot say that today.   It's unfathomable to me how those affected by the tornado must be feeling now and my heart goes out to them.  It felt wrong not to acknowledge the awfulness that's happened, I hope you understand.

On to my ABC Challenge post for the week.  Amazingly, we've come to 'T' in our traverse of the alphabet...I can't believe we're so close to the end!  Much like 'R', I struggled with what to create for this challenge.  There are ton of 'T's in the world, but nothing was speaking to me.  I finally decided to keep it simple and go with some cute triangles.

I started with 3 coats of Sinful Colors Tidal Wave, a barely-there light blue creme and one of SC's new Sail La Vie collection polishes.  I love the color here, but the formula was a bit streaky and draggy.  It did even out after 3 coats, but I was a bit disappointed.  It won't, however, stop me from blowing part of my paycheck on a few more polishes from Sail La Vie and their Pool Side Polishes collection as well.

After Tidal Wave, I used a pinking shears to cut into blue painters tape to create the triangles.  The top tier of triangles were created with Sinful Colors Poudre, a light peach creme.  The middle tier is Wet 'n' Wild Megalast in Club Havana, a light coral creme.  The last tier closest to my cuticles is NYC's Times Square Tangerine, which is, as the name suggests, a tangerine creme (it also allowed me to squeeze a few more 'T's in!).

I love how this turned out!  It reminds me of that fabric bunting that you all over Etsy these days.  The color combination works well and, overall, it turned out to be a bright, cheery summer mani and what's not to like about that?!

Please take a few minutes to check out the other participants in the ABC Challenge.  You can find their posts via the thumbnails below.  Thanks so much for reading!

ABC Challenge: R is for Rubik's Cube

Howdy, everyone!  I'm a late poster tonight.  I like to get my ABC Challenge posts up on Tuesday evenings but I was exhausted last night and had to wait to paint 'n' post until today.  Our letter this week is "R" and I thought it was going to be a super easy letter cuz everything starts with "R", right?  Yeah, not as many things as I thought and a lot of them were far too esoteric or general for nail art.  I surely could have grabbed a Revlon or a red and just done a swatch, but I wanted to do something more decorative this week.  So, after searching words that start with "R" via Google, I finally came up with Rubik's Cube!  I have a brother who can solve one of these in about 5 minutes; he says there's a trick to it, but I've never figured it out lol

Whaddya think?  I think they turned out really well and a good thing, too, since they took about 3 hours!  There was a lot of taping and striping polish used and, of course, after I started I realized there may have been an easier way to do it, but oh well.  It turned out in the end and that's all that matters ;)

For some reason, my camera didn't like the green I used (China Glaze's Four Leaf Clover) and it's showing up in these pics as more of a mint.  FLC is much more of a grass green, but you get the idea, I hope?

Thanks so much for reading and please take a moment to browse the other ladies' Challenge posts.  You can find them via the thumbnails below!

Polishes Used:
Sinful Colors~Snow Me White
Deborah Lippmann~Edge of Glory
Wet 'n' Wild Wild Shine~Red Red
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri~Orange Impulse
Sinful Colors~Pull Over
China Glaze~Four Leaf Clover
Sinful Colors~Endless Blue

JulieG's Frosted Gumdrops Collection

Howdy, everyone!  I had planned a completely different manicure to blog about today, but after I got finished with this one, I just had to show it off!  There was a really great Groupon deal a few weeks back for the new JulieG Frosted Gumdrops Collection.  I was lucky enough to snag one of these which included all six of the polishes for $12.99 plus $2.99 shipping.  It was a pretty good steal!  I'm actually unfamiliar with JulieG's polishes as I believe they're only sold at Rite Aid and there aren't any of those around here.  So, I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised with these.

 *All product was purchased by myself and all opinions are my own and unsolicited*

Julie G's Frosted Gumdrops are glitter polishes with a textured finish, similar to O.P.I.'s Liquid Sand polishes.  As pictured above from left to right, the polish names are Tangerine Dream, Sugar Rush, Hot Cinnamon, Crushed Candy, Blueberry Fizz, and Rock Candy.  And here's what I did with them:

I started with 3 coats of Hot Cinnamon on every nail but my ring finger.  I would have been fine with 2 coats, but I did the third just to make sure everything was covered.  On my accent nail, I did a striped rainbow with all 6 of the polishes.  I have to say, the sparkle on these is pretty spectacular!  I wish my camera would have captured it better.  You can definitely see the texture and it is really similar to the Liquid Sand polishes I've tried.

 *All product was purchased by myself and all opinions are my own and unsolicited*

 My one complaint on these polishes is that they seem to take a long time to dry, and, since you lose the textured effect with a top coat, there's no real way to speed it up.  Just be aware of the possible smudge factor if you get impatient with these.  I think the sparkle payoff was worth the extra dry time for sure.

I know there are folks who really hate the texture trend, but I kinda dig it.  It's something new and fun to play with.  Would I want to wear it every day?  No.  But it's fun for a change.  What are your thoughts on texture polishes?  Love them?  Hate them?  Tell me all about it!

Thanks so much for reading!

 *All product was purchased by myself and all opinions are my own and unsolicited*

Summer Squares Geometric Manicure

Hi there!  How's everyone doing?  I spent a pleasant evening with a friend having dinner and catching a show.  We went to see American Idiot, which was actually a lot more fun than I was expecting.  If you're a Green Day fan, I'd definitely suggest checking it out.  I don't consider myself a huge fan (in fact, "Know Your Enemy" used to send me running from the pet store where I worked cuz I can't stand it), but the music was fun and the choreography was interesting. 

Anywho, on to what we're all here for; nails!  I am in love with my mani today.  I basically just grabbed a few colors and started painting without a specific end in mind, so I'm pleasantly surprised with how it turned out.  Take a look:

I started with 2 coats of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Orange Impulse.  OI is a "true" orange creme.  I think everyone probably has a different idea of true orange, but this one is as close as I've seen to my idea.  After OI dried, I taped off some square shapes and filled them in with Insta-Dri in Blue By! which is a lovely lake blue creme.  The next step was to tape off even smaller squares and fill them in with Insta-Dri's Fast Fuchsia, a bright pink creme with just a touch of purple to it.  My taping skills failed me a bit this time and my edges were a little wonky, so I opted to freehand some lines in with Orly Instant Artist in Yellow Submarine.

All of these Insta-Dri colors were ones I found at Dollar Tree and, as near as I can tell, they're all Limited Edition colors.  It's odd that I can't seem to find a lot about them online, as they're pretty colors, but no one really seems to have swatched them.  In any case if you see them, snag them, they're awesome!

I almost went back in with more tape to make everything "perfect" but, for some reason, I like the imperfection in the lines.  I actually feel a little Jasper Johns-y, though my colors are way off lol
 

I'm doing my best to bring in the summer with these colors, cuz Mother Nature seems to be having a hard time getting around to it this year.  I'm grateful we're not so flooded here in my neighborhood in Chicago because I know there are folks who have it much worse than me, but damn, I am tired of rain already.  I'm having a hard time remembering what that lovely, yellow, bright thing that usually hangs around in the sky is called...the sun, maybe?  Come back, Mr. Sun...the Windy City misses you!

Thanks so much for reading!

ABC Challenge: "O" is for Orange Owls

Howdy, everyone.  We're on to another ABC Challenge and this week is "O".  I've got to say upfront that my "O" manicure should start with an "F" for Fail.  I really don't like these but I spent a decent amount of time on them and sometimes you just gotta put your mistakes out there so you can remember not to go there again lol  Anyway, here's what I did:

This is my first attempt at owl nails and I think I just went overboard with them.  Simple is always better but sometimes I just forget.  I showed them to my boyfriend and his response was, "Ok, I know those jewels are eyes, but what's that at the bottom?  Teeth?"  He couldn't even see the owls!   Oh, well...I'll do better next time, I swear!

I also think my color choice was bad.  I'm out of nail polish remover so I used yesterday's mani as the base for this and orange and purple always end up Halloween-y looking to me.  I'll throw a polish list at the end of the post if you're interested in the others colors I used.  I'll be changing these up tomorrow for sure so be sure to stop back by to see me hopefully redeem myself! 

If you've got some time, be sure to check out the other gals participating in the challenge.  You can find them via the thumbnails below.  As always, thanks for reading!

Polish List:
Sinful Colors~Hazard
China Glaze~Peachy Keen
Wet 'n' Wild~French White Creme

The Inevitable Easter Manicure

Howdy, everyone!  Today has been kind of bittersweet for me.  It was my last official day working at the pet store.  I'm going to miss all the dogs and their owners a lot, but it was the right move for me.  I'll have a more regular schedule now with weekends off, which is pretty darn exciting.

Anyway, on to the nails!  I've got sort of an Easter skittles thing going on here, I think.  This was tons of fun to do, but it took f-o-r-e-v-e-r!  Hopefully, it was worth it.  What do you think?

I'm in love with the little chicks on my index fingers lol  They turned out so cute I can't stand it!  I'll put a polish list at the end of the post, it's too much to go into here.  My thumb and middle fingers are water marbled, which is what took so long.  I had to redo my left hand about 4 times!   I added some dots on top of the marble with a dotting tool.  I did the bunnies on my ring fingers with the same dotting tool which was also used for the dots on the "egg" (my pinkie nail).  For the zigzag on my pinkie and the edge of the eggshell on my index nail, I used pinking shears to cut pieces of tape.  Then, I placed the tape on my nail, painted over it and pulled it off while the polish was still wet.  

I have to say, I'm pretty proud of this one.  I sent my boyfriend a photo of it last night and his response was "Holy cow!"...if he's impressed, I know I've done a good job lol 

I hope you all have a lovely Easter, if you celebrate it.  If not, have a great Sunday :)  Thanks so much for reading, and don't forget to enter my Sinful Colors Giveaway!

Polishes used:
Base color, bunny face, polka dots~Sinful Colors-Snow Me White
Water marble, bunny nose & ears, polka dots~Sinful Colors-Soul Mate
Water marble, Easter egg base color~Sinful Colors-Orange Cream
Water marble, polka dots~Sinful Colors-Unicorn
Water marble, bunny base color, Easter egg zigzag~Sinful Colors-Sugar Rush
Water marble, polka dots~Sinful Colors-Candy Coated
Chick face~Sinful Colors-Pull Over
Chick beak~NYC-Times Square Tangerine
Chick eyes, bunny eyes~Wet 'n' Wild Wild Shine-Black Creme
Chick egg~O.P.I~White Shatter

ABC Challenge: K is for Klimt

Howdy, everyone!  I simply cannot seem to get more than two posts out a week these days..dunno what my deal is.  Anyway, to start my ABC Challenge post, I first have to send out a huge THANK YOU to Liz from A Mani Maniac.  Some of the girls from the Challenge participated in a secret St. Paddy's Day polish exchange and Liz drew my name and hooked me up with some fantastic goodies that will feature in future posts.  Thanks again!

On to today's manicure!  We're on to "K" in the ABC Challenge this week.  This was a tough letter for me.  I have very few polishes, either by brand or by name, that start with "K".  I decided to go with an inspired look and some nail art today.  One of my favorite artists is Gustav Klimt.  His colors, subject matter and symbolistic style appeal to me.  Many of you are no doubt familiar with The Kiss which is probably Klimt's most famous work.  If this is the only work you know from him, I urge you to Google him and check out some other images.  They're just beautiful! 

Today's manicure is inspired by Klimt's Hygeia.  A detail of a three part oil painting, Hygeia was unfortunately destroyed in 1945 during the final days of WWII when the castle where it was stored was burned by retreating SS troops to prevent it falling to Allied forces.  Nice little art history lesson for you.  War is bad, destroys pretty things!

Ok, on to the nails!

 

I'll include a polish list at the end of the post and I won't bore you with all the details here.  I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.  Is it immediately recognizable as Klimt-inspired?  Maybe not.  However, when you see the detail in Hygeia's  robes, I hope you can see where I was going with it.

The accent nail is inspired by her hair.

This was really a fun manicure and I was glad to have a chance to do some nail art! 

Polishes used:
Red, Red by Wet 'n' Wild Wild Shine~cherry red creme
Diva on the Dunes by Jessica~bright red/orange creme
Pull Over by Sinful Colors~bright yellow creme
This Is It by Sinful Colors~shimmery gold with holographic flecks
Black and Brown Sharpie

Please take a moment to check out the other ladies in the ABC Challenge.  You can find them via the thumbnails below!  Thanks so much for reading!

Julep's Evangeline

Howdy, everyone!  Thank goodness it's Friday!  I've had the whole day off and it's been fantastic! I got to take advantage of some sales at Claire's and Walgreen's (select Revlon polishes are $3.99!) AND my replacement Julep box showed up...yay!  Someone stole my February Maven Box out of my building's lobby (or at least I think that's what happened) and so I had to file a claim with USPS.  Julep was kind enough to replace the Box at no extra charge, so I'm pretty darn happy with their customer service department :)

Anyway, I do have a Julep to show you today, although it comes from the Cupid Mystery Box I received earlier this week.  I love the Mystery Boxes...for some reason, the lure of possibly receiving 100's of dollars of product for $20 is a temptation I cannot resist!  I did not, in fact, receive 100's of dollars worth of product this time, but I did get a new holographic polish which is almost as good.

This is Evangeline, a coppery pumpkin orange scattered holo.  Coverage was great after one coat, but I did two cuz that's how I roll.  I also topped it with Seche Vite because it does dry to a dull, matte finish.  I think the top coat really brings out the holo.  It's a very subtle holo effect, easier to see in sunlight of course, but it creates a really nice shimmer and I love the color. 

Now the  last picture I have for you is something that perplexes me.  I'm guessing this is something new that Julep is doing.  They've provided me a "Swatch Me!" sticker for this bottle.  So here's the photo:

My question is this; if they've already applied the sticker to the lid, which does, of course, have the brush attached to it, how the heck am I supposed to swatch it onto the sticker?  Am I just being difficult or does this seem silly to anyone else?  I asked my boyfriend this question and he agreed with me that it seemed a little odd.  It would make more sense to provide the sticker, let me swatch the polish and THEN stick it on top of the bottle.  Is it just me?  What do you think?

Thanks so much for reading!

Heavenly Manicure Two Ways

Hi there!  I'd like to welcome my new readers as a few of you have joined over the last couple weeks.  A special hello to the lovely ladies from the ABC Challenge, you girls are making my day with all your nice comments on my first submission, so thanks!

Today I have a fun little manicure to show you.  A while ago, I hustled to my local Walgreen's to grab a couple of Revlon's new polishes including Heavenly, a dupe for Deborah Lippmann's Stairway to Heaven.  Heavenly has square blue/purple/green iridescent glitters mixed with orange/copper/red iridescent glitters in a milky base.  The only thing to do with a polish this lovely is to layer it over a darker base color...which is what I did!  Whaddya think?

....more after the jump....

Nail-aween Challenge 10: Halloween Nails

Howdy, everyone!  I'm a day late on this post.  Time got away from me over the last couple of days.  However, I do promise that this mani was finished and worn before the end of Oct. 31, 2012. Therefore, it still counts for the Nail-aween Challenge!  The final challenge was to do any Halloween inspired manicure of your choice.  Here's what I came up with:

I started with a gradient using Wet 'n' Wild's Wild Shine in Sunny Side Up and Sally Hansen's Complete Salon Manicure in Purple Pulse.  When I got my Halloween Julep box this month, they sent me some free Halloween-themed nail decals from Alex Cole.  This manicure seemed like a good time to try them out.  So all the black silhouettes you see here are decals.  I liked them, they were easy to use.  However, a lot of the black ink seemed to rub off as I was working with them and they didn't actually stick to the nail by themselves.  I'd recommend placing them onto an almost dry coat of polish or base coat so that the tackiness of the polish gives them something to stick to.  On my thumbnail, I added some bat-shaped glitter from a Halloween-themed glitter kit I found at Michael's.  I finished this manicure off with a coat of Flashy by Finger Paints, a holographic top coat.

This was a fun manicure, but I'm a little disappointed with how it turned out.  Oh well, you win some, you lose some.

The Nail-aween Challenge was so much fun to participate in and I loved seeing what everyone else came up with.  I'm hoping to find a holiday themed challenge to participate in during December, although where I think I'll find the time, I'm not sure.  Please stop by the other challenge participants' sites to see how they completed their Challenges.  You can find them here:

datyorkLOVES

Erica's Nails and More

DreamyMM Nails & Make Up

 Tes Did It Nails
Sassy Paints
Nicole gets Nailed
glitznglammer
Finger Food
Wicked Tips
Fancy Schmancy Nails
Delight In Nails
Polish Groupie
My Nail Journey
Get Polished Up!
Just A Girl and Her Polish
Spellbound Nails
Le nail's corner d'Alex
Hello.Lacquer
 Countess Nails
Color the world with polish
Nail Crime Nail Art
Coat of Mani Colors
Cutie Cuticles (nail art by Laraib)
Wacky Laki
Nail-Aween Nail Art Challenge October 1-31st, 2012
GLAMOROUS NAILS
Polish Gone Crazy
tragedystipsandtreats

As always, thanks so much for reading!

Nail-aween Challenge 1: Water Marble

Howdy!  As promised, I have my first Nail-aween Nail Art Challenge challenge for you today.  Wow, that was a mouthful!  The first challenge is a water marble.  Everyone loves how water marbles look and everyone hates doing them.  The technique is time-consuming, polish-consuming, and sanity-consuming.  So I cheated.  Here's a photo:

*more after the jump*

Glitter Goblin Manicure

Hello, hello!  I hope everyone is having a great week so far.  This is going to be kind of a long post because I have a lot of things to share, including a new manicure.  I made a trip to Ulta over the weekend to take part in their Buy 2 Get 1 Free sale, so I'll be showing you a new China Glaze glitter.  But we'll get to that in a minute.

First of all, I thought I'd want to take a break after doing the 31 Day Nail Challenge, but it turns out I miss the prompts!  Whodathunk?  I'm super excited to announce that I'll be participating in datyorkLOVES Nail-aween Nail Art Challenge during the month of October.  This challenge is a bit different in that it's self-paced, meaning there's no specific date or time for each challenge.  They all have to be completed during October and that's about the only rule.  There are 10 Halloween related challenges.  Halloween is my favorite holiday and I've been so looking forward to this October.  It's been a year since I started getting interested in nail art, so I've had all that time to be thinking up some fun and spooky manis!  Here's a list of the prompts:

...more after the jump...

20 of 31: Water Marble Nails

Howdy, everyone!  We're 2/3 of the way through the 31 Day Challenge already, can you believe it?  I really can't...amazing how time flies when fun is being had!  Day 20 brings us water marbling.  Everyone loves how a water marble looks and pretty much everyone hates doing them.  I'm no exception.  In fact, I'll let you in on a secret...I cheated this time!  I figure if I can get the same look from an easier technique then I'm goin' for it!  I did a faux water marble or dry water marble (you can read about that technique here) to save my sanity and I think it turned out pretty well.  Have a look:

I started with 2 coats of Sinful Colors Jungle Trail as a base color.  Jungle Trail is a light grey creme.  To do the marble, I used Jungle Trail again as well as China Glaze Secret Peri-wink-le (a light blue creme) and First Mate (a deep navy creme) and Wet 'n' Wild Wild Shine in Sunny Side Up (a sherbert orange creme).  After everything dried under a coat of Seche Vite, I went back in with the point of a cuticle stick and Sunny Side Up and First Mate to create the dots.  The dotted water marble is a manicure that I've been seeing around on Pinterest (although nothing is ever linked back so I'm not sure who to credit for it) and is such a great easy way to change the look of the marble.  I love the way this turned out, everything from the color combination to the pattern is just fantastic!

Tune in tomorrow to see a color inspired mani and thanks so much for reading! 

12 of 31: Striped Nails

Howdy!  Just a quick post today for the Challenge, stripes!

You can see I've got some wear on these already, the polishes I used are from a set I bought at Marshall's called Simply Sweet.  I know nothing about the brand, but I've worn it a couple of times and always get a lot of chipping really quickly.  Oh well.

 I started with 2 coats of Mac Vestral White for undies and then painted each nail a different color.  After that dried, I taped off some stripes and painted over it with Wet 'n' Wild's Wild Shine in Black Creme.  Super simple but I got more compliments on this manicure today than I've gotten in awhile, so it must pack a visual punch!

It's on to animal prints for tomorrow's Challenge, thanks so much for reading!

9 of 31: Rainbow Nails

Howdy!  Today brings us Rainbow Nails.  I've done a few different variations of rainbows since I got into nail art, so I wanted to do something a little different than your standard "unicorn" rainbow of colors.  I also wanted something sparkly, so I come up with...wait for it...The Glitter Skittles Rainbow Manicure!  Ha!  I just love the way that sounds :)  I also thought I might called it The Dark Side of the Rainbow...but Glitter Skittles is more fun to say.  Here's a photo!

 Polishes used:

Red: Spoiled-Ants in My Pants

Orange/Copper: Spoiled-Cougar Attack

Yellow/Gold: e.l.f.-20417

Blue/Green:Milani Jewel FX-Teal

Purple: Sinful Colors-Frenzy

I thought this turned out very dramatic for a glitter mani.  I used a coat of Wet 'n' Wild's Wild Shine in Black Creme as a base color for all the glitters and then I just piled on the glitter until I thought I had good coverage.  Some of the polishes are 3 coats, some are 4 and some of them might even have 5 coats!  I tried the new peel-off base coat trick that I've seen floating around the blogs lately (for example Kayla Shevonne's tutorial here & Wacki Laki's here).  Basically, it's Elmer's glue.  It seemed to work pretty well, although I accidentally bought the Glue-All instead of the School Glue.  I think the School Glue might adhere a little less so I'll grab some at Target next time I'm there to compare the two.  One more shot:

Thanks so much for reading and tune in tomorrow for Day 10's Gradient Manicure!

2 of 31: Orange Nails

Howdy!  Today is Day 2 of the 31 Day Challenge...Orange nails!  Orange is my least favorite color (again with the challenging Challenge).  No real reason for it, I'm just more partial to blues and purples, so the warm side of the color wheel gets neglected.  You might remember a couple of weeks ago, a customer at work gave me a whole bag full of nail polishes that she wasn't using (thanks again and Hi! to Brody!).  In the bag of stuff she gave me was a set of Sephora nail polish, a collaboration with Pantone.  It's a fun set including a glitter, a creme, a shimmer and a matte polish all in the same color.  This one is called Tangerine Tango and was just perfect for this challenge!  Here are my orange nails for the day:

I used two polishes from the Sephora set here.  I started with 2 coats of the creme on every nail.  Then, using the glitter, I accented my thumbs and ring fingers.  Because I can never do things simply, I actually applied a layer of Tangerine Tango glitter and then a layer of KleanColor Chunky Holo in Poppy just to add some extra dimension to the accent nails.  I think this turned out well...simple and clean with just a bit of sparkle.  Tangerine Tango is impressing me so far, good application and coverage and the finish is nice on both polishes I tried.  The color is so fantastic that I'm going to have to rethink my aversion to orange and bulk up the choice of it in my stash!

Only 29 days to go!  Thanks so much for reading!

Rainbow Bright

Howdy, everyone!  I hope everyone had a great weekend.  I've kept myself busy even with 2 whole days off work in a row.  I've got a fun manicure for you guys today.  This is from a tutorial I found on Chalkboard Nails.  She calls it the "Ruffle Manicure".  Now, her ruffles are much more pronounced than mine.  Mine kind of look like wavy lines, rather than ruffles, but it's still a fun effect.  I think I need a bit bigger dotting tool to get the look down right.  In any case, here's my version.

I wanted something bright and colorful to wear this weekend and I think I found it!  I've used 8 different polishes and I'm not going to give you a whole list of everything, just because, with this manicure, it doesn't really matter which colors you use.  You could do something bright like this, or something more monochromatic.  I think it would be fun to try with complementary colors as well.

Thanks for stopping by!