Game Day Manicure: Gradients and Polka Dots

Howdy, everyone!  I have yet another K-State manicure to share with you guys.  I know you're not all interested in football, but hopefully you're all interested in colorful nails!  In case you were wondering, my Wildcats won today, 27-21 over Iowa State.  It was a nail-biter (not literally, cuz I don't do that any more)!  

Anyway, it's become a ritual for me to paint my nails purple and white to honor my school's colors. Yesterday, I was lamenting the fact that I was going to be up late to finish my nails and my boss said something to the effect of "Well, then don't do them."  I told her that I HAD to paint my nails because, if I didn't and they lost, it would be all my fault!  I also wear my lucky braided pigtails and a specific t-shirt.  Yes, I know it's all superstition, but it's only weird if it doesn't work!  Ok, how about some photos of my manicure already?

...more after the jump...

11 of 31: Polka Dot Nails

Howdy, everyone!  It's turning into another whirlwind week for me, I almost didn't get my Day 11 Challenge done!  I did manage to sneak it in after all so, on to the Polka Dots!

I started with one coat of Fingerpaints Hue Are You? topped by one coat of Maybelline's Color Show in Downtown Brown.  DB is a really pretty milk chocolate brown with a turquoise green shift.  I'll have to swatch this on its own and get some full sun photos going for you guys.  Maybelline has a few limited edition colors out in their Color Show line at the moment, but DB was the only one that caught my eye as something different.  Super pretty!

After all that dried (with the help of some Seche Vite, of course!), I did a polka dot gradient using Sinful Colors in Leap Flog and Athens and Wet 'n' Wild's Megalast in  I Need a Refresh-Mint.  I love the color combo here and the gradient effect is pretty nifty.

Tune in tomorrow for some stripe action!  Thanks for reading!

3 of 31: Yellow Nails

Howdy!  Everyone in the States enjoying Labor Day?  I know I am!  I started with a trip to a local apple orchard with some friends to pick some of those crunchy delicious fruits.  It was a little frustrating, because of all the crazy weather we've had, the apple crop is really not great.  I managed to find a few, but the selection was nothing to what it was last year.  To make up for it, we stopped at Sonic...twice!

Anyway, on to the nails!  Today is Day 3 of the 31 Day Challenge and we have yellow nails as the manicure of the day.  Here are mine:

I'm not hugely thrilled with the way this turned out but, since I already have to plan for another mani tomorrow, I'm just gonna let it slide.  I used 3 coats of Jessica's Hype as a base color here.  I really need to flesh out my nude collection (pun intended), I only have two and both of them have a shimmer which isn't really what I wanted for this.  Oh well, we make do with what we have.  On top of Hype, I used Sally Hansen's Xtreme Wear in Sunny Side and my homemade dotting tool to make some bright polka dots.  I do think it's interesting that these dots are enough color that in the sunlight from farther away, it looks like my whole nail is yellow because of the color reflection off of the nude base.  So that's kinda neat, but overall, I think I need a little more contrast to pull this one off.

Tomorrow is green so I hope you'll stop by and check it out!  Thanks for reading!

Cynthia Rowley Polished Polka Dots

Howdy, everyone!  I'm so excited about the manicure I have to show you today!  Yesterday, I showed you guys the haul I got from Marshall's and Sally's over the weekend.  Here's a shot of the polish I'm using today.

I wasn't aware that Cynthia Rowley even made polish before I saw these at Marshall's!  They had several colors to pick from, but I'm always drawn to blues so I went with these two.  There are no names for the colors on the bottles so I'll be calling the one on the left Turquoise and the one on the right Bright Blue.  And here's the finished product!

This was such a fun manicure to do and really a lot more simple than it looks.  I found a tutorial on Pinterest, but the link is defunct so I'm unable to credit it to anyone.  If you know who this belongs to:

Please let me know so I can credit them with this awesome tutorial!  It's so easy to see step by step how the dots cross over.  I used tape to create the first diagonals on my nails, but if you're surer with a brush you can just do it how it's shown here.  My nails alternate with Turquoise being the top half of the diagonal on every other nail and Bright Blue being on top for the others.  I can't tell you how much I love this mani!  It's so fun and looks like it took forever.  Quite impressive lol 

As far as how much I like the Rowley polish, I'm about 50/50.  The Turquoise is a standard creme, a pretty color but I feel like I have a few of these in my stash.  The formula was a little thick and kind of gloppy but smoothed out with a coat of Seche Vite.  Not my favorite application.  The Bright Blue seems like it might actually be a jelly, though it was hard for me to tell for sure.  The formula was much smoother and easier to apply.  I LOVE the color!  I don't have a blue this shade yet in my stash so I'm thrilled with this one.

Thanks so much for reading!

Cute Chicks

Hello!  I hope everyone had a lovely Memorial Day holiday.  I've had a much needed two days off in a row and I've been using my free time to relax to the best of my ability :)  In addition to relaxing, I finally got to try a product I've had my eye on for a long time!  Sunday evening, I took a trip to Target.  I was checking out the clearance end cap in Cosmetics and came across some Sally Hansen polish strips for roughly half price!  I've wanted to try these strips forever, but have held off because I've been disappointed in EVERY other polish strip I've tried.  They've either been difficult to apply or have not stayed put at all.  I didn't want to fork over the $10 (approximate) for these if they didn't work out.  So far, however, Sally Hansen's brand out-strips them all (if you'll pardon the pun)!  Here's the result.

Cute little birdies!  I'm pretty sure these are more of an Easter pattern (the strips are titled "Not a Peep"), but I thought they were adorable for any day wear.  The strips have a silver background and the chicks are multicolored in yellow, pink, and blue.  I chose to use the strips on just accent nails and painted the others with 2 coats of a franken between Sinful Colors Unicorn and China Glaze Solar Power.  I was attempting to match the yellow on the birds themselves...not sure if I accomplished it exactly but I still like the outcome.  Unicorn is an opaque light yellow and Solar Power has a bit more punch as well as a subtle shimmer. After a coat of Seche Vite on the yellow, I used my homemade dotting tool to create polka dots with Sinful Colors Folly (which is quite possibly my favorite pink polish ever).   

There's a detail view of the chicks/birds.  I'm never sure which direction to place designs on my nails.  I tend to place things so that they're right side up when I look down on them.  I figure I spend the most time looking at them any way, so I might as well get to see them the right way :)  

I'm planning to put a top coat yet on the accent nails, I've heard that it helps the strips to last longer but I'm actually more concerned that the strips don't have a lot of thickness and my nails feel a little naked.  After years of biting my nails and just general poor care, I'm still unused to their current length.  I'm constantly worried that they're going to break like they used to, so an extra coat of polish helps me feel a bit more secure.

I hope you enjoyed this manicure and thanks for stopping by!