Candy Corn and Sugar Skulls

First Halloween manicure of the month.

Not sure I'll do another one until Halloween itself - I just really wanted to try this one.

Candy corn is my favourite Halloween treat, and sugar skulls are very pretty.

I saw a whole manicure of sugar skulls dinner with different coloured fimo flowers, but I only have the yellow ones - so I figured they would go well with candy corn nails.

Then I saw a manicure that used OPI's spotted topcoat over orange, and thought it looked great. The polish was super limited, and I'm not sure if it was available in Canada at all, so I don't have it.
Thankfully, you can recreate this look by floating black polish on water (as if you were going to do a water marble) and then spritzing it with rubbing alcohol, before dipping your finger(s) in.

Polishes used:

Sinful Colors Snow Me White

essence wanna be your sunshine

NYC Pumpkin

OPI Black Onyx

essence tattoo nail art pen

Claire's fruit Fimo wheel - flowers

Valentine Mix

I'm pretty late posting this - but this is what I did for Valentine's Day:

We don't celebrate Valentine's Day - both TheHusband and I feel that romance should be spontaneous, not expected.
But It's a good excuse to do fun nail art, so yay!

Thumb, middle and Pinky finger all started with a base of Sinful Colors Snow Me White. Over top of that, I added two coats of Sally Hansen Digital (from their HD line from a few years ago). Digital is, as you can see, a hot pink. It's fully of shimmery frosty goodness. I'm not a big pink person, I was actually planning on using red for this manicure, but I hadn't used Digital yet, and I thought I should.

On my thumb, I used a dotting tool to create a pattern (from an image I saw on Reddit), and applied a gold heart charm.

On my middle finger, I used my trusty Claire's striping polishes to add racing stripes down the side of my nail.

On my pinky, I added random dots using a dotting tool - first in black, and then white over top.

For my index and ring fingers, I started with a base of OPI Black Onyx.

On my index finger, I applied a coat of Claire's High Maintenance - a mini polish that is a fuchsia jelly base filled with fuchsia glitter.

Finally, on my middle finger, I created a french tip using Sinful Colors Snow Me White, then applied two coats of Sally Hansen Digital. I cleaned up the line using the Claire's white striper, and applied a black heart jewel.

It was a bit time consuming (and I actually redid my middle finger - I had it completely different, but it didn't fit in at all), but I liked it for a couple of days :)

Revlon Selects and Christmas

Revlon Selects sent me some of their Revlon by Marchesa 3D Jewel Appliques, and I saved them for my company Christmas party.

I used Gilded Mosaic - a very pretty gold and silver mosaic pattern.

Last time I tried the appliques, they only lasted a day before peeling up, and I kinda got frustrated with them. I had used a basecoat, which I think was part of the problem. 

This time I followed a how-to blog post from someone else (I forgot to save the link, and now I can't find it), and didn't use a basecoat.

The how-to said to use a "feather touch" when filing off the excess sticker, and ... yeah, these are so thick that you need a little pressure. I was still being gentle though. Some of the ends were still ragged - though I think that's a product of the design on these ones and my nail length - some of the jewels popped off at the ends of my nails.

I touched up the ends and wrapped the tips with some gold polish, and because the ragged edges were still bugging me, I went over it with a topcoat (it had to last a couple of days, because I was working the day of the party).

On my ring finger, I used Avon Matte Concrete, Essence Black is Back and Bundle Monster stamping plate 323 to create a nail that matched my party dress.

Now, the nail sitckers actually lasted several days this time before the design started to wear off, revealing the white base. 

I followed the directions, and peeled them up from the cuticle edge. Every finger except my thumbs (both hands), went well.

Here is what happened on my thumbs:

It peeled off a layer of my nail in some places - this was the better of the two. My other thumb had much larger sections peel off.

So, next time - basecoat for SURE.

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After letting my nails rest for a few days, I decided that I needed to do something Christmas-y

I used Color Club Red De Rio, then applied Claire's Cranberry scented polish from last year's scented holiday collection (it didn't really smell ... I think it's faded now). It's a fine red glitter with slightly larger gold glitter strewn throughout.

On my ring finger, I used a tutorial from Nailside to make a Christmas tree. I used China Glaze Winter Holly for the tree, and applied a gem to the top.

Winter Holly is a fun colour - packed with fine dark green glitter, and I think I spotted some gold and silver in there too.

My only complaint is the base of the glitter somehow caused the red to soak through my basecoat and stain my nail.

The Day of The Doctor

I've already established that I am a Doctor Who fan, so I have definitely been looking forward to today - the 50th anniversary of the show.

I figured I should do a manicure that would be appropriate for today.

I think I am most proud of my ring finger - it turned out pretty much exactly how I wanted.

The TARDIS on my thumb:

• China Glaze First Mate - for the base
• It's So Easy Stripe Rite Blue Metallic - for detailing
• It's So Easy Stripe Rite Black - for detailing
• Claire's White striping polish - for detailing
• Sinful Colors Snow Me White - for the windows and the door sign

The 10th Doctor on my index finger:

• Revlon Chocolate Truffle - for the jacket
• It's So Easy Stripe Rite Blue Metallic - for the pinstripes
• It's So Easy Stripe Rite Black - for detailing
• Claire's White striping Polish - for the shirt
• Chine Glaze First Mate - for the tie

The 11th Doctor on my middle finger:

• Icing Skinny Dipping Beauty - for the jacket
• It's So Easy Stripe Rite Black - for detailing and pants
• Claire's White striping Polish - for the shirt
• Sally Hansen Celeb City - for the buttons
• Ink Nail Art Dark Red - for the bowtie

A Dalek on my ring finger:

• Revlon Vincent Van Gold - for the base
• It's So Easy Stripe Rite Black - for detailing
• Claire's Gem Wheel - yellow rhinestones - for the "Dalek bumps"
• Claire's Gem Wheel - silver rhinestones - for the eye stalk.

A Cyberman on my pinky:

• Claire's Celeb City - for the base
• It's So Easy Stripe Rite Black - for detailing

Also ... I just finished watching the special. So. Good.

Flakie Comic Nails

I wanted to do comic book nails again, but I thought it might be fun to add some flakies to it.

Two coats Color Club Love Links - this is a red with just a hint of orange. I picked this one up a while back on clearance from a local nail supply place. I was going to buy OPI's My Paprika Is Hotter Than Yours, but spotted this bottle for $1.99. It looked pretty close in the bottle, except the OPI had a slight shimmer to it. I was mostly looking for the shade, and I love a bargain, so Color Club won.

I added a coat of Icing By Claire's Rave Royalty - I really wish this one photographed better. The flakies are an iridescent orange-gold.

I applied a black outline using It's So Easy black striping polish and the "shine" detail using Claire's white striping polish. I think I could have left out the white, but it still looks good.

Time And Relative Dimension In Space

Before Christmas, I decided that I was going to finally sit down and teach myself how to knit, so I could make a Doctor Who scarf (4th Doctor, Tom Baker).

Fan Expo also came back to Vancouver for it's second year last weekend, and I decided I wanted to try and finish the scarf in time for the convention. To make it even more fun, I figured that I should keep an eye out in my travels for other pieces to make a Femme 4th Doctor costume.

Well, I managed to finish everything and find the costume pieces just in the nick of time, and I couldn't just go with any old manicure ...

Ardene Elektronika - two coats on each nail.

China Glaze Cosmic Dust - two coats on top of the blue. Yep, I finally managed to track down some holographic polish. I absolutely love it. I grabbed this one (silver) and Galactic Grey (gunmetal). New favourite polishes. The holographic effect is strongest in bright sunlight, but you can still get a bit of a shine under artificial lighting. Neither is completely in your face holographic like some of the other polishes out there, but it's definitely there. This one also doesn't seem to dull under topcoat, as I've read about other holographic polishes (it does at first, but once the topcoat is dry, you're good to go).
Someone described it as appropriately 'wibbly wobbly'.

To create the tardis, I just used my striping polishes in white, black and metallic blue. I wasn't originally intending on using the blue, but I felt the nails needed a little more definition.

Also ... one of the dealers had a Tardis set up for photo ops, so ... I just had to.

Two Weeks of Reddit Challenges

I'm on a deadline for a couple of craft projects so it's difficult to fit fancy nail art in as well.

Sorry I've been a bit behind!

Also, I wanted to share that my favourite nail blogger (and fellow Canadian) Kayla Shevonne is doing a nail polish giveaway sponsored by Butter London Canada. Today is the last day - go enter!

**** Giveaway ****

This post has two weeks worth of challenges in it, just so I can focus on getting my other projects done.

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First up, this last week's challenge was "Inspired by a Flag"

I chose the Union Flag (or Union Jack), but I also wanted to show what flags were used to create the Union Flag ...

It's a little wobbly because it was all done freehand with normal sized nail polish brushes. I really need to get a striper brush.

Thumb: Union Flag

Index: Flag of England - St. George's Cross

Middle: Flag of Scotland - St. Andrew's Cross (sorry, I didn't have an appropriate blue, it's supposed to be an azure blue background)

Ring: St. Patrick's Cross. From what I understand, this one is frequently used by the government to represent Northern Ireland. Check out Wikipedia for some information on Flag disputes in Northern Ireland.

I just used the blue on my pinky to tie everything together.

Colours Used:

Blue - Ardene Elektronika

White - Zoya (colour unknown)

Red - Essence Flame Fatal

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This coming week's manicure is "Flowers"

I settled on daisies.

Two coats of Essence Wake Up!
Then I used my Claire's white detail polish to create the daisy and added a dot of  Essence Wanna Be Your Sunshine for the centres.

Reddit Challenge - Inspired by a Tutorial

It took me a while to find one, but I finally settled on this Hello Kitty tutorial by Kayla Shevonne

I used Wet n Wild Lavender as my base
Dots were added using Sinful Colors Fusion Neon

Hello Kitty's shape was painted on using Claire's white detail polish
The nose was Essence Wanna Be Your Sunshine, and the eyes and whiskers were It's So Easy black Stripe Rite polish.
The bow is from the Claire's Girly Fimo Wheel.

Reddit Challenge - Violet

This week's challenge is Violet. I wasn't sure if I wanted to just do purple or actually violet flowers on my nails.
I seem to be coming down with something, so I'm tired and I decided on purple nails with some floral stamping ...

I used two coats of Ardene's Stereo Love - a lilac not-quite-jelly not-quite-creme. It's thick but sheer on the first coat, and the second coat makes it opaque, but it has an odd ... depth (?) to it. I like it.

After that was thoroughly dry (and Ardene's polish takes ages to dry), I used my Claire's white detail polish and Bundle Monster plate BM10 to stamp on some little white flowers.

Since the polish is lilac and not violet, I'll use the excuse that the flowers are supposed to be Canadian white violets ... haha

I'm going to try and do a second manicure this week, but we'll see how I'm feeling.
Next week's challenge is "Inspired by a tutorial"
I've posted every tutorial I wanted to try so far ... so I'm going to have to go in search of a new one!

Reddit Challenge - Spring

I've been MIA this last week, because my work schedule has been so weird that I haven't had much time to do anything, let alone my nails.

I managed to squeeze out some time to do the challenge this week. The theme is Spring, and as soon as I saw that, I knew which manicure I wanted to do.

Cherry Blossoms!

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I used this tutorial from Nails by Kayla Shevone, and it was really easy!

I started with a base coat of Fascino Blue and then went over it with two coats of Sinful Colors Mint Apple.

Once that was dry, I used my Quo by ORLY striper polish in Black to draw the branches. I didn't do anything specific, I just kind of placed them wherever looked good.

After that, I used my Claire's detail polish in white to create the flowers. This polish has both a striper brush and a 'pen' tip, so I could do the dots. I did the dots one by one, because when I tried to do groups of three, the polish flowed into itself and created a blob - so, I did single dots where I wanted to place the flowers on each finger, then went back and did the second dot for each flower on each finger, then the third..

Finally, I dripped a bit of Sally Hansen Pink Blink and Avon Mocha (which is pink ... ??) onto a bit of plastic and used a bent bobby pin to dot those colours over top of the white.

Everyone keeps asking me if they are nail stickers.
The next question is "how much time do you spend doing that!?"
Usually about an hour from removal to final topcoat.

Oh, and bonus kitty legs in the background of the photo - she was sleeping there, but as soon as I brought out the camera, she got up. She does it every time.

Reddit Challenge - Jelly Sandwich

This week's challenge is a "Jelly Sandwich"

Sounds kind of silly, but here is how it works:

You take a sheer pigmented nail polish that goes on without streaks (a "jelly polish"), apply one or two coats. Then you apply a coat of glitter. Apply another coat of the jelly polish over top.

I wanted mine to be a bit more opaque, so I used a creme polish as my first layer. I guess it's not a true jelly sandwich, but it's still pretty.

I started with two coats of my Zoya White.

For the glitter layer, I chose Claire's Scented polish in Sugar Cookie. This is from their holiday set, which I managed to get on sale. Sugar Cookie is a clear yellow tinted polish (not thick enough to be a jelly, but the yellow is strong enough to tint whatever you use as an under coat - I was not expecting this, but it turned out nicely!) with multi-coloured glitter in two different sizes.

For the top jelly layer, I used two coats of Sally Hansen Polar Bare, which is a sheer white. This toned down the yellow, making this manicure a nice creamy colour.

The scent from the glitter coat still comes through the two layers of the jelly polish and the topcoat! I couldn't imagine how strong it would be if I just left it on it's own. It smells a little sweet, which is nice.

Everyone has been comparing this to Easter eggs - I might have to do it again when easter rolls around, but instead, use pastel creme polishes as the base!

Black and Pink French

I tried the purple/green duochrome comparison, but my house is too dark and the skies were too gray to take photos, so I'll save it for another day when I can take photos in sunlight.

So, I present to you instead, a pink and black French manicure with bonus hearts!

I started with a base of Essence Sweet as Candy on my whole nail. As you can see, it's super sheer. It's a pale pink in the bottle, but just gives a slight milky look to the nail. Perfect for a French mani.

I did the tips of my nails with Avon Licorice and let that dry.

Then I used my Claire's detail polish in hot pink to add the stripes and hearts. The fun thing about this detail polish is that it not only has a super skinny brush for doing lines, it also has a 'pen' tip. It's a little metal tube that the polish flows through when you squeeze the bottle.

To do the hearts, I squeezed one drop on my nail and let it dry, then I squeezed another drop out right next to that one and dragged the polish down and back up to create the bottom of the heart.

I think If I were to do it again, I'd do the heart in two layers - a black layer and then the pink layer over top, so it stands out more.

Next week's challenge is actually also a French manicure - I've got something in mind and I hope it works!

Reddit Challenge - Inspired by Nature

I've wanted to do a butterfly manicure for a while, and I figured the 'Inspired by Nature' theme was the perfect opportunity.
I first saw it when a friend sent me a pretty purple and blue version; the tutorial I found was an orange gradient.
I decided to go with the orange version after receiving the Sally Hansen HD polishes for Christmas. Super shimmery and pretty, and sheer enough that I can do an easy gradient.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get a good photo right after I finished the manicure, and I got some pretty bad tip-wear (I think it's actually chipping) by the next day.

I started with a coat of NYC Pumpkin to get a base colour on there.

I haven't had much success with sponge gradients in the past, so I went with a brushed on one. I think I'll try a sponge gradient next time.

I went over Pumpkin with Sally Hansen HD in Lite (bright shimmery yellow) from the cuticle to about 2/3 the way down my nail.

I coated the whole nail with a thin coat of Sally Hansen HD in Three D - it's more of a red toned orange.

I went back over the top 1/3 of my nail with Lite again to finish off the gradient.

Once that was satisfactorily dry, I used my It's So Easy Stripe Rite detail polish in Black to do the detail lines, and my Claire's detail polish in White to add the spots at the tips.
ALWAYS wait for your detail to dry before putting on topcoat - or else you get smudgy dots, like I did.

It's a very summery manicure - adds a bit of brightness to all this cold rainy weather!

Comic Nails and my Storage Unit

Ok, so this manicure has been sweeping across Reddit - and I love the way it looks - so I wanted to give it a shot. It's called a "Comic Book Manicure"
It's a take on the outline manicure, but the colours and a bit of detail makes it look like it's right out of a comic book or cartoon:

I started with 3 coats of Essence Flame Fatale - this is a lovely classic red. I think I like red nail polish now.
It goes on really evenly even with only one coat, but I had a pretty visible nail line. 3 coats made it opaque.

For the outline, I used my new It's So Easy Stripe Rite polish in Black. Flows nicely, opaque in one coat and dries kind of matte. Because detail brushes are so thin, I did a couple of stripes side-by-side to get the thickness that I wanted.

Then, the final detail to make it look like it's out of a comic book - add a 'shine' with white nail polish!
I used my Claire's white detail polish, and essentially did an exclamation point near the edge of the red on each nail.

Love it! I've been getting so many comments and compliments!

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And now, my new nail polish storage!

If you go wayyyy back, you'll see I kept my nail polish in a box.
Well ... after many gifts and some purchases, my collection grew - the box was mostly full and I had a second smaller box for my minis (aaand, I used the lid of that box for my topcoat/basecoat/remover/etc). Everything else was kind of strewn all over my vanity.

Since I bought the Melmer, I have all my nail junk organized and pretty. My other makeup however ...

Here is the unit - there is a bit of a smudge on the top drawer, not sure where it came from:

Top Drawer is my full-size nail polish. It is primarily organized by colour, then I have sheers, glitters and other effects. I originally had this on the bottom, but it squeaked horribly whenever I opened it, so I switched it to the top. The empty spots are polishes I've set aside for a couple of possible future manicures (you can see some of them on top):

Middle drawer is my basecoats and topcoats, smaller polishes, scented polishes, and my detail polishes - this one is mostly sorted by brand:

And bottom drawer is all my other junk - nail files, cuticle goo, lotions, jewels and fimo bits, stamping supplies, removal supplies, and nail stickers - the straw is for my splatter manicures and I use the little plastic cup for water marbling!:

I keep my stamping plates on top in baseball card holders - it's a bit of a pain, but they work for now:

Reddit Challenge - Inspired by Technology

I think everyone was going to do circuit board nails for this one and as soon as the first (awesome) one was posted, we all changed our minds.
I know my attempt would be nowhere near as good.

I was looking around for inspiration and I figured my phone would be easy and cute.

I have a Google Nexus S:

I went with the row of 'buttons' along the bottom, and then added an Android logo on my thumb :)

I started with two coats of Essence Lime Up! on my thumb and two coats of Essence Black is Back on the rest of my fingers.

Using my Claire's White detail polish, I painted all of the icons.

Using my Claire's Black detail polish, I blocked out the android and filled in the black space with Black is Back.

ta da!

Reddit Challenge - Inspired by a Book

This was another tough one - I have a lot of trouble with imagery apparently.

I was going to just do Harry Potter, but it's been done so many times, I didn't want to end up with exactly the same thing as someone else.

Granted, this design does use 3 designs from other manicures, I haven't seen them all combined into one.

I give credit for this one to a co-worker. He found out I do my nails and have this blog, and when I told him that my next manicure was supposed to be inspired by a book he said,
"can I pick the book?"
and I replied,
"sure, why not?"

Without further ado - here is my Interview With The Vampire manicure:

I haven't read the book in ages, and I haven't seen the movie in ... well, probably longer, but I figured a vampire theme would be easy.

For my thumb, I did a coat of Sally Hansen's Burgundy Child from their No Chip 10 Day line (long discontinued), which I went over with a coat of OPI Comet Loves Cupid. I (for some unknown reason) don't actually have a proper vampy red. I went over the middle of that with OPI Black Onyx and used my Quo by ORLY black detail polish to even it out. Then I went over that with my Claire's White detail polish to create the teeth.
Burgundy Child is a very deep plum colour with a bit of shimmer. I really like it, but rarely wear it.

For my index finger, I did two coats of Zoya White and stamped on some roses from Bundle Monster plate BM-323 using Comet Loves Cupid and Burgundy Child. I was hoping it would swirl together, but it didn't at all. The Comet Loves Cupid was quite sheer over the white, so it came out almost pink. Oh well.

For my middle finger, I used 2 coats of Essence Modern Romance. I created vampire bites using a q-tip first dipped in Burgundy Child, then Comet Loves Cupid. I added black dots in the middle of the splotchy marks and then did blood drips (again with the burgundy then red over top)

For my ring finger, I did 2 coats of OPI Black Onyx and stamped on the diagonal lace pattern from Bundle Monster Plate BM-323 using my Claire's White detail polish (it's more opaque than the Zoya).

And finally, for my pinky I did two coats of Zoya White, then I scraped most of the polish off the brush of the Burgundy Child and dragged that over the tip, then I did the same for Comet Loves Cupid.

This was all rather time consuming, because I did all the base colours first, then decided to change the order of them, then I kept messing it up. Since it took so long, I gave up on my left hand and just painted them all black (except my pinky, which is the white with red streaks).

I really like each nail - I think the index finger would fit better with a deeper red, but it still looks good. If I was to do it again, instead of the roses, I might go for the theatre masks from Shany Plate SH02, to represent Louis and Claudia arriving at the Théâtre des Vampires.


Next week's theme is decal / transfer - looking forward to an easy week! (I'll probably jazz it up a little, but after this week, I need something easy!)

Reddit Challenge - Inspired by a Song

I had a really tough time with this one, and I asked people for help.

I asked my husband first. At the time, I was painting my nails black for my company Christmas party, and he just looked at my nails, looked back at me and raised his eyebrows. "Paint it Black" ... I really didn't want to cop-out, but I kept it in my back pocket.

I asked a co-worker. "99 Red Balloons", he suggested and gave me a link to a website with a list of songs that have colours in the title. Very crafty!

I browsed the site and thought "Yellow Submarine!" but since I'm going to be taking it off quickly to do a manicure for another Christmas party, I didn't want to put a lot of time into it.

I started typing in bands, looking for lists of songs, I finally went back to The Beatles, and figured why not just go for their costumes for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

So ... here it is!

Thumb is 3 coats Claire's Scented Banana
Index finger is 2 coats Wet n Wild Lavender
Middle finger is 3 coats Claire's Scented Lime
Ring finger is 2 coats Fascino Blue
Pinkie is 2 coats Wet n Wild Red

Details are done with Claire's and Icing detail polishes in gold and silver.

Fast and cute!

Reddit Challenge - Rainbow

I've wanted to do a rainbow water marble for a while, so I thought this was the perfect opportunity.

Except, I didn't want to do it on every finger. I thought, why not do water marble tips?

A few tries and lots of nail polish remover later ...

2 coats OPI Black Onyx on each finger, except my ring finger. Then I taped off the tip and painted on a coat of Zoya White.

2 coats Zoya White on my ring finger.

Water marble: 

1 drop Zoya White, 

1 drop Wet'n'Wild Red, 

1 drop Sally Hansen Sun Kissed

1 drop Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow

1 drop Claire's Scented Lime

1 drop Ardene's Electrified

1 drop Essence Break Through

Swirl and dip!

For my ring fingers, I taped off around the edge of my nail to help cleanup and dipped the whole thing.

While my other fingers were still taped from the white, I dipped them 2 fingers at a time (to save time and polish). I did my index and middle finger, then my thumb and pinkie. 

I did not wrap the tape all the way around, so there was a LOT of clean up on those ones.

The photo shows some spots that I missed on cleanup - darn it - there was nail polish all over my hands.

I think it looks really neat! I don't think I'd do it again with that many colours, but if I was to do a water marble with 3 or 4 colours, just doing the tips would work really well.

Reddit Challenge - Earthbound

The theme this week was "Inspired by a Game"
I've been playing Earthbound lately, so I figured it might be fun to feature the four main characters.

Ness, Paula, Jeff and Poo ... (I guess that's sort of backwards, Ness is on my index finger)
I didn't think I could do their whole bodies, so I went with just their faces. I think Ness came out the best (too bad there's a shine on his mouth)

Image of the gang for reference:

I did a water marble on  my thumb, because in the game all of the battle backgrounds are weird psychedelic swirly things:

(imagine that animated)

Colours used:
Claire's Scented Lime (for the background - say 'fuzzy pickles'!)
Zoya White (to block out the face shapes and for Jeff's glasses)
Essence Modern Romance (nude with shimmer - for the skin)
Claire's Scented Banana (for Paula and Jeff's hair and the water marble)
QUO by ORLY Instant Artist Black (for the outlines and black details)
Wet n Wild Fantasy Makers Red (Ness's cap and the water marble)
Claire's Jazz (blue, for the bill of Ness's cap)
Wet n Wild Lavender (for Paula's bow and the water marble)
Sally Hansen Sun Kissed (for the water marble)

phew!
I only actually did my right hand ... I didn't have the patience to do a lumpy mess on my left hand, so it's just solid green.

The other challenge this week is Tribal ... but I think I can only do one fancy pants manicure in a week, so click here to see my last tribal one.

Next week is black and white for Reddit and Movember for the other challenge. hmm.

Reddit Challenge - Inspired by Reddit

I've actually only been on the nail polish board on Reddit, so this was a bit tough. I was going to go with the main colours of Reddit (blue orange white) and do something with that, maybe draw the alien.

Then, I volunteered to help someone out by taking a series of photographs of how I do my nails, step-by-step, including any sketches or inspriation.
Well, I figured this was good enough - it was a manicure I've been meaning to do, and had a sketch of (I never do that), but just never got around to it.
Reddit inspired me to go for it.

On my thumb and ring finger, 1 coat of OPI Black Onyx

Other fingers 2 coats of ORLY Rock The World - I really like this one, it's a wine colour with gold shimmer.

Then comes the detail ... using my Claire's white detail polish, I painted blocks and stripes on my thumb and ring finger, and large french tips on my other fingers.

I painted over most of the white with Clare's Scented Banana and ORLY Rock The world. Then I used QUO by ORLY Instant Artist Black and Claire's White detail polishes to clean up the design.

The design is actually inspired by something - a dress I think? I haven't been able to find it since I did the original sketch.

It was a lot of work, but it turned out well!
There are several layers in some spots, so I'm not sure how long it will be until this chips.