52 Week Challenge - Metallic/Magnetic

I wanted to try something combining metallic and magnetic polishes - like a half moon or something.
I tried it and it really, really didn't work.

So, here is a plain old magnetic manicure - easy and pretty.

I like putting a matching colour underneath the magnetic polish. Here I used Color Club Artsy Crafty - a dark green creme.
I find that using the magnetic polishes on their own can be a bit hit and miss - Most of them tell you to do a first coat, let it dry and then do a second coat that you use the magnet on. This seems to result in dull lines. The base polish can sometimes be pretty sheer, so you can see the metallic underneath.
Whenever I've used a regular polish in a matching dark shade (or even a black polish) it has given me a lot of definition between the lines.

The magnetic polish I used for this one is Claire's Magnetix, using the magnet provided.
The Claire's Magnetix is actually a really good polish. The brush is wide and flat - I could do my fingers in one swipe and my thumb in two. The polish is smooth, and the magnet is strong. I held the magnet over the wet polish for 10 seconds and it pulled the polish into super tight lines which spread out slowly as the polish dried.

I don't use them often, but I really love magnetic polishes.
I think I'd like to pick up some more colours if I can find them at a reasonable price. I don't like spending a lot, and magnetic polishes are usually $9 or more here in Canada.

Magnetic Star

So, after a couple of days, I had to remove the yellow and pink - it started to chip pretty badly, and I wasn't really a fan of the colours.


I decided to use the polishes I got for my birthday to do something fun.
Pardon the state of my cuticles (especially my thumb!) - they have been super super dry, and nothing seems to be helping.

Two coats of OPI Cuckoo for This Color on each nail, except my ring finger. One coat on my ring finger.
Then I used the China Glaze Magnetix You Move Me and the star magnet for a fun feature nail.

I took the photos on Tuesday, so I've had this manicure most of the week.
Tomorrow, I'll be doing a floral manicure for the 52 week challenge.

I totally forgot to mention - when I had my "Earth appreciation" manicure, I got asked if I had my nails done professionally - yay!

52 Weeks of Nails - Cartoon Mani

I had a tough time figuring out what to do for this one.
Cartoon Manicure

Do I go for My Neighbour Totoro? Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? She-Ra? Monster High? Hello Kitty?

I decided to go with one that I actually haven't seen much of, but is quite popular: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.
I also decided to go outside my comfort zone with my colour choices.

I picked Fluttershy.

Sorry for the very blurry photo of my nails - it was really hard to get a picture. My house is VERY dark (you'll see my carpet in the photo at the bottom of this post), and the polish is SO pale. eep!

For the pink, I chose Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Pink Blink - 2 coats on each of my thumbs and pinkies. It's a little bright, but it works. I'm not sure how I feel about the Insta-Dri brushes. The stem is flat, so you can't really get the polish off of it, and it flows down onto the brush. The upside of that is you don't need to re-dip the brush. The downside is you sometimes end up with a bit too much polish. The photo dulled down the pink quite a bit - it's surprisingly bright.

I did one coat of an off-white Zoya polish I bought several years ago, just so I could get a bit of a base going for the yellow.
Then I did 2 thick coats of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Mellow Yellow. I'm not a big fan of the yellow polish, it's quite hard to get a nice opaque coating.

I topped all my nails off with Sinful Colors in You Just Wait - a sheer pink with a yellow shine. I figured it would tie everything together nicely. I like this one a lot - in some light, there is a yellow shine and in other light it's pink. It's perfect for this manicure.

And, of course, if you're doing a my little pony, you need the "cutie mark," so on my ring fingers, I added 3 pink butterflies - using the Pink Blink again. I used the head of one of those little gold safety pins to do little pink 'X' marks. Then I painted their bodies using Claire's White detail polish, topped off with N.Y.C.  Turquoise Seas (using the pin to dab it on). It's an old colour, but it's nice - sheer shimmery turquoise.

There isn't a lot of contrast in the photo, but in real life, the butterflies are more visible.

Definitely not colours I'd normally wear on their own ... let alone together, but it's very spring-y and cute.

---

My birthday is on Tuesday, so I went out for dinner with some friends tonight.
One of them spoiled me with a lovely manicure related gift:

Claire's detail polish in white, hot pink and neon green.
China Glaze Magnetix in You Move Me plus the magnet :)
OPI Cuckoo For This Color
and an OPI Avoplex set with Cuticle Oil to Go, Exfoliating Cuticle Treatment and High Intensity Hand and Nail Cream

I feel so loved ^_^

The detail brushes will really help out for next week's theme - Floral Manicure!