Reddit Challenge - Matte

This week's challenge is Matte.
I have two matte polishes, so I figured I would use those, rather than just using a matte topcoat.

I went with a simple two-tone diagonal manicure.

Avon Matte Concrete - grey. This can get a little thick - as you can see on my ring finger. But it's a really pretty shade of grey.
Avon Matte Red Velvet - shimmery burgundy with a bit of gold. This one is a bit easier to work with than the grey, it looks really pretty both shiny and matte.

I did this one freehand, but you can do this type of manicure really easily with tape (and you'll get straighter lines)

Royal Blue + Heavenly + Matte

I found a bottle of Revlon Heavenly a while back and was trying to figure what to wear it over.
I saw this review on Pretty Girl Science blog and loved the way it looked, so I wanted to try and recreate it.

Without flash, so you can see the sparkles:

With flash, so you can see the blue base:

I started with 2 coats of A.Co (Ardene's) Elektronica - a lovely royal blue creme. It was a bit streaky on the first coat, and I had to be careful of creating bare patches, but the second coat solved all this and it was perfect.

Then I topped it off with Revlon's Heavenly. This is a really pretty iridescent chunky glitter polish in a slightly milky base. It is a dupe of a Deborah Lipmann's Stairway to Heaven nail polish.
You get two shapes, and they're two different iridescent colours. The hex glitter is an orange-green shift and the square glitter is a turquoise-blue shift.
Super pretty.

When that was all dry, I slapped on a matte topcoat.

I'll definitely do this one again. I don't care if glitter is a pain in the butt to remove.

I've got another post coming up on Monday - another challenge theme.

Reddit Challenge - Red

I must have tried 3 or 4 times to get a good red manicure.

I really don't like red polish all that much.

I went with 2 coats of Avon Ruby Slippers (red jelly with tiny silver glitter in it.  It's really ugly in the bottle, but gorgeous on the nail. Only problem is, it takes a million years to dry.

I wanted to be a bit Christmassy, so I added a feature nail with Zoya Envy - a deep pine green - and finished it off with a matte topcoat.

The green is almost too dark, but I still like it.

The next challenge is New Years - I have some ideas, but we'll see what happens!
I will have a different manicure to post between now and then, provided it turns out - haha!

Party Nails

I don't normally wear dresses, so I have to buy one pretty much every year for company Christmas parties.

This year, I wanted to make my nails match.

The dress I got was black with metallic black polkadots - so my plan was to go with matte black nails and shiny drops on top, but it really didn't work out the way I had hoped.

Then I tried shiny french tips, which I am still terrible at freehanding, especially when I'm in a rush.

I finally settled on matte black with a feature nail of shiny black with fine silver glitter.

1 coat Avon Licorice on every finger except my ring finger, topped off with GOSH matte topcoat.

1 coat of ORLY Goth on each ring finger finished off with a normal topcoat.

Subtle, but it went very well with the dress!

52 Week / Reddit Challenge - Candy Corn

I combined the challenges again this week - Reddit was "orange" and I'm Simply Complex was "Halloween"

My index and ring fingers are two coats of Zoya White, then I added a coat of Sally Hansen Sun Kissed and finally Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow on the tips. My favourite Halloween treat - Candy Corn!

My thumb, middle finger and pinkie are a coat each of OPI Black Onyx, Joe Twilight (black with flakies - it's a little sheer, which is why I did the OPI first, but it was an awesome find at Superstore!), and finally Essie Shine of the Times (clear base with flakies). I love the green-orange colour shift.

Once that was all done, I added my GOSH Matte topcoat.

This is another one where I was in a rush, so I wasn't able to clean it up - I did it last minute before I had to start prepping for trick-or-treaters!

Nouveau Vintage Stripe

I did this one on Sunday night, so it's coming up on a week old - it's wearing pretty well. My other hand started to chip a bit (on my problem nail).
It was a bit hard to photograph this one - natural light was too dark, and with the flash, you get that shiny spot. I stuck with the flash photo, because it shows the colour best.

This is Color Club's Nouveau Vintage from their Back to Boho collection. 2 coats. I'm loving everything I've tried from this collection. I have to put stickers on the bottles with the names though - I keep having to look them up :p

Topped it off with Gosh Matte topcoat. This is the only matte topcoat I have tried and I would call it more of a "satin" finish than a true matte. It flattens everything out, but there is a dull shine. Not sure if other matte topcoats are like this or not, but this was the only one I could find locally.

Once that was all dry, I took Icing by Claire's nail art polish in gold, and did two stripes on each nail.