52 Week Nail Challenge - Splatter Manicure

Splatter manicures ... another one I wasn't too sure about.
The Husband was even less enthused at the prospect of nail polish getting everywhere.

Anyways, to achieve the look, you're supposed to dip the end of a straw in the nail polish and blow on the straw to, well, splatter it on your nails.

I decided to just do a feature nail.

To start, I painted my nails with Wet n Wild Craze in Rustic - 3 coats. I probably could have gotten away with 2 coats.
I decided to use Maybelline Express Finish in Be Scene in Green - turquoise with a gold shimmer as the base for my feature nail. Turquoise and copper always look good together. 3 coats of this one as well.

Once those were dry, I went into the kitchen and cut up a plastic bag to lay out on the counter. Then I drank a juice box, so I had a straw to use. heh.

I took Rustic again and dabbed a little puddle out onto the plastic. It took a few tries to get a splatter, but I discovered it works best if you make sure to get a 'film' over the end of the straw.
It's not as pretty as others - I think the nail polish was a bit thick, but I sill like the result.
I don't know that I will do this again, but it was fun to try.

Next week's manicure challenge is an Ombre manicure.

52 Week Nail Challenge - Fruit Manicure

I got all of my stamp plates on Friday.

I played around with them for a bit over the weekend and I decided that I wanted to use them for this week's manicure.

Please pardon the flash as always. If I remember, I'll bring my camera to work tomorrow to see if I can get a non-flash photo.

I picked up a pack of Claire's Sweet Scents - 5 scented nail polishes

Strawberry (pink), Orange (orange), Banana (yellow), Lime (green) Fruit Punch (turquoise)
I didn't want to choose just one, so I decided to do a skittles manicure.

Back when I worked at Claire's, their nail polishes weren't the best, so I was expecting to have to do multiple coats - these aren't too bad! Neon colours, dries matte, and dries quickly.

2 coats for each, except the yellow - it required 3, and it was kind of gloopy. :( I think if I want to use the yellow again, I'll do a basecoat with another yellow polish first.

Scent-wise, they're pretty standard artificial scents. The orange and lime were pretty 'cleaning supply' scented at first, but then they mellowed out.

Once they were on and dry, I went in with OPI Black Onyx to add the designs.

A strawberry on my thumb, orange slices on my index finger, bananas on my middle finger, a lime on my ring finger and a pineapple on my pinky.
Some of them are off-centre ... I'm still trying to figure out how to position the stamp.

I applied a topcoat to protect everything, which I figured would kill the fruit scent - I am surprised to say that it did not!

Next week is a Splatter Mani - remember splatter painting with straws from when you were a kid - yeah, picture that with nail polish. If it's nice next weekend, I'll do my nails outside. Must remember to keep a couple of straws this week.

52 Week Nail Challenge - Bows Mani

Trimmed my nails down and used a cuticle remover gel, moisturized and finished off with a cuticle oil. Left it all to soak in for a couple of hours, and then manicure time!

As I said last week, I'm not very girly, so flowers one week and bows the next is not for me!
However, I found a cute way to avoid girly bows:

The Tuxedo Manicure! (inspired by Zooey Deschanel)

Three coats of a white Zoya polish - I don't know which one it is - it's the only Zoya I own, there are no labels and it's an off-white.
I honestly don't like it - I find it to be a very 'fragile' polish. It rubs off so easily until you put a topcoat on it.

Claire's black detail polish for the design bow and the tip.
I half followed the tutorial at Nail Art 101. I found it easier (and faster) to do an "X" on each nail instead of "> <" and then adding a dot in the middle.

OPI Black Onyx for the 'buttons'
The detail brush from the Claire's polish was too fine and long to make nice round dots (and the 'pen' applicator clogged long ago), so I needed to freehand the 'buttons'.
To create a disposable palette, I put a bit of tape on the lid of a body butter pot (the closest flat thing I had), then I added a blob of polish and used an old concealer brush to paint on the dots.
Once the polish is dry, peel the tape off the lid and toss it.

Color Club topcoat to finish it off.
Unfortunately, I got quite a bit of drag from the black. I really should have waited to add the topcoat, but I wanted to finish the manicure off quickly.

I'm very undecided on this manicure - it's super cute, but it really highlights the differences in the shapes of my nails. My index finger looks wide and squat compared to the others.

Next week's theme is a Fruit Manicure. I've seen lots of cute ideas already ^_^

52 Week Nail Challenge - Floral Manicure

I was trying to figure out what to do with this one - I'm not a very girly person, so flowers are not something I'd normally put on my nails.

I decided to go with something subtle, in colours I wouldn't mind:

1 coat OPI Fireflies - I love the shimmer on this one. It was actually my first OPI polish :)

Then I taped my nails and used OPI Stranger Tides, a beautiful pale grey-green creme, to give myself french tips.
For the tape, I just used regular scotch tape - I stuck it to the back of my hand and peeled it off (to reduce the stickyness a bit), and then cut each piece into 3 thin strips. No need to buy nail guides!

Once that was all dry, I used Sally Hansen Pink Blink and painted a blob on the outer corner of each of my thumb nails.
After that dried, I used my Claire's neon pink detail brush and painted on a few lines to turn the blobs into roses.
To finish it off, I used Sinful Colors Show Me the Way to make little leaves for the roses.

Topped it off with OPI topcoat, and voila!

Next week's challenge is a "Bows Mani"

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One of my co-workers and I wanted to get some nail stamping kits - we figured we would order a couple off of Amazon.com and then split them. Unfortunately, the vast majority of them won't ship to Canada, so we were a bit discouraged.
We were discussing nail stuff with another manicure buddy co-worker, who shared that she has a US P.O. box and said we could use it anytime we wanted!
So, we ordered this set by Cheeky, and this set by Shany. We also ordered a couple stamper/scraper sets from Cheeky.

Then, since it was my birthday, my mom gave me some money to cover my half of the order above, and so I could order the Bundle Monster set as well! (they ship to Canada, thankfully!)

I got the Bundle monster ones today, and the other two are at the P.O. box awaiting pickup. We'll be getting them in the next week or two.

I can't wait to try them!

^_^

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.

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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!

52 Weeks of Nails - "Earth Appreciation"

52-week challenge  - this week is "Earth Appreciation"

I was a bit stumped on this one. I didn't want to draw little recycling symbols on my fingers, so I figured "earthy" would be good enough.

 

 I used 2 coats of Revlon's Chocolate Truffle. I love this brown - it's so pretty.

 After that, I brushed on a layer of Sinful Colors' Show Me The Way. That wasn't quite doing it for me, so I tore up a cosmetic sponge, dabbed some polish on that and went over the green with another layer. Much better.

Finally, I lightly dabbing the tips with Wet n Wild Jade, just to give a slightly different shine. (it's a bright green with a gold shine to it).

Topped it off with OPI topcoat.

I like the combination of the creamy brown and the glittery / shimmery greens. The sponging added a fun texture to it - I'll definitely try it again.

Next week is "Cartoon Mani" ... I am plotting.

Dot Gradient

I was looking around at other nail polish blogs, and found a 'dot gradient' manicure. I decided to give it a shot. I went with the tutorial on PixelsPolish.

I don't have a dotting tool (well, actually I do, it's called a sculpting tool, and that's what I use it for). Anyways - I'm all about not having to buy extra junk to do funky manicures, so I did this all freehand.
I also didn't bother to use tape, because I didn't want to have that many layers of polish, I just painted each half on its own.

I went with black and gold and did the gradient on my thumbs. The rest of my nails are just plain black with super skinny gold french tips.

Please pardon the smudge on my middle finger - I put the topcoat on right before I left for the day (I was going to be sitting in the car doing nothing for a few hours, I figured it would be safe), but I smushed the polish with my purse.

It was hard to get a photo of this - not used to taking photos where you can see my thumb nail.

I started with the gold polish - unfortunately, I don't have a big bottle, so I just used my Icing By Claire's gold detail polish. I painted a diagonal line down my nail and filled in one side - two coats.

I moved on to the black - OPI Black Onyx - filling in the other half of my thumb and painting all my other nails. Two coats.

Going back to the black, this time using my Claire's black detail polish. I started in on the dots. First ones were right up against the centre line - I did 4. Then I moved out and did 3 smaller ones, and finally 2 smaller ones outside those.
Then I went back in with the gold - painting dots on the now mostly dry black. It was actually at this point that I decided my other nails were to plain, so I did the gold tips.

Next week, I'm starting part way through a 52 week nail challenge. I'm using the one from I'm Simply Complex
I only just noticed that this week's is "Dotticure" ... I guess I'm starting it this week - hah!
Anyways, I'll see this one through to the end, and find a new one in January. If I can't find a new one, I will just start at the beginning of this one.

Next week's theme is "Earth Appreciation" hm.

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.

copper newspaper mani

I had to take a bit of a break after some nail trauma, and after this manicure, I'll probably take a bit of a break again, just because so many of my nails are peeling :(

I was going to a convention, and was planning on wearing a steampunk themed outfit. I figured I should have nails that went with it.
I did the manicure on Friday, but took the photo this morning. It's held up really well.

This time, I used Revlon's quick dry basecoat.

For most of my nails, I used OPI "Skull and Glossbones" - 2 coats.
Once that was very thoroughly dry, I moved on to the newspaper - one nail at a time.
Dip the nail in rubbing alcohol, then lightly press a piece of newspaper on it. A lot of tutorials say to hold it there for 30 seconds, but I got a decent print after only a couple of seconds. To be fair, I was using the paper that was delivered that morning - maybe if it's older, you need to hold it longer. I also found the wetter the nail was (with the alcohol), the better the newsprint transferred.
I messed one nail up because I hadn't let the polish dry long enough, so I had to redo it.
Once it was all done, I topped it off with GOSH matte topcoat.

My ring finger I just did with Wet n Wild Craze in "Rustic", topped off with OPI's topcoat.

fun!