Ombre Stripes

Week 23 of the Year of Polish challenge- Ombre Mani

I saw a mani very similar to this on Tumblr not too long ago and thought it would make a nice alternative to the normal Ombre manis

Plus, as you have probably noticed, I have been in a very colorful mood for a while now so the thought of sticking to different shades of the same color was not very exciting.

This striped ombre was very easy to do and it is a nice alternative for nail-fanatics who just do not happen to have 5 complementing shades of polish!

Sally Hansen in White On

YELLOW

Sally Hansen in Yellow Kitty

Orly in Spark

China Glaze in Solar Power

PURPLE

China Glaze in Agent Lavender

Fresh Paint in Blackberry Smoothie

China Glaze in Grape Pop

GREEN

China Glaze in Refresh-mint

China Glaze in Gaga for Green

Zoya in Envy

BLUE

China Glaze in Kinetic Candy

Sally Hansen in Brisk Blue

Barry M in Indigo

PINK

SinfulColors in Pink Forever

NYC in Pink Promenade Creme (old version)

China Glaze in Fuchsia Fanatic

A nice white base and paint on a stripe of each color. Add a topcoat to blend everything nicely and bam! A stripey rainbow!

Alrighty then! I'll be leaving for a summer vacation on Sunday so I will be taking a little break from posting. I'll try and log on to show you what my vacation mani looks like first though :) I'm planning on using some Jamberry Nail shields since they last for so long!

Until next time ^_^

Paint Splatters!

Last week's theme for the Year of Polish challenge was a splatter mani. Since I just made a true splatter mani for the earth day theme, I thought I would take a different spin on this one by making "controlled" splatters.

Instead of splattering by putting polish on by blowing with a straw, I created some paint splatters using a dotting tool.
The polishes I uses were inspired by Jenna Froggy. When I saw her splatter mani using metallic polishes I knew I had to try it as well :D

Wet N Wild in Black Creme

KleanColor in Metallic Green

KleanColor in Metallic Yellow

KleanColor in Metallic Fuschia

KleanColor in Metallic Pink

Orly in Sweet Peacock 

My splatters did not end up looking especially splattery. Some of them look  more like flowers no? but I loved the colors!

Until next time ^_^

Fruit Salad Smoothie Nails

Today I'll be showing you the summeriest of manicures ever created! Just kidding! but it is really bright and happy

Week 21 of the Year of Polish challenge had the theme: Fruit Mani
I received some fimo fruit slices from a super neat friend of mine and had yet to use them so I decided to take this opportunity to try them out

First of all, I love these little slices. They are so tiny and cute! You can buy fimo-fruit by the stick and cut each slice yourself, or for a little more money, you can purchase them pre-sliced! You can find these on ebay as well as at Sally's

I started with a brightly colored drip mani, added some glitter, and found some contrasting fruits to stick on

Orly in Spark

China Glaze in Aqua Baby

Sally Hansen in Coral Reef

Orly in Green Apple

Color Club in Pucci-licious

Art Deco in Silver Glitter

Fimo fruit from Sally's

I opted against adding a topcoat over the fruit. First of all, I knew I would not be wearing it very long since I am behind on the challenge, but also because I think they look prettier when they are not completely flat against the nail. 

However, their lack of flatness did become a problem. They kept getting stuck in my hair and while watching a movie, I did peel a few of them off... but I saved those and now I can reuse them! silver  lining eh?

I still really like the way this looked. I would re-do this mani for a nice summer pool party or barbecue! 

Does it bother you when things hang off of your nails?

Until next time ^_^

Squishy Lynnderella Bow

This week's theme on the Year of Polish challenge was a mani with bows. I've done a lot of bow-related manis before because I think they are so cute! so I was excited to make another one for you

This time around, I really wanted to try and make a squishy looking bow as opposed to the "2-triangles-with-a-dot" bows I've always done.
I found a really cute mani on Youtube done by IndigoNova1 that I used as an inspiration for this mani. I really loved how adorable her bow turned out!

so here is my bow mani for week 20

Blurry shot to show off the glitter :D

Zoya in Zuza

Lynnderella in Thank Blue!

Sally Hansen in Whirlwind White

Sally Hansen in Brisk Blue

2-way nail art pen in black

I decided to do this mani in blue/green because I really wanted to try out my new Lynnderella polish. Isn't it gorgeous?! When I first found out about Lynn's gorgeous polishes, I was a little outraged at the lengths people had to go to in order to get their hands on these. I was also amazed at how much people were willing to pay for them on ebay! I refused to take part in the craziness, even if I really loved some of her creations. Then when Llarowe announced that she would be taking wishlists, I thought that finally, there is a way to get some of these without having to lose my mind :D

It took a long time for my name to come up. Since my last name starts with an R I was in the very last rotation. It also means that by the time my list came up, she was sold out of "The Glittering Crowd" :( but! I did get all of the other Lynn's that I had asked for. 

Now it seems the craze has moved on to Indie polishes. I have yet to buy polish off of etsy but I have to admit there are some really nice ones out there. I might have to wait until all the craziness dies down again before I partake though. I'm not much of a competitive person, and checking my email constantly to see if a particular etsy shop has restocked isn't how I like to spend my time haha ! Maybe I can swap for them instead!

What do you think about the nail-blog world's new found love of indie polishes?

Until next time ^_^

Abstract flowers

Week 19- Floral mani

The first thing I thought of with this theme is roses, but I'm not very good at making the swirly roses.... I've tried them before, but to me they just looked like blobs. When other make them, they look so pretty! so I found some different inspiration... I recreated a floral mani I saw on beautopia ((click here for her design!)

I changed the colors a bit to brighten it up and I am not as handy with a striper brush as she is but overall, these looked much more flowery than any swirly rose mani I could have done!

OPI in Fly

China Glaze in Make Some Noise

Color Club in Pucci-licious

Orly in Spark

China Glaze in Gaga for Green

details done with a 2-way nail art pen

I really love how bright this is! I think this would make a great pattern on a tank top :) I would totally wear it

This might now be my go-to flower design!!

Don't forget to check out past challenges as well as other bloggers who are doing this challenge by clicking on the Year of Polish page.

Do you have a favorite floral design?

Until next time ^_^

Rocko's Modern Life!

Since things were so busy last week at school, I'll be playing catch-up for a while...
Last week's challenge from the Year of Polish was cartoon nails. There are a lot of cartoons I like, or liked as a kid anyhow :) One of which that stands out is Rocko's Modern Life

Any of you watch that show before? it is so odd. I used to love it when I was younger. So many pretty colors!!
This mani was also inspired by one I found on Pinterest. It doesn't say who the original artist was only that it was found on the tumblr: 90'sareallthat

This is what I did:

I was going to write "Rocko's Modern Life" on the thumb but I quickly realized that I was not skilled enough for something like that yet >_<

Also! here is the inspiration from Pinterest:

I used way too many colors in this mani to list them all, but if there is a particular color that you would like to know about, you can ask me about it :)
So that's it for today! I'll be working on my Floral manifor week 19 of the challenge tonight, so I will probably post it up tomorrow.

Until next time ^_^

"Earth Day" Splatter nails

Week 17 of the Year of Polish Challenge is about appreciating the earth :)

I was tempted to do something with grass and the sun and all those pretty things

Unfortunately my time is pretty constrained at this time of the year. There are many a tests to study for a projects to complete and papers to work on... So I did a quick and dirty splatter mani!

I love this kind of mani because you don't have to wait for anything to dry. You just keep right on going then when you're done, stick on a coat of Seche Vite and voila! you're ready to move out!

To keep it "earthy" I used shades of green and blue :D

Turns out I have a much wider variety of green shades... which is odd since I have so much more blue polish!

I used the barrel of an old disassembled pen to splatter my colors... coffee stirrer straws work very well too!

left hand

 Greens:

China Glaze in Re-Fresh Mint

Spoiled in I Only Eat Salads

China Glaze in Four Leaf Clover

Zoya in Zuza

Model's Own in Emerald Black

right hand

Blues:

China Glaze in Kinetic Candy

China Glaze in For Audrey

China Glaze in Aqua Baby

OPI in Swimsuit... Nailed it!

Barry M in Indigo

Keeping this post short.. Have to get back to studying >_<

Have you ever done a splatter mani? what did you use?

Until next time ^_^

Dotticure

Since there can never be enough dots in your life, week 16 of the Year of Polish challenge is a Dotticure!

I am not 100% sure what makes a dotticure different from a polka dot mani (from week 10) but I'll take any excuse to whip out my dotting tool :)

I know it looks matte here, but I promise it isn't. The light must have wonked it....

Kleancolor in Metallic Fuschia

GOSH in Ocean

I've been trying to go through some of my unused polish but it can be really hard when you do nail art... Certain colors just work so well for certain techniques that it's hard to switch to a new color... So I think I am going to try and do one simple nail art a week that features some unused colors... what do you think?

Also! my giveaway has now ended... Thank you to everyone who entered! I've already started going through the entries, verifying things and all that jazz. I should be done in a day or two! 

Until next time ^_^

"Easter" mani

So today's challenge is supposed to be an Easter mani... However, I didn't really feel like putting bunnies and eggs on my nails so instead, I decided to go a little less literal for this one.
Easter manis are all about pastels and fun so I used my new Q1 Konad plate to create a cute spring look!

Ice cream and cupcakes and candies! I love this stamping plate!!

Sally Hansen in Yellow Kitty

Joe Fresh in Iris

China Glaze in Aqua Baby

China Glaze in Make Some Noise

I realize that the stamping polishes I used aren't really pastels normally, but over Yellow Kitty, they were perfect! 

You can get your own Q1 stamping plate from Konad.co.uk for £9 plus shipping

As far as I know, that is the only place where it is available

I hope everyone had a great Easter! with family and food and chocolates :D

You can check out other Year of Polish challenges on the Year of Polish page located on the right side bar

Also, don't forget to enter my 200 followers giveaway!

Until next time ^_^

Stripes inspired by a Mug

This week's theme for the Year of Polish challenge was stripes.
Easy peasy! I love stripes!!

Not too long ago, I came across this mug on Print and Pattern's blog

And I loved how cute it was! so here is my take on this beautiful mug :)

Sally Hansen in White Tip

China Glaze in Lemon Fizz

China Glaze in Peachy Keen

China Glaze in Kinetic Candy

China Glaze in Agent Lavender

China Glaze in Re-Fresh Mint

Milani in Black Magic

1.5mm Rhinestones

Check out my Year of Polish Challenge page to see past themes and also take some time to look at bloggers who are doing this challenge as well!

Also, don't forget to enter my 200 followers giveaway :)

Where do you usually find your inspiration?

Until next time ^_^

Summer Neon Ruffian

This week's challenge was a ruffian manicure. 
I kind of like this type of mani. It's easy to do and allows you to show off 2 polishes at once!
They can be a little plain though...

Since I have been in need of summer color, I decided to pair this challenge with some bright neon polishes. I'm getting to that point where wearing neon nail polish makes me feel like a kid :( So it seemed like the ruffian manicure was the best way to wear them without having them be too loud

Funky Fingers in 220 Volts

China Glaze in Yellow Polka Dot Bikini

Funky Fingers in Pop Artist

Funky Fingers in Ectoplasmic

China Glaze in Japanes Koi (NEON)

*all topped with Hard Candy Mattely in Love*

Wet n Wild in Black Creme

*topped with Seche Vite*

The best way to get a great looking ruffian is with french manicure guide. You just place them at the base of your nail instead of the tip!

Unfortunately I never have french guides, so these were freehanded.

Check out the other challenges here

Also, don't forget to enter my giveaway!

Until next time ^_^

Skittle Gradient

First off, I'd like to apologize for being so absent for the past couple of weeks. Things have been pretty hectic at school and I had to get ready for an experiment that started on Saturday. Unfortunately, the experiment was not working out so we had to cancel it :( However! that does mean I have a little more free time then expected.

Here is one of my favorite manis that I have done so far for the Year of Polish challenge.

This was for week 12: Skittle Mani

For this I decided to do a gradient skittle, mostly because I love gradients so much ^_^
I used a few of my new Kleancolor Metallic polishes for this look and they worked great!
The colors are vibrant and (except for yellow of course) they were opaque in 1 coat.

Kleancolor in Metallic Green

Kleancolor in Metallic Aqua

Kleancolor in Metallic Pink

Kleancolor in Metallic Yellow

Kleancolor in MetallicFuschia

Kleancolor in Metallic Orange

To achieve the gradient effect, I simply sponged on the colors and made them overlap a bit. They blended together really nicely and the final effect was like a rainbow of awesome-sauce!

I'm thinking this would make an awesome pedicure.

On another note, according the UPS tracking, I should receive the last of the items for the giveaway tonight. This means that I can finally start this thing!! I will probably be using Rafflecopter this time, but if you have any other suggestions, I am totally open to trying something else!

I was also thinking about doing a stash post where I show you how I have my polish organized. What do you guys think?

Until next time ^_^

St Patrick's day nails

We're now on week 11 of the Year of Polish challenge! This time, we're doing St Patrick's day nails. How surprising I know!

I've never been a big fan of St Patrick's day. Green doesn't really suit me, so I rarely wear it. St Patrick's day was no exception and there was always one annoying kid in school who would actually go around pinching people for it... I'm also not a beer drinker. This leaves this holiday with little for me to actually enjoy. 

I do, however, have a free green shades of polish that rarely get to see the light of day. 

China Glaze in Gaga for Green

Model's Own in Emerald City

Sinful Colors in Green Ocean

Nail Sticker from 8ty8 Beauty

It's kind of hard to see Green Ocean but it is a really pretty green tinted jelly with large blue flakes. It's very thick and hard to apply but it adds a gorgeous effect.

Don't forget to check out the Year of Polish challenge page located below my profile picture to see some upcoming challenges as well as some links to blogs who are also doing this!

What do you think of St Patrick's Day?

Until next time ^_^

Polka Dot Skittle Mani

Week 9 of the Year of Polish challenge is all about the polka dots!

I tried a few different things before I finally settled on this look. It's not the most creative but it's really eye catching!

Sally Hansen in Coral Reef

Color Club in Pucci-licious

Orly in Spark

Orly in Green Apple

China Glaze in Aqua Baby

In other news, I hit 200 followers last week so I'm putting together a little giveaway. I'm waiting on a couple more items before I begin though so you can look forward to that :)

I'm also going to a research conference this week which means I probably won't update until I get back. I'm very excited! It's in Melbourne, Florida right on the beach :D This is my very first real, professional conference... And I'm presenting a poster there. Eek! I'm a little nervous but thankfully my presentation is the second day of the conference which means that I get to enjoy the rest of the trip without worry ^_^

Now I need to find the perfect nail art for the occasion... hmm... anyone have any ideas?

Until next time ^_^ 

Vintage Mani

There are a couple of variations on how people interpreted this weeks Year of Polish theme: "Vintage" mani

It thought it was referring to the kind of manicures that were done in the olden days, where the tip and the half moon were left polish free. Which you can see in this vintage Cutex ad from the late '30s.

Even though this was my original intention, such a manicure was not going to work with my stubby nails. I barely have a free edge to leave polish free! Since that was not going to work, I decided to a vintage pattern mani! My poor little nails could handle that one!

I looked around the internet for some neat vintage patterns and came across this gorgeous wallpaper from the early 1800's

from http://www.historicnewengland.org

and "recreated" it using tape and stamping

Essie in Turquoise and Caicos

Sally Hansen in Wet Cement

Konad Special polish in White

Konad stamping plate M71

I really fudged the index finger but otherwise, I think my stamping has improved a lot. I remember the first time I tried stamping >_< it was a disaster! haha!

Don't forget to check out my Year of Polish page to see past nail art and future themes as well as to discover some great nail artists who are also doing this challenge.

Anyhow, maybe one day I will try the vintage manicure that is in the Cutex ad above. I just have to keep my nails from breaking! with that, I am off to moisturize :)

Has your nail length ever kept you from doing a manicure you had in mind?

Until next time ^_^

Corset Nails

Welcome to week 8 of the Year of Polish challenge!

Corset Mani

I had seen a few of these on other people's blogs before. They are usually composed of 2 swipes of color on either side of the nail and are connected by a lace that crisscrosses between the 2 (just like my ring finger). So that's what I was going to do!

However, as I was browsing some other blogger's pages, I came across Nail Stories: Hearty Half Moons and they reminded me of the top of a corset! I thought they were so pretty that I had to try it out for this week's challenge!

As you can see, I did the traditional corset nail on my ring finger, but I used Nail Stories "curtain nails" on the rest of my fingers. To make them look corset-ier I added some frillies and bows :)

This mani was super easy to do! For the corset tops, you just need to do 2 quick swipes from side to middle. They don't have to be super straight since you can fix it with the frillies. Then using a migi pen, make little bouncy half circles along the edge and do a quick bow in the center.
The corset back is made up of 2 semi circle swipes of each side of the nail. Make a few dots, those will be the eyelets. Then using your migi pen (or even a striping brush) crisscross the lines.

Easy peasy!

What I used

Base- Franken Lady Fingers

Corset- Essie in Sassy Satchel

Eyelets- GOSH in Silver

Lace and frillies- Migi Nail Art pen in Shimmering White

I've never been able to find the right shade of nude for me so I ended up making my own... It's the closest I have ever come to true mannequin hands!
All you need to make your own nude polish is a lot of white, a dash of brown, some yellow, and a hint of red. If you have darker skin tone, add more brown. If you have cool undertones, more red.
I'm very pale with warm undertones so I needed a lot of yellow and only a little brown :)

Don't forget to check out my Year of Polish page to see other bloggers who are undertaking this challenge as well as to check out past manis and future challenges!

Until next time ^_^

Valentine's Mani

Week 7- Valentine's Mani

So I'm a little late on this one. Sorry :(

I had this great idea for a heart shaped water-marble but when I tried to do it on Sunday it was a complete flop. Let's just say that I am not that adept at water-marbling...

So last night, I tried something else...

I started with a silver foil base on my thumb and ring finger. I painted the rest China Glaze Fuchsia Fanatic

Then I drew on a simple looking heart with the brush that is in the bottle. China Glaze has a smaller brush so that made it easier :)

Then using the biggest dotting tool I had (big dotter below), I drew a slightly smaller heart in the silver foil.

Medium dotter, Big dotter

 The medium dotter for the purple...

And the small dotter for the lighter pink!

I used the new Electropop colors from China Glaze for this look:

The I added a rhinestone to the rest of my nails to tie everything in with some shiny and tadah!

Even though this isn't what I had intended, I still like it. It's very pink, which is unusual for me. I have very few pink polishes, which is why I ended up buying the Electropop pinks :) I needed something for my valentine's mani right? Most of my polishes are purple, my favorite color!

Don't forget to check out my Year of Polish page to see some more bloggers' take on these challenges!

Until next time ^_^

Half Moon Lace and Swap Haul

On to week 6 of the challenge! this time we're doing a half moon manicure. 

This is a very simple idea, especially if you have binder reinforcement stickers. Then all you have to do is paint your base color, wait for it to dry, stick on half a reinforcement sticker, paint your accent color, peel of sticker and tadah! instant clean lines!

Since so many of you have been posting up valentine's manis, I thought I would try and make this half moon a little valentine's friendly.

I chose very girly colors, pink and purple to start with. Then I added some lacey looking accents. Some of them ended up looking more like tiaras but oh well right?
You will have to excuse my sorry looking middle finger nub. I broke it on my car door a week or so ago (which is why I you only saw my right hand for the newspaper mani) and it is only now starting to look like a nail again. I would have shown you my right hand instead but my freehand was not quite up to par on that one... Hence nubbin!

Essie in Cute as a Button

L'oreal in Violet Vixen

White acrylic paint

I have also been swapping like crazy for the past month so I thought I would share the polish related exchanges with you :)

 I managed to get nearly all of the Kleancolor metallic polishes, which are amazzzzing!

Group shot!

Clicky to see them in their full glory!

I also got my paws on a few other goodies

Revvolution, Holo Glitter, Spectraflair Topcoat, Glitz and Glamour

I now have fulfilled all of my black holo desires :) plus the spectraflair topcoat turns any polish into a linear holo! how freaking neat is that! I got my from Panduhh on MUA. She makes some neat frankens!

Sweet Peacock, Clarins 230 dupe, Zoya Valerie

I also got a Clarins 230 dupe from Panduhh. It's not quite as flashy with green as what I have seen from the real 230 but it truly is gorgeous and I love it!

Ocean, Pedal to the Metal, Cute as a Button

My first GOSH polish! I am so excited! I have been eyeing this beauty for a long time now. I just have to come up with the perfect design for it now >_<

I also got a new stamping plate and the wonderful Rainbow's End nic stick. Since I really hate the brushes on these type of applicators, I followed some instructions on MUA on how to decant these bad boys and ended up with this:

The bottle is only about 1/3 full since the nic stick really doesn't contain that much polish but it is gorgeous! If you want to try this yourself, let me know and I can direct you to the instructions I found. It was actually super easy to do...

Techno, City never sleeps, Sparkle Blue

lastly I have some neat-o glitters. The Sparkle blue is actually much more purple than blue but it has great flakies in it which is always awesome!

Well that's all folks, I hope you enjoyed my pic spam! I have some international swaps in the work right now so I may post up those whenever I receive everything :)

 Do you ever get into a swap frenzy? 

Until next time ^_^