When in doubt, galaxies!

Hello everyone!

I have been kind of in a nail rut... I keep going back to my standard gradient nails and although I really like them, I don't want to overflow you lovely readers with a million different gradient combinations! To get me motivated again, I decided to try a mani that I had really been hesitant about doing: the galaxy nails!

I know you have seen a million and one of these already but I've never had the heart to try them before. As pretty as they are, they also look really difficult to make. You have to make sure you are getting the right color balance and that you are actually making a galaxy shape... I've never had any kind of of formal training, so this seemed like a lot of work and something I would probably just end up taking off because they looked like blobs... you know what I mean?

Anyhow, I pulled out my trusty cardboard and made a few attempts at it before moving on to my tiny nail canvases. I found it was best to start out larger and then later on go back and redefine the shapes with darker polish around the edges. It was pretty time consuming but since I hadn't played with polish like this in a while, I had some fun. After I made a few "examples" I started on my actual nails! I decided to make blueish galaxies and some pinkish ones as well for variety.

Left hand!

Right hand!

I'm actually very proud of how they turned out! so here are a few more picture of them ^_^

I decided not to list the polishes I used because there are so many of them, but I did take a picture of them all for you!

see, I told you there were a lot! the few glitter toppers that I used are also not pictured since I added them afterwards...

Also, one thing I did differently then a lot of other galaxy nails out there is I decided to make my dotted stars silver instead of white. I found the white stars to look just a little too... bright? anyhow, other than that, I used the small eye-makeup sponge applicators and a lot of pictures for NASA to create the different shapes.

alright well that is all for now friends! Have you ever tried galaxy nails before? what did you think of them?

Until next time ^_^

Pink and Glittery with Bows- The Girly Nails

Hello!

I've fallen behind on my Year of polish challenge >_< sorry about that!

I have a day off from lab tomorrow so I will see what I can do about that :)

Today, I have for you a mani I did some weeks ago. I was lacking in creativity and while perusing through my drawer of nail art accessories, I picked up a nice little sheet of nail stickers. 

To keep the nails from looking too busy, I picked a simple color and added a bit o' gold to it!

China Glaze in Strawberry Fields

Revlon on Gold Coin

Nail stickers from Ebay

What do you think of nail stickers? do they help you when you are in a rut?

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 ^_^

Sinful Colors Holiday Edition- Swatches and Nail Art

I have for you today the Sinful Colors Holiday 2011- WISH collection. 

As far as I am aware, all of these are part of the core collection and so are readily available to almost everyone!

SinfulColors Holiday Nail Wheel

Here are the polishes Ill be showing:

Picture from SinfulColors news release

3 coats

Out of this World- A cool silver loaded with shimmer. This one is a little bit on the sheer side... It's great layered over almost anything. Keep reading and Ill show some examples :)

2 Coats

Midnight Blue- A nice bright navy with metallic finish

2 Coats

Sugar Sugar- Shimmery bright red. A  little streaky on the first coat but beautiful on the second

3 Coats

Daddy's Girl- A violet jelly with a lot of shimmers and micro glitter. It takes a little work to get it opaque but this color is amazing and totally worth it!

2 Coats

Last Chance- A very opaque dark green creme. Perfect for nail art but, compared to all the other holiday colors, a little lacking in oomph.

2 Coats each

Fashionista- A simple silver glitter liner. Reminds me a lot of the quality of ArtDeco stripers: Not the greatest but does the job. It's great for half-moon or french manis!

Flower Girl- a warm metallic gold liner. This shade is much better, it's opaque after one stroke, something I favor strongly in stripers.

*********************************

Since these are from the holiday collection, I thought I could show a holiday/winter nail art you can achieve using only these polishes and a basic white creme.

1- (present/gift) Last Chance striped with Flower Girl

2- (snowy french) Midnight blue tipped with Out of this World and Fashionista and outlined with Sugar Sugar

3- (purple stripes) Daddy's Girl striped with Out of this World and Fashionista

4- (Christmas tree) Sugar Sugar with Last Chance tree and Flower Girl star

1- (mistletoe) Out of this World layered over white, stamped with Last Chance and dotted with Sugar Sugar

2- (holiday half moon) Last Chance with Sugar Sugar half moon outlined in Flower Girl

3- (Christmas lights) Midnight blue with Last Chance cord and Flower Girl, Sugar Sugar, and Out of this World lights

4- (wreath)- Sugar Sugar with Last Chance wreath accented with Flower girl and Sugar Sugar

1- (snow drift) Midnight Blue with Out of this World sponged and dotted snow and Fashionista accent

2- (tree ornaments) Last Chance with Flower Girl, Sugar Sugar, and Midnight Blue ornaments

3- (snowflakes) Daddy's Girl stamped with white (purple pigments bled into it...)

4- (candy cane) Sugar Sugar striped with white (red bled too!) and Fashionista

There you have it! You dont need expensive polish to make pretty nail art. SinfulColors retail for about $1.99 and are available at Walgreens (online and in store) and  Cherry Culture as well as many other retailers.

Until next time ^_^

*these were sent to me for review*

Two-fer gradation

hello all!

I found this little gem in my old photos. I did this mani almost a year ago and forgot to post it! This duo of a color gradation with a glitter gradation is super easy to recreate.

If I remember correctly, I only used 2 polishes for this look: Arisa in creamy mocha and Etude house in gold spangle

the trick is to sponge on your base color starting from the tip to the middle of the finger so that most of your color is concentrated at the end.
Then you want to take the glitter and apply one thin layer over the whole nail, followed by one slightly thicker layer over the tip half of the nail and then one last thick layer over the free edge/tip of the nail.

there you go, a two-fer gradation

Until next time ^_^

Rocks or Rainstorms

I really like lightning storms. I don't really like thunder (because it always catches me off guard and scares the crap out me...) but I love lightning.

so I thought I would try to make some lightning storm nails!!
eh well... I am not the most artistically inclined person and it can be a little difficult to recreate certain things with nail polish... Anyhow, what I got doesn't really look like rain clouds but it did make a nice effect!

holding the super cute Jade Cat my boyfriend got for me at the Renaissance Festival  ^_^

I sponged a bunch of greys, black, and white together and then used top coat to smear it all together.

here, I was trying to be artsy and have the lightning be pretty colors...

Sally hansen in Wet Cement

Franken- Mallory

NYX in black

Sally hansen in White out

I smudged all of those with Out the Door topcoat

Sally Hansen in Blue Brisk and Lively lilac (for the lightning)

and then I mixed a bunch of greens and yellows for the "green grass" part

the final effect turned out more like a nice rock than a rainstorm but oh well :)
I kind of like the effect and so I will have to try this technique with some other colors

Fall Leaves and an Award ^_^

I love fall colors :) Mostly because they look good on my skin tone

After my package came in the mail from cherryculture I had all the colors I needed to make a pretty fall mani

so here goes!

China Glaze in Solar Power

Arissa in Creamy Mocha

NYC colors in 112A (orange)

LA Colors in Berry Red

I also dabbled some LA Girl in Gold Plated and Sinful Colors in All About you over the top 

Stamped with BM19 and Milani in Black Magic

Also! I received this beauty in the mail from a swap

China Glaze in Medallion

I cant wait to try out this glittery goodness!

And last but not least, the wonderful Katrina has given me an award ^_^ you should check out her blog here because it is awesomeness!

1. Why did you create the blog?
- because I spent so much time looking at other people's blogs... I also wanted a way to share what I was learning :)

2. What kind of blogs do you follow?
- mostly nail blogs but a few fashion and makeup ones as well. I also look at some tumblr about randomness (like my friend's: http://awkwarddrunkcactuslover.tumblr.com/) 

3. Do you have a favourite make-up brand?
- hmm not particularly. I have a lot of Rimmel eye stuff  and Sonia Kashuk make up brushes, but the majority of my makeup is of different brands 

4. And a favourite clothing brand?
- Not really. I like affordable. I shop at Ross and Target and sometimes even Sears (you'd be surprised at how awesome some of their stuff is)

5. What make-up products is essential for you?
- Benefit's Boi-oing concealer and Victoria's secret purple Mascara. yeah... unless Im going out, thats all I wear

6. What’s your favourite colour?
- I love all shades of purple! Im a fan of the... the... well I can't remember what they are called right now... but amethyst purple and turquoise and citrine. Like these! 

7. What’s your favourite perfume?
-Lolita Lampicka! I picked it out because the bottle was so pretty. And then I ended up loving how it smelled too

8. What’s the film you liked the most?
- My favorite of the moment is Fargo, but that is likely to change as I watch more and more movies :)

9. What countries would you like to go?
- Anywhere. I want to travel to everywhere! South America, North Africa, Asia, Europe. I want to go there. whatever place you are thinking of right now, I want to go there. hehe

Now I have to give it to 10 bloggers;

1. Winnie

2. Cel

3. ABOP

4. My Leetle Nails

5. Varnish Vixen

6. Cyan

7. Arie

8. Polish Pauper

9. Kelly

10. The Princess

Well, thats all for now! 

Rainy day

Hello all,

Sorry about the lack of posts. I was so busy studying for the GRE, I didnt even have time (or energy) to change my nail polish... It was unfortunate :(
But now! things are better so back to the polish!

It's been raining a lot here for the past couple of weeks. The weather is cooling down (as much as it can in South Carolina...) and I've actually had to start wearing socks D:  I am not a fan of socks...
Anyhow, I decided the weather called for a cool and rainy color so here is China Glaze in Secret Peri-Wink-Le

sorry about the lack of clean up. >_>

Then! the weather started getting better again. More sun and heat, so I added some sponging and stamping  and nail stickers to happy it up a bit.

Bundle monster plate 10

China glaze in Agent Peri-Wink-Le

Sally Hansen in Celeb City

Sally Hansen in Mint Sprint

Nail stickers for 8ty8 beauty

2 types of Sponging

This was created by using an eyeshadow sponge applicator

Sinful colors in Pink

China Glaze in Japanese Koi (neon)

China Glaze in Yellow Polka Dot Bikini

Sally Hansen Nail Art pen in Black 

Then I did this manicure on my friend using a make-up sponge for a fading effect 

 Sally Hansen xtreme wear in Mellow Yellow

New York Colors in 112A

Sinful Colors in Gogo Girl
Sally Hansen Nail Art pen in Black