31 Day Challenge - Day 12: Stripes / I'm A Terrible Person

Hi.

So I really wanted to do a bunch (if not two or three) of Christmassy manicures, fitting them in with the challenge prompts, but honestly, I don't paint my nails that much! I don't redo them every day like other nail polish bloggers, and I leave my polish on for almost a week.

Ugh I just feel bad because I wanted to do more holiday nails but I would've had to have Christmas nails for like the entire month of December. Which I wasn't exactly thrilled to do.

Anyway.

I'm also a terrible person because it is TWO DAYS AFTER CHRISTMAS and I took these nails off a few days ago. I JUST FORGOT TO POST THIS PLEASE DON'T HATE ME.

Not like anyone reads my blog except for Rita (hi rita!)

And then I took super shitty pictures, on top of it all, and I only have one semi-good one to show you guys.

So here are my candy cane striped nails. I like them a lot (: At first I tried freehanding the white stripes with my Orly striper, but it was just a disaster. Especially on the right hand. So I redid it using tape, and I'm super glad I did. Even though it took foreverrrrr.

Colors Used: 

-SOPI Sample Sale

-Orly Striper in White Out (I still used the striper even though I was using tape because it's nice and opaque)

Alright well. That's it. I'm going to go write my post on my animal print nails.

Hope you all had a lovely Christmas! 

xx

Light Pink and Natural

So my mom never wears nail polish on her fingers, because she's always doing stuff around the house, and washing dishes, and it would just chip on her.
However, today she agreed to let me do something on her nails, as long as it was natural and subtle.

So I pulled out my favorite baby pink and an inoffensive glitter, and gave her these very natural looking nails. She really likes them and keeps on going "ooh, I look so trendy!"

Polishes used:

Revlon Colorstay Base Coat

2 Coats SOPI Dear Diary

(on ring finger) Butter London Tart With A Heart

Sally Hansen Instadry Top Coat

Thanks for reading! 

xx

31 Day Challenge - Day 11: Polka Dots

Hello!
Christmas is getting closer and closer, and I'm getting super excited :D
I did try to think of something Christmassy to do for these nails, but the only thing I could think of was ornaments, and I didn't like that idea. Plus, I prefer polka dot nails that only use creme polishes, for some reason.

Anyway, I was looking through my dark/wintery colors and found this lovely blue-toned gray creme that I wore a lot last winter. It came in a set of mini Sephora by OPI polishes I got for Christmas last year. I used an off-white (Urban Outfitters' Virgin) for the dots, and I actually like the way it looks. It's not my favorite, and in a lot of instances, I seriously messed up the dots, but it's cute, and it looks fine from a distance.

Polishes used:

Revlon Colorstay Base Coat

Two coats SOPI Break a Legwarmer

Dots done with UO Virgin

Sally Hansen Instadry Topcoat

Thanks for reading!

31 Day Challenge - Day 10: Gradient (Winter Wonderland Nails)

Hello!

I'm going to call these my winter wonderland nails, because I used colors that were wintery and christmassy. I love the silver and blue, and it makes me think of cold, snowy winter mornings, even though it's clear and sunny in norcal these days. 

I started with a base coat of a metallic silver, and then used a makeup sponge to apply a glittery silver and a metallic blue. I finished it all off with a coat of silver holographic polish. 

Polishes used:

Base color: Sally Hansen Silver Sweep

Gradient: SOPI Bring On The Snowflakes & Spoiled Your Fly's Down

Holographic topcoat: OPI DS Shimmer

Aaaah, I think these are just so super duper pretty.

Also they look a bit like those nail polish strips you can get at the drugstore. I think they're Sally Hansen? They're silver and blue glittery gradient and they cost like ten dollars. This is a way cheaper alternative, provided you have the colors. 

Pink & Orange Polka Dots

So my friend Mary just came over and since basically all I do whenever I have friends over is paint their nails, that's what we did. She just bought a few new nail polishes and wanted me to do something incorporating both colors. Basically everything Mary has is pink and orange. It's kind of her thing. So I wanted to do something with those colors. We both thought of these alternating polka dots at the same time, so that's what we decided on. 

Polishes used:

Sally Hansen Base+Top Coat

Wet n Wild Lavender Creme (This is actually pink, not lavender..)

Wet n Wild Sunny Side Up

I wasn't able to get a super fantastic picture, since it was dark outside, and I had to use artificial light. But you get the idea.

I think it's super cute, and it reminds me of candy for some reason.

Anywho, this has been a short post because I don't have many pictures, but I'll resume my normal posting soon.

Thanks for reading!

31 Day Challenge - Day 9: Rainbow

Okay, these nails are freaking adorable. I love them.
So I was trying to decide what to do for rainbow nails, because I didn't feel like doing a skittle manicure, and my nails aren't nearly long enough right now for a full rainbow ombre. So I googled rainbow nails, and found this post by platypus nails. It looked easy and fast, and I thought that I could try a new nail polish that I just bought, so I decided to recreate it, using a different base color.

I apologize for the terrible pictures. It is unusually stormy in Norcal right now, and I had to use artificial lighting. But you get the idea.

The base color is a recently new purchase of mine, Virgin by Urban Outfitters. It's a lovely, creamy off-white that covers beautifully in two coats.

The rainbow dots were done with a dotting tool that I made myself, out of a pencil eraser and a pin.

The colors that I used for the rainbow were, in this order:
Sephora by OPI in Fiercely Fabulous
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Sun Kissed
Sally Hansen Instadry in Lightening
a franken polish I made from Sinful Colors Lucky Green and OPI Black Onyx
Spoiled in Your Fly's Down
China Glaze Spontaneous

Had my nails been a bit longer, I might've been able to fit in a pink dot, as well, but I recently broke a nail and had to clip them all down short. #firstworldproblems

These are so happy looking, and I especially like the look of them over the off-white background. The overall effect isn't as bright as it would be with a stark white. I love love love it.

I'm thinking I'm going to do a sunset/skyline mani for gradient nails?? Stay tuned!
x

31 Day Challenge - Day 8: Metallic

So, the idea I originally had for these nails was to use these four colors to create a fishtail braid manicure. I started on it and two colors in it was thick and forming little bubbles and it just looked like complete crap. So I took that off and started over. This is what I came up with in the end. I love it. It's very badass and superhero-y. At least thats what it looks like to me.

One of my original problems was that the dark grey/pewter color (Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous by OPI) I was using was too sheer to be a decent layering polish in only one coat. 

So I started off with a base color of LLM, and decided to improvise from there.
I forgot how much I love this color. It has a very strong silver-dark gray shift and has an almost grainy-looking texture. I can't tell you how much I wanted to pair this with a matte topcoat, but alas, I still don't own one. I thought if I did that, it might look a bit like the OPI suede polishes.

Also, it took three coats to be completely opaque, which was a bit annoying, but I can deal with it.

Oh well.
Look how cool the shift on this is, though.

So I decided to just use the other metallic colors I own to create overlapping chevron things. It's a bit hard to explain. I started like this

and then after that was dry, I did the silver, then the gold. 

I think they turned out great.

Pewter: OPI Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous (from the Swiss collection a couple years ago, I think)

Rose Gold: China Glaze Poetic

Silver: Sally Hansen Silver Sweep

Gold: China Glaze Passion

I'm still trying to figure out what the hell I'm going to do for rainbow nails, so stay tuned, but they probably won't be up for a while.

31 Day Challenge - Day 7: Black & White

Ok I have to admit, out of all the nails I've done in this challenge, these are my favorite.

I was pretty uninspired about this prompt, and I was considering just doing some newspaper nails, when I found these stickers that I bought for like, two dollars in Japan town, in San Francisco. I figured they'd be pretty crap, but I wanted to try them anyway.

I can't read the packaging, because it's in Japanese, obviously. So I don't know if there's any way to buy them online, but if you live anywhere near San Francisco, they sell them at one of the grocery stores in Japan town. It's in the nail polish section by the hair dye. 

Anyway, It comes with nice little picture instructions for how to apply them.

It comes with two sheets of ten, so I'll be able to get another use out of them.
As you can see, the sticker is just the black part, so I could have used any base color, really.

So I lined them up to my nail, cut it down to size, peeled off the backing, and stuck it on my white base.  Then I just used a tiny set of nail clippers to cut off the excess, and topped with two thick coats of topcoat. 

Base coat is an unnamed Orly plain white cream. 

I love how these look. It looks like I used a tiny brush and put tons of effort into my nails, doesn't it? And it was relatively quick to do.

I'm totally stocking up on them next time I'm in the city. 

31 Day Challenge - Day 6.5: Pink. Because I felt like it.

This is going to be a tiny little post, because I forgot to take pictures when I first did these nails, and by the time I remembered, they were seriously wearing off. I know I'm doing the 31 Day Challenge, but personally I think there are some issues with this challenge, such as what the hell does "inspired by a color" mean?? Also, I really thought they should have included pink in the rainbow. I love pink. So as I was thinking about how pink should have been included, I was playing around swatching all my Butter Londons the other day and Disco Biscuit really caught my eye. I've only worn it once, when I first bought it, but I was in a hurry and it came out all patchy looking so I haven't worn it since. But I decided to try it again because it's such a gorgeous hot pink/raspberry jelly color with blue sparkles and so not fall-appropriate, but I don't really care.

Anyway, here is one terrible picture of my nails like five days after I painted them, so the middle finger is chipping on the corner, and there is really bad tipwear, but you get the point.

I love this nail polish to death.

Also it was extremely ridiculously hard to take off and it eats topcoat like no other, but it's so worth it.

My picture taking skills are pretty crap, but you get the idea. So freaking gorgeousssssssss

Anyway, now I'll get back to the actual tag. 

31 Day Challenge - Day 6: Violet

Well, these didn't come out as awesome as they could've been, probably. I still really like them, but I was just feeling a bit uninspired and I kinda just wanted to get it over with. I used the explosion tape manicure technique from the fabulous Nailside, and did silver explosions coming from different directions on each finger.

The base color is two coats of China Glaze Spontaneous, a polish of my sister's that I'd never tried before, and I actually really like. It's a lovely blue-toned purple cream, and it dries a bit darker than bottle color. Explosions are done in Sally Hansen Silver Sweep, my favorite silver layering polish. It's super opaque and dries quickly.

I actually kind of liked my right hand better, but forgot to take pictures of it before it had gotten serious tipwear, and I decided it wasn't worth it.

Thanks for reading! 

Argyle Nails

So I did my sister's nails the other day; her style is a bit preppier than mine, and when I saw this video by missjenfabulous on YouTube, I immediately thought of her. 

They're fairly simple to do, all you need is some tape and a white striper.

I'm a bit tired so this post isn't gonna have a lot of words; I think the pictures are fairly self explanatory.

Polishes used:

Revlon Colorstay Base Coat

Sally Hansen Silver Sweep

Sephora by OPI Access 24/7

OPI Black Onyx

Orly Instant Artist Striper in Crisp White

Sally Hansen Instadry Top Coat

31 Day Challenge - Day 5: Blue

I'm caught up! These are the nails I am currently wearing at the moment, which means I am no longer behind schedule, yay!

So these nails were kind of inspired by this post by the Nailasaurus and this video by the fantastic Chelsea. I've always kind of liked the "skittles" look, where every finger is a different color, or in this case, pattern. And I've been wanting to try Chelsea's glitter placement technique for a while, so I figured why not combine them?

I love how these turned out! I love glitter and I love light blue nail polish and I love nail art. I think these are my favorite out of all the nails I've done for this challenge so far (:

Thumb

Right hand

Polishes I used:

1 coat Revlon Colorstay Base Coat

2 Coats Sephora by OPI Natural Environ-mint

Spoiled by Wet n Wild Your Fly's Down sponged on tips of index fingers

Orly Instant Artist Striper in Crisp White for zig-zags

Spoiled by Wet n Wild Pet My Peacock for glitter accents

Sally Hansen Instadry Top Coat

Macro bottle shot

I love these nails! What do you guys think?

Oh, also: I'm considering adding another day to this challenge after violet, because I really want to do pink nails. 

Stay tuned (:

31 Day Challenge - Day 4: Green

For today's nails, I knew I wanted to use Zoya's Edyta, a dark shimmery green that I barely use. It's a gorgeous color, a dark pine green with glass flecked gold and green glitter. It gives it a really interesting texture, and I found myself wishing I had a matte topcoat more than ever, because I think it would have made it look like the OPI suede polishes. 

The design on my ring finger was supposed to be a bare-branched tree, to make the design a little more autumn-y. It ended up looking a bit like coral, if I'm going to be honest. I also added some random dots on my thumb. 

The formula on this polish is quite good-- opaque in two coats. However, it does stain, even with a base coat. 

Polishes used: 

1 coat Revlon Colorstay Base Coat

2 coats Zoya Edyta

China Glaze Passion for tree and dots

1 coat Sally Hansen Instadry Top Coat

I'm posting this super late, as I was wearing these nails last week. I just kept putting it off. 

Anyway, I'm off to do my blue nails. See you then!

Some Friends' Nails ~

So my little sister's homecoming dance was last night, and all her friends came over to get ready. I tend to experiment on my sister when I have new nail ideas, and her friends are always asking me to do their nails as well. So I painted two of her friends' nails to go with their dresses.

For Rita, I did nude and gold gradients, with gold glitter.

Sorry for the bad picture quality, the lighting was weird and I had to take the pictures quickly.

I used:

1 coat Revlon Colorstay Base Coat

2 coats SOPI Don't Feed the Hand Models

China Glaze Passion sponged on the tips

1 coat Butter London Tart With A Heart

1 coat Sally Hansen Instadry

And then on Celine, I just did one coat of China Glaze Poetic, a gorgeous coppery rose gold color that I've never worn on its own before. I loooooove it! 

Seriously, look how pretty! I'm gonna have to wear this color on it's own now. 

The formula on this is fantastic, it's opaque in one coat, it glides on perfectly, and it dries quickly. I love it for layering, and now I can see that my Orly Rage is going to have some serious competition for my favorite metallic neutral polish. 

I used:

1 coat Revlon Colorstay Base Coat

1 coat China Glaze Poetic

1 coat Sally Hansen Instadry Top Coat

I love doing other people's nails, it gives me a chance to practice without having to use a nail wheel or repaint my own nails every day.

31 Day Challenge - Day 3: Yellow

I love yellow. It's my favorite color. My bedroom walls are painted a bright, sunny yellow, and it just makes me so happy to wake up surrounded in such a happy color.

And I love this nail polish. It's a bright yellow cream that goes on flawlessly and dries super quickly.

However. 

I usually wear this color in the spring and summer, and for some reason, I'm just not feeling it right now. I feel like I shouldn't be wearing this bright of a color on my nails. Especially since it's (almost) fall. I don't know. The pink stripes were an attempt to add some "nail art" to today's mani, but it's just sort of blah. I don't hate it, but I don't particularly like it. Which is weird, considering that it's my favorite color, with a happy stripey accent nail. 

Ah well. It still looks good, I guess. It just doesn't do anything for me.

Polishes that I used:

1 coat Revlon Colorstay Base Coat

2 coats Sally Hansen Instadry Lightening

SOPI Access 24/7 (pink stripes)

1 coat Sally Hansen Instadry Top Coat

I'm looking forward to green nails! I have a pretty good idea of what I'm going to do forming in my mind already (:
Hope you all have a wonderful day!