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