Week 20: Bows Manicure

Welcome back to Week 20 of the 52 Week Challenge!  This week the challenge was bows and I did a cute little stamping skittles design.

For the base I used two coats of China Glaze For Audrey.  All the stamping was done using Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On and images from Konad plates m59 and m71.  This turned out very cute and delicate!  I really enjoyed this look and will have to try it again.

Be sure to check out what others have done for this challenge by visiting their blogs:

LizMarie at I'm Simply Complex • Jenna at I'm Still Thinking... • Caitlin at Addicted 2 Nails • Sarah at PrncessSarah02 • Charlotte at Charlotte's Nails :) • Shally at Polished & Not Quite Put Together • Rachel-Karina at Polished Criminails • Liz at Nothing But Nail Polish • Fun With My Nail Polish • Operation: Nail It! • Lauriestrodes Fun With Nails • Square Polish • Only Always Soccermom  • Hurr Did, Nails Did • Olivia Writes • The Dragon Lady • Kaki at Glitter Obsession • Isa at IsaBella's World • Gypsy at Gypsy's Glitter • Jackie at MeMa's Mani's  • Lissa at Lissa's Nail Blog  •  Marie at Polish, Polish, Polish...  • ChiChi at... •  Esra at Oje Sihirbazi (Wizard of Polish) •  Nails, Actually • Treselaine at Tres Chic Nails • Carol at Nails by Carol

Week 19: Floral Manicure

Welcome to Week 19 of the 52 Week Challenge!  I'm playing a bit of catch up here; today I am doing a floral stamping manicure.  I recently came across the blog called Oooh, Shinies and I was inspired by a couple manicures she did with nude nail polish and white stamping (here, here, and here).

For my base I used two coats of Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Choco-Latte then stamped the flower design from M.A.S.H. plate m73 on top using Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On.  I'm wishing I'd used a lighter nude polish.  I'm not sure that Choco-Latte is the right nude for me.

Be sure to check out what others have done for this challenge by visiting their blogs:

LizMarie at I'm Simply Complex • Jenna at I'm Still Thinking... • Caitlin at Addicted 2 Nails • Sarah at PrncessSarah02 • Charlotte at Charlotte's Nails :) • Shally at Polished & Not Quite Put Together • Rachel-Karina at Polished Criminails • Liz at Nothing But Nail Polish • Fun With My Nail Polish • Operation: Nail It! • Lauriestrodes Fun With Nails • Square Polish • Only Always Soccermom  • Hurr Did, Nails Did • Olivia Writes • The Dragon Lady • Kaki at Glitter Obsession • Isa at IsaBella's World • Gypsy at Gypsy's Glitter • Jackie at MeMa's Mani's  • Lissa at Lissa's Nail Blog  •  Marie at Polish, Polish, Polish...  • ChiChi at... •  Esra at Oje Sihirbazi (Wizard of Polish) •  Nails, Actually • Treselaine at Tres Chic Nails • Carol at Nails by Carol

Day 26: Inspired by a PATTERN

Welcome back to the Longest 31 Day Challenge!  Today I have Day 26: Inspired by a PATTERN.  To see the manicures for previous days click here.

A coworker of mine was wearing a black and white houndstooth blazer the other day and that was the push I needed to try out the houndstooth design from M.A.S.H. plate m63.  I used Zoya Marley as my base, a gorgeous lavender with a smidgen of grey and a hint of shimmer.  I'm so happy I purchased Marley last year, it's been very handy to use as a base purple for konadicures.  On top of Marley I stamped the houndstooth design from M.A.S.H using OPI A Grape Fit!, a darker lavender cream color.  I'm really pleased with how this this turned out.

The finished design was more subtle than I originally anticipated but much less in your face as compared to other black & white or black & yellow houndstooth designs that I've seen.  What do you think?

Big Three PSA

This past spring I had a class where I needed to make a public service announcement (PSA) video on a topic of my choice.  I chose nail polish and the big three chemicals that many brands claim to be free of.  If you're interested, feel free to check out my video below.

I just couldn't resist doing something on nail polish for this assignment!

High Contrast Brights

I've been absolutely craving bright colors this season.  I've been craving bright colors so much so than on a recent trip to Walgreens for just cough drops I picked up Wet n Wild Lavender Crème.  I couldn't just leave this polish alone however, so I added two coats of Sticks 'n Stones from Cover Bands Lacquers.

I love the high contrast between the pink, white, and black.  I had trouble with the black square glitter staying attached to my nail (even with top coat) and ended up picking a couple off throughout the course of a day.  Using a cheaper polish (Wet n Wild) made me really appreciate the formula on more expensive polishes (example: Zoya) because by the end of one day of wearing this polish I had a lot of tip wear several large chunks of polish missing.

Day 25: Inspired by FASHION

Day 25 of the Longest 31 Day Challenge is Inspired by FASHION and I'm pretty excited to show you my nails for today.  I recently bought a blue snakeskin wallet/clutch; it's pretty awesome and I keep getting compliments on it.

I used Zoya Robyn as my base, combing blobs of Robyn and Zoya Snow White together to get the blue and white mixed pattern I desired.  I then stamped the snakeskin image from Bundle Monster plate BM-215 on top using Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Black Out.  I love how this turned out.  It looked just like my wallet! Love.

Blue Holo and Dots

I've been trying to use more of my untired polishes lately.  This manicure uses three polishes from my untried collection :)

I started off with three coats of Sinful Colors Cinderella which was disappointingly streaky.  I really just wanted to use Cinderella as a base color but it was so streaky I kept piling on coat after coat.  I wanted to use a light blue as my base because I had KleanColor Holo Blue burning a hole in my untried box. KleanColor Holo Blue (my first KleanColor!) definitely did not disappoint in the stinkiness department - it smelled awful.  Haha.  I've always heard that KleanColors smelled bad but I still wasn't prepared for how terrible it was.  The formula on Holo Blue wasn't bad but it was pretty sheer so I used three coats to get to the level you see on my nails.  Finally, because I couldn't leave a good manicure alone, I stamped the dot design from Konad plate m60 on top using Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Brisk Blue.

Week 18: Cartoon Manicure

Good afternoon and welcome to Week 18 of the 52 Week Challenge!  This week (or actually last week's) the challenge was to create a cartoon manicure.  I was not inspired at all for this manicure, and that's part of the reason why I've been putting it off.  The only cartoons I frequently read are Dilbert and PhD Comics, neither of which I thought would translate well to nails.  The next cartoon I thought of was Mickey and Minnie Mouse so I decided to try to make mouse nails!

I used two coats of Zoya America as my base.  I think the formula on Zoya America is absolutely perfect.  It glides on smoothly, is nearly opaque on the first coat, and is easy to control so I don't end up with flooded cuticles.  It's the type of formula all nail polishes should have.  Using a large dotting tool, I created white dots using Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On.  I really like how the dots turned out! And then I made the mistake of trying to add a mouse head and ears using Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Black Out.  Oh was that a mistake!  It does not look like mouse ears at all.  I tried to use dotting tools and a little nail art brush to shape the ears but it just looks goofy (and not at all like Goofy!).  I'm going to need to stick to stamping I guess.

Be sure to check out what others have done for this challenge by visiting their blogs:

LizMarie at I'm Simply Complex • Jenna at I'm Still Thinking... • Caitlin at Addicted 2 Nails • Sarah at PrncessSarah02 • Charlotte at Charlotte's Nails :) • Shally at Polished & Not Quite Put Together • Rachel-Karina at Polished Criminails • Liz at Nothing But Nail Polish • Fun With My Nail Polish • Operation: Nail It! • Lauriestrodes Fun With Nails • Square Polish • Only Always Soccermom  • Hurr Did, Nails Did • Olivia Writes • The Dragon Lady • Kaki at Glitter Obsession • Isa at IsaBella's World • Gypsy at Gypsy's Glitter • Jackie at MeMa's Mani's  • Lissa at Lissa's Nail Blog  •  Marie at Polish, Polish, Polish...  • ChiChi at... •  Esra at Oje Sihirbazi (Wizard of Polish) •  Nails, Actually • Treselaine at Tres Chic Nails • Carol at Nails by Carol

Day 24: Inspired by a BOOK

Welcome to Day 24 on the Longest 31 Day Challenge Ever!  Tonight I'd like to share Inspired by a BOOK.  You'll have to humor me on this design because it's about to get real nerdy in here.  Looking to catch up? Check out my previous designs here.

The book that I'm basing this design on is called Ion Exchange Materials: Properties and Applications.  My research focuses on developing novel water softening processes which requires me to read a lot of materials on ion exchange.  So how does this translate into a manicure?

Well ion exchange resign (divinylbenzene polystyrene) looks like small orange/clear beads:

Which translates in nail art terms to this:

I picked up clear mirobeads from the art store, and after using two coats of Zoya Tamsen poured the beads on top.  While Tamsen isn't the focus here, I'd like to note that I was very pleasantly surprised by the formula on it.  Tamsen was opaque after one coat, applied very smoothly, wasn't watery, and was a pleasure to clean up (for me, reds typically aren't).  While Tamsen was still wet, I liberally poured the microbeads on top.  I was pretty bummed that these supposed "clear" beads weren't really clear; they had hints of pale yellow, blue, red, green, purple, etc. and these colors show up on the nail instead of reflecting the orange-red of Tamsen like I'd hoped.

Ah well.  Maybe I'll try this again someday when I find truly clear beads.  Have you tried the divinylbenzene polystyrene manicure trend?

Leopard Gradient

In the last week I've done mixed animals, zebra, and now it's time for a solo leopard!  While I was wearing my bright zebra manicure I kept looking at my nails wishing I'd done a hot pink and orange combination.  Then I thought I'd add a touch of yellow and maybe stamp something on top.  And thus today's manicure was created!

I painted my nails a base white color using Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On, then used two coats of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mellow Yellow as my bottom color.  Next I sponged Zoya Jancyn on to the middle and then Zoya Areej on the tip.  I used M.A.S.H. plate m57 for the leopard stamp and Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Whirlwind White as the polish.

This is another instance of "it sounded great in my head but not on my nails."  These types of manicures are always the most disappointing for me.  I'm going to have to try my pink and orange combination again sometime.