Cherry Blossom Trees

Hi everyone!  As you read this I'm currently in Washington D.C. for a National Sustainability Design Expo sponsored by the EPA.  And I couldn't go to Washington D.C. in the Spring without doing cherry blossom nails even though I'm here a week after the peak bloom and the conclusion of the National Cherry Blossom Festival.  I was really hoping the cold weather could push back the peak bloom for one more week till I arrived.  Maybe next time!  The trees are nice, just no longer in full bloom.  I've done a cherry blossom manicure once before but that was back when I first started blogging so it's a view at your own risk manicure (view able here).

I haven't been able to do much nail art this year, especially free hand, so this was a fun change.  I started off with two coats of China Glaze for Audrey, a full coverage robin egg blue.  It's also my current pedicure color (don't worry, no feet pictures).  I then drew on the tree branches using So Easy Stripe Rite Black.  I don't have much practice with striping brushes but I felt as though going very slowly and carefully was key to being in control of how the final image turned out.

I used two colors for my flowers.  The first was OPI I Think in Pink, a light pink from OPI's 2012 Breast Cancer Awareness Duo.  The second was OPI My Vampire is Buff, a yellow tinted nude from OPI's Spring 2013 Euro Central Collection.  In the center of each flower I placed a small dot using Zoya Dana, a rose pink.  I finished everything off with a healthy coat of Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat.  

What do you think?  Have you done a cherry blossom design before?  

Day 23: Inspired by a MOVIE

Welcome to the next installment of the Longest 31 Day Challenge Ever.  Today I'd like to share with you Day 23: Inspired by a MOVIE, otherwise known as My Hunger Games Failure.

Like many of you, I devoured the Hunger Games series and was really excited to see the book turned into a movie.  I bought my tickets for opening day a head of time, painted flames on my nails, but completely underestimated how popular the movie would be!  I showed up for the movie only to find the only remaining seats were the ones in the very bottom corner...

So I still have yet to see the Hunger Games movie as I returned my tickets (why do theaters even include those seats in the first place??) but I'm hoping in the next week or so to try again.

To create the manicure I wore for opening day I relied heavily on Kayla Shevonne's Hunger Games inspired nails.  She always does such amazing work and I love seeing the designs she creates.  My attempts to duplicate her work never turn out quite the same.

I used a layer of Zoya Snow White for my base, then two coats of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mellow Yellow.  I next sponged Zoya Tamsen on top, making the layers thicker as I moved towards my cuticles.  I then "drew" on flames with a Kiss Nail Art Pen in Black, finally filling in the area outside the drawing with my SoEasy Striper in Black.  A coat (or two) of Seche Vite was all I needed to make this design shine.  Clean up was a complete PITA, black polish just doesn't come off my skin nicely.

Overall, from a distance this design looks pretty sweet because you can't tell that my flames are a hot mess.  At this distance they're much more skeptical though I do enjoy them.  I really need to practice free-hand nail art more.

St. Patrick's Day Recap

Happy Belated St. Patrick's Day!

I have two St. Patrick's Day manicures to show you.  The first one I had high hopes for but it ended up just not looking like I wanted.  It was a good in theory, poor in execution manicure.

For this I used two coats of OPI Stranger Tides, then alternating rows of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Lickety-Split Lime and Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Mint Sprint.  Mint Sprint looks more like teal than a true deep green but I think the colors compliment each well.

Cha Cha Cha was a polish I loved from a couple of days ago so when my dotting manicure chipped I turned back to it plus a nail polish that I seriously wore all of March 2011.  I wanted a bit more bling for the actual St. Patrick's Day so these dots came off and glitter went on.  I didn't get a picture until after the festivities were over so some of the nails suffered causalities.

I loved how sparkly this was!  It was two coats of China Glaze Cha Cha Cha and three coats of Sinful Colors Call You Later.  Call You Later isn't a hungry glitter, one coat of Seche Vite and it was smooth.

All of Time and Space

NerdLacquer's All of Time and Space is an awesome glitter nail polish based off of Dr. Who.  It has a seafoam green base with little specs of silver and purple glitter, medium hexagonal purple and silver glitter, and large hexagonal silver glitters.  So much glitter!

This is four coats of All of Time and Space.  I could have easily gotten away with three but I forgot to wrap my tips until the third coat and then I needed to add a fourth coat to even things out.  This isn't a hungry glitter either, a coat of Seche Vite and it's perfectly smooth.

Glittering Flowers

Happy Pink Wednesday!  For this manicure I used two new-to-me nail polishes and it was my first time using rhinestones on my nails.  Many firsts here :)

I'd ordered the M.A.S.H. twelve color rhinestone wheel in January but hadn't really found an application to use the rhinestones.  Suffice to say, I'm going to try and incorporate rhinestones into a lot more manicures - I love how this looks!

This is three coats of Essie A Crewed Interest stamped with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Presto Pink using Bundle Monster plate BM-224.  I'm not really pleased with the formula on A Crewed Interest: it just doesn't cover well.  It's opaque, but incredibly streaky.  I probably should have done a fourth coat of it because there were still patchy areas, but since I was stamping I just went with the three.  Formula issue aside, I LOVE wearing this.  I love that the colors have high contrast (for being in the same color group) and I love the sparkle of the rhinestones.

To adhere the rhinestones I'd added a drop of Presto Pink where I wanted to place the gem and then used a tweezers to lower the rhinestone into place.  I added a thick layer of Seche Vite to keep everything together and so far it's holding up great!

Week 7: Valentines Day Manicure

Happy almost-Valentines Day!  Welcome to week seven of the 52 Week Challenge, Valentines Day.  I did Sweetheart Candy Nails and I'm loving how fun these look.

For this manicure I used Finger Paints Chrysanthe-Mum's The Word (pinkie), Zoya Kristen (ring finger), Sally Hansen Nailgrowth Miracle Loyal Lavender (middle), Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mellow Yellow (pointer), Zoya Maya (thumb), Zoya Tamsen (text), and Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Whirlwind White (heart). I used Nail Art Diva plate From the Heart 1 for the text and M.A.S.H. plate m46 for the heart.  The first time I did this I smudged all the text when I applied Essie's Matte About You top coat so that it looked like the text was dripping blood.  The second time I did this I applied a top coat of Seche Vite before my coat of Essie Matte About You.

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

Week 6: Half-Moon Manicure

The challenge for week six of the 52 Week Challenge was to create a half-moon manicure.  I've done a couple of half-moon designs before but this time I wanted to spice it up.  I originally saw this style of half-moon from Colores de Carol and thought it would be perfect for me to try.  Then I ran across this funky design from the Daily Nail and fell in love.  You see, I'd stopped stamping because I was bored of using just black, white, and silver.  I want to start doing more stamping but with colors!  Lots and lots of colors!

For this manicure I used Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Choco-Latte as the base, then I stamped plate m57 on top using Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Black Out.  I mixed a drop of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Whirlwind White with two drops of Sinful Colors Nirvana to make the light brown spots.  This I topped with a light coat of Out the Door.  Next up came the hole reinforcement tape and four coats of Zoya America.  My word, I didn't realize how much the spots would still show through with that many coats of America.  And you can still seem them (from the distance the photos were taken, not from normal viewing distance).  A final topping of Seche Vite and everything was beautiful!  This was much more involved than my previous half-moon designs but a good way for me to unwind after a very stressful week.

Speaking of stress...you think you have gotten rid of a terrible habit and then eight hours of testing later you discover that no, that habit is still there.  Le sigh.  I've got short nails now but I'm hoping they'll grow fast.

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

Week 5: Newspaper Manicure

The challenge for the fifth week of the year was to try a newspaper manicure.  This was my first successful attempt at doing a newspaper manicure and it's one I'd like to try again, but with more meaningful things than random pieces of newspaper.  I'm thinking comics?  I'd still like to try a periodic table of elements one of these days; I'm on the lookout for a paper copy in either of my research labs that I could use.  We'll see.

For this manicure I used pieces of newsprint from the classifieds section because the print is much smaller and therefore much more dense.  I thought I'd have a higher success rate of at least getting some image to transfer if I had a dense transfer image.

For this I used three coats of OPI Skull & Glossbones as the base, dunked my finger in isopropyl alcohol for five seconds, then pressed the newspaper down for fifteen seconds to create the newspaper images.  Finally I topped everything with a coat of Seche Vite to make it all shiny.  I found that the final top coat image really helped to enhance the newsprint image - did anyone else notice the same thing?

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

Jamaica Me Crazy

I picked up this polish while I was back home visiting my family for Christmas and I love the super bright color of it.  Essie Jamaica Me Crazy is a great pick me up for the winter!

A lovely fuchsia color with little hint of shimmer.  The shimmer on the nail is less noticeable than in the bottle (sad) and it didn't play well with Seche Vite (see pointer and middle finger).  But the color is still bright, opaque after a coat and a half, and makes me smile when I look at my hands.

Week 3: Color Block Manicure

Week 3 Color Block Manicure was a test of my taping ability.  For this challenge I used the following imaged I pinned on Pinterest for inspiration (BTW if you know the original source for this image please let me know!):

Source:  thenailbank.tumblr.com  via Kristen on Pinterest   

Here's my take:

What do you think?  I started with a base of Essie Eternal Optimist, followed by taping off areas to paint Sally Hansen I Pink I Can, Zoya Areej, and Butter London Rosie Lee.  In between each layer I used a coat of Seche Vite so that the tape wouldn't pull off the layers below.  I forgot what an absolute pain in the bottom this type of manicure is half way though it, but thanks to Hulu I finished it.  And its been much too long since I've worn pink on a Wednesday!

Finally, here is a shot of Essie Eternal Optimist on its own.  This is my go to wear to work polish color.

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

Week 1: "Make It Sparkle" Manicure

New Years weekend I was in Minnesota vising my family.  Away from my large assortment of polish materials, I packed only the essentials: remover, base coat, top coat, and one polish.  That polish that I packed was Wet and Wild's ColorIcon Cost is No Issue from their Ice Baby Collection.  I wanted something loaded with glitter for New Years Eve and this color sat in my untrieds begging to come along.

I'm completely envious of those who can paint their nails with glitter and either do it neatly or do fabulous clean up.  I was moderately neat and clean up was terrible.

Cost is No Issue is a pretty teal glitter with a few dark blue (larger) glitters tossed in.  It's very bright and sparkly but absolutely ravenous for top coat.  I used four coats of Cost is No Issue to get adequate coverage and two coats of Seche Vite but the top glitter.

I'm completely behind one getting the ball rolling this year with posting my manicures.  I usually schedule my posts in advance because, well, life keeps me busy and I don't have time to paint my nails and write a post about it all in one.  I've been gone the last three weekends in a row but this weekend I'm home - perfect for getting caught up!

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

Scandalous

Last week I walked into a local Walgreens hoping to find Revlon Scandalous or perhaps Revlon Whimsical.  I'd seen photos of them thanks to Nouveau Cheap so I knew what I was looking for (source here and here).  I think Whimsical is dreamy and I'd really like to get my hands on it.  Sadly, I didn't find Whimsical.  What I did find was an almost full case of the Walgreens ColorIcon Ice Baby polishes (did this Walgreens forget to set them out or what?) and Revlon Scandalous.  Score!

To achieve this manicure I layered two coats of Revlon Scandalous over one coat of Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear Black Out and topped it with a coat of Seche Vite.

From a distance Scandalous is much darker and the glitter is hard to see.  It felt like I was wearing plain black polish for most of the day.  I love glitters that can bounce light around but this does not.

Day 20: WATER MARBLED

I scheduled this post because I'm off in Minnesota visiting my family for Christmas.  I didn't do much in the way of Christmas, or any other holiday, manicures this year but I thought it would be cute to do a red white a green water marble combination for Day 20 of the 31 Day Challenge.

I used two coats of Sally Hansen Insta-Dry Whirlwind White as a base for the marbling, then alternating drops of Zoya Sooki, Zoya Snow White, and Orly Lucky Duck for the swirls.  I used a white base because when I tried dipping naked nails Lucky Duck was very sheer and I had major VNL.  I topped everything with two coats of Wet'n'Wild Wild Shine Kaleidoscope, a color I received earlier this year as part of my Polish-aholics Anonymous Secret Santa (thank you Amanda!).  A final coat of Seche Vite holds everything in place and gives a nice shiny finish.

(If you'd like, you can now follow my blog with Bloglovin since Google has announced the end to Google Friend Connect.)

Party Like a Rockstar

Now that I know that manicures resembling cupcakes are to too "out there" for work, I must be careful in what I decide to create for Facebook's Polish-aholics Anonymous group nail art Mondays.  That patchwork manicure from last week?  Super glad I took that off Sunday night.  This week's theme is Rockstar; lots of opportunity to create something that is too extreme for work.  I quickly nixed ideas of guitars, drums, microphones off my ideas list, and finally settled on something I found via Pinterest.  

I used Sinful Colors All About You for the star color and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Black Out as the sky color.  I used two different top coats also; Seche Vite over the gold and Essie Matte About You over the black.  I wanted the starts to really sparkle as compared to the sky.

Sadly, I had no star stickers anywhere in my apartment and wound up making all my stars by hand.  This made the manicure take a lot longer and I'm not an adept tape star maker.  I would also like to add that this manicure is really not worth creating if one doesn't have star stickers.

Color Changing Polish (Pt. 3)

I was peeling off the top coat of my color changing manicure and happened to walk outside in the middle of it only to notice that without the top coat my nails change color much faster (and look pinker!).

This was the pink that I couldn't capture on camera before:

Lesson learned: Seche Vite does a pretty good job of blocking UV rays!

Pink

Since my last post was about Pinterest, it's only fitting that this post include a photo I found on Pinterest from Chloe's Nails!  Chloe did this manicure last month, an adorable use of pink base color with white flowers and tips.

My interpretation of the design used Sally Hansen's Hard as Wraps in Sheer Lilac Gloss, Zoya Snow White for the tips, and the flowers were stamped in Konad Special Polish White with M.A.S.H. plate m73.  I'm guess the Sally Hansen color is discontinued as I'm not finding color options for this series on their website.

I used Seche Vite as a top coat and my tips shrunk really badly on my left hand (but not the right, weird) so I ended up doing a touch-up in the middle of the week.  This photo was taken almost two days into being worn so please excuse the slightly beat-up look; this week has been quite hectic.