Penelope Spiced Up

There a times when one needs to be dressed very professionally for work.  On these instances I have a stash of appropriate wear to work polishes, such as Zoya Penelope.  Penelope is a dusty, mauve pink that doesn't really stand out on her own.

Pretty, but not that flashy.

There are also times that one is scheduled to head out with friends right after work and wishes that their nails had a bit more sparkle.  Enter Essie Shine of the Times - flakes of glitter that seem to range in colors from red, orange, gold, and green.

Much better!

Have you used a special effects type polish to spruce up a plain manicure for a night out?

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

Kristen

"Say my name, say my name.  If no one is around you, say baby I  - "

Oh, hi there!  I didn't see you come in.  Today I have a quick post to show you one of the polishes I picked up during the People Magazine Zoya holiday promotion.  This polish is Kristen from their Winter FEEL collection. And I was thrilled, thrilled! when Zoya decided to spell this polish as Kristen and not Kristin, Christen, Christin, Krysten, Krystin, and so on and so forth.  Because anyone named Kristen would tell you that this is the best way to spell the name :D

Okay - on to the nail polish!

I think Kristen is a beautiful, soft blue-grey color that looks amazing.  The blue gives the grey the little extra oomph it needs to stand out from other greys I've seen.  I received numerous compliments on this color while I was wearing it and will probably be sporting it again soon.

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 4: Plaid Manicure

The challenge for Week 4 was plaid and this quickly turned into a hot mess on my nails.  The vision I had for this was more uniform and layered, this is streaky and just...not what I imagined.  Also?  It looks much better from a distance.  Here it is:

I used Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Hard as Wraps Sheer Lilac Gloss as the base, then using Konad plate M60 stamped Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Whirlwind White followed by Konad Special Polish in Black.

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 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 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.

Today I'm joining Google, Wikipedia, Reddit, Craigslist, and others to urge action against SOPA.  


Don't just sit there, please make the call to your congress person.  

Not from the United States? Tune in tomorrow for the regularly scheduled programming.