Hello, hello! I sincerely apologize for not being around the last two weeks. I'm still trying to get my camera situation straightened out, and can only hope Santa brings me one this year >.< I don't want to run up the charges on my cell phone too much, but I did take a couple quick pics of today's mani.
Today's mani showcases a color that I've been looking for, for what seems like years. It's been next to impossible for me to find a black polish that isn't a creme, loaded with glitter, or so shimmery it looks more charcoal than black. That is, until, I got Zoya Raven. Raven has a very subtle shimmer to that's hard for my camera phone to pick up. I love how much softer and more feminine Raven is compared to, say, OPI's Black Onyx. I have nothing against Black Onyx, I just wanted something softer. My two pics really don't Raven justify, so once I get a camera, I may get caught up on my swatches in the new year and you'll get to see better pics of her!
Good evening! I hope everyone is well tonight. The weather here has turned craptastic, which has made my still recovering knees start aching >.> Yay for winter! xD
Tonight I'm gonna be posting two manis: a pink for today and the mani I had on yesterday. I'll start with today's.
With the holidays here, I've been breaking out my glitters like nobody's business. Today was no exception. I know I've showcased at least one of the colors I used, not sure about the other, lol, and certainly not together the way I used them. My base color is 2 coats of Let Me Entertain You from OPI, with Show it & Glow it sponged over it for a gradient effect. Very pretty together and very blingy.
Yesterday's mani was a pretty one also. I have now become a firm believer that ALL flakies should be matte; this was my first time trying that and I love how it turned out.
My base color for it was Roadhouse Blues from OPI, which is more blurple than navy to me. Two coats of that gave me total opacity. I then layered on one coat of I Lily Love You, OPI also. That itself was not my idea, but one I had seen a few times. I don't recall seeing this particular combo done matte, which I did using Essie's Matte About You, but I won't take full credit for that either.
Good afternoon!
Just a quick post for today. I picked this color up about 2 weeks ago while I was JCP getting my hair care products. I'd seen swatches of this online but was very meh about it. When I saw it in person, I had to have it!
Now, there's good and bad about Temptation.
The good: I love this color, end of story. It literally glowed with my skintone, which was hard for me to capture with me camera phone =/ I honestly think this one that will look good on just about anyone, it's that kind a of color to me.
The bad: I don't know if it was my application, or if I should have used SV instead of Poshe for a topcoat, but this chipped horribly after one day. I did have to use 3 coats to achieve bottle color, but that's not usually an issue. Maybe next time I'll layer it over another color.
So, I think I'm starting to get the hang of gradients. They're not quite as easy as they seem but they look so nice when done well. I bring you another glitter gradient. The colors I used are from China Glaze: Millennium and Tinsel Town. Just two (rather sloppy, Imo, lol) coats of Millennium with Tinsel Town sponged over it, topped with SV. I might have been able to get away with just one coat of Millennium, but it was a bit streaky on a few nails.
This mani came out so sparkly and blingy! Perfect look for the holidays!
Good morning! I've been rather busy since my last post, but I managed to get the last two challenges, as well as a mani for today that I will post later or tomorrow. You'll have to bear with me on the pics; it seems to be the year that things break or just stop working, the latest being my camera. I took these with my phone and they're not bad, but I'm hoping to borrow my parents' camera until I can get a new one xD.
Let's start with challenge #23, inspired by a movie. This one really was a challenge for me; I had the damnedest time deciding which movie to do then having the time to sit and watch it. I had picked one but changed my mind at the last minute to The Devil Wears Prada. My base color comes from the scene where Anne Hathaway's character is being told just how she come to own her cerulean sweater. According to Miranda, it was utimately inspired by a collection of cerulean gowns designed by Ralph Lauren in 2002. My color choice was Frostbite from China Glaze, which is pretty close Imo.
After that, I just painted a few brands' logos that were mentioned throughout the movie: Calvin Klein, Chanel, and Dolce and Gabana. I'll tell you one thing, it's not easy painting letters on a nail lol.
Now, the last challenge was to recreate your favorite one. Originally, I was going to a water marble, but then I saw earlier this week that Dec. 1 is OPI's National Day of Glitter, lol. So, I went with glitter instead, but did something different from the original challenge: a glitter gradient! I've seen a few and they are just pretty and sparkly.
My base color for this was 2 coats of OPI's Give Me the Moon, then I sponged on Simmer and Shimmer. These pics truly don't do it justice!
Good morning!
So yeah, inspired by artwork for today's challenge, lol. This is another one that stumped me. It took some Googling and brainstorming for me to settle on something. I got it narrowed down to Faberge eggs. Those beauties are really works of art, I just love to look at them. After that, it was just a matter of picking one I felt I could come close to, which was this one:
What I did for my nails isn't the exact same thing, but kinda close. It was all freehand, something which I need to work on more >.< Not bad, but not horrible either.
My base color for this was 2 coats of OPI's Birthday Babe. The crisscrossing was done using Stripe Easy in blue glitter (it has no name), and the red "jewels" are Orly's Rock-it.
Two more challenges left, and then it's time for Christmas manis!
Happy Saturday to all! I hope all my American followers had a wonderful holiday, and everyone stayed safe on Black Friday. Me, I worked lol. I stayed away from all those crazy people :P
Today, I'm showing off the beautiful mani I had for Thanksgiving. I'm so proud of how it turned out, and it was such a hit! It's unique, Imo, because I haven't yet seen a true, red candy mani. I've seen one done with a red base color and pink glitter/jelly, but not all three being red. As I reported on my last post, I had the joy of discovering the red I used for that mani was a jelly. I have a red creme on hand, Manicurist of Seville, and a red glitter, Gettin' Miss Piggy with It!, both from OPI.
What I did was this: one thin coat of MOS, 2 thin (as possible for glitter lol) GMPWI, and one thin coat of Candy Cane Lane from Orly. I let each coat dry before applying the next, and topped it all with SV.
See how pretty that is?! I just love it. I may have to do it again around Christmas. Have a great day!
Sad, sad for this post =( I ended up doing this mani twice. Why? Well, before I could get pics of the final mani, I ended up splitting my index nail, on my photo hand. This caused me to have to take off all the polish and file down every nail >:( Yeah, I was pretty mad, especially since, if you look at my last few post, they had gotten long.
Regardless, I had a cute idea for this challenge. I started, once again, with 2 coats of Kyoto Pearl and let that dry.
Then, I taped my nails off, alternating between a wide strip of tape and taping off above the cuticles and at the tips. For the stripe color, I used Candy Cane Lane from Orly, which to my surprise is a jelly! Red candy mani, here I came!
Now, I didn't intentionally do the stripes in opposite direction. In fact, I didn't even notice until I topcoated >.< Reason being, I did the wide red stripe first, then the white. My right hand came out the right way, but I failed on the left lol. Yeah, the candy cane effect was intentional :P I know I've got some bleed through, BUT if you look at a candy cane, they're not perfect either. They have all kinds of smudges and such.
Good evening!! I hope y'all had a great weekend and, for my American followers, are looking forward to the holiday week! I'm gonna feature two more, maybe a third, challenge week, since it promises to be a busy one for me.
As the title says, this one is inspired by a pattern. Really, I suppose I should have used this one as the fashion and that one for this one. Oh, wells :P Also, this one is more like a what not to do, since, Imo, it did not turn out as well as I would have liked, lol. Not horrible, but not great either.
I saw this post the day it came it out and thought hey, I can give it a shot. I got myself a fan brush, and while I didn't have all the colors in nail polish, I did in acrylic paints.
I started with a base color of Kyoto Pearl, 2 coats, from OPI. I let that dry without a topcoat. I then followed the tutorial........ Right off the bat, I know the first thing I did wrong: I loaded too much and too far up the bristles of the fan brush, so I didn't quite achieve the feathery effect. I think the rest of it was just a matter of too heavy a hand with the other colors. All trial and error; next time, I'll know better xD I topped with OTD's Northern Lights in silver.
Good morning! Yes, I'm late for Pink Wednesday; I was just wiped out yesterday and didn't get to making the post. Seriously hope I'm not getting sick before Thanksgiving >.<
Anyways, I took this opportunity to try out two new pretties. This challenge called for a delicate print. No brainer, really, I did some stamping, but first I started with two coats of Zoya Star.
O.M.G. I can not even say how much I love this color. It is so similiar to my biggest lemming right now, OPI's Santiago Sangria, that I'm truly happy to use it in place of SS. It's a tad bit darker, but that's it. Star went on so nice and smooth, it's no wonder I love Zoya. Here's how it looks on me:
Isn't she pretty??? Easily one of new faves. Now, for the stamping, I used BM plates 5 and 16, and stamped them with Zoya Trixie. Yes, yes, I have a couple silvers I could have used, and no, I didn't need to get Trixie, but I did. Trixie is very similiar to OPI's Rinse Charming, but I haven't done side by side swatches to compare the two.
Close ups of middle and thumb nails:
Can't wait to try the other Zoya pretties I got!
Woot for two posts in one day! Finally winding down on these challenges and I'm trying to get them done before Thanksgiving next week. Five left after this one and done!
So, yeah, yellow nails. I have exactly two yellow polishes now, and I'm really just meh about them both. One I've had for awhile, and I just hate working with it. It streaks so bad, plus it's more a spring yellow than something for fall, so I ended up getting a more golden yellow for this.
Let me just say this: I'm not real impressed with Sinful Colors. The formulas are kinda runny and chipped faster than my other polishes. But the price was right for something that I'm prolly not gonna wear very often. In edition to the two colors in the previous post, I also got Let's Meet from Sinful Colors. While I'm not wild about the color on me, it's a pretty, golden yellow with a touch of shimmer. Even after 3 coats, it was still sheer....
.... So I sponged on Outta Sight Orange from FingerPaints. I just love that orange glitter and I think it made the mani. Topped it all off with SV, of course :P
