Happy Wednesday! My day has just started here, so nothing has gone wrong yet, lol. Can't say that for the same for the last few days, like Saturday...... Drowned rat look is not good for anyone :P Anyways.
For Pink Wednesday, and for today's challenge, I had picked for me half moons. Not a difficult look to achieve, but I think I may try doing it freehand at a later time. For my base color, I used 2 coats of OPI's Over Exposed in South Beach. This is such a beautiful magenta, completely unique in my collection. It's got a touch of shimmer to it with flashes of red and purple. Just beautiful in the sun.
The half moons were a tiny bit tricky. To create the look, I used binder reinforcers that I cut in half (and the ones I found were a pain in the to find at all). Using a small flat brush, to prevent bleeding, and Sally Hansen's Xtreme Wear in Black Out, I just filled in where I "taped" off. I added a little more to my thumbs but left the rest alone. Not bad for my first time, I think.
So, the last few days have been rather busy and I hadn't gotten a chance to post this challenge. Random.org picked for me #7, black and white nails. Unfortunately, I was NOT pleased with how they turned out, so I chose one myself- challenge #5 blue nails. This also gave me the opportunity to showcase one of my newest pretties: DS Glamour from OPI!
I honestly cannot tell you how much I love this. Glamour is my second DS and the first one with this kind of holo-ness. I only used two coats, no base color, and topped with SV. Now, I noticed no difference in the holo with a topcoat as opposed to no topcoat. It looked just as holo to me either way. On to the pics!
Ok, so I've come to the conclusion that I need to work on gradients. I don't think my nails are *too* horrible, but, again, I need to practice. I've seen some pretty spectacular gradients, just not on me :P
For today's challenge, I started with two coats of Sparrow me the Drama from OPI. Still a little streaky after 2 but nothing that I can't deal with.
Using a non latex makeup sponge (I'm allergic to latex >.<), I sponged on Splash of Grenadine from Essie. This is were the gradient started to go "wrong" in my opinion. SOG went on more subtle than I expected, or maybe I just chose the wrong colors; I don't know. Anyways, here's the pic.
Using a fresh sponge, I sponged on Dim Sum Plum and topped it all with SV. This went on darker than I expected. Again, it's not completely horrible, but I think I need to going looking for application tips.
Title says it all, lol. Using random.org yesterday, I got #9 Rainbow Nails. (For those of you that don't know, I'm doing my own version of a mani challenge. Explanation for it is in my previous post.)
I worry about using too many colorson my nails. Too often I've had polish chip and peel because I had too much on them. So instead of using "all the colors of the rainbow", I chose 3: No Room for the Blue, Planks a Lot, and In my Back Pocket, all from OPI. I started out with 2 coats of NRFTB, which is just a pretty medium blue, and topped with SV.
Let that dry, then taped off at an angle and applied PAL and SV over all that.
Let it dry once, taped off again, and applied IMBP and SV over it all.
And that's it! I do want to take a moment and rave about a product I started using last week: Orly's Bonder. O. M. G. I have serious problems with my manis chipping the day after I do them, and that's with using OPI's Chip Skip before I apply anything to the nail. This stuff is amazing! It creates a rubbery surface for your polish so it will last longer. I would have been happy just to not chip the day after, but I don't get chips for at least two days. It's not that I'm unusually hard on my hands, I think I'm just a problem lifter =\ Anyways, that's all!
Yes, I know. It's Saturday. I totally meant to blog yesterday at work, but I got distracted watching True Blood then trying to find episode 7 >.> So here's yesterday mani.
I started off with 3 coats of OPI's Sahara Sapphire. This is a beautiful, cool periwinkle blue frost that you don't see too often. It's very soothing and easy on the eyes and not in-your-face. Definitely a one of a kind in my collection. Topcoated with SV.
To complete this simple look, I added one layer of Silver Shatter and topcoated a second time. It created a subtle and pretty look that I wished I had tried when I first saw it suggested.
A few days ago, I saw a 31 day challenge (for nails lol) posted on Nail Polish & Gossip on Facebook. I looked over the list and figured what the heck. However, I am gonna put my own twist on it by A) doing one every other or every 2 days and B) using a random number generator to choose what I do. There's only one on the list that I KNOW I can't do, but I switched it out to something I've wanted to try. Here's a look at the list-
1) Red nails
2) Orange nails
3) Yellow nails
4) Green nails
5) Blue nails
6) Violet nails
7) Black + white nails
8) Metallic nails
9) Rainbow nails
10) Gradient nails
11) Polka dot nails
12) Stripes
13) Animal print
14) Flowers
15) Delicate print
16) Tribal print
17) Glitter
18) Half moons
19) Galaxies
20) Water marbled (I SUCK at water marbelling, so this is gonna be dry marbelling)
21) Inspired by a color
22) Inspired by a song
23) Inspired by a movie
24) Inspired by a book
25) Inspired by fashion
26) Inspired by a pattern
27) Inspired by artwork
28) Inspired by a flag
29) Inspired by the supernatural
30) Inspired by a tutorial
31) RECREATE YOUR FAVORITE CHALLENGE!! This one will definitely be done last.
As you can see, some won't be very difficult at all to do; others may give me fits :P Have a great weekend!
Hello all! I hope you all are having a great day! So far, soo good for myself :P Let's jump right to today's mani!
This is a new-to-me polish from the sweet Red Stewart. She sent Flower to Flower from OPI. Now I know, this was only from last year's collection, but I didn't grab while I could, especially since I had the other 3. This is an odd shade of pink. It's almost what I'd call bubblegum pink, but it has a bit of a gold flash/shimmer to it. The formula is weird, too. It wants to be a jelly, since in my pics it's 3 coats, but it's not quite....... jelly. It's hard to explain. If you have this color, you know what I mean! I did the three coats of this pretty color at work, so by the time I got home to take pics, rain was threatening. Topped with SV since I wasn't done.....
This is mani I was sporting yesterday. I really love how it looked, I just wish it didn't get me fits AND had lasted longer, but I think that was my fault. Let's start with the base color......
I began this mani with 2 coats of Road House Blues from OPI's fall/winter collection. To my (very small) disappointment, this is more of a "blurple" than a true navy blue. It doesn't bother me too much, it just wasn't what I was expecting. The color went on very nicely but a few nails did need a third coat for full opacity.
Now, I really should have left this mani at that, but no. I had to add a coat of I Juggle...Men........ yeah >.< I have come to the conclusion that IJM is just a pain in the ass to work with. I did this mani over twice because it caused horrible shrinkage, and that was by itself. On the third try, I topcoated with SV and let that completely dry before applying IJM. I still got a teeny bit of shrinkage but it wasn't too bad. It looked really pretty....... until I got to work and I started getting chips -.- I think this was my fault for having done the mani over so many times. Next time, I'll know better. Here's how it looked.
My bad! I try every Wednesday to put up something different, new, or untried for me. Well, I honestly thought the mani I did for today was that :P That'll teach me to look at my previous posts lol.
I wanted something bright and pretty, since Labor Day traditionally marks the end of summer (you wouldn't know it here xD). I am more than ready for fall weather and clothes. However, it's been so dreary and rainy, it's depressing. So I picked OPI's Be a Dahlia Won't You?, it's such a pretty pink. Two coats of this and let it air dry.
Then one coat of I Lily Love You and two of SV. What I didn't notice before is ILLY dries dull, kinda strange. And unless you like your polish feeling rough, you absolutely need 2 coats, or more, of your chosen topcoat.
Next up is a quick pic of my pedi. I picked one of my new ones, Orly's Rock-it from the Mineral FX collection. I love this!! It's a sparkly, raspberry red with flashes of pink. It's very similiar to OPI's The One That Got Away, but more red than TOTGA.
Have a great Wednesday!
Happy Labor Day Weekend! Hope you all are having fun and staying safe! Hubs and I didn't have anything special planned, so it's just a chill and relax weekend. The mani I did was one of those, slap-it-on-just-to-cover-the-nails kind. I wanted to do something dark, since yeah, it's September, but fall won't even put in an appearance until October at the earliest. I picked Black Cherry Chutney from OPI; it's about my darkest color, aside from Black Onyx. Two coats for full opacity, topped with SV. It's nearly impossible to catch the shimmer on camera, but believe, it's a dark shimmery red.
