Good morning! It's a beautiful start to Monday here; the weather's finally starting to feel like fall, yay! I've definitely been enjoying the cooler weather.
Ok, so for today, I got picked for me orange nails. I didn't want to do anything too Halloweeny (yet), but nothing boring either. After seeing lots of nice pics lately, I decided to give the jelly sammich another try (again). I think the problem I had with like my previous attempts was the glitter polish I used. Before, it was the Burlesque glitters I used under the jelly polish. This time, I tried something else.
I started with a base color of In My Back Pocket, one coat, and two coats of Teenage Dream from OPI. Please excuse the little bit of clean up I didn't do; I got strapped for time yesterday and was rushing to finish this mani.
I let all that dry, then added one coat of Y'all Come Back Ta Hear?, topped with SV, and done! I really like how this jelly sammich as opposed to the others, so I think I need to find more glitters like Teenage Dream.
Good morning and happy October! Wow, I can't believe it's October already. You wouldn't know it by the hot weather we're still having here in Florida, although it is *supposed* to change over the weekend. We'll see about that lol.
I was going to post this mani yesterday, but time got away from me. Typical Friday :P I struggled a bit with this challenge; I actually had to think about it a few days before coming up with something I liked. I'm sorry I don't have any progress pics, just finished mani pics. I'll try to explain what I did.
I started with two coats of OPI's Light My Sapphire and topcoated with SV. I let that dry before moving on. Then, I pulled out yellow and orange craft paints and mixed a little of each together to achieve what I think it the color of the sun. Using a spotter brush, size 10/0, I applied that color in a half circle on my thumbs. Using the same brush, rinsed in water, I applied Zoya's Sooki in a smaller half circle on my middle finger (I really need to learn NOT to but red over this dark of blue). Finally, rinsing that brush again in polish remover, I made a shooting star on my pinky fingers. I let all that dry, then used one of my dotting tools to make stars with OPI's Rinse Charming on all my fingers. Added little rhinestones to the shooting stars and topcoated everything with SV. It wasn't very difficult, just a little tedious since I suck at doing anything with my left hand lol. Here are the pics:
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!
