31 Day Challenge, Day 3: I Choose You, Pikachu!

  Day 3 of the 31 Day Challenge is yellow, and I had a really hard time coming up with an idea for this one.  I don't wear a lot of yellow polish, and I really only have two or three truly yellow polishes in my stash of over 500.  I was very tempted to recreate my bumblebee manicure but wanted to try something new.  After coming up with and dismissing several different ideas, I finally realized that the perfect yellow manicure had been staring me in the face the whole time!  And I do mean that literally, as this has been the show I have been watching while I paint my nails the last couple of weeks.

  I have been a pretty big Pokemon fan since back in the good old days of Pokemon Red and Blue.  For Christmas, Becky got me the entire first season on DVD and I have been happily enjoying the nostalgia of what used to be one of my favorite cartoons as a kid.  What better yellow nails than some Pikachu nail art?  I used Nicole by OPI One Voice as my yellow base, and Zoya Tamsen, Zoya Raven, and Zoya Purity for the red, black, and white.  For the pokeball, I started off with a base of Tamsen and added Purity to the lower half, followed by a strip of black and a rhinestone in the middle.

  I got a lot of comments on these nails - from my residents, fellow students, nurses, the lady at the coffee shop... the two days I wore these I think I had around 15 people stop me and tell me how much they loved my nails.  Only half of them knew it was Pokemon without being told.. but that's okay, haha.  Loved this manicure a lot (although I clearly need to figure out how to put topcoat on dots without smearing them).  So much fun!

  If you are interested in a tutorial on this or any look, don't hesitate to ask (although this one is fairly straight forward).  Don't forget to check out Becky's blog to see what she came up with for Day 3!  I will have Day 4, green for you on Sunday, St. Patrick's Day!

31 Day Challenge, Day 2 - Orange: Monarch Butterflies

  Hello all!  Orange didn't end up being a very hard prompt for me - it only took me a few seconds to settle on a design that I have been wanting to try for quite awhile, but never had the proper tools (or the confidence) to actually try.  This look has been done by many others and I am glad to have finally recreated my own version!

  For these monarch butterfly nails, I started off with two coats of Zoya Tanzy, a light orange shimmer.  I then sponged on China Glaze Riveting to give a gradient effect from light to dark shimmery orange.  I used Zoya Raven and a striping brush to paint the lines, and Zoya Purity and a dotting tool to add the white dots at the tips of the wings.. I mean nails.  :)

  I really love how these turned out, especially with the gradient!  I think after doing this once I am getting a better feel for how to use the striping brush well, and it makes me want to totally recreate the look because I think I could do a much better job, haha.  Maybe this summer!  It was a lot easier than I thought it would be, and aside from horribly smearing some of the dots, I really loved it.

  Also, my starting the 31 day challenge prompted my sister Becky to do it along with me!  We are a bit off-synch right now but we'll probably get caught up soon.  Check out her day one nails!  Now I'm off to brainstorm what do to for day three... check back Friday to see what I come up with!

31 Day Nail Art Challenge! Day 1 - Red

  After years of wanting to jump into this challenge and not feeling ready, I have finally decided to take the plunge - with a caveat.  Since my schedule is a bit too hectic to paint my nails daily, I won't actually be completing this in 31 days.  However, it will still hopefully serve to inspire new creative nail art and I am super excited!  So let's get going... day one is red!

  For this challenge I decided to do a fun ladybug manicure - I am in the mood for spring and this was the perfect way to express that on my nails!  I started off with two coats of Zoya Tamsen, and then used Zoya Raven and Zoya Purity for the details.  I finally got the nail art brushes I ordered quite awhile ago and I was excited to get to try them out!  They are definitely easier to work with than the brushes I was using before.

  These little guys were super cute and I got an awful lot of comments on them - even from some of my patients, which was fun.  It is getting a bit warmer here and almost all of the snow from Snowmageddon 2013 has melted... bring on spring!  Although I was not a huge fan of "spring forward" daylight savings time yesterday.  Ugh - I much prefer "falling back" in that regard.  Anyway, if you want to recreate the look, here is a little tutorial I put together!

  Check back Wednesday for Day 2 - Orange!

Let's Get Star-ted

  Good morning all!  Hope you all had a great weekend and are ready for the week ahead.  The last two weeks I only had to work 3 days a week because of all of the snow, so I've gotten sort of lazy, haha.  Time to buckle down and learn some neurology.  But for now, a fun design inspired by a beautiful KBShimmer creation!

  This look started out with three coats of KBShimmer Let's Get Star-ted, a sheer milky white base with medium and large black hex, medium and large blue hex, small and large purple hex and black star glitter.  While I love the polish on it's own, the colors were calling to me to add something else, and I used Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Blue Streak and Zoya Mira to add the swoopy tips, and Zoya Raven to outline the purple.  On the ring finger I added star rhinestomes from a Cheeky nail wheel.

  Let's Get Star-ted applied fairly smoothly for a glitter, and I was very impressed that I didn't have to hunt around much at all for the stars.  Placement was also fairly easy and I only moved around a glitter once, for the most part it spread out really well.  I think I am going to have to invest in a few more of these fabulous glitters, I am really impressed!

A Valentine Look with Shimmer Eva

  Today I have for you all another amazing glitter from Shimmer - this time featured in some Valentine-inspired nail art.

Outdoors, shade

For this look, I started off with two coats Zoya Izzy on all but my ring finger (and thumb).  For those nails, I used two coats of Shimmer Eva alone.  Eva is a deep burgundy jelly with red and silver fine glitter.  The layering of the jelly base gives it a lot of depth, making some of the silver glitters take on a pink hue.  This applied really well and two coats gave full coverage.  I then used Bundle Monster plate BM-317 and Zoya Trixie to stamp on the hearts, added Eva to the tips and used Trixie to create the silver line.

Indoors, light box

  This was a fun look and pretty simple to create.  Eva looks great both on its own as well as layered, and as always I was impressed with the quality of the polish!  Eva and other Shimmer beauties can be found at Cindy's Blog or Etsy Store!

The polishes featured in this post  were provided to Polishology for review purposes and represents my honest and unbiased opinion. 

Mardi Gras!

  Happy Mardi Gras!  While I don't have any fun celebration plans for the day (I mostly plan to go to work, come home, and study), I of course had to plan out a fun Mardi Gras manicure.

Indoors, light box

  For these nails, I used three coats of China Glaze Glitter All The Way, a multi-colored glitter made up of gold, green, purple, and red glitters in a clear base.  As soon as I saw this color in the Holiday Joy collection, I just knew I would be wearing it for Mardi Gras!  On the ring finger, I tried out my very first fishtail pattern using Zoya Ziv, Tru, and Holly.  It was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be and I really love the look!  I will definitely have to use this technique again soon.  Hope you all have a great day!

Indoors, light box

Valentine's Day Sand Art - OPI Liquid Sand

  I don't know about you, but I am really enjoying the new textured polishes that are coming out.  I think the idea is really fun, and thus far the polishes have been really pretty.  While we have seen lots of swatches of the various textured polished, one thing I haven't seen much of is nail art with textured polish.  I was curious how nail art would turn out with OPI's Liquid Sand polishes, so I decided to give it a try!

  For these nails, I used OPI The Show Must Go On and OPI Stay The Night.  Stay The Night is a black based polish with bits of bright fuchsia glitter that dries to a rough, sandy finish.  The fuchsia peeks out like embers under molten lava, it is a really unique look.  Here is two coats of Stay The Night alone.

  For the designs, I used both a dotting tool as well as blue painters tape.  For the index finger, I used the dotting tool to make dots of decreasing size with the Liquid Sand.  For the middle finger, I used small strips of tape and painted over Show Must Go On with one coat of Stay The Night.  On the ring finger, I used the dotting tool to make hearts with The Show Must Go.  I used a similar technique on the pinky finger with Stay The Night and outlined the heart in small dots.

  While I'm not sure the Liquid Sand polishes would stamp well (I didn't try it but I would guess no), there are a lot of other nail art techniques they work well with.  I didn't put a topcoat over any of the sand polish here, but that would also be possible to give it a bit different look.  Lots of fun possibilities!  Of course, lets not forget the beautiful duochrome of the base color here...

Duochrome!

  Have you tried any sort of nail art or designs with any of the Liquid Sands or other textured polish?  If so I'd love to hear your ideas and see what you came up with!  :)

With A Cherry On Top

  While I was creating this new layout, I kept getting ideas for matching nail designs using similar colors and patterns.  I have always wanted to do a cherry manicure of some sort, and this presented the perfect opportunity!

  For these nails I started out with one of my very favorite colors, China Glaze For Audrey, on all but my ring finger.  As an accent nail, I used Nicole by OPI Please Red-cycle.  I then added white polka dots using Konad Special White polish and plate BM-19, and the darker blue swirls to the other fingers using Nicole by OPI Khloe Had A Little Lam-Lam and plate m64.  For fun, here are the nails with stamping alone, before adding the cherries:

  For the cherries, I started out with Nicole by OPI Please Red-Cycle for the main body of the red cherries and Nicole by OPI Up & Kim-ing Pink for the pink cherries.  Stems were added with OPI Did It On 'Em, and the white reflection with Zoya Purity.

  This design was a lot of fun to create, and to wear!  I do, however, need to find some better paintbrushes for fine details on nail art, I think mine are too large and floppy.  I had only planned on wearing this for a day, but ended up leaving it on for three because it was too much fun to take off.  Got a lot of comments on this one! 

The Weighted Companion Cube

  When Becky saw this polish, she knew I would need it.  As a huge fan of Portal and Portal 2, I have snatched up a lot of related merchandise, and what could be more perfect than a polish designed around my BFF in the game, the companion cube?

Outdoors, sun

  For my companion cube nails, I started off with two coats of Zoya Dove on all but the ring fingers, followed by two coats of NailsIT Companion Cube.  This polish is a medium gray jelly with pink heart, white square, silver hex, and small iridescent glitters.  The hearts were surprisingly east to get out, but I found that adding a second coat made them just a bit too grayed-out, so I used a brush dipped in remover to brighten them up again.  Love this glitter!

Outdoors, shade... with Wheatley

  On the ring finer, I started with two coats of Zoya Kelly, followed by painting on the light gray details with Zoya Dove and the pink details with Nicole by OPI Up & Kim-ing Pink.  I added a pink rhinestone in the center of the heart for good measure  Looks very nice with my companion cube plushie.  

Outdoors, shade

  I pretty much love this manicure... almost as much as the game.  And the cube itself.  I'm not going to lie, I probably ran around for about an hour trying to figure out how to save it... ANYWAY if you haven't played Portal I strongly suggest you do, it is really an amazing game.

  Look at me still talking when there's science to do...

Busy as a Bumble Bee!

  I have had this idea for a manicure sitting around in my head for such a long time - I am so glad I finally took the time to do it!

Outdoors, shade

  For these nails, I started with China Glaze Sunshine Pop on all but the ring finger, which I painted with China Glaze Kinetic Candy.  For the yellow nails, I added small strips of blue painter's tape and painted over each with black using Sally Hansen Xtreme Black Out.  Finally, on the yellow-and-black nails I added small 3D blue flowers I got from... somewhere.  I topped it off with about a bazillion coats of Seche Vite.  For the blue ring finger, I first added flowers with Konad Special White and plate m82.  Next I painted on the little bee using CG Sunshine Pop and Sally Hansen Black Out, and added the little trail of dots with a dotting tool.  I also added yellow to the middle of the flowers with Sunshine Pop and a dotting tool, and finally added a yellow rhinestone to the center of the largest flower.

Outdoors, sun

  I absolutely love how this manicure turned out!  I think it is totally adorable and perfect for spring!  I have to admit, the little 3D flowers drove me insane - I kept messing with them, which probably didn't help them to stay on.  A few fell off over the course of the three days I wore this, some in the shower and another while just working.  I think if I had used nail glue to attach maybe they would have stayed on better, but mine had dried up so I just attached them with polish (and the bazillion coats of Seche Vite).  I got a lot of compliments on this one!  It took awhile but it was totally worth it.  :)

Katwalk Nail Art

  Here is a fun and simple little mani I did awhile back using Nicole by OPI Kendall on the Katwalk, one of my favorite blue glitters.

Outdoors, shade

  I wanted to do something that would highlight the purple and green glitters that are found in the base color.  I used OPI Grape... Set... Match! to add sparkly purple tips to each nail, then I added the green dots using a dotting tool and Zoya Holly.

Close-up of detail

  While this manicure was fairly simple, I really like how all of the colors worked together.  I absolutely love this glitter and really like the purple and green mixed in with the blue, and this was a great way to showcase all of those colors!

Happy First Birthday, Nova!

  Nova turned one on Monday!  It has been a bit of a crazy year, raising a puppy - kind of like a practice-baby, haha.  For someone who has never had a dog before, it was frustrating at times, but she has grown into a (mostly) very well behaved little pooch and we are so glad we added her to our family!  :D

Nova and her Birthday cake!

We let her sniff at the whole thing a bit before we cut her off a chunk to eat

  I thought that a great way to honor my cute little puppy for her birthday would be to wear her namesake polish, Zoya Nova!

Outdoors, shade

   I borrowed this pinkish-purple glitterbomb from Becky, and somehow after sitting around for several months is has turned totally watery - which is interesting, since normally the glitters I have get thicker over time, not thinner.  Any thoughts on that one?  Because of this I actually layered Zoya Nova over Zoya Rihana, a pretty perfectly matching shade.  Then I used Zoya Trixie and Red Angel plate RA 101 to add the tips.  Finally, I used Butter London The Black Knight to add cute little paw prints on my ring finger and thumb using a dotting tool.

Outdoors, sun

  Nova is a gorgeous color - while the glitter is a silvery light pink, the base is a sheer fuchsia, and when layered the glitter takes on many different colors, giving the polish a lot of depth.  A great polish with an equally great name!  Happy Birthday to my sweet puppy - it has been a great first year and I look forward to many more years to come!

Tired after a birthday run with her Daddy :)

Let's Go Bowling!

  Today my Wildcats play in the Cottonbowl in Dallas - and I am lucky enough to get to go!  Dan and I are heading down as we speak with my parents and my sister.  My older sister, brother-in-law, and the adorable baby are already there (they live there) and we are all headed to the game tonight.  I am not sure what the outcome will be.. but I will be cheering on the cats!  To pump up my K-State spirit, I decided to do some Wildcat nails - freehand style.  :)

  For these nails I started out with OPI Funky Dunky as a base on all but the index finger, which is Sally Hansen Xtreme White On.  For the base of the Willie the Wildcat head I was going to use Zoya Kelly, but it was a bit dark - so it is a mix of Zoya Kelly and Zoya Casey.  The lighter fur is Zoya Casey.  The eyes were done with a dotting tool.  The "KSU" on the index was done with Casey and Funky Dunky, and the football with OPI Cheyenne Pepper.  Stamping done with Konad plate m57, Konad white, and Zoya Casey to fill in some spots.

  This is my second attempt at freehand, and I think it turns out pretty well.  The animal (hopefully) looks a bit more like what I was initially intending - a wildcat - and not an otter.  One thing I have learned from my experience with freehand nail art is that I am definitely not ambidextrous.  For now I will spare you the small sad kitty and deflated football on my right hand, haha.  Hopefully I will get better in time.  I am so impressed by all of you ladies who are so good at freehand, it is tough!  I am having fun learning though.

Go Cats!

Wintery Christmas - Free Hand Style!

  I finally did it!  I took the plunge and decided to try my luck at free-hand nail art!  I am very proud of this, since I have been shying away from it for so long, assuming it would turn out terrible.  And while it is not totally amazing, it is at least a start - and still fairly cute, in my opinion.  :)

Natural Light

  For these nails, I started off with two coats of OPI What's With the Cattitude? as the light sky blue base.  On all but the ring finger, I stamped snowflakes using Konad White and plate m59.  I also sponged white onto the tips in a fluffy gradient to give the look of snow.  Finally, I painted the reindeer on the ring finger.  I started off with OPI Suzi Loves Cowboys for the dark brown, then OPI San Tan-Tonio for the muzzle and antlers.  I did the eyes with a dotting tool and added the red rhinestone for his nose.  Finally I attempted some mouth-lines with black, but they came out a bit thicker and fuzzier than I had hoped.

  Overall I am very pleased with my first attempt at free-hand nail art.  The reindeer came out looking just a tad bit like some other sort of animal (his face is a bit too round, I realized)... so whether he looks like a reindeer to you, or he looks more like a dog/monkey/walrus/seal/otter with antlers, that is not the point.  The point is that I finally took the plunge, and whatever species he is, he is still pretty cute.  So you can expect to see me playing around with freehand more often on here now, yay!  If you have any ideas or suggestions or anything, let me know! :)

Layering with Nfu-Oh 55

  Ever since I saw my first swatches of Nfu-Oh flakies, I have been kind of obsessing about getting my hands on some.  Becky got me a gorgeous one for Christmas and I got to play with it a couple of weeks ago!

Outdoors, shade

  Since I had seen on a couple of other blogs that this polish was fairly sheer, I decided to play with layering on this one.  I started off with two coats of Orly It's Up To Blue, a shimmery turquoise.  I then added two coats of Nfu-Oh 55, which is a great sheer green full of gold flakies.  I love this combination together!  It reminds me maybe of a mermaid.. or something along those lines.  This was just gorgeous, and I got a lot of compliments on it!

Indoors, artificial light

  After a couple of days of wear, I was ready for something a bit different... but still not done enjoying this combo!  So I tried something new, and randomly slapped little pieces of blue painter's tape on my nails, painting the exposed areas with China Glaze Little Drummer Boy.  Unfortunately all I have is this late night picture in kind of crappy indoor lighting, so it looks almost black instead of pretty dark blue.  I thought the blue looked nice with the combo I already had on, and the random design was kind of fun.  I may try something like this again in the future.

  I am loving my very first Nfu-Oh, I think I am going to have to get me some more of these pretties! :)

Halloween Candy Corn Nails

  Today I have for you my version of candy corn nails - a classic Halloween candy made into a fun french-inspired mani!

Indoors, Artificial lighting

  This is an idea I have had since I first really started my polish obsession a few months ago, although I have to say I was a little afraid to try it since I have historically been somewhat bad at free-painting tips.  I think it turned out fairly well though!  This is actually my second attempt at this mani.. more to come on that story a bit later though, haha.

Indoors, natural lighting lamp

  For these nails, I used NailTek as a base coat and then added two coats of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On for the white.  I then added a coat of Seche Vite over the white (something I decided to try after the first attempt; more to come) and over that used two coats of OPI Brights Power, the orange (and it is indeed very bright).  After another coat of Seche, I finished off with two coats of Nicole by OPI One Voice for the yellow tips, and topped it all off with a final coat of Seche!  I think these nails are fun and festive, and I got a lot of great compliments on them!

Mmm, candy corn!

  Overall I was very pleased with this (second attempt) manicure.  My lines were fairly decent and it really looks like candy corn on the nails!  There were a couple of faint streaks of color that got on the white, which I was a bit unhappy with, but nothing very noticeable in person, I think.  After a couple of days wearing these, I decided that a coat of Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure would look pretty awesome on top, and it turns out I was totally right - in my opinion!  :)

Outdoors, partial shade - look at that shine!

  You can see that there was some tip wear, almost like the polish shrank up a bit.  I wonder if some of that is because by this point I had something like thirteen (!!) coats of polish on my tips... yikes!  But it was a really fun mani and I enjoyed it a lot.

First attempt - looks okay, but really thick

  As for the first attempt, which you can see above... I added colors in the opposite direction, starting with yellow and ending with white - since white tips are classic I thought I would try that first.  This caused some problems for me, since the yellow took three coats to be opaque, and the white was a bit thick.  By the end I had a totally gross thick goopy mess on my tips.  Also, the white tips yellowed quite a bit and there was more significant color streaking (neither of which is quite as obvious in this particular photo), which is why I decided to add the top coat in between colors.  I was debating whether to leave it a bit or try it again when I got a HUGE smudge in what I thought were fairly dry nails, and then wet polish started oozing out.. yuck.  So I took it off and switched the order and it looked great!  Much less gloopy build-up and actually, with my nail shape, I think looked a bit more like real candy corn with yellow at the tips.

  Have you ever tried a candy corn mani?  Do you even like candy corn?  I have noticed that it is one of those love it or hate it things.  My dad and I love it, and I think everybody else in my family is not such a fan.  Maybe I should take some over to my parent's house and share some of my bag with Dad, since I doubt they will buy any over there... :)  

  To see another great candy corn mani, and to see a tutorial, you can head on over to BABBLING BROOKE.

  Also just a reminder to ENTER MY GIVEAWAY if you have not yet!