Happy Birthday To Me....

  My 26th birthday was a couple of weeks ago, and I did this fun brightly colored water marble for the event.

Outdoors, sunlight

  I started off with a base coat of OPI Pink Friday, and then marbled with OPI Funky Donkey, OPI Fly, and Nicole by OPI All Kendall-ed Up.  I added the tips using Konad Special White and plate BM17.  Of course I had to top it off with some China Glaze Fairy Dust.  These nails were perfect for my birthday, since these are some of my very favorite colors!

Outdoors, shade

Retro Spring Water Marble

  The gorgeous colors from the Zoya Beach collection were all sitting in a row, calling out to me... since I couldn't choose just one, I decided to go for four at once!

Outdoors, shade

  After a base coat of Sally Hansen Xtreme White On, I marbled Zoya Wednesday, Shelby, Arizona and Tracie together using water marbling technique.  When combined these colors totally make me think retro... so they needed some disco glam as well, haha.  I topped it all off with a coat of Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure and Seche Vite and was good to go.  These nails were fun and bright and I really enjoyed them!

a-England Saint George

  I have been lemming after a few of the a-England polishes for a very long time.  When the new collection came out, I knew it was finally time to give in and order a few.  It was hard to pick which ones to get, since I wanted quite a few of them, but in the end I got Tristam and Lady of the Lake from The Mythicals collection, and Saint George from the new The Legend collection.  I had a tough time deciding which to try out first, so I went with the newest of the bunch, a-England Saint George.

Outdoors, sunlight

  St George is a super pigmented rich teal with a somewhat subtle but still gorgeous holographic effect.  When I say super pigmented, I really mean it - this is one coat.  Granted, it was over a fairly opaque ridge-filler base, so normally it may have taken two coats, but I am still pretty impressed.  And that holo is so gorgeous!  It is not as holo as the other two I got, but it is still stunning.

Mmmm, holo

Outdoors, shade - still pretty!

  Since I was dying to try out the other colors too, I later decided to try a water marble with them just on the ring fingers.  While they played well with the water, they turned out a bit too dark to really see much of a difference, but it was still kind of cool so here are some pictures of that as well.

Right hand, water marbled ring finger

Left hand, water marbled ring finger

  Overall I would say water marble with colors this similar and dark doesn't work so well, haha.  But it was still very pretty.  You can also kind of tell in these pictures that the other two colors are more holo than St George.  I am totally in love with these three polishes (I am actually wearing Tristam now as I type this, and can't wait to try out Lady of the Lake soon!) and I may be back to place a second order sometime in the near future.  In particular, I am thinking I should have added Dragon to my collection, but maybe next time.  :)  What is your favorite a-England polish?

K-S-U Wildcats! Holographic Water Marble

  Here is a water marble that I wore a few weeks back to a home basketball game of my Wildcats!  Unfortunately, it didn't help us win that game... but I am hoping posting it now will help us out as we continue on in the NCAA Tournament!  I have to admit, I may be a bit too optimistic - I have them winning the whole thing in my bracket, haha.  But our family bracket pool is just for fun, so why not?  :)

Outdoors, sun

  For this water marble, I used China Glaze OMG and China Glaze LOL.  I started out with two coats of OMG as the base, then added the water marbling with both OMG and LOL.  I topped it off with a coat of Seche Vite.

Outdoors, sun

Right hand - sun

Indoors, artificial light

Outdoors, shade

  My favorite fingers are definitely the index and the ring fingers on my left hand, but they all turned out pretty fun.  I love water marbling with holographics - it combines two of my favorite things in polish!  Here's to hoping that my Wildcats continue to do well in the tournament!  We are going to need all of the help we can get against Syracuse... :)

  Who do you have winning it all in your NCAA bracket?

Spring Water Marble

  Here is a water marble I did with a couple of the colors from the OPI Nicki Minaj collection.  This ended up a tad bit more jumbled than I originally intended but it was still really fun, and totally spring-y.  :)

Outdoors, overcast

  I started off with a base coat of OPI Skull and Glossbones, then added marbling using OPI Did It On 'Em and OPI Pink Friday.  I added white flowers using Konad Special White and BM-205.  I added colored dots using the same pink and green and a dotting tool to the middle of the white flowers.  Finally, I topped it all off with China Glaze Fairy Dust.  I perhaps added a smidge too much to this mani, haha... but again, I still think it is really fun.  I am ready for spring!

Merry Christmas!

  Hope everyone has been having a fabulous Christmastime week!  I know I have been having a lot of fun with family coming into town and present wrapping and decorating... not to mention my committee meeting at work that went pretty well.  I have actually been so busy with that I spent two whole days with naked nails.  Now I finally have them decked out for Christmas!

Natural lighting

  For these Christmas nails, I stared off with two coats of OPI Glitzerland on all but the ring finger, and for the ring finger did three coats of China Glaze Twinkle Lights, a gorgeous gold, red, and green glitter from their 2011 Let It Snow collection.  Then I added water marbling of the same colors to all of the other nails, using OPI Glitzerland, OPI Affair in Red Square, and Zoya Holly.  I really like how the colors on the marbled nails are just about the exact colors found in the glitter - it really ties everything together nicely!  I got a lot of compliments on this one at the family party last night, which is always fun.  :)

  Hope you all have a great Christmas Eve today and a Merry Christmas tomorrow!  As a heads up, next week I will be giving away the Nicole by OPI Holiday Glitters collection for a "New Year... New Polish!" giveaway - so be sure to come back and enter!

Thanksgiving Water Marble

  Hope you all are having a fabulous Thanksgiving week so far, and have a lot of fun (and food) planned for tomorrow!  I wanted to do a Thanksgiving water marble this year, and although it turned out a bit differently than expected, I am still really pleased with the results.

Indoors, artificial light - right hand

Indoors, artificial light, left hand

See Hidden Treasure Shine!

  I started off with two coats of OPI Take the Stage from last year's Burlesque collection, which is also the polish I used for last year's Thanksgiving Day nails.  After trying a lot of combinations of polish that refused to play nicely with marbling, I settled on OPI Cheyenne Pepper, OPI Uh-Oh Roll Down the Window, and China Glaze Mommy Kissing Santa for water marbling.  This gave a fairly muted effect on some nails, stronger on others, but overall there is a nice fall feeling.  Then I topped with a coat of Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure, and added Konad using Essie Little Brown Dress and leaves from BM04.

Outdoors, natural light, right hand

Outdoors, natural light, left hand

  As I said, this is not exactly what I was envisioning originally but I do enjoy the final effect.  I love what Hidden Treasure brings to this manicure.  It kind of looks like all of the colors you might see in the leaves this time of the year, and I love that.  A great fall - and Thanksgiving - manicure.

  Hope everyone has a wonderful day tomorrow!  What are your big plans?  We have two different family meals we are going to, so I know I will be completely stuffed by the end of the day.  I am so excited to spend time with everyone though, and then for the Christmas season to officially begin!  :)

Halloween Marbling/Go CATS!!

  Today is two days before Halloween.  It also happens to be Homecoming at K-State, and I am lucky enough to get to go to the game!  That's right, I am talking about my #10 ranked, undefeated K-State Wildcats!  So what to do, Halloween nails, or KSU nails....?  How about I just combine a bit of both for the ultimate mani?

Shade

  Purple and white in honor of my Cats, and orange and black in honor of Halloween.  I started this off with two coats of OPI Funky Donkey on all nails but ring finger, and three coats of Wet n Wild Fantasy Makers Creepy Pumpkin on the ring finger.  Then I did water marbling with SH Xtreme Black Out and OPI Funky Donkey on all nails, including on the tip of the ring finger (using a tip guide).  I then added cute little skulls from BM-225 (index finger) and BM-211 using Konad Special White.

Early Morning Sun

  I love how this came out!  It is a bit different than I originally planned - in my original thoughts for this mani, I was not going to have an entirely orange accent nail.  But then I found Creepy Pumpkin and I had to do it.  It is a gorgeous, squishy jelly orange full of microglitter.  It was a bit of a pain to apply but I love the final look.  And the bottle is completely adorable!

Bottle Shot!

   Have a great weekend-before-Halloween!  I am off to root for my Cats now... it is going to be a tough game for them (we are playing #11 Oklahoma) but I think we can pull it off.  :)

OMG! Water Marbling!

  I realized I hadn't done a water marble manicure in quite a long time - I have had some failed attempts, but that of course does not count.  I was trying to decide what colors to use when I was struck with the idea to do a holographic  water marble!

  For this water marble manicure, I started off with three coats of China Glaze OMG! silver holo as a base.  I then swirled China Glaze OMG, TMI, LOL, and 2NITE for the water marble effect and ta-da!  Holographic water marble.

Close up of thumb detail - my favorite nail!

  The thumb was my favorite on this one.  The last couple of times I water marbled, I did one finger at a time, but this time I did two-three fingers at a time to conserve polish and go a bit faster, so each nail turned out a little different, which is kind of fun.

Outdoors, shade

  Also pretty in the shade!  These colors go really well together.  I forgot how much I like water marbling, I should do it more often.  It is kind of a pain (especially when you have your heart set on a polish that was just not meant for the technique) but turns out really fun.  Hope you all like it!

Classic Gold and Black - For Nail Art Contest!

  I was challenged to THE DUEL by Amy over at Starving Nail Addict - which is a really great new blog, you should definitely check it out!  The challenge was to come up with any manicure using gold.  I love gold as a fall color, and decided I wanted to go with something really classic - and classy!

Outdoors, last-bits-of-light shade, no flash

  For these nails, I decided to combine several elements, including marbling, stamping, and the use of some tip guides.  After two coats of Seche Recondition (which is what I have been using the past few manicures as a base coat), I started off with two coats of OPI Glitzerland, which is a gorgeous champagne-gold from the fall Swiss collection.  I then did water marbling with OPI Glitzerland and Sally Hansen Xtreme Black Out.

Indoors, artificial light

  I added a coat of Seche Vite in between at this point for fast drying, and then added black tips using SH Black Out and Orly tip guides, which I really enjoyed using for tips!  As the final touch, I used Konad plate m80 to add an intricate tip design with.  I topped it all off with another coat of Seche Vite!

Outdoors, last-bit-of-light shade, and flash

  I really like the way this turned out.  Black and gold is such a gorgeous combination that it was the first thing that came to mind when I read that the challenge was any manicure involving gold in the design.  I feel like this is so classy, yet also very fun with the whimsical water marbling pattern and the lacy tips!

Close-up in artificial light

  Now here comes the part where I ask you...

Please vote for me!

You may either vote here in my comments, or on STARVING NAIL ADDICT.  The rules for voting are simple: list the designs from your most favorite first!  Here are the other entries:

 Little Grean Heart

Swaafie

 

Starving Nail Addict

 

  

  Here is the official description on how to vote:

   And here's how you vote: Make a list of the designs, starting with your favorite one first. Make sense? List your favorite design first, then your second favorite, and so on and so forth. (I'm giving out points based on the ranking of the designs, but if you are torn between designs, then go ahead and clarify which ones tie for what place).

   Voting is open from now until about the end of the week (so ladies, get as many people to vote as you can!). Just put your votes in the comment box. Oh, and I don't care whose blog you vote on, I will be checking and double checking all of them.

  I would really appreciate any votes for my design you guys think it deserves!  Remember, you can vote here or on her blog, either will do.  Thanks so much, hope you like my classic black and gold mani! :D

Halloween Water Marbling

  Last night I got the inspiration to try water marbling again - and I think it turned out fairly well this time!

Outdoors, full sun

  Yay, I actually managed to come up with somewhat of a uniform pattern this time!  I tried to alternate the direction of the swirls for something a bit more interesting.  Overall this marbling went well - still some air bubbles, I need to work on that in the future.

  For this marbling, I started off with two coats of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On as a base on the nails.  Then I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On, OPI Funky Donkey, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Black Out, and OPI Brights Power for the marbling effect.  The orange did pale up a bit, looking almost a peachy color, not quite the bright orange that you see in the bottle.  But it is still fun, and still very Halloween-y, I think!

Outdoors, shade

  This afternoon as I was sorting through my polish collection, I got the urge to try a new sparkly glow-in-the-dark over this.  It is a lot of fun!  Unfortunately, I can't seem to get any good pictures of it glowing in the dark, so I can't show you that feature, but it is pretty cool.

  I am really pleased with this water marbling attempt, I think it turned out quite a bit better than the last couple of times!  Even my sister Becky, who didn't really like water marbled nails before, told me this was pretty cool.  I think it is a really fun and interesting technique, and I will keep practicing and hope to improve even further in the future!

Adventures in Marbling, Part Two

I decided to try out water marbling again yesterday, this time for the K-State vs. Iowa State game (KSU won, by the way)!  It was an interesting experiment.

Outdoors, shade, no flash

  For this marbling, I used OPI Purple With A Purpose, Sally Hansen Xtreme White On, and Nicole by OPI Positive Energy.  I ran into a bit of a problem with this marbling - the purple did not want to cooperate at all.  I think this was because it was older, a bit over halfway gone, and starting to get just a touch too thick.  I had a hard time getting it to spread out in the water - on three of the nails, this caused the polish to simply collect up and then didn't settle nicely when I dipped the nail into the water, resulting in a bit of a jumbled mess.  As such, I was planning on making a tutorial this time around, but decided not to since I was having issues.  I will try again soon and hopefully get something more workable!  The following is my right hand:

Outdoors, shade, no flash

  Also, please excuse the horrible clean-up (or lack thereof), since it was very late last night when I did this and I was in a huge hurry this morning when I was taking the photos.  They are not nearly that messy now.  :)

  I tried to get a bit more of a true marbling look this time, rather than just a few blocks of colors.  While I was more successful at that, I still lack any sort of clear pattern, even though I did all of the nails one-at-a-time this time around.  I blame my issues with the polish on this, although it is probably also inexperience.  Next time!




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By September 30th

Orly Sweet Marbling

Today I was excited to try water marbling for the first time.  I also was thrilled to find the Orly Sweet collection still hanging around my Ulta - I have been looking for it for several weeks now!

Outdoors, partial shade, no flash

For this manicure, I first used my base coat of NailTek, followed by a coat of Sally Hansen Xtreme White On, to give the colors a nice base to go onto.  Then I used Orly Lemonade, Orly Snowcone, and Orly Pixy Stix for my marbling colors, and topped it off with two coats of Seche Vite.

Sweet!

Colors in the water

The water marbling process was fun, although a little (or a lot) messy.  I did get a few bubbles on my nails, which I am not quite sure how to get rid of (advice welcome, of course).  I also don't really have any sort of coherent pattern on the nails, it is just whatever I ended up with.  I may try for a bit more of a pattern next time I marble.  Another thing I noticed, and that you can see in the pictures, is that the application was a bit weird over my silk-and-glue bandage on my middle finger.  You can see quite a lot of white showing through there. However, I think it was a decent first attempt at marbling.

Outdoors, full sun, no flash

I also LOVE these colors!  I know it is a bit pastel for going into fall, but I was just super excited to give them a try.  Besides, sometimes a bit of springtime can be cheerful and fun, even if it is not currently "in season," heh.  I think these colors are very cute together.

What do you guys think?  Do you like it?  Any water marbling tips from the experts?

ALSO - I bought the polish for my very first giveaway today, and I will be posting it very soon (tonight or tomorrow).  It will be followers only, and if you are already a follower when I post it you will automatically get an extra entry if you sign up!  :)