31 Day Challenge, Day 17 - Glitter

Yes, yes I have been seriously slacking on this and yes, I skipped Tribal (I'll come back to it later).

I did today's nails really quick-like and it shows...I just wanted to get something out.

I used Fingerpaints Purple Palette as my base color. It's super sheer and I ended up doing 4 coats to get to this opacity because I chose to not use any 'underwear'. Then I did some drippy tips with Orly Halo. It looks much better in person than in the pictures but if I did it over again I'd use a creme for the drips...much easier to work with.

Don't mind my skin owie - I got too zealous with my file.

12 Days of Christmas, Day 6 - Snowman

Hello everyone!  It's another challenge day and I had fun doing this one. :D

I have to say I am enjoying having longer nails.  It's still working in miniature but it seems a little easier with a little more length to work with.

So, for today's nails I started with 2 coats of an unnamed Julep shimmery metallic peacock blue that came in a Mystery box.  It drives me nuts that there's not a name on any of the bottles and I don't see one that is a match on the Julep site.  Grrr.  Anyway, it's a pretty blue and applied relatively well.  I didn't really have any issues with streaking or brush strokes showing which is amazing because I usually fail at even basic application with these types of polishes.  Over that I did a light coat of Sinful Colors Opal Glitter, I was hoping this would be kind of snow-like.  Then I did some freehand snow drifts and the head of my snowman using OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls (this was recently on clearance at Ulta and I picked up 4 bottles, I love it that much!).  I used a medium striping brush to draw on the hat and filled it in with Fingerpaints Black Expressionism.  Then I used rhinestones for the face detail and some pearl studs on my other nails as falling snow.

What do you think?  I'm pretty happy with them - it's a nice change from my last couple of posts. :D

Be sure to visit the other participating blogs!

XOXO Alexis Leigh

Purple Castle

It's All About the Polish

A Ginger's Nail

The Polished Mommy

Teen Polish Junkie

Fancy Schmancy Nails

Mari552

Fairytale Charm

nailzbyroro

12 Days of Christmas, Day 5

Ever have one of those days where nothing you do comes out right and you change your polish 8 times and you curse your hands for not doing what your brain sees?  For today's challenge I had a definite idea of what I wanted to do but polish gods conspired against me - I couldn't even get stamping right today. :P

I ended up doing 2 coats of Fingerpaints Merry Mistletoe followed by a reverse glitter gradient using Julep Colbie.  In my frustration I slapped on some Cina holly decals that don't even really look like holly but by the end of the night I had ceased caring lol.

Am I happy with it?  No, it's already gone and replaced by some lovely Cult Nails polish which I will show later. :)

Be sure to check out the other bloggers taking part in Iced Lacquer's Challenge!

XOXO Alexis Leigh

Purple Castle

It's All About the Polish

A Ginger's Nail

The Polished Mommy

Teen Polish Junkie

Fancy Schmancy Nails

Mari552

Fairytale Charm

nailzbyroro

Snow in the Valley of the Sun

I grew up in the Northeast US with trees, grass, seasons and snow but now I live in the middle of the desert with very little variation in weather.  I like to say we have 2 seasons here:  summer and not summer.  Anyway, sometimes I really miss the snow so I now have it on my nails.  This was made possible by the awesome haul from Sally and Ulta today, largely courtesy of the best boyfriend in the whole world.  A picutre of that follow as well.

On my nails is a base of 2 coats of Fingerpaints Midnight Sleigh Ride.  This is such an amazing blue.  It's super pigmented (I could have done just a single coat and been fine) and has a tone of lovely micro glitter.  So sparkly! I then stamped with OPI Alpine Snow using Mash plate 47.  Over that I put a light, light coat of Orly Shining Star and topped it all off with Seche Vite.

Here is the Midnight Sleigh Ride on its own.  The first picture is with the flash, second is without.

Here's the mani after stamping but before adding the Shining Star.  You can tell I haven't stamped in a while.

And here's the final product after adding the subtle sparkle from Shining Star:

Aaaand here's the haul:

Did I mention he's amazing?

A First Try at Leopard

I'm starting to gain a little more confidence when it comes to doing my nails so I am trying to make myself take on designs that I find intimidating and leopard print, for all its simplicity, is one of those.  For this I used 2 coats of Inline for the Crown as my base, the center of the rosettes is Call the Coppers (a super pretty copper glitter) and the outlines are Black Expressionism.  I used a small dotting tool to do the spots and outlines.

Despite the bubbles in the gold base which I am going to pretend don't exist I think it came out pretty decent for a first attempt.  I definitely need more practice but in general I am pleased with this.

What do you think?

Colors Used:
Ulta Professional - Inline for the Crown
Nina Ultra Pro - Call the Coppers
Fingerpaints - Black Expressionism

My Own Take On Camouflage

A friend of mine suggested that I do camo nails the other day.  I thought it would be fun to do so I started looking at different camo patterns and comparing the color schemes with my polish collection (going through the polishes is not an easy feat, I tell ya).  I eventually decided on a woodland camouflage based on this image:

The colors I used were:

Essie - Miss Fancy Pants
OPI - A-Taupe the Space Needle
OPI - Uh-Oh Roll Down the Windows
OPI - Get in the Espresso Lane
Fingerpaints - Black Expressionism
NYC - Matte Me Crazy

I painted a base coat of Uh-Oh Roll Down the Windows on all my nails then using a small (but not the smallest) dotting tool I started drawing on the pattern.  I began with A-Taupe the Space Needle then moved to Get in the Expresso Lane, added a few blobs of Miss Fancy Pants then did some accent with Black Expressionism.  When all that was done and somewhat dry I covered it with a thin coat of Out the Door topcoat then did a coat of NYC Matte Me Crazy.  Honestly the matte made this design - it just didn't look right all shiny.

Blood

I'm starting to get in the mood for Halloween, it's my favorite holiday. So yesterday I did the blood splatter nails...really, really should have taped my fingers. Such a mess but it was fun to do. Added bonus - they glow in the dark. For this I used Piggy Polish Nocture-Nail (for the glow in the dark goodness), Fingerpaints Signed in Wine, Sinful Colors White on White and my current favorite top coat Seche Vite.

Sponge Gradient

This is my first attempt at a sponge gradient.  I wanted to keep the fall theme so I used the Nina Ultra Pro Maple Syrup again as well as Sinful Colors Courtney Orange and Fingerpaints Signed in Wine.  And...of course I had to stamp a little over it - just some small leaves in gold.