31DC2013 Day 14

Hello everyone!  Todays theme is flowers, and I am super excited to share mine with you all!!!!  After what I consider to be 2 disapointing manis I was determined to get back on track with this one.  I have always loved the vintage stripes with flowers that everyone does, but have never done it.  So, I decided to give it a go.  I found this tutorial on YouTube by Simple Nail Art Designs.  I used all Zoya colors for this mani, the colors I used are Jaqueline, Purity, Willow, & Wednesday.  I also used my favorite green polish, China Glaze Gaga For Green.  I don't have many polishes that you can physically see a usage line in, but my faithful Gaga For Green has a nice little dent in it! ;)  I painted my nails with Jacqueline as a base and then used striping tape for lines with Wednesday.  It took a few tries to get the roses, I used my off hand for practice.  I finally got into a groove with dabbing a bit of Willow on straight from the brush, then took my smallest dotting tool and got some Purity on it and swirled it around with the Willow to make it look like a rose.  I am super pumped about how this came out!  I found that I can use either a toothpick or a small dotting tool for a lot more than dotting with this mani!  Now I wish I would have known that with the animal print!  I am totally doing another animal print by hand when this challenge is over.  I hope you all are having a great weekend and I will see you tomorrow for some delicate print! :)

Flowers For Mom Nail Art Challenge: Roses

Hello everyone!  I decided to join in on a nail art challenge being held by the blog Paulina's Passions!  I found out about this one through a group called Nail Art Challengez and is a great group if you would like to join!  The first challenge is Roses.  I have never done roses before, but figure this is a great reason to try!  Instead of the traditional pink or red roses, I decided to do circus roses!  I love these ones, they are yellow with orange tips.  I don't much care for red roses, but these ones are beautiful to me!  Since I have never done roses before I sought out a good tutorial, the one I stumbled upon was from the blog Polished Art.  The tutorial is called "Rose Nail Art Tutorial."  It was a great simple step by step tutorial, nothing difficult about it.   I love my result, I may have gone a bit crazy with the leaves, but I really think for the first time doing this they came out pretty good.  On my other hand I did simple stripes in each color I used for this.  The colors I used were; Julep Eileen, Zoya Jacqueline, Julep Cody, Julep Blake, Julep Adrianna, and China Glaze Gaga for Green.  Enjoy, and see you again on Thursday for the next challenge!  At the bottom is a list of other bloggers participating, check them out!

BLOG LIST - Flowers for Mom - Nail Art Challenge

Cubbiful  http://www.cubbiful.blogspot.pt

Dipped in Lacquer www.dippedinlacquer.com

Makeup and Nails, Not War http://makeupandnailsnotwar.blogspot.com/

Paint Those Piggies! http://paintthosepiggies.blogspot.com/

Paulina’s Passions http://paulinaspassions.com/

Polish and Repeat http://polishandrepeat.blogspot.com/

Rachos Nail Love http://rachosnaillove.blogspot.co.uk

Tes Did It Nails http://tesdiditnails.blogspot.com

Unintentional Break/Happy St. Patty's Day!

Hello there! So, I have been away for a while as you can tell...I really didn't mean to take a break like this. Originally I was feeling a bit run down. So, I decided to take a week or two break from blogging. That 2 week break quickly turned into a 7 week break. Oops! I haven't quit painting my nails, just kinda got out of the habit of blogging about them. Hopefully it doesn't appear that I don't want to do this, I think it is just that this is my first blog and I jumped head first into it, and got a bit run down...plus I started the blog only a few months after I started nail art. So, I have been learning how to do two things at the same time. Anyhow, I am back and have a bundle of goodies to share! :)

Like I said before, I am still green (holiday pun intended!) to the world of nail art and nail care. To be honest I find it hard to stick with routines, trying to remember to use cuticle care multiple times a day, let alone once a day, is difficult for me. I am getting better though, and I am trying all kinds of new products. Most recently I purchased Lush Lemony Flutter and Essie Millionails. I have been using these two solidly for a few weeks now, and cant quite tell yet, but think my nails are stronger! While I was on my break, I kept having a problem with the breaking of one particular nail! My nails were looking great, all but my right ring finger. For some reason when I start to get length on that nail, it immediately tears. This has happened THREE times in a row!!! So, I decided to switch up my base coat to Essie Millionails, and have been trying really hard to remember to condition my cuticles. O, and I also switched up my remover from a generic pure acetone that was visibly drying out my skin, to OPI Expert Touch. Soooo, that all being said, I decided to cut all my nails on my right hand and now have nubs! Hopefully not for long though!

Finally, I will get to some photos. I have decided to put together a little series of what I have been up to for the St. Patrick's Day holiday!

 

For this little number I used Julep Lucky and Julep Felicity.  I have to say the Julep Luck is AWESOME!  I love it, and cant wait to use it again!!!

This manicure looks better on the hand than in pictures I think...

This is Chick polish Hipster Chick, I love the way it looks in the bottle, but I feel it was just kind of eh on me.  Maybe I should have done a little some thing to add some pizazz?

This one I really liked,  I used China Glaze Gaga for Green and Piggy Polish Get Orge It.  Haha, I like the Finger Paints name! :)  I did all of the tips and stripes, and the four leaf clover freehand!

This is Halloween Nail Art Challenge: Gradient

As I continue my journey into the world of nail art I find myself learning new things all the time.  Most recently I have learned that I need to paint my nails the day before I post them to my blog.  For the last 3 parts of the challenge I have had my nails done on the right day, but have not been ready to post until the day after.  Yesterday I lost daylight and could not get the quality photos I wanted to get.  Lesson learned, plan better!  On to the polish!

Today I have the gradient part of the challenge.  I did four nails in the gradient and one as an accent nail.  On the accent nail I tried to mimic a frankenstein candle holder I got last year.  Free hand nail art is not my strong suit, but I think it came out pretty good!

I thought I would share the process with everyone!  I use a makeup sponge, polish, and paper towels.
As you can see there is a cup in the left of the photo.  I tried dipping the sponge in water to keep it from absorbing too much of the polish, but all that did was make a mess.

I tapped up my fingers to make clean up easier.  I just used 3 pieces of tape; one on top and two on the sides.

This is how it looked after I removed the tape.  A lot easier to clean up!

Finished product!  My frankenstein had a few issues as you can see, but I am really pleased with the gradient!

I used China Glaze "Gaga For Green" and Rimmel London "Black Satin"

I got this candle holder last year, and it was my inspiration for this challenge!