31DC2013 Day 19

I got onto my blogger dashboard to write my post this morning and saw that I have a new follower!  Yay!  Welcome!  :)  Of all the themes for this 31 day challenge, galaxy nails were probably one of the most intimidating themes.  I have always loved galaxy nails but have been a bit intimidated by them, they looked so complicated.  Thanks to this challenge I can say I am no longer afraid of the galaxy nails!  I checked out multiple tutorials, grabbed like 20 polishes, narrowed it down to 6 and got to painting.  I didn't necessarily use any one specific tutorial for this, if anything I used Chalkboard Nails post on galaxy nails for a guide.  Here are the colors I used; China Glaze Liquid Leather, Sinful Colors My Buoyfriend, Sally Hansen Jaded, Sinful Colors Tempest, Julep Lauren, Essie Stylenomics, and Stila Icicle, and Zoya Purity.  I used what seems like the pretty standard method; I painted my nails black, tore up some makeup sponges, and got to dabbing on one polish after another.  I used Chalkboard Nails tip of applying a glittery polish in the dark spots to imitate stars, and also added some white stars too.  I honestly did not have much faith in this mani, I am not naturally artsy and don't quite get the whole "adding depth" to the sponging.  So, I just kinda dabbed here and dabbed there until I felt like it was good enough.  It wasn't until I added the glitter and white stars that I actually started to like the finished product.  I look down at my nails now and am truly surprised, they actually look like galaxy nails!  If it wasn't for this challenge, I don't know that I would have tried them anytime soon.  Im sure glad I did, and cant wait to do it again!

31DC2013 Day 18

Hello everyone!  Todays theme is half moon and I am using more texture polishes.  Except this time I am using the mother of texture polishes, Zoya Pixie Dust!!!!  I am in love these polishes, they are so awesome.  I used Liberty and Carter for my half moons today.  This was my first time using the Pixie Dust polishes and I currently only own 3 total, but will definitely be ordering more.  I'm trying to think of more to say in my post, but the polishes are so great that I will just let them speak for themselves.

31DC2013 Day 17

Today is glitter and I had a polish I had been wanting to try for a while now.  Normally I am not overly attracted to any of the Nicole by OPI colors, but about a month or two ago I was browsing my local CVS and saw one jump out at me.  My Cherry Amour, it is this beautiful red/maroon color with tons of glitter in it.  It is a texture polish from their Gumdrops collection.  Photographing this polish proved to be a bit tricky, it is my first texture polish to photograph.  The camera did not pick up on the glitter in the texture finish as well.  I searched Google images before writing this post for other swatches of this color and see that the glitter seems to be a generally tough to capture.  I was eager to add a clear top coat and was instantly in love with how sparkly it is!

31DC2013 Day 16

Its day 16 and today is Tribal Print.  I explored with acrylics a bit yesterday and got the hang of the basics; hearts, flowers, lines.  I tried my hand at some tribal stuff, but think I should get a hang of the basics first.  I decided to revert to my trusty stamping plates.  I used BM 221 as I am sure many others are using today!  I used 3 Sinful Colors; Clementine, Dream On, and Endless Blue.  Add a little black tribal stamp and there ya go!

31DC2013 Day 15

Phew!  We are half way through the challenge!  Todays theme is delicate print.  I went onto Google images and searched delicate print and surprisingly all I came up with was nail photos!  So, I changed my search to delicate pattern and got better results.  I wanted to find something that inspired me, and I came across a green frosted bathroom sink that had branches all over it.  I thought this was very pretty and would be fun to try to recreate.  I told myself I would try to be more creative with my nails and I am having fun trying!  I used a teal that resembled the glass color, and used white to paint the branches.  I then used a white shimmer with a matte finish to give it that frosted look.  I am really enjoying this challenge, it is pushing me to try new things!  I think by the end of this challenge I will need to buy another white polish, I seem to use it in every mani...for this mani I used Zoya Purity, Revlon Entice, Wet N Wild Break the Ice, and NYC Matte Me Crazy.

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! :)

31DC2013 Day 13

Happy Friday!  Today is animal print.  I used Sally Hansen Salon Effects nail appliqués for this challenge since I am not great with freehand, the pattern I used is Purr-Fect Harmony.  I bought these in the target clearance basket, oh how I love that basket!  I let them sit around for a couple months before using them, and wonder if thats what caused my problems with these strips.  All of them curled on me, and the application was horrible.  I have used Salon Effects strips before and had no problem, but these ones I am not a fan of.  They look cheap to me...I really want to be able to do freehand, so I think I am going to use this weekend to watch some tutorials and see what I can learn!