OMD 31 Day Challenge - Day 15 - Hearts

GAH! Even later today!!! It isn't even Day 15 for most of the world anymore!! I haven't had a chance to catch up on my reading or comments either. Hopefully I get a chance tomorrow.

Today is heart day!! I have a pink ombre stamped mani for you today. I'll list the colors used below for each finger but they were all stamped with Konad white and Bundle Monster plate 317 which is one of my favorite plates and images I have!!

Here's the pinks I used:

• Thumb: 2 coats Barielle Baby's Breath
• Pointer: 2 coats Barielle Princess
• Middle: 2 coats of unnamed Color Club
• Rig: 2 coats of Julep Lily
• Pinky: 1 coat of China Glaze Traffic Jam

And a weird hand claw shot to show the thumb too!!

I'm off to finally climb into bed now - it's been a long day!!

Thanks for reading!

Check out the other (on time!) heart manis here

OMD 31 Day Challenge - Day 12 - Dots

Today is Dot day and Friday, double yay!

I've been using a LOT of dots in this challenge so far so I decided not to do another one of the same style I've already done. So today I have 3D dots! I really like the way they look like they're trying to escape off my nails!!

I started with two coats of Essie Smooth Sailing as a base. It's a gorgeous blue with a delightful shimmer! Once that was dry I used Wet N Wild Black Creme to do the dots, then I went back over them with Barielle Going to the Chapel and offset the second dots a bit to make them look 3D. I really enjoyed these nails...I'll definitely be trying this again!

Thanks for reading!

Check out all the other awesome challenge manis here

OMD 31 Day Challenge - Day 11 - Stripes

Ugh...this manicure is not what I was hoping for. It took FOREVER (over 2 hours!) and didn't turn out the way I had envisioned it.

Anyways, with that small rant over...I started on all nails with two coats of Barielle Going to the Chapel (white). It's a fairly decent white, I use it quite a bit; two, sometimes three coats is all you need. Once that was dry I painstakingly applied striping tape in random thicknesses to both hands (yes, both hands!). I then painted two coats of OPI Skull & Gloss Bones. I had to use two coats because it couldn't cover the white in one... Then I taped AGAIN and added a random stripe of China Glaze Pool Party (which also didn't photograph well at all!). It was ridiculous how long it took to do this, and it was sooo thick with all those coats by the time I was done, I had a serious case of chubby nails going on!

I liked the end result but boy did it take a looong time. I have some ideas on how to do something similar in a quicker fashion. Perhaps I'll give it another try one of these days.

Thanks for reading!

Don't forget to check out all the other manis here

OMD 31 Day Challenge - Day 9 - Texture

Hello everyone! Today is texture day of the OMD 31 Day Challenge. I have a confession to make...I LOVE the glittery textured polishes. I just plain adore them so I was so excited for texture day!

Stay the Night Liquid Sand by OPI really reminds me of lava with the red sparkles peeking through the black base. So I decided to make the lava a bit more obvious! So today I present lava rock nails with molten lava cracks!

My pinky is two coats of Stay the Night by OPI. On my pointer, middle and ring finger I started with two thin coats of China Glaze Red Satin. I then free-handed the Liquid Sand around my nail to create the molten lava pools leaving some of the red showing. As the second coat of the Liquid Sand was drying I went into the red that was showing to add a bit of orange and yellow highlighting using Barielle Gotta Have Fate and Joe Fresh Pineapple respectively.

I really liked the way these turned out. They came out exactly as I hoped they would.

Thanks for reading everyone!

Check out the other participant's manis here

OMD 31 Day Challenge - Day 8 - Matte

I know, I know...almost late again! I know I said I'd have more time this week, but I had to get some immunizations today and my arms hurt...I'll be better tomorrow I hope!!

Since I'm all sore in the nail painting muscles I have a super simple mani for you today for matte day. My thumb, pointer, and ring finger are all one coat (yes-one coat!) of China Glaze Concrete Catwalk. My middle and pinky are two coats of Barielle Life of the Party. I probably could have done one coat of the pink but I didn't do the best first coat so two was required. I added a thick coat of NYC Matte Me Crazy. When everything was all dry and matte I added in dots using regular shiny top coat.

The pink is more similar to the last photo in real life, it was hard to photograph so only one sort of color accurate picture, sorry. I really liked the grey nails, I'd probably do this again with grey, the dots are more obvious.

Thanks for reading!!

Check out everybody else's manis here

Teal and Orange Lasers

Happy Friday!

I know teal isn't quite green...but it's pretty close. So I think it counts as a good closer to the week of green!

Both polishes today are Barielle polishes and both were dreams to apply. The teal is A Bouquet for Ava, and I've used two coats on all fingers except the ring finger. The ring finger is two coats of Gotta Have Fate as the base. Gotta Have Fate is more color accurate on my finger than it is in the bottle in the photos. For some reason it looks really washed out in the bottle. Once it was completely dry I used striping tape to create the laser pattern and then used one thick coat of A Bouquet for Ava. I removed the striping tape and voila, orange lasers!

I really liked these two colors together...looking at this manicure again perhaps there may be some more orange/teal in my near future.

Thanks for reading!

Daisy Dotticure Accent

Hi everyone!

Today I have a manicure that I loved! I wore it for four days straight which must be some kind of record for me. I even wore it through a pseudo softball practice. Thus the tip wear...please forgive me, this manicure had four days of hard wear before I took a photo!

The base of this manicure is two coats of OPI Don't Mess with OPI. It's a lovely dusty bright green if that makes any sense (I'd wager that probably didn't make much sense!). For reference the second picture is more color accurate than the first. On my ring finger and thumb I used a dotting tool and Barielle Going to the Chapel and Joe Fresh Pineapple to create the daisies. My boyfriend said they sort of look like eggs...but I prefer them as daisies!

Thanks for reading!

Etsy iPhone Case Inspired

Hello!!

One of my favourite places to find inspiration is Etsy. I can easily whittle away several hours just browsing the beautiful creations. Today I have a manicure that was inspired by the cell phone cases from the Etsy store TheArtCity. I love their translucent studded iPhone cases. As soon as I saw them I knew I had to recreate one on my nails. Here's my interpretation!

I started with four coats of Barielle Barely There. I love this peachy/pinky nude color, it's one of my favorite subtle nude colors I own. I think the sort of squishy finish it has is a good representation of the background of the iPhone cases. Once that was dry I took a small nail art brush and framed my ring finger with China Glaze Turned Up Turquoise. I then added the studs with just a bit of top coat, and then put a really thick coat of Seche Vite over the whole thing so the studs would have a bit more lasting power.

This is one of my favorite manicures I've ever done. I hope you enjoy it!

Thanks for reading!

Turquoise Lightening

Today I have a charcoal and turquoise skittlette manicure with a little bit of glitter!

I started with two coats of Barielle Coalest Day of the Year on my pointer, middle and pinky fingers. Coalest Day of the Year is a dark charcoal with silver shimmer in it. It could have been a one coater had I been careful in my application, but alas, I was not, thus two coats. I added a glitter gradient to my pinky finger using Sinful Colors Kissy and Nubar Sky Sparkle. The teal and blue glitters sparkle much more in person.

On my thumb and ring finger I started with three coats of China Glaze Turned Up Turquoise. Then I stamped using Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Gone Grey using Bundle Monster plate 305. This was my first time stamping with Gone Grey and it was not as opaque as I had hoped. I think it worked out ok though, I like the sort of translucent quality that it has, it makes the stamping look subtle. I really love the lightening stamp, the whole time I wore this mani I kept staring at it and thinking ZAP! Well...when I wasn't staring at the glitter I thought that! :o

Then the next day, just to see what it would look like matte, I used NYC Matte Crazy. And I LOVED it matte. I wore it for another couple days this way. I especially loved how the glitter popped against the matte Coalest Day of the Year.

Which do you prefer? Matte or shiny?

Thanks for reading!

Feeling Froggy?

I've been feeling a bit under the weather lately and am just now starting to feel better, but I have this stubborn frog in my throat that just won't go away. I decided to give my throat frog a little buddy and did a frog themed manicure!

I started with two coats of Essie Da Bush. On the first coat this polish was very runny and sheer, but it evened out quite well with two coats. On my ring finger I hand painted a much happier frog than the one living in my throat! I used Sinful Colors Happy Ending for the frog himself, the whites of his eyes are done with Barielle Going to the Chapel and the eyes and outlining are done using Wet N Wild Black Creme. He didn't turn out quite the way I wanted him to since I'm a perfectionist and he's not perfect, but I still think he's cute! And there's always room for improvement right? It just gives me an excuse to practice my freehand skills another time!!

 And here's a little close up of the frog himself!

Thanks for reading!