Day 5: Garland and Day 6: Elves

Hi all!


I started out doing Day 5: Garland.  I thought this was going to be an easy one, but my color choice turned it into a major fail!  Ha! We all have our down days.  I used a base of Essie Case Study (an ugly pretty color) and Sinful Colors Call You Later as the winding garland.  I thought it would look like a garland running up the side of a brown house but... it just looks like swamp weeds. Woops! I'll share the pictures though, perhaps they can be a learning experience for somebody else who wants to try these colors together.

I can't bear to end the post on that note, so I'm going to add in Day 6: Elves to this post as well.  Now this... this is cute.  This is something I'm happy to wear on my hands. :)  My boyfriend thought this one was clever and called me a real artist.  

Colors - Ulta Limelight, Wet n Wild Red Red, Zoya Shay, NYC French White Tip, and Wet n Wild Black creme. 

I really wish blogger had a rotate picture function!!

Hope you're a little bit more in the Christmas spirit than you were five minutes ago :)

The other bloggers doing this challenge are:

Claire Gallaugher - Purple Fairy Dust All Things Beautiful

Emma Hoop - Manicurity

Kerrie Black- PhishPosh and Polish

Bee Justice - Bee Polished

Zoe Garner - Obsessive Compulsive Nail Painting Disorder

Felicia Banuelos- Confessions of a Nail Polish Junkie

Lisa Armstrong-Waite - Happy Nails

Julie Rivard - Tales of Knit and Nails

Alyssa Dees - No Junk Nail

Arielle Stephenson - Only Always Soccermom 


Merry Christmas!

Maria

Day 3: Snow Globe

Ciao pretty ladies!

Day 3 of this challenge is themed like a snow globe.  Yes, just like every other person who saw this theme, I did contemplate doing pastel nails with China Glaze Snow Globe on top. But no! I had to take it to the next level, and I'm really glad I did.

Base color is China Glaze Secret Periwinkle, a color I have been crushing on for a long time, and I finally received it in a swap, with Sinful Colors Unicorn, Envy, and Green Ocean! How exciting! I love saving money by swapping rather than buying new polish, don't you?

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What, you mean to tell me that sending nail polish to random strangers in exchange for other nail polish isn't a normal thing to do?

...

...

Oh.

I don't see myself stopping anytime soon though! I much prefer trading nail polish to trading something like baseball cards! :D

Four of the nails in today's design have just a tip of CG Snow Globe, to represent all the fake snow in a snow globe when it has fallen to the ground.  The accent nail is a actual snow globe! With a teeeeeny tiny Christmas tree.  Base is Milani Red Sparkle (one coat glitter collection) and the tree is SC Envy (also from my swap).  I painted another layer of snow globe over the globe, but it was denser than I thought, and covered the image pretty much, making it hard to see and photograph. But I'm ok with that, it's like a real snow globe swirling with snow.

GLITTER

This is my right hand, for once, since I couldn't bear to take the Dear Santa off my left hand! I had quite fun taking this progression of pictures, getting closer and closer to the camera.

Now for the important question - do you even have a snowglobe? When's the last time you've actually shaken one? I can't remember for me!



The other bloggers doing this challenge are:

Claire Gallaugher - Purple Fairy Dust All Things Beautiful

Emma Hoop - Manicurity

Kerrie Black- PhishPosh and Polish

Bee Justice - Bee Polished

Zoe Garner - Obsessive Compulsive Nail Painting Disorder

Felicia Banuelos- Confessions of a Nail Polish Junkie

Lisa Armstrong-Waite - Happy Nails

Julie Rivard - Tales of Knit and Nails

Alyssa Dees - No Junk Nail

Arielle Stephenson - Only Always Soccermom 

Merry Christmas!

Maria

Day 10 - Gradient Nails

Hey all,

You aren't imagining things! This is three posts in one day.  I did all these nails on the proper days, I just was fiddling with the internet and studying all night, but in the end it is a bonus for you readers: more posts! :)  Today's actual manicure is a gorgeous gradient! I haven't had much luck with sponging gradients in the past, as I can't get the colors to fade out enough.  So I did my preferred kind of gradient - a glitter gradient!

The base is Wet n Wild Stream of Wonder, a metallic (but not brush-strokey) turquoise that is very pretty, but not terribly unique.  It needed a second coat, and it is - as I said - pretty, but not remarkable or crave-able.  The glitter gradient was done with:

Kleancolor Chunky Silver - a polish with very large silver hexes in a thick, gloopy clear base.  It definitely makes a statement, but it is very hard to get the hexes on the nail with any accuracy or consistency.  Nonetheless, it is unique in my collection and I will keep it for gradients like this one.

Cover Girl Disco Dazzle - this laying polish has tiny silver glitter and medium sized silver hexes that reflect all colors of the rainbow! I love this for accent nails and gradients, and in this mani I used it at the base of the nail to make the gradient appear thicker there. I got this polish from Polished Pirate's blogsale!

And then, on the accent nail, I did an inverse gradient.  I used Revlon Aloof as the base for this one.  It is a very very light silver color, bordering on white, with silver shimmer throughout.  This is from the current Revlon Edgy Elegance collection, which I am a HUGE fangirl of.  It is the only collection I have ever wanted all the colors from (and indeed, bought all the colors from!) They are all slightly frosty and opaque in one coat, and have silver shimmer throughout.  This color is my least favorite of the collection, but that is like saying vanilla is my least favorite type of cake - it is still cake! I still love it! :)

For the gradient, I used Wet n Wild Shock Wave! It is a unique blue-ish turquoise layering glitter, which matches perfectly with the Stream of Wonder on my other nails.

I really, really liked this look! That isn't a very eloquent way of expressing my love for this mani, I know, but they are the first words to leave my ...fingers.  I will absolutely recreate this mani with other colors after the challenge, with as many colors as I have matching glitter for the accent nail!  I also need to get a chunky gold glitter too, either Kleancolor or the Milani FX one.

Phew! Too many words! Here are the pictures:

Wet n Wild Stream of Wonder

Kleancolor Chunky Silver and Cover girl Disco Dazzle

Wet n Wild Shock Wave

Revlon Aloof

Gradient mani:

Unlike most nail bloggers, I really like showing the whole hand, because I think it gives a better idea of what the mani looks like in real life.  This means I have to confront my hatred of my short fingers... but it is worth it to show the colors for y'all :)

Two blurries to show TEH SHINY!

Do you like the inverse gradient?

No more posts for today, talk to you tomorrow!

Maria

Day 6 - Purple

[ETA: I tried to post this yesterday when I got home at 11pm, but my internet crashed and until my landlord fixes it, she offered for me to pay $5 a day to use her wireless, which I passed on. So I'm now posting it at school, a day late :( but don't worry, I'll post today's post today too.

Good evening,

Just a very short post today, on day 6 of the challenge.  Today was a very busy day, with lots of classes, work, homework, and grocery shopping! I did still paint my nails the requisite PURPLE, but I only have a few quick pictures, without even much cleanup unfortunately.

Base color is OPI Rumple's Wiggins.  I actually love this pastel purple! I didn't think I liked pastel colors, but the light blue Wet n Wild, the SH Mellow Yellow, and this color have definitely converted me. This color is fit for springtime! It applies very opaquely and smoothly for a pastel. I did 2 coats and SV top coat.  I love this.

The accent nail is 2 coats of Rumple's Wiggins and 2 coats of Orly Fowl Play.  I was surprised, this was very opaque! I'm not sure the base color even lightened it at all.  It went on very smoothly, practically painting itself.  However... this is one of the most popular new colors recently ... and yet... I'm just not loving it.  The red flakes are unique and lovely, but I am just not a fan of very dark, vampy colors.  This is just one step away from being black in some lights... which is one step too close for me.  Don't worry, I'm sure I'll swap this one with somebody who really wants it and will give it a good home. :)

Fast pics, indoor light, no cleanup (cuticle oil on too):

And I took one pic outside:

Keep painting,
Maria