Day 1: What you like most about Christmas

Hello all!

Time for another challenge, one that I'll actually finish this time!  Christmas is my favorite part of the year, tied only with the first month of summer :) so I couldn't turn down this challenge!

Day 1 is a manicure themed about what you love the most about Christmas.  What I love the most about Christmas is seeing decorations everywhere and feeling such a part of the community.  Even with all the stresses of the holidays, I feel like it is pretty impossible to be sad while walking down a street with Christmas lights on all the houses.

My manicure's base color was 3 coats of Orly Meet Me Under the Mistletoe.  This is a beautiful and unique green polish, it has noticeable tiny flakies and glass flecks that give it an unparalleled depth! Then I put a matte top coat on it, and added white dots, then went over them to add color to my Christmas lights <3

(Pardon the cleanup, I know I only cleaned two nails....because I DROPPED MY PAINTBRUSH IN THE PURE ACETONE AND IT DISSOLVED! ha. ha. ha.  Frustrating though.  Lost a brand new brush and a giant bottle of pure acetone.  Sigh. Trials of being a nail blogger.)

So there you have it, my favorite part about Christmas is the Christmas lights :) What is your favorite part about Christmas, or the holiday that you celebrate?

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 9 - Rainbow Nails

Me again :)

I was excited about this day in the challenge! Rainbow nails! I love bright colors on my nails so much. I've never been a big fan of nude colors, or black or white or vampy darks.  I wanted to do a skittle, but that wsn't interesting enough for me, so I broke it up a little.  I put the 6 rainbow colors on 5 nails, as if somebody *pushed* and all the colors slid a half nail to the right.

The colors I chose were:

OPI Comet Loves Cupid
Revlon Tangerine
Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow
Orly Fresh
Sinful Colors Paradise
Funky Fingers Riot

They were the closest I have to standard color wheel colors, and I think they all played very nicely together!  These are all richly pignmented colors and covered in one or two coats! ...Except my frenemy Mellow Yellow.  It applies horribly and streakily... but it is possible to build it up with four coats and end up with a fantastic sunny yellow color that always makes me smile.  Unfortunately, I got a bit impatient with it today and glopped it on pretty thickly, which made my ring finger lumpy. Woops.  Lesson learned.

Bottles:

And the whole mani, in indirect sunlight:

This one got me a few compliments, and I think I will recreate it again on a later day.  I used scotch tape to make the lines nice and straight, which worked nicely but I need to push it down a bit more near my cuticles.

Have a colorful day!

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

Day 5 - Blue

Hi there,

Time for day 5 of the challenge, which is BLUE nails!  I'm really enjoying this challenge.  Today's mani is definitely my favorite so far! This is an unusual color combination, but it has been on my mind since the moment I bought these polishes.  I'm curious if you like them together, or no?

I used Orly Sweet Peacock, and Jesse's Girl Baby Cakes.  Both of these colors are stunners!

Orly Sweet Peacock - a new polish which I'm sure you've seen before if you read any other nail blogs.  It is a gorgeous shimmery blue foil.  It applies very smoothly, opaque in one coat, but I used two to give it that extra depth.  I have nothing bad to say about this polish! (We'll see later tonight if it stains when removed...)

Jesse's Girl Baby Cakes - first off, can I say, I LOVE the bottles on these polishes!  They are just so cute and almost seem vintage to me.  I am definitely going to be buying more of this brand: cheap, high quality polish, with display-worthy bottles!  This bright neon pink applied very smoothly and dried in under a minute, with a matte finish that is typical of neons.  It is just so bright. I love it.

The nail art is a kind of dry marble technique.  First I painted three (sloppy) stripes, of blue on the outside and pink on the inside. Once that dried, I quickly painted over the blue again and then the pink (order is important, because the neon dries super fast), and then used a toothpick to drag the wet polish into the design you will see below.  I really like the effect - it kind of looks like I had neon pink nails but the blue nail polish is closing in on it from the sides to cover it.

Without further ado, the pictures:

Orly Sweet Peacock.  Sunlight, with purple background to help my camera which was freaking out and being very inaccurate with a white background.  This is pretty color accurate:

Same deal, with Jesse's Girl Baby Cakes:

 And the mani! Taken in sunlight:

What do you think? Do you like the pattern? And how do you think the colors go together?

Oh, and, do you think I should make the pictures a little bit smaller? I started with them big, and I do like them, but recently I'm thinking maybe I should make them a bit smaller?

Ta ta for now,
Maria

First post!

Hello to any future readers!

My name is Maria and I am a 21-year-old college student, studying Nutrition and Italian. I have a big addiction to nail polish, as does pretty much everybody who reads nail blogs, I think ;) I particularly love creative hand-painted nail art, and rarely wear my nails in a solid color.

Anyway, I've been thinking about starting a nail blog since the beginning of the summer now, but I kept putting it off, scared and not thinking I would have enough to write or that anybody would read it. However, three things all together convinced me recently to start one:

1) I sorted and inventoried my polish and found that I have 215 polishes. To me personally, that is a staggering number. I always assumed I had 50 or so!

2) I bought my first dupe. Accidentally. I'm not quite sure why this convinced me to start a blog, but I guess in some way, having so many polishes that you can buy two of the same color accidentally seems like I have enough to write about, hah.

3) I came across the 31 day nail art challenge and thought it would be great fun and a great motivator to post for the first 31 days of having a blog.

Without further ado, I shall show you what I've had on my nails for the last four days, and then what I've done for the first day of the challenge.

I'm not a huge fan of pink, actually, but when I decided to wear pink I thought I might as well go all out!

I used a base of Nailtek II, Seche Clear, three coats of NYC Uptown, stripes with a white striper, and then two coats of OPI I Lily Love You. I really liked the end effect!

PS I apologize in advance for my bad pictures! I'm going to practice and get better as fast as possible!  My fingers look fat and greasy from bad angles and cuticle oil :(



Taken in sunlight:















Blurry to show all the colors in the amazing flakies!!




I think the flakies really added something to the plain stripes! And a friend told me I had unwittingly copied the Victoria's Secret bags, which was funny.

____________________________________________________

And the 31 day challenge is:



RULES:

- Reblog this post if you're gonna accept this challenge
- One post per day
- If you miss one, pick it up the next day
- Post a picture of each mani
- It would be nice if you listed/linked to what polishes you used
- For the inspiration prompts, SHOW US YOUR INSPIRATION/SHARE LINKS
- BE CREATIVE
- TRY NEW THINGS
- HAVE FUN!!!

So, for day one, I have red nails. Orly Rock It, from the new Mineral FX collection. It is a gorgeous color with a lot of depth, that actually does have a shimmery mineral effect. I want to love it, but I'm just not a huge fan of it on my skin tone. I have the same issue with any red or purple that leans toward being "berry colored." It was opaque and applied flawlessly, though. I used two coats, and the second coat looked exactly the same as if I'd left it with one! No top coat, since I plan on taking this off tomorrow anyway, and it is plenty shiny.








Taken in (dusk) sunlight:





Taken in (dusk) sunlight:



Taken in (dusk) sunlight:





Taken in (dusk) sunlight:





Taken in (dusk) sunlight:





I snapped this one spontaneously this evening. Note the nail polish on my car key! :P

Taken in artificial light. Less color accurate, but it shows the sparkle nicely.