Day 2: Writing my Christmas Cards

Hello again,

On to the second post of the challenge! When I first saw this challenge, I signed up but then backed out because there are some very very tricky things on this list of theme.  For example, writing your Christmas cards.  But I decided I was up to the challenge and wanted to start regularly posting here agan, so, I'll take whatever themes they throw at me!

Day 2 - Writing my Christmas Cards

I did this manicure with a color I hated (Revlon Aloof, Edgy Elegance collection), and a design I hated (handwriting on my nails), and wouldn't you just know it, I LOVED this look! I kept it on for longer than just the one day of the challenge.  I am certainly going to try something like this again in the future.

The fine writing was done with my favorite nail art pen! That thing is glorious! One day I will own the whole set and then I will TAKE OVER THE WORLD! MUAHAHAHA. Here is the link if anybody else is interested in these. Or if Santa is reading.  Same difference.

44 cent postage stamp on my thumb - I know that price because I have to mail my rent in :P

Just a funny pose to show that it even looks cool when the words aren't aligned.

Dear blogger, PLEASE add a rotate picture function, because occasionally my computer glitches up and ALWAYS uploads a certain picture sideways. Grrrrrrrr. Well, you dear readers are just going to have to turn your heads I suppose.

And that's that! Did you write letters to Santa when you were little? I definitely did! I left them out with the cookies and milk and carrots (for the reindeer).  I guess I thought Santa had all the presents in the world in his bag, and would be able to read my note and pick out what I wanted :P


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

"Subtle" Glitter bomb

Hey guys! What's up?

What's up for me is that I did something on my nails that I never thought I would ever do.  

That's right.

A french manicure.  

*crickets*

Since I've never had one, it was interesting to see what it looked like on my hands, and I admit it was nice and clean looking (though it also got me wondering if that's what my nails would look like naturally if they weren't polish-stained, ha).  

However, it didn't last even half an hour before I decided to bedazzle it!

I tried out two different effects, and I want you ladies to tell me which one you like better.

The polishes I used are:

Revlon Scene Stealer - My favorite sheer jelly polish, because it leans pink, just like my skin tone.  

China Glaze White on White - I've never used this alone, but for nail art work it is just the right consistency and fairly opaque.

Claire's Bedazzled - my favorite rainbow glitter.  It has large hexes of all colors, but also lots of blue microglitter to fill space on the nail.  It is very dense for a glitter topcoat and easy to work with - no poking glitter with your brush to try and make it stay where you want it to.

So, on my left hand I did: two coats scene stealer, two coats white on the tip, one coat scene stealer to soften things, then one coat of Bedazzled.  Finished product: 

Indirect sunlight:

Direct sunlight:

This one is definitely worth biggifying to see all the individual types of glitter!

And on my right hand, I did a variation on the same thing, but changed the layers: two coats white on the tip, one coat scene stealer, one coat bedazzled, one coat scene stealer.  The resulting jelly sandwich looks like this:


Indirect sunlight:

My right hand is shy to be seen on this blog, since the index and middle finger won't grow longer than that no matter WHAT I try.  I think I use them too much, even though I try not to.

Direct sunlight:

And then, before removing this three days later, I added an extra coat of scene stealer to my ring finger on my left hand, for comparison pictures.  (Left to right: without, with, without top sheer layer).

 So, what's the verdict? Which way do you like better?

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 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 8 - Metallic Nails

Oooooohhhh! Shiny. :) Shiny nails. I'm very fond of metallic nail polishes, so for day 8 of the challenge, I did money-based nails.  I used gold, silver, and bronze polishes to make a penny, nickel, dime, quarter, and dollar coin!

The colors I used were:

Claire's Tin Man - A stunning silver polish, with coarse silver glitter in a pigmented silver base.  This is definitely not a top coat; it is completely opaque in one color.  This is one of my favorite polishes in my stash, actually!

OPI Brisbane Bronze - a pretty standard Bronze color.  This one is almost opaque in one coat, but really needs a second coat for full coverage and depth of color.  It looks a little dull in the shade, but truly shines in the sun.  The formula is a tiny bit thinner than I like, but it applies fine.

Milani Gold Lamé: This is a nice little gold polish, it dries without much gloss.  It has no glitter in it, it is just a straight up gold.  I've never used it by itself, but this is a great polish to use as underwear for other colors, or  for nail art.  It needs two coats to be opaque.  In this mani, I used it as underwear for Revlon Gold Coin, just to bring out the gold, since that polish tends to lean more silver than the name implies it would.

Revlon Gold Coin - Again, a fairly opaque metallic polish, although it has a clear base and needs two coats to be completely opaque.  This color is like a white gold... it definitely leans warmer than your average silver, but it is not quite gold enough to call "gold" in my book.  I often layer this over Milani Gold Lamé, which results in a fantastic gold color, with flecks of many shades of gold and silver and a depth that looks like you used five coats!

Bottles on white background:

Bottles on dark background:

OPI Brisbane Bronze:

Milani Gold Lamé and Revlon Gold Coin (see how silver it looks, next to the true gold?)

Claire's Tin Man (I wish I could get a backup of this)

And the art! This was extremely difficult to get a flattering picture of, but I tried my best.  I also re-learned a nail art lesson that I keep learning and forgetting again: letters and numbers are much harder to paint than one would think! I'd rather do stripes or clouds or flowers any day.  Don't forget to check out the Milani Gold Lamé and Revlon Gold Coin combo on my thumb!

Cheers,

Maria

Day 4 - Green

Ciao bellissimi :)

Today is the fourth day in the 31 day challenge..  That means it is time for some GREEN nails :)

I love green nail polish, and for this challenge I chose to use two of my untried: SOPI Leaf Him at the Altar and my brand new Revlon Punk, along with a black nail art striper.

Revlon Punk - very well pigmented, it covered in one medium coat! This pale green dried with an almost foil finish, which surprised me.  It is different from anything else in my stash, and I'm glad to try it.  I can't wait to try the other seven from this collection (Edgy Elegance) that I bought last week!!

SOPI Leaf Him at the Altar - this is a gorgeous color, one I'm probably more likely to wear by itself than Punk.  It was a little bit sheerer than I'd expected, but I think it would cover in two coats.  It is also a light green foil, but this one is definitely green, whereas Punk almost looks silver in some lights.

The design is a simple but stirking almost-argyle pattern.  My lines aren't as clean as I usually like them to be... but that is how it sometimes is with handdrawn nail art.  I can appreciate that :).  And from far away it looks impeccable.

Again, disclaimer, the pictures aren't the highest quality, but my mom mailed me my good camera! So good pictures are in the future! (Spoiler: the best picture is at the bottom ;) )

Bottles:

Taken on my windowsill.  One coat of Punk, no cleanup yet since it is before the art:

Then I added the SOPI diamonds:

Then the outlines!

That's it for green!

Take care,
Maria