Day 14 - Flowers

Hello all! I've had a very tough week, but today I was finally feeling up to painting my nails again... Resuming where I left off, we have day 14 of the challenge - flowers!  I haven't done a floral mani before, they always seem so intimidating.

Well, to make things even more interesting, I decided to make today another first: my first time stamping! :) It was trickier than I expected.

I started with a base of Sally Hansen - Very Cherry.  It is a strange name, since it looks very pink to me.  I got this from the clearance bin at Target actually, for $1, and wouldn't you know it, it is a near dupe to OPI Be a Dahlia Won't You? It is pretty, but not my first choice color for the future. Too muggle, haha.

I have a small stamping kit I picked up in Italy, it came with one default plate, so I can't tell you a plate # for it.  I attempted -- and partially failed, partially succeeded -- at placing these randomly all over my nails.  It was an interesting look, reminded me of a Hawaiian shirt! 

(These are the pics in progress - no cleanup yet)

Please forgive the sideways pictures - I'm trying out the new blogger iphone app! And while I *love* it, there is no way to rotate pictures. 

Now, I had in mind from the beginning the idea of doing a jelly sandwich - with stamping instead of glitter on the middle.  So I put one more coat of Very Cherry on top. I really liked the idea, and it is a great way to make subtle nail art, but in the future I will use a polish that is a little bit more sheer and jelly, since this one hid the flowers just a tad bit too much, in my opinion.

Well, that's it for tonight! 

Have a great nail day,
Maria 

Day 12 - Stripes

Hello x2!

As you saw in my last post an hour ago, I am currently in emergency nail repair mode, and therefore unable to post the normally scheduled stripes manicure for today, as the challenge calls for.  I will instead post a cute little striped mani that I did over the summer.  Again, don't blame the pictures too much, these were never intended for a blog audience.  (That reminds me! I got my digital camera today! YAY! There shall be better pictures in the future!)

SOPI - Don't Feed the Hand Models
OPI - Funky Dunkey
OPI - Ogre-the-top Blue
... and some white polish that I don't remember...


First step:

Second step:

OH! And I also painted my friend's nails yesterday! (She chose the colors. Sally Hansen Royal Foil, Essie French Affair, and OPI Jade is the new Black)

Well, hopefully all these poorly lit, weird angled pictures are enough to distract you guys from the fact that I don't have a fresh new mani today! I'll be back up and running tomorrow, I promise.

Love y'all,

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 3 - Yellow

Hi there -

Today is the third day in the 31 day challenge that is floating around the nail blogs.  That means it is time for some yellow nails :)

For my base color, I choose Saly hansen Mellow Yellow.  I've only used this once before on my toes, and I really liked it then, so I was excited to get a chance to use it on my fingers.  The accent nail is Revlon Banana Blaze, with a cute little face draw in a black nail art fine pen.  Maybe not the most creative idea ever... but it was cute :).  Excuse the dings in the picture, I wore this all day at the State Fair, and was pretty rough on them.

Mellow Yellow - this is a gorgeous pastel yellow that isn't toooo pale, which I like.  When a color gets too close to white, I don't like it on my skin tone.  However, it was a classic yellow polish in that it was very streaky and hard to smooth out.  It is ok with three coats (pictured), but now I'm wishing I'd done four.  Until I get a better replacement, this is still a keeper for me, since I love the color and it looks fine with Seche Vite on top.

Taken in sunlight: (agan, I'm sorry! The dings look so bad in these photos... I should have taken pics this morning before going to the fair, I suppose.)

 That's all for now! As soon as I post this, I'm going to paint my next day of nails! I'm excited, they're going to look really nice I think.

Enjoy the sun,
Maria