Day 15 - Delicate Print

Hello everybody!

I'm sorry for the slacking in blog posts recently, I have had a truly heartbreaking week and I just was not able to keep up with posting.  But I'm back now and I have FIVE whole posts lined up and ready to post over the next five days :)

So, day 15 of the challenge was delicate print.  And like most of the people who I've seen that did this challenge, this caused me to stop and scratch my head.  Hmmm.... delicate print... what could that mean....  I decided to do a pretty little manicure with two very delicate colors, pastel pink and purple.

Colors I used

I started with a nude polish that I picked up in Italy this summer; after two coats I had an opaque enough base for what I wanted to do.  I then was going to do vertical stripes with three different colored shimmers that I had bought recently.  I'll admit, I mostly bought these for the bottles!! Aren't they just adorable??

Sup-ah cute bottles ;)

Unfortunately, the bottle is pretty much all they are good for.  They are shimmery, but so sheer that even when I painted them side by side on my nude base color, I could not see any difference in the color.  Bummer.  So I decided to just use three coats of the pink (ha) shimmer, which did eventually give my nails are very ephemeral, princess-y look.

I finished it off with a scalloped, purple edge.  I used a chrome purple (NYC Royal Foil) for this, because I knew it would be opaque in one coat.

Sorry, I took pics right after putting on cuticle oil, so the reflections of light look kind of like I didn't clean up.  But I did!  Also, avert your eyes from the poor nubbin.

 

Oooooh, I LOVE my ring finger nail in that pic! And pretty much all of them except the nubbin.

Even though it's not what I had in mind from the beginning, I really like the finished product, actually! It makes me think of a little girl's birthday cake. :)

I'm always looking for pretty new polish bottles to add to my display, but I can't afford to buy them if they don't have good polish inside too.  Do you have any polishes that you bought for the bottle, and then were disappointed by them? Or maybe they were actually really good?  

Enjoying the sunshine,
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.