31 Day Nail Challenge: Glitter

Quick post today, as I am super busy with trying to make activities for my kiddos for next school year, getting work done for my class, and I have dinner plans tonight with friends.  Phew!  Today's challenge was glitter.  I only have one glitter polish that I haven't swatched yet, which is Spoiled's Cougar Attack.

I honestly only bought this polish because I thought the name is funny, especially since my husband has a tendency to be flirted with by older women.  LOL!  I laugh at him but he hates it.  This is a pretty coppery brown that would be well suited for fall.  This was two coats and in real life, it was opaque but for some reason the photos look like there are some bald spots.  Oh well!  I loved the look of this but removing glitter polish... ARGH!  Such a pain that I it almost makes me not want to use it... almost.  ;)

Also, I have the problem of glitter chipping on me quickly.  This lasted less than twenty-four hours before I had a big ole' chip in it.  Still so pretty though!

31 Day Nail Challenge: Tribal

When I thought about doing this challenge, I wanted to stomp, kick, scream and throw an "I don't want to!" tantrum on the floor.  I do not like the look of tribal prints.  As I said in my stripes post, I'm not a big fan of straight lines.  I much prefer curves.  So when I was searching the Internet for a tribal design and found this one, I knew it was a tribal I would be happier about and it turned out that I loved this design.

My base color for this look was Sinful Colors in Nirvana.  This is one of those greige mushroom type colors and it's very nice for a neutral look.  I used two coats to make this opaque and application was okay, other than the fact that this polish took forever to dry, which is a problem I have with pretty much all Sinful Colors polishes.

Next, I stamped this atypical tribal pattern with Wet N Wild Wild Shine in Black Creme.  I used Shany Image Plate SH21 for the design.  Then I used a nail art pen to dot on white spots randomly throughout the design.  I'm pretty proud of the fact that I was able to do the spots on both hands by myself.  It definitely shows that practice makes perfect.  I've noticed that my fine motor skills in both hands have really improved from all the practice polishing, cleaning up, and dotting on.

One Of These Things Is Not Like The Others

I would happily cry from the tops of mountains about how much I love Wet N Wild eyeshadows.  They are pigmented, soft, and easy to apply.  However, earlier this week, I was using the I'm Getting Sunburned trio when I remembered why I hadn't used it in ages.  I just really feel like one of the shades in this trio is not like the other shadows from Wet N Wild.  The one I'm talking about is the bottom shade, which is a shimmery orange-gold.  While it is still pigmented, I feel like it isn't as soft or easy to apply as most of the other shades, including the brown and pink in this trio.  You have to really pack this gold shade onto the lid to achieve the color in the pan.  While I have many shimmery shades from WNW, this particular one just seems more chalky and has a lot of fallout without great color payoff.  I am just wondering if anyone else has this trio and has noticed that about the bottom shade.  If so, has anyone found a solution?  Maybe applying it wet?  It's a pretty color but I found the formula really leaves a lot to be desired.

Applied with my finger onto my hand, it seems to swatch okay, but still not the same color payoff as the other two shades in this trio.  Maybe I'll just stick to the top two shades, as they make a pretty nice duo.  Disappointing.

31 Day Nail Challenge: Delicate Print

Oh how this manicure failed.  The average person probably wouldn't really think so but I just really hated this color combination and that's why I consider it a fail.

Yellow is one of my favorite nail polish colors, as it is just so bright and happy on my nails!  I used Essence in Wanna Be Your Sunshine for my base color.  It's a beautiful bright shimmery yellow.  (To see the shimmer, enlarge the photo above.)  It's rather opaque for a yellow, and only needed two coats.

I selected the design for this stamp specifically because it seemed like it fit the "delicate print" category pretty well.  The image is from Bundle Monster Image Plate BM201.

I was feeling a sort of sunflower color combination but I was torn on whether to use Sally Hansen Insta Dri in Bronze Ablaze or Coco-A-Gogo.  I hadn't yet used Bronze Ablaze so I decided to go with it.  Mistake!

Once these two colors were combined, Bronze Ablaze really made the base color look much more mustardy and less like a bright happy yellow.  I personally have no like of mustard or mustard colored things so that's where this went wrong for me.  At least the painting and stamping technique was good but I really hated this and took it off in less than twenty-four hours.

31 Day Nail Challenge: Flowers

This challenge was completely within my comfort zone, as I love flower nail art!  The base color for this manicure is Sally Hansen Insta Dri in Pumped Up Pink.  This pink polish with silver shimmer really surprised me, as it could have easily been a one coater.  Amazing!

I normally only use my Insta Dri polishes for stamping because they are slightly more expensive than what I normally pay for polishes and I also am not a huge fan of the brush, as it tends to pick up way too much polish for my preference.  However, when I saw this at Target, I knew I had to have it for a base color.  This is one of those super girly Barbie colors and I would have been happy to wear this with nothing over it.  And no, there was no visible nail line, even at only one coat.  This baby is opaque!

I wanted to stamp purple over this, as I was thinking pink and purple with flowers would make a totally cute girly manicure.  I used Sally Hansen Insta Dri in Pronto Purple and Bundle Monster Image Plate BM224 to stamp.  But then I got a surprise!

When I stamped over this pink with dark purple, it turned out looking like a darker shade of pink!?! I'm not sure why this turned out pink, as you can clearly see in the bottle that it's quite a deep purple.  Maybe the red tones in the purple were brought out by the pink? I don't know!  I still think it looks lovely but it was not what I was expecting.  Maybe next time I'll try stamping over Pumped Up Pink with Sally Hansen Insta Dri in Grape Escape instead, as it is a more blue leaning purple.  Still love this though!

Mid Monthly Favorites

I've found myself reaching for a lot of the same items lately when it comes to hair and makeup and I thought I would share what I've really been enjoying lately.

I am a teacher so right now I've been on summer vacation and honestly, I'm loving not waking up at 5:00 AM!  Another benefit of not working is that I don't really have to care what my hair looks like.  I've been giving it a rest from the heat styling and I've hardly used my blow dryer or flat iron at all in the past few weeks.  Instead, I've been wearing my hair in messy pony tails or messy buns and just throwing on a headband for a bit of style.  These are the two headbands that I've worn the most.  The left one is a pewter color, with three strands.  It's not really braided but it has that feel to it.  The one on the right is black and also has three strands.  The center one is just flat and the outer two are braided.  Check out the photo below for close ups.

For eyes, I've really been liking simple looks.  I've been enjoying one shade eye looks.  I haven't really been doing anything as far as the crease, as I've mostly been hanging out at home or just running to the grocery store.

Too Faced Shadow Insurance, Maybelline Colossal Volum' Express, Essence Long Lasting Eye Pencil in Almost Famous, Cover Girl Perfect Point Plus in Espresso, Physician's Formula Eyeliner in Champagne, Essence Stay All Day Creme Eyeshadow in Coppy-Right, Wet N Wild Eyeshadow in Nutty, L'Oreal Infallible Eyeshadow in Iced Latte

NYC Bronzer in Sunny, Physician's Formula Healthy Wear SPF 50 Powder Foundation in Translucent Light, Hard Candy Fox in a Box Blush in Spicy & Sweet, Physician's Formula Happy Booster Blush in Natural, Almay Defining Eye Pencil in Brunette, Maybelline Super Stay Concealer in Cream, e.l.f. Essentials Eye Primer (for undereye), Pixi Brightening Peach Correction Concentrate

Revlon Just Bitten Balm Stain in Honey, Chapstick Moisturizer in Green Apple, Essence Stay With Me Lipgloss in My Favorite Milkshake, Revlon Super Lustrous Lipgloss in Foiled

31 Day Nail Challenge: Animal Print

After some pretty loud polka dots and stripes, I was ready for something a little more subdued on my nails.  However, today's challenge of animal print is one that I often think of as very loud (rainbow zebra loud).  Since I already did zebra, I decided to go for leopard print this time.  I loved this look!  It's a little edgy but still subtle and you had to sort of get close to realize that it was leopard print.

I started off with two coats of Pure Ice in Iced Copper.  This is a frosty metallic copper.  It was super easy application and I didn't even really notice brush strokes being too bad on the nail.

Next, I stamped on the leopard print using Sally Hansen Insta Dri in Coco-A-Gogo, which is a dark brown in the bottle.  On the nail, it transferred slightly lighter but still showed up quite well.  I used the leopard stamp from Bundle Monster Image Plate BM221 and topped it all off with my beloved NYC Grand Central Station.

And since today's theme was animal print, I thought I would share a cute picture of my kitties that I took a little while ago.  All three of them are basking in the sun in front of our sliding glass door.  These cats are such Floridians!

31 Day Nail Challenge: Stripes

This is another challenge that I wasn't really looking forward to.  I'm not a big fan of stripes.  I personally prefer more intricate patterns.  Curves appeal much more to me than straight lines but I guess it's good to be pushed out of your comfort zone sometimes.  Other than a little bit of smudging on some of the stripes (index finger), this turned out okay, I think.

For the base color, I used a polish from the Spoiled line by Wet N Wild.  I'm not sure if it's Limited Edition because it was in a special summer display but I picked up Distant Memory because it was a really pretty and kind of unique shade.  On the nail, it's a green leaning teal with lots of shimmer.  I used two coats to reach opacity here.  I've heard a lot of people who got really wonky brushes on these Spoiled polishes, but the brush on this one was quite good for me.  It was wide and curved at the tip, which helped me to get a pretty neat manicure towards the cuticles.  My problem with this polish came with the formula.  Terrible!  Application was okay but it took forever to dry and impatient me kept bumping my nails against things and having to touch it up.  I was also surprised to see that this dried to a rather matte finish, which you can see if you enlarge the photo above.  I was tired of waiting for this to dry and also wanted to see what it would look like with some gloss, so I added a fast dry topcoat.

The photo you see above is with topcoat and it just makes that shimmer really stand out!  So even though this polish was a bit of a pain, I will definitely be using it again.  I'll just slap on a fast dry topcoat to speed things up a bit.  This was so pretty and shimmery that I really did not want to stamp over it but the challenge called for stripes.  Using Sally Hansen Insta Dri in Silver Sweep and Shany Image Plate SH23, I added on the stripes.  I really can't wait to use this polish again with a stamp that doesn't cover this gorgeous base color so much.

If you can find this amazing shade, I think it would be a great addition of a summer color. And for only $1.99 at CVS, why not try it?

31 Day Nail Challenge: Polka Dots

I wasn't really looking forward to this challenge, as I'm just not a big fan of polka dots.  I feel like this is looking a little Minnie Mouse-ish but I guess it looks okay.

I started this manicure with two coats of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Caribbean Coral.  This isn't the sort of coral that I usually like.  I'm more into pink + orange = coral but this is more like red + orange.  I really like it though!  As with all Xtreme Wears, I had no trouble at all with application.  This polish is extremely pigmented and could easily be a one coater with careful application.  I bet it would also work well for stamping.

I stamped over it with Sally Xtreme Wear in White On using Shany Image Plate SH23.  The design for these polka dots is slightly different, as the polka dots are larger in the middle and get smaller as you get away from the center of the image.  However, on my nails, the design just ended up looking kind of like I messed up some of the dots.  That's okay though, as most people don't inspect my nails this closely.  From arm's length it looked fine.

If you can find Caribbean Coral around, I would definitely suggest picking it up.  I believe it may be a discontinued shade because I had to search all over God's Green Earth to find it and when I did, it was discounted at $0.75.  A good deal but too bad if they are discontinuing it, as it is a gorgeous polish!

Gradient Palm Tree Tutorial

To get the gradient palm tree nails I posted about here, just follow this photo tutorial.

1. Start out by cutting a makeup sponge into a size that's close to your thumb nail in size, but slightly larger.  On the left side, I drew in red lines to show you where I usually cut mine.

2. Next, apply a base coat to your nails.  I used Orly Bonder but you can use any base coat you like.

3. Apply one coat of white nail polish.  I love Sally Hansen Xreme Wear in White On.  Don't worry about this being perfect.  If it's streaky or has drag marks, no one will see it.  This is just to make the colors pop that you use in your gradient.  Be sure the white is completely dry before moving on to the next step.

4. Next, paint your gradient directly onto the sponge.  I used Sally Hansen Insta Dri polishes in Lightening, Heat Flash, and Flashy Fuchsia.

5. If necessary, dab off excess polish from the sponge onto a paper towel.  Then using a left to right and slight up and down motion, dab your nail with the sponge to apply the color.  Try to cover all of the white.  Don't dab too much though, or you will end up ruining the design.  Wait for this to dry completely before moving on to the next step.

This is what the nail should look like.  Notice the cuticle is going to get pretty messy!

6. Next, use a black polish, such as Wet N Wild Wild Shine in Black Creme to stamp on a palm tree.  Shany Image Plate SH19 is what I used.

7. When the stamping is completely dry, add a top coat to your design to protect your work.  I used NYC In A New York Color Minute in Grand Central Station.

8. Last, you're going to need to clean up all that polish from your cuticles.  My preferred method is to use pointed Q-tips and a tub of nail polish remover.  However, if you're really lazy, you can also just rub the polish off of your skin while in the shower.  Be careful if you're trying that method though, as it can be rough on the skin.

31 Day Nail Challenge: Gradient

How summery and cute are these nails?!?  I can't take the credit for this idea though, because I totally copied from Pam's Girly Bits after seeing her Tropical Palm Tree design on Pinterest.  Again, I'll be posting a tutorial on how I got this look so I'll keep this post simple.

I started with one coat of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in White On.  For the gradient, I used Sally Hansen Insta Dri polishes in Lightening, Heat Flash, and Flashy Fuchsia.  Then I stamped over the gradient using Wet N Wild Wild Shine in Black Creme and Shany Image Plate SH19.

I've noticed that the Sally Hansen Insta Dri line polishes seem to work really well for nail art and gradients and stamping in particular.  Each time I used them for gradients, I only had to do one coat for full opacity.  I'm not a huge fan of them for every day painting though.

Rainbow Nail Tutorial

WARNING: Picture Heavy!

Materials

If you were wondering how I got my rainbow nail look here, then you've come to the right place!  Let's get started with my rainbow nail tutorial!

1. Start out by cutting a makeup sponge so that it is slightly larger than your biggest nail.  I like for both the top and the bottom of the sponge to be flat surfaces, this way it will sit flat on my workspace.

2. Next, paint your nails with a base coat to protect your natural nails from staining and help the polish adhere to your nails.  Here I used Orly's Bonder.

3. Once your base coat is dry, apply a coat of white nail polish.  This doesn't have to be perfect, because it won't show through.  The white is just to make the colors pop so if there are streaks or bald spots, that's okay.  My favorite white is Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in White On, which is what I used.

4. Once your white coat is completely dry, take your makeup sponge and paint a stripe of blue at the bottom, yellow in the middle, and red on top.  You want the yellow stripe to be the largest, because it will be dominated by the darker colors.  If you have too much polish on the sponge, dab it off onto a paper towel.

5. Next, use the sponge to dab the colors over the white, moving both left to right and slightly up and down so that the colors blend together at the edges.

This is what you want the nail to look like after sponging.  Be sure the rainbow colors are completely dry before moving on to the next step.

6. Grab a nail plate with a zebra print on it.  The one I used is Bundle Monster Image Plate BM223.  Using a black polish, stamp on the zebra print over the entire nail.  The black I used was Wet N Wild Wild Shine in Black Creme.

7. Again, once that is completely dry, apply a top coat to seal in the design and prevent chipping.  When using top coat on stamping, be sure to use enough polish to avoid touching the design with the brush.  Make three lines, one down the middle and one on each side.  If you feel like you need more top coat, allow the first layer to dry before adding a second coat.  This way you won't smudge the stamping.  I used Seche Vite as my top coat.

Before top coat

And finally we have some photos both before and after top coat.  I hope you try this out!  It's super fun!  Lastly, I'll leave you with a tip.  To clean up the giant mess around my cuticles, I use pointed Q tips dipped in polish remover.  The pointed tip gives me a little more control than a regular Q tip.  Happy painting!

After top coat