#NailArtJan Day 31

Welcome back! Again!

Today was the final day for this challenge, and I successfully completed it! This post is a little late, because I did have to finish The Nail Art Guild prompt for today, too.

The prompt was "silver," and I took it seriously! I used Essie No Place Like Chrome and did a little negative space mani. I used Nail Vinyls from here again, and put them down before any polish, then painted the polish over them. Once I took them off, I put down some rhinestones that were in a nail wheel I got from Icing.

That was it! They were super quick, simple, and unfortunately messy. I like the idea, I just need to be a little neater next time. I think it would be fun to play around with some different colors and studs/rhinestones.

Thanks for reading <3

The Nail Art Guild: January 31

Welcome back!

The prompt for the bi-weekly nail art guild for today was rainbow!

I actually did two designs for this, and I hated the first one. I did it last night, and when I woke up this morning, I took it off and went with this new design that I thought of while painting the others.

Being a rainbow, it clearly took a lot of polish. The colors are as follows:

Red: Nicole by OPI Please Red-Cycle
Orange: China Glaze Stoked to Be Soaked
Yellow: China Glaze Sun Upon My Skin
Green: Studio M Neon Greenlight
Blue: L'Oreal Fluo Azur
Purple: China Glaze X-ta-sea
White: Nicole by OPI Yoga Then Yogurt

For my index and ring finger, I painted red, yellow and blue on, each taking up about a third of my nail. Next, after applying top coat and letting it dry completely, I placed on some skinny chevron nail vinyls. They can be purchased here. I then went and painted orange, green and purple in the spaces between them.

On my thumb, I did an ombre using all of the colors, and then put dots on top with the white polish. My pinky was a white base and dots using all of the colors, and I kept one nail, my middle finger, simple with just a couple of coats of white.

Thanks for reading! <3

Snowflake Nails

Welcome back!

With all of this snow hitting different parts of the United States, and it being the end of January, I was inspired to do some snowflake nails!

The base color for all nails was Zoya Rebel. On my index and pinky fingers, I did an ombre using Rebel and China Glaze So Blue Without You. On my ring finger, I used Sally Hansen Sugar Shimmer in  Sugar Cloud. The glitter on my thumb was Pure Ice Strapless.

To make the snowflakes, I used the Kiss Nail Art Paint in White and Silver Glitter (creative names, right?) I drew the snowflakes with the white striper, then added some dots with a dotting tool. To finish it off, I used the glitter on the largest snowflake and traced over it to add some extra sparkle!

Thanks for reading <3

#NailArtJan Day 28

Welcome back!

Today's prompt: Match OOTD! (Outfit Of The Day)

Today, I wore one of my favorite outfits to work. I have been wanting to create this shirt pattern on my nails, and I finally had the chance and reason to!

The white and red polish were Nicole by OPI Yoga Then Yogurt and Please Red-cycle, and the black polish was Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Night Fright. The stripes were done using Salon Perfect Nail Art stripers in Red Laser and Black Ink.

Here is a picture of my shirt that inspired it. With it, I wore a red cardigan, and plain black pants.

Thanks for reading <3

#NailArtJan Day 25

Welcome back!

Today's prompt was "studs!" I don't own a lot of studs, because I really just don't use them much. I have to use my hands all day at work, and I wash them all the time. I just worry about losing them or having them fall off and I hate the look with top coat on top.

The studs I used were from Sally's Beauty Supply and Icing. The orange-y polish is OPI Can't aFjord Not To from their Nordic collection this past fall. The blue-gray polish is Essie The Perfect Cover Up, also from their fall 2014 collection.

Thanks for reading <3

#NailArtJan Day 22

Welcome back!

The theme for today was "Favorite Design." I chose to do chevrons, because I am completely obsessed with them.

I decided that I wanted to do a different base color on each nail and a then add the same color on top. I chose five colors from the China Glaze All Aboard collection for my base nails, and then added white polish on top of the chevron stickers.

The polishes I used were...
Thumb: Don't Get Derailed
Index: Mind the Gap
Middle: Well Trained
Ring: Lug Your Designer Baggage
Pinky: Choo-Choo Choose You

The white polish that I used to top them was China Glaze White on White. To create the chevrons, I used nail vinyls. They can be purchased here.

Thanks for reading <3

#NailArtJan Day 20

Welcome back!

The prompt for Day 20 was "Favorite Color." My favorite color is pink, so I decided to keep it simple and just pick a polish I had not tried yet.

I chose to use OPI Girls Love Ponies from their Mustang collection that released this past summer. I only needed two coats of this gorgeous polish. It applied beautifully, has a great formula and just looks awesome. It would be perfect for some Valentine's Day manicures, if anyone is looking for one!

Thanks for reading <3

#NailArtJan Day 17

Welcome back!

The prompt for day 17 was "gradient." I was really excited to do these for some reason. I'm not sure why, because I've done gradients before. I started by applying one coat of white polish, and then a quick dry top coat. I let that dry for a few minutes, and then taped off my finger to help with cleanup in the end.

For my colors, I chose three colors from the China Glaze All Aboard collection. From lightest to darkest, they were All Aboard, Nice Caboose! and Conduct Yourself. These colors worked so nicely together. They blended well, and were opaque enough that I didn't need to do two layers on my nails, which was amazing because it saved a lot of time.

Thanks for reading <3

The Nail Art Guild: 7 Deadly Sins

Welcome back!

Saturday the 17th was another day for the The Nail Art Guild's bi-weekly prompts! The prompt this week was "7 Deadly Sins."

My design was a little out of the ordinary. When thinking about what I wanted to do, I remembered a line from one of my favorite TV shows, Gilmore Girls. Lane said in an episode that her mom taught her that the Cookie Monster was one of the seven deadly sins: gluttony. I was completely inspired by this, so I created Cookie Monster nails!

The blue for the Cookie Monster himself was Essie Strut Your Stuff. The cookies were done using OPI Ice-bergers & Fries for the base, and Essie Partner in Crime for the chocolate chips. The details in white and black were done using Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in OMGhost and Night Fright, and a Salon Perfect Striper in black.

I'm very happy with how these turned out!

Thanks for reading <3

#NailArtJan Day 14

Welcome back!

The prompt for Day 14 was "new technique."

I originally tried to do the reverse stamping method, but that was an awful fail. So, I switched techniques! I ended up trying the spotted watermarble technique.

I started by painting a base color on my nails. I used OPI My Dogsled is a Hybrid, from the Nordic collection. For the watermarble part, all you do it drop a few drops of polish in the water, just like you would with a regular water marble, but the polish drops are all the same color. I used OPI's OPI With A Nice Finn-ish from the Nordic collection. Next, take a spray bottle with something in it (I used water) and spray the surface a couple of times until you have the desired look. Then, you just have to continue like with any water marble. You dip your finger in, clean up the surface, and then pull it out!

It was simple, but look awesome! And I loved how easy it was.

Thanks for reading <3

#NailArtJan Day 11

Welcome back!

The Nail Art January challenge, hosted by @Californails, continues. The prompt for Day 11 was "recreation."

January is a month full of birthdays for my family. Mine is the 9th, followed by my nephew, boyfriend, sister and my boyfriend's mother, all within the next week. For the recreation prompt, I decided to take it a little different direction than most people did. Most people that I saw recreated someone else's nail art. I had just done that for Day 08, though, so I decided to recreate my own manicure! I had done a similar manicure a year ago for my birthday, and the year before for my birthday.

I used all Nicole by OPI polishes for this, mostly ones from the Fall in Line collection. I wanted the colors to go together better than in the past, where they have usually been a jumble. The white was Yoga-Then-Yogurt, the turquoise was Poised for Turquoise, the purple was Did He Wink At Me?, and the pinky berry was Berry the Hatchet. I also used Please Red-cycle for the candles on the cake, but I wish I would have just used the berry color for it.

Just for fun, here is the picture from last year.

Thanks for reading! <3

#NailArtJan Day 08

Welcome back!

Day 08's prompt was "animal." Since it was the day before my birthday, I chose to recreate a design that I saw done by Christabellnails on Instagram. Her Youtube channel can be found here.

For the base color on the penguin, and the bows on the packages, I used OPI Suzi Has a Swede Tooth. The polka dot looking nails were done using Essie She Said Yes and Salon Perfect Flower Power. I put down two layers of the Essie, and then a couple of dabbed on layers of Flower Power. To finish it, I did a coat of She Said Yes again.

The penguin and balloons were done using different stripers by Salon Perfect and Sally Hansen.

Thanks for reading <3

The Nail Art Guild: Retro

Welcome back!

I have decided to do as many of The Nail Art Guild bi-weekly prompts as possible in 2015. These are a great way to interact with people on Instagram, and have a sense of community. It's also fun to have a challenge, and try something different every couple of weeks.

The first prompt of 2015 was "Retro" and the date for it was January 3rd.

I was still on vacation at the time, so I had to use some nail art stickers for it. I used some by China Glaze for this look, and they fit perfectly with the theme.

I've only used nail stickers once, and they were pretty cool, but they were difficult to remove, which was the downside. I applied these on top of my press on nails, so I'm not sure how they remove, unfortunately. I liked the way they applied, but I hated the size options. There were not enough larger choices. I just felt like they were all very skinny, and not wide enough for me. It may have been different if I didn't have the press on nails on, but I still felt like it was a HUGE gap, meaning it probably would have still been a gap without the nails, just maybe not as big.

I did like the look of these, and if you are not one to paint your nails on your own, these are always a great option.

Thanks for reading <3

#NailArtJan Day 04

Welcome back!

The prompt for Day 04 was "Sparkles!" I chose to try a type of polish that I hadn't yet! For this, I used the Revlon Moon Candy nail art stick thing. This was in the color "Galactic." This is a double ended polish with a solid dark blue on one end, and some blue sparkles on the other.

I absolutely loved this polish! It applied fairly well, but it was beautiful. I did end up mattifying it with OPI Matte Top Coat. It was extremely hard to photograph without doing this, but it also gave it a completely different look, which I loved!

I have another one of the Revlon Moon Candy polishes, and I'm really excited to try it now.

Thanks for reading <3

#NailArtJan Day 02

Welcome back!

I decided to do what I do at the 31 Day Challenge with all of the challenges that I partake in. That way, I can keep track of what polishes I used to create each manicure!

First up, the Instagram challenge that I am doing right now, in January. I was on vacation during that day, so it was slim pickins'. Thankfully, the prompt was "Fresh," and I had some press on french nails.

The ones that I used this time were by imPress, and they were the short length. I have tried the Kiss brand press ons before this, and I liked those alright. But now that I've tried this, I absolutely loved these more. They go on much easier, and they stayed great, but they came off so easily! They looked better to me than the Kiss ones, because it was easier to stick them at the base, so it didn't look like two different colors on my nail beds.

Overall, I liked the shape and length better, too. They felt more natural and comfortable, where I remember the Kiss ones being less comfortable.

Thanks for reading! <3