2013 Nail Favorites!

Now that 2013 has ended, most people are being to look forward instead of reflect back. I need to finish this though, before I can look forward to the year! :)

Several of these polishes and products were talked about in my Summer Favorites, so I'll link that here.

1. Sally Hansen's Magnetic in Ionic Indigo--I had never tried a magnetic polish before, but then I bought this. This is a much cheaper alternative the Essie version, although I know they make different designs. This polish takes hardly anytime to dry, and the design looks amazing, with hardly any effort.

2. Sally Hansen's Sugar Coat in Razzleberry--To this day, I still haven't tried another textured polish. This one is definitely good, though, especially for the price! OPI Liquid Sand is around $9, while I believe I got this polish for somewhere around the $5 mark.

3. Milani's Jewel FX in Gold--I used this polish so many times since I got it back in September. It has enough glitter in it, that if you dot it on, you won't even need a color beneath it. They make this polish in several colors, and I really need to go buy a couple more.

4. Essie's Penny Talk--This is a GORGEOUS color. The finish is unlike any other color that I've seen. It's shiny, yet almost matte. The formula is so opaque, I almost only needed one coat on it. There are several shades of this line, and I need to purchase them all!

5. Sinful Colors polishes--Until around March, I had never tried a polish of this brand. They have so many choices, though. And the best part? They are only $1.99 each! These are great quality, too. Most of them are very opaque, and go on so smoothly. I picked up a nearly a whole line of this brand for less than $10 total! That is something you can't say about most nail polish brands.

6. Wet 'n Wild's Wild Shine polishes--These polishes are amazing quality on their own. But when you put that on top of the price, these are unbeatable! For $0.99 EACH, you could easily find the money to buy a couple of these. They only have a limited number of color choices, but the ones out there are beautiful colors.

7. E.l.f.'s polishes--The first polish I received from them was free as part of a coupon code, but I was glad it was included in the package so I could give it a try. I was shocked at how opaque the color was, and how smooth the formula was as well. These are usually $2 for each large polish, but I purchased a set of 12 polishes for $10 at Halloween, and they had the same deal for Christmas, which puts that at a wonderful value as well.

8. OPI Matte Top Coat--I talked about this in my Summer Favorites post, also. Overall, I just love how smooth it goes on, quickly it dries and the finished look. It can transform any "boring" nail art into something different.

9. OPI Natural Nail Base Coat--I never really used base coat until just a few months ago. I began using this base coat to prevent color staining on my nails. This base coat really helps! It seems to prevent really bad staining, at least on the majority of the nail. The main place that I notice there being staining is on the edges, which is where I am probably the worst about getting the base coat on.

10. Dotting Tools--Again, an item I talked about in my Summer Favorites, so I won't go on. But these tools made nail art so much simpler. They are great for not only dots, but for writing things, and drawing lines, because they glide over the nail so smoothly. They do not drag the polish, or create stroke marks and lines.

That's it! 2013 was a great year, but I can't wait for 2014! My goal is to blog more, so I hope everyone will read my posts, and share anything worth sharing with friends. :)

Thanks for reading <3

31 Day Nail Challenge: Day 27

Day Twenty-Seven: Inspired by Artwork

Wet 'n Wild Wild Shine in Blue Moon

Sinful Colors in Snow Me White

Sally Hansen Hard as Nails in Hard Hat

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Mellow Yellow

Kiss Nail Art in White

Kiss Nail Art in Black

Of course, this was the first thing I thought of when I thought of a piece of art work. But, it turned out to be fun, and maybe I'll redo it, but with more details!

I went in and made the background color is Blue Moon. To make the "castle" or whatever the shape is, I put down the white on one nail, and made it just slightly larger than what I wanted to castle shape size to be. I put the white down for two reasons. 1) So that the black was more vibrant, because the sky color was so dark, and 2) so there was an outline and the castle was easier to see.

To make the swirls, I used white on a paint brush, and did not put much on the brush, and used quick strokes. I did it over and over until it was thin and wispy looking. I did a similar thing for the ring around the moon with Hard Hat, and then used Mellow Yellow to make the actual moon shape.

Thanks for reading <3

31 Day Nail Challenge: Day 26

Day Twenty-Six: Inspired by a Pattern

Wet 'n Wild Wild Shine in Sunny Side Up

Kiss Nail Art in White

Kiss Nail Art in Black

There are a lot of argyle tutorials out there on the internet. But I still decided to make my own!

I'm still working out getting good, quality pictures, and figuring out how I like them edited as well. So, please, bear with me!

1. Paint a base color of your choice. I used Sunny Side Up, a light orange color.
2. Paint large diamonds in a pattern, with a complementing color. For my diamonds, I used white.
3. Paint lines with a third color that create diamonds, offset from the others. Do not fill these in the way you did with the diamonds. For my lines, I used black.

Thanks for reading <3

31 Day Nail Challenge: Day 25

Day Twenty-Five: Inspired by Fashion

Sinful Colors in Ruby Ruby

Sinful Colors in Snow Me White

Kiss Nail Art in Black

I was having a hard time trying to find a good "fashion statement" or something that was actually current. Then, I was flipping through my Glamour magazine, and found this picture on an ad for Banana Republic!

Creating it was really easy after that. The white nail with the black design is not the best, but it was hard to even see exactly what it was on the shirt underneath. But I thought it turned out okay! (Although the picture quality is not the best...)

Thanks for reading <3

31 Day Nail Challenge: Day 24

Day Twenty-Four: Inspired by a Book

Covergirl Outlast in Black Diamond

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Gone Grey

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Golden-I

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Rapid Red

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Sun Kissed

Zoya in Darcy

I love The Hunger Games, so I decided this was the best idea for me!

*Once again, I did not intentionally take any ideas off of anyone's page, or from Pinterest. These were the things I thought of on my own, and what I could do myself.

For tools, I just used a couple small nail brushes, and a small dotting tool.

Thanks for reading <3

31 Day Nail Challenge: Day 23

Day Twenty-Three: Inspired by a Movie

For the Sky: Essie in Mint Candy Apple

For the House: Essie in Little Brown Dress

          OPI in San Tan-tonio

For the Clouds: Sinful Colors in Snow Me White

For the Balloons: NYC in Big Apple Red

          Wet 'n Wild Wild Shine in Sunny Side Up

          Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Yellow Mellow

          Pure Ice in Free Spirit

          Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Blue It

          Salon Perfect in Electric Grape

          Sinful Colors in Cotton Candy

          Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Black Out

I was trying to decide on a movie, and figured this one was easy!

*I did not purposely copy anyone else. I thought of this on my own, but I may have unintentionally gotten an idea from something that I saw on Pinterest.

I have never done a nail art design that was a whole picture, spread out over several nails! I like the way that it turned out!

Thanks for reading <3

31 Day Nail Challenge: Day 22

Day Twenty-Two: Inspired by a Song

OPI in San Tan-tonio

Essie in Little Brown Dress

E.l.f. in Nude

Sinful Colors in Snow Me White

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Black Out

Essie in Mint Candy Apple

Claire's in Marine Blue

I'm horrible. I am SO behind! But, I have had this done for a while, as well as a couple more days, I just never uploaded those. Not that that is much better...

Anywho, this song is Teardrops on my Guitar, by Taylor Swift. It's pretty obvious, I think.

The two base colors are Nude and Marine Blue.
For the guitar, I used San Tan-tonio, Little Brown Dress, Black Out, and Snow Me White.
The tears are Mint Candy Apple.
And the music notes are Black Out.


Thanks for reading <3