May Weekly Nail Art Challenge: Week 5, May 29

Welcome back!

Theme: Neon

Prompt: Watermarble

I finally completed this challenge!! I'm so happy with myself for sticking with it and finishing another challenge!!

White: White on White

Pink: Glow With the Flow

Yellow: Daisy Know My Name?

Orange: Home Sweet House Music

I'm terrible at watermarble. I really only had one nail that I liked, and that's my middle finger. I'm proud of myself for trying again, though! This was my 5th attempt at it. It does get better every time, do there's the positive!

I used Glisten & Glow CTRL-ALT-DEL latex barrier again instead of tape!!

Thanks for reading <3

Spring Galaxy Nails

Welcome back!

Today I wanted to share my most recent galaxy nails that I did! These were some spring ones, so I stuck with flowers and pastels. I know spring is almost over, especially since most people are out of school now, but we've still had a lot of typical spring weather lately, so I didn't think they were too late yet!

Black: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Night Fright
Pink: Salon Perfect Put A Ring On It
Purple: Salon Perfect Lilacking Control
Blue: Salon Perfect Cold As Ice
Green: Salon Perfect Mint Julep
Yellow: Salon Perfect Mellow Yellow
Glitter: China Glaze Fairy Dust
Silver Flowers: Nicole by OPI Party Bus
Blue Flowers: Nails Inc. Floral Richmond Gardens
White: Nicole by OPI Yoga-Then-Yogurt

So many colors! I did these like all galaxies, starting with a black base, then sponging on the pink, purple, blue, green and yellow polishes. I painted the glitter on, and then fished the silver and blue flower glitters out of the correct polishes. The blue flowers gave it a different look, and took away from the galaxy look a little bit, but I still liked it.

To get the white flowers and rose, I used some new stamping plates I just got! I used Winstonia plates 104 for the rose and 110 for the flower.

Thanks for reading <3

Memorial Day: Chevron Flag

Welcome back!

Today I did some nails for Memorial Day! I love doing patriotic nails, and starting now, that'll be the majority of the nails I do until the end of the summer.

Red: OPI What's Your Point-setta?

White: Essie Private Weekend

Blue: Wet 'n Wild Megalast Coast to Coast

Silver: Glam Chick (no name)

Stars: Sinful Colors Star Blast Off

For the star nails, I simply painted them blue, and then fished for the star glitter in Star Blast Off and placed them where I wanted.

The chevron nails were painted white first, then top coated with HK Girl fast drying top coat. Once it dried, I placed mini chevron vinyls on it, painted it red, and took the vinyls off immediately.

To get the silver glitter opaque, I sponged it on. I used Glisten & Glow CTRL-ALT-DEL as a barrier for easier clean up.

Thanks for reading <3

May Weekly Nail Art Challenge: Week 4, May 22

Welcome back!

Theme: Neon
Prompt: Gradient

Today I have my gradient nails that I did for this week! This week, I again used all China Glaze, and the colors were all from the Electric Nights collection.

Green: Treble Maker
Blue: DJ Blue My Mind
Purple: Plur-ple
White: White on White

I started by painting my nails a white base. Then I put down CTRL-ALT-DEL latex barrier by Glisten & Glow around my nail to avoid getting polish on my nail when doing the gradient.

I next painted the colors in order on a latex free sponge, and then sponged it on to my nail. I repeated this process until it was opaque and dark enough and blended well. It was usually perfect in just two coats.

Once I was done with that, I just peeled it off, and cleaned up everything else that was left over!

Thanks for reading <3

Mix & Match Spring Nails

Welcome back!

Today I wanted to do something fun, so I did a mix and match with some spring colors! The Essie colors are from their spring collection.

Purple: Essie Flowerista

Nude: Essie Picked Perfect

Glitter: OPI Snow Globetrotter

I used a dotting tool for my thumb and pointer, and Nail Vinyls for the chevron nails.

Thanks for reading <3

China Glaze Fall 2014: All Aboard Collection

Welcome back!

Today I wanted to go ahead and post my thoughts about the China Glaze All Aboard collection from the Fall 2014.

What Are You A-Freight Of?
Coats: 2
Formula: Cream
Color Family: Brown
This was a beautiful dark brown polish. I wore this at Thanksgiving with my turkey manicure! At first, I didn't think I would like it. It's just not something that I usually am into or would go for. I really liked it, though! It almost had a purple tint to it in certain lighting.

Stop That Train!
Coats: 2
Formula: Metallic
Color Family: Red
This polish had a surprisingly great formula. Since it did have a chrome tendency to the formula, it could be streaky if you aren't careful. It was a perfect shade for the fall, and I got a lot of compliments when I wore this alone even! It has shimmer to it, so that's a pain when removing it, but it made it gorgeous.

One Track Mind
Coats: 1
Formula: Cream
Color Family: Blue
This polish was beautiful. The formula was great, it looked smooth and it was a gorgeous color. This is a dupe, almost exactly, for Essie's Style Cartel, so if you have one, you don't need the other. The only thing frustrating about that to me was that they came out the same season.

All Aboard
Coats: 2
Formula: Cream
Color Family: Purple
This shade of purple had some gray tones to it, almost a little ashy. To me, it felt very professional. This would be a great way to wear purple to the office if you have to be more subdued and restrained. It's subtle, instead of in-your-face the way some purples can be.

Nice Caboose!
Coats: 2
Formula: Shimmer
Color Family: Purple
Another purple in the group, but I loved it. It was more of a pinky purple than a straight purple. The way it looked was that it was purple with pink shimmer. This color needed no nail art to make it beautiful. It had an amazing formula, and looked totally different mattified.

Conduct Yourself 
Coats: 1
Formula: Cream
Color Family: Purple
The formula was fantastic on this, and the color was gorgeous. It was a cream polish, but it had the tiniest hint of shimmer to it. It was really hard to see though, so you can't see it in the picture.

Well Trained
Coats: 1
Formula: Cream
Color Family: Gray
The formula on this polish was good, and it was a pretty color. It was typical fall color though, and I wasn't extremely overwhelmed by it.

Lug Your Designer Baggage
Coats: 2
Formula: Cream/Glitter
Color Family: Brown
This was a really interesting polish. It had a great formula, and was an interesting twist on a dark brown. It had small gold colored flakes in it, which is why I say it was a cream/glitter. It was almost a one-coater, but there were a couple of patches, so it needed a second coat.

Don't Get Derailed
Coats: 1
Formula: Cream
Color Family: Green
This was an army green shade, with an amazing formula. It was very opaque, and I was amazed that I only needed one coat for it.

Choo-choo Choose You
Coats: 2
Formula: Shimmer/Duochrome
Color Family: Blue
This was a very different kind of polish. It was a little sheer, but not awful, considering it looked good in just two coats. The polish was absolutely gorgeous, and almost holographic. It looked completely different at different angles.

Mind the Gap
Coats: 2
Formula: Shimmer
Color Family: Yellow
Personally, I didn't really like this color. It was kind of ugly, but the shimmer made it much pretty and something I might actually wear. The formula was very similar to Choo-choo Choose You.

Loco-Motive
Coats: 1
Formula: Glitter Topper
Color Family: Black & Orange
I painted one coat of this glitter on top of two coats of White on White by China Glaze. It was pretty and very unique. It was smoky looking, with some orange glitter in it, too.

May Weekly Nail Art Challenge: Week 3, May 15

Welcome back!

Theme: Neon

Prompt: Fishtail

I've never done a fishtail, so this was actually my second attempt at this, because it looked awul the first time! I really like the outcome though once I got the hang of it and figured out what to do better.

I used all China Glaze polishes for this and all but the white were from the new Electric Nights collection!

White: White on White

Yellow: Daisy Know My Name?

Orange: Home Sweet House Music

Blue: DJ Blue My Mind

I have several tips that I learned while doing this that really helped while trying to do it, especially when doing it with neons.

1. Start with a white base. It's a pain to have to do more than one coat, so this avoids that problem.

2. Add a white stripe first. This keeps the colors true, avoids bleeding, and avoids additional coats, too. Especially when doing a color that is lighter than the one it's going on top of. If it's darker, I didn't do it, like for the blue. But when I did the yellow and orange I did. It avoided having lines underneath one line from the other colors.

3. Don't make your lines too thin. Thin lines means a lot of lines. It not only looks better, but it's less work, too!

Thanks for reading <3