Day 18: Half Moons

Hello ladies!

At this point in the challenge, I am starting to feel a bit tired. Tired, uninspired....you name it. I sat down to do half moons with literally NO idea of where I wanted to go with the mani -- let me just tell you about my nightmare with half moons.

First, I wanted to do white moons with Zoya Phoebe. So I applied the white, put a coat of SV over and waited about half hours to use the reinforcement holes. Apparently it wasn't long enough because it pulled all the polish off. So, I removed it. Then I tried gold moons and attempted at freehanding the black over it. THAT didn't work either because they were so uneven (I obviously have a problem with patience). FINALLY, I was at my wit's end. I decided I'd just do a base color and wait until the next day to add the top color over the moons. And finally, success!

I started with two coats of Orly Star Spangled. Can you say LOVE?? I can! Love! It's no different than Ruby Pumps or Ruby Slippers...but I don't have either of those so I was like a kid on Christmas when I put this on. EEEE! Here's some pics of it alone. Because I'm sure you've NEVER seen a red glitter before. /sarcasm

Seriously though. Just enlarge that sucker!

I left it on overnight, and applied the reinforcement holes over top the next day. (I was so sad to cover up this beauty). I found that it is MUCH more hassle-free to wait until the polish has completely dried and cured before you put the reinforcements on. Just a little tip courtesy of your friendly nail neighbor ;)

Oh, the black is Ulta's Little Black Dress. Love!

I think this combo is so sexy and fierce. Makes me think of Dita von Teese a little. :) What do you guys think? Are you a fan of half moons?

Simple Halloween Gravestones

Hi all! Today I have a Halloween design I've been wanting to do for a while -- little Halloween gravestones!

I started with a base of Ulta Little Black Dress to represent a spooky night sky. LBD is a black polish with small silver glitter in it. Here is a swatch:

Next I painted the gravestones with OPI French Quarter For Your Thoughts (the PERFECT gravestone color!). I just painted the gravestones straight with the polish brush. Paint like you would if you were doing a ruffian mani.

To make the gravestones look old and aged, I sponged a tiny bit of Sinful Colors Secret Admirer. I really like the way it made the gravestones look!

I used a small brush and black acrylic paint to draw on "RIP" on all of my nails.

Finish with some grass at the bottom (I used a green Sinful striper). Seal it with Seche Vite and voila! You're done :)

What do you ladies think of these simple gravestone nails? They were one of my most simple Halloween designs and they're at the top of my list! I guess intricate doesn't always mean better :)

Oh also, if you're arachnophobic, might want to turn away in 3...






2.......







1.....



I present to you, the rare Hoosier man-eating spider!

Happy almost weekend!

On Cloud 9

Today I have a simple mani for you guys as I've been kind of burnt out on in-your-face nail art recently. I wanted to use a color that I don't use very often, so I dug through my drawer of polishes that don't get to be on my shelf (poor polishes) and found Sinful Cloud 9. It's a really pretty shimmery orange color, but unfortunately I don't think this works on my skin tone very well. It was really sheer but applied well other than that. Here's 3 coats:

After I got it on I realized the bit about it not being too flattering on my skin tone so I jazzed it up just a bit by applying Ulta Pinata Yada Yada. The only complaint I have with PYY is that it's not dense enough for my liking... I could hardly get any glitter on my nail so I ended up having to sort of dab the brush on to my nail where I wanted glitter which I hate doing because it makes the surface uneven. I didn't want to add SV on top of 5 coats of stuff because I know Ill just be taking this off in a day and a half and I want to make it as easy as possible :)

I hope all of you had a wonderful weekend :)

-Amanda

Ghetto Gothic Fab Nails (Lady Gaga nails?)

Helloooo!

This is an awfully dark mani for summer....but oh, wait! I don't care :) I wanted to do a design based off a shirt I was wearing yesterday, even though it's pretty dark and ... ominous looking. Which is why I'm calling these my GOTHIC fabulous nails! Gothic because they're black, and fabulous because they have rhinestones on them! Oooh, shiny. I guess they could also be Lady Gaga nails :)

I started off with two coats of Ulta Little Black Dress, which is AWESOME! It has a little bit of a shimmer to it so it doesn't look so intimidating. I only had to do two coats of this, and I could've gotten away with one if I'd applied a thick coat. I highly recommend this one... it's like a girly black polish if that makes sense.

Then I stamped over it with Sally Hansen Black Pearl Chroma and plate m63. If you're lucky enough to have any of the Chrome polishes, they're excellent to stamp with. I used round, silver rhinestones on the ring fingers to make the crosses. I generally don't like rhinestones because they get stuck in my hair and I usually think it's hard to make them look good.

What do you all think? :)

Have a wonderful day,
-Amanda

Happy Birthday (Nails) To Me!

Sundays usually aren't my day to post, but I couldn't wait to get these up! My birthday is tomorrow, and I wanted to do something special and fun for it on my nails. So, I decided to do cupcakes and a Happy Birthday polish dupe! I know cupcakes aren't too original as they're done a lot...but gosh darnit, they're so cute (I think so at least). I started off with FingerPaints Watermelon Watercolor on all my nails except my pointer and ring fingers. I used Petites Periwinkle as the purple background on those fingers, and painted WmWc on the bottom as the base for the cupcakes. The white frosting is your basic acrylic paint and the sprinkles are made with China Glaze Solar Power, China Glaze Caribbean Blue, and Zoya Sooki. I topped the other nails with Ulta's Pinata-Yada-Yada which is pretty much an exact dupe for Lippmann's Happy Birthday (see The PolishAholic's comparison here).

I think these are so stinkin' cute. What do you think? Tomorrow I turn 22.. AHH! I'm a big girl now :(

Ulta Little Black Dress and Piñata Yada Yada

Today's post is a Happy Birthday to Amanda post! :)

I started with two coats of a base coat to try to protect my nails from the staining from the black polish. I was only somewhat successful. This is Ulta's Little Black Dress. It's a black creme with teeny tiny silver and light blue (?) microglitter to give it just a little bit of shimmer. Went on effortlessly and covered well in just one coat. I was really pleasantly surprised by the quality of this polish. Dry time was average.

Over the top of that I applied Piñata Yada Yada. This is a Deborah Lippman Happy Birthday dupe and I thought it especially appropriate for today. You can see a comparison of them on The PolishAholic's blog here. I waited approximately 5-10 minutes between coats to give the glitter time to adhere before applying a 2nd and 3rd coat so they didn't move around on my fingernails.

I just love this polish. It makes me so happy to look at it. It's like a party on my fingers. It's too bad glitter is so hard to remove. To quote my daughter's boyfriend - glitter is the herpes of the craft world. You can never quite get rid of it. hehe. Anyway, hope you enjoy today's post and Happy Birthday Amanda!