Day 30: Inspired by a tutorial

Hello all! I've wanted to try this for a long time now and figured now's a better time than any!

They're cute little pandas! This tutorial is one that CutePolish made. Watch the video here!

What's a better for me to do than pandas?! Get it? Amanda Panda?? :D

I used a base of China Glaze Innocence to make a nice canvas for my little pandas......and to cover up my horrible stained nails. Then I just drew the white panda face with a white polish and used acrylic paints and dotting tools for the eyes, ears and pupils. One of the simplest nail art designs I've ever done!

 

Voila! Tomorrow's the end of the challenge.... kinda bittersweet! Ok...not really. I am tired and my cuticles are crying for some rest.

See ya tomorrow! :)

Day 29: Inspired by the supernatural (Adorable aliens!)

Day 29! AHHH!!! Only two days left! What ever will my manis be? Guess you'll have to stay tuned ;)

For supernatural day, I was originally going to do angels and devils. But my dear friend Jen (hi Jen!) told me she thought aliens would be a good idea for supernatural. I agreed! Plus I didn't know how to execute angels/devils and didn't want to risk possibly offending anyone by insinuating that either of those 2 are not real so I decided to go with aliens :)

I started with two coats of Zoya Kelly. In retrospect I should've used a lighter color. I started the aliembs with a black outline but it was too hard to see over Kelly so I ended up painting over most of it. Plus I needed to make the little dudes a little plumper!

Lol I always have the goofiest drawings on my pinky. Maybe because it's the smallest so I can't fit an image the same size on it? He kind of looks like Mike Wazowski with two eyes...And I just realized the alien on my pointer finger looks like Plankton!

The aliens are made with acrylic paint and an itty bitty teeny weeny paintbrush. Boy was this tedious! I can't imagine how long it would've taken had I added shadows, but I like the cartoony effect these have :) Maybe I've redeemed myself from my weak, easy-way-out posts the last couple days? Haha

I think these little aliens are so cute, and they were pretty easy to do actually! All you need is patience :)

WE COME IN PEACE!!

Day 28: Inspired by a flag

For Day 28, I decided to do the country flag of the Netherlands!

This mani was very simple -- two coats of Sally Hansen All Fired Up as the base. AFU is a perfect red creme -- opaque in just two coats. I didn't even mind the super wide chunky brush with this one!

The stripes are made from a white striper and the blue polish is Sinful Midnight Blue. The stripes could've been much neater, but let's face it -- I don't have the patience for taping right now. Mom's getting ready for a big move so it's been chaotic around here!

See you tomorrow for supernatural day! :)

Day 27: Inspired by artwork

Only 4 more days in the challenge! Thank goodness because I am getting wiped out! Today's theme is inspired by artwork. I didn't have the patience to do something extreme like Starry Night, so I did this love sculpture by Robert Indiana.

The base color for this is China Glaze Caribbean Blue and the green is Finger Paints Scenery Greenery. I freehanded the letters with red acrylic paint. I think it turned out pretty well, just wish I had gotten a better picture of it!

There is a copy of Indiana's Love sculpture at the Indiana Museum of Art here. So much Indiana!

Happy Sunday!

Day 26: Inspired by a pattern

I don't even know what this means....so I just went with a simple Konad-icure. I had to work Black Friday yesterday and was quite tired when I sat down to do this mani so I kept it easy.

The base is China Glaze Strawberry Fields with a coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust over top. Then I just stamped this image using Konad special polish in Black (which is a great deal more difficult to clean up than regular black polish...but that's a whole other post) and topped with a coat of Poshe.

Sorry for the quick post today (er, last night as I am writing this on Friday) but I am wiped out!

Day 25: Inspired by fashion

Nobody ever said this prompt meant "inspired by good fashion" ... and that's exactly where I took this one!

I was inspired by tacky Christmas sweaters! (Thanks to Steph for suggesting this idea) They are totally not fashionable in the slightest, but I think this mani turned out SO CUTE!

I used a base of Sinful GoGo Girl and drew the little snowmen with acrylic paint. The snowflakes were done using a small Konad stamp and white Sinful polish.

Here's my inspiration for this mani:

What do you think of these tacky snowmen nails? Appropriate for the holidays?

Day 24: Inspired by a movie

Hello ladies! For my inspired by a movie day I decided to do Wizard of Oz nails!

On my pointer finger, I have the wicked witch of the west. I know that this is technically an image from Wicked, but I still thought it was appropriate and I didn't know how else to draw an evil witch :) Base color for this is China Glaze Entourage.

My middle finger is the yellow brick road! The grass is made with a base coat of China Glaze Starboard and sponged with China Glaze Cha Cha Cha. The yellow is acrylic paint.

The ring finger is none other than Dorothy's dress! I realize in the movie her dress was actually checkered....but I'm a rebel and don't like to play by the rules. Base color is Sinful White on White and the blue stripes are acrylic paint.

Lastly, the pinky is Dorothy's slippers! Base color is Zoya Sooki with two coats of Sally Hansen Downtown Rubies -- the perfect Dorothy shoes color!

We're off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of oz!!

Day 23: Inspired by a book

I do not like green eggs and ham!

I decided to go with a children's book for Inspired by a book day. And you guessed it -- I picked none other than Green Eggs & Ham by good ole Dr. Seuss. I loved this book when I was a wee little lass :)

My pointer and pinky fingers have the green eggs and ham on them! The middle finger is the line "I would not eat them in a boat..." and the ring finger is "I would not eat them in the rain..."

I wish I could've done images that rhymed but I simply just don't have enough fingers to :P

Short post for today, hope you all have a good one!

Day 22: Inspired by a song

Hello ladies. Today's nail theme is Inspired by a song.

That is so vague! There are so many songs I could choose from and I just had no idea where to start! I knew I wanted to represent different lyrics on different nails....but which song? Originally I thought of doing Last Friday Night because there's lots of fun lyrics that are paint-able, but then I thought that everybody is probably tired of that song (along with me). So, I settled on a song that I loved back in High School -- Konstantine by Something Corporate. I heard this my freshman year when my guard instructor taught us a rifle routine using it, and ever since it's been one of my most favorite songs by the talented Andrew McMahon.

Nails/Corresponding lyrics:
Thumb: "I always catch the clock, it's 11:11, and now you want to talk"
Pointer: "It's always you and my big dreams"
Middle: "This is because I can spell confusion with a K and I can like it"
Ring: "I'm not your star, isn't that what you said"
Pinky: "Wake up lying in a patch of four leaf clovers"

Here's the song for reference:

These inspired by posts are hard! It's difficult to decide what to do/what would be too hard/what would look good!

Have a great day!

Day 21: Inspired by a Color

Only 10 days left in the challenge! EEEEK!

Today's theme is "Inspired by a color." I took this to mean inspired by a polish name....so that's what I ran with!

I started with two coats of Orly Sweet Peacock for the base. (Sidenote:  This is one of those weird polishes that chipped on me after less than 12 hours but was HARD to get off. Maybe because it's a foil?)

I knew I wanted to do peacock feathers to represent this polish/color name. To draw the peacock feathers, I used a striper nail art brush and China Glaze Trendsetter and Cha Cha Cha. The middle portion is made with Wet n Wild Rustic (brown), China Glaze For Audrey (teal) and China Glaze First Mate (center dot). They turned out better than I was expecting!

I was channeling my inner Katy Perry while doing this mani!

Magical, colorful, Mr. Mystery!

Day 20: Water Marble (the most epic fail in Mad Manis history)

I'm warning you. Turn....back.....before it's too late!!! GO!! Save yourself!!

Ok, a bit melodramatic. But seriously. This might possibly be the worst manicure that's been on the blog....ever. This one is definitely being filed under the "fail" tags! :P

Watermarbling is not my thing (obviously). I just can't do it -- I've tried before and it was just as dismal as this one is. Maybe a little worse ;)

I especially love the bubble on my ring finger...

I did everything I read that I was supposed to do. Room temperature water - check. Base coat of white on my nails - check. Opaque polishes that spread easily - check. And it still looks like a hot mess!! I don't know what I'm doing wrong!

I'm embarrassed to even post this on here, and I almost just skipped out on this day completely because I was so frustrated. But I said I'd do all the prompts, and I am. This one just doesn't look good...at all ;) Maybe someone can relate? Haha.

Suffice it to say I will not be trying marbling again anytime soon. Probably anytime EVER AGAIN. Have you guys had any problems with water marbling? Give me some tips if you know any! :)

Versatile Blogger Award

Thanks to Sarah from The Giveaway Lifestyle for awarding us the Versatile Blogger Award!

There are two simple rules in accepting this award:

• List 7 things about yourself.
• Pass this along to 15 other bloggers that deserve this award.

Melissa's response..

1.  Although my name literally translates from Greek as "honeybee" I'm absolutely terrified of bees.
2.  I think I have an obsessive personality.  I have a stash of over 200 polishes that I keep on a specially made shelf so I can see them every day (instead of keeping them in a Helmer.  10 years ago I was a scrapbooker and stashed scrapbooking supplies, paper and tools.
3.  I'm an animal lover.  I love all furries, big and small.
4.  I collect fairies.
5.  I'm a gamer chick nerd.  I have played online role playing games for years.
6.  I used to be an aspiring body builder, but I lacked the discipline to follow the rigorous diet.
7.  My daughter is the light of my life.

Amanda's response...

1. In high school, I was part of my school's color guard (the people who spin flags etc for those of you who don't know ;] ). I spun flag, rifle AND sabre! Rifle was my favorite, and I hated sabre with a passion.
2. Ever since I was little, I've collected cow stuffed animals and figurines. No idea why -- one day my friend and I decided we'd like cows I guess. :)
3. The person responsible for my obsession with nail polish and nail art is the girl that runs Fuck Yeah Pretty Nails. One day I randomly stumbled upon that Tumblr and from then on I was hooked. I think I had about 5 polishes (all old, crappy ones of course) and my beginning nail art was atrocious.
4. I still have my brother and I's old n64 and yes, I DO still play on it. I play childish platformer games on it like Donkey Kong and Banjo Kazooie. Takes me back to when I was 12 :) I also race a MEAN Mario Kart, if you must know. ;)
5. I've lived in the same house, in the same city in the same state since I was 3. I'm 22 now!
6. I do my nails multiple times a week, but only paint my toenails once every month or 6 weeks. Also I suck at it; it looks like a 5 year old painted my toenails!
7. My dream job would be to do marketing and promotions for some kind of polish or cosmetic company. I majored in advertising and marketing in college. I graduated in May and am still looking for full-time employment!

15 Blogs that we think deserve this award...

1. Nail Stories
2. Omgnoodles
3. Pixie Polish
4. Kayla Shevonne
5. Copy That, Copy Cat
6. Imperfectly Painted
7. Mandy's Secrets
8. The Nail Polish Enthusiast
9. My Polish Stash
10. Nails and Noms
11. Nails in Nippon
12. Sonoma Nail Art
13. Chalkboard Nails
14. Adventures in Acetone
15. Rins

Ready....go!

ALSO: As you can see, we added the Disqus commenting system. Hopefully this will make it easier for us to respond to your comments since Blogger's sucks for that! Let us know if you like this or not -- if you don't we will certainly change it back to Blogger's!

Day 19: Galaxy Nails

Galaxy nails! I've wanted to do these for a LONG time and now I had my chance! Yay!!

I started with a base of two coats of China Glaze Liquid Leather. Then I sponged on Orly Sweet Peacock, Sally Hansen Barracuda, Sally Hansen Pink Blink and a yellowy green Wet 'n Wild (can't remember the name right now).

After that, I made dots using Zoya Purity then used one coat of Orly Shine On, Crazy Diamond (obviously named by a hippie). Seal with a topcoat and you're good to go!

I am loving these galaxy nails and I am loving even more how EASY they were to do! Just a little bit of sponging, some tiny microglitter and you're done! I'll definitely have to try this again with some different colors because I looooove the way this turned out. I don't want to take this one off! :(

Do you guys like galaxy nails? Or are they too "out of this world" for you? BAZINGA!! I slay me :)

Zoya Cody fauxnad-icure

Tonight's post was just a quicky faux nadicure.  haha.  nadicure.  Maybe that should be fauxnad icure. 

This is a base of Zoya Cody (which I love!)  Cody's a deep dusky brown creme and applies like a dream.

Then I just stamped with my gold Sally Hansen foil pen over the top. 

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?

Day 17: Glitter (China Glaze Party Hearty vs. Snowman Christmas glitter) [pic heavy]

Hi guys! Today I have something fun for you for glitter day -- CHRISTMAS GLITTER!!!

And no, it is NOT too soon to start using Christmas glitter...they are starting Christmas sales and playing Christmas music at the mall I work at so :P

So...funny story. Mom picked up Party Hearty for me LAST year when the 2010 China Glaze holiday collection was out. So I had it with me at school, but didn't want to use it until closer to Christmas. So I go home for the holidays and lo and behold, I forget PH in my apartment at school. Sadness ensued since I never got to use it (it was unused until today!) and now I guess I'm making up for lost time. But I thought it would also be good to show you these two glitters in case you decide you want them for Christmas season :)

The snowman polish is one Mom's boyfriend picked up for me at a Rite-Aid in Boston (thanks Scott!). It it also quite festive and looks a bit similar to Party Hearty so I thought it'd be nice to show you guys a comparison :) Both of these polishes are layered over two coats of Zoya Purity.

Party hearty is red hex glitter, small green glitter and gold microglitter in a clear base. You have to kind of place it on the nail -- it doesn't spread out very evenly. Wait a bit between coats too or else you'll just move everything you put down with the first coat.

The snowman glitter (it has no name) is small round red and green glitter. It's much simpler than Party Hearty, but still pretty and festive :) Snowman polishes are made by the same company that made the Pumpkin polishes for Halloween. I know you can get them at Rite-Aid, and they might carry them at Meijer since they had the pumpkin polishes there, but I'm not sure. Let us know in the comments if you've seen them anywhere else!

Do you ladies have either of these polishes? Which do you prefer -- Party Hearty or the adorable snowman glitter? I think the snowman is so cute... but Party Hearty just makes me squee! It's Christmas in a bottle! I will be using this so much through December that I'm about 99% sure it will replace Fairy Dust for the time being. I'm sorry I abandoned you last year, Party Hearty...

...don't ever leave me. 'Cause I'd find you!!!

China Glaze Snow Globe over Orly Androgynie

Hello readers.  I haven't been posting much lately since Amanda is in the midst of the 31 day challenge and I don't want to screw up her schedule.  Also I've been so busy preparing and packing for my move in 2 weeks - which is the reason for my nubbins.  Packing is hell on your nails, lemmetellya.  I hope you enjoy tonight's swatch.

I saw this combo over at Neverland Nail Blog and liked it so much I have recreated it here for you.

I started with 2 coats of Orly Androgynie (does anyone else read that andro gynie like hiney?).  Androgynie is a black creme filled with what looks to be gold microglitter and larger hex glitter in yellow, orange, green and blue and is from the new Holiday Soiree limited edition.  I did have some minor application issues with this one.  It's thin - but gloopy at the same time.  The first coat left some patchiness which the second coat cleared up; but I experienced some cuticle flooding and the finish dried rather gritty on some nails.  The color reminds me of deep space.  I was a little disappointed in this one.  It's absolutely gorgeous in the bottle, but the base color seems to swallow up a lot of the pretty glitter on the nail.  Also the glitter in my bottle seemed to sink to the bottom of the bottle and didn't want to disperse - even after shaking the bottle (which you all know, makes air bubbles in your polish!).

After Androgynie was dry, I applied 2 coats of China Glaze Snow Globe.  Snow Globe is a multi colored irridescent glitter in a clear base and is intended to be layered.  Be sure to let each coat dry thoroughly or you end up with the majority of the glitter at the tips like I did.

This combo is pretty much awesomesauce and actually reminds me a little of the halloween pumpkin multi colored glitter that I layered over black last month.   This seems to be a popular layering combo this holiday season, as I have now seen several blogs do Snow Globe over black.  Sadly, I did have some chipping on Days 3 and 4 which is unusual for Orly.  Normally all I would experience would be tip wear.  And speaking of tips, look how the SV shrunk the tips.