31 Day Challenge: Day Twenty-Six ~ A Pattern

Inspired by a pattern. Well I tried a few different tartans and none turned out well so I decided to redo my old green argyle. I even used the same sparkly green for it. Base coat of Wet n Wild "French White Creme". I made a big X on my nails with Stripe Rite green glitter. Next I filled in the 2 triangles on the sides with China Glaze "Tree Hugger" and more of the same green glitter. Finally I added the black lines with Stripe Rite black. Very simple but I like it better than the first time I did it.

31 Day Challenge: Day Thirteen ~ Animal Print

When I saw "Animal Print" all I could think of was tiger stripe, cheetah spot, or zebra stripe. I could have used the excuse to use my new MoYou plate with the tiger on it, but I really didn't want to do tiger, cheetah or zebra. I wanted to do something different. But what? Well looking at what Chalkboard Nails did a couple years ago gave me wonderful inspiration! She did a beautiful blue rainforest frog with black spots. Not wanting to do the exact thing she did I googled images of tropical fish. There are a lot of gorgeous fish out there but this one caught my eye.

The consensus seems to be it is either a Koran Angelfish of a Juvenile Emperor Angelfish. Both are very similar, just the Emperor's stripes tend to be more circular, more like a fingerprint. The electric blue edging is what attracted me to it. Here is my take on it:

I love it. I think if I ever do this again I'll make the black stripes thicker but that's about it. NYC "Skyline Blue", Sinful Colors "Endless Blue", and Stripe Rite in Black and White. To make the tips brighter I first sponged Wet n Wild "White Creme" then "Endless Blue" on top to make it more electric. Almost like a mini gradient. Here's a pic of the nails and the fish all in one.

31 Day Challenge: Day Three ~ Yellow

Messy Mansion has a really cute stamping plate of bugs and bees and things like that. I don't have it so I decided to mimic it with a striper. You think I'd have learned by now to lay off the freehand. Sally Hansen "Lightening" and Stripe Rite striper in Black. Not my best work, but I'm just not all that good at freehand.

Sandy Chevrons

I promised I'd give my Liquid Sand polish a fair go and here it is. I've been on the fence for a while about textured polish. Well maybe not on the fence. I've been pretty negative about it to be honest. But with this mani, maybe I've judged it a bit harshly. Sure the gritty texture is weird, but it's less sandpaper and more, I dunno, softer? Like instead of grit it's more like teeny tiny balls. It's very hard to explain. Because I was so unsure about using texture, I only used it on the edges of the mani. First I painted my nails with Sally Hansen "Grape Race". Then, knowing I wasn't gonna top coat it at the end because of the sand, I top coated it after "Grape Race". I then cut some tape so it would come to a point and placed that over the purple. Paint over that in the OPI Liquid Sand "Can't Let Go". Peel off the tape while the polish is still wet for crisp lines. I was gonna stop there, but then I got the brilliant idea to outline the chevron with a white striper, so I busted out Stripe Rite striper polish in white. I'm really glad I did because without it you really loose the V shape. I'm actually happy how this turned out. I didn't think I would be.

Butterfly Wings

There is a stamping plate that makes this image, but I don't have it so I decided to give it a shot freehanded. I  LOVE it!! I'm just not sure I can do this on my own nails. If I can successfully do it on my real nails I'll  write up a tutorial for it. Pure Ice "Hot Tamale" and Stripe Rite black and white stripers. Out the Door "Northern Lights" topcoat.

Easter Egg Nails

Well you all saw a few days ago the Skittle Mani I did. Well, when I did it my mom wasn't all that impressed. She thought having all your nails a different color looked almost childish. I don't blame her (much) alot of people don't care for skittles. When I told her how many compliments I kept getting, she didn't quite believe me. Until we went to lunch one day and the waitress complemented my nails, then the bagger at the grocery store, and then the cashier at the bank. I think she was impressed then :) She asked me to do her nails for work, but instead of leaving them plain like I did, she wanted Easter Eggs. So this is what I came up with. This is the same Sinful Colors as my skittle mani, but I also used Stripe Rite's White, and L.A. Colors Art Deco's pink, blue and purple. I don't think they have specific names, just white, pink, blue and purple ones.

Have a good Easter and Spring Celebrations!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Not my work! This is the mani I tried to do. My mani is the pictures below.
Check out MadamLuck's blog here.

A friend of mine posted this picture to my facebook page and I LOVED it. So I decided for St. Patrick's Day I'd give it a shot. I watched madamluck's YouTube video and was happy to learn I had nearly all the same polishes she did. So I tried it out on my practice finger. I love that silly thing.

I actually turned out rather well. I was proud of it, so it was time to do it on my actual fingers.

Well, it not that bad, but not exactally what I was planning. My stripes are all kinds of wonky. Well here is the steps I did for it. 2 coats of Duri "Rejuvacote" Nail Growth System (I used this instead of base coat this time because my base is kind of a milky color and I didn't want that to show in the french tipped fingers), Wet n Wild's "SaGreena the Teenage Witch" and Sinful Colors "Call You Later". The stripes were made with Stripe Rite's white, Sally Hansen's "Green with Envy" and Sinful Colors "Hazard". Topped with Seche Vite.

Pi Day

March 14th (3.14) is universally recognized as Pie Day. Yes. Universally. So to celebrate today I did a Pi(e) manicure. Well to be brutally honest, it's not my best work, but it was fun and only for today. Tonight its back to one more St. Patty's mani, then maybe an Easter skittle. The only real brown I own is Sinful Colors "Nirvana" and the white under the pie is Sally Hansen "White On". I did some touch up's with Stripe Rite's white striper to make the angles in the slices of pie crisper. Steam vents in the pie and the Pi symbol done with a knitting needle and Wet n Wild's "Ebony Hates Chris".

Now I leave you with a chant learned while I was on the Math Team in high school (yes I was on a Math Team. I took 3rd place in our big tournament that year too so there).

"Sin, Cos, Cos, Sin
3.14159!"

Green Argyle

Ah, I remember this manicure. I was so excited because it was the first one I "designed". Up till then I was copying other mani's I saw online. Now Argyle isn't exactly an original idea, but I was so proud of it at the time. I had also just learned what a striper was. A striper is a bottle of polish that has a long, thin brush in it for sharper lines. I painted my nails white (Sally Hansen's "White On") then painted a green X on them with a green striper. Fill in the top and bottom triangles formed by the X with green, then a green sparkle on top of that. Then I used a black striper to cut the triangle/diamonds in half. Very easy but rather impressive. I'm not sure what colors I used, but I think the only stripers I had at the time were It's So Easy Strip Rite brand ones.