31 Day Nail Art Challenge! Day 2: Orange Nails

Hey there! So I got a little behind on these posts, so I'm going to be posting the Day 2 and Day 3 on the same day. Woops! Anyway, here's my orange nails:

I started off with two coats of China Glaze Life Preserver, and then I sponged a couple of layers of China Glaze Orange You Hot? onto the tips. Then I put on a coat of Essie Shine of the Times, which is usually orange in most lighting, even though it can be green at the right angle. And of course, I always wear a matte top coat (Essie's Matte About You) over flakies polishes, because I think it defines the shape of the flakies and gives it a cool scale effect. My mom particularly liked these, because she thought they looked like a sunrise. So I hope you like them! Onto the next! 

Thanks for reading, have a great day, and happy painting! :)

Lava Nails

Hey there! So, I love lava. I'm just gonna get that out of the way. It's so freaking cool. And I think I've represented it pretty well here with this lava nail art!

Oh my gosh, this is so freaking cool. I am just in love with this. And it's bright, because my secret is neon polish! I started with a base coat of Sinful Colors Snow Me White, then sponged around the edges with China Glaze Hey Sailor, and then sponged in the middle with Funky Fingers Like Clockwork (this is probably the brightest neon polish I've ever encountered). And to add a little sparkle, I did a few light stripes on the sides with OPI Pros & Bronze. Then came the magical part - I did a very thin coat of Sally Hansen Crackle in Ink Splatter. It's important that it's a thin layer, because otherwise it won't separate very well and you won't get the contrast between the lava and the solid rock - erhm, the orange and the crackle polish. Heh. Then to top it all off, I used a matte top coat (Essie Matte About You). Usually I put a coat of regular, fast drying top coat on first, but this time I really wanted to be able to see the ridges between the rocks and the lava where the crackle polish is thicker. It was an interesting textural component of this manicure, and I loved it! :)

So I hope you enjoyed these as much as I do, and let me know if you try them! Thanks for reading, have a great day, and happy painting! :)

Pure Ice Twisted Swatch

Hello again! Yep, you guessed it. Still trying to catch up on my blog posts! I didn't realize how often I paint my nails until I got behind on these posts, and now I have to go back and remember what order I painted them in, yadda yadda yadda. My most recent problem is some missing photos, because I know I took pictures of one of my manicures, but now they're gone! I'll have to do some searching for those. Anyway, hopefully I will be caught up on my posts by tonight, because I really want to share what I just painted on my nails with you, and I can't do that until I'm caught up, haha. So here's a swatch that I did a few weeks ago - Pure Ice Twisted.

(indoors, under a lamp)

(indoors)

Isn't it beautiful? My camera doesn't actually pick it up, but Twisted is more blue in reality (it's a duochrome blue and green glass fleck polish - it even has a small hint of purple in the bottle, but you can't see it on the nails). And it shines normally like in the first picture most of the time. It's awesome. Before I put it on, I didn't want a crazy shiny polish - it was one of those days when I wanted something really toned down. But then I realized I don't have very many toned down polishes! So I slapped on some matte top coat:

(indoors, under a lamp)

(natural lighting - sorry about the tip wear/ugly cutitcles, I took this photo a day or two after I painted them)

They looked fantastic with the matte top coat (I use Essie Matte About You)! I got a lot of compliments on them. And this is one of those polishes that has glass-like flecks in it, and when you put the matte top coat on you can see them in their full glory. I could stare at these nails for hours. And of course they felt fantastic - so smooth and soft with the matte top coat. I loved them! Still not toned down like I wanted, but it all worked out in the end! I picked up Twisted at Wal-mart, it's one of Pure Ice's new polishes they released recently. It's inexpensive and beautiful - my kind of polish! 

Thanks for reading, have a good day, and happy painting! :)

Matte Flecked Purple Nails

Hello there! I was worried that I wouldn't keep updating this blog, and see, that's exactly what I've done. But I'm back! And I have taken photos every time I painted my nails over the past several weeks, so all I have to do now is upload them all.

So I'll start with this manicure! I went to Ulta several weeks ago and found a Layla Ceramic Effects polish called The Butterfly Effect. It was absolutely beautiful, but out of my price range at the time. Plus, I knew I would be able to sort-of recreate the effect at home using some of my other polishes! Here is my result:

(Indoors - the first two photos with regular lighting, the second photo with flash)

I used two coats of Sinful Colors Let's Talk as my purple base color, and then a coat of Essie Shine of the Times. The Layla polish does not have a matte finish, but I really wanted the fleck polish to shine through, so I slapped on a coat of Essie Matte About You. 

I really wish the photos had turned out better; the last photo was waaaay too saturated because of the flash on my camera. But then I feel like the first two photos are washed out. The color in person was a mixture of the first and second photos. Very vibrant, but also toned down. I loved it! My favorite part about this manicure was the texture, honestly. I love the feel of the matte top coat. It's so smooth! 

Well, I hope you liked this one! Definitely give it a go if you have the polishes (or similar ones!). It was really awesome and got tons of compliments! Thanks for reading, have a nice day, and happy painting! :)