31 Day Nail Art Challenge! Day 10: Gradient Nails

Hi there! And now I'm back to getting caught up on those posts. I'm almost caught up, and I plan on getting them all done and caught up to what I have on my nails right now (which is Day 13: Animal Print!), so wish me luck! :)

Anyway, here's what I have for my gradient nails:

I know, I know. They're boring and completely uninspired. See, I was feeling especially lazy the day I painted these and I just didn't want to deal with making a really complicated gradient (particularly after my previous manicure with the rainbow gradient) that I would have to clean up, so this is what came of my laziness. I guess these are a lot like Effie Trinket's nails from Hunger Games? I wasn't going for a Hunger Games design, but I do love the color combination. My base color is Essie Big Spender, which is just the most lovely strawberry fuschia. I was actually pretty disappointed that I had to make a gradient out of it, because it's so wonderful on its own. But gradient it was! I sponged on Ulta High Roller. It's really simple! I promise my other designs won't be as simple and over-used as this. Especially the next day, which is Polka Dots (spoiler: I also did a gradient for that one).

So I hope you like it! Let me know what you think. Thanks for reading, have a great day, and happy painting! :)

Dinosaur Egg/Rock Nails

Hey there! I have another design for you done on my little sister's nails. Her nails are much longer than mine, so I'll try to keep posting what I paint on her nails, so you can get both long and short nail designs. My sister wanted me to paint her nails to look like a rock that she has:

It's a rock, but it's called a dinosaur egg at the museum she got it from. This is what I came up with:

The base color is Sally Hansen XTreme Wear Black Out. I sponged a little bit of Ulta Concrete Evidence on the nail in random spots. Then I did the water spotted technique (where you start off the same as a water marble, except instead of doing multiple colors and swirling it around, you do a few drops of one color and then spray it with perfume or any other alcohol-based spray - it breaks the polish up on the water and makes it speckled like you can see there) with Funky Fingers Like Clockwork. The polish was the right color, but I wasn't using the right spray, so it ended up a little more chunky than it looks on the "egg." So if you try it out, don't use perfume. Maybe use spray hand sanitizer, or rubbing alcohol in a spray bottle. And of course, this can be done with any colors you like, I just used these colors because that's what my sister wanted. And if you're catching a glimpse of my nails in the third picture, I'm wearing OPI Can't Find My Czechbook with a single coat of Sephora Spark-tacular. I don't have a post for that because I seemed to have misplaced the pictures. So oh well! Maybe another day. Anyway, thanks for reading, have a great day, and happy painting! :)

Cat Nails

Hey there! So today I'm going to share with you some nail art I did on my sister's nails. She asked me to paint some characters from a book series she reads, where the characters are cats (The Warriors series by Erin Hunter).

This is Cinderpelt - I used Ulta Concrete Evidence as the base color for the basic cat shape on my sister's pinky and ring finger on her right hand. For the details (haha, see what I did there), I used acrylic paints and a teeny tiny paint brush. Then since we decided that all the cats needed to be sparkly, I also did one coat of OPI Pirouette My Whistle and one coat of a nameless Bon Bon polish. 

This is Firestar (middle and index finger on her right hand) - I used China Glaze Life Preserver as the base color. The details were done with acrylic paints on all of the cats. And since Firestar is orange, I used OPI Pros & Bronze as my glitter, as well as the Bon Bon polish.

For the thumbs, I used Wet n Wild Black Creme to paint the symbols that represent the cats' clans - on the right hand with Cinderpelt and Firestar, I painted the Thunderclan symbol, and for the left hand, I painted the Riverclan symbol. I'm sorry if you have no idea what I'm talking about, but imagine it like the student houses in Harry Potter. I went over both of these with the Bon Bon polish.

This is Stormfur (index and middle finger, left hand) - I used Wet n Wild Black Creme as the base color, and Wet n Wild Rock n Roll and the Bon Bon polish as the glitter.

This is Feathertail (ring and pinky fingers, left hand) - I used Ulta Concrete Evidence as the base color, and OPI Pirouette My Whistle and the Bon Bon Polish as the glitter. Feathertail was my favorite, she turned out the best! :)

And that's it for this post! My sister loved these so much that when I spent a week away from home the first thing she said when I came home was " My cats chipped and I need you to fix them immediately!!" Haha, I didn't fix them. So I hope you like these! Let me know if you try them. Thanks for reading, have a nice day, and happy painting! :)

Bioshock Infinite Nails - Part 1 (Vigors)

Hey there! :) So, if haven't assumed it from the title... This is going to be a loooong, pic-heavy post. And I'm sorry about that. But this is big! BIG!!! I hope you're as excited about this as I am. This is part 1, because all ten nails are different, so I'm breaking the posts up by hands.

So, if you don't know what Bioshock Infinite is, it is a video game; quite possibly the best game this year (well, in my opinion at least). It was released in March and is the third installment in the Bioshock franchise. I'm not going to tell you the whole story, because that would just take too long and I would probably confuse you. But if you like video games (first person shooter games, to be specific) that have to deal with corrupt societies and interesting powers and dangerous cities, I 100% recommend the Bioshock games. They are my absolute favorite games in the history of video games. In fact, the first Bioshock was #3 on G4's top 100 video games of all time. Trust me, they're incredible. So for Infinite I had to paint my nails!

We'll start with my right hand (painted with my non-dominant hand). I painted my representation of the Vigors, which are powers that Booker DeWitt (the character you play) can use. On my thumb, I painted the Vigor called Possession, which allows you to take control of both machines and humans and get them to fight for you. It's shown as a green, flowing, ghost-like apparition.

I started with one coat of China Glaze Gaga for Green.

Then I sponged a gradient of China Glaze Gaga for Green and Starboard with e.l.f. Emerald at the base of my nail going from dark to light. I also put a little bit of Sinful Colors Snow Me White at the tip of the gradient. Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of it on the nail.

Then I lightly sponged on some white acrylic paint on the tip of my nail and going up the sides - then I  used a small brush to paint waves, almost like fire. And violá! You have Possession!

On my index, I painted Devil's Kiss, which allows you to throw fire balls, basically. It looked like lava, with craggy rock pieces in it. 

I started with one coat of Sinful Colors Snow Me White.

Then I sponged on a u-shaped gradient of Sinful Colors Snow Me White, Funky Fingers Like Clockwork, and China Glaze Hey Sailor. I wanted the red to outline my nail around the cuticle with the orange and white centered in the middle. Then I took the edge of the sponge and put a few spots of Hey Sailor in the middle.

Then I used dark red and white acrylic paint to put some rocks and highlight spots on the nail. And there you have Devil's Kiss!

On my middle finger, I painted Undertow, which allows you to use water to yank people up into the air and pull them close so you can kill them or throw them off of an airship. It looks like a whirlwind of water. It was my absolute favorite Vigor, but unfortunately I'm not great at painting water. 

I started with one coat of Ulta Concrete Evidence.

Then I painted a whirlwind of water with light blue and white acrylic paint. I also used dark red and grey acrylic paint to make some sores on either side of the whirlwind. And that's Undertow!

On my ring finger, I painted Shock Jockey, which allows you to shock your enemies. It's pretty awesome. And it's also the prettiest, in my opinion!

I started with one coat of China Glaze Fancy Pants.

I then sponged a gradient of Fancy Pants and Snow Me White in a u-shape on the nail just like I did for  Devil's Kiss on my index finger.

Then I used white, black, and light blue acrylic paint to paint the electricity, the burnt cracks, and the blue crystals that make up Shock Jockey. And that's it!

And finally, for my pinky finger, I painted Murder of Crows, which allows you - yep, you guessed it - to command a murder of crows to attack your enemies. This one looks the coolest in the game, because Booker's hand turns black and feathery and then every once in a while he stretches it and he grows claws. It's terrifying while you're playing, because you have no freaking idea what's happening to his hand, but you get used to it.

I started with one coat of China Glaze Tart-y For The Party.

Then I smudged on some white and black acrylic paint, concentrating the black on the tip of my nail. I also sponged on Ulta Concrete Evidence.

Finally, I painted on some crows with black acrylic paint. They're in various states of flight, as well as being bigger the closer they are. And that's Murder of Crows!

And once you add them all together, this is what you get:

(Indoors, with flash)

(Sunlight, shade)

(Sunlight)

Whew, that was a lot. And it was only one hand! Of course, you can choose to just do this on both hands, because if I'm being honest, this is the easier of the two types of designs (mostly because I was painting this with my left hand). But if you're up for it, check out Part 2! I painted the bad guys of the game on my left hand. Even if you don't want to do it yourself, I'd still appreciate it if you want to check it out. Let me know if you try these designs, I'd love to hear from you! Thanks for reading, have a good day, and happy painting! :)

Turquoise and Gold Flower Nails

Hi there! See a trend yet? I really like turquoise. I honestly didn't realize how much I wear it until I go back and see just how many posts I have on here with turquoise nail polish. Oops! In the future I'll try to make it a little different! Anyway, this is a basic stamped design, but it is sooooooo pretty. I LOVED this design. I'd do it again any day.

(indoors, natural lighting)

Isn't it pretty?? Gah, I just loved it. For my base color, I used China Glaze Custom Kicks. It was perfect for this design because it has a very subtle gold shimmer in it. I painted two coats of Custom Kicks on all of my nails except for my ring finger, on which I painted two coats of Ulta High Roller. I also used High Roller to stamp the swirly flower design, which is from MASH image plate Mash-40. I absolutely loved how this turned out (except for the bubbles you can plainly see on my ring finger caused by my top coat), but I do think it would have looked much better if I had some chunky gold glitter to put over my ring finger. I apparently don't own any. Welp! I liked it anyway. And I hope you enjoy this too! You don't have to have this specific stamp to replicate this design. I think it would look equally as nice with just a swirly delicate design. It's up to you! Either way, this color combination is unbeatable. So thanks for reading, have a good day, and happy painting! :)