Monday Mani: Chevrons

Today's Monday Mani theme is chevrons! It was actually a super close race!

I was gone for a family reunion on Sat and wasn't sure how much time I'd have so I did this mani on Friday. To make sure it would last, I actually used a gel base! I did a regular gel mani using Finger Paints Stay True to the Art (white) as the base. Gel manis don't last super long on me, but that last longer than a normal mani so I figured white would be a good base to use with other stuff on top!

After finishing up the gel part, I added the details using Nabi Fushia (yes that's how it's spelled :/) and some nail vinyls. Topped the whole thing off with Rica Glossy Glam which is also how I secured the studs).

St. Patty's gradient

I love green polish (have I mentioned that before? lol!) so of course I needed to do a mini St. Patrick's day nail art series.

Today I have a simple gradient. I didn't quite turn out how I hoped, but it still looks nice.

I started with 3 coats Finger Paints Paper Mache. Then I sponged on OPI Don't Mess With OPI. Here's where I messed up. Don't Mess with OPI isn't opaque enough and I just couldn't get the gradient to work out right.

Finally, I added Jessica 18K Gold Leaf on top. It's pretty sparse so I globbed a bit onto my palette (I use a cereal box or magazine since the glossiness slows drying), and then picked up the gold pieces with my brush to add on.

Naild'It Snow Flake Cake

I was given Naild'It Snow Flake Cake a while ago by a friend but was waiting for the appropriate time to wear it. Since it's winter now, I think it's time!

I knew I wanted to layer this polish, but I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to use as the undies so I broke out a nail wheel and a bunch of polishes.

From left to right, we have Zoya Isla, Zoya Arizona, Sinful Colors Amethyst, FingerPaints Art You Blue?, Nicole by OPI Khloe Had a Lam-Lam, China Glaze Exotic Encounters, Sinful Color Leap Flog, Rimmel Black Satin, Sally Hansen Gunmetal, Sinful Colors Slate, and 2 coats and 1 coat of Snow Flake Cake on it's own.

Here's the combo I finally chose to do on my nails.

It was a bit difficult to photograph, but you can see all the awesome glitters in the bottle shot below.

This last one is a bit blurry, but you can see the great holographic glitter that way.

My base color was Sinful Colors Slate which you can on its own below.

Art You Blue? & Gold

Just a quick post for you today. Sorry about the pictures being in my husband's car! We had a few cloudy days so I snapped this in car when it was sunny in case I wasn't able to get other pictures, and I was right!

The base for this mani is Finger Paints Art You Blue? I used 2 coats here. It's a beautiful dark denim blue with some shimmer to it. On top, I added Jessica Gold Leaf 18K. My friend managed to pick this up for me at a supply shop she visits, and it was only $15! That's a steal compared to it's usual price or even compared to the price of other gold leaf top coats. It did take some placing and maneuvering to get it to look this good, but I still love it!

31 Day Challenge: Day 7, Black and White

Today's challenge is Black and White.

I knew exactly what I was going to do for this challenge. I decided to use by O.P.I. Spotted that an awesome friend from France got for me. O.P.I. Spotted was released as part of the Spiderman collection in France instead of the normal teal crackle. I think it was also released in other countries, but I can't be sure.

I used a super thin layer of Spotted over 3 coats of FingerPaints Paper Mache. I followed it up with INM Northern Lights Hologram Top Coat in Silver.

You can see some varying effects here. On my index finger, I used a bit thicker coat than on the others. I used the thinnest coats of my middle and ring fingers. I think I like the pinkie the best though.

Check out some other black and white manis below:

Jellybeans

For the second day of my Food/Easter series, I was inspired by this design by Nail Loopy.  I used 2 coats of Finger Paints Paper Mache as my base coat that loads of random colors to make the jellybeans.  I just used a dotting tool and made comma shapes.  I think mine turned out pretty good, but Nail Loopy's is so much better (perhaps she used better colors than I did).

24 Days of Christmas Challenge, Day 19: Santa Hats

I got the inspiration for this mani from Posh for Polish.

After my base coat, I added a thick-ish layer of Finger Paints Sparkle Top Coat.

Next, I mixed together some Savvy Ruby Pumps and Pure Ice Siren to get the red I wanted.  I painted on a rough triangle.  Finally, I dotted on Finger Paints Paper Mache.

Here's some others who are also participating in the challenge:

Paint That Nail

Obsessed With Glitter

Nails and Stuff

Red Hair and Black Nail Polish

Base Coat Top Coat

KK Nails

Me, Myself, and Nail Polish

My Polish Stash

Finger Painted

Polish, and Makeup, and Cars, Oh my!

My Wet Nails

24 Days of Christmas Challenge, Day 18: Stockings

I chose to do this design on only 2 nails.

I painted the base O.P.I. Cuckoo For This Color. I told you I used it a lot for this challenge!

Then I painted on each stocking with Finger Paints Paper Mache.  I filled in the red using Pure Ice Siren and added mine and my husband's names. I thought about doing 2 more on the other fingers with my dog and cat's names, but didn't want you'll to think I was crazy.  o_0

Here's some others who are also participating in the challenge:

Paint That Nail

Obsessed With Glitter

Nails and Stuff

Red Hair and Black Nail Polish

Base Coat Top Coat

KK Nails

Me, Myself, and Nail Polish

My Polish Stash

Finger Painted

Polish, and Makeup, and Cars, Oh my!

My Wet Nails

24 Days of Christmas Challenge, Day 12: Holly

Just a super quick post today. I'm not feeling well, and I have tons to do.

The base is Revlon Gold Coin. Then I sponged over Finger Paints Paper Mache. Next I stamped using O.P.I. Cuckoo for This Color and dotted on the holly berries.

Here's some others who are also participating in the challenge:

Paint That Nail

Obsessed With Glitter

Nails and Stuff

Red Hair and Black Nail Polish

Base Coat Top Coat

KK Nails

Me, Myself, and Nail Polish

My Polish Stash

Finger Painted

Polish, and Makeup, and Cars, Oh my!

My Wet Nails

24 Days of Christmas Challenge, Day 6: Penguins

I have both hands to show you today.

Here's my left hand (the one you normally see).

Male penguin

Sorry for the cuticles on this one. They looked cleaned up better in person. Also, that's not tip wear on the penguin but pulling from Seche Vite.

I used Wet N Wild Black Creme, Finger Paints Paper Mache (white), Wet N Wild Sunny Side Up (nose & feet), O.P.I. Cuckoo For This Color (bow tie and stamping), and Bundle Monster plate BM201

This is my right hand. It's not nearly as good as the other. The female penguin looks wonky, plus my stamping is a bit off, and half my nails are broken. Poor right hand.

I used the same colors as listed above except I used CQ Crimson Pearl for the stamping and hair bow.

Here's some others who are also participating in the challenge:

Paint That Nail

Obsessed With Glitter

Nails and Stuff

Red Hair and Black Nail Polish

Base Coat Top Coat

KK Nails

Me, Myself, and Nail Polish

My Polish Stash

Finger Painted

Polish, and Makeup, and Cars, Oh my!

My Wet Nails

24 Days of Christmas Challenge, Day 5: Snowman Face

Just a quick post today.

Colors used:

Finger Paints Paper Mache (3) -- white

Wet n Wild Black Creme

Wet n Wild Sunny Side Up (nose)

L.A. Colors Art Deco 24K Glitter

Here's some others who are also participating:

Paint That Nail

Obsessed With Glitter

Nails and Stuff

Red Hair and Black Nail Polish

Base Coat Top Coat

KK Nails

Me, Myself, and Nail Polish

My Polish Stash

Finger Painted

Polish, and Makeup, and Cars, Oh my!

My Wet Nails

24 Days of Christmas, Day 3: Icicles

I was having a hard time trying to figure out what I wanted to do for this since I really didn't think I could draw them very well.  Well, I decided to try this idea done by Practice with Polish. I think I did a really good job!

First, I used a base of Finger Paints Sparkle Top Coat to add shimmer and cover up my nail bed a bit. Then I used Rimmel French White Nail Tip Liner to free hand some french tips. It was really easy with this!

To do the actual icicles, I used a dotting tool, but you could also used a toothpick or a bobby pin. I placed a small dot on the end of the white and pulled it down toward my cuticle. I swiggled some to make sure they were imperfect.

Next, I used a small brush to put glitter over the icicles to add some shine like when the sun shines on them. The color is Sinful Colors Queen of Beauty. I followed it up with Seche Vite.

It's not my favorite design, but I think I pulled it off!

Plus, here's some other bloggers doing the challenge.

Kristyn at Paint That Nail

Kaki at Obsessed With Glitter

Shannara at Nails and Stuff

Theodora R. at Red Hair and Black Nail Polish

Kelly at Base Coat Top Coat

Krishten at KK Nails

Steffi at Me, Myself, and Nail Polish

Sabine at My Polish Stash

24 Days of Christmas, Day 2: Snowflakes

I really love the way this manicure turned out!  My right hand, of course, is not as nice but still looks pretty good. My husband said I should hide that hand. Jerk.

After my base coat, I used two coats of China Glaze Sea Spray. I really like the color, but my bottle is pretty thin so it's fairly easy to flood the cuticles.

Then I used a coat of Finger Paints Sparkle Top Coat to add some nice subtle shininess.

Then I used my white Migi nail art pen to draw on the snowflakes. You can put them all in the middle of your nail, but I choose to make them off center.

I added small dots of clear coat on the nail and put light blue rhinestones on there.

Finally, I topped it all off with 2 thick coats of Seche Vite.

Here's some others who are also participating:

Kristyn at Paint That Nail

Kaki at Obsessed With Glitter

Shannara at Nails and Stuff

Theodora R. at Red Hair and Black Nail Polish

Kelly at Base Coat Top Coat

Krishten at KK Nails

Steffi at Me, Myself, and Nail Polish

Sabine at My Polish Stash

24 Days of Christmas Challenge, Day 1: Snowfall

This is a great challenge that Paint That Nail came up with!

I normally don't do challenges, but I thought I would do this one was I have soooo many ideas that I want to do for Christmas so this would give me the chance to showcase all of them!

I'm not sure who is all participating (other than Paint That Nail) but I'll link to others as soon as I find out.

I only have 1 picture because it was dark when I took the pictures, and even my DSLR was having a hard time.

Snowfall

I used several different colors for this. Base is 2 coats of Revlon Blue Lagoon. Then I used Sally Hansen Ice Queen to add some sparkle. Next, I sponged on some Finger Paints Paper Mache with a cosmetic sponge, dabbed on some with a Q-tip to give texture, and added some dots for snowflakes falling.  Finally I sponged on some Finger Paints Sparkle Top Coat just over the accumulated snow to add more sparkle.

This didn't turn out quite like I planned it, but I still really like it!


Here's some others who are also participating:

Kristyn at Paint That Nail

Kaki at Obsessed With Glitter

Shannara at Nails and Stuff

Theodora R. at Red Hair and Black Nail Polish

Ally-Rose at The Only Way is Nails

Kelly at Base Coat Top Coat

Krishten at KK Nails

Steffi at Me, Myself, and Nail Polish

Sabine at My Polish Stash

Glitter swatches

I've bought a bunch of glitters lately so I decided to swatch them. I didn't have a chance to do all of them, but I will! I did each by themselves, then over Finger Paints Paper Mache (white), Sinful Colors Black on Black, and one other color.

First up, Revlon Blue Mosaic.

Revlon Blue Mosaic

My pinky finger shows two coats by itself. It went on well, and I had no problem getting the glitter where I needed to. Ring finger shows two coats over white, and middle finger is 2 coats over black. On my index finger, I put 2 coats over Sinful Colors Why Not.

My favorite combination is over black and Why Not. Over Why Not, it kinda of looks mermaid-esque and reminds me of the ocean. Perhaps I'll do a gradient with blue/green and put this glitter over it.

Next, Revlon Starry Pink.

Revlon Starry Pink

I used 3 coats on my pinky finger. This one was harder to go on and was pretty streaky because of the milky base. I needed the 3 coats to even out the streakiness. Then I used 1 thick coat over both black and white. Index finger is 1 thick coat over Rimmel London Wild Orchid.

I'm not a super big fan of this glitter because of the streaky quality. Also, the glitter isn't as dense as I'd like it. I like it best over Wild Orchid, but I'm still not a fan. Maybe I'll franken with it.

Now, China Glaze Twinkle Lights

China Glaze Twinkle Lights

This is my kind of glitter! Super dense and great application. I used 2 thick coats on my pinky, and you can see how good the coverage is. Then I did 2 coats over white and black again. Finally, I did 2 coats over Sally Hansen Flirt. It's a dark-ish, purple red so you can't tell a big difference between the black.

Honestly, I love this color any way I can take it! I plan on using this a lot for Christmas.

More glitter! China Glaze Blonde Bombshell.

China Glaze Blonde Bombshell

Amazing! Two coats on pinky, ring, and middle fingers. I put it over China Glaze Trendsetter on my index finger.

It is stunning over black. I will incorporate that into my New Year's Eve manicure some how. (I may just do tons of glitter!) I really like it over Trendsetter too. It makes the gold color seem richer.

Finally, LA Colors Jewel Tone.

L.A. Colors Jewel Tone

Not my favorite glitter, but it only cost $1. I did a few coats on each nail, it's pretty sparse. It's over China Glaze Sea Spray on my index finger. 

I really like it over black. I ended up doing a full manicure with it over Sea Spray and Seche Vite over it. The manicure just wouldn't dry, and I ended up smudging it pretty bad. Not sure if it was the glitter or Seche Vite.

Which glitter combinations are your favorite?

Swatches

Here's some swatches of the newest polishes that I've gotten.

Nina Ultra Pro Purple-xing

I got this color about 2 weeks ago at Sally Beauty. It's a super awesome 1 coat purple glitter. If you look at the polish, it is super textured and definitely needs a top coat (which I didn't put on since I was just going to take it off). Like the other Nina Ultra Pro polishes that I have tried, it goes on super great.

Julep Alfre

This is a swatch of Julep Alfre that I got in my Julep Maven box. It went on really great in two coats. It seems a little light in this picture, but it's not really the color. It's actually a bit darker. I've had nothing but cloudy weather here so photographing anything is awful. I would best describe this color as a metallic silver with a hint of purple.

Julep Cameron

I'm really not a big fan of this color. Bright, almost neon pinks like this are not my thing, nor do I think it goes well with my skin tone. It went on pretty good in two coats, but probably could use another coat.

Finger Paints Paper Mache

 I got this color at Sally Beauty this week. I really needed a white polish to use for nail art. All I had before was my Migi nail art pens, E.L.F. White that takes forever to get opaque, and french tip white. This is two coats. I know that whites can be streaky, but this one looks pretty good for two coats.

Sally Hansen Flirt

I got this color at my local grocery store. It was on sale for $2.79, plus I had a $.50 off coupon that doubled making this only $1.79! I'm not sure what's going on with this picture though. I put on two coats of the color, and it looked completely opaque. In this picture, though, I clearly needed a third coat! It looks pretty red here, but I'd say it's more of a maroon-ish, dark purple with a hint of shimmer.

Finger Paints Sparkle Top Coat

This has been on my wishlist! I was at Sally's this weekend and saw it by the register so I snapped it up! Luckily I did because the cashier said it was the one of the last 4 they had! It's this beautiful micro glitter with crazy shine! I probably won't wear this by itself (it does have top coat in it's name, lol), but I wanted to show you'll what it looked like on its own.
Then I layered it over all the colors I just swatched above to see what it could do.

Finger Paints Paper Mache, Sally Hansen Flirt, Julep Alfre, Julep Cameron

So I was not a big fan of Cameron plain, but with the Sparkle Top Coat I like! I also like Flirt this way. I don't think there's much distinction when it's over white so I don't think I'll do that again.

Which one is everyone's favorite?

New Polish

I got some new polishes this weekend.

Sally Hansen Flirt, Finger Paints Sparkle Top Coat & Paper Mache, California Mango  Miracle Cuticle Remover

I got these at Sally Beauty supply, except the Sally Hansen which at got at my local grocery store.
Here's a close up view of some of them.

Sally Hansen Flirt

Finger Paints Sparkle Top Coat
So pretty!!

I also got my first Julep Maven box!

The box

Inside was a cute little gift bag with all my goodies

All the goodies including 2 polishes, Facial for Hands, and 2 samples (Facial for  Hands & SPF 30 hand cream)

A close up of the polish. Alfre is on the left and Cameron is on the right.

For those who have never heard of the Julep Maven program, here's some information straight from their site:
"Being a Maven, gives you exclusive access to COLOR!  You get it first, and YOU decide how often you want to receive your beauty editor Sneak Peek Box
You receive over $40 worth of trendsetting polish colors and cutting-edge treatment products each month customized in a gift-able Sneak Peek Box
Each Sneak Peek Box features new, never before released colors and treatments FIRST to you, before anyone else
Your box also includes hits and cult favorites - the products we like to keep on the top of editors' minds

20% off all julep.com purchases
FREE shipping on ALL your purchases
Each box also comes with a surprise and delight element- something to look forward to!
Receive additional membership perks throughout the year."
Each box costs about $20. They send you a preview email, and if you don't like the colors that are being offered you can request a new shelf pull, send it to someone else, or cancel it for that month.