Fall Colors: Revlon Autumn Spice & China Glaze Riveting

When I thought about fall mani ideas, these two colors seemed perfect!

I kept it simple and used two coats each of China Glaze Riveting and Revlon Autumn Spice plus some tiny gold studs.

Blue skittles

Quick post today.

I did this mani as part of a mani swap on Instagram.

The colors were Revlon Royal, Wet n Wild French White Creme, and Wet n Wild Black Creme. I used Rica Glossy Glam on top. Still not sure if I'm a fan it it. It's smearing my art, plus I'm having same day cuticle shrinkage. Not even Seche Vite gives me shrinkage that bad.

Below is the mani swap collage.

4th of July Part 1: Leopard Print Skittles

Hello! I wasn't sure how I was gonna squeeze in any 4th of July manis since my birthday is coming up and I have family coming, but it's a holiday! I fricking love doing holiday manis! They are so fun and everyone really gets in the spirit.

I decided to go simple for both to make things easy on myself.

I started with a base of Wet n Wild French White Creme on all nails. On my index and middle, I added one thin coat of Glitter Gal Light As A Feather.

On my ring and thumb, I created a leopard print using Zoya Sooki (the perfect red) and Revlon Royal.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

Happy holidays everyone! For those of you not in the US, Memorial Day falls on the last Monday of May. It is a holiday to commerate our soliders who have fought and died for this country. It also is a big BBQ weekend and basically a kick off to summer.

Since it's such a patriotic holiday, I got my toes and fingers in the spirit!

For my nails, I used Zoya Sooki, Revlon Royal, China Glaze Fairy Dust, white acrylic paint for the French line, Konad White, and Bundle Monster BM14.

For my piggies, I used Zoya Chyna and Zoya Liberty plus I repeated the stamping from my fingers.

Royal Madness Flowers

Normally I don't stick to seasonality in regards to polish colors. However, for me flowers really are a spring/summer MAYBE even fall thing. I love doing simple dotted flower manis too, and they've become a sort of go-to for me.

For this flower mani, I first used a base of Revlon Royal. Then I dotted on flowers (I tried to do some different sizes) with Essie Mojito Madness (that's where I tried to get creative with the title of today's post....not quite sure it worked). The white is my go-to, Wet N Wild French White Creme.

Revlon Autumn Spice

Let me just say that I love this color! It's been a major lemming since I first saw Scrangie swatch it.

I finally got my hands on it about two weeks ago.

I used two thin coats for this mani. It chipped easily on me, but all polishes have been lately. The smell isn't super strong either so that's nice.

Pastel Galaxy

I don't know if any moms read my blog, but if you are a mom you just migth have heard of the Baby Center website. They have tons of information about babies and kids plus several chat boards. One of the boards I belong to has started a nail board that is going very strong! (Shout out to my BHB ladies!)

What's great about that is that we understand time restraints since we are all moms. We're all super supportive of each other which can be rare both in mom groups and the nail polish community. It's a neat little haven.

Anyway, we've decided to do weekly challenges. We get one theme for the week. Again as moms, getting a whole week to do a challenge works great! This week's theme is galaxies. I've done regular and Northern Lights ones. Today I decided to go with another "new" one and do pastel galaxy nails.

I followed a few different tutorials for this one and made it my own. It's not as pastel as other pastel galaxy manis, but I like some of the pops of dark colors.

I used a crap ton of polishes too:

Base is two coats of Sinful Colors Candy Coated.

I added the galaxy using Wet n Wild French White Creme, Barry M Blueberry, Zoya Pippa (yellow), Sinful Colors Fig, A-England Lake of the Lake (purple holographic), Zoya Pippa (pink), Revlon Minted (mint green that was mostly used to tone down purple base as Minted was pretty sheer), and Nubar Absolute (very lightly sponged to add the shimmery effect).

June Polish Days: To Boldly Go

The theme for this month's Polish Days is To Boldly Go. Anything sci-fi goes for this theme.

I'm fairly new to the cult of Doctor Who (just started the 11th Doctor), but I've been wanting to do Doctor Who nails since I got hooked.  Doctor Who nails work perfectly for the sci-fi theme!

On my nails I painted (from index to pinkie), the 9th Doctor's outfit (he's my favorite!), the (new) Doctor Who logo, a Dalek, and the T.A.R.D.I.S.

I started my painting the base I needed for each image. Here's what I used:

Index: Essie Brooch the Subject

Middle: Zoya Storm

Ring: Revlon Gold Coin

Pinkie: Revlon Royal

Then I added on the details using some small nail art brushes and several different polishes. Here are the rest of the polishes I used:

Index: Revlon Royal (blue), Wet N Wild Black Creme (black)

Middle: Barry M Silver Foil (silver)

Pinkie: Wet n Wild Black Creme, Wet n Wild French White Creme

I adore how this came out. The Dalek and the 9th Doctor's outfit are my favorite :)

Check out other mani from June's Polish Days through the links below

Monday Mani: St. Patrick's Day!

Monday Manis are officially back! For those of you who don't know what they are, let me tell you!  Each week at PAA (Polish-aholics Anonymous), we vote on a theme for a mani.  Then on Monday, everyone post their manicures in the album. You can do your mani at any time, but no posting until Monday! It's so cool so see everyone united over polish and to see where our imaginations can take us.

This week's theme was St. Patrick's Day.

For this mani, I used 2 coats of China Glaze Glittering Garland plus 2 coats of Revlon Gold Coin.  Then I used my dotting tools and those two colors to add on a 4 leaf clover plus some dots.

This mani was super shimmery, and I loved it!

This last photo isn't the best, but it really shows off the shimmer in these two polishes.

Superbowl nails

I'm back!! Well, sorta. I ended up with a super bad cold, and it's sooo much harder to recover from illness when you have a little one! Before I could just take some Benadryl or Nyquil and sleep it off. Not anymore! Plus I have to be extra careful since I'm nursing.

Anyway, I found this mani I did for the Superbowl that I somehow never posted! I'll be back this weekend with regularly scheduled blogging.

Index: for the 49ers and I used Zoya Sooki and Revlon Gold Coin

Middle: football, and I used OPI Suzi Loves Cowboys and Rimmel French White Nail Tip Liner

Ring: for the Ravens, and I used Sinful Colors Amethyst and Revlon Gold Coin

Pinkie: for the turf, and I used OPI Don't Mess with OPI and leaf green flocking powder from TKB Trading

31 Day Challenge, Part 2!: Day 28, Inspired by a Flag

For today's challenge, I wanted to do the state flag of Wisconsin. However, it's pretty complicated with TONS of details so I decided against it. Instead, I went with the flag of Texas which is where I was born.

Source: Wikipedia

I did the lone star on the flag around my index and ring fingers. It was kind of hard to do, but I think I did okay!

The colors I used are Revlon Royal (blue), Zoya Sooki (red), and Sally Hansen Whirlwind White.

This mani was super easy to do, and I really how like how it came out.

Check out other manis inspired by flags below.

31 Day Challenge, Part 2!: Day 19, Galaxies

I love the way galaxy nails look. I've only done them one time on myself during the 31 Day Challenge in August, but I already knew I wanted to do something different for today.  I saw this pin which lead me to this mani on Tumblr and knew I wanted to do something like it.

I especially knew I wanted to do a Northern Lights/Aurora Borealis mani because I've been lucky enough to see them once several years ago while in college. Because I was farther south, the only color visible was green, and it was pretty dim at that.  I decided to Google some images and was inspired by the ones with green.

Source: Aurora Borealis Photo Gallery

Source: The Guardian

This mani took several different steps. First I painted on two coats of Revlon Royal.  Next I sponged on Rimmel French White Nail Tip Liner to give a base and to ensure the brightness of the other colors.  To create the lights, I sponged on China Glaze I'm With the Lifeguard (green), Sally Hansen Green with Envy, O.P.I. Don't Mess with OPI (green), Sinful Colors Dream On (neon purple), Sinful Colors Amethyst (purple) and Revlon Royal. Whew!

I topped with INM Northern Lights Hologram Top Coat "Silver" (very suiting for this mani!). I created the trees with a small brush and Rimmel Black Satin. Finally, I finished the design with stars in Rimmel French White Nail Tip Liner.

The result turned out pretty awesome, if I do say so myself! The husband even gave it his seal of approval!

Check out other far-out galaxy manis below.

31 Day Challenge, Part 2!: Day 18, Half Moon

I really don't like half moon manis. They are just not my thing. But when I saw these, I kinda liked them! They are definitely not the traditional half moon, but I'm not a traditional kinda girl.

For my base, I used Essie Sew Psyched, a army green. Then I dotted on black in the half moon shape using Rimmel Black Satin. Finally, I dotted Revlon Gold Coin on top of that.

I like this non-traditional half moon! It could be done in a bunch of different colors to make it funky or classy.

Check out some of half-moon manis below!

31 Day Challenge, Part 2!: Day 13, Animal Print

Originally I thought about doing a zebra and leopard print like these, but I decided to try something I haven't done before.  I've seen some beautiful peacock manicures out there so I went with that idea and combined several different ideas together.

I started with a base of Revlon Royal, the quintessential navy blue. Plus it dries super fast which is even better! Next I sponged on Rimmel Wild Orchid in the middle and China Glaze Exotic Encounters on the tip. I stamped on the design using BM 212 and Barry M Silver Foil.

Finally I added on some green dots using OPI Don't Mess With OPI.

Check out some other awesome animal print manis below.

Baby shower nails

Our baby shower was on Saturday so of course I had to do my nails for the occasion. My husband and I know the gender of the little one, but have decided to not tell anyone so I tried to keep my nails gender neutral (actually to us, most colors are gender neutral!).

The base coat is three coats of Revlon Minted.  The other colors I used were OPI The "It" Color (yellow), Rimmel Wild Orchid (purple), Sally Hansen Whirlwind White, and OPI Fly (blue).

31 Day Challenge: Day 31, Re-create Your Favorite Challenge

Today's theme is Re-create Your Favorite Challenge.

Today is the final day of the challenge! I'm so excited that I was able to complete every challenge on time. I'm looking forward to being able to keep a mani on for a few days too. It was sad to have to take off some of them :(

Today I really wanted to do a water marble again and I loved the blues that Sally from Nail Pron used in her water marble so I went from there.

I started with a base coat of 1 coat of Revlon Blue Lagoon. For my water marble colors, I used Revlon Royal, OPI Fly, and Zoya Skylar. Skylar probably wasn't the best choice since it didn't spread out well, but I managed to get it to work. I topped everything with INM Northern Lights Silver.

Check out other re-create challenges below.

31 Day Challenge: Day 30, Inspired by a Tutorial

Today's theme is Inspired by a Tutorial.

For today's challenge, I spent a ton of time on YouTube and Pinterest browsing ideas. I have a ton I'm saving for later, but I kept coming back to this one.

I used this tutorial to create this marble-y nails. I tried the method she used, but it just didn't work for me. So I changed it and used the plastic wrap to sort of sponge on the gold polish. I like this technique, and I need to experiment with it more.

The base color is 1 coat of Wet N Wild Black Creme and the gold is Revlon Gold Coin.

Check out some other manis inspired by tutorials.

31 Day Challenge: Day 28, Inspired by a flag

Today's theme is Inspired By a Flag.

For today's theme, I thought about just doing an American flag on my nails especially since I've never done one before! However, yesterday's theme got me thinking about my international travels, and I realized I have been to 5 different countries so I'll put the flags from all 5 on my nails!

They are in chronological order too!

Pinky: Germany where I went to visit my husband (then fiancee) for 10 days during his study abroad semester. Colors used are Rimmel Black Statin, Zoya Sooki (red), and OPI The "It" Color (gold).

Ring: Italy where I lived for 3 1/2 months during a semester aboard (I lived in Florence). Colors used are OPI Don't Mess With OPI (green), Sally Hansen Whirlwind White, and Zoya Sooki.

Middle: Costa Rica where my husband I went for almost 2 weeks for our honeymoon. Colors used are Revlon Royal (blue), Sally Hansen Whirlwind White, and Zoya Sooki.

Index: Bahamas where we sailed to on a 2 day cruise from Florida. Colors used are Rimmel Black Satin, OPI The "It" Color, and OPI Fly.

Thumb: Peru where I spent 6 weeks studying Spanish. Colors used are Zoya Sooki and Sally Hansen Whirlwind White.

Whew!

Check out other manis inspired by flags below.