Glisten & Glow Mother Earth Collection Watermarble

Glisten & Glow recently released a new collection called Mother Earth. The collection consists of 4 light creme polishes that stamp and water marble as well. The 4 colors are Mother Moon (grey), Mother Sky (blue), Mother Sea (mint), and Mother Flora (lilac). I really like the formula of Glisten & Glow's creme polishes, and these dusty light colors are some of my favorite so I decided to purchase the whole collection.

Since I haven't done a water marble in ages and this collection water marbles well, I decided that's what I was going to do with them!

The first photo shows the marble with glossy top coat, but I decided to test it with matte top coat as well.

Which do you prefer?

Monday Mani: Decals using Water Marble Decals

Today's Monday Mani theme is decals. It's such a great theme because they are SOOOO many things you can do.

I decided to go with water marble decals which seem to be popular lately. The idea is that you do your regular water marble.

Instead of dunking your finger in, you let it dry for a long time (I did about an hour I think) and gently lift it out, letting it dry on paper towel.

Then you can cut the decal and apply it to a semi sticky base on your nail.

I see tons of advantages to this: less waste (I used one go for 4 nails), less mess, time saver (I marbled more nap time and finished my nails during nap), and more accurate (you can redo the marble over and over again without redoing your whole nail plus you can cut the exact part you want to use instead of hoping you're dunking right!).

Onto the mani!

I used China Glaze Kalahari Kiss as the base for my thumb, ring, and pinkie. I also used it along with Zoya Pepper and O.P.I. Chop-sticking to My Story for the water marble decal.

The brown glitter is Hits Glitter Forte 389 Brown.

St Patrick's Day: water marble and holo goodness

Here's another St. Patrick's Day mani that I did. It's also my last one so it's fitting that I'm showing you today.

I continued with my "theme" of not doing traditional designs but rather just sticking with green polish (which I LOVE!).

I've got Nfu-Oh 66 on my thumb, index, and pinkie fingers.

On my middle and ring fingers, I did a base of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls. I water marbled on top of that using OPI Don't Mess With OPI, SpaRitual Eye of the Beholder, and a tiny bit of Zoya Bevin.

Neon Skittles

We've had some crazy weather here lately (snow, rain, warm weather, cold weather, sunny, cloudy) so I was craving something bright. I recently got Glam Polish Freak Show in a swap plus some neon green star studs from Born Pretty Store to review (disclosure policy) so I decided to combine things for a bright skittle!

On my middle, ring, and thumb fingers, I applied three coats of Glam Polish Freak Show. Make sure you add some good top coat to smooth this down. I added Sinful Colors Why Not and the star studs to my ring and pinkie fingers. The star studs are nice are small so I can add a few to even my small nails. They lay flat too. I'm really happy with them.

On my index finger, I did a base of Wet n Wild French White Creme. Then I did a water marble on top using Sinful Colors Why Not and China Glaze I'm With The Lifeguard. This is one of my better water marbles, but you can still see some base coat peeking through.

Why Not stains a bit so you can see some of that on my index and pinkie fingers.

I adore how this came out (even though hubby wasn't impressed :P). I may end up applying gel top coat to try to prolong this mani.

AAAAAANNNNNDDDDDD! Here's a 10% off code for Born Pretty Store for my followers. Enjoy!

Top Manis of 2012

Today I have the top manis that I did in 2012. For this I went beyond simple swatching or layering of polishes and went into the nail art category.  I managed to narrow today down to my 10 favorites so enjoy!

Water Marble: This was the very first water marble that I ever did. I did it as part of the 31 Day Challenge. I was so proud of myself for attempting a nail art technique that challenged me, but also for doing a pretty good job on it too!

Cookies and Milk: This has to be the cutest mani I did all year.

Popcorn: I did mani for a Monday Mani over at PAA. It was the first in a serious of food manis that I did. I really like this one because I freehanded stripes and added dimension to the popcorn that really made it *pop*! 

Watermelons: This was a bit outside my comfort zone as I really don't like pink. I'm so glad I did it though because it was the perfect summer mani! And the green glitter? Awesome.

Purple Roses: This is another mani I did as part of the 31 Day Challenge. I kept seeing so many different rose mani designs all over Pinterest that I finally decided to bite the bullet and try one. It turned out great! I really need to do this one again with some other colors.

Tribal print: Once again a mani from the 31 Day Challenge. I freehanded this whole design using inspiration from several different sources, and I love how it turned out.

Galaxies: And yet another 31 Day Challenge mani! This time I got to try galaxies, and they turned out great.

Green flower vines: This year I did a few different flower manis, and this was one of my favorites.

Monday Mani Flowers: I did this flower design as part of the Monday Mani challenge through PAA. I love the retro vibe that I ended up with.

Leopard and zebra print: I did these nails early in the year for a trip to the zoo. The non-traditional colors really made this mani stand out for me. I meant to do this design in other colors but never did. I will get on that this year!

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 20, Water Marbled

Today's Theme is Water Marbled.

Water marbling is another nail trend that I haven't tried yet. I've been meaning too, but I always find it so intimidating.  I was at a friend's BBQ on Thursday and discovered that she is a a beginning polish person (addict?) and told me how easy it was.....so I went for it!

Since this was my very first time water marbling, I'm posting exactly what my nails looked like when they were all finished. There was no going back and redoing it. I wanted to be honest with my first attempt.  I love the way my middle finger turned out the best. My index finger is an epic fail. Not only did I mess up the marbling, I smudged the nail too.  I cannot wait to try this again with every color I own, lol!

I applied a base of OPI Stranger Tides first. Then I used Stranger Tides, OPI Parlez-Vous OPI?, and Chia Glaze Exotic Encounters to marble with.  I finished off my first water marble with a coat of INM Northern Lights Hologram Top Coat in Silver

Check out some other water marble manis below.