Monday Mani: Different Color on Each Nail

In the past, I've mentioned Monday Manis at Polish-Aholics Anonymous on Facebook. Well, they've been coming back!

This week, the voted in theme is to have every nail be a different color. We agreed that it only needed to be each nail on one hand, not all ten digits.

I had a few ideas in mind and had a hard time narrowing it down.

I ended up going with a mani using only (well, mostly) ManGlaze polishes. Starting at the thumb, the colors are Santorum, Fuggen Ugly, Fatty's Got More Blood, Nawsome Sauce, and ILF. The dots are Barry M Gold Foil. 

When I did this mani, I used the matte sandwich technique to help it last longer.

I applied two coats of each matte polish, then one coat of Rica Glossy Glam. Let dry. Then apply one more coat of your matte polish. I wore this mani for only two days, but I only had a tiny chip. That's good wear time for a matte mani and for me as well! I'm super hard on my nails.

And here's a bonus pedi I did.

June Nail Art Challenge, Day 25: Nude

How's everyone doing today? My day hasn't been too exciting. Got a good work out in with my husband this morning at the YMCA. Our local Y is really nice and has cheap daycare. It's a total win since it gives T a chance to play with other kids (I'm a stay-at-home mom) too.

The little guy's been a cranky butt though. He hasn't really wanted to nap at all. He did finally take one this afternoon and bedtime is soon!

Anyway onto today's mani. I've been really loving nude manis lately.

For this one, I used a base of Essie Brooch The Subject and China Glaze I'm Not Lion. Then I freehanded the design using Cosmo Wild Thing (a neon pink I won about 2 years ago from Cosmo magazine) and Milani Fresh Teal.

If the mani looks familiar, that's because I was inspired by an awesome blogger! 

@PolishCandies does some great stuff so  be sure to check her out.

My nude day didn't turn out quite how I wanted it. And I'm Not Lion didn't agree with me and it popped off in sheets the day after I did this mani (I did it at night and I noticed one nail already missing that morning!)

Sally Girl Brainy

When I went to Sally Beauty a bit ago, I browsed their Sally Girl mini polishes. They have some neat colors sometimes, and they're only like $1 or so.

When I saw Sally Girl Brainy, I KNEW I needed it because it looks just like Deborah Lippmann Mermaid Dream.

I used two coats for this mani, I think (it's been awhile). I also used Barry M Gold Foil and nail vinyls for the details. I loved how it turned out, and the wear time was pretty good too!

Orly Rage skittlette

I purchased Orly Rage a bit ago during a BOGO sale at Sally's. I don't have anything quite like Rage which is why I decided to get it.

I can't remember how many coats I used, but probably 2-3. On my middle and ring fingers, I placed some chevron nail vinyls, painted over with Wet n Wild Black Creme, and took the stickers off right away. My index and pinkie fingers are also a base of Wet n Wild Black Creme plus some gold studs.

Spring Green Flowers

Is spring here yet?!? We just got more snow over the weekend and yesterday here in the great white north. And Sunday it's time to change the clocks for Daylight Savings Time. It does not feel like spring!!

But my hands do! I usually don't reserve certain colors for each season, but flowers are definitely a spring thing.

Colors used

SpaRitual Eye of the Beholder (two easy coats)

White acrylic paint

Barry M Gold Foil

Princess Jasmine Inspired Nails

This super simple mani was inspired by Princess Jasmine from Disney's Aladdin.

Colors used:

China Glaze For Audrey

Wet n Wild Black Creme

Barry M Gold Foil

Zoya Normani

Tomorrow, we'll heading out of town for the wedding (well, reception since they had a destination wedding) of two friends.

I wanted to paint something simple yet beautiful on my nails. I always wanted to lean more neutral. I saw this idea and was going to use a tan as the base. HOWEVER, I just got my Zoya order in and *knew* Normani would make a great neutral base without being boring. I was right :)

Zoya Normani went on great in two coats. I wouldn't recommend two because then the coat would be pretty thick and so it would tak longer to dry plus be more likely to chip.

I used China Glaze I'm Not Lion for the glitter. After topping with NYC In A New York Minute and letting dry, I added Essie Matte About You.

Happy New Year!

I don't have anything special going on this year for New Year's Eve. We're not really party people (like going out), and with a one year old it's not so easy to have people over that late or to go to someone else's house. My husband is working until 9pm today as well. I think when he gets home, I'll make a ginormous batch of stove top popcorn and we'll watch some Doctor Who (I'm all caught up; he's on Series 5 still).

Anyway! I still did some simple New Year's Eve nails just for fun :)

Colors used: Barry M Gold Foil and Pure Ice Black Crackle

Phallic Flowers

Not quite as dirty as the title sounds ;)

Base: Illamasqua Phallic and Barry M Gold Foil

Details: Wet n Wild French White Creme, and studs from Born Pretty Store

Ghostly Storm

Today's Nail Art October theme for the Instagram challenge I'm doing (#nailartoct) is Trick or Treat. However, I'm going to an apple orchard on Sunday, and my idea for that theme fits much better for the orchard so I switched. Instead I'm doing Sunday's theme: Ghosts.

Base: Zoya Storm (2 coats)

Stamps: Bundle Monster BM223 (ghosts) & BM305 (house)

Stamped with Rimmel French White Nail Tip Liner (a less opaque white to give a ghostly feel) and Barry M Gold Foil

Fall flowers

I've seen tons of fall manis with leaves on them, but I love flowers so I decided to do some fall colored flowers.

I used a base of Zoya Pepper. I added flowers using O.P.I. Chop-sticking to My Story (orange) and O.P.I. The "It" Color (yellow). I dotted the center of the flowers using Barry M Gold Foil.

Dollish Polish Zombie Flesh with gold leaves

I'm participating in a nail art challenge on Instagram and today's theme is gold. I used a base of Dollish Polish Zombie Flesh and stamped some leaves using Barry M Gold Foil.

Disney Belle French Tip

Today's challenge theme in one of my FB groups is Disney Princesses. I thought about doing Ariel since she's my favorite princess, but I've seen a lot of Ariel manis.  Instead, I chose to recreate a mani from Polish Art Addiction.

I used Fresh Paint Alex's Lemonade (it smells vaguely like lemonade plus the funds go towards a children's cancer charity) for the tip. I added a gold accent using Barry M Gold Foil. Finally I stamped on a white rose (I thought it would look better than a red one) using Konad White Stamping Polish and Bundle Monster BM14.

Zoya Pepper

For today's mani, I used a base of Zoya Pepper. It's almost a one coater, but I used 2 to make sure. On my accent nails, I painted a base of Barry M Gold Foil and topped it with China Glaze Blonde Bombshell. I stamped using Barry M Gold Foil and Bundle Monster BM315.

Zoya Riley

I meant to post this yesterday, but we were out of town most of the day so things were kinda crazy!

I got Zoya Riley along with a couple of other Zoya polishes for my mom because she always uses Zoya Sooki when she visits. My mom gave Riley back to me because she said the formula was a bit weird.

I didn't find the formula weird at all! It went on wonderfully just like the other Zoya polishes that I own.  Riley is a gorgeous raspberry creme that went on it almost one coat. I used two for this mani though. I'm not a big red fan, but I really liked this one a lot.  Notice that I did have some staining around my nails though. Moisturizing before doing the mani might have helped with that.

This photo was taken using direct lamp light compared to the others which were take using indirect sun light.

I decided to play around a bit with this mani and added some gold glequins to my ring and pinkie fingers and 1 coat of Milani Jewel FX Gold to my middle and index fingers.

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

Zoya Solange

Zoya Solange is another of the Summer 2013 Pixie Dusts that I bought. I kept wavering over this one, and I'm so glad I bought it!

You may have noticed the new water mark. I have the logo of the frog drawn up because it matches my email (rubytadpole) which is where I got the idea of Ruby's Nails for my blog (ruby being my birth stone). The artist even included little painted nails on the frog and a ruby brush stroke. It was more than I was expecting! The water mark is also the new header for my blog and Facebook page. I also redesigned my blog layout to better fit with the frog concept.  Check it out and tell me what you think!

Solange is a gold textured polish with gold dust that is exclusive to Zoya.  As with the other Pixie Dusts, this one applied beautifully. I used two coats, but maybe could have been just one.

This polish is gorgeous. I really like how it looks with my skin tone, and it's a perfect color for summer.

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.

St. Patty's sparkle

For today's mani, I knew I wanted to use NYX Girls Emerald Forest, but I wasn't quite sure how. It's in a light green base so using it as a topper would change the color of any base too much. Using it over green, would mask it's glittery goodness.

In the end, I decided to use it on its own as my favorite accent. I used 3 coats for this mani which gave me perfect coverage.

For my other nails, I used 2 coats of Nina Ultra Pro Mossy Britches. Mossy Britches is a olive green/gold metallic that is perfect for St. Patty's Day.

When I was putting NYX Girls Emerald Forest away, I spied Milani Jewel FX Gold and decided that I needed to add that to this mani as well. I love the blingy, sparkly effect.

You may notice my nails are a bit shorter than the last post. Well, they were getting too long for me to manage! I was having a hard time messing around on my phone so I shortened them a bit. This is the perfect length for me, I think.

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.