NOPI Khloe Had A Lam-Lam skittle mani

One of my favorite polishes of all time is Nicole by OPI Khloe Had A Lam-Lam. I'm not a huge Kardashian fan, but this darkened teal color is so great. I'm almost 1/2 way through one bottle so I'm gonna have to find another soon.

For today's mani, I added a holo topper of Hits Hefesto (the original!) then stamped using Konad Black and Bundle Monster BM305.

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.

Negative Space Skittles

Negative space manis are everywhere lately, aren't they? I'll admit, I wasn't a big fan at first. I still don't like some of them (I'm not a fan of visable nail line so that needs to be mostly covered for my personal taste), but they have really grown on me!

Plus if you skip a base coat, they're super fast to do especially for tape manis. And that's part of what I did for today's mani!

I laid down a base coat on all but the index and pinkie fingers so I wouldn't have to worry with dry time and tape.

I painted the thumb and middle with one coat of Barry M Pomegrante. I used nail vinyl straights to block off a section and painted on Milani Fresh Teal. For the ring finger, I combined the two colors to make flowers and added Barry M Silver Foil dots in the centers.

I topped the whole mani with Rica Glossy Glam. I just bought the top coat to try. It's thinner than Seche Vite (which I normally use) so I did have a tiny bit of dragging from not floating enough. It did dry quickly. I didn't keep this mani on long enough to see if shrinkage would occur, but I will with the next one.

June Nail Art Challenge, Day 28: Destinations

A day late in blogging this, but I was able to get it up on Instagram in time! It's a Instagram challenge, so that's what counts, right?

Anyway, I bought Cheeky Jumbo Plate 3 (European Romance) a while ago because of the beautiful images on it. It's got some great full nail images that I really like. But it's also got some super cute smaller images that I haven't gotten around to using yet. So this challenge theme was a perfect excuse!

I chose to go with Italy as the theme simply because I have spent time there.

I chose the airplane to represent travel in general. The other images are for 3 of the cities in Italy I was able to travel to: Pisa, Rome, and Venice. The little gondola driver is so cute!

The base of this two coats of Milani Fresh Teal which I found at Dollare Tree. Score! I stamped the images using Konad Black.

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!)

June Nail Art Challenge, Day 6: Fav Movie

This was a tough one for me, not because of the design, but because of the decisions!

I have a bunch of movies that I love, but it's hard to pick a favorite. So I went with one I that I've been dying to rewatch lately: BBC's North and South. It's based upon a book by Elizabeth Gaskell, which I actually haven't read yet.

Yellow roses play a good part in the movie seen here being held by Richard Armitage who's lately been in The Hobbit trilogy.

For my roses, I went a bit different than how I normally do them.

I was inspired by wondrouslypolished.com. 

I used Nicole by OPI Khloe Had A Lam-Lam for the base (which is reading really dark here, but is actually a brighter dark teal) and acrylic paint. It didnt come out quite how I wanted, but I still love it.

Neon leopard

I'm not one to reserve certain colors for certain seasons, but neons are definitely colors I reach for more in summer.

I used China Glaze Exotic Encounters and Lime Crime Peaches <3 Cream.

I love this look and it just screams summer to me!

China Glaze floral skittle mani

Hello! Anyone have any fun plans for the weekend? Tomorrow we're heading to our state capitol in Madison. They do a wonderful farmer's market right around the Capitol Square. Then we'll hit up the free zoo there. The weather is looking to be nice so I can't wait to go! Sunday we're going to do lunch somewhere and then maybe a little shopping at a children's resale shop. Our little guy could use some more summery clothes.

I did this mani as part of a hashtag on Instagram called mani swap. The premise is that you and another Instagram-er pick a mani of the other person's and recreate it. Then you post a collage of all 4 manis. Be sure to check out my Instagram for my inspiration as well as the recreated mani.

I used all China Glaze polishes to create this look. The colors are For Audrey, Exotic Encounters, and White on White. The roses themselves are acrylic paint while the leaves are polish. 

Safari Leopard Nails

When I do my nails, I don't often like to do the same on all of them. I LOVE accent nails, but I like to switch up my normal (ring and thumb accents) sometimes. I did that today!

I've already been really wanting to do a leopard print on top of a super glittery polish. I decided on China Glaze I Herd That and used two coats.

When I was grabbing out polishes and holding them up to see what I should use an accent, I ended up with China Glaze Exotic Encounters and decided it was perfect since they are both from the On Safari collection.

I finished this up with dots of I Herd That on the index and middle fingers. The black for my leopard print is my standard Wet n Wild Black Creme.

Sinful Colors Treasure Chest

Thanks to a super awesome person, I finally managed to get my hands on Sinful Colors Treasure Chest. I love it!

I used two colors here: one thicker coat and one thin coat the next day to fill in patchy areas. The formula is a bit harder to work with than other texture polishes and wants to drag if you put on a second coat. That's why I waited until the next day for my second coat.

Funky Fingers Partly Cloudy

PI had my mom pick this up for me at 5 Below since they're aren't any of those stores in Wisconsin. Funky Fingers Partly Cloudy is a color changing polish that goes from teal to grey. I never did find any sun when I wore this so I don't have any shots of the color change for you. Still, I love the black skittle I came up with.

Glam Polish Mars Attacks

Today's mani is Glam Polish Mars Attacks. I chose to leave it as it is to let this beauty stand for itself. 

Julie G Rock Candy

1 coat of Julie G Rock Candy in the sun and the shade. It went on great and had a good dry time.

Black Poppy Skittles

I belong to an awesome nail polish group where we swap polish but also post polish for free (just pay postage!).  Today's feature polish is one that I just paid postage for :)

This is a dark teal polish courtesy of Black Poppy. Black Poppy polish is sold at PacSun. Unfortunately, that's all I found out about this company. This is also no name or number on the polish.  But it's gorgeous!

I used two coats of the dark teal as my base coat. It was wonderfully opaque in one coat though. I needed the second to help cover up brush lines though and even things out.

The dark teal is soooo opaque that it stains though :( It's also watery so it flooded a bit and was hard to control. (Maybe that's why I got it for free).

But I still like it. The color is just too pretty not to! I left the dark teal polish by itself on my middle finger.

On my ring and thumb, I layered a coat of Lynnderella Connect the Dots.  I added a simple stripe on my index using China Glaze Stone Cold and left the matte finish there. On my pinkie, I used Wet n Wild Black Creme to create a gradient effect which looks so great with the dark teal.

I loved how this mani turned out so much that I couldn't stop myself from staring at it! That's especially dangerous while driving ;)

Glittering Garland Mosaic

I've seen quite a few mosaic designs on Pinterest (my favorite place for inspiration!) and put it on my nail art to do list.

I love love love the way this turned out. Unfortunately, it started chipping right away. I'm not sure if it was the base coat (I just changed that so we'll see) or the Seche Vite I used as the top coat (I normally use Sally Hansen or NYC).

I started with 2 coats of China Glaze Glittering Garland.  It's a silver holographic glitter.  I would say it's a bit dense to use as a layering polish, but with 2 coats it works nicely as a base. You can see a teeny bit of my nail peeking through, but that didn't bother me.

Next I used some striping tape to block off some sections.

I used a small brush and filled in the shapes with Wet n Wild Black Creme, Wet n Wild French White Creme, Barry M Pomegranate, and O.P.I. Fly. Then I removed the tape carefully and top coated.

The colors went together very nicely, and I love the little bits of holo glitter peeking out from the mosaic design.  This design was super easy to do too, so I foresee myself doing more in the future!

Top Polishes of 2012

Several bloggers have been doing lists of their favorites polishes/manis/products. It seems the end of the year always brings these best of or countdown lists. Well, I decided to do my own! It was so fun reviewing through my blog posts and seeing the awesome manis I did over the past year.

I've decided to bring my list up into two different posts: one with just my top polishes and another with the top nail art designs I did.

For today, I have my top polishes of 2012. These aren't polishes that necessarily came out this year, just polishes that I collected this year. I tried to narrow it down to 10 but couldn't quite do it. So here they are in no particular order, my top polishes of 2012!

Candeo Colors Sprouse: A perfect blend of black, silver, and white glitter, a hint of blue, and silver microshimmer. It applies beautifully with no need to dig out or place glitter.

Zoya Isla & Dollish Polish It's A Me Mario!: This is a two-fer! Zoya knows how to do red polish, and Isla is no exception! Dollish Polish really hit the scene this year with her amazing polishes, especially her glitters. The Mario collection was super popular, and you can really see why here!

Zoya Phoebe: Phoebe is stunning neon blue matte polish. I'm a sucker for matte polishes, and this neon one makes it super fun.

Dollish Polish Expecto Patronum: I couldn't help putting another Dollish Polish on this list! I love these milky white polish bases with glitter. Expecto Patronum is jam packed with tons of teal/aqua glitter.

Candeo Colors Jellybean: And another Candeo Colors!!! This one is based on the same concept as the milky base with glitter, except it's a milky light yellow with glitter.

OPI Chop-sticking To My Story & Dollish Polish The Koopa King: Here's another two-fer and another Dollish Polish (I told you it was her year!). Part of the reason why I choose this mani is not just for the color but the combination of colors. Both polishes play of each other nicely without one dominating the other.

Enchanted Polish Across the Universe: I don't even know what to say about this polish! Holo, color shifting, and named after a Beatles song, drool!

 Smitten Polish EMERAHGERD CANDY CORMS: I really am obsessed with these milky bases. This time we have another white with candy corn colored glitter.

Nicole by OPI Khloe Had a Lam-Lam: My favorite polish of all time. Hands down. I love green, dark colors, and dusky tones. This polish has it all including a great formula. If only it wasn't that weird Nicole by OPI bottle...

ManGlaze Santorum: I bought this color on the suggestion of a friend, and I'm so glad I did. ManGlaze makes the best matte polishes around. Santorum while being a totally gross name is beautiful dark brown matte polish with tons of micro shimmer. Try this one topcoated. Seriously.

Pure Ice Vinyl Remix

It's been a bit since I posted, but I took a much needed mini-break from blogging. I'm going to start blogging again, but still stick to my schedule before the 31 Day Challenge so expect to see posts from me every 2-3 days.

For today's mani, I was finally able to play with the Pure Ice Vinyl Remix crackle colors. I have Rock Star and Vintage Remix (or the purple and teal ones). For these, first you need to paint your nails using the white base coat. I used 2 for mine and stopped there even though it was still patchy.  You don't need to worry about mixing up your white base coats because the magic is in the crackle coats.

Next, use whatever crackle polishes to make a design. 2 things to remember: the pattern follows your brush strokes, and the color appears underneath the black crackle.

Here's what I came up with.

31 Day Challenge: Day 16, Tribal Print

Today's theme is Tribal Nails.

I was a bit nervous about today's challenge since I've never done tribal nails before, but I think it turned out great!  While I've been doing this challenge, I have also been working through my untrieds (2 challenges in 1!) so I knew the 2 colors I hadn't tried yet from the China Glaze Safari Collection would be perfect to use for today.

I started with a base coat of China Glaze Exotic Encounters. It's practically I one coater. I only used a second coat to hide the massive bubbling I got in the first (which I'm totally blaming on the weather and not at all on this polish).

Next, I added details using China Glaze I Herd That, Rimmel Black Satin, and Sally Hansen Whirlwind White.

This pictures had to be taken using flash because it's raining today and shows no sign of stopping.

Check out some other tribal print manis below.

31 Day Challenge: Day 8, Metallic

Today's challenge is Metallic.

For this mani, I did 2 coats of Zoya Zuza. Make sure to use plenty of base coat with Zuza! It stained my nails. Luckily, I was able to get off most of the staining by scrubbing with whitening toothpaste.  I followed this up with a glitter gradient of OPI Crown Me Already.

Hits Hera

Hits Hera is such a beautiful holo. I love turquoise green color that is it (if you all don't know, I'm a sucker for green polish).  I didn't have to do any cleanup when I applied this polish despite the wacky brush.  This picture is also taken after 2 days of wear. I used top coat to make it last longer, and it didn't affect the holo at all.