Red Nail Art

EDIT 09/16/13: Obviously I expect too much of myself, as I haven't had time to do another nail art mani since I posted this originally. I am still going to try to post more nail art and I will probably use the challenge as inspiration; however, I am a college student with unrealistic expectations of what I can do with my time, so...yeah.

Hello all! I decided to do the 31 day challenge again this year, as I did two years ago in November. This time I'm not going to be able to do a post every day, and you'll notice it is no longer the 1st of the month (oops), but I really enjoyed it before and thought it'd be a good way to get my mojo going again. For those of you who haven't seen it before, here's the challenge:

The first day of the challenge is red, so I decided to wear one of my top two favorite juicy reds, Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure All Fired Up. It's a squishy, super-bright red that really pops, and I always feel a little more put together when I wear it. After sporting All Fired Up by itself for a day, I decided to add some stripes. I used acrylic paint because I think it's easier to work with, but of course you could use polish as well.

Isn't it a great combination? I've been seeing a lot of the first two fingers as accent nails lately, so I thought I'd try it out. I originally intended the pink to stand out a little bit more, but I think maybe I like it as it is after all - it provides a little balance against the screamingly bright orange, purple and red. Sadly, as I'm typing this my nails have already chipped. C'est la vie, non? *sigh* Anyway, I won't be posting the rest of the weekend because I'm taking a short trip home to go fishing, but I look forward to painting my nails and posting again as soon as I get back! Have a great weekend!

Green & Gold Sponging

Hello again! As you're reading this, I'm about to move back into my apartment for the fall semester. I'm writing this on August 11, so hopefully I will have packed by the time this is published, but you never know...I am a pretty good (bad?) procrastinator, particularly when it comes to things like packing, which you just have to undo again later. The nail art I'm blogging about today is a little something I did back in late July. I used Zoya Neely as a base, Zoya Josie, Sally Hansen Green with Envy, and another green (the darkest bits) that is escaping my memory right now for the green sponging, and added a little bit of China Glaze Blonde Bombshell for some sparkle. On a side note, Blonde Bombshell is pretty much the best gold glitter ever, and you should get it now. But anyway, back to the sponging ---

I was very happy with how this turned out. The green sponging is subtle, but pretty, and the gold glitter adds an extra bit of oomph that makes the whole thing pull together. I thought after completing the manicure that it was more of a spring-y sort of nail art, but, ehh, who cares? I say wear whatever you want all year round, whether it's your clothes or you nail polish. Though I do tend to be a bit more versatile with polish, since it's not affected by the whole weather thing. ;)

P.S. The background for my pictures is a page of Mental Floss magazine, which is my favorite magazine ever in the entire world ever. I was reading it at work on lunch break, which is when I took these pictures.

Spring Flowers & Stripes

Hello again! I hope all of you who live in the U.S. had a nice, long weekend and a good Memorial Day - and of course, I hope everyone else had a good weekend too. :) The manicure I'm posting today is actually the last one I did before moving out of my university apartment and going home for the summer. Since I didn't have much time to do anything but study and revise papers during finals, I thought I'd take a short break to do some nail art, and this was the result.

China Glaze Whirled Away

Good morning! It is still morning for a few minutes, right? Today I'm writing about a polish that everyone knows by now - but it's still amazing. China Glaze Whirled Away came out as part of the Cirque du Soleil Worlds Away collection (which my local Sally's still doesn't have - get on the ball!), and it's a black and white glitter topper that positively makes my socks roll up and down. Here, I wore it with Sally Hansen Blue Away.

Unfortunately, my top coat bubbled on several of my finges - oh, the vicissitudes of top coat! However the bubbles weren't as visible in real life as they are in the picture, so I quite enjoyed wearing this manicure yesterday. 

In related news, I seem to be on another blue kick. Before this mani, I was wearing Zoya Blu from the Lovely collection, and as I type this, I'm in the process of applying another (mostly) blue polish, which I'll show you next. Hint: it's nerdy. :)

Have a great day!

Sponging with Skylar

Good morning! I took my last midterm this morning, and I think they all went pretty well, so now I'm ready for spring break! Unfortunately, that means I have to pack first, but...I'll do that later. Today I have a manicure from early February. I did this after I wore Zoya Skylar, a gorgeous blue that I didn't want to take off when I started getting tipwear. The solution? Sponging. I used Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Bronze Ablaze, Orly Luxe, and a regular kitchen sponge that I keep specifically for nail art.

sunlight

indoors, natural light

I was really happy with this - I think it looked particularly nice because of the depth I got from using two colors that are sort of different tints of the same color. I'm not sure if that makes any sense the way I worded it, but to clarify, I think you'd get a similar effect using, say, a dark purple and a light purple over another color. Plus, the great thing about sponging is that it looks fabulous, is very easy, and can be used as a mani refresher for when you don't have time (or the heart) to redo your whole manicure. I'm also thinking that I should try using sponging as a base for some other nail art, but I'm not sure what I'll do yet...like I said, though, it's spring break now, so I'll have plenty of time to think about it!

Day 11: Polka Dots

Happy 11/11/11! Don't forget to make a wish tonight at 11:11:11. :) I hope you didn't have your fill of polka dots after my rainbow manicure, because I have more for you today. This time, I just did two vertical lines of polka dots on each nail, and I really like how it looks. I used a base of China Glaze First Mate, and the dots are in Sally Hansen Green with Envy and Color Club Overboard.

 indoors, artificial light

natural light

I can't believe I'd never used First Mate before! It's really gorgeous, and I think the green and pink complement it well. The only thing I don't like about this manicure is that because my pinky nail is so much small than my other nails and the dots are the same size, that nail looks a bit odd. Other than that, though, I'm happy with it - and even if I wasn't, I'd only have to wear it for today. Again, have a great day!

Day 8: Metallic - Sally Hansen Bronze Ablaze

Five things:

1. The pictures today are going to be far from optimal. It's raining again.

2. Bronze Ablaze is a bit of a stupid name. I mean, couldn't you just go with Bronze Blaze? Or something?

3. Bronze Ablaze is, however, a gorgeous polish.

4. My pointer fingernail broke right before I took the pictures, hence the missing finger.

5. I am really really busy and I shouldn't be blogging at all, so I'll keep this short.

Now, pictures!

 natural light

natural light

Isn't it gorgeous? Despite my crap pictures, that is. It's sort-of-but-not-quite a duochrome, and it's rich and has depth and I love it. Also, it barely needed two coats and dries fairly quickly. I didn't have any application problems, either - I've always gotten along well with the Insta-Dri brush, though I know a lot of people don't. And that's it for today! Off to do some more reading... *looks at pile*

Day 3: Yellow

I find it kind of funny that today's color is yellow, and it's rainy and gloomy outside. I don't particularly mind the weather, though - in fact, I tend to enjoy weather that most people consider miserable (rain, snow, general cloudiness and muckiness) and dislike weather that most people enjoy (days involving heat)...but that's beside the point. For today's yellow, I continued the crackle theme (at this rate, I think I might as well give up and call it crackle week, because I'm planning on doing a green crackle tomorrow) with Seventeen 1006, a yellow crackle, layered on top of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Pacific Blue (no top coat). By the way, if you don't have Pacific Blue and you live somewhere where they sell Sally Hansen, what are you doing?! It's a fantastic color and I can't praise it enough. Anyway, here's my sunny manicure on a not-so-sunny day:

natural light

By the way, I retouched my hangnail again today. It's much better, but still slightly icky - in fact, that's why I also have a rather ungodly amount of cuticle gap. I'm trying to avoid aggravating it with polish remover as much as possible. Anyway, I'm off to class now - have a great day, and remember, it's almost Friday!

Here are some of my fellow bloggers doing the challenge (for those who have already posted for today, I linked to their post; for the others, I linked to their main page):

Aly Loves Lacquer

Manicure Addict

Dees Polish Endeavours

Bright Lights, Big Color

P.S. In case you were wondering, I'm holding my umbrella in the photo. :)

31 Day Challenge: Day 1

Like many others in the nail blogosphere, I've decided to do the 31 day challenge. I'm not sure where it originated, but this is the challenge:

Why did I decide to do this in November, my busiest month yet? I honestly have no idea - perhaps I'm actually going 'round the bend. In any case, I will be joined this month by the wonderful Elizabeth of Life and Polish, so at least I'll have someone to keep me company as I journey down the path to insanity and aggravated chronic sleep loss.

Today, Day 1, is red day. Easy enough, right? I used OPI Red My Fortune Cookie (one of my favorite red cremes), then used two alternating layers of Nubar 2010 and BB Couture Sex on the Beach and topped it all off with good old Sally Hansen Insta-Dri. I took these pictures last night because I knew I wouldn't have time this morning, so they're not the best quality (dorm room lighting = far from excellent), but I hope you get the general idea.

 indoors, artificial light

 indoors, artificial light

indoors, artificial light

I'm quite fond of this combination. While red with flakies has been done many times before by myself and by others (speaking of which, why didn't I use Elle's Spell today? I just got it and haven't tried it yet...clearly my brain was not turned on last night), I still think it's pretty, especially because the layering of the jelly with the flakies gives it a certain depth, as well as a touch of glitter. All in all, I think it's a good start to my 31 days, and I'm not sure I'll want to immediately take it off later tonight. Now go peep Elizabeth's Day 1 post, and have a great day!

Edit: Unbeknownst to me until a few minutes ago, Manicure Addict, Polish Pauper, Bright Lights, Big Color, and CC Manicured are also doing the challenge in November, so go check them out as well!

Edit 2: And Dees Polish Endeavours! Who knew!

Blue & Brown Plaid

Remember how I said in my last post that I've only done two manis since I got to college that didn't have blue in them? This is a continuation of that trend. I honestly do consider other colors, but I seem to always end up picking blue. Today's post is a result of my thinking that I hadn't done proper nail art in a while, so I did a plaid pattern with Sally Hansen Blue-Away, Maybelline Natural Beauty, and Orly Prince Charming.

indoors, natural light

indoors, natural light

Again, no sunlight pictures because the ones I took turned out like crap. In case you're wondering how I did this, I pulled the brush out of a gold glitter Kiss striper, wiped it off, used it, cleaned it, and put it back in the bottle. It's my cheap way of avoiding actually buying a proper striper brush, and so far, it's worked pretty well for me. Also, is it just me, or would a fuzzy plaid blanket in these colors be totally awesome?

Sally Hansen Blue-Away + Nubar 2010

Hey there! I hope your weekends are all off to a good start. I wore Zoya Ali this week, but didn't get a chance to take a picture of it until it was far too chipped to post here. Sorry about that! Instead, I have a lovely layering combination for you to drool over today (at least, I've been drooling over it). I couldn't decide what polish I wanted to wear after I took Ali off, so I chose my usual method of grabbing a bunch of polish bottles and swatching them on paper until I picked one. This time, I ended up with Sally Hansen Blue-Away and Nubar 2010. I used two or three coats of Blue-Away (sorry...it was only last night, and I still can't remember) and two coats of 2010. I couldn't get my sunlight pictures to capture the fiery orange of 2010 in the sunlight, but the pictures I took in indirect natural turned out much better, so I included more of those.

natural, indirect light

 natural, indirect light

 natural, indirect light

sunlight

Gorgeous, don't you think? I do wish the sunlight pictures I took had turned out better, though - I'm not sure why I couldn't get the strong orange flash to show up in the pictures, because it was certainly there in person. I guess 2010 was just camera-shy. However, I'm glad the pictures taken in indirect light turned out so well. They show the orange-gold-green shift perfectly; in fact, I think they might be my best pictures of 2010 in general. Also, I have absolutely no clue what those tiny, dark specks on my nails are. I didn't notice them until well after I was done painting my nails, but they're definitely attached to my nails at this point. Finally, I feel like I should say that my nails are actually a bit longer than they look in these pictures, though they are still quite nubby. So. Yeah. Have a great rest of the weekend!

Fall Chevrons

I couldn't really come up with a better name for this nail art, so fall chevrons it is. After all, I think the color combination looks like something one would wear in fall, and it's also been raining all day today. I used the tape method for this; all you need is some blue painter's tape (masking tape works as well, but I find it's more likely to peel off your polish) and whatever nail polish you'd like to use. I think it's pretty easy to figure out, but if you'd like a tutorial, leave a comment and I'll see what I can do - I'm pretty sure I'll be doing another variation of this sometime soon.

natural light, cloudy

As is always the case, this looks neater in real life than in my picture. As those of you who have nail blogs know, macro always likes to highlight the flaws in manicures - in this case, it's the bumpiness where I had to reapply bits because the top coat caused the dark blue to streak, as well as the little bit of tipwear I already had. The polishes I used were Maybelline Natural Beauty (isn't it a gorgeous latte? I need to do a review of it by itself), Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Blue-Away (stupid name, but also a lovely color), and Essence Just Rock It (a stupid name only because of the exclamation point that I am pointedly not including). I originally intended to use Barielle Coco Bar instead of Just Rock It, but then I decided to use for colors, then changed my mind and ended up with this. I like the way it turned out anyway, which I suppose is all that matters. I hope you're all having a wonderful week, and are much less damp than I!

Sally Hansen Green with Envy

I just realized that yesterday was my one-year blogaversary - I find it hard to believe that I've been doing this for a whole year already, but there you are. This is also my 300th post, another landmark. Unfortunately I don't have the funds to do a giveaway right now, since I'm saving up for a new laptop, a new phone, and college expenses, but that doesn't mean I don't greatly appreciate every one of my followers and comments. Thanks, and I hope you stick around for the next year!

Today's polish is one that I've used quite a lot, but somehow managed never to show on Never Unpolished until now. It's Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Green with Envy, and it's one of my favorite green cremes. Searingly bright, though not a neon, Green with Envy is not for the faint of heart.

 indoors, artificial light

outdoors, sunlight

outdoors, shade

The first and last pictures are most color-accurate - the sun picture is a bit too yellow. Only the last picture shows how juicy Green with Envy looks, even though it's not a jelly. I really do love this green, and I'd be hard-pressed to find another lime green creme I like as well. Its application is a dream once you figure out that the Xtreme Wear brushes pick up a crapton of nail polish, and it doesn't stain as long as you use a base coat, which you should always do anyway.

I did some nail art with this that I'll be showing soon (probably tomorrow), but I'm thinking I need to pull it out again while it's still baking hot outside. This, Pacific Blue, and Sun Kissed (all Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear) are my trifecta of summer polishes, and I haven't used them enough this year. Until next time!

P.S. I'll also be posting some Harry Potter nail art this week, so look forward to that - how could I not do something for the 15th?

Silver Crackle Comparison

I know some of you out there are tired of crackle and wish it would go hide in a hole somewhere - if that's you, skip this post. I got Sally Hansen Fractured Foil a while back and thought that would mean I didn't need to spend the money on OPI Silver Shatter. Then I kept seeing Silver Shatter in stores, and I thought, "You know, I'm pretty sure that's a darker silver than the Sally Hansen." And so, of course, I inevitably bought it. And you know what? They are different! I was delighted. I compared them first over a dark color (I used Cult Nails Living Water, because I was wearing it already and it's practically black) and then over white (Wet n Wild White Creme). No bottle pics, because the ones I took turned out horribly. Both pictures were taken indoors under artificial light.

pointer and ring - Fractured Foil, middle and pinkie - Silver Shatter

As you can see, there's not that much difference here, though Silver Shatter does look slightly darker. The contrast showed up more in real life, but it still wasn't remarkable. But when you put them over white...

pointer and ring - Silver Shatter, middle and pinkie - Fractured Foil

Okay, now there's a big difference! Silver Shatter is closer to a gunmetal silver color, while Fractured Foil is a pale silver. Since I'll be wearing these over light colors as well as dark, this definitely justifies owning both of them for me. If I manage to get my hands on the silver China Glaze crackle, I'll do a new post comparing them all, but I'm not holding my breath - the only reason I got my hands on the original set of Crackle Glaze is thanks to the lovely Jasmine of Colour Coated.

Do you own either of these? And which do you prefer?

Grey-Blue Gradient

Happy Memorial Day! If you're American, be sure to take today as an opportunity both to honor the courage of those who serve in our military...and to eat some great food. :) If you're not American, then happy Monday! Today I have my next-to-last National Brain Tumor Awareness Month grey mani, and my next-to-last fact: "As many as 69% of children with brain tumors will survive, but they are often left with long-term side effects." - Miles For Hope My mani for today is, as I'm sure you deduced from the title, another gradient. This time, I used OPI Skull & Glossbones for the grey, American Apparel Peacock for the blue, and different mixes of the two for the colors in between. I finished it off with a coat of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri for the top coat.

indoors, artificial light

I took pictures of my right hand this time because I thought it looked better than my left, and I am incapable of holding a nail polish bottle in an appropriate picture-taking pose with my right hand, so you just get those three fingers today. Later in my mani's lifespan, as I often do, I added some crackle - in this case, I used Sally Hansen Fracture Foil.

indoors, artificial light

It looked much cooler in real life, I assure you, but my camera was so distracted by the shininess of the silver that it didn't do such a great job at picking up on everything else. I imagine gold, white or black crackle would also look very cool over this. Until tomorrow!

Kelly Cracked

Poor Kelly...it was just too much to handle. She couldn't help it - she cracked.

I'm not talking about a person, of course, but Zoya Kelly, a cool dark grey that is not only gorgeous, but a dream to apply in two coats. I couldn't resist seeing how Kelly's cool blue tones would contrast with Sally Hansen Antiqued Gold, so here we are. But first, a fact! (I feel like an infomercial sometimes...) "The cure rate for most brain tumors is significantly lower than that for many other types of cancer." - Miles For Hope And now, the manicure:

indoors, artificial light

I'm definitely a fan of this combination. The gold really pops against the dark grey, and since I applied Antiqued Gold over a slightly tacky layer of polish, it cracked much better than when I tried it over Skull & Glossbones - I may have to revisit that combination at some point. What do you think? Is there hope for Kelly, now that she's gone round the bend? ;P

OPI Skull & Glossbones

National Brain Tumor Awareness Month fact: Brain tumor symptoms often mimic other diseases, often making them difficult to diagnose.  - American Brain Tumor Association

I promise this IS a grey, but it pulls green on me when it's on its own. It's a very pretty color, though, and one of the two colors I knew I absolutely had to get from the OPI Pirates of the Caribbean collection, the other being Stranger Tides. I clearly have a thing for weird colors; what can I say? I found the formula of Skull & Glossbones (which is kind of a stupid name, in my opinion, but that's what I've come to expect from OPI) to be excellent: it required two coats for me, but it went on wonderfully and dried fairly quickly as well. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to take pictures until after one nail had already chipped - the day I wore it, I did a lot of cooking and made homemade lemonade (the work-intensive kind where you cook the syrup and stuff), and I didn't have a chance to take a picture until afterward. Fortunately, there was only one small chip, so I didn't feel obliged to re-polish that nail for the picture.

indoors, artificial light

Even though I was about to take it off due to the chip, I couldn't resist playing around with Skull & Glossbones. I'd found the Sally Hansen crackles at Walgreens the day before, and I got Cherry Smash, Distressed Denim, Antiqued Gold, and Fractured Foil. I was eager to see how well the metallics would crackle, so I went ahead and put a coat of Antiqued Gold on over Skull & Glossbones.

indoors, artificial light

I do like the effect of this, but it didn't crack much - I discovered later that it cracks better if you put it on over polish that's still a bit tacky. I'll have another grey with gold crackle on top for you Saturday (since tomorrow's grey-free Friday), and I like that combination much better. Care to guess what it is?

Graduation Mani

It seems weird to think that I'm now an alumnus of the school district where I've gone for 13 (long) years...I still haven't quite wrapped my head around it. What you see on the left is the right thumbnail of my graduation manicure - my high school's colors are red and white (but silver's cooler, so I used that) and our mascot is a lightning bolt. So, I used Finger Paints Curator's Crimson for the red base, then did all but my thumbs with a coat of Sephora by OPI Flurry Up. On my left thumbnail, I wrote "2011," and on my right thumbnail I did a lightning bolt, both in Sally Hansen Celeb City. Here's my left hand:

indoors, artificial light

I like it! I'm glad my thumbnail grew out a bit, though; otherwise I'm not sure I could've gotten the whole year on there. I used a toothpick for the thumbs because I knew I would be able to do finer detail with it than with my dotting tool. I'll be in St. Louis tomorrow, so I may not have a post up, but I do plan to post Sunday. I'm really excited about my graduation party, which will be then, because I'm going to plan and cook the whole meal - I may have to show some pictures of that as well! :)

Birthday Cement

An estimated 64,530 new cases of primary brain tumors are expected to be diagnosed in 2011. - American Brain Tumor Association 

Yeah, I come up with the most clever titles... *rolls eyes* Sorry, I just couldn't think of anything else to call this post. Anyway, this is going to be a short one, because it's almost tomorrow and I need to paint my nails so I can go to bed (really, I just need to go to bed, but I'm not going with naked nails!). This is the mani I wore yesterday and today, and which prompted my nephrologist (I had an appointment yesterday) to say, "I like your nails. They're shiny." :D I love my doctors. Anyway, here it is:

indoors, artificial light

Like it? I did a glitter gradient with Deborah Lippmann Happy Birthday over a base of Sally Hansen Wet Cement, then added a coat of Essie Matte About You. That's all for today...I said it was going to be short! I'

Don't forget, you have 50 minutes left to enter my giveaway! (And I have 50 minutes left of being 17! Woohoo!)

Sally Hansen Nail Prisms Pink Rose Diamond

Today I'll be showing you Sally Hansen Pink Rose Diamond, which I was fortunate enough to find at my local Dollar Tree a while back. While the bottle of Purple Diamond I got wasn't very holo, Pink Rose Diamond definitely is, and I'm glad - though it would have been nice if the purple was the super-holo one, since I love purple. Oh well! I took quite a few pictures of this one to show its beauty as well as I could.

 outdoors, sunlight

 outdoors, sunlight

outdoors, sunlight

indoors, artificial light

outdoors, shade

It's not as holo as GOSH Holographic, but it does pretty well for itself. I think it looks very pretty in the shade as well as in the sunlight - sparkly, but in a soft kind of way. I definitely need to get myself some more holos, since I'm loving all the ones I have. I'm reluctant to pay full price for OPI's DS polishes, or I would probably have all of those already! I saw some Tronicas the other day, but I passed on them because they're not holo enough for me.


And before I go, here's yet another new nail blog I've found...hurry on over, she's got a Black Shatter giveaway going on right now!

The Girl With a Bow