Christmas Skittles!

Good morning, and happy Thursday! Today I have some Christmas nails to show you. I am super excited for Christmas this year - partly because I'm actually excited for Christmas, and a little bit because I just want to be done with the semester. It's wrapping up! I only have one final, two projects and two papers left, and I'll be done it a week. So excited. Anyway, here's my Christmas nail art skittles mani:

Thumb & ring finger: Pure Ice Kiss Me Here with two coats of Lac Attack Holidays in Hogsmeade
Index finger: Two coats of China Glaze White Cap, topped with two coats of China Glaze Snow Globe, topped with two-ish (I say this because there was some finagling involved to get enough glitter on) coats of OPI Lights of Emerald City. (Not looking forward to removing this.)
Middle finger: Orly Meet Me Under the Mistletoe with gold circles in Zoya Ziv.
Pinkie finger: Zoya Rekha with snow in Cult Nails Tempest

Whew! That was a long list of polishes. I started this mani not knowing exactly what I wanted to do, but I really like how it turned out. This was the first time I tried Lac Attack Holidays in Hogsmeade, despite having bought it almost a year ago - I just felt weird about wearing it in January. I really like it, though, especially the stripey large red hex glitters. So cute.

It's supposed to snow here in St. Louis today, tomorrow, and Sunday. I really hope we get some accumulation, and I might just have to do another wintry/Christmas mani to get in the mood. :) Have a great day!

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!

White Christmas

Hello again! Thanks bunches to those of you who have stuck around during my semester-long hiatus - I really appreciate it. Today I have some Christmas nails that, while I like them, aren't quite up to par in my opinion, at least on one of the nails. In my defense, I packed in a huge hurry because I had to pack and move out pretty much right after finishing my last two finals, and therefore forgot important nail art implements like...well...all of my nail art implements. Except toothpicks - I have toothpicks. So, this is a toothpick friendly manicure. What do you think?

 

Mustachioed

Hey there! Look, it's only been two days since my last post, even though it's midterm - wait, let's not talk about the fact that it's midterm week. *ahem* Moving on...during The Week That Shall Not Be Named (am I the only one who thinks midterms are worse than finals?), sometimes one needs a little something to cheer oneself up. I did this manicure a couple weeks ago, but I'm posting it now because I think it's just about time for something a little silly. And what might that be? Mustachioed nails, of course.

indoors, natural light

There - I told you it was silly. And before anyone asks, yes, I did wear this out in public, and yes, people did comment on it, and no, no one told me I was bonkers. I have to say, I did mess up the pinkie a bit, but it certainly didn't detract from the fun I had wearing it, and other than that, I think it turned out quite well. You see, facial hair is not just for the face! Um. Yeah. I just said that. It's possible that it miiight be a little past midnight while I'm writing this and maaaybe I should be studying for my international studies exam tomorrow and maaaybe I'm just a little tired and it's making me slightly nuts...so. Yup. *whistles* Au revoir! 

Day 7: Black & White

Hello there! Today's theme was black and white, and once again, there were so many possibilities. Eventually, however, I decided to do something easy, and something easy ended up being a nail art technique that I don't think anyone has done before; at least, I've never seen it anywhere else. Can you guess what I did?

indoors, flash

Any guesses? Okay, I'll spill. I used the very sophisticated technique of...straws. I used a white base, then painted a bit of black polish on an index card, dipped the end of the straw in, and dabbed it on my nail (lather, rinse, repeat) to create a sort of abstract circles pattern. They're not perfect circles, but to me, that's not the point - and it's very easy to do. The streakiness is due to my impatience and the fact that I had to go to class, so sorry about that, and the flash is due to the fact that it gets dark outside really freaking early now, and my dorm lighting sucks. So, again, sorry. Hope all your Mondays went reasonably well!

SLU Crackle

Hello there! I've worn two different manicures since the layering in my last post (a Harry Potter mani and Orly Fowl Play), but unfortunately, they both chipped fairly badly before I got to take a picture. C'est la vie. Today, however, was homecoming, so I switched to SLU blue and white before the soccer game (which we tied 1-1). I used three coats of Revlon Royal, one coat of China Glaze Lightning Bolt, and Sally Hansen Insta-Dri top coat.

indoors, artificial light

Isn't it gorgeous? I thought Lightning Bolt cracked especially well this time. You know how sometimes crackles don't crack in the most aesthetically pleasing way? That definitely didn't happen, so I guess it was my lucky day. Sorry about the glare; the combination of Royal's jelly-ness and the top coat was just too shiny for my camera to handle. I think that's about all I have to say about this one, except that I'll definitely be wearing it until it chips - though, honestly, that's been the case for pretty much any manicure since I got to college, as I don't have time to change my nails on a mere whim anymore. Taking 6 normal and 10 honors credit hours tends to do that to a person. I hope you're all having a great weekend!

SLU Spirit Splatter

I'm at college now! I can hardly believe it yet...maybe it'll sink in soon. Probably when I get my first homework assignment. Anyway, I wanted to show you all the manicure I did for the spirit competition we had at the soccer game Saturday night. It has, sadly, chipped by now (college life is so far bad for my polish's staying power), but I enjoyed the design so much I wanted to share it anyway. Since SLU's colors are blue and white, I decided to do a splatter manicure with Revlon Royal (best blue ever, by the way) and Wet 'n' Wild White Creme.

sunlight

I only have one picture because I'm still trying to figure out the best way to get good lighting - the desk lamp I'm using isn't the best for nail pictures, though it works fine for normal uses, so I took this picture out the window. Maybe once I feel more at home, I won't feel like a loony if I wander around outside taking pictures of my hand. ;)

If you don't know how to do the splatter technique or have simply never tried it, I encourage you to find a tutorial. I find it quite easy compared to water marbling, so it's a good place to start, especially as all you'll need besides nail polish are a few household objects. Especially for a college student like myself, it's nice when you don't have to buy anything extra to do some cool nail art. 

I had better post this and log off now, as I have Arabic at 1:10, and I don't want to be late on the first day! Hopefully I'll have time to post again soon.

Sweet as Cherry Pie

EDIT: I have a coupon code for Inspired Nails that I completely forgot to post here the first time around. It's NEVERUNPOLISHED15, and it's good for 15% your entire order, excluding shipping. I'd definitely encourage you to take advantage! The code expires October 31, 2011.

For those of you who haven't heard of them, Inspired Nails is a fairly new company that sells full-nail water decals. They have a lot of interesting designs, so when they contacted me to see if I'd be interested in doing a review, I was thrilled. I was asked to choose two designs that I wanted to try, and I picked Mini Cherries on White and Van Gogh Starry Night. I figured it would be a good idea to pick one "unusual" design (Van Gogh) and one more normal one (cherries), though one that wouldn't be easy to recreate - I don't know about you, but I don't think I'd have an easy time making cherries that were that small without making it look like my nails have chicken pox. I decided to use the cherry ones first, because I knew that if I made any mistakes, the cherries would be a more forgiving design to make mistakes . . . also, I would be less mad at myself if I screwed one up, because there is absolutely no way I can paint Starry Night on my nails. So, here they are:

 outdoors, cloudy

outdoors, cloudy

I'm sorry for my messy hands...I've been a bit afraid of moisturizing my cuticles when I'm working at my new computer because I don't want to get it all greasy, but unfortunately that means that my hands look a bit gross. Soon I'll have everything set up and I'll be able to moisturize safely, I promise! ;) I wore the decals yesterday and the day before, and this is what they looked like mid-afternoon yesterday. As you can see, there's some tipwear on two of my fingers, and later that day the index nail chipped even more, so I sadly had to take them off. However, I honestly think that might partly be due to my base coat - I decided to give Nailtek Intensive Therapy II another try after it made my polish peel off a few months ago, so I'm suspicious that that might have been the problem. I'll be trying the Van Gogh decals over my normal base coat to be sure.

Aren't they cute, though? And to me, they're easier to apply than strips made of actual polish, because you can move them around before applying top coat, which makes them stick for good. I followed the instructions that came with the decals, and I had no problems. Unfortunately, my trusty Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - which has never bubbled on me before, even when I used thick coats - chose this manicure to bubble over. :/ I'm not sure, but I suppose it might be because I'm getting toward the end of the bottle and I've had to thin it several times. Or maybe I just slapped it on a little too thickly. 

Overall, I really enjoyed having these on, and I would've been happy to wear them longer. Also, I can't wait to try my Starry Night decals, and I think I might have to buy some for myself . . . except, I have no money. Boo. I suppose I can plan for the future - Burberry plaid? Peacock feathers? Alice in Wonderland? American Gothic? Blue lava? Blue stained glass? Okay, I'll stop - but seriously, there are so many great designs to pick from, so go check them out!

Pink Wednesday: Cracked Pink Dots

I know, it's a terrible post title . . . however, it's a pretty good mani, if I do say so myself. It's a pink version of a manicure I did back in April, while I was on a choir trip. This time, however, I added the crackle right away instead of wearing the dots on their own for a while. I've forgotten precisely what pinks I used (I've been really bad about writing this stuff down lately), but I think I used Essie Exotic Liras, Love My Nails Tropical Fruit, Sinful Colors Beautiful Girl, and Sinful Colors Pink Forever. I used a base of Wet 'n' Wild White Creme and added China Glaze Black Mesh on the top.

indoors, artificial light

This ended up looking a bit like pink camo, which wasn't what I intended, but it makes me want to try it with green. For that matter, I'd like to try it with just about any color combination - I imagine silver and gold dots with black crackle would look cool as well. I really like the idea of covering nail art in crackle in general, too; I think it's a good strategy for people who are new to nail art, for a quick mani refresher, or for when you want to do something that looks complicated but don't have much time. At any rate, I think Regina would approve, don't you? Have a great day!

Mint Candy Lightning

This is a manicure I did quite a while back, so I don't have a whole lot to say about it. I wanted to try a crackle combination that was softer than some others I've tried, so I used a coat of China Glaze Lightning Bolt over two coats of Essie Mint Candy Apple. It's a little more contrasting in real life, though still subtle. In the second picture, I've added Essie Matte About You.

 indoors, artificial light

indoors, artificial light

I really like this combination, and I'll have to try some more in the future...What do you think? Do you like it, is it too subtle, or are you over crackles altogether? I know I'm not! :)

First Water Marble!

Sunday night, I decided to attempt my first water marble, which I'd been intending to do for quite a while. I used black and white (Wet n Wild Black Creme and White Creme) because I figured they'd be the easiest colors for a beginner like myself to marble with, and I marbled them over a base of one coat of White Creme. I used Vaseline to keep the polish from sticking to my fingers, and topped my nails with one coat of Seche Vite when I was done.

indoors, artificial light

I'm really sorry about my janky dry fingers and general nastiness in this picture - I took it this morning in a hurry because I was afraid my manicure wouldn't last the day without chipping, and I was right. While there are definitely some things for me to improve on, I don't think this was too bad for my first try, and I was happy to wear it out in public for two days. Have you tried water marbling?

Pink Wednesday: Pink Panth...No, Leopard

If you've glanced at my sidebar in the last couple of days, you may have noticed a new badge. The girls from Colour Coated and Glitta Gloves started the idea of wearing/posting pink nail polish on Wednesdays in a tribute to Mean Girls...though we're obviously not mean girls. :) Several other bloggers, including myself, have now joined in, and you can see the full list on the On Wednesdays We Wear Pink website. Anybody can join, so if you have a nail blog and you're interested, head on over!

My joining the Pink Wednesdays club happened to be very fortuitously timed, as I had just put on a pink leopard manicure...yes, that's right, just after taking off another leopard manicure. What can I say? Anyway, here it is. I used Color Club Yachty, Yachty, Yadda (possibly my favorite pink) for the base, and Wet n Wild White Creme and Black Creme for the spots.

indoors, artificial light

Whaddaya think? Unfortunately, I did not manage to take a picture of this until the third (or fourth? I can't remember how many days I had this on, and I only took it off yesterday...sad) day of wear, and I had a chip on my middle fingernail. On the bright side, it's not that visible in the picture. I also noticed that I had a little more difficult with the consistency of the polishes I used to make the spots than I did in my previous manicure. I think that's because they're thicker - you can see the places were little strings of polish got where they weren't supposed to be. On the whole, though, I think it turned out well.

I have yet another new nail polish blog for you today:
Digital Design Nails

I'll have a green franken for you tomorrow on St. Patrick's Day. Until then, have a great day!

Penguins

If you've been reading my blog for a few months, you may remember the owl nail art I did back in August. I just love those little owls - I've painted them on boxes, doodled them on my notes, you name it - and I thought yesterday that I'd use the same basic method to put some penguins on my nails. I used two coats of China Glaze For Audrey for the base color, and a random black and white for the penguins. They're not entirely neat, but I think they're cute.

I did my thumbnail and pinkie nail, too, as well as my right hand, but I couldn't manage to get a good picture of all my nails, so you get to see these three. I did have a bit of trouble making the penguins - I had read you could use Sharpies for nail art, so I initially used a black Sharpie for the penguins because I figured it'd be easier. But then when I put on top coat, it smeared all over the place. I went back and dabbed polish over the smears, but it made the penguins look kind of lumpy. At least now I know that Sharpie will smear! I don't know whether or not I'll change my manicure again for Christmas (it depends on whether or not this chips), but I definitely won't be posting tomorrow, so have a merry Christmas if you celebrate it, and if you don't, have a great weekend!

Geometry Time!

Not geometry as in math class...geometry is my least favorite part of math, and that's saying something. However, I do like to play around with geometry on my nails, which is what I did yesterday, and I'm really loving the manicure so far. I used Zoya Robyn for the blue (probably my favorite blue...I will have to review it on here at some point) and a Sally Hansen nail art pen in white (thank you Emily of Nail Junkie!) for the designs. However, I had a strange experience with the nail art pen - I've used the gold pen, and never had any problems, but the white cracked when I put top coat on it. :( I added a little bit of white polish over the cracks and applied more top coat, but I don't feel like that should be necessary. Is it just my top coat (Sally Hansen Insta-Dri), or have others experienced this too? Anyway, sorry for the long-winded intro. Voila!

right hand - artificial light

right hand - shade

right hand - sunlight

left hand - artificial light

left hand - shade

left hand - sunlight

So what do you think? The difference between the sunlight and shade pictures is kind of negligible...I was catching the very end of the sunlight. I love fall and winter, but I am now experiencing the frustration of nail bloggers everywhere - earlier sunsets! The cooler weather is totally worth it, though. Hope you all had a wonderful Monday!

Color Accent Mani

Polish Hoarder Disorder has a nail design contest (EDIT: challenge, not contest - silly me) every week, and I finally decided to participate this week. As it says in the challenge post, "This week's challenge is to create a grayscale nail design and include a pop of color!" After experimenting with several different designs, I came up with this:

I used Pure Ice Kiss Me Here for grey, Sally Girl white for white, Rimmel Black Satin for black, and China Glaze For Audrey for blue. I painted the black tips freehand, and used a toothpick to do the zig-zags.. I'm very happy with this - my right hand does not look as good, but it's okay. I definitely need to practice making designs with my left hand, though.

Thanks for reading, and let me know if you've submitted anything to PHD's challenge!