Interrobang?!

Hello there! My most recent manicure was inspired by this nail wheel featured on the one of the many nail art tumblrs out there, which are probably my biggest sources for inspiration when I'm not sure what I want to do with my nails. I liked the neon yellow nail with the black arrow on it, and I started thinking about doing a manicure with arrows and symbols. Then I saw an interrobang tattoo on Contrariwise, and I knew I had to incorporate that somehow, so it turned into a punctuation/symbol mani. The interrobang (‽) is a non-standard punctuation mark that combines an exclamation point and a question mark, and, language nerd that I am, I've always had a bit of a soft spot for quirky punctuation marks. Here's the finished result (I used Icing Grande Margarita over Wet 'n' Wild White Creme, and the black is acrylic paint):

outdoors, sunlight

I was really happy with the way all of the nails turned out, and though the interrobang is definitely my favorite, that comma is pretty dang cute, too. I have to say, this has definitely rekindled my desire to do a newspaper mani...I'm curious to see what it would look like if you did it multiple times between layers of a really clear jelly or a top coat. Perhaps that will happen soon? 

P.S. I'm moving back to university Friday, so wish me luck! I have yet to start packing (whoops), so I'll need it. I'm super excited because my roommate from last year and I have an on-campus apartment, which means I can cook, which means yummy food. Yay. :)

Giraffe Nail Art

Hello again! Today I have some giraffe print nail art that I did recently. I've done variations of zebra and leopard patterns before, but I'd never tried giraffes. Since the giraffe is one of my favorite animals, I thought it was high time I tried, so I pulled out Ulta Sun-sational, some brown acrylic paint, and a dotting tool. Here's the result:

 natural light

I see now that the acrylic paint wasn't quite opaque in a couple of spots, but I actually didn't notice that when I was wearing the mani. While this definitely wasn't perfect, I was pretty happy with it for a first result. I didn't follow any particular tutorial; rather, I just googled "giraffe print" to get a more solid idea of what I was looking to do. You'd think I'd know what a giraffe looks like - and I do, of course - but I've always found that even when I'm trying to recreate something I have seen many times, it helps to have it in front of me when doing nail art. If you do nail art, are you the same way? I'm curious to see if it's just me.

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. :)

Day 2: Orange

Hello there, and happy hump day! Sorry today's post is later in the day - I had a doctor's appointment this morning, or I would've had it up then, and I didn't write it last night because I wanted to get at least 8 hours of sleep...though I doubt that will last long this month. Today's theme makes use of a fantastic polish that I got in Greece at the end of July and for some inexplicable reason hadn't used yet. It's Seventeen "Shock" 1001, an orange crackle. I layered it over two coats of Ulta Sun-sational.

 sunlight

artificial light

artificial light

What can I say? I'm a huge fan of this crackle, and I can't understand why U.S. companies are only making crackles in a limited range of colors - no green, no orange, no yellow...come on! I also have Seventeen's yellow crackle, so I may use that tomorrow for Day 3.

On a side note, I receive Dr.'s Remedy's latest collection today in the mail, and I'm working on swatching it now. I should have it posted tomorrow or Friday.

The other blogs doing this challenge:

Aly Loves Lacquer

Manicure Addict

Dees Polish Endeavours

Bright Lights, Big Color

Sinful Colors This Is It

I can't remember how I got Sinful Colors This Is It...it was an extra in a swap, or a giveaway, or something...honestly, I have no clue. It's sat in my untried box for quite a long time because I just didn't like it much in the bottle, but I was having one of those swatch-whatever-you-pull-out-without-looking sessions this past Saturday, and one of the colors I pulled out was This Is It. It's sort of a warm yellow-gold, which I think I would like a lot more if it were a creme or glass-flecked finish instead of a shimmer. This was three coats, and as you can see, it's still semi-sheer.

 outdoors, sunlight

outdoors, shade

Looking back at the pictures, it's not so much that I don't like the color as that I don't like it on me. It does have little bits of purple, blue, and green microglitter, but they're only noticeable in real life if you're reeeeeally looking, and I don't think you can see them at all in the pictures. Not my cup of tea, so I'm putting it up for swap on MUA - if you're interested, my username is neverunpolished. What do you think - is this it for you? (Yeah, yeah . . . I go for the puns whenever I can.)

I've Gone Bananas

It's really true . . . as I'm writing this, I'm trying to juggle scheduling blog posts, making sure I have all the pieces of a scholarship to send in this afternoon, and packing for the trip (which I'll be on when you read this - woohoo!). As you can probably imagine, I'm going a bit crazy. What manicure, then, would be more appropriate than one with bananas? This is the nail art I added on top of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Green with Envy. I copied it from the "Bananarama" post on Emily's Nail Files. Though she hasn't done a tutorial, I sort of managed to pull off my own version.

outdoors, sunlight

My version isn't nearly as good as hers, of course, but I think I did pretty well. I do hate how I placed the bananas on my ring finger, though . . . I have absolutely no idea why I did that. I used Nubar nail art pens in yellow and black, and a toothpick with American Apparel Butter on it for the paler yellow. I did actually wear this out in public, as well, which a lot of people might not do. What can I say? I will wear all sorts of crazy nail art without blinking an eye - though perhaps not for a job interview. ;) Would you wear something this "bananas" out in public?

Neon Splatter

Hello, there! Today's post is about the first splatter mani I ever tried. I'd wanted to try one for a while, because although the method is nearly as messy as water marbling, it's also a lot easier. I'm not going to do a tutorial because there are a lot of good ones out there, and I'm sure you can find one that will work for you. I used a base of Icing...um...neon-yellow-that-I-can't-remember-the-name-of-and-I-didn't-put-it-on-my-spreadsheet (I'll edit to add the name when I get home) over Wet n Wild White Creme, then added the splatter in Icing Electric Feeling and China Glaze Kiwi Cool-ada.

 outdoors, sunlight

 outdoors, shade

indoors, artificial light

I was very happy with the way this turned out. It's a good thing I did the green before the blue, because Kiwi Cool-ada is a bit thinner than Electric Feeling, which, as you can see, made it splatter in a less defined pattern on some nails. I should note that Electric Feeling is a neon blue, and is much brighter than the pictures show - I think the vibrance of the yellow jumped out at the camera so much that it sort of overpowered the blue.

Have you tried a splatter mani yet? Personally, I can't wait to do it again. As soon as I get a neon orange polish, I'll be doing a warm-colored version of this with yellow, orange, and pink.

Yellow Doll + Crushed Candy

*headdesk* Fail fail fail fail faillll. I'm sorry I wasn't able to post for the past five days - I really thought I'd have time, but as it turns out, I didn't. On the upside, I am now all registered for college! I'll be taking University 101 (a kind of "welcome to college let's get acclimated" course), Intro to Sociology, American Youth Movement in the Post-War Era, Communicating in Arabic I, Honors Politics of the Developing World, and Human Communication and Culture. It'll be 16 credit hours, and I'm hoping to have a part-time, on-campus job. Who knows how much time I'll have for blogging, but hopefully I'll be able to post on a regular basis.

Anyway, today's manicure is GOSH Yellow Doll and China Glaze Crushed Candy. I think this combination is absolutely perfect, and just looking at the pictures makes me want to do it again.

 outdoors, sunlight

 outdoors, shade

indoors, artificial light

Before I remembered this, I was thinking about doing a neon yellow with blue crackle for my next manicure. Clearly, I am a creature of habit. Or something. Sorry for the crap pictures, by the way. I think they're a result of a combination of my shaky hands and my camera being all, "holy crap that's bright." Like I said...or something. At any rate, sorry.

Oh, and for a completely non-nail-related ending to this post...POTTERMORE. *flails*

GOSH Yellow Doll

Before I say anything else, here's some self-promotion. More Nail Polish is having a franken contest, which is now open for voting, and I'd love it if you went and voted for me (or someone else if you like them better)! I'm #4, Dinosaur Egg, and you can vote here: http://morenailpolish.blogspot.com/2011/06/frankenpolish-contest-voting-open.html

I got Yellow Doll in a giveaway by Annie of Polish This!, but it was quite a while before it got to me. Annie tried to send it twice through the Finnish post, and they refused to send it. She let me know that she wasn't able to send the package, apologized profusely, and I thought that was that. Then, last week, I got an email saying she'd been to Estonia (which is just south of Finland) and had sent the package from there. A couple days later, there it was on my doorstep! I appreciate her effort more than I can really express. The first polish I tried from the package was GOSH Yellow Doll. Voilà:

outdoors, shade

 outdoors, sunlight

 indoors, artificial light

This polish looks very different in different lights, and the three pictures I took are indicative of that. Most of the time it looks like a brighter version of the color in the first photo. I used four coats here, though the last coat probably wasn't really necessary - I just added it for safety. :) It applies nicely and has a green tinge that varies greatly depending on the lighting. Sometimes, in fact, it looks more like a yellow-tinged green than a green-tinged yellow. However, I absolutely adore it in all lighting, and it's definitely my favorite yellow. I know most of you probably can't get your hands on GOSH, but for those of you who can, definitely get this color!

P.S. If you're reading this on the individual post page, lucky you! I'm having an issue where I can't see the individual posts when I click on the titles from the home page of my blog, and I know quite a few people are having the same problem. I'm hoping Blogger will resolve the issue soon... :(

Jewel of a Lighthouse

Cheesy title! I never know what to name these layering posts, especially if I use a gazillion polishes. I only used two this time - Color Club Jewel of a Girl and China Glaze Lighthouse. I did this combination because I put on two coats of Jewel of a Girl, which is a burgundy/brown shimmer, and didn't like it nearly as well as I did in the bottle, so I thought, "Hm, what can I do with this?" So I topped it with a coat of Lighthouse.

outdoors, shade

Much better! I did take pictures of this inside and in sunlight, but none of those looked anything like what the combination looks like in real life, so I deleted them. Even though Lighthouse is a yellow polish, I feel like it adds a gold foil finish to Jewel of a Girl...whatever it does, I like it! I'm considering putting Jewel of a Girl on my swap list, but now that I've found out how great it looks with Lighthouse, I'm having to consider it more carefully. :)

Random Mani Challenge

Tuesday, Lacquer Ware for Tips and Toes posted a challenge tag, and I chose to participate. The challenge is as follows:

1. Go to your lacquer stash
2. Close your eyes and pull 3 random items - JUST 3
3. Create a mani from them
4. Post your mani when you post the tag
5. Tag 3 bloggers

So, I did! The three random polishes I picked (knocking several others over in the process, since I had my eyes closed) were OPI Glow Up Already, Orly Happily Ever After, and BB Couture Pina Colada. At first, I had absolutely no clue what to do with them, but then my wheels started turning. Here are bottle shots of the three polishes in case you don't know what they look like (they're in the order above from left to right), and then the mani I came up with:

indoors, artificial light

indoors, artificial light

While I didn't actually end up wearing this, I'm not unhappy with the way it turned out. I painted my nails with two coats of Glow It Up, then added one coat of Pina Colada and some dots (I used a dotting tool) in Happily Ever After. I like the muted look Pina Colada gives the glitter, and I'm definitely getting an Easter vibe. Sorry for the extra bits of pink on my ring finger - I messed up and was too lazy to start all the way over, so I just wiped off the pink. Or so I thought. I'm really glad Chris came up with this challenge, because I never, ever, ever in a million years would have combined these polishes on my own, but I quite like the result. I think I'll have to try something similar soon, with polishes of my own choosing. Here are my three tags:

Glitta Gloves (Kirsten and Nicole, I think you should both do it!)

!Kendal

Acetone and Old Lacquer

However, if I didn't tag you and you want to do this, consider yourself tagged! Also, please feel free to leave links to your challenge manicure in the comments on this post - this is one time I won't mind link spamming, as I am really curious to see what everyone comes up with.

China Glaze Lighthouse

I wasn't sure how I'd like Lighthouse, as I'd never encountered anything similar before. I was also nervous that it would be waaaay too sheer on me. However, I do like it on its own - even though it took me four coats to get to this level of opacity, and there's still VNL. In the future, I'll probably wear it over Nina Ultra Pro Like Butta when I want it to look like it does in the bottle.

indoors, artificial light

outdoors, shade

outdoors, sunlight



I'm sure some would disagree, but I find this very pretty, especially in the shade. The name is absolutely appropriate - this polish does really shine like a beacon. In fact, it almost has a foily finish, though it is yellow and not gold. I'm anxious to play with Lighthouse some more...I really want to try it matte and over a variety of different colors. I'm betting I can get some great combinations out of this one!

Neon Skittles

At the beginning of last week, I was in the mood for something happy and bright. The weather was warm (it's not anymore), the sun was shining (it's cloudy now), and it felt like spring was on the way (what's spring again?). While that mani definitely doesn't reflect the current weather anymore, maybe it'll brighten up everyone's day regardless. Sorry for my gross cuticles...I really do love winter, but why does it have to make my hands look like I wash dishes all day? Also, apologies for the nasty staining on my thumb.

indoors, artificial light

From thumb to pinkie, I used Icing Electric Feeling, Sally Hansen Sun Kissed, Nina Ultra Pro Punki Pink, China Glaze Kiwi Cool-ada, and Sally Hansen Lightening, and added Rush top coat on top of all of them. I used the same colors on my other hand, but in a different order. Since all of these but the orange and yellow are true neons (matte when dry, etc.), they didn't photograph too well. Punki Pink is definitely not that orangey, and Kiwi Cool-ada is not quite that cool. Electric Feeling, on the other hand, is pretty much accurate.

Nicole by OPI Yellow, It's Me!

I want to preface this post by saying that the only reason I got this color is because it was on sale at Ulta for $4. I think Nicole by OPI polishes are too expensive, and the only other one I have was a gift. Anyway, I thought Yellow, It's Me! (come on, OPI...just get over the whole punctuation thing, won't you?) looked like a nice yellow shimmer. Well, it is, but it's also a pain in the butt, which I'll explain in a minute. This is four coats without top coat.

indoors, artificial light

I do really like the color of this polish. It's a bright yellow jelly with orange glass flecks, and I certainly don't have anything like it in my collection. However, it's still not opaque in four coats, which is pretty much unacceptable in my book for a polish that's not intended for layering. I think next time I'll try it over Sally Hansen Lightening if I want it to look like it does in the bottle, and maybe I'll try it over some dark greens or blues to see how it layers. The bottom line? I'm glad I have it, but if I had paid full price I would've been sorely disappointed.

American Apparel Butter

The first American Apparel polish I tried, Peacock, applied like butter. Butter, funnily enough, does not apply like butter. This wasn't really surprising to me, as yellows are notorious for having iffy formulas, but it's still a bit disappointing. It's not completely terrible, but the polish was fairly thick and streaky, and while I only used two thick (because I couldn't get it to be anything but thick) coats, a couple fingers on my right hand could have used a third. On the other hand, it's a very pretty pale yellow creme, and I'm not at all sorry to have it in my collection. I slapped this on right before going to bed, so there are a couple blanket prints, but they're not that noticeable, and I think the fact that they are so minor is a tribute to Orly In a Snap, which is the top coat I used this time.

indoors, artificial light

outdoors, shade

outdoors, sunlight 

(It was sunny all day today! I could hardly believe it.)

The last picture is most color-accurate - the second is a darker than Butter usually appears, even when in the shade, and the first has a slightly greenish cast that I've never seen in person. I really don't have much else to say about this one. It's a pretty color, but there are a lot of similar colors, so if you have a pale yellow with a reasonably good formula, you probably don't need Butter.

Nina Ultra Pro Like Butta

I can't bring myself to take off Mimi yet, so here are some swatches from last week:

Yellow nail polish is notorious for being streaky and difficult to apply, and Like Butta was no different. I only used three coats here, but it was still slightly streaky and I definitely would've applied a fourth coat if I were wearing it as a full mani.

 indoors, artificial light

 outdoors, shade

outdoors, sunlight 

The picture taken outdoors in the sun is definitely the most accurate of the three, though Like Butta is slightly darker and very slightly orange-er in real life. Also, it doesn't clash with my skin tone nearly as much as it does in the pictures, and is probably the most skin-tone friendly yellow I own--though I must confess I only have three. I've got to do something about that! At any rate, Like Butta is a great color for summer or whatever time of the year you feel like wearing it.