Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Day 17 Glitter!!!

For this day (which I actually painted a couple days ago and forgot I should upload), I defied every instinct I had and decided to try something more subdued, rather than go all out and make a complete glitter bomb.  Okay also I'm running out of acetone and my Walmart isn't restocking, but still....


I used Sally Hansen Mousseline and did a glitter gradient with Milani Disco Lights.  I topped it with the Butter London quick dry top coat, and I think I used too much trying to make sure the glitter was smooth, because the tips shrank horribly :(


I really liked the look, though, even if it might have been more interesting with a couple other colors of glitter added for variety.  The last glitter gradient I did was a rainbow glitter, and I was going for something more classy and polished, but still shiny, with this one.





Recent Non-Challenge Manis

I'm writing this post while I'm not in  my room, and I unfortunately don't remember all the names of these polishes.  The only ones I won't list, though, are random ones I found at the Dollar Store that aren't actually part of any regular lines anyway.  I can Google the names for the rest.

In between my 31-Day Challenge nails, I've been doing some other things with my nails.

This first mani was two Almay One Coat colors (Dollar Store), topped with China Glaze Make a Specktacle, and then NYC Matte Me Crazy.  I'm absolutely IN LOVE with this look, especially with the taupe color.




This was my testing out Sinful Colors Winter Wonder, which I've read on numerous blogs is a dupe for Zoya Fei Fei.  I can't say I have that one for comparison, but it is a really nice color.  Normally I don't like dark colors on my skintone, but this one is a shimmery and multi-colored glass fleck polish which I like a lot.

On my index finger, I also topped it with Sinful Colors Faceted to try that out as well.  I really liked it.



Look what I found randomly at my CVS while I was home for Thanksgiving!!!!  OPI DS Sapphire!!!!!  This is my new baby, and it's actually still at home because I didn't want to risk bringing it on the plane where it might break, so it's sitting safely in my room at home.

It's a lot more linear than it shows in my pictures, although I'd still like to find a nice REALLY linear holo.




Finally, my Accidental O Chem Nails, with Revlon Not So Blueberry and Sinful Colors Mint Apple



I found the two colors in my room while I was home, and decided they'd look really pretty together as a gradient.  After I'd completed it, I realized the pattern looked familiar....


It matches the cover of my o chem book >.<  Oh well, still a gorgeous color combo, I think.




I also tried layering Sally Hansen Starry Starry Flight, and I liked that look as well, although I think I'd prefer it with no rhinestones on the two accent nails, and the silver glitter over all of them.

So that's it for now!  I'll hopefully be posting a lot more now, but I have a test later this week, then next week is dead week, followed by finals week, so it may end up being less than I'd like.



Biology Nails!

I think I've temporarily given up on the 31 day nail art challenge.  I still want to finish it, but as soon as I have things I'm "supposed to" do, I suddenly have 10 other ideas I'd like to do more.  This mani was inspired by a diagram used in our cell bio lecture a couple days ago.  I just really liked the pattern and colors, and thought it would look cool as nail art.  

I decided to incorporate with this mani that I saw on Reddit a few months ago and fell in love with.  In the original, though, she outlined with black acrylic paint, and I just painted the black blobs and cilia first, then put smaller green blobs in the middle.

This just might be my favorite thing I've ever done, and I'll be incredibly sad when I inevitably break half my nails rock climbing in class on Thursday.  I went yesterday evening (before I did these) and had trouble jumping and grabbing at holds without ruining my nails.


Thumb: Coated vesicle diagram
Index: Paramecia
Middle: Fish
Ring: Mitosis (with two X chromosomes, of course)
Pinkie: DNA (or at least my pathetic attempt at DNA)


In the middle of all the cell/molecular stuff, I still had to throw in the fish, partly because I couldn't think of another microscopic thing I wanted to put in, and partly because as long as I've loved biology, it's been because of a desire to study fish.  I want to do conservation ecology with salmon and/or sturgeons, but generic goldfish are a lot easier to draw.


I actually did this whole design with dotting tools.  I've found that they work nicely for when you want smooth, rounded shapes, and you can sort of push the polish around for the desired shape.  I did sort of mess up a bit in the center, but I still like how it looks, and didn't think it was worth going back and fixing.


For the other hand, I just made chevrons with the 3 base colors besides white that I used on my left.

Colors Used:

Thumb
Sally Hansen Whirlwind White
Sally Hansen Bandage
Sally Hansen Mousseline
Revlon Revlon Red
Sally Hansen Blue Me Away!
Sally Hansen Green With Envy
Sinful Colors Envy

Index
Sally Hansen Mint Sprint
Sinful Colors Black on Black
China Glaze Re-fresh Mint

Middle
Revlon Dreamer
ORLY Old School Orange

Ring
Sally Hansen Raspberry Race
Milani Yellow Whiz (Which is awful and goopy and NOT QUICK DRYING AT ALL)
Revlon Revlon Red
Sally Hansen Pacific Blue
Sinful Colors Black on Black (For the pathetic attempt at the mitotic spindle)

Pinkie
Sally Hansen Whirlwind White
Revlon Revlon Red
Sally Hansen Blue Me Away

Other Hand
Revlon Dreamer
Sally Hansen Mint Sprint
Sally Hansen Raspberry Race

Monday, November 26, 2012

Catching Up - Through Day 16

This post is going to be a whole lot of random, but it's already 12:30 and I don't particularly feel like splitting it up.  These are my backlog of pictures I've taken while I couldn't actually upload them, for the 31 day challenge.  Since I'm trying to do both at the same time, I crossed out all the doubles between the two lists, and then made "b" days for the extras.  Some of the pictures I took also seem to have disappeared, so I'm still hunting for the tape manicure I did.

These are also going to be in backwards order of how the days went, since that's how they were uploaded.  First up, we have Tribal Nails for Day 16, starting with my horribly screwed up right hand:



I used Pure Ice Over The Top, but unfortunately, I used it "over the top" of the white polish I'd put on all my nails, intending to do the tribal print over all of them.  When I decided I was just going to do a solid color for my right hand, I didn't bother taking it off.  The suede finish polish just slid right off when it was partly dried.


Fortunately, I wasn't too disappointed, because the rest of the manicure turned out rather atrocious as well.



Ironically, the ikat print nail was the only one that I thought actually looked nice, and I'd only done it on one nail because I was sure it would be way harder than ikat-type zigzag chevrons.



Needless to say, I didn't go out of the house with this on and took it off later that evening.

Colors Used:
White - Sally Hansen Whirlwind White
Right Hand - Pure Ice Over the Top
Red - Sally Hansen Elegant Cognac
Orange - China Glaze Desert Sun
Gold - Nail Art 14k
Green - Essie Sew Psyched
Blue - Art Deco Turquoise
Purple - Art Deco Magenta

Next up, Day 15b, the Jelly Sandwich.  I did two versions of this one, one on my right hand and one on my left.  The first is a more "traditional" jelly sandwich, with the color, colored glitter, and milky neutral color--Sally Hansen Petal Pusher--on top.




As you can see, I managed to mess that one up, though, so later that day when I was done with classes, I took that hand off and redid it so they were both like this:



These two polishes were made for jelly sandwiching with each other.  For the base (on both styles) I used Sally Hansen Salon Manicure in Cherry, Cherry Bang, Bang! a bright magenta color.  The glitter was Ulta's Pinata-yada-yada, and on top is the only use I've ever found for Wet n Wild's Fuchsia-Rama, which has a jelly finish, and I hadn't touched since I tried using it alone for a manicure once and even 5 coats weren't opaque.



I was totally in love with the look of this, and very sad to take it off (besides the thought of having to get all the glitter off....).  If you picked up this color when the Salon Manicure line was under $2 on clearance at Walgreens, I'd suggest finding Fuchsia-rama (regular price is usually $1.99, but you can find them on sale intermittently at most drugstores) and trying this.

Day 15 - Delicate Print Nails

I did two designs for this one, as well.  On my right hand, I did the cloud/lace/scallop pattern



And on my left hand, I did a floral/dot print vaguely inspired by the wallpaper I had in my room as a young child.  It was peach and baby blue on a cream background with a floral/dot/stripe pattern.



A lot of my flowers turned out a bit wonky, but I still really liked the design.



Colors Used

Cream - Almay Sheer Icicle
Brown - Sally Hansen Terracotta
Blue - Sinful Colors Lavender

I had the idea in my head that for the Chevron nails for Day 12b (I seem to have lost the pictures of Days 13b and 14b), I was going to do one of the colors from the China Glaze Bohemian collection, with one black chevron in the middle.  I then ran out of patience for taping, so this proved rather difficult for me, trying to get perfect angles and straight lines.


This is China Glaze's Rare & Radiant with Sinful Colors Black on Black, topped with NYC Matte Me Crazy.



For my right hand, rather than try to get one line perfectly straight, I just made copper tips, and I also really liked this look.  I have no idea why I didn't get any pictures of either one before they were mattified, but maybe I did and they disappeared along with the others.


I also managed to mess this one up fairly quickly after doing it, but I did wear it the rest of the day.

Colors Used
Green - China Glaze Rare & Radiant
Black - Sinful Colors Black on Black
Copper - Maurice's Copper

I'm glad to be back to posting, I missed having somewhere to share my manis, and there are several more to come that weren't part of the 31 day challenge (I'm taking the 31-day part very loosely....)



Wednesday, November 21, 2012

I may have fallen off the face of the earth

I currently seem to be experiencing technical difficulties.  I have a camera, but I lost the cord to transfer the pictures from the camera to my computer, because my computer for some reason decided it won't do it if I just stick the SD card in the slot.  I'm currently home on Thanksgiving break, so I won't be able to look for it for a few more days, but I wanted to post something, even if it has no pictures.

Yesterday I finally went to Target--we don't have one where I go to school--and they had a huge clearance bin with Sally Hansen Salon Manicure polishes in a few colors that looked similar to the ones from the POTC OPI collection.  I got Ion, a light greenish grey, Pumice, a darker grey-green, and Bandage, a slightly orangey tan color.  At my store, they were $1.97 each.  I haven't worn any of them yet, but they seemed to be decently good coverage when I swatched them on paper.

I hope everyone has a happy Thanksgiving, if you celebrate it, and I shall attempt to resume my normally scheduled posting as soon as possible.  Normally scheduled being "whenever I do my nails and need to share them."

Friday, November 9, 2012

Floral Print - Day 14


This was my first attempt at this style of roses, and it didn't turn out horribly, but I think it could use some work, largely because I made them a bit small and then used roughly the same pattern of 3 marks on each.  I really loved the blue flakie look matte when I was swatching the other day, and it seemed like a good background for the delicate floral print for today.

Colors Used:
Blue - Sinful Colors Cinderella
Flakies - China Glaze Lush and Luxe
Rose Base - Savvy Tea Rose
Rose Accents - Pure Ice Taupe Drawer
Topcoat - NYC Matte Me Crazy



I also made a lightbox today out of a cardboard box and tissue paper.  After some experimenting, I realized that it only works when it's dark outside, and the only light in the room is the lamp over it.  It seems to make it a lot easier to get pictures of my nails without getting a shadow in the middle of them, but I still have to test it on shimmery polishes without the matte topcoat.




(Combined because I'm cheating)


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