Holographic Blue Water: 31 Day Challenge

So the story behind these nails… I had a job interview and did not want really crazy nails so I did a classic French manicure.  After the interview I had the next four days off due to the Labor Day holiday here in the US and we had planned to go the Lake.  Well I can’t stand to have the same manicure for more than about three days.  Halfway through the Lake trip I got antsy.  We had gone to the Mall and I visited Sephora.  I got three new polishes.  I got Sephora by OPI “opalescent blasted”, Sephora by OPI “Cartwheels on the Catwalk” and Nails, Inc Holographic topcoat. 

I have a horrible habit of picking at my nail polish if it starts to chip.  Usually it doesn’t happen because I am at home and can just take off a peeling polish but stuck up at the Lake I didn’t have any of my things.  So when the color began to peel I started to take it off.  The next day… dun dun dun… I broke a nail.  So I decided to take them all shorter and start over. 

I did a coat of the lovely dusty blue that makes me think of robin’s eggs.  It says it’s supposed to be a green but I didn’t see green at all.  I then put the holographic topcoat on top of it.  When I got home at the end of the trip I stamped on it with my new Red Angel plates.  (I love these plates, really cute full nail designs.) 

Indoors

Blurry for sparkle

Sunlight

Side Note:

I absolutely love the Nails, Inc holographic top coat.  It is not a linear holographic it is a scatter but what it lacks in linear it makes up in shine.  This holographic shows up in almost all lighting; Indoors, shade, outdoors, the Sun. It is so pretty.  I love holographic nail polishes but I get disappointed when they are only really sparkly in the sunlight.  I work indoors and I want some glitter at work too.  So I must say this was a good buy. 

Glitter indoors

These were done with Sephora by OPI “Cartwheels on the Catwalk”, Nails, Inc Holographic topcoat, Pure Ice “Celestial”, and RA 106

Yellow Nails: 31 Day Challenge

I love yellow I really do but when I came to Yellow nails on the 31 day challenge I had nothing.  I was uninspired again. Sad day let me tell you.  So I went with a bright and shiny yellow as a base coat and sat on it for a little bit.  We had a dinner to go to with some friends and I didn’t want to just have yellow nails so I thought I’d stamp something on them.  Here is the result. 

Sunlight

I rushed the stamping which you can obviously see and the blue mixed with yellow to make a strange green tinge…Which being an art minor and an artist I should have anticpated but I’m ashamed to say that I didn’t. When we went to dinner my friend asked why I put yellowish green on my nails…. Lol. I just told her wait until tomorrow and the next time you see me they will be different as always, lol.

Indoors

 

These were done with Barielle “Lemondrops”, Pure Ice “Celestial”, and BM 213

Orange Nails: 31 Day Challenge

Here is a quick post of my second day nails. The color was orange and usually I absolutely love orange but inspiration was not with me that day. I chose a soft orange color that reminds me of creamsicle. I thought the simple stamping would look pretty. So here are my not inspired orange nails. I do not know what was going on but the orange and yellow nails of this challenge were not my friends, lol.

Sunlight

These were done with Wet N’ Wild “Sunny Side Up”, Konad White and BM 314

Red Nails: 31 Day Challenge "Red Asian Manicure"

Red Nails: 31 Day Challenge

 So I decided to try the 31 day challenge.  I know a lot of other bloggers have done it and are doing right now.  I wanted to partake of the fun too.  I don’t know how anyone could post every single day… I think that is amazing and props to anyone that does.  So I’m just going to take my sweet time with it.  This manicure was done a few days ago but I’ve been so busy with work, interviews, and going away to the Lake for the weekend.

I started with bright red nails and wanted to stamp on them.  I wanted a grey stamp and when my man chose China Glaze “Stone Cold” I thought yeah why not… UM… yeah that didn’t work.  Like most of you know Stone Cold is a matte polish.  Which means it dries in an instant… which equals NO STAMPING.  Yeah don’t even try… super frustrating until I figured out duh it’s a matte. 

So I figured I’d do something different. I used hole protectors to make a kind of half moon mani on both sides of the nail.  My man said, “hey I got an idea.”  He then dug through my image plates and came back with some of the Chinese symbols.  He wanted to do the stamping and viola… really awesome mani design.  I told him that they look like Chinese lanterns. 

Sunlight



Sunlight

Indoor

Hole Protector Magic

 

These were done with Pure Ice “Siren”, China Glaze “Stone Cold”, Konad “White”, and BM 203 and 221

Snow Leopard Manicure

My best friend recently came over and had me do her nails. I’ll add a picture on the bottom. She wanted me to stamp on her nails and brought over one of her new favorite colors. I looked at it and told her that was definitely her color. She laughed and said, “I know you would never get it.”

The big difference between Megs and me is I like bold bright neon eyes bleeding shades while she is a subtle taupe flesh colored person. The color she had was a lovely grayish taupe that really fit her so nicely. The manicure at the bottom is the one I did for her.

After that incident I wanted to try something subtle… well at least subtle for me. Here is where I cue the Snow Leopard.


gardenofeaden.blogspot.com

This animal is so pretty and I thought it would make a beautiful manicure. I did a gradient nail and then stamped over it to get the lovely coat pattern of the leopard. I hope you guys like it as well.


Outdoors



Sunlight



Indoors

This was done with Finger Paints “Paper Mache”, Sally Hansen Hard as Nails “Gunmetal”, my favorite silver Pure Ice “Silver Mercedes”, Konad special “Black", and image plate BM- 221

This manicure on Meg’s nails was done with L'Oreal “Tea and Crumpets”, Konad special “Black”, some highlights with art stripe "Gold glitter", and image plate BM-214

Blue Raspberry Jello

I saw this color swatched on a lot of blogs when the summer collections for China Glaze came out.  I know a lot of other people were not a fan of this color but I absolutely love it.  I love the sheer jelly quality and the transparent sheen even with multiple coats.  What do you guys think of this color?



Indoors

This color is just a beautiful vivid blue.



Outdoors

I absolutely Love this color... makes me think of blue raspberry Jello!



Sunlight

First thing my man said when I was done, "That makes me think of jello."  I said, "That's why they call them jellies."  He looked at me with one eye squinted and said..."Oh...  I get it."


And because I can't leave well enough alone I stamped over it. It makes me think of balloons in the sky or some weird alien looking flowers.

BM-224

These were done with China Glaze "Ride the Waves", Konad special "White", and image plate BM-224

Star Spangled Nails

This post is obviously a month off but I'm going to go back a little and show some of the designs that I have taken photos of.  These were my Fourth of July nails.  I wanted something red, white, and blue.  These were done by the Salon Express kit that my lovely man got me.  It was my first foray into nail stamping.  I had heard of Konad just briefly during a trip to the local mall but at that time did not want to spend a large amount of money on my nails.  I'm so glad I didn't get into Konad two years ago becuase my bank account would have been pretty low even to this day.  Now that I'm addicted to nail art... well, let's just say I'm so glad my man supports my nail habit.

These were done with image plate SE-22, Pure Ice "Celestial", Pure Ice "Siren", and Salley Hansen "Hard to Get".

P.S. please excuse the horrible mess around my nails.  This was before I started getting serious about cleaning up around my cuticles... shame on me.