This addiction is honestly getting out of hand...

Well, I just updated my inventory (I think the fact that I even have an "inventory" shows that I have a problem) and I'm now up to 146 polishes! It's hard to resist when I keep finding so many cool sales, but I seriously need to limit my spending for a while. Anyway, I thought I'd update with my District 4 set I've been talking about, so here's that:

I borrowed from a couple District 4 designs I've seen online and tried my best at recreating them. I'm not thrilled about it, but only because they're sloppy - I think if I tried again after more practice, I'd be satisfied. The first I did an ocean-inspired blue glitter gradient, and that one is probably my favorite. The ring finger, which is hard to see in this AWFUL lighting, is my take on a gorgeous net design I saw done by Theodora at Red Hair and Black Nail Polish. The other three I saw here, and though I tried my best to imitate them, they were harder than they look! I especially want to redo the coral "4". I do love how the trident nail turned out because of the matte finish of the background (Sinful Colors - Savage) contrasted with the sparkly gold (Sinful Colors Nail Art - Flower Girl). Questions on colors just ask - I forget at the moment but it wouldn't be hard for me to figure it out if someone were curious! :]

In other news, my first Julep box came in the mail the other day! Overall, I was really happy with the three polishes I got. I apparently fit into the "It Girl" style profile, and I received the colors Helena, Mandy and Heather (in that order in the above photo). So far, I've only tried Heather and I really like it. I think it took two coats to get the color shown in the bottle, which I thought was great considering how shimmery it is. Can't wait to try the other two, I think they're perfect for summer!

Here is my current pedi. We were getting ready to go out and celebrate finishing grad school and I wanted something appropriate for the summery weather and the celebratory mood of the evening! SO I tried a trick I saw online somewhere to make my own "dotting tool" using a bobby pin and it actually worked pretty well! That being said, most of my toenails are too small for this so I think next time I will try it on my fingers or with less colors, but I've overall been getting tons of compliments on them :]

And lastly...

My current mani! After the galaxy and all the things I've been trying, I felt like my nails needed a breather so I left them basically naked all weekend. Well, not exactly naked, they had a pale pink basecoat. But today I wanted to add something to them so I tried a new polish I got over the weekend. I usually never buy Sally Hansen Diamond Shine because I felt they were too expensive, but I saw two of these jewel overcoats (see below) that I just could not pass up. The one in the picture is called "Ring-a-Ding" and the other I bought is called "Multi-faceted" and it is a gorgeous chunky glitter with pieces of black, silver, and blue sparkles. I thought when Ring-a-Ding was added to that pale pink base, it ended up being a classy yet eyecatching look. I'll definitely consider buying more of these jewel topcoats in the future! It's great when you're rushed for time and still want to feel pretty. :]

Plans for this week - trying out some of the MANY new polishes I got over the weekend, including maybe the Matte topcoat by NYC I picked up, maybe the Saran Wrap technique, or one of two new gradient techniques I saw described online. Now that classes are over, I'm feeling ambitious ;]


Kelly

Hunger Games!

So, I probably should have said this before, but most of these ideas I've gotten from just doing Google Image searches for things I like. So I'm not taking credit for coming up with most of these ideas. That being said, I found these awesome Hunger Games-inspired sets and I've started trying them out. Here are the first two:

A general Hunger Games set. I got this idea from http://nailasaurus.blogspot.co.uk/ and hers is obviously much better, but for me it's progress! The Mockingjay actually turned out a lot better than I thought it would, but it doesn't translate well in this picture.

This set is inspired by District 1, which is famous for luxury items, hence the glitter and sparkly things. I got the idea from http://beautopia.onsugar.com but I didn't have a lot of the colors, jewels etc that she had so it's more of a toned down version. Overall, though, I really love it - I just need to make a matching set for the other hand. I plan on trying designs based on the other districts too, especially three and four, and I've seen some examples online, but I think I really want to try and think of my own design for each one. We'll see how that turns out! More to come later in the week - I also did my FA at gradient last night but it still needs cleaned up so I'll post that later.