Geek Nail Challenge - TV #3 (The Walking Dead)

I present to you my third TV-inspired mani which is a representation of one of my FAVORITE TV shows - The Walking Dead! I have loved this show since it premiered on Halloween two years (I think) ago! It's one of the few shows that I must catch every week, on time, when it's on. Well, here's my zombie inspired mani!

Obviously, I got a little theatrical with that positioning. I also didn't clean up and left the mani sloppy because it was more zombie-esque that way ;] Here's a closer shot, with flash to really show all the colors.

I really ended up liking how this turned out! For a base, I did two coats of a Daring Imaginations Vampire Red that came with a Halloween costume once, haha, to represent blood. Then I painted one thick coat of Orly Decades of Dysfunction and sponged some of that off so the blood showed underneath. I repeated that one more time. Then, I lightly sponged on a bit of Zoya - Yara to add that greenish tint. Finally - and this was my mistake - I put on a matte topcoat and it smoothed everything over too much, the cool decay-like texture was gone. I tried to recreate it the next morning just sponging a bit of NYC Matte topcoat over it randomly:

Not bad, but I did miss my Seche Vite! As you can see, it chipped before I could even get a picture of it. Oh well. What do you think? And don't forget to check out the other bloggers!

Kelly

Summer Challenge Day 10: Tropical Drinks

Well here I am with Day 10 and this one is very close to my heart - tropical drinks, haha! Probably the hardest part was narrowing down my favorites ;] Eventually I decided I wanted to keep this one simple but fun, so I decided on four of my favorite summer drinks and a tiny umbrella :} Here are my inspirations:

And here is the mani I created!

(Obviously I had not finished cleaning up some of the top coat chunks left around the nail, especially the ring finger - but this was the best I could do in a rush last night!) And please ignore the cut on my index finger, it looks worse than it is haha!
 From left to right: Blue lagoon - blue curacao and lemonade with a splash of sprite. Unfortunately it seems no bartenders here in Dayton have ever heard of this one, so when I have one it has to be homemade. It is sooo great and fruity tasting! Tequila sunrise - my absolute favorite drink! It's tequila, orange juice and grenadine, and when the grenadine sinks to the bottom, it creates a "sunrise" looking blend of colors. So I did a gradient using Sinful Colors Let's Meet, Hazard, and Thimbleberry. The blend turned out way better than I expected! Classic margarita - always a good old favorite! I used Sally Hansen Limestone and topped it off with a coat of Sinful Call You Later. And last, a strawberry daiquiri! The color was hard to get right on this one, I did some experimenting to get this shade. I used a coat of Sally Hansen Unbreakable Heart, then Pure Ice Tease over that, and then Petites Comet over that! Hope you like :D

Kelly

Wedding Nails

Okay, I had some free time tonight and I actually got through uploading my wedding nails from last weekend...or, actually I guess it was two weekends ago. Oops. Well anyway! I was in my friend's wedding and I knew I wanted to do something pretty with my nails. I asked her what preferences she had, and her only response was "something simple and elegant." Well, I wasn't sure what to make of that, so finding something I felt was appropriate took FOREVER. I finally settled on the following:

Her wedding colors were red and orange (autumn-y colors), so I settled on a firey red base, Revlon's Saucy. I picked that one up recently, and it's a really pretty shade. Then, I wanted something more, so I added a coat of Essie - Shine of the Times (first time using it on an entire mani, and I learned it does not translate well in photos). I took so many photos trying to capture the beauty of Shine of the Times, and failed. Anyway, I added an accent nail with a ring on it - I added a rhinestone (FA at that) and a gold band, which also didn't translate well. I thought it was pretty, but the ring reminded me of Santa's belt, and that just wouldn't do. So after I got home from work, the night before we were scheduled to leave for Akron, I redid the accent nail.

I liked this accent color a lot better. It's from Orly's Dark Shadows collection, it's called Decades of Dysfunction and it's a kind of greyish nude color that worked perfectly with the ring because it didn't take attention away from it but was more interesting looking than a plain, naked nail. Well, I still wasn't happy with the way the shineys were photographing, so my boyfriend snapped this one with his "real" camera while I was driving on the way to the rehearsal dinner, haha!

Finally, in the sun you can at least see the shimmers. I absolutely love Shine of the Times (late to the bandwagon, I know) and I'm sure it will be making a lot more appearances in the future.

Oh, and one more bonus mani because I forgot to post it earlier. On the day I wrecked my car (UGH) I just so happened to be on the way home from a Sally's excursion where I picked up some gems on sale. I bought a couple Nina Professional polishes, which I had never tried before, and I tried one out that night to make myself feel better. It took a lot of coats to get the color it shows in the bottle, but I loved it anyway:

The main color is Nina Pro's Molten Gold, and it really does look like molten gold, especially in person. It's so much prettier in direct sunlight, but I unfortunately didn't get any photos outside. I did my accent nail in Icing's The Golden Age of Glitter (about 4 coats) and I loved it too. It reminds me of Pittsburgh because it's black and gold glitters :} And just because, here's another angle:

Such a pretty polish. I will definitely buy more Nina in the future. It was long-wearing, had a great smooth formula and it was affordable - somewhere around $3/bottle!! That's all I've got for now, I'll be back on Thursday to show off my Summer Song nails ;D

Kelly

Trying some new polishes :]

Haven't done too much art lately because of final presentations for school but I need feel a NEED to try out some of my new polishes that I got at Ulta the other day! I'm trying to grow my nails out, I'm really not used to them being so short, but I cut them at Easter to glue on artificial nails so they're still a work in progress. Also, ignore the cuticles - again, finals stress happened! :/

My first ever Zoya! This color is called Yara, and I LOVE it. It looked so much lighter in the bottle, it really reminded me of zombies and I was going to use it in a Walking Dead inspired mani I have been thinking about, but it turned out much more army green than zombie green. Still really cool color, and I love the gold sparkles in it, though they are hard to see in the picture.

Later in the week, I decided to add something to it by trying a gold glitter gradient. The gradient is Sinful Colors in Paris. I really like how this combination turned out.

Really hard to get a good picture of my toenails because the flash is either too much or not enough! I think I was getting so frustrated because this color (Orly - Oui) is so, so different in person. The camera can't capture all of the different colors and sparkles in this shade, it's so pretty. In person, it looks much more gold and sparkly than purple.

Trying to get a picture in more natural light. Still doesn't do the color justice. This was my first Orly polish and I love it - will definitely buy more in the future.

This weekend I plan to try water marbling and finish up my District 4 mani so keep an eye out for those! :]

OH, and PS - I just signed up for the Julep Maven special where you can get the monthly box for just ONE PENNY! I totally thought it was too good to be true, but I just did it and my box is now on its way and I literally did not pay more than one cent because of the free shipping. So, if anyone reading this wants an entire box full of nail stuff for only a cent, click this link and do the style quiz! There is no obligation to keep the account after you receive your box, so as long as you cancel a month after you order, you will never pay anything else. SUCH a cool deal :]    http://www.julep.com?r=20589200