Summer Challenge Day 16: Recreate Your Favorite Mani

Well, everyone, the Summer Challenge has come to an end after today. I had so much fun with it and I'm so glad I decided to take part. I was able to come in contact with so many great bloggers and I think my nail art has improved from pushing myself often! :] So with that, I present my final mani and it was inspired by the Dragonfruit design done by Kaki @ Glitter Obsession!

Overall, I am not super excited about how it turned out but it is definitely a design that made me push myself and I want to try it again sometime when I get better at nail art! The frame mani is really hard!! I tried messing with the tops of the frame near the cuticle while I was at work to try to even them out, but I only ended up making them worse! I do like the colors though, and I got a lot of compliments at work even if most people didn't know which fruit it was! :] I used Sinful Colors Snow Me White for the base, Sally Hansen Insta Dri in Sonic Bloom for the frame, and for the "seeds" I used Sinful Colors Black on Black and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Wet Cement. So that's all for the Summer Challenge, I am headed off to work, but check out what some of the other girls have created!

Kelly

Summer Challenge Day 15: Ocean/sea

I didn't have to think too hard on this one so I'll just get on with it - here is my ocean/sea inspired mani for Day 15 of the Summer Challenge!

This picture was taken at night using my boyfriend's super cool DSLR so it was really well defined, etc but something about the color left me unsatisfied. SO I took another one the next day in the natural light that captured the true colors better (below).

My inspiration for most of the nails, was mermaids, ocean water, stuff like that. I tried for a glitter gradient, but didn't turn out as great as I wanted. I used Sinful Colors Savage for the main color (which is has a really cool matte finish and I don't know why - I've never run into another Sinful that was like that, but I LOVE it) and then Sinful Nail Junkie for the glitter/scales/etc. Then I *attempted* a wave accent nail,  inspired by Kaki @ Glitter Obsession. I used Milani Sail Away as a base, then alternated sponging more of that on top of Wet n Wild I Need a Refresh-Mint, and Sinful Colors Snow Me White. I didn't use topcoat on this mani because I loved all the different textures! :]

Kelly

Summer Challenge Day 14: Swimsuit

The challenge is winding down! Today I have for you: Swimsuits! My original thought at the beginning of this challenge was to do a different patterned swimsuit on each nail, but as the challenge has gone on, I've really started to value simplicity! For both practical and aesthetic reasons. So, the first thing that came to mind for me was.....
"It was an itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow polka dot bikini!" When discussing this song/challenge with my boyfriend, we both realized the song is not clear whether it's a yellow bikini with polka dots or a bikini with yellow polka dots. Oh, English. Anyways, I've always picture it as yellow with bright pink polka dots. Here's my interpretation!

I could not get these colors to photograph properly - this was the closet I got and this was using my phone! The pink is a BRIGHT neon over white and it's much brighter in real life. I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Mellow Yellow for the "bikini" and Sinful 24/7 for the polka dots. I like how this turned out - very bright and summery! Hope everyone has a great Friday :]

Kelly

Personal statement re: Sinful Colors Polish

Hey everyone! First of all let me apologize for the quality of this post, I'm trying out the blogger app on my phone so I don't really know what I'm doing yet!

Anyway, I really wanted to weigh in on the issue with Sinful Colors polish that came to light in the last couple of days. I'm completely appalled with Sinful for what they've done, and though I've been a frequent buyer of their polish for a long time, I will not be buying any of their merchandise in the future. I refuse to support a company that blatantly lies and steals to sell a product. It's despicable, in my opinion.

I wanted to put something out on my blog making that clear, because I do own probably 50+ Sinful polishes (hey, they were cheap!) and I'm not going to throw them all out - I just won't buy anymore. So if I state that I used a Sinful color (because unlike some people I  actually give credit where credit is due) in a manicure, please know that it was one  that I owned already.  Of course you all are free to make your own decisions and hold your own opinions on the matter - I just wanted to share mine.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, google Swatch and Learn and the Swatchaholic to hear from the two ladies who had their photos stolen. Sorry but I don't know how to create a link on the phone! Hope you all have a great wednesday, I've gotta go back to work :(

Kelly

Summer Challenge Day 13: Water Animal

This day of the challenge was supposed to be favorite water animal, but when talking about water animals, my boyfriend suggested trying a jellyfish and I thought it was a great idea! I don't even know if I have a favorite water animal - maybe those baby seals, but that would be too hard to paint! Anyway to be clear jellyfish are NOT my favorite water animal, in fact I'm really afraid of them and they are the reason I don't go deep into the ocean (well that and sharks). But I did think it came out cool and unique as a mani:

I can even make it look like it's swimming when I wiggle my fingers haha! I like it :] Don't forget to check out the other ladies!

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

Summer Challenge Day 9: Favorite Summer Memory

For this mani, I was having a hard time deciding what my favorite summer memory was! I thought of a lot of summer spent swimming, camping out, and even summers working at Bruster's (that's what I alluded to before) that brought back great memories. But then it came to me! When I was in college, one year I came home for summer and my dad informed me we were getting a new puppy. I was perfectly happy with my Shih-Tzu, Zeppy, and I resented the idea. Especially when he told me what we were getting - a boxer! I thought they were the ugliest dog ever because of their smushed faces. Regardless, I picked out a little girl and named her Sadie and fell in love ever since! Here she is:

This was taken about 2 years ago in September when we went to Put-in-Bay, OH for Labor Day weekend. The dogs had a blast because we went to a drive through safari and they got to come face to face with water buffalos, llamas, etc. Anyways, about a month after that vacation, Sadie passed away suddenly at only 3 years old. You may think I'm strange but in our house, our dogs are family members and we took it hard. Especially because there was no medical reason that she died; the doctor said she just stopped living, maybe her heart stopped. Sorry for the LONG story but I felt I needed to explain - so thinking back to that summer when I fell in love with what I previously thought to be the ugliest dog ever created, and what ended up being the most loving, loyal dog you could dream of - I thought, that was my favorite summer memory. And here is the mani inspired by her!

I knew I couldn't paint a boxer face that would be recognizable so I took the easy way out! But I really like it. I used Julep - Mandy for the background, Sinful Colors Black on Black for the pawprints and Stripe Rite in a turquoise blue for the writing. Hope you like it!

Summer Challenge Day 4: Palm Trees

Well, I'm exhausted from working all week/weekend without a day off and switching between all three shifts so this post is not going to be very wordy - sorry! Today's challenge was palm trees. I had been doing different designs on every nail etc, so this one I wanted to make more simple.

From thumb to pinky, I used Essie - Lights, Sinful Colors - Savage, Wet n Wild - On a Trip, and Sinful Colors - Clementine. There's also a strip of Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow on the accent finger. I freehanded the palm tree using Sinful Nail Art in Time Off. I tried to get a closer picture of the palm tree here:

Hope you all like it, and check out the other bloggers also doing this challenge!! Happy Saturday, I'll be working all night blah!

Kelly

Happy Birthday Mama!

Hey everyone, again sorry I've been so MIA lately! I was in a wedding last weekend and was sooo busy leading up to that! But, tomorrow is my mom's birthday and I wanted to do a design in honor of that, so I combined a few different birthday nail art designs and came up with this.

Most of these are obvious what they are (at least I hope!) but the ring finger is Sinful Colors - Bikini underneath and Pure Ice - Spitfire overtop, and I did this because my mom loves pink, and sparkles. So I didn't want to do all generic birthday stuff, I wanted to add a personal touch too.

I'll update soon (probably tomorrow) with a couple more recent designs, including the one I wore for the wedding I was in, and some nail art wheels I've gotten done. I'm excited to start the July nail challenge soon! :D


Kelly

So much going on!

First of all, I apologize for being such a horrible blogger and I hope to be better with it as soon as I take off this stupid shellac! First I was home in PA for 2 weeks working a ton of hours at the hospital, and then directly after I came back to Dayton I had to leave again for a bachelorette party weekend, and since then I've been terribly sick, and also I've started working two jobs! I got the shellac done after the bachelorette party. Don't get me wrong, it's really pretty, I'm glad I got it to see what it's like. I had a Groupon for it so it was $9 instead of the original $38, and I wanted to see what it was all about. Mostly I didn't believe any kind of polish would last 2 weeks without a chip - my nails chip like crazy usually. But, I have to say it's been 10 days today and not a SINGLE chip - very cool! Here's a picture the day after I got it.

I am too lazy to take more pictures right now, but I can honestly say that after 10 full days, washing dishes, even picking at it like I always do - it looks completely the same. HOWEVER - I don't think this was for me, at least not as into nail art as I am right now. It's been torture to not be able to try new colors and designs! I've done my toes but it's not the same! Anyway, onto other stuff.

I had vowed to make June my no-buy month because I spent SO much in May. So, it's now June 13th...can we all have a moment of silence for June-no-buy-month? It died today...RIP.

It all started when I had to go to Walgreen's for prescriptions. I finally had a doctor's appt today because I've been sick since I came home from Put-in-Bay a little over a week ago. I had a 101 fever for a couple days, horrible cough, pain when I breathe or swallow any food or drink, and I can't hear out of my left ear and it hurts - turns out it's pneumonia! Plus a bad ear infection. I've never had it before but I can't wait to feel better - it's been really hard to work while I feel this bad. Anyways, so of course I was at Walgreen's picking up my prescriptions and they had certain shades of Essie on sale for $4!! HALF off the usual $8 price.

Okay, the one on the left I bought a while ago and it wasn't on sale. But oh well! The other three were half off. From left to right: Light, Bazooka, She's Picture Perfect, and No More Film.

Well, then I had a couple coupons, so I figured since June no-buy month had died anyway, why not??

I had a coupon for $2 off Revlon, PLUS when I got to Rite Aid, they were BOGO half off! From left to right: Mysterious, Dreamer, Smoldering, and Saucy. I can't wait to try these :D

I had a coupon for $1 off Julie G, and I loved this gorgeous neon pink - it's called Oh Em Gee! Sinful was on sale so picked up a new Snow Me White and a new color - Fiji. I decided to give Chameleon ONE more try and hope this formula is better because this color (Waltz) was really pretty. And the last one, Julep in Alfre was FREE with a voucher I got in my June maven box (see below)!

I got Lauren and Claire for my polish colors, and they came with cute matching Pixie Sticks, which Nick ate, haha. I am also super excited to try the Daylight Defense face and hand cream, it sounds like a great daily face lotion to switch to, but I'm having major face issues lately so I have to wait until that clears up.

ANYWAYS so that's the update on what I've been doing lately. My doctor recommended that I rest and take it easy, but I have been working one job part-time and I start the second one tomorrow which sounds like it's going to be eight hour shifts so I'm going to be doing twelve hour days starting next week. Plus my part-time job is a lot of driving which takes up extra time and gas. :/ OH, not to mention my friend is getting married next weekend so I need to hurry up and get better fast!! Hopefully I will update soon with some swatches or nail art, this shellac is coming off either tonight or tomorrow I can't resist anymore! Hope everyone is enjoying this beautiful weather for me since I really can't, haha.


Kelly

Here's what I've been doing lately..

So, like I mentioned before I haven't updated in forever because the tutorial I made and my last few hauls are on my boyfriend's camera. But I have some updates on the rest of what I've been doing lately! I finished school the first week of May and finished my practicum the week after. So I didn't have a whole lot of time to do anything super creative with my nails. I've been doing a lot of gradients 1)to practice new techniques and 2)because they're quick and easy and I like them! So here are a few I've done in the past couple weeks!

Here's a pink and gold gradient I did before my last day of work because the weather was beautiful and I felt like doing something sunny! The colors are Wet n Wild Fast Dry - How I Met Your Magenta and Revlon - Copper Penny. For my accent nail I just added a couple coats of Sally Hansen's Diamond Strength in Multi-Faceted - which I LOVE! It's a chunky black, blue and silver glitter. Anyway, for this gradient, I did a few (I think 3) coats of the Wet n Wild, then I started at the tip and painted layers of the Revlon, painting gradually more and more of the nail each time and staggering it a bit so it wasn't straight across. This would have been easier if the Revlon wasn't so opaque - it was definitely a 1-coater which I didn't know at the time.

Another angle. I really loved this mani!

This is a mani I did last week when I was getting ready to come back home to Pennsylvania to work for a couple of weeks. Again I felt summer and wanted something super bright. For this gradient, I tried a tutorial that I found at thenailasaurus.com. The picture really doesn't do it justice because of the flash - the graduation was much more subtle and cool looking than it appears to be here. I got a lot of compliments on this mani, and I liked this sponging technique better than the one I tried in my FA at gradients. I switched up my accent nail because I got a few more bumps than normal on my pointer fingers for some reason! I added a couple coats of this pretty confetti-ish glitter I got from Icing, the name is escaping me right now. The colors here are Sinful Colors - Tangerine (something or other) and Sally Hansen X-treme Colors in Pacific Blue.

And lastly, like I said I came home and since I don't have a lot of money for presents, I told my mom she could pick any mani she wanted and I would do her nails for her. She picked "tie-dye" which I begrudgingly agreed to even though as I've said before water marbling and I are not best friends. She wanted bright colors, which turned out kind of pastel over a white basecoat but she was happy. Here it is!

Mother's day mani :] It came out better than I hoped it would but I still think my swirling technique still needs work! Anyway, that's basically what I've been up to lately, more updates soon when I get my pictures off the camera. Hope everyone's summers are starting out wonderful! Mine has been full of work but I am thinking of the paycheck...  ;]



Kelly

Galaxy Nails

So last night I tried my FA at galaxy nails...as you might have guessed from my previous post I don't have a whole lot of patience. So needless to say if you've tried this technique, this was not my favorite manicure. I probably had to remove polish from a nail and start over about 4-5 times, which was extremely frustrating. I've watched some tutorials, looked at a ton of pictures and still couldn't get it just right. The sponging was tough, and I couldn't get the colors right. Finally after about 2 hours (on and off while working on a take home final) I ended up with something that I wasn't embarrassed to leave the house with. I like it, but I don't love it - I think it's something that will just get better as I practice with sponging and blending colors, etc. So here it is, my FA at galaxy nails:

Yes I'm holding a bunch of pens because I was at work, haha - I didn't have anything else! I tried a few different color combinations as well as different glitters for the "stars". I think my favorite might be my pinky - I used a silver sparkle (Wet n Wild - Kaleidoscope) rather than the blueish, chunkier sparkle that I used on my ring and middle finger (Sinful Colors - Hottie). I think I prefer the silver because the blue sparkle almost sort of covers up all my hard work!

A closer picture, and one that you can see the thumb. I chipped the sparkle coat on the ring finger (stress!) but otherwise I think they are holding up pretty well. I did try to vary the patterns and shapes in the nebula on each finger, but they ended up looking really similar so I will have to keep trying!

And, just for reference, a picture in natural lighting (the other two pictures were with flash). I really like how the sun hits some of the bigger sparkles and give a sort of iridescent look. I did these last night, and I was really pleased with how they looked in daylight with the sun on them. So overall, I really like the pattern, but the process was really frustrating and stressful so maybe next time I try this I will not start while working on a final! Now I'm off to Rite Aid to buy the NYC Matte Me Crazy top coat that I read a review on today at Cosmetic Sanctuary. I think I officially have a problem....

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

No nails tonight, but wallet is crying...

I have a presentation tomorrow so even though I really want to try some of my new colors, my next manicure will have to wait until tomorrow :[
However, I felt it was important to document the aftermath...Walgreen's Sinful sale killed me...and then I was near Ulta and that happened, too. Here's the damage:

The very last one was a surprise gift from my boyfriend! Supporting my new addiction...

PS: A District 4 nail is in the works, so that should be coming soon...

FA at Gradient + Leopard Toes

Good morning! I mentioned in an earlier post that I tried out the gradient technique a few nights ago and would post a picture post-cleanup. Well, here it is!

Overall, I'm really happy with how it turned out, especially for my first try! It was really tough to get the sponge into the spaces right around my cuticles, so the white basecoat I used shows through in some spots, but other than that I like it. I used NYC Pink Promenade for the first color, then Sinful Colors Mama-San, and ended with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Gunmetal. The picture was taken the day after, once I had cleaned up all the excess polish from my fingers. Definitely something I want to try more in the future.

Also thought I'd share my current toenail design. I like it a lot but I hate my feet/toes so I really struggled to get a picture I felt was acceptable. For the colors on this design, I was mostly inspired by this tank top I have that has leopard print in these colors.

That's all for now, I love this gradient manicure so I want to try to keep it on as long as I can but I'm planning on trying some new designs on acrylics this week (if I have time)!