Geek Nail Challenge - TV #2 (Dexter)

Hello there! Today I'm back with another post for TV Week of the Geek Challenge! This one is inspired by one of the shows I am most addicted to, Dexter. I can't wait for the new season to start!! I was a late bloomer on this one and only got into it last year after multiple friends told me they knew I'd love it (What does that say about me??? I'm hoping they suggested it because of the psychology aspect....) Anyway, without further ado, here are the TWO manis inspired by Dexter! First, I recreated Ice Truck Killer nails by doing a different bright color on each finger like in the show. I had a hard time finding the exact colors on the doll and the bodies without rewatching that season but I finally found a picture online and I think the colors are right now! Here's a shot of the hand in the ice from Dexter:

And here's my version!

I had to do a post holding my hand upright like in the actual show, please ignore my head in the background haha!

And, I also decided to try my hand (hand, get it, ha ha) at the splatter mani that I've seen done by other bloggers before. This was my first attempt, and while I don't hate it, I think it will take some practice to get the splatter right.

I played around with holding the straw at different distances from the nail (Middle finger - closer, ring finger - further away) and well, the difference is obvious. Holding the straw further away creates a better look. Also creates more of a mess!

Anyway, that's it for today, but here's a little preview of what I have in store for tomorrow ;]

Kelly

OH - and PS, I'm up to 21 followers currently (I know, small achievement but it's exciting to me!!) and I'm planning on holding a giveaway when I hit 50! I've got some great ideas in mind, so stay tuned everyone ;]

Naild'It: Poison Apple

Hey there everyone! Today I have for you a swatch of my FIRST EVER indie polish purchase! The brand is Naild'It and the color I have here is Poison Apple. I saw it reviewed a while ago at Nail Polish Wars and I knew then and there I had to have it!

This polish is every bit as gorgeous as I hoped it would be on the nail. It is packed full of black and white glitter in micro, shredded and hexagon shapes. I was even surprised by some bigger hexagons, like the one you see on my pinky. It was also full of bright crimson square glitter, which really makes this polish pop! I think Poison Apple is the perfect name for this polish. It went on great, I really could have gotten away with 1 coat, but I did 2 for good measure. I used a base of Wet n Wild I Red a Good Book. The shreds sometimes stuck up a bit, but it was nothing a coat or two of SV couldn't fix. I just did these this evening and already got compliments when I went out to the store! I absolutely love this polish and I will DEFINITELY be buying more Naild'It in the future. There were so many I wanted, it was hard to narrow it down to just two (I also bought Jellystone, which I will swatch soon).

And another picture just because. Do yourself a favor and check out Naild'It on Etsy!

Kelly

This product was purchased by me, and the review posted above displays my honest opinions.

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

Summer Challenge Day 1: Bees!

Well, the day is finally here and I am SO excited - the first day of my first nail art challenge EVER!! I really hope I can keep up with each day with work, but I think since it's every other it will be so much easier than most other challenges that are every day :] Thanks Theodora and Kaki for coming up with this challenge!

So, for those of you who are not doing the challenge, or don't know, I'll post a picture of the challenge first.

So, for day 1, the subject is bees! I never thought I would be doing a manicure of something I'm allergic to, but here I am anyway! Maybe Codeine for the next mani ;]
Anyway - I decided to combine two bee designs that I've seen while Googling, and what I came up with was this! (This is pre-cleanup of course - normally my nail arts will not be so sloppy - I hope!)

Right hand...

And left hand!! Now, for my self-critical comments. I really do love this mani and I thought it was great for summer. BUT - I used a toothpick to make the dotted line, and sometimes the black polish I had put on a CD for dipping out of, got a little bit hardened and so it became sticky, leaving a trail between dots. You can especially see this in the second picture on the pointer finger nail. Next time I would refresh my dotting pool more often! I also would probably tape my thumbs because one of the yellows I used (Manishma Lightening) is obviously very staining. The blue (Wet n Wild I Need a Refresh-Mint) came off so, so much easier. I'm also still learning how to clean up the cuticles and edges using acetone and a thin brush - a technique I saw on The Nailasaurus. So, you can see that sometimes I slipped and took off too much (i.e. middle finger on the left hand). Other than that, I thought this was a fun mani and something I will try to recreate in the future once I get better at nail art! Thanks for checking out my blog and definitely look out for some of the other bloggers taking part in this challenge :D Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Kelly

Hauls...

Yes, I finally got the pictures I took with my boyfriend's camera so that means...a galaxy tutorial will be up soon! But, since I have to go shopping and I have to work tonight, that one will have to wait since it will take me a while to type up. Today, I have an update of my last few hauls (as of, like, three weeks ago so I've bought a lot more polishes since these) and some of my latest designs. I had a few coupons or needed certain colors so here are a lot of the polishes I've gotten recently:

I think I grouped these together because I either bought them or got them in the mail on the same day. I had a coupon for BOGO half off Revlon at Rite Aid so I picked up these two - Copper Penny and Whimsical. I had seen a lot of people talking about Whimsical so I was excited to get it - haven't tried it yet! Then, I heard about this free $20 basically, at bloom.com and I made good use of it by getting an awesome basecoat - Zoya Anchor, and then two pretty polishes - Zoya - Jem, and Essie - Shine of the Times. From what I can tell, Shine of the Times is another must-have, and so far, I can see why. I just tested it on one finger at some point, over green and it was absolutely gorgeous.

Some spring colors I picked up, I don't have them next to me at the moment so not sure of the names right now, but you get the idea. That purple Pure Ice has so many colors in it, I love it!

Some new Wet n Wilds - can't remember the first one, but the Fastdrys are from left to right, 9.0.2.1.Orange, Gray's Anatomy, then How I Met Your Magenta, and last Party of Five Glitters.

New Sally Hansens. I got the first one because I went to try to paint a Pokemon nail set and realized I had no lime green. That grey Xtreme Wear must have been broken open or something because it is really thick and lumpy and it was all dried around the lid when I opened it, but of course I didn't save the receipt. It's too bad because it's an awesome flat grey. I'm sure I'll buy it again. The blue and green came in a two-pack for ONE DOLLAR at the Dollar Tree! :} And those last three Diamond Shines, especially the glitters - I'm in love. I showed the pink one, Ring-a-Ding, in an earlier post.

I went to the mall intending to buy...something else, I can't even remember what! I left with this. The four on the ends are from Forever 21. They had some really interesting colors and they were pretty cheap. Plus I think I was hungry when I was shopping and they're mostly all named after good (i.e. sherbet, mint chip, etc). The middle three are from Icing. I haven't tried the mood one, but it was on clearance, so I thought why not? And the other two were pretty glitters. I've tried the rainbow confetti one, and it's great! The black and gold one reminds me of Pittsburgh, so that's why I picked it up.

A bunch of new NYCs. The first two came in another two-pack at the Dollar Tree, then there's Bowery Black (I fell in love with it because it's such an interesting color, it's not really quite black), then Matte Topcoat, Flat Iron Green (I believe) and Big City Dazzle.

I think that's it for now. I've bought more since then but don't feel like doing another one of these, haha. I have some new nail designs that I've been working on that I will probably put up tomorrow since this post was so picture-heavy. I'm excited to try some of these out still! :] I hope everyone has a great Memorial Day!!


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

Water Marble Wednesday!

Okay, I have to say that maybe I didn't give water marbling enough of a chance. I hated it the first time because I could not get it perfect and I also just didn't like how it came out. I think I've realized what it wasn't I didn't like about it after some experimentation. I'm just much more a fan of bright colors and I didn't like the pastel-y tones that came out, SO I've practiced with layering a bit and I like it much more! When it came out too light or I wasn't crazy about the swirl pattern, I let it dry and did another layer. This was I was able to get some great colors and some really unique patterns. So here it is, my second real attempt at water marbling!

Left hand

Right hand

Better shot of the patterns on the left hand.

Colors I ultimately used. I used Candied Violet by C for a base, it's a gorgeous white with a pale, pale lavender tone - hard to describe but so pretty. It was one of those gems that I found in my mom's old polish collection and I don't think this brand even exists anymore but I plan to use the hell out of it until it's gone!Actually all the colors I used were old finds, so it's doubtful these exist anymore, but I'm sure dupes could be found easily. Anyway that was the base, and the four colors I ended up settling on were Revlon - Bronze Beam (copperish), Wet n Wild - Denim Chrome (dark purpley blue), PRO Nailcare - 1000 Watt (bright pink), and Revlon Street Wear - Next Dimension (shimmery teal). I really liked how it turned out and I found that the Revlon actually marbled beautifully! I think in future marbles I'll try more Revlon polishes because the formula just seems great for it. Only thing I'm not crazy about is how the base shows through sometimes around the cuticle depending on how I put my nail in the water. I really tried to make sure it was all submerged but apparently I didn't get it all, but that's my only real complaint. Oh well - hopefully next time it will be even better :]

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....