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

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....

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)!