31DC2017 - Day 20: Watermarble

Wee, we're two thirds done with the challenge already! These past 20 days went by super quick.
Today, we're looking at the watermarble prompt, and I did a clear and black marble over a white to orange gradient (I'm really looking forward to Halloween, can you tell? :P ).

I totally copied this idea from @nails_by_erin - she did these a while back but I really loved how they look!

Colors used:
- white, black
- China Glaze - Japanese Koi (neon orange)

31DC2017 - Day 2: Orange Nails

Day 2! I was debating on what to do for today's prompt, and I finally decided to come up with something fox-related.

I'm not sure how I feel about these to be honest, but they fit the prompt, so I'm just going to move on. I got my index finger a bit smudged, whoops!

Colors used:
- Catrice - Cloud Nine (grey)
- Catrice - Chilly Orange (orange)
- China Glaze - Spring In My Step (pink)
- white, black

31DC2016 - Day 22: Inspired by a song

 Happy first day of fall everybody!

In celebration of the change of seasons, I was inspired by Ed Sheeran's Autumn Leaves for today's prompt. The song itself is quite sad, but I like it a lot. If you don't already know, I'm a huge fan of Ed's music and can't wait for his new album to be released.

I started off this mani with two cats of essence's sweet caramel sweets. I had originally planned to use butter LONDON - Tea with the Queen, but I realized I have been using that polish a lot in this challenge. That and the fact that my bottle is almost gone.

I continued by doing a very simple glitter gradient with China Glaze - Golden Enchantment. I love this polish. It's basically the golden version of Fairy Dust. Lastly, I painted on the leaves in various shapes and sizes. I'm pretty sure I ended up inventing shapes by the end of it. Of course, I topped it off with some glossy top coat.

I'm really pleased with how these turned out.

Colors used:
- essence - sweet caramel sweets (tan)
- China Glaze - Golden Enchantment (gold microglitter topper)
- essie - playing koi (sienna)
- essence - do you speak love? (red)
- Formula X - Dynamite (yellow)
- OPI - A-Piers To Be Tan (chocolate milk color)

31DC2016 - Day 10: Gradient

Today's nails for the gradient prompt are very autumnal and I am obsessed. I love the color scheme, it just screams fall and y'all might know that is my favorite season. This also marks the first milestone; we have now completed the first third. Can you believe it? We're going to be moving into pattern-themed prompts and I'm very excited!

Back to these nails though. I started out with two coats of Artdeco's 80, which is that vibrant dark orange. I sponged on the gradient and it was done. This was so easy to do, yet the effect seems to be great. I was at a birthday party today and every single person commented on these nails. Even men. So, they seem to be quite eye-catching.

Personally, I was a bit sceptical in the beginning. I love the way dark to light gradients look, but this one just seemed a bit off to me. Maybe it was the fact that the lightest color is very close to my skintone and that kind of threw me off a bit. I'm not sure. However, I grew to love them.

Colors used:
- OPI - Boris & Natasha (purple-y grape)
- Artdeco - 80 (vibrant dark orange) [destashed]
- China Glaze - Peachy Keen (pastel orange/peach/nude)

31DC2016 - Day 2: Orange

Welcome to day two of the 31 day nail art challenge! My design for today is a bit of a stretch, but it's really growing on me the more I look at it.

Sticking with yesterday's vibe, I opted for what feels like a very bohemian combo to me. I covered it all, flowers, feathers and some smeared paint. Even though I wouldn't exactly describe smeared paint as 'boho', but I do like how it looks paired with the flowers.

I started off with 2 coats of butter LONDON's Tea With The Queen, a tan crelly. Then, I continued freehanding the flowers on my index and middle fingers. I started with the darker area toards my cuticles and then worked outwards.

While that was drying, I started the feather on my thumb. I decided to go with a smaller one and move it to a corner, to create a nice accent nail. I have never attempted feathers with nail polish before, but I think I did just fine!

Lastly, I quickly did the other two nails. I'm sure you have all heard of the dry brush technique by now, so I will spare you the details.

Colors used:

- butter LONDON - Tea With The Queen (tan crelly)
- China Glaze - Japanese Koi (neon orange)
- ArtDeco - 80 (darker orange) [destashed]
- Manhattan - Your Favorite (dark red/oxblood)
- Zoya - Kym (shimmery red-toned bronze) [destashed]

Neon watercolor - Take 2!

I'm back again with some more seasonally appropriate designs! Well, one.

This idea is one I've already translated onto my nails back in January (for my birthday). However, since we're closer to summer now, I wanted to re-do it. I used some more neon shades - also, this version (sadly) doesn't glow in the dark. (I did use one gitd polish, but it looks a bit odd as a gitd mani)

Radioactive Goo

Eek! I had a lot of fun with these, and let me just tell you, the orange is BRIGHT! It's Lady And The Vamp by China Glaze. I layered it over white on my ring and pinky finger and wore it on its own on the other two and they are almost equally as bright. I thought I'd have another go at a splatter mani, especially since the last one wasn't my favorite. This one looks amazing though!

Make sure to follow the halloween tag to see all of this year's Halloween themed manis!

31 Day Nail Art Challenge - Day 19: Galaxy Nails

WARNING: Picture-heavy post!

I have done countless galaxy manicures in the past, so I decided to switch it up with these. First of all, I let my mom pick out the colors I was gonna use. She picked out a lot of seemingly random colors, but to my surprise, they all worked perfectly together. I ended up adding one color to make it a little more 'complete'. All in all, these were a lot of fun to make and to look at. And the best part? They glow in the dark!

I am also officially calling these rainbow galaxies, because that's how they ended up looking to me. I really truly love these and just a single picture does not do them justice. They're really sparkly!

Here, have some pictures.

Make sure to click through these pictures to magnify them!
The glow wasn't the strongest unfortunately, even after charging the polish with flash. It would have possibly worked better if I put the polish over an actual white base.

Colors used (in no particular order):
black, white
Manhattan - 10B (dark blue) [destashed]
flormar - U09 (sparkly medium purple)
essence - i don't need money, honey! (teal foil-effect polish) [destashed]
butter LONDON - Shag (shimmery medium brown)
MaXFactor - Deep Coral (dark orange/red)
flormar - S02 (shimmery green jelly)
OPI - Bling Dynasty (yellow gold)
OPI - Ski Slope Sweetie (white glass fleck polish with cream shimmer) [destashed]
essence - let stars rain down on me! (small holo glitter) [destashed]
claire's - White Out (white jelly, glows green in the dark) [destashed]

31 Day Nail Art Challenge - Day 11: Polka Dots

Wee! Color prompts are officially completed and that means we are now tackling style-related manicures. In celebration of that, I filed down my nails a bit (they've been getting on my nerves).

I've been doing polka dots a lot lately, so I wanted to change it up a little bit on today's mani. I ended up using three different colors for the polka dots and it ended up looking very suitable for fall (which I love by the way).

Also, some of the dots are a little uneven and I apologize for that. I recently misplaced my dotting tools so I had to improvise a bit. I did end up buying new ones today, but the mani was already done at that point.

Colors used:
spin the bottle - essie (nude base)
Sunbaker - Butter London (orange) [destashed]
Bastille My Heart - OPI (red)
British Racing Green - Butter London (green)

31 Day Nail Art Challenge - Day 9: Rainbow

Ah yes, the rainbow prompt. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what I was gonna do for today. This is what I ended up with.

I'm not really sure what to call these or how to even describe them. Messy rainbow nails? Fake splatter rainbow? Something along those lines.

All I did to achieve this look was dab on nail polish with the original brushes and then add some smaller blotches with a dotting tool. Easy, right?

Colors used:
essie - forever yummy (red)
format - 421 (orange) [destashed]
China Glaze - Happy Go Lucky (yellow)
China Glaze - Entourage (green) [destashed]
essie - make some noise (blue)
essie - all access pass (purple)

31 Day Nail Art Challenge - Day 2: Orange

So today's prompt is orange and let me just tell you: I'm not a fan of the first couple days of this challenge. I'm not exactly sure why, but I have a really hard time being creative during the first third.
With that being said, this mani isn't really my best piece of work and while I don't think it's horrible, there's something about it that bothers me.

Another thing I need to say about this is that these are in fact three different shades of orange. I couldn't quite capture the colors correctly for some reason.

Colors used:
MaXFactor - Deep Coral (dark orange)
flormar - 421 (orange) [destashed]
iQ - Nr. 2 (light orange) [destashed]
white

Now & Then - Color Blocking

Hey guys!
This is my first actual post on this blog. I started it about a year ago, but I was always too lazy to actually write paragraphs about my nail art.
This changes right now.

With my first post, I will also introduce you to a format called "Now & Then" in which I will pick out some of my oldest manis (I started doing "nail art" in 2011) and re-create them.

This first one is a color-blocking mani I did 3 years ago.
Let's take a look at the original mani:

There's so much wrong with this. The lines, the blotchy colors, the shape of my nails. The missing part of my thumb nail.

I didn't know a whole lot about nail polish and nail care back then. I was 15, trying to find an escape from high school.
And I found it.

Sure, my beginnings were all sorts of messed up. But I kept coming up with things and becoming a lot better in the process. And now, I am at a point in my journey where I feel comfortable showing off my nail art and even doing other people's nails!

And so, because whenever I look back at this I cringe; I decided to re-create it and actually paint straight and fairly even lines.


Here's the result:

Much better now, right?
I mean sure, the mani still feels a little messy, but I don't have to cringe everytime I look at it.

Here's the colors I used for this mani:
- China Glaze - Happy Go Lucky (yellow)
- essie - forever yummy (red)
- flormar - 421 (orange) [destashed]
- China Glaze - Something Sweet (light pink)
- China Glaze - Custom Kicks (turquoise/teal) [destashed]
- China Glaze - Bahamian Escape (light blue)
- China Glaze - Entourage (light green) [destashed]
- China Glaze - Rose Among Thorns (hot pink)
- Manhattan - 10B (dark blue) [destashed]
- OPI - Jade Is The New Black (dark green)
- black




Thanks for reading,
x