Teenage Dream Matte Glitter

Today's manicure is Sinful Colors Black on Black with OPI Teenage Dream in the bottom part of the nail and a matte top coat.  I think my matte top coat went bad?  Can that even happen?  It didn't work nearly as well as usual.  In theory I should have loved this, I love dark nail polish, I love Teenage Dream, when it works I love mattes and matte glitter...but this is super 'meh' for me.

I started at the bottom of the nail and just barely pulled the Teenage Dream up to about half way up the nail and let it get higher in some areas.  I like that part, I think it would be better with different colors though.

My order from Cult Nails's sale should be here tomorrow or the next day...so excited!  :-)

Giveaway winner picked...

...and emailed!  Jara, congratulations!  Please reply back to the email I sent within 48 hours or I will choose a new winner.

Thanks!!

:-)

Julep is having an awesome giveaway

ALL 80 of their polishes AND an iPad!!
Enter here!  http://blog.julep.com/~cd4fb431b2a0566

31 Day Challenge Day 31!! Recreate your favorite challenge

Woohoo! It's day 31!  This has been so much fun, but I am definitely looking forward to going back to a 2-3 times a week posting schedule.  Today's challenge was to recreate our favorite challenge, and I chose to redo galaxy nails.  I really liked how mine came out the first time, but I wished I'd done a black background instead of the brownish one.  So, this time I used China Glaze Smoke and Ashes as the base instead of Orly Galaxy Girl.  I used all the same sponging colors and top coats: Sally Hansen White On & Mellow Yellow, Pure Ice French Kiss, Sinful Colors Forget Now, Deborah Lippmann Across the Universe, and Out the Door Holographic top coat.

As a comparison, here is the first one from earlier in the challenge:

And here is today's.

LOL, now that I see the black background I think the brownish-purple is more "realistic" looking as a galaxy. It's still pretty though, I think.

Be sure to check out Painting Outside the Lines' Facebook page for the other entries.  She'll be putting all the Day 31 pictures in an album and the one with the most "likes" will win the contest.  There are a lot of pretty manicures posted already!  :-)

31 Day Challenge Day 30: Inspired by a Tutorial

Hi Everyone!  I have been waiting to try this manicure for WEEKS! Fish egg nails!  The first tutorial I saw on it was the one MissJenFABULOUS did HERE, so that is the one I based this off of.  I used Sephora by OPI It's All About Me and Butter London Slapper for the under color, then Reflections microbeads.  I really like how this looks, I do think it looks much better in person than in pictures.  I have also learned for next time that you should set the beads and then NOT TOUCH THEM until they are fully dry.  I kept fiddling with them and by the time I took pictures (5 minutes later) I already had a few little holes.  :-(  It's not nearly as noticeable in real life as it is in the picture, but with macro focus you definitely pick up all the dead pixels.  All in all, this is a really fun manicure and I want to play with more of them!

I think between this and the flocking powder manicure I've decided I really like using different textures with my nails.  However, I am only giving this until tomorrow around 2PM before most of the beads are gone and I give up and pick the rest off .  We'll see.

30 days down, 1 to go!  This has been so fun, but I am looking forward to giving my nails (and poor dried out cuticles) a rest!

31 Day Challenge Day 29: Inspired by the Supernatural

I can't believe there are only 2 days left in this contest!! Today's theme was "inspired by the supernatural."  I decided to do a werewolf profile on my thumb, howling at a full moon.  I just did the werewolf on my natural nail because I thought if I did it against the same night sky gradient I did on the other fingers it wouldn't show up.  The werewolf profile kind of makes me laugh..he looks kind of like he has a beak.  But I love the gradient!  I FINALLY got the sponge gradient to work for me.  I used Essie Go Overboard, Pure Ice French Kiss, and OPI Yoga-ta Get this Blue for the gradient and then topped it with Out the Door holographic top coat for the stars.  I did the moon in Stripe Rite.

You can check out the other entries HERE, there are some really awesome ones!  :-)

Rainbow Honey Blogger Contest

I am pausing in the 31 Day Contest for a moment to post my entry for Rainbow Honey's blogger contest!  Rainbow Honey is an indie polish brand that has some AMAZING looking glitters.  I don't have any yet, but I have some of the newest collection on preorder, and maybe I'll be lucky enough to win one in this contest!  The  rules were to come up with a manicure inspired by My Little Pony Friendship is Magic.  Now, the 1986 My Little Pony Movie is one of my favorite childhood movies, but I'm not really up on the Friendship is Magic series other than having seen internet memes using it.  I Googled it looking for inspiration and came across this "Which little pony are you?" personality quiz from Hasbro's website.  I am Pinkie Pie!  Thus, I decided to base my manicure off of Pinkie Pie.

This is Pinkie Pie.

I used Sally Hansen Presto Pink as my base color/Pinkie Pie body.  Then I used China Glaze Ahoy for the tips/mane.  The balloons were done with dotting tools and Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow/Zoya Jo.  

What do you think?  Pinkie Pie-y?  :-)

I believe Rainbow Honey will be posting all the contest entries on May 16, so when that is up I will add a link where you can go check out all the other My Little Pony manicures.  I can't wait to see the rest of them!  

May Birchbox

I got my May Birchbox this last week!  I was so excited about signing up for this service, I'd been on the waiting list for forever.  This was my first box.  The May boxes (or mine at least, I think they have different boxes each month, still unclear on that) was inspired by Gossip Girl.

The outside of the box.

With the Gossip Girl sleeve removed.

Thing about the Gossip Girl Box.

Oh look, on the back it describes everything in the box.  Handy, because I had no idea on a few things.

Everything in the box.   I love the nail polish and the perfume sample.  The headband has been useful the past few days to keep my hair out of my face while I cook, but I wouldn't wear it as an everyday thing.  I haven't had a chance to try out the brush cleaner and face cream.  

All in all, I think this is worth the $10 a month.  I love fun mail and I kind of like that you don't know what you're getting with Birchbox, it makes it a surprise to open.  If you want to sign up click HERE.

31 Day Challenge Day 28: Inspired by a Flag

Hello!  This weekend has gone by waaaay too fast!  Happy Mother's Day to any of you who are mothers, I hope you had a lovely day.  :-)  Today's challenge was "inspired by a flag."  I did the Aruban flag.  I used Zoya Jo and then yellow, red, and white Stripe Rite for the details.  My star thing came out kind of wonky, but I like the blue and yellow together.

28 Days Down just 3 to go!  There are still a few days left to enter my giveaway, found at the top of the page.  On another note, did anyone get anything in the Cult Nails sale yesterday?? I got Living Water, Hyponitze Me, and Iconic.  I'm so excited!  I've heard good things about the brand but haven't tried it yet.

31 Day Challenge Day 27: Inspired by Art

Hello!  Today is Inspired by Art day.  I chose to base my manicure off of Henri Matisse's Jazz Icarus.  I used Pure Ice French Kiss and black, red, and yellow Stripe Rite.  This was really hard to get a picture of!! The blue was so dark that the black almost blended in unless there was incredibly bright light on it, but then with bright light the black part also reflected a glare worse than any other part of the nail so it was still hard to see.  Augh.  This was the best shot I got, but I am really pleased with how it turned out.  :-)

27 days down, 4 to go!  Thanks for reading!

31 Day Challenge Day 26: Inspired by a pattern

Happy Friday!! Today's theme is inspired by a pattern.  I chose paisley, because I love paisley.  This really is an "inspired by" rather than a direct representation of paisley...I tried to freehand but it did NOT work!  I need to work on freehanding small details.  So I used a stamp that evokes paisley with it's swirls and dots.  I used Konad m64 which is one of my favorite nail stamping plates, I think it was the first one I bought to try out stamping!  I used Pure Ice French Kiss and Sally Hansen White On.  I love the combination of royal blue and white.

26 days down 5 to go!  Only a few days left!  :-)

31 Day Challenge Day 25: Inspired by Fashion

Good Afternoon!  Today's challenge was "inspired by fashion."  Some of my favorite posts on Tumblr are all the gorgeous pictures of lace dresses.  I think some of the friends I follow track the lace tag or something because there are SO many pictures of pretty lace dresses all the time.  So I based my nails on any number of those lace dresses.  I used Julep Pippa as a base color and then cut out pieces of lace ribbon and adhered it with top coat.  As much as I love the end result, I do agree with DH's assessment that it has more of the 80's hair band look than a high fashion look.  I'm ok with that. :-)

25 days down, 6 to go!  Thanks for reading & don't forget to checkout the giveaway up at the top!

31 Day Nail Challenge Day 24: Inspired by a book

Hello!  Today's theme is "Inspired by a Book."  This is one of the days that I had planned from the first days of this challenge.  I based it on the book "The Cat and the Hat" after seeing some flocking powder the exact color of Thing 1 & 2's hair at Michael's.  I'd never seen flocking powder nails before, so I was kind of sad when I got home and found out it has been done before.  Oh well!  They are still super cute, and perfect for Dr. Seuss!  I used Sinful Colors Why Not as the under color for the blue flocking powder, and Julep January for the red nail.  I love this and would wear it every day if it didn't seem so wildly impractical.

24 Days down, 7 to go!  Thanks for reading, and don't forget, there are still a few days to enter my giveaway.

31 Day Nail Challenge Day 23: Inspired by a movie

Good Afternoon!  Today's challenge was to do nails inspired by a movie.  I decided to do Madagascar because I love the penguins in that movie and I'd been wanting to do penguin nails for awhile!  I like these penguin nails because while *most* penguin manicures feature cute little penguins, this one features criminal masterminds who are clearly up to no good.  This was a lot of fun to do.  I used Sephora by OPI Never Enough Shoes for the base color, then acrylic paint for the penguin face and beak.  I used the Never Enough Shoes for the eyes and black Stripe Rite for the eyebrows.  I love it and can't wait to see what the other participants come up with!  Check them out over at Painting Outside the Line's Facebook page.

23 Days down 8 to go!  Don't forget to check out the giveaway, yadda yadda yadda, thanks for reading!  :-)

31 Day Challenge Day 22: Inspired by a Song

Good Afternoon everyone, today is inspired by a song day.  I had a hard time coming up with this one, and I'm still not really sure how I arrived at "Eye of the Tiger" but there you go.  Originally I had 2 fingers painted as eyes and 2 as tiger print, but it literally made me laugh out loud when I saw it.  So I painted over one so I only have 1 tiger eye.  I used China Glaze Riveting, Harvest Moon, and Fast Track, and Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow and White On.  Then Stripe Rite for the tiger stripes.  I like the tiger nails ok, but this eye is still cracking me up.

22 days down, 9 to go!  :-)  Don't forget to enter the giveaway & thanks for reading!

31 Day Challenge Day 21: Inspired by a Color

Hello!  Today's theme is "inspired by a color."  I chose blue, because it's my favorite polish color right now, and decided to do polka dots with it.  I chose China Glaze First Mate and For Audrey, and Zoya Jo because they are different blue shades that I thought went well together and also show a good range of blues.  It turned out rather well, I think, and I'm kind of sad I need to take it off so soon!  That's the bad thing about this challenge, you find something you like and don't really get to enjoy it for any length of time before you're on to the next manicure!

21 days down 10 to go!  Don't forget to go enter the giveaway!  :-)

31 Day Challenge Day 20: Water Marble

I think this is the messiest water marble I've ever done.  Nothing was working correctly last night.  I used a base color of Sally Hansen White On and then Pure Ice French Kiss, Julep Niecy, and Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow for the colors in the marble.  Then I used Orly Matte top coat to mattify it.  I do like the matte effect on the marble.  My nails look really rubbery.  I really love water marbles when they turn out well.  This one bled a lot and I had problems with water droplets and the marble missing part of my finger and the base white shows though (how does that even happen??).  Anyway, even though these are incredibly messy and time consuming I still want to play more with it!  Maybe I'll try a dry marble next time.  :-)

 20 Days down 11 to go!  Don't forget to check out my giveaway posted a few days ago!  I may give it its own page up top to make it easier to find.

31 Day Challenge Day 19: Galaxy Nails

It's galaxy nail day!  I've been wanting to try these for awhile now, but they looked so complicated!  I used my thumb as a learning experiment since it's never in pictures and then learned from there.  I'm really happy with how this turned out, although next time I think I will use a black as the background instead of the purpley-brown that I used.  I used Orly Galaxy Girl as the base color; Milani white stripe, Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow, and Sinful Colors Forget Now for the nebula; Deborah Lippmann Across the Universe and Out the Door silver holographic top coat for the top coats.  This one even got a "That looks awesome" from my husband, who normally only tolerates looking at my nails.  Love this one and can't wait to play with more galaxy nails later!  :-)

19 Days down 12 to go!  Don't forget to go checkout the giveaway posted a few days ago!  :-)

31 Day Challenge Day 18: Half Moons

Hello! Today's challenge was half moons. Half Moons are one of my favorite looks, but they tend to turn out wonky for me. I'm really bad at getting the paper reinforcement stickers centered on my nail and my nails are also tend to make it look less like a half moon and more like I just taped off the bottom third of the nail in a straight line. Regardless of having a perfect half moon, I still really like these. For today's I used Zoya Charla & Zuza. I had never used either one of these and really liked both of them. I only used 1 coat of each, and if I was wearing them on their own I would say Zuza needs 2 coats. I wanted it to stay light to have more of a contrast with Charla so I kept it at 1. I used a Milani silver glitter striping polish as an accent.

18 days down 13 to go!  I'm really excited about tomorrow's galaxy manicures!!  

Don't forget to check out my giveaway, posted a few days ago!  The Rafflecopter is now fixed.  :-)

31 Day Challenge Day 17: Glitter

Hello Everyone!  Today's theme is glitter nails.  I decided to try the triangle on the bottom of your nail thing because I've seen it around a lot and loooove it.  I really like this on my nails and will probably do this many more times.  I used Spoiled The Parking Meteor Has Expired for the base color and Finger Paints Art You Wondering for the glittery triangle.  The Parking Meteor Has Expired is black with a tiny, tiny, green micro shimmer that reminds me of the credits from The Matrix in certain lights.  The tiny, tiny green shimmer is the same color as the green in Art You Wondering and I thought they looked pretty good together.  :-)

17 Days Down, 14 to go!

Kat Hearts Nails First Giveaway!

Between here an Tumblr I've hit 50 followers!  Thank you all so much for reading my blog!  In blogger tradition I'm posting my first giveaway to say 'Thanks!'  This giveaway will be open to US residents 18 and older.  The next one may be international.


Up for grabs are: Finger Paints Are You Blue? and Putty in my Hands, as well as 1 package of Big Ruby Sea Creature Nail Tattoos!  I picked the Finger Paints colors because I think they compliment the nail tattoo colors...the blue goes well with the lighter tattoos and the tan goes with the darker ones.  That was my thinking anyway.  :-)  The nail tattoos has 1 sheet of normal finger nail sized tattoos and 1 sheet of bigger/smaller ones to go on pinkie nails and thumbs.  Rafflecopter below!

31 Day Challenge Day 16: Tribal Print

Today's challenge was tribal nails.  This is one of the days I knew what I wanted to do well in advance, and it just did not turn out at all as planned. This manicure is so messy!! I painted a base color of Julep Alyson then put a thin strip of tape down the middle of each nail and painted the bottom half with Julep Nessa and the top half with Julep Ashley.  Then I used a Sally Hansen nail art pen to draw in the designs.  There were several things that went wrong.  A. My hand isn't very steady (I can't blame it all on the pen). and B. The pen ink pooled and shifted and settled funny.  But for better or worse, here it is!

16 Days Down, 15 to go!