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!  :-)

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!  

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 5: Blue Nails

Today's theme is blue nails.  Blue is my favorite nail color lately, so it took me awhile to figure out which colors I wanted to use.  I ended up using Sinful Colors Why Not with China Glaze Dorothy Who? tips.  I really like how this turned out.  Why Not is my current favorite blue creme polish, it's a nice bright, springy blue.  I hadn't used Dorothy Who? before this but it's gorgeous!  

5 days down, 26 to go!  

Pink Wednesday: Pink 'n Green

Earlier this week I went to Sally to take advantage of the buy 2 get 1 free sale that's going on this month.  Both the stores in my area are pretty picked over on nail polish, so they are apparently doing well with this sale.  I picked up China Glaze Ahoy, Flying Dragon, and Dorothy Who; as well as a couple Stripe Rites.  Today for Pink Wednesday I wanted to do a pink and green manicure (love pink and green!) so I used Ahoy with the green Stripe Rite.

Ahoy is so pretty!! It's a deep berry with teeny tiny shimmer.  I'm still not a huge fan of the little stripe brushes...I feel like they are too long to have good control over them so my lines are kind of funky.  I can't draw a straight line without a ruler though, so it could just be me.

I like how this turned out though.

My Julep Spring Mystery Box should be here tomorrow!! So excited to see what's in it.

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Colors Used: China Glaze Ahoy, Stripe Rite Green
Technique: Striping
Purchased: Sally Buy 2 get 1!
Verdict on the colors: Ahoy is soooooo pretty!

Good Manicure/Bad Manicure

I'm really conflicted about my nails right now.  I painted them with Let's Talk by Sinful Colors, and I think it's probably the prettiest purple I own.  It's such a deep, rich, gorgeous purple.  Slightly shimmery, and just super pretty.  I didn't really want to do anything with it because it's so nice on it's own...but I was also bored and watching TV, so I put a layer of Electrify over it anyway.  The result was really cool.  At first I thought Electrify went on too think and you wouldn't be able to see any purple under it, but as it dried it kind of melted into it to where at certain angles all you can see is purple like you're looking through the glitter.  Then up close you can see all the gold and red glitter.  I really like it.

AND YET!

I painted my nails at night and lately have been waiting to take pictures until the following day after work so that I have some sunlight.  Usually I manage to keep it chip free and fresh looking at least that long.  Not so with this.  Even with 2 coats of Anti-Chip top coat this started chipping and showing tip wear within hours of me painting them.  Seriously, before I went to bed I had an inexplicable chip in my index finger.  I debated even taking pictures of it because by the time I got home it looked 4 days old instead of less than 24 hours.  But I still really liked the combination, and also wanted to show the level of wear after one day as part of the review.

None of these pictures accurately capture the purple BTW.  I have a feeling my brand spanking new camera needs to go back...I also went to take these pictures and suddenly the colors aren't reflecting right, the preview thing on the LCD isn't working, and it's having trouble focusing (not in Macro mode though, yay!)  So yeah.  But here it is!!

Look at that chip!  What the hell, Batman?

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Colors Used: Sinful Colors Let's Talk, China Glaze Electrify
Technique: Layered
Purchased: Sally & Target
Verdict on the colors: Let's Talk is SO PRETTY, but holy chipping!!

Hunger Games Week: Day 6 (a little late)

Better late than never!  Since I wasn't happy with the water marble I redid my nails for going to see The Hunger Games on Saturday.  This time painted a base coat in Smoke and Ashes then taped off the tops and did the "flames" in Riveting.  Then I painted Luxe and Lush over all of it to make it look like embers.  That idea came from Passion for Polish HERE.  I really liked how this one came out!

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Colors Used: China Glaze Smoke and Ashes, Riveting, Luxe and Lush
Technique: Taping
Purchased: Sally
Verdict on the colors: All excellent

Hunger Games Week: Day 5

I'm so mad at how this turned out, but I'm posting it anyway.  The entire week, this had been my plan for Friday...I wanted to do a water marble with Smoke and Ashes & Riveting, hoping it would look kind of abstractly like fire.  These were not ideal water marble polishes though.  They dried SO. FAST. in the water, when I dragged my toothpick through the water the color layers separated and let water in the middle which diluted the pigment (really evident in my ring finger).  So there weren't many good places to put my finger in the water.  Anyway, I'm pretty disappointed in this, but here it is.  The upside is I taped my fingers correctly this time so clean up was much better than my last water marble.  :-)

See the tip of the ring finger?  That's where the layers separated.  I also got flecks of black in the orange for some reason.  Smoke and Ashes just went POOF in the water and went all over.

Again, my right hand turned out better than my left.  Again.  The hell?

I suppose the upside of not seeing The Hunger Games until tomorrow night is that I have another chance to do a fire-y manicure!


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Colors Used: China Glaze Riveting & Smoke and Ashes
Technique: water marble
Purchased: Sally
Verdict on the colors: NOT FOR WATER MARBLE >.<

Hunger Games Week: Day 4

Today I actually have a Hunger Games THEME instead of just using the colors :-)  I have a fishing manicure using District 4, the fishing district's polish: Hook and Line.  I stamped fish scales on all but my ring finger, using Smoke and Ashes.  I stamped a fish skeleton on my ring fingers.  Then I used Northern Lights Holographic top coat to make the scales look shiny and approximate real scales.  I really like the end result, but I have to say I am NOT a fan of Hook and Line.  Did anyone else have a problem with this polish?? It was so streaky and thick!  I feel like if I hadn't used my fast dry top coat it would have taken forever to dry and even then been one of those polishes that will dent even after it's dry.  So yeah...not a fan.  But I do like the end result here.

I pressed too hard and kind of messed up my middle finger...

I like my fishy.  I was outside trying to get the last of the sun but it started to drizzle.  The water drops fit though.

The fish on my right hand went kind of more diagonal.  Lately my right hand has been looking better than my left, which is so weird!

Today I bought Electrify and Agro, so the only Capitol Color I'm missing is Mahogany Magic.  I wasn't going to buy either Agro or Mahogany Magic, but at this point I feel compelled to finish the collection. I'm going to do a fire-y water marble to go see the movie with my Dad and sister on Saturday using Electrify, Smoke and Ashes, and Riveting; so I should have that tomorrow.




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Colors Used: China Glaze Hook and Line & Smoke and Ashes
Technique: Stamping, Red Angel plates RA111 & RA 107
Purchased: Polishes at Sally, plates on Amazon
Verdict on the colors: Surprisingly the first China Glaze I'm not happy with!  Hook and Line was streaky and thick.  I do love Smoke and Ashes and it stamped well!

Hunger Games Week: Day 3. Also, Pink Wednesday 3

There's only one polish in the Capitol Colors collection that worked for Pink Wednesday so today I am wearing Dress Me Up!  I used Smoke and Ashes for the tips and heart, and used a dotting tool to make the hearts.  I really like this one, and these polishes together.

Happy Wednesday!






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Colors Used: China Glaze Smoke and Ashes and Dress Me Up
Technique: French tip strips and dotting tool
Purchased: Sally
Verdict on the colors: <3

Hunger Games Week Day 2

Day 2 of my Week of Hunger Games colors!  Today I used Fast Track and Harvest Moon.  My original plan was to use Harvest Moon to stamp over Fast Track, but it wasn't quite opaque enough for that (you can see where I tested it on my index finger in one of the pictures though.  EVERYTHING shows up in Macro mode!) so I decided to sponge the Harvest Moon onto the tips to make a gold gradient.

These first two are in natural, late afternoon sunlight.

I turned on the overhead light and adjusted the white balance for indoors for this one, and you can see the gold glints in Fast Track better.  And the test stamp. Fast Track is my new favorite neutral, it's so pretty.  Nude but with tiny tiny flecks of gold glitter.

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Colors Used:  China Glaze Fast Track and Harvest Moon
Technique: Sponging
Purchased: Sally
Verdict on the colors: Have I met a China Glaze I don't love yet?  They're all freaking fantastic.

Hunger Games Week!!

The Hunger Games comes out at the end of the week so I thought I'd celebrate by using my China Glaze Capitol Colors collection every day this week!  Today I have Foie Gras with Luxe and Lush layered on top of it.

Foie Gras is a mauve-y taupe creme.  Perhaps a puce?  Mauve-y taupe is more pleasant sounding, so we'll go with that.  Like all the China Glaze polishes I've tried, it has a super smooth formula and is opaque and smooth with 2 coats.  It's a much more sedate color than I usually go for, but I like it.

And then I put Luxe and Lush over it!  I really like how this turned out.  It reminds me of fall foliage in the woods, which is super apropos for The Hunger Games...it makes me think of Katniss and Gale hunting.  :-)

I'd only put on one layer of top coat at this point, and you can see the flakies were not at all flat!  While that went with the leafy look I didn't want bits of flake poking up so I added another layer of top coat and it took care of that problem.

Micro of the flakes.  You can see some of the blue/green it reflects in the light.  Most of the pictures only really got coppery gold glints, but there is definitely some blue green in there.

This is still before I added the 2nd layer of top coat.

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Colors Used: China Glaze Foie Gras & Luxe and Lush
Technique: Layering
Purchased: Sally
Verdict on the colors: Love both.  I think this is my favorite base I've tried Luxe and Lush over so far.  Pretty sure China Glaze is my favorite brand right now.

Diagonal Taped Manicure

I was so excited to find China Glaze Atlantis at VyVy's.  They had a lot of stuff my local Sally's doesn't have.  I wanted to layer it over one of the other blues I picked up and thought it would look good over OPI Yoga-ta Get This Blue.  They are both really pretty, and I wish I'd taken a few pictures before I used the matte top coat on it.  My new matte top coat is seriously awesome.  It dries fast, it works great, and I'm pretty much obsessed with it.

I really liked how this turned out, I love mattified glitter.

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Colors Used: OPI Yoga-ta Get This Blue, China Glaze Atlantis, with Orly Satin Seal Matte top coat
Technique: Taping
Purchased: All at VyVy's!
Verdict on the colors: How much do I love my new matte top coat??  The others are good too. :-)

Epic VyVy's nail supply haul

I'm visiting my sister in law in San Diego this weekend and read about a nail supply shop on Yelp that has $4.25 OPI!  So we went to go check out VyVy's Nail Supply on 54th Ave.  OPI is $4.25 there, China Glaze $3, Color Club $3.  That's not really a discount on CC, but I didn't think about that until after I got done buying 2.  Oh well. Still an excellent haul!  I spent like...$61 and I don't even know how much it would have been at a normal store.  Anyway, here is my haul!!  If you are ever in the San Diego area I'd definitely check VyVy's out.  :-)

On Wednesdays We Wear Pink

My first Pink Wednesday!  Mean Girls memes make me about as happy as anything.

Happy Wednesday Everyone!


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Colors Used: Base Color: China Glaze Make an Entrance. Middle coat: Northern Lights Silver top coat.  Stamping: Sally Hansen White On
Technique: Stamping BM 11
Purchased: Northern Lights and China Glaze at Sally, Sally Hansen at Kroger
Verdict on the colors: The white isn't as opaque as I'd like for a stamping polish, but I really liked the other two.  Make an Entrance is really pretty by itself, but I thought the Northern Lights added a little je ne sais quoi.

Water Marble

I decided to try a water marble this weekend!  It was a little more difficult than the tutorials make it look.  I got these little water drop marks in most of my nails...how do you prevent that??

Here are the colors I used:

I decided not to use tape because I figured "How much harder could it be to just clean the polish off my hand?"  And then this happened to my thumb and I reached for the tape.

The end results!  I used Northern Lights Holographic silver top coat on top.  I love it!!  As I was cleaning my cuticles I snagged some of the polish on my index finger.  I always seem to mess up at least 1 finger within 5 minutes of doing my nails.  Ugly index finger aside, I think it looks really pretty and is worth the mess!

Right hand...I think the pattern on my thumb looks like a butterfly.  It's my favorite finger this time.

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Colors Used: Base color: Sally Hansen White On.  Marbling colors: China Glaze Blue Iguana and Make an Entrance, and Sinful Colors Why Not
Technique: Water Marbling
Purchased: CVS and Sally
Verdict on the colors: All turned out very well for the marbling, Blue Iguana lost it's glitter somewhere though.  I think next time I'll do 2 colors instead of 3.