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 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 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 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 15: Delicate Print

Today's theme is delicate print.  I used Konad plate m73 for this.  OPI Russian Navy was the base color with Sally Hansen Celeb City for the stamping.  It showed up really well in person, but was really hard to capture on camera.

You can kind of see the print better at an angle...I think.

15 days down, 16 to go!  :-)

31 Day Challenge Day 11: Polka Dots!

Hey Hey, tomorrow is Friday!  Today is polka dot day in the 31 day challenge hosted by Painting Outside the Lines.  I used Sally Hansen Rockstar Pink and Konad special black with my dotting tool.  Initially all the nails were Rockstar Pink with black dots, but I messed up one of the dots on my ring finger so bad by not waiting for everything to dry that I just painted that nail black and used Rockstar Pink for the dots.  I think most of my accent fingers come from messing that finger up.  :-)

11 Days down 20 to go!  We're starting to get into the fun themes!

31 Day Challenge Day 10: Gradient Nails

I think today's manicure is my favorite I've done for this challenge so far!  I used Sally Hansen HD in Spectrum and Orly Lunar Eclipse.  My plan was to do the base in Spectrum then sponge Lunar Eclipse on, but it wound up being waaaaaay to sheer with the sponge.  So I free handed the tips like you would to do a french manicure, let it dry a minute, then added a lighter coat to the middle 3rd of the nail.  With most of the polish off the brush I tried to blend it where it met the light blue of Spectrum.  I think it turned out really well, and I love these colors together!  They have a very similar shimmer to them even though Lunar Eclipse is more of a duochrome.

10 days down 21 to go!  Have you stopped by Painting Outside the Line's Facebook to check out the other entries?

31 Day Challenge Day 7: Black and White

Hello!  Today is day 7 in the 31 day challenge and the theme is black and white nails.  I used a base coat of Sally Hansen White On and then stamped Konad Special Black over it with plate m73.  I smudged the stamp SO BAD. But you can still kind of see it was music notes?  Then I used black Stripe Rite to frame the nails because it seemed like it needed something else.  I'd wanted to try framing for so long, this was my first try at it.  My lines are kind of wobbly, but I like the effect!

I have GOT to find a better white polish, I really hate this one.  Any suggestions for one that doesn't apply like white out?

7 days down 24 to go!

31 Day Challenge Day 6: Violet Nails

Hello!  Today I have a tape manicure for day 6 of the 31 day challenge: violet nails.  I used Julep Charlotte as my base purple then taped diagonally and topped it with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Going Grape.  Then I used Miliani silver glitter striper as an accent.  I really like how these two purples look together!

Tomorrow is black and white day!  6 days down 25 to go!

31 Day Challenge Day 3: Yellow Nails (with a nod to Pink Wednesday)

Today is day 3 of the 31 Day Challenge: Yellow Nails!  I used Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow, as it is the only yellow I own.  I'm not really a fan of yellow, but I actually think I like this.  I may need more yellows.  You would think that yellow nails would be really unattractive because you think of yellowing natural nails as a negative thing, but this is really bright and summery.  I added a lip stamp in Julep Niecy because it is also Wednesday and therefore pink needs to happen or I can't sit with the cool kids at lunch.

There you have it!  3 days down 28 to go!

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Colors Used: Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow & Julep Niecy
Technique: Stamping
Purchased: Target & Julep
Verdict on the colors: Pretty!

31 Day Challenge Day 2: Orange Nails

It's Day 2!  Orange nails.  I used Sally Hansen Crushed because it's my favorite orange and I topped it with Sally Hansen In the Spotlight because I feel like they belong together.

The camera makes Crushed look way more dull than it actually is.  It's a very shimmery, electric orange IRL.   The silver bar glitter sets it off really well and adds to the overall loudness of it.

2 days down 29 to go!

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Colors Used: Sally Hansen Crushed and In the Spotlight
Technique: Glitter on top
Purchased: CVS
Verdict on the colors: Love these together

Easter Skittles

Happy Easter!  This is what's on my nails today.  I used 1 color per nail and then stamped with Sally Hansen White On using a Red Angel plate over it.

ALSO!!! I ordered a Julep Spring Mystery box.  Did anyone else?  The preview of one on Facebook had a $50 gift card in it.  I can't wait to see what's in mine.  :-)

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Colors Used: Sally Hansen White On, Mellow Yellow, Green with Envy, Lacey Lilac; Sinful Colors Why Not, OPI Strawberry Margarita
Technique: Stamping
Purchased: Sally at Target, SC at Walgreens, OPI at VyVys.
Verdict on the colors: I didn't think I liked pastels, but I actually think the purple, green, and yellow look really nice.  The other two are colors I already had and liked.  :-)

Blue Manicure for Autism Awareness Day

Back to using my old camera since I packed my new one up in preparation to return/exchange it.  I painted my nails blue for today for Autism Awareness Day.  I used Sinful Colors Why Not with OPI Swimsuit...Nailed it! and Sally Hansen Golden I as the accent colors.

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Colors Used: Sinful Colors Why Not, OPI Swimsuit...Nailed it!, Sally Hansen Golden I
Technique: Taping, dotting
Purchased: VyVy's, Kroger
Verdict on the colors: I really like Why Not and think it would probably do well to stamp with, it was nice and thick.

Happy St Patrick's Day (what's left of it)

Sorry this first picture is all kinds of out of focus, I thought I was transferring the in focus one from my SD card and didn't realize I'd grabbed the wrong one until I deleted the other.  :-/  This is actually the 2nd St Patty's manicure I did.  The first was a white, green, and gold argyle one but it was so uneven I just took it off and started over.  I really liked how this one turned out for the most part.  The dark green underneath made the white tips turn pale green, so it's very festive for today.

Also, I got a new camera today!  The super macro mode is excellent.

Happy St Patrick's Day!! Who's drinking a green beer?  :-)

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Colors Used: Sinful Colors San Francisco, Sally Hansen White On and Golden-1
Technique: Stamping, tip strips
Purchased: Walgreens (SC), Kroger (SH)
Verdict on the colors: Love San Francisco.  Not fond of White On...need to find a new basic white.

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.

Purple Star

I was looking for a base color to use with a silver star stamp and realized I hadn't tried my Finger Paints Be a Pal-ette yet!  I thought I had read good things about this brand on other blogs, but I was really unimpressed with the formula/application.  I wonder if I got a bad bottle?  It was streaky and dried super fast, which left worse streaks when I dragged the brush through tacky polish.  It somewhat smoothed out by the 3rd coat.  I'm disappointed in what a pain it was to apply because I love the color!  It's such a pretty shade of purple with little glitter flecks.  I also REALLY liked it with Celeb City stamped over it, and then I went and added a top coat and messed it all up.  My NYC shiny top coat is apparently getting old, and it bubbled.  I will probably try this color combo again with a new top coat.  :-)

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Colors Used: Finger Paints Be a Pal-ette (base), Sally Hansen Celeb City (stamp)
Technique: BM05
Purchased: Finger Paints at Sally, Celeb City at Kroger or CVS
Verdict on the colors: Irritated with the application on Be a Pal-ette, but I loved the color so much I'll use again.  Celeb City is still one of my favorite stamping polishes!!

Dotty Flower Manicure and OMG I HAVE A MATTE

Last weekend my sister discovered that one of the new Spoiled polishes I'd picked up was...a MATTE!  I was super excited, I love all the matte polish pictures online and they are high on my list of WANTS.  I found Seche Natural at the CVS by my house and had been hoping it would work as a matte top coat, but alas it does not.  I decided to use it as a base for my first dot manicure effort.  I was hoping I would be awesome at this from the get go and could use this as a submission in the Chalkboard Nails dotting contest, but...no.  I'm not displeased with it for my first try, but definitely want to practice before the March 5 deadline.  Here it is!

Spoiled Distant Memory.  I would say this is actually "matte-ish."  Is still has a little sheen, but is much less glossy than a regular polish.  The finish is almost plastic-like.  You can still see some of the micro glitter flecks in it, even with the less than glossy finish.  It's very pretty, and I love teal shades!

 

 

And the dotty flower manicure:  This has a top coat over it, you can see the difference in finishes on Distant Memory.  I like it with a top coat too!

  

I meant for these to be 3 petal flowers...it's a less defined than I was going for.  I think it's still cute!

 

My husband and I are currently redoing out living room and den, so naturally 30 minutes after I finished this I went to bring cans of paint in from the car and smudged my flowers all to hell.  This did teach me that you want FLAT dots though.

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Colors Used:  Spoiled Distant Memory (base), Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On and Hot Magenta (spots).  I used 2 coats of Distant Memory, but it was pretty thick with 1.  Making mental note to try it with stamping.

Technique: Dotting tool

Purchased: I got Spoiled at CVS, and Sally Hansen's from CVS or Kroger.  I know those are super common, but whenever I see colors I like on a blog I always wonder where they got them (for less common brands) so I decided just to make it a regular part of mine.