Challenge Day 22: Inspired By A Song

This was a hard one for sure. I'm not sure how to be inspired by a song. I was thinking music videos, lyrics, the name. But I eventually settled on something!

I have been obsessed with Lana Del Rey lately, her music is amazing and her lyrics are definitely inspiring. I chose her song Radio so inspired this manicure!

"Baby love me cause I'm playing on the radio." This song is awesome and was fairly easy to create in a manicure. I started with a nude base and painted on little radios on my thumb nails. I also did an accent nail with music notes! The radios were created with Joe Fresh Cement, Zoya Kelly and a black ebay nail art pen.

On the rest of my nails I did a glitter sandwich with F4 Polish Rainforest and China Glaze I. I thought this would be a cute way to spice up the rest of my nails instead of leaving them plain.

Overall I think this was a fun manicure! And I think it was inspired by a song quite well. Actually a radio and music notes could be inspired by all types of music!

I will be posting my tribal challenge later today, so for now I will leave you with a video of Radio so you can take a listen :)

Delicate Mani From Day 15! Featuring Pretty & Polished Cheer Camp

So I was going to use this for my glitter mani day but because I couldn't get over how delicate and dainty this polish was! So even though the challenge called for delicate "print", I thought this was a suitable mani for this day!

This is Pretty & Polished Cheer Camp! I purchased Cheer Camp from Pretty & Polished some time back in August so when I received it I was very excited because it is my dream polish. I love pastels, I love glitter and I love glitter in a creme base because you get automatic glitter sandwiches.

This nail polish is so fittingly named Cheer Camp, but it kinda reminds me of ballet dancers & their leotards. This is 3 coats of Cheer Camp. It is a combination of light pink & purple hex glitters in different sizes suspended in a very light pastel pink creme base.
Dreamy. That's all I can say. The formula was so nice, not too thick. Just perfect.

You can purchase Cheer Camp and other Pretty & Polished polishes on Etsy and keep an eye on new polishes and restocks on Facebook. Cheer Camp is currently in stock, so go get it!

So tomorrow I will be posting another two challenge mani's! One being tomorrow's challenge, inspired by a song & two being tribal from day 16. I kinda cheated for tribal, but it still counts.
See you tomorrow!

Challenge Day 21: Inspired by a Color (+ previous challenge manis)

So, because I've been behind on posting but I'm still participating in the challenge I'm going to do a couple double post days. Where I left off will come later today and I will start with today's actual challenge. Which is Inspired By A Color!

So I took a page out of Rebecca's book from Rebecca Likes Nails and did a manicure based on a nail polish color instead of just a color... A glitter polish!

The polish I chose was F4 Polish Neapolitan which is a combination of medium pink hex glitters, large white hex glitters and micro brown hex glitters in a clear base. This polish was clearly inspired by neapolitan ice cream so I created neapolitan ice cream nails!

Other polishes used were Joe Fresh Bloom, Joe Fresh Mocha & China Glaze Knotty. I was going to use a white base but I chose Knotty because It would allow the white glitters to show better.

So later today I will post my delicate mani from last week! Plus a review of the wonderful polish used, which is my new favorite!

You can purchase F4 Polish on Etsy and keep up with the creators on Facebook.

I am no good at these challenges!

Sorry guys! I decided to take a little break from the challenge. I got discouraged when I did awesome cherry blossom nails for the flower challenge and they chipped before I could even take photos.

I did do kinda a mash-up of delicate and glitter yesterday though which I will post later tonight. For now I will leave you with the only picture I got of my cherry blossom nails.

Challenge Day 13: Animal Print!

Of course I had to do leopard print for this mani.
I thought about doing something new, like giraffe print, but I kept gravitating toward bright colors. So I picked my two favorite colors and came up with this funky leopard print!

This is the funkiest leopard print of all time. Definitely no natural leopard around these parts! I started with a base of Essence Ultimate Pink. This is 2 coats. I received this polish to review by Essence and it has officially become my favorite pink.

I then did the spots with Barielle Do Unto Others, which is my dream turquoise polish, and my black nail art pen from ebay. Pink and turquoise are my favorite colors, so hey, why not make leopard print bright and interesting with my favorite, bright colors?

Tomorrow is flowers, which i'm sure I can have fun with. So many different flowers, so little time to choose!

Challenge Day 12: Striped Nails

This post is coming to you a little late at night, oops! I am not a morning person, so I'm always up late since I often work evenings.

Today's theme was stripes! I painted my nails before work today and just loved this mani. I have seen this simple design all over and wanted to give it a shot.

I love how long this made my nails look! The color combination is also so chic and fashionable that I looked at my nails all day long. This is something I would imagine you'd see on runway, since they are always doing effortless yet eye-catching designs.

This is 3 coats of Joe Fresh Ballet Slipper (I think that's what it's called, I'll edit this later if it isn't!) which is one of my favorite nudes because it's slightly lighter than my skin tone but still has pink undertones. One coat of this polish is perfect for french manicures on paler-skinned ladies.

The stripe was then done with a black 2-way nail art pen from ebay! Sweet, huh? I can't wait to try this with different color combinations.

Tomorrow's theme is animal print! Obviously I'll do my signature leopard print for that one, but let's see if I can spruce it up a bit!

Challenge Day 11: Polka Dots

This mani was a super quick one, but it still turned out exactly how I wanted! I intended to post this yesterday but by the time I had taken pictures I had to jet off to work, so it had to wait until today. Darn 1-9 shifts!

Anyway, here are some polka dots!

I think this is so funky, and it literally took me 20 minutes. This look is so fun and so simple to create that anyone could do it! I started with 2 coats of Maybelline Onyx Rush which is a simple black creme, however this formula is really thin. I actually added the rest of my old generic black polish to it to thicken it up.

I then did the dots with a large dotting tool and Sally Hansen Mint Sorbet. My biggest downfall with polka dots is consistency but these ones are surprisingly even! I then used my black nail art pen to place smaller dots in the middle of the mint dots to create the circles.

 

So not only is this simple to create, but the colors I used were inexpensive as well! If you're a nail art newbie and you're not ready to throw yourself into expensive polishes, indie glitters and whatnot you should definitely get yourself a dotting tool or two.

Next mani is stripes! I will have some fun with this one.

Challenge Day 10: Grassy Green Gradient!

Today's challenge was a gradient mani and I didn't want to do the typical sponged gradient, so I did something a little different!

I think it looks like grass, which is I thought was a fun way to tip my hat to the end of summer.

This is what I would call a brushstroke gradient, and it reminds me of something you'd see in a painting! I really like the way it turned out.

The three colors I used were OPI Jade Is The New Black, OPI Green-wich Village & OPI Who The Shrek Are You?. I started with Jade Is The New Black as my base and added 2 layers of brushstrokes with Green-wich Village and then another 2 with Who The Shrek Are You?.

These polishes were great for this technique because they are not too opaque that it looks too much like stripes and opaque enough that they were easy to build up!

I love how much this looks like grass! Too bad it's a rainy, miserable day here, or else this mani would make me want to run around outside!

Tomorrow's theme is polka dots, which is funny because I've already rocked out polka dots 3 times this challenge, but I have a fun idea!

Challenge Day 9: Rainbow Nails!

These were yesterday's nails, and the theme for that day was rainbow! I have done one rainbow mani before and I really loved it and enjoyed doing it but I never thought to do any other ones!

I LOVED the way this mani turned out. I just grabbed rainbow colors and went to town, my best creations always happen when I have absolutely no plan!

I started with 1 coat of Sally Hansen Whirlwind White and then a coat of Pretty & Polished Party On My Yacht. Party On My Yacht was such a perfect base to use because it almost was like a rainbow sprinkle background.

The colors I used for the rainbows were Essence Ultimate Pink, China Glaze Breakin', OPI The It Color, OPI Who The Shrek Are You?, China Glaze For Audrey & OPI Do You Lilac It?.

I just went to town starting with the pink stripe and then I added on from there. I loved the way it turned out! I was showing it off all day.

Today's challenge is gradient nails, so I better get to it!

Challenge Day 8: Metallic Nails

Here is today's on-time, on-schedule post! Ha ha. I paint sets of fake nails which I sell at the salon I work at and on Etsy, and one of my co-workers fell in love with a set that featured a glitter bomb silver nail. Today I wanted to do the gold version!

This is a bunch of different polishes layered to make a glitzy-glitter, metallic nail! I started with 2 coats of OPI Glitzerland (New favorite polish, for sure!) and layered on glitter from there.

The next layer was a coat of China Glaze I'm Not Lion, which is a gold & holographic glitter combo. It's such an amazing polish and it matches Glitzerland perfectly. Then there was a final coat of Daring Digits True Love (just the gold glitters, even though this polish also has super cute red hearts in it).

 

 This picture was kinda neat, my camera took a picture right in the middle of adjusting to direct sunlight and this photo was the result. I like it because it shows the holographic glitter so well!

I am finally up to date with the challenge! Now I'm off to a Hawaiian themed party with my friends. Happy Saturday!

Challenge Day 7: Vintage Black & White With Bows!

Prepare for a double post. I started this manicure yesterday and then finished it today, so I only wore the finished manicure for half a day (That's what I get for slacking off!).

I was inspired by half vintage looks half comic book. I just wanted to do something funky & cute with a little more detail.

Isn't it so cute! It just reminds me of something along the lines of a vintage dress. I started with a base of Sally Hansen Whirlwind White. It's a good white polish for stamping, but I don't normally wear it alone on my nail. It's too chalky. However, it's a great base for bright nail art like this.

I didn't get too many great shots of this mani for some reason. They all looked great on my camera.
The polka dots were done with a dotting tool and a drugstore black polish. The bows were hand painted with a nail art brush & OPI Comet Loves Cupid.

This has been my favorite mani so far! I'm excited to get into the more challenging days!

Challenge Day 6: Violet Nails

So I'm actually writing this post very late at night and scheduling it for this morning because I did it again. Painted my nails for yesterday but then did not post them. Oops!

I did another simpler mani yesterday, as I was still sick and bed-ridden (finally better & back to work today!) But I actually love the way it turned out! The color combination reminded me of some sort of leotard a competition gymnast or figure skater might wear, ha ha!

I chose to do some big giant polka dots! (Pictured with a totally unrelated polish) The base color is 2 coats of China Glaze Flying Dragon. It is a violet neon polish that dries very fast and matte, like most other neon polishes. It also has blue & silver micro glitters, which makes this polish so interesting and one of my favorites.

The polka dots were done with OPI Glitzerland and a large dotting tool. The dotting tool was still not large enough for these dots so i sort of swirled the tool around to make the dots larger. Unfortunately, they were not perfect when done this way, but I still like them!

Sorry for the lack of photos, I did take more but I'm having issues getting my camera to take clear photos without flash. It's a newer camera, so I'll just have to play with the settings some more!

Later today comes black & white nails! I have a fun idea for this which also includes polka dots. Hopefully it will turn out awesome!

Challenge Day 5: Blue feat. Pretty & Polished Beach Bum!

Today's post has to be a little quicker because I have to go to work! Also, because of my time limit, I didn't do anything too fancy today. I still wanted to make it exciting though!

This is 2 coats of Sally Hansen Pacific Blue with a coat of Pretty & Polished Beach Bum on top. Pacific Blue is an amazing, bright royal blue and is one of my favorites in my collection. It's almost a one coater, but I usually do an extra coat out of habit anyway.
Beach Bum is AMAZING, I love it so much, it is a mixture of small to large green and blue hex glitters in a clear base. You could wear this so many ways.

Then I wanted to spice up the manicure a little more! I hadn't done a crackle mani in a while, so I painted a coat of China Glaze Black Mesh on my thumb and ring finger nails.

What can I say, queen of accent nails over here! I don't think I've done a manicure without at least one accent finger since day one!

Pretty & Polished polishes can be purchased through her Etsy and also on Llarowe.

Well, I'm off to work! Sorry for the lack of detail in today's post!
My nails do look cute, though!

Challenge Day 4: Green feat. KBShimmer Radioactive!

I was feeling a little uninspired today, I have a terrible cold and am missing work. I was sick-free all summer, so I knew I was going to get it eventually.

Anyway, being uninspired is a great time to try out a fancy glitter indie polish! I have been lusting after KBShimmers for a while and finally got my hands on some! So of course I had to try one out.

Here's a fancy bottle shot for you all! This is KBShimmer Radioactive! It is part of the second most recent collection which was full of neons & glitter! Radioactive immediately caught my eye so I snatched it up as soon as I could.

This is 3 coats of Radioactive. It is a neon highlighter-green jelly with black square, hex, bar & shard glitter suspended in the base. It is surprisingly even brighter in person. I wish I had this earlier in the summer! It also would be a neat Halloween polish if you wanted to be Frankenstein!

Of course I didn't want to leave it at that, so I added some diagonal stripes with Sally Hansen Mint Sorbet and a striper brush. I didn't realize that the one stripe on my ring finger was a little shaky until I applied topcoat, oh well!

You can purchase KBShimmer online on the website and for all my fellow Canadian ladies you can purchase it on Harlow & Co!
Radioactive is currently in stock on KBShimmer's website but not on Harlow & Co. For restock information follow KBShimmer and Harlow & Co on Facebook!

Challenge Day 3: Yellow feat. Some Lady Gaga Inspiration!

Oh boy, oh boy. I am so excited to show you all these beautiful babies. This mani came out exactly how I planned, and I couldn't be happier.

I had some inspiration for this mani in the form of Lady Gaga's dress in the video for Paparazzi (Single released in 2009... oops! I'm a little late!). Lots of nail art addicts across the globe have done a version of these nails. I knew I had to try it out one day, so here they are!

Remember the yellow mouse dress in the video? Remember the thousands of inspired mani's that erupted afterward? Haha, here's mine! Three years later. 

 

I started with OPI The It Color as my base. It's my one and only favorite yellow and obviously a pretty good match to the dress she wore in the video. While the mousies aren't exactly the same, I did it the easy way and did a Minnie/Mickey mouse print.

The mouse print was done with a dotting tool and a generic drugstore black polish. Super easy to create because the ears are the same size as the head, so you don't have to switch dotting tools or anything! Super cute. Maybe I'll be Minnie Mouse for Halloween and do my nails this way with red instead!

I love accent fingers. I recently became a professional manicurist at work as well as a hairstylist and one of my coworkers called me "the queen of accent fingers." So I did a "Cocktail" mani featuring the print and on the rest of my nails I did a gradient with China Glaze I'm Not Lion (So pretty!).

Tomorrow is green! I'm sad I'll only be rocking this mani for a day. Oh well!

Also, look out for a new weekly post I'll be doing showing off some manicures I've done on clients at work for the week! It will be like an Instagrammed collection of awesome. So excited!

Challenge Day 2: Orange

OOPS. I totally forgot to post this yesterday, had my nails all done in the morning and just totally lost it. Well here they are!

I'm not a huge fan of orange nails, but I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to use one of my new indie babies :)

I started with 2 coats of OPI Hot & Spicy on all nails except my ring & thumb. Then I painted one coat of Pretty & Polished Phoenix on top. So nice, right! It's so bright, It's a neat combination too. I can't wait to try this polish over some other colors.

On my ring finger & thumb nails I did a funky cloud design I saw on Nailside! You can see the tutorial on how to create this super awesome & easy design here. I started with 2 coats of China Glaze Make Some Noise, then i did the first layer of clouds with OPI Hot & Spicy. I did the last layer with Pretty & Polished Phoenix and love this way this looks!

It's almost like a gradient, in an unintended way. Phoenix makes the orange look almost neon. It was such a miserable day outside yesterday, but I feel like I had the sun with me on my nails!

I better go do today's yellow nails! I hope my idea turns out good!

Challenge Day 1: Red!

Hello! So it seems like everyone is doing to 31 Day Challenge again. Which i tried to start a while back and failed miserably. But I thought, hey, why not?

Today also marks the first day of September! Goodbye summer, hello new beginnings! I love fall colors and wanted to say "see you soon" to some of my bright, neon colors. Because of that, I wanted to do a darker themed mani!

I started with 2 coats of China Glaze Purr-fect Plum. It's a burgundy (not a plum in my opinion) creme with really nice coverage and formula. I used 2 coats to even it all out but it's really nice and opaque. This is from the On Safari collection, which I love and need more of!

Then I did my favorite go-to pattern, leopard print! The spots are done with OPI Friar, Friar, Pants On Fire! It's a red that shimmers orange and it's one of my favorites in my whole collection of polish.

I then did the black spots with a black nail art pen from eBay. I love leopard print, it never fails me when I can't come up with any fancy ideas. I love the vampy look this has! Perfect for fall.
I'm going out tonight so i can't wait to match these nails with some red lipstick ;)

Have any of you decided to jump on board with the challenge?