Sunday, April 20, 2014

30 Day Challenge: Splatter Paint

Woohoo platter! I love splatter nail art because it is such a fun look and so easy to do, not to mention it takes just a few minutes to complete. For this design I went with a neutral base and bright colors for the splatter. I'm 99% sure I saw this color combination for splatter nails somewhere on the interwebs but I'm not positive where.


Saturday, April 19, 2014

30 Day Challenge: Studs

I was really excited about today's theme because I imagined a really fun and elaborate stud manicure but unfortunately I don't have the kind of studs I wanted or nearly enough of the kind I do have. I currently only have a small wheel of studs from Forever 21 so I made do with that. I hope I can beef up my collection in the near future because I have so many fun stud manicures in my head that I so desperately want to bring to life. This manicure only has one studs but it fits the requirement for today's theme. I went with a simpler style of mix and match nails, which I hope you enjoy!


30 Day Challenge: Negative Space

Hey! So I knew what I wanted to do for today's theme for quite some time. My boyfriend is known for constantly changing his hair color. He started in September and has been through seven colors, technically ten. He started off with bleach blonde which he then turned to white and later turned to a very light gray, he then went red (which turned pink), blue (which turned purple), yellow green and a bit of blue (which inspired this manicure) and lastly teal (which has been turning green). In his second to last color change, the yellow green) he went with something even more over the top. For the first time he went to the stylist to get his hair dyed and said she could do whatever she pleased with his hair and she definitely did! Not only did she make his hair an array of colors she put a design on the back of his head! While I have gotten used to his ever-changing hair color I was not ready for his new hair cut. I was not a fan of it but I did think it would work in a nail design.


30 Day Challenge: Ruffian

Hey there! So today's mani theme is ruffian/half moons/tips and I chose to do a ruffian manicure. The only issue is I think I may have cheated again haha. I wanted to make it a bit different and do a rose ruffian so instead of having two different colors, I have a soft neutral color as my base and then roses around my cuticle. This is the first time I have ever tried roses and controlling the size proved to be quite the challenge for me. I'm not sure if these can be seen as ruffian or not but I'm going to say they are.


30 Day Challenge: Tape Mani

Hey everybody! Today's theme is tape manicure and I just want to start off this post by saying, I LOVE how these came out! I started off my painting my navy blue base and then debated on which color to make the stars. I was originally planning on adding some sparkle and making the stars white but then I thought I should have fun with this design and add a pop of color. Naturally I couldn't decide whether to go with coral or lime green and thanks to my brother A.J, I decided on green.

30 Day Challenge: Gradient

Hey all! Guess what I have for ya today? A gradient! Gradients are always fun and it's a simple mani that seems really complicated and thats always great. I wanted to do a gradient with white and a bright color so I thought today would be a great time to do it. This mani is all kinds of perfect to me, its bright, playful and full of glitter!

30 Day Challenge: Rainbow

Hey hey hey! I've got a rainbow mani for you guys today! Can I just say this actually turned out to be a lot harder than I originally planned for it to be. I was even planning on making it a bit more complicated by adding a seran wrap effect to each band of color but I did not have the patience for it once I managed to get all the colors on my nails. Since I am in love with my Sally Hansen Sugar Coat Polish in Lick-O-Rich I decided it was the perfect polish to accompany my rainbow painted nails.

Friday, April 18, 2014

30 Day Challenge: Shades of Gray

Hey! The theme today is shades of gray but my mani isn't as gray as I would have liked. I was planning on adding some more different tones of gray but I didn't have enough time so I decided to just roll with what I had and add a pop of color to my other nails. Does this still pass? Haha.

30 Day Challenge: Complementary Colors

Hey all! Today's theme for the 30 Day Challenge is complementary colors and I decided to go with yellow and purple since I found it the most challenging combination to work with and I was feeling up to it. I had a couple of designs in mind but I went with a leopard print since I felt like channeling my inner Chalkboard Nails.

30 Day Challenge: Secondary Colors

Okay I imagine some of you may be confused with this mani. The theme is secondary colors so what the hell am I doing with pink, blue, and yellow?! If you can guess why before you read the answer you are incredibly awesome! It may help to know that the colors I chose are magenta, cyan, and yellow, does that clear anything up at all? I used the secondary colors of light! I was having trouble thinking of a really cool mani with green, purple, and orange. Each design I thought up looked as if I was preparing for Halloween (which I kind of am because I love Halloween and will prepare for it 365 days a year). The only issue is apparently we were supposed to stick strictly to purple, green and orange! Oops! I don't have the time to do another manicure but hopefully this will be my only mistake haha.

30 Day Challenge: Primary Colors

Hi all! The theme today is primary colors and my mind  was set on doing a de stijil inspired mani since I've been wanting to do it after a class discussion in my seminar class where our teacher showed us that "artistic movement." I was crunched for time so I went with something more simple and decided to leave my other mani for another time. I'm not really sure what to call these but they kind of remind me of a beach ball. I actually have two versions of these nails, one with black and one without. I asked my brother, A.J., to choose which he liked better and he said the one with black so the pictures will be focused on that mani but there are pictures without black at the end of the post.

Thursday, April 17, 2014

30 Day Challenge: Holo Polish

Hey there! Today's theme is Holographic and I seriously need to get more, they are so fantastic! The polish I ended up using is China Glaze in Infra Red. I have seen many holographic polishes and I personally don't think that this polish is as holographic, if that makes sense. What I mean is there are other holographic polishes that are more in your face with the holographic glitter, although this may just be me.

Two Coats with Top Coat

30 Day Challenge: Texture Polish

Hey Hey Hey! Today's theme is texture polish and I only have three so narrowing it down was no issue haha. I went with Julie G in Sugar Plum Fairy, which was part of the 2013 Frosted Gum Drops Collection and can be bought on their website for $3.99. This was the only textured polish I had in my stash that I had yet to wear so I thought it would perfect to use so I can cross it off of my untried list.

Two Coats with No Top Coat

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

30 Day Challenge: Favorite Glitter

Thankfully picking a favorite glitter was not as hard as picking a favorite creme since I don't have nearly as many. I actually don't wear glitter very often because I don't like the hassle of taking it off. Even putting a glue base so I can peel it of later is too much work. Yes, I am in fact that lazy. That being said I chose Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Copper Penny. I have really been into copper toned polishes, including glitter but I've been holding off wearing it too much because I rather wait until fall when it is more appropriate for the season. BUTTTTTTTT since todays theme is favorite glitter I can throw that out the window.

Monday, April 14, 2014

30 Day Challenge: Favorite Creme

So I was a part of a challenge before (Mish Mash Challenge) and failed horribly with keeping up. I thought of taking part in the 30 Day Challenge before it started but the fact that I didn't complete the first one bothered me. I told myself I had to complete the Mish Mash Challenge first. After constant debate with myself I decided to just go for it! I have some catching up to do but I'm sure I can do it. I am still going to try and complete the Mish Mash Challenge at a later date though, am I crazy? Anyway, this challenge was created by Dani of Dani's Manis and she wrote an entire post about the challenge on her blog.

Three Coats with Top Coat 

Marc Jacobs - #154 Jungle {Limited Edition}

I just want to start by saying I'm in awe with the amount of money in products that are on my nails right now and I didn't buy a thing! I went on a trip to Sephora on Friday with some friends and I couldn't help painting my nails (pssh, of course). I started off my manicure with Julep's Oxygen Nail Treatment ($18), which apparently works best when used on its own, oops! Next I added a coat of Butter London's Nail Foundation Flawless Basecoat ($20), which is AMAZING! I used it once and I'm already in love. When I save some money up I'll be sure to get my hands on it because I need it! Of course I added some color and choose Marc Jacobs - Jungle ($18) since it looked so great on display. Also, it's limited edition and I didn't know if I would have the opportunity to try it again the next time I went. Last but not least I added Butter London's Hardware P.D. Topcoat ($20). This all totals to a whopping $76 dollars on the digits, woah!

marc jacobs beauty jungle

Friday, April 11, 2014

Funky Pinstripe

Hey! I have some pretty fun nails to share with you today. I had no idea where I was going with this when I first started but I'm quite pleased with where I ended up. Gradients are extremely fun and easy and since I had only done one before, and it was only on one nail, I thought I should try it again. Blue and green seemed like the perfect combination for spring so I added that on and thought of what I could do next. My first thought was stamping but after trying and getting frustrated with my lack of skill I went with stripes, using striping tape I cut myself. I actually don't have any striping tape and am not really allowed to get anything online so I've been at a lost, until I found some at Ricky's but unfortunately it was overpriced and I'm usually broke so I rather save my money.

Friday, April 4, 2014

Melting Gold

I wanted to do something simple after my Geometric Tribal and I thought of gold tipped french manicure but I can't keep it that simple now can I? Of course not! Instead I decided to do gold drips to make it a bit more interesting and I really do like the effect. The only issue is I don't like how hard metallic polishes can be to photograph haha. Oddly enough I have been stumped with design ideas so you wont be seeing to many original designs but some simple nail art and swatches, sorry! Anyway, on to the nails!


Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Geometric Tribal

Searching around Instagram for nail art lead me to so many manicures that are absolutely amazing, many of which I want to recreate. The design I have for you today is by Lisa (@Lisas_nails1). I found the design to be absolutely adorable and only tweaked some of the colors to be more spring like. I got quite a few compliments so I'm pretty proud of these. I added a matte top coat to make it more like Lisa's and while I like matte and regular top coat versions the same, I love how much easier it is to photograph with the matte finish, haha.

With Matte Top Coat: 


With Regular Top Coat: