English Rose Semi-Nail Fail

I used two coats of O.P.I's "Don't Touch my Tutu" under the "English Rose" nail foil I bought ages ago.

This wouldn't be as much of a nail fail if it weren't patchy, and aside from those blue ink marks on my middle finger.... Yeah, apparently it transferred from the note I wrote onto my palm. I'll leave these for a couple of days, but they won't last the week.

Marbled Candy

Sept/19/2010 to Sept/25/2010

A water marble using "White On" by Sally Hansen, "Pink Voltage(Neon)" and "Purple Panic(Neon)" by China Glaze. It didn't marble very well, but the end result reminded me of those jawbreaker candies :P

Instant Chemistry

So I too, picked up one of China Glaze's Magnetix nail polishes.

This colour is called "Instant Chemistry". This was mostly a test to see if the designs showed up well or not. Hence why there is a different design on each nail. I don't quite know how I feel about this one, it's a touch dark for Spring, although it would be good for a quick and easy mani.

Overall I'm kind of "meh" about this whole magnetic polish business. Cool yes, but I feel its a tad to common for my tastes.

King of Skulls

Here is the promised mani! I hope you enjoy, keep reading as the details are all at the bottom.

Close up on the ring finger.

The thumb nail.

Right hand.

So this weeks mani is very exciting for me, why? Simple, I tried out that newspaper nail thing finally! And it sort of worked, it turned out better on certain fingers, so if I try this again I'll try to use fresher newspapers.
The base colour for this is "Wet Cement" from Sally Hansen's Xtreme Wear line. I hand painted the skulls and trees using regular craft paint. I didn't want to do skulls on the right hand, partially due to laziness, and partially due to running low on time. It's a bit odd, but I find the trees on my right hand look nicer than the ones on my left hand. As always, enjoy!

Scandalous

This isn't this week's mani! I promise, tomorrow the proper one will be up.

I'm uploading this for today in the meantime though.

 So the colour on my tips is 2 coats of "Night Prowl" by Wet n' Wild, with one coat of "Scandalous" from Revlon, for the multidimensional magenta glitter. You probably can't really tell from the photo but I'm experimenting with different tip shapes, I'm trying to get it almond shaped.

I will do this again, only next time there will be something more exciting than a basic french. I promise!

Message Confetti

Sept/02/2010 to Sept/09/2010

Base colour is "Hue Left A Message" by Finger Paints, I love this colour. It's one of my all time favourite glitters. Also to add some pizazz I added a little confetti on each finger.

KleanColor Sheer Red

Just a blah kind of day, have a swatch for you.

This is "Sheer Red" by Kleancolor. This brand does not make their polishes Formaldehyde, Toluene or DBP free, you have now been informed. Anyway my nails each have 2 coats of Sheer Red. Overall, I like it, it's nice to have on when I don't know what to do.

Glittery Hearts

I love this ombre design. The reason is probably not why you think. I'll fill you in on how I did it down below :)

Close up of the thumb nail.

So, I know that last mani was also an ombre, but the technique I used this time was a tad different. I didn't try sponging it on, no no, I used acrylic paint on these paws. Yes, that's right, there is no actual nail polish here except for the Base Coat, and the Top Coat. All the rest is regular craft store acrylic paint, blended to create a beautiful gradient effect. So the paints I used were a basic green mixed with white to get the mint, and red, yellow and white for the pastel orange. The little glitter paillets came out of my bottle of "Synergy" from L.A. Girl.

I hope you enjoy this different take on an ombre mani!

Purple Crush

June/27/2010 to July/03/2010

"Purple Crush" by Orly with some hand painted white and black swishes.

Ocean's "Marooned"

I have this subscription type thing to a monthly Glymm box. What is a Glymm box? Simple, it's a box full

of decent sized sample products from higher end brands for you to try, then after a month or so Glymm sends you surveys for your opinion on the samples. In my March Glymm box I got a full-sized bottle of a deep-red nail polish by Ocean. The colour is called "Marooned" and I felt I should swatch it for you.

Okay, so when I first got this colour I thought, "Wait a minute, this is like China Glaze's Seduce Me." Which in fact it is, and normally I wouldn't mind too much until I put on the top coat and noticed something.
Less than 2 minutes after the TP dried, I noticed this on each nail(circled in yellow):

It looks to me that the polish separated from the top coat. I don't know if this was because of the TP I used which was Sally Hansen's Insta-Dry in Clear, or what. For that I'd have to do more testing. But it struck me as a WTF moment because this have NEVER happened, to ANY nail polish I've owned, be it Big 3 Free or not. I don't know how I feel about this, so I just took it off after a day.
In future, I'll try testing this colour out with different TPs to see if this keeps happening. I'll edit this post with any findings.

Birthday Paws

This past April 7th was my birthday. As of now I'm 22 -_-'

Obviously, birthday nails were a must:

Instead of doing something fancy, I broke out the brilliant, blinding colours of "Sun Worshipper"(orange) and "Purple Panic(Neon)" by China Glaze and just did a simple ombre using a make up sponge. Enjoy!

Watermelon Flowers

June/20/2010 to June/26/2010

"Watermelon Rind" by China Glaze with some Konad Stamping over top in "White" Konad Special Polish. Watermelon Rind is a greenish-blue green with a nice shimmer to it.

Snowy Day Bling

So yesterday I woke up to a light dusting on snow on Betty (my van). And was not impressed as I was heading out to class. So this is the mani inspired by my dislike of snow.

Whole hand.

Thumb Close-up.

So I first put down a white gradient using the sponging technique. I used "French White Creme" by Wet n' Wild for the base colour. On top of that I did a basic glitter gradient using Sally Hansen's "Disco Ball" from the eXtreme Wear line, its like an iridescent glitter. On top of that I randomly attached half pearls and rhinestones which were purchased from Michael's Arts and Crafts store.
Overall I like them, I love blinged out paws, but they are a pain to work with since they are so bulky, I have trouble getting my hands between books to make shelf space.