Striped

Week 14 of my weekly mani challenge called for stripes, so here they are. Tiger stripes.

This mani is grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreat! I drew my inspiration from Tony the Tiger and now I have an intense craving for Frosted Flakes. FAIL. My nails are supposed to take my mind OFF of food. LOL.

Anywho, I've been in the mood for super bright colors lately, so I started this mani with three coats of China Glaze Japanese Koi (Neon).

I love this color!!! It's soooooo bright. It dries down to a matte finish, but that's nothing a little top coat can't fix.

I added a coat of Icing Tiger's Blood--which has silver and gold glitter suspended in an orange jelly base.

I stamped on the tiger stripes from Konad plate M57 using American Apparel's Hassid.

This is such a fun look. I can't believe I hadn't done something like this before. Next week's look will be an Easter mani. I gotta get my creative juices flowing.

Blue Ruffian

I was nervous to start my week 13 ruffian manicure. I'm not much of a fan of manis that involve creating "moon" shapes, but I really ended up loving this!

 I started out with two coats of Sephora by OPI Bright As A Feather.

  

This is such a gorgeous robin's egg metallic blue. I was pleasantly surprised by the formula. Sephora by OPI shades can tend to be on the sheer side, but I got full coverage at two thin coats. Win. 

 

I paired it with Barielle's Blackened Blue that I got recently from a Hautelook sale. I love this combo!

My crescent moon shape isn't pristine because I freehanded the ruffian. I didn't feel like waiting for my base color to dry completely to be able to use french manicure guides like I've seen suggested elsewhere.  Eh, I'm still happy with the results. It looks pretty good from the front though.

I'll have my week 14 striped mani to share with you tomorrow. I hope you guys are having a great weekend.

Week 12: Taste The Rainbow

Hey guys, life has been so hectic, so I'm playing catch up on my Weekly Challenge manis.So here's my week 12 look: skittles.

I fashioned my skittles mani, after what else, but Skittles! Specifically the Wild Berry pack, which is my favorite kind. For the wild cherry flavor, I used Essie Really Red; for the strawberry I went with Orly Coquette Cutie, for Berry Punch I used OPI Honk If You Love OPI, the raspberry is Pure Ice French Kiss and melon berry is Color Club Twiggie. I used a white acrylic paint to freehand the "S" printed on the candies.

I love all these colors.

L-R: Essie Really Red, Orly Coquette Cutie, OPI Honk If You Love OPI, Pure Ice French Kiss, Color Club Twiggie

Now I want skittles. I'll have my week 13, ruffian mani for you tomorrow and then I'll be set to show you my week 14 striped mani on Monday!

I'm So Jaded

If there ever was an oxymoron for a nail polish name Wet 'n Wild's I'm So Jaded from the Spoiled line is definitely it. There is absolutely nothing boring or dull about this polish. I don't know how an almost neon lime green polish with golden shimmer could ever be described that way. See!

Whoa! It's almost blindingly bright.Definitely a fun look. I wonder if this would look good as a pedi.

And you know I couldn't just leave this alone, so.....

 

I stamped some shamrock's down the side with Color Club Artsy Crafty from the Back to Boho collection. The image is from Cheeky plate CH26, from their 2012 set. I do wish the image had come out a tad darker, but hey there's still plenty of contrast.

Are you guys enjoying this green week? I gotta figure out what to do for tomorrow's post.

Did It On 'Em

Yep. I have another green mani for you guys!

This one's featuring OPI Did It On 'Em from the Nicki Menaj collection and OPI Fresh Frog of Bel-Air from the Muppets collection.

Did It On 'Em is this wonderful yellow-green creme. I did two coats here. The first coat was streaky, but the second evened that all out. It reminds me of Fiercely Fiona from the Shrek collection. I don't have that one though so I can't compare.

I love this way more than I thought I would. I picked it up on a whim when I bought the other shades in the collection and I'm glad I did.


I like Fresh Frog of Bel-Air, but I don't think it went too well with Did It On 'Em. I think the silver hex glitters in it clashes with it's yellow tone. Ah well.

Stay tuned for more green. I'm feeling a neon is in order!

Week 11: St. Patrick's Day Mani

Hey guys! Are you ready for my Week 11 mani?!? This one is St. Patrick's Day themed.  I don't wear my green nail polishes nearly enough so I was super excited to do this look!

 I started this look with two coats of Milani Hi-Tech, a yellow-green scattered holographic polish. These pictures don't do any justice to this polish. It really looks amazing in sunlight!

Here you can see how it forms a scattered rainbow "flame." Super gorgeous!

I wanted to practice my freehand nail art, so I pulled out a green acrylic paint and a fine nail art brush. I made little shamrock shapes by putting two heart shapes together. Not perfect, but I was relatively happy with it.

And you guys know me and glitter so I added a layer of Sinful Colors Call Me Later, which has different shades of green and gold glitter in a clear base.

I love it! I'm on a green kick so expect to see more this week!

Pink Polka Dot Wednesday

Hey guys! Please excuse the tardiness of my Week 10 mani challenge. Polka Dots! Let's give a warm welcome back to Pink Wednesday. I can't even remember the last pink mani I showed you guys. Shame! Anyway, without further ado here's the mani.

I started with two coats of Milani Bare in Mind. It came out in that Bare It All collection in 2010.

The color is very sheer and the only reason I was able to get away with two coats is because I used Nail Life Ridge Filler over my usual base coat--Pro-FX Epoxy Bond--in case you were wondering.

 I love this color and it has a nice pink shimmer to it, that my camera didn't pick up that well.

For the polka dots I used Pinky Brown from Model's Own Beetlejuice Collection. I hear they're coming out with three more Beetlejuice shades for spring/summer 2012. The promo shots look amazing! I'm certainly intrigued.

Anyway, back to Pinky Brown. It's a very glittery duochrome shade and shifts between a magenta pink and a bronzy brown. I like the contrast.

I'm pleased with this mani! Much better than last week's challenge for sure.

Next week's challenge is a St. Patrick's Day mani. I'm excited about digging through my green stash to see what I can come up with! So friends I'll leave you with a wish for a lovely Pink Wednesday! Are you guys rocking your pink today?

Week 9: Vintage Mani FAIL

Hey guys, it's Week 9 of this yearlong mani challenge I'm on. I'm putting this Vintage mani in the FAIL column.

Yuck! I really really really don't like this. But in the name of the challenge I did it and posted it.I started with one coat of China Glaze Heaven, a sheer shimmery light peach color, because I was trying to camouflage my yellow tips a little bit--not that it actually worked.

 
I used reinforcement stickers and tape to divide my nail area. 

Then I painted the center with China Glaze Winter Berry--a really nice deep jelly red, and took off the tape and reinforcements as soon as I finished painting each nail. I tried to clean up my lines with my cleanup brush  and acetone. 

So yea FAIL. Once I saw how this was turning out I decided to only do these four fingers you see and as soon as I snapped these photos this came off with the quickness. I don't even have the desire to ever try this again and see if it turns out better. It's just that bad.

Anyway, hopefully next week's polka dot challenge leaves me with a mani I can actually wear for more than five minutes.

Milani Color Play Swatches

I was in CVS the other day and I saw the new Milani Color Play collection. It had been a while since I had seen a new Milani collection that I was actually interested in so I was excited. I picked up four of the six colors. There was also a silver called Silver Stiletto and pink called Tip Toe Pink included in the collection, but they didn't excite me much so I left them.

L-R: Sail Away, Orchidia, Mint Candy, Beach Front

Sail Away denim blue with very strong silver shimmer running through it. I did two coats here, but I could have easily gotten away with one had I not been trying to camouflage the patch on my middle finger nail. As you can see it dries a bit darker than bottle color, but that's alright with me.

 Mint Candy. My absolute favorite of the collection. It's a pretty turquoise with this awesome light turquoise shimmer running through it. Two coats shown here. It's a bit greener than my swatch shows here though. I love tone on tone shimmer. It excites me! LOL.

 Orchidia, runner up for my favorite in the collection. I tried to color correct this photo a bit as my camera absolutely refuses to show the true color of any purple. It's a purple that leans towards the pink end of the spectrum and it has this great silver shimmer running through it to keep it interesting. As with the others I did two coats here.

 And the last of the four I picked up, Beach Front, a pretty sky blue color with silver shimmer. Again two easy coats for this swatch. It looks like it could be a cousin of OPI I Don't Give A Rotterdam and OPI I Have a Herring Problem from the Holland Collection.

I really like all of these. The formula is really smooth and easy to work with. Two coats and you're set. Have you guys seen these yet? Are you planning on getting any of these? If you haven't spotted them at CVS, they're available on MilaniCosmetics.com for $4.49.

Mardi Gras Mani

Hey guys! It's Fat Tuesday! Yay! To celebrate, I went with a traditional purple, green and gold theme for my Mardi Gras mani.

I started with two coats of L'Oreal's Amazon Flash, a super sparkly yellow toned gold. I still had visible nail line after two coats, but I knew I was layering another glitter over it so I didn't let that bother me.

Then I topped that with two coats of China Glaze Marry a Millionaire, which is seriously Mardi Gras in a bottle. It has purple, green and gold bar glitter in a clear base. So perfect for the occasion! It does dry with a gritty finish so be prepared to use your favorite glitter taming combo. I used one coat of Gelous and then one coat of Pro-FX Quick Dry.

It's like Mardi Gras confetti in polish form! I love this! My family is Guyanese and we celebrate this day as Shrove Tuesday. I'm waiting for my mom to call me with her Shrove Tuesday pancake recipe and then I'll be all set!

I originally wanted to stamp a mask design over this, but the image was huge and didn't fit on my ring finger, so I just left it as is. Simple, but still very blingy and festive. I hope you guys enjoy your day. Did you do a festive mani? Tweet me some pics!

Week 8: Corset Mani

Happy Monday guys! I'm so happy to be off work today! I can't believe eight weeks of this challenge has already gone by. I was excited about trying out this corset look until I sat down to do it. Oh what a pain in the butt this mani was. I tried out several variations with rhinestones and stamping but those were uber fails, so I settled on freehand. I always forget how bad I am at freehand nail art until I sit down to do it.

Here's a pictures strip to show the progression of the manicure.

I started the mani with two coats of Sinful Colors Tutu from their Valentine's Heartbreaker collection. Not bad for a sheer light pink.

Then I did some stamping with Sally Hansen Pink Satin and Red Angel image plate 106. I did a poor job on my ring finger, but I didn't figure it would matter much since I was going to be adding large amounts of black.

I used American Apparel Hassid to create the two black panels on the side Sally Hansen Silver Chrome for the lace hooks and a black acrylic paint for the laces. I topped all that with Orly Fifty-Four for some shimmer. You guys know how I am about shimmer. Loves it!

Definitely  not my best work, but it'll do. Next week's challenge is for a Vintage mani--what does that even mean? I'm glad I have all week to think about it. Thanks for stopping by and if you have any ideas about vintage mani look feel free to leave me a comment.