31 Days of Manis: Day 7, Black & White Nails: Laced

Seven days of manis already? Wow. Today calls for Black and White nails, so I pulled out a black transparent lace transfer foil that I bought from a UK eBay seller JennySellsFoils.

I started with a base of two coats of Orly Au Champagne, from their 2011 holiday collection Holiday Soiree. It's an icy shimmery white. I topped that with Seche Vite waited for it to dry and then moved on to the next step.

For foil transfers to work you need a foil adhesive. I used the one I bought from Dollar Nail Art. You apply the foil adhesive over your dry nail polish. It goes on light blue and after about five minutes it turns clear and tacky and is ready for you to put the foil on top. Using small strips, I smoothed the foil over my nail with a q-tip. After about a minute or so you pull the transfer foil up and your design is left on the nail.

This turned out to be a huge pain in the ass. As you can see the design didn't completely transfer on my ring finger. I don't know if I had the timing wrong on the glue or the transfer but this came out a hot mess. I had to do several nails over several times. This is seriously the best I could get it to look. And that's really not saying much...ugh...I had such high hopes for this mani.Oh well at least I only have to look at this monstrosity for one day.

Well I'm all ready to see what L, Kisten and  Katherine have come up with. Make sure you check them out too. Tomorrow is metallic nails. Hopefully those will be easier for me! 

31 Days of Manis: Day 6, Nails Inc. Houses of Parliament

It's Day 6 and Violet nails. My favorite color family!! I have so much purple nail polish it's ridiculous. I had a really hard time choosing a nail polish for this day but in the end I went with Nails Inc. Houses of Parliament.

I've been wanting to try the magnetic trend, and I got this during Sephora's Friends and Family sale. With 20% off the $16 price tag I was all in!

Houses of Parliament starts out as a this rich dark purple metallic. 

I'm showing you my right hand for this because I had already used the magnet on my left hand before I thought 'Oh, maybe I should show a 'before' picture."

This is one coat of the polish seen here. Please excuse all these bumps and ridges. I really should buff those or at least used my ridge filling base coat, but I used CND Stickey and that's what I got. It didn't matter because the polish is on the thick side and once you put on the second coat it smooths all that out. 

So how this works is you paint your all your nails with one coat. Then, one nail at a time you paint your second coat and hold the magnetized cap over it to create the design. The polish dries super quickly, so you really have to move fast. Here's what you end up with:

I held the magnet over each nail for about 20 seconds, but I really think it works almost instantly. 

Now I'm about to head over and check my challenge buddies L, Kisten and  Katherine to see what they did for their Violet nails and you should too! Tomorrow is Black AND White nails. This should be fun! 

Ciao! Enjoy your Sunday!

31 Days of Manis: Day 5, Blue Nails

It's Saturday! Wooo Hooo! I love the weekend! And I was ready to get on with Day 5. Yesterday's mani started to grow on me, but eh...I don't think I'll be reaching for it all that often.

I was all set with my blue nails choice, Barielle Slate of Affairs, but then I was at Wal-mart this morning and saw the Nicole by OPI "Kardashian Kolor" collection and picked up Kendall on the Katwalk and decided that they must be worn together. So here's how that turned out.

Barielle is actually one of my favorite brands. I did two coats of Slate of Affairs and topped it off with Seche Vite. I absolutely love the "secret shimmer" in Slate of Affairs. 

Here's a bottle shot so you can see it a little better:

I did one coat of Kendall on the Katwalk on the accent nail. It adds so much blue, green and purple glittery goodness! Love!

I'm really excited about tomorrow's challenge: Violet nails. My favorite color!

Be sure to check out what my challenge buddies: L, Kisten, and Katherine

used for their blue manis! 

See ya tomorrow!

31 Days of Manis: Day 4, Green Nails: Zoya Apple

Happy Friday! It's Day 4! Green nails day. I'm less than thrilled with my choice, Zoya Apple. 

It's pretty sheer so I did three coats. It's a perfectly beautiful grassy green color with tons of gold shimmer, but I'm just not feeling it on me. 

Kermie was right. It ain't easy being green. 

Anyway, hopefully my challenge buddies: L, Kisten, and Katherine fared better with their green manis. Oh and I found some new challengers yesterday: Delaynee, The Asian Girl, Elizabeth, and Zara.

Check them out too! Blue nails are up next!

31 Days of Manis: Day 3, Yellow Nails: Thrilla in (American Apparel) Manila

I'm nobody's Muhammad Ali (or Joe Frazier for that matter), but it is Day 3 of "31 Days of Manis" and Yellow nails are on the agenda.

So I bring to you American Apparel Manila.

American Apparel makes really nice cremes, so I had confidence in this yellow creme. Don't get it twisted though, you will need three coats of this. That's what you're seeing in these pics, but it does level nicely and with a good top coat like Seche Vite, it won't have you pulling out your hair.

I hope you are seeing the true color here. This was hard to photograph. Just as the name suggests this really does resemble a manila envelope. I like it because it's bright but not so garish against my skin tone. 

Worth the effort for multiple coats in my opinion.

Green nails are up next for tomorrow.

Be sure to check out L, Kisten and  Katherine to see their yellow manis. Ciao!

31 Days of Manis: Day 2, Orange Nails: Essie Braziliant

Happy Hump Day! It's Day 2 of my "31 Days of Manis" challenge with L of Bright Lights, Big Color, Kisten of Polish Pauper and Katherine of Manicure Addict. Day 2 calls for orange nails, but since it's also Pink Wednesday I went with something that would satisfy both.

Enter Essie Braziliant!

Described by Weingarten (creator of Essie Cosmetics) as a "hot orange with a touch of shimmer" this baby is the namesake of Essie's 2011 summer collection. I did two coats here and topped it with Seche Vite.

The pink shimmer running through this gives off a coral feel on my skin tone.

 

It's orange. It's pink. It's Day 2. 

Have you guys joined in on the fun? I'd love to see your manis! Tweet me a pic!  

Tune in tomorrow for Day 3: Yellow nails.

Don't forget to check out my challenge buddies: L of Bright Lights, Big Color, Kisten of Polish Pauper and Katherine of Manicure Addict.

31 Days of Manis: Day 1, Red Nails: OPI Smitten With Mittens

For the month of November, I'll be doing a 31-day manicure challenge with L of Bright Lights, Big Color, Kisten of Polish Pauper and Katherine of Manicure Addict. The challenge is broken down into three-ten day segments: colors, patterns and inspiration--with the 31st day dedicated to re-creating your favorite challenge mani. You can see the full schedule here.

First up on the "31 Days of Manis" Challenge is red nails. I'm not much of a red nail polish girl, but I found OPI's Smitten with Mittens back when I picked up the second half of the holiday Revlons and I just couldn't pass it up. Boy am I glad I didn't. This shade is from OPI's 2009 Holiday Wishes collection. It's funny how these old collections randomly pop up at CVS. I don't know where they get their stock, but I'm glad they do!

I did two coats here and topped it with Seche Vite. I love this deeper shade of red and how the golden shimmer gives it a "lit from within" look.

This is a red I can get behind. A red I can believe in.

Now head on over to check out these fab ladies for their Day 1 manis: L of Bright Lights, Big Color, Kisten of  Polish Pauper and Katherine of Manicure Addict. I can't wait to see what they've come up with.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's challenge mani: orange nails.