Saturday, June 30, 2012

Rainbow Favorites: Pink

Today is the final day of the Rainbow Favorites Challenge! I'm normally not a huge fan of pink, but I have a surprisingly large amount of pink polish in my stash. Today's polish is another that I've shown you before: China Glaze Strawberry Fields.


In my previous post, It doesn't really show how shimmery this polish is, but this post does. And of course I added some Bundle Monster stamping. This is plate BM 311 and Sally Hansen Whirlwind White. 


This is one of the stamps I was most excited about. While wearing it today, I realized this stamp like ones before, look like a difficult to master nail art technique: Newspaper Nails! I was really impressed with how well this stamp worked, but a little bummed that a lot of the design didn't get onto my nail thanks to my tiny nail beds. Fortunately I managed to get almost all of it on my thumb nail!


Check out all the blogs participating in the Rainbow Favorites Challenge!

Friday, June 29, 2012

Rainbow Favorites: Purple

Today I've chosen another color that I've shown you on the blog before: Color Club Wild at Heart. Seriously, if you don't have it BUY IT!!! You need it. Can you guess what I did to it? If your guess was "Added stamping from the new Bundle Monster set" you were correct!


I stamped with Bundle Monster BM 320 and Icing Metalhead (my favorite silver that had been missing since Christmas! It's amazing what you find when you clean your room.) I love how this looks like a water marble. It's another stamp from this set that if you have problems with a nail art technique, it give you an easy substitute :)

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Rainbow Favorites: Blue

On to blue. This one was so hard for me! Blue makes up the largest share in my stash. And that's not even counting teals! I chose one of my recent favorites: Zoya Zuza. It's a gorgeous metallic teal. I painted two coats for this.


And of course I used my new Bundle Monster set over it! This is Bundle Monster BM 322 and Kleancolor Metallic Aqua. Metallic aqua is another really gorgeous blue.


It's more of a subtle stamping, but I really liked these two together and the stamp is super cool. It's like a complicated tape mani, but you don't have to line tape up right and wait for your base coat to dry completely over 6 days (exaggeration). Mine weren't perfectly straight and centered, but I didn't mind too much.


Check out all the blogs participating in the Rainbow Favorites Challenge!



Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Rainbow Favorites: Green

Now it's time for green! My favorite green is Nubar Reclaim. Soooo gorgeous. I've shown it on the blog before so I just took pics of it after I added stamping.


I stamped with Bundle Monster BM 301 and Color Club Love 'Em and Leave 'Em. I love this stamp! It's a really cool gradient that is less messy than a sponge and super fast :)


Ahhhhh look at that holo goodness! If you don't have Reclaim, you really really need it!


Check out all the blogs participating in the Rainbow Favorites Challenge!


Summer Challenge: Blue/Green/Aqua

I'm finally doing another Summer Challenge mani! I looove these colors together so I was excited to play around with these.


I used China Glaze Gaga for Green, First Mate and Aquadelic. Gaga for Green is a fabulous apple green jelly. It only took two coats for opacity. Amazing. These are the kinds of colors that make me love China Glaze.


I freehanded the dots and stripes with dotting tools and striping brushes. this was super simple, but I really enjoyed the end result :) Also, I apologize for the lack of cleanup on the index nail. I didn't notice it until now. And for my cuticles! I feel like Colorado is sucking all moisture from my body!






Make sure you check out the other awesome blogs participating in the challenge! Click the image above if you'd like to join us!

Debbie at The Crumpet
Danielle at Little Book of Beauty
Neivys at Maquiclub Girl
Arlene at Nails and Vanities
Helena at Nail Wish
Róisín at Cuti-Clue-Les
Laurie at Dressed Up Digits
Lucie at Lucy's Stash
Emma at  Manicurity
Vic at Glowstars
Jackie at Mema's Manis
Rychelle at Colorsplash Nails
Stella at My Wet Nails
Missy at Missy's Manis
Christine at Lost in My Reverie
Bazzia at Polish My Mind
Michelle at Lacquer or Leave Her
Nikki at Lil Green Heart
Shayleen at Simply Handy All Year
Nayade at Toxic Vanity Toxic Vanity
Karen at Nails by Kaybel


Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Teal Tuesday: Gradient

This week for Teal Tuesday we're doing gradients! I'd just gotten Pretty & Polished Sand Art in the mail so I was dying to try it! I started with three coats of Icing Mr. Right Now. It's a gorgeous teal with blue and purple shimmer.


Then I did a gradient by layering Sand Art with the bottle brush. Remember sand art?! I was obsessed with it!


I love this! It's not my smoothest gradient, but this polish makes up for it :)


Check out these other Teal Tuesday blogs! If you'd like to join us, click on the badge at the top of my page!

Missy at Gnarly Gnails
Rhonda at Nails Beautiqued
Kirsten at Geeky Owl
Amanda at Mandy's Polish
Nat at No Holos!

Rainbow Favorites: Yellow

I don't have a lot of yellows for today, but I knew which one would be my favorite. I bought Wet n Wild The Wonder Yellows last summer and I looooove it! It's so bright and cheery. It tends to be kinda brush-strokey, but the awesome color redeems it :)


This is 3 coats. It took forever to dry! Still love it though.


And since I'm enamored with my new Bundle Monster plates, I used them again!


This is BM 305 and Kleancolors Metallic Pink. If you don't have the metallics, you need them! They're gorgeous and work great for stamping.


Check out all the blogs participating in the Rainbow Favorites Challenge!


Rainbow Favorites: Orange


Day two of the Rainbow Favorites Challenge is orange! I have quite a few great oranges, but I decided to go with my first favorite. I got this at the start of last summer when I first started obsessively buying nail polish :)


This is three coats of Sally Hansen Crushed. It was my go-to color of last summer. It's a slightly pink tone orange shimmer and is glowy in the sunlight.


I just got the new Bundle Monster plates in and couldn't wait to play with them!


I chose the citrus stamp from BM 308 and stamped with Sally Hansen Lightening. I really love how this turned out!


The stamp worked so well that my nails almost looked like nail stickers! And I'm not that good of a stamper, y'all! I'm really impressed with this set so far.


Check out all the blogs participating in the Rainbow Favorites Challenge!

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Rainbow Favorites: Red

The other day in PAA, Bec from Lacquer Dreams invited everyone to join in a rainbow themed week of favorites! Since I love rainbows, I joined in! Today's color is red :)


My favorite red is China Glaze Salsa. This is too coats. Doesn't it look so juicy?! It also matches my Beetle :D


The only thing I don't like about this polish: like most reds, it gets everywhere when you're removing it. 


I didn't want to do just swatches, so I decided to combine it with black! I did a glitter gradient with L.A. Girl Glitter Addict Uninhibited.


Check out all the blogs participating in the Rainbow Favorites Challenge!

Friday, June 22, 2012

Summer Challenge: Jungle Mani

Today's challenge prompt was Jungle or Parrots. Birds seriously freak me out, so I opted for jungle :) Also I had a bunch of greens sitting in my untrieds and I decided to knock them out :)


My goal was to make it look like a wet and lush rainforrest. I started with two coats of Sinful Colors HD Nail, then added the following glitters: Orly Here Comes Trouble, Love & Beauty small green glitter (L.A. Girl Purge dupe) and then a sparse green glitter with huge hexes. I loved this a lot! So dang sparkly!


Then to make it more Jungle-ly (or Jungle-like) I stamped with CND Green Scene and fauxnad plate M72. This green was too close to the layers under it and didn't really add anything :/


Finally I added the last layer of leaves with Bundle Monster plate BM19 and Sally Hansen Just In Lime! This is one of my favorite stamps of all time and why I ordered this Bundle Monster set first :) Although the leaves are kinda hard to see, I still really like this mani :)





Make sure you check out the other awesome blogs participating in the challenge! Click the image above if you'd like to join us!

Debbie at The Crumpet
Danielle at Little Book of Beauty
Neivys at Maquiclub Girl
Arlene at Nails and Vanities
Helena at Nail Wish
Róisín at Cuti-Clue-Les
Laurie at Dressed Up Digits
Lucie at Lucy's Stash
Emma at  Manicurity
Vic at Glowstars
Jackie at Mema's Manis
Rychelle at Colorsplash Nails
Stella at My Wet Nails
Missy at Missy's Manis
Christine at Lost in My Reverie
Bazzia at Polish My Mind
Michelle at Lacquer or Leave Her
Nikki at Lil Green Heart
Shayleen at Simply Handy All Year
Nayade at Toxic Vanity Toxic Vanity
Karen at Nails by Kaybel


Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Summer Challenge: Ice Cream Sundae

Ice cream sundae day!!! I looooooove ice cream. If you haven't have Bluebell, you haven't lived. Or had ice cream. Their Homemade Vanilla cannot be beat and they also have other amazing flavors like Banana Split and Blackberry Cobbler. Ugh my mouth is water just thinking about it. Also I really really love homemade ice cream! Two summers ago we lost our ice cream maker and looked all over town for a new one. Best homemade ice cream topping: Butterfinger. Oh. Man. Anyways, I'm kinda anal about food, so when I eat ice cream, I mix everything up so it's equally distributed through the ice cream. I feel like picking exactly what will go in each bite isn't fair to all the ingredients...weird, I know.


For this mani representing sprinkles mixed into my ice cream, I used two coats of OPI Don't Touch My Tutu, one coat of a Love & Beauty glitter (silver, red and blue), then DTMT, then glitter, then two more coats of DTMT. I really like how this turned out, even if it is more patriotic that anticipated haha.


I love jelly sandwiches! Even though this has several layers, after SV, it didn't really take that long for it to dry :)




Make sure you check out the other awesome blogs participating in the challenge! Click the image above if you'd like to join us!

Debbie at The Crumpet
Danielle at Little Book of Beauty
Neivys at Maquiclub Girl
Arlene at Nails and Vanities
Helena at Nail Wish
Róisín at Cuti-Clue-Les
Laurie at Dressed Up Digits
Lucie at Lucy's Stash
Emma at  Manicurity
Vic at Glowstars
Jackie at Mema's Manis
Rychelle at Colorsplash Nails
Stella at My Wet Nails
Missy at Missy's Manis
Christine at Lost in My Reverie
Bazzia at Polish My Mind
Michelle at Lacquer or Leave Her
Nikki at Lil Green Heart
Shayleen at Simply Handy All Year
Nayade at Toxic Vanity Toxic Vanity
Karen at Nails by Kaybel


Sinful Colors Zeus

I'm currently taking Classical Mythology in summer school. To get in the mood for studying, I bribed myself with Sinful Colors Zeus. Zeus is a gorgeous dusty purple with pink shimmer.


This is two easy coats. I did have some shrinkage after top coat :( Like the other recent Sinful polishes, I was really impressed with application and coverage. A second coat was almost unnecessary.


Summer Challenge: Kites

Today's summer challenge prompt was Kites or Balloons. I chose kites! I'm not very good with kites, and in my part of the world, it has to be a pretty heavy-duty kite to withstand our wind.


I started with two coats of Sally Hansen Yellow Kitty...I just got that name. It rhymes with Hello Kitty...oh man, I feel dumb hahaha. Anywhooooo! Then I freehanded kites and tails with Color Club Hydrangea Kiss, L.A. Colors Circuits, Sally Hansen Heat Flash, Went n Wild FuchsiaRama, OPI Thanks a Windmillion, Color Club Sweet Pea, and OPI I Don't Give a Rotterdam. They're not perfect, but neither are kites swirling around in the wind :)






Make sure you check out the other awesome blogs participating in the challenge! Click the image above if you'd like to join us!

Debbie at The Crumpet
Danielle at Little Book of Beauty
Neivys at Maquiclub Girl
Arlene at Nails and Vanities
Helena at Nail Wish
Róisín at Cuti-Clue-Les
Laurie at Dressed Up Digits
Lucie at Lucy's Stash
Emma at  Manicurity
Vic at Glowstars
Jackie at Mema's Manis
Rychelle at Colorsplash Nails
Stella at My Wet Nails
Missy at Missy's Manis
Christine at Lost in My Reverie
Bazzia at Polish My Mind
Michelle at Lacquer or Leave Her
Nikki at Lil Green Heart
Shayleen at Simply Handy All Year
Nayade at Toxic Vanity Toxic Vanity
Karen at Nails by Kaybel