31 Day Challenge, Day 6: Monochromatic

I know, I know. I'm not doing anything fancy, but I have been wanting a reason to use my matte top coat and this was the perfect opportunity.

Today's manicure is simply 2 coats of essie's Chills & Thrills with Seche Vite on part and Sally Hansen's Big Matte Top Coat on the other. Incidentally, my non-dominant hand is a wreck this week. I cut my hand on a box and managed to break every single nail on that hand. So for the next few weeks, please bear with me as my dominant hand will be the main feature.

I really like how the same polish gets a completely different look just by using a different top coat. I have always been one to prefer a very shiny top on my polish. When I discovered SV, I was so excited! It gives even my cheap polish a beautiful wet sheen. But a while back I bought this matte topper thinking I would try something different. I've used it a couple of times but just don't like the way it looks over the whole nail. When I was thinking about monochromatic colors that I could use for this manicure I realized this would be a perfect opportunity to use it!

To get this look, I used:

1. One coat of Sally Hansen Hard as Wraps as a base coat. 
2. One coat of Orly Bonder Rubberized Base Coat
3. Two coats of essie Chills and Thrills. It's a much purple-er color than what it shows here. I cannot get my camera to capture it in it's true form.
4. One coat of Seche Vite over the entire nail surface
5. Tape off a diagonal stripe using scotch tape (I used washi tape because it doesn't stick as permanently and doesn't pull up the polish). Make sure your polish is completely dry or you risk messing up your base when you pull the tape up.
6. Apply one coat of Sally Hansen Big Matte Top Coat over the exposed nail. 
7. Immediately remove the tape from the nail slowly. 
8. Enjoy!

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31 Day Challenge, Day 5: Black & White

This is a rush job. Just want to put that out there. Tonight I plan to go back and redo them, but I had to take my chipping polish off last night and couldn't leave them naked for long so I slapped a fast couple of coats of my custom Eugene Malibu Black, White and Red All Over over a base coat. SV on top.

I am supposed to get my next installment of Eugene Malibu in the mail today, and I know I ordered a custom black glitter. Hopefully I'll get inspired and do something with it for the 'official' challenge manicure. I'll update later, when they're pretty again.

In the meantime, here's a macro of my plain ole glitter manicure (pinky finger).

 

Update: I did get my next shipment from Eugene Malibu and I got my custom black polish. I asked for a black crelly with a silver shimmer and silver glitter. I am quite pleased with the finished result. And you get to see two black and whites! I took this with the flash so that you could see the beautiful holo, but it still doesn't do it justice. What do you think?

 

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31 Day Challenge, Day 4: Secondary Colors

For day 4 of the 31 Day Challenge we had the option of either Primary or Secondary colors. I, personally, am not a fan of the primary colors, so I went with secondary colors in bright neon variations.

The purple and white base are both Wet & Wild, the orange is my favorite Orly shade Melt My Popsicle and the green is an unknown (if you want to know, send me a message and I'll look).

What do you think? It was 11:00 pm when I did this, after running after a bunch of Cub Scouts. Turned our pretty well considering how tired I was.

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31 Day Challenge, Day 3: Blue

So, I completely failed at Day 2. I actually did do my nails in a pretty green shade, but my sinus infection was getting the better of me and they looked horrible. Then I went and died in bed while they were still wet and they looked even worse by morning. Needless to say, there isn't any photographic evidence of that #fail.

For day 3 we could do either blue or violet. I looked around for inspiration but ended up sticking to something simple. Mostly because I'm still sick and didn't have the patience, or a steady hand, to do anything complicated.

Today's mani is using my standard base coats of Sally Hansen Hard As Wraps (which does make a huge difference) and ORLY Bonder. On top, I have 2 coats of Shany blue (no name). This color really surprised me. I wasn't expecting to like it, in all honesty. But it went on very smooth and has the most lovely shimmer to it. Even now, I stop and look at it occasionally because it just makes me happy. :)

On the accent nail, I used my custom Eugene Malibu color called Beloved (found here). I am really happy with the way it goes on. It truly is a glitter bomb. It's packed! This is one coat of glitter over 2 coats of polish. On top is a coat of OPI fast dry top coat and a coat of Seche Vite. I still love SV, but I've found that using another topper underneath it, it helps prevent shrinking on the edges.

My lighting set up consists of my bathroom mirror lights right now, so please forgive me. I'm trying to figure out a way to do a good light set up that won't involve my husband laughing at me for making a 'nail photo lab'. I'm sure the day is coming.

So, what do you think?

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31 Day Challenge, Day 1: Red or Orange

So, I said before that I was going to do the 31 Day Challenge over the course of the year. Well, it started over at the beginning of September and several bloggers are going to do it twice a week instead of each day. This is much more along my lines of time commitment. You can find the challenge prompts here (courtesy www.willpaintnailsforfood.com)

For day 1, I did Red and Orange because I couldn't decided between one over the other. I want to apologize in advance for the picture. I know it's horrible. I have been trying to get sick (and confirmed a double ear and sinus infection today) so this one is rather sloppy and I couldn't get my hand to be still to get a good picture.



I like the idea behind the design, but I'm not terribly happy with the way it turned out. I used a red Shany polish that I got with my big set (look here). The orange is Orly Melt My Popsicle (FAVE) and the yellow is a combination of a pale yellow by Revlon and a mustardy color by Shany. Neither had names.

I did a base of the Revlon yellow because the Shany was really thin. Then I used a makeup sponge to make a gradient. I like the way it looks like a sunset. I wanted to add a palm tree but I didn't have a stamp and I knew my hands were too shaky to attempt drawing. No palm tree. :( I ended up adding some little square thingies and painting some attempted tiger stripes. Like I said, I'm not happy with it, and it will be coming off tonight. I should have a yellow or green manicure up tonight or tomorrow, depending on how awful I feel when I get home.

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