From the Bottom

I had such high hopes for this mani, and they just didn’t pan out! Turns out tiny thin lines are HARD. Especially with slightly goopy polish. Oh well!

I was trying to imitate this design by Kira Sweet. I have  to assume she used either acrylic or paint and not polish to get those tiny lines! My freehand just can’t measure up

The base color here is another of my new OPI polishes, Yank my Doodle. I really wanted this one when I saw it in the store because it looked like a fun mix between coral, orange, and brown. Think of the possibilities! The truth is though, I don’t actually much like it on my nails its a little too dark. That being said, it self-leveled nicely and covered well in three thin coats. Maybe I’d like it better if I liked the nail art more?

The white used here was my standard Snow me White by Sinful Colors…which I can no longer find at my local Rite Aid! So now where do I get my white when this one runs out? *gasp*

Anyway, even if this isn’t the best mani ever, I hope you enjoyed it! I should stay away from super intricate freehand for the near future :-p

Sunlight

Remember how I mentioned on Monday that I finally had time for bright manis? Well, here is one of them!

Sometime over the last few months I went hunting for the OPI Washington DC collection because there where a whole bunch of polishes that I wanted from it (which is honestly rare). I ended up getting 5 (plus a random red). In retrospect, only two of those 5 were ones I’m actually going to get much use out of! Silly past-Eva.

One of the ones I am really glad I got is this, Never a Dulles Moment. There are a few reasons I like this polish…even though I hate the color yellow. I have fewer yellow polishes in my collection than anything else by a substantial margin…but every now and then one is unique enough that I want it. This polish is a nice darker yellow, almost a mustard color (not quite fugly), and I figured i was time. Anyway, Never a Dulles Moment is a bit finicky…it does not self-level (but it is a yellow, so that’s just what happens with them). That said, it did try very fast. It took three thin coats to be opaque, but dried speedily enough that I didn’t mind.

Colors

~ Yellow: OPI – Never a Dulles Moment

~ Light orange: OPI – Freedom of Peach

~ Orange: ULTA – Sun of a Gun

~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black

~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White

~ Stamp: BP – L008

There are only a few reasonable way to wear yellow on your nails (rather than as a highlight color) and since I had already done flames recently…I had to make a gradient with orange and then watermarble. The gradient actually features another of the OPI DC polishes, but it will get its own post in the future. Hope you enjoyed!

Flame

I spent a long time trying to figure out how to use this plate, which was sent to me for review from the Born Pretty Store. Fire-colored gradient with black stamping? Gradient stamping? I tried doing yellow and orange and red…but they didn’t pop against black! So I had the brilliant idea of layering them over GOLD. Because that just sounded like fun.

I ended up using a gold glitter rather than a metallic, so the fire looks a little more granular. I think if I were to do this again, I’d try it with a metallic and see what happens! I do like this quite a bit though.

In the end, each nail got stamped 4 times: twice in gold with the two overlaid designs, once with a yellow-orange blotted mix, and finally with a purple-red mix. Surprisingly, this didn’t take that long! Mostly because the plate was so well-etched that transferring the designs was a piece of cake. Even the solid body of the bird on my thumb!

Colors
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Gold: Sally Hansen – Go for Gold
~ Yellow: WOW – #301
~ Orange: ULTA – Sun of a Gun
~ Red: Pure Ice – Siren
~ Purple: Zoya – Margo
~ Dark purple: Zoya – Monica
~ Stamp: BP – X012 (Exoticism)

That’s it for today…awesome fire! I’ve honestly had my eyes on this stamp forever because I love flames but I HATE hand-painting them! And this stamp has SO MANY FLAMES. You can pick it up for yourself at the Born Pretty Store on sale for $1.99. Don’t forget to use my 15% off coded, LY5X31!

Nemo and Dory

I painted these in May of 2016…so I should probably actually post them. I just wanted to wait until I had enough disney-themed manis to post them all in a week! Whoops.

This mani was inspired by Finding Nemo. Yes, these are super-stylized, yes I still think it’s cool!

I got the idea from Klo’s to me, although she used much brighter aqua for her underwater…I wish I had a similar blue but I just don’t! So mine is more of a teal-based blue. Either way, I loved her idea for the surf!

Colors
~ Light teal: Maybelline – Green with Envy
~ Teal: Zoya – Wednesday
~ Light blue: Zoya – Rocky
~ Blue: Zoya – Yummy
~ Dark blue: Zoya – Ling
~ Dory blue: Sinful Colors – Endless Blue
~ Yellow: WOW – #301
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Orange: Zoya – Thandie

That’s all for today! Any other Disney or Pixar movies I should work on painting (I mean, and hopefully posting less than a year after they were initially painted)?

Neon Chevrons

I saw these on pinterest (with a nifty tutorial) months ago, and have been waiting for the perfect time to attempt them myself. Ta-da!

The design (and color choices) are lifted directly from Sassy Shelly. I’ve seen other people attempt similar things with results that I find mediocre…what struck me about these was the color combo and color order, so I tried to emulate that! I then went ahead and added a 3D glittery bit…because.

Of course, I don’t own any of the colors that she used (nor do I own any Cirque polishes, sadly, as they are expensive), so I made do with what I had. The end result was pretty good! Her white stamping polish is much better than mine, and her peachy-ornage is darker (mine is a pastel neon). I also STILL somehow don’t own just a plane holo topper. I need to get on that. So I used a coarser one which doesn’t look quite as good. I also don’t own wavy stencils, only chevron ones, so my nails have sharp points. Otherwise, I think its a pretty decent replica!

Colors
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Green: Essie – The More the Merrier
~ Blue: Zoya – Rocky
~ Purple: L’oreal – Paparazzi Pleaser
~ Pink: WOW – #371
~ Orange: Maybelline – Bleached in Peach
~ Holo: KBShimmer – I Only Have Ice for You

I basically just followed Shelly’s tutorial! It took a while mostly just to let the base colors dry, but was quite simple. This also reminds me that I should make more stamping decals! If I make them thin and use them the same day, they actually bend to my nail shape :-p

Warm Gradient Flourish

I had no idea what to call this. I do wish I had shifted where the center of the circle was a little more each time (not had the two middle fingers facing each other). That being said, I love how this looks!

This came about because I wanted to play with purchased jelly polish and home-made jellies. The only home-made one on display here is the orange (which I made by mixing Soap Bubbles Orange by Esmaltes da Kelly, which is barely orange at all, with Siren by Pure Ice). I made  a green as well, which is a stunning grass green when wet but dries to a weird brown! I don’t know what to do about that (I ended up re-making a green using the yellow base, which doesn’t change color as it dries the way the orange does).

Regardless, to achieve this, I painted my nails black, then added a stamp in white from BC plate 10. I then added two layers of top coat just to make sure I wouldn’t smudge the stamp when I started playing with the jellies, and went to town!

Colors
~ Black: Wet n’ Wild – Black Creme
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Purple jelly: Zoya – Katherine
~ Pink jelly: Zoya – Paloma
~ Orange jelly: custom!
~ Yellow jelly: Esmaltes da Kelly – Yellow Soap Bubbles

The inspiration photo for this was a lot more…pastel. And apparently just used pastel stamping polishes (so I might have to try that too). Don’t get me wrong, I love my vibrant polishes! But it didn’t come out exactly as I expected. Hope you enjoyed!

Icy Penguins

Christmas and winter manis galore! Starting out this week with something more winter-y than Christmas-y, but we’ll get there!

This design was inspired by badgirlnails. I just need to permanently bookmark everything she does. These are adorable!

I was actually brave enough to wear this to the children’s hospital while I was rotating there, and the few people who noticed them loved it. So, score!

Colors
~ Blue: Milani – Cyberspace
~ White: Wet n’ Wild – French White Creme
~ Black: Wet n’ Wild – Black Creme
~ Orange: ULTA – Sun of a Gun

Hope you enjoyed!