FingerFood's Theme Buffet: Gradient cartoon nails

Happy Summer Solstice! The sun woke us up around 5 AM today (the downside of living on the eastern side of the time zone), so yeah, it's definitely summer! Make sure to enjoy the sun before the days get short again (don't forget your sunscreen)!

For this week's FingerFood challenge, we did cartoon/comic manis. I knew I had to try out the famous cartoon look--it's one of those classics that every nail artist should do at least once! I made it a little more exciting by starting with a neon gradient using China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy and Orly Tropical Pop. As usual, my camera couldn't really capture the neons accurately, but they are definitely eye-searing in real life!

For the black outline I used a Sally Hansen nail art pen, which was much easier than using a brush, although the paint tends to crack when it dries, so I had to go over some spots several times. I added the "glare" with Maybelline Porcelain Party. Then I mattified everything using Revlon matte topcoat. I'm really happy with how this turned out!

The Neverending Pile Challenge: Prettiest(?) polishes

Hey folks! Today's prompt for the Neverending Pile Challenge is prettiest. Now, I don't know about you, but it's impossible for me to choose one "prettiest" polish in my collection. (Almost) all my polishes are pretty in their own way--a creme is pretty in a different way from a glitterbomb, you know? So instead of trying to come up with some kind of prettiness rubric, I just grabbed a couple untried polishes that jumped out at me from my stash list as being really interesting.

I ended up wearing Orly Fowl Play, a deep red-toned purple jelly with orange-yellow flakies, tiny blue glitter and silver flecks; and Picture Polish Paradise, a blue-green sparkly foil with purple and holographic rose glitter. Now, I have to apologize a bit for my photographs: Paradise is so shiny that it basically gave my camera a panic attack, so I could only manage these side-on shots. But I hope they convey how these polishes look! I got two indoor shots and a sunlight shot. (One day I'll get a real lightbox, I promise.)

Orly Fowl Play and Picture Polish Paradise. Three coats with Out the Door topcoat.

Did you notice that Paradise has a slight color shift too?


Before I go, I realized I forgot to post this picture yesterday--here's Trudy supervising my stash-photographing process!

Total untrieds tried: 53 + chevron decals + 1 stamping plate


 

2014 Blogger Challenge #11: My polish stash...photographed!

Good morning! I'm finally returning to the 2014 Blogger Challenge. You might have noticed that I haven't done it for a couple months--there were some prompts I didn't have much to say about, then I kinda got distracted. But I thought today's topic would be a perfect place to get back on the horse. The prompt is collections. What do I have a giant collection of? Nail polish, of course! If you like to see pictures of organized stuff, you will like this post!

This will obviously be image-heavy, so click the jump to see it all!

Swatch: Orly Milky Way

The product in this post was purchased by me. All opinions are my own.

Hey! There's less than a week left to enter the giveaway I'm participating in at Marbles for Polish!

It's Friday! Anyone have any fun weekend plans? I've already started working on my next polish collection, so I'll probably spend some more time on that! (Have you checked out my shop lately?)

Today I've got a new polish from Orly's Galaxy FX collection. This is another case where I think the company looked at indie polishes while coming up with their collection--look at all the glitter! Milky Way is a pastel blue base with small white, red-orange and holographic hexes, plus light blue microglitter.

Orly Milky Way. One coat with Out the Door and Gelous topcoats.

(Time to shorten my nails, huh? They're getting a bit duck-footed.)

I love that Orly went all-out with the glitter in this one. Despite the base color being pretty sheer, I only needed one coat because the glitter covers everything up. I didn't really have problems getting even coverage. The only downsides were 1. the formula was hard to spread because of all the glitter (the polish itself doesn't seem incredibly thick) and 2. even after two layers of topcoat it still feels bumpy. The texture is only visible in closeups though.

Milky Way is available at Orly's website ($10 for 18 ml), or you might be able to find it at your local Sally Beauty like I did (I'm not seeing it on the site right now).

The product in this post was purchased by me. All opinions are my own.

Today's mani: falling leaves

Happy Friday! I have a cold right now. :-( But I still had the energy to do my nails today! I felt like having a fall-themed mani, since the leaves have really started to turn here. I also wanted to practice some freehanding.

The base color is Essie Armed and Ready (which has a nice gold shimmer in the bottle that's hardly visible on the nail). I painted on the leaves with Orly Sand Castle, Julep Minka and Julep Otte.

Is anyone else excited about fall? My favorite part of it is being able to get hot apple cider everywhere!

Today's mani: floral stamps from MoYou

The products in this post were purchased by me. All opinions are my own.

Recently I bought a few stamping plates from MoYou, because I hardly have any and I want to start doing stamping more. One of the plates, Pro Collection 09, has a bunch of cool floral stamps I wanted to try, so I thought, instead of using one or two, why not use four?

(Smudging due to topcoat, boo!)

I used Orly Coachella Dweller for the base and Revlon Stiletto for the stamps. I like the idea of doing flowers in black, 'cause it's kind of the opposite of what you'd expect! I think the stamp on my index finger is my favorite of these, but there are 14 more on the plate so I need to try more!

The products in this post were purchased by me. All opinions are my own.

My wedding nails!

I'm back, everyone! On Saturday my fiance and I got married. We had an absolutely wonderful time with our family and friends, despite the weird weather we've been having on the east coast--in fact, it was raining about 15 minutes before and 30 minutes after our outdoor ceremony, but during the ceremony the sun came out and it was beautiful! The whole weekend went by in a blur, and I think it's still sinking in for both of us that we're actually married!

Of course I decided to do my own nails, since I thought it would be a lot more meaningful than just getting them done in a salon. I didn't choose anything complicated for the sake of my sanity, but I still got a lot of compliments on them!

(Sorry they look a bit scruffy--it's been a rough weekend!)

I used two coats of Essie Waltz, a white jelly, and then did the flowers with acrylic paint, purple to match my wedding colors. (It wasn't as simple as it sounds; I had to redo them multiple times...) Then I topped everything with a coat of Orly Love Each Other, a clear base with very subtle purple/pink/blue shifting shimmer. This was barely visible, but it made me feel a little more special! You can just see a hint of the shimmer on my thumb and ring finger.

Anywho, I'm looking forward to getting back on the horse when it comes to blogging, and I should have a fun post for July 4th!

Swatch: Orly Sparkling Garbage

The polish in this post was purchased by me. All opinions are my own.

Before we get started, I wanted to tell my loyal readers that since I'm getting married in one month from today(!!!!!), I'm going to be giving my nails a bit of a break. I'll still paint them from time to time (for the next Polish Days for example), but I'll be trying to leave them bare more often than not.

That doesn't mean I won't be posting! I'd especially love to answer some language questions from you all, so send 'em in! You should also follow me on Facebook and/or Twitter, as I post lots of things there that aren't quite blog-worthy.

Moving along! I don't know why I keep insisting on swatching holographics when I know my camera can't really handle it...but they're so pretty! Today I have Orly Sparkling Garbage from their new Mash Up collection. It's a pale teal jelly with a metric crapload of tiny holographic glitter in it. This stuff nearly seared my retinas in the sun!

First off, here's a shot in the shade, where the glitter looks silver. You can see how tightly packed it is!

Orly Sparkling Garbage. Three coats with one coat Out the Door topcoat.

And here's the obligatory out-of-focus rainbow shot. Even though this is a scattered holo, there is just so much glitter that at times it almost looks like a linear holo!

Finally, this lightbox shot shows off the color of the base a bit better.

 

The formula on this was very nice, better than other Orlys I've tried actually. I didn't get any bubbles or pulling. Even though Sparkling Garbage is a jelly, the glitter does a pretty good job at hiding my nail line.

I wish I could show you the full glory of this polish, but trust me, if you like holos you'll love this!

I bought Sparkling Garbage at Sally Beauty Supply ($7.19 for 18 ml, only $6.49 if you're a member of the Beauty Club). Orly polishes are 3-free.

The polish in this post was purchased by me. All opinions are my own.

Polish Days: The number 5

I'm excited--this is my first time participating in the Polish Days blogger event! The theme for this month is "the number 5". This is a pretty broad prompt, so I thought for a while about what I should do. Then it hit me: the five wizards!

If you're at all familiar with The Lord of the Rings, you know about the wizards Gandalf and Saruman. But did you know there were actually five wizards? They were angelic beings incarnated in mortal bodies, sent to help the people of Middle-Earth fight Sauron.

Gandalf the Grey/White gets place of honor on my thumb. (Did you know his real name is Olorin?) The base is Maybelline Porcelain Party, and I painted his G rune in acrylic paint. (I love acrylic! So great for nail art!)

Saruman is on my index finger. I used Revlon Carbonite as the base because it reminds me of the war machines he built at Isengard. Then I painted the White Hand (the symbol his orc soldiers wear) with acrylic paint.

On my middle finger is Radagast the Brown. He's mentioned a few times in Lord of the Rings. He was the one who sent the Eagle to rescue Gandalf from the top of Orthanc (no magic moths in the book!). He was mostly interested in animals and plants, and didn't do much to help fight Sauron. Radagast's real name is Aiwendil, 'bird-friend', so I gave him a blackbird.  The base color is Sephora by OPI Leotard Optional, and the bird is done in acrylic (I think it turned out really well!).

Finally, we don't know much about the last two wizards, except that they were friends and wore blue. They traveled far to the east, off the known maps of Middle-Earth, to fight Sauron's influence there, and were never heard from again. Their names were Alatar and Pallando, or Morinehtar and Romestamo ('darkness-slayer' and 'East-helper').

Since we don't really know about their personalities, I chose to give them a kind of wizardly-looking sweep of dots. :-D The base color is China Glaze Hanging in the Balance, and the dots are Julep Millie, Orly Royal Navy, Wet 'n' Wild I Need a Refresh-Mint, and Wet 'n' Wild Shameless. I'm a little mad that I blurred the dots on my ring finger, even though I waited an hour before putting on topcoat!

Well, am I a geek or what? How did I do? I had fun doing this mani, and I'm hoping to participate in future Polish Days!

Today's mani: Earth Day!

Monday, April 22 is Earth Day! I thought I'd celebrate by doing a mani (how else?). This one is a bit special because it involves my first attempt at painting freehand nail art, as well as my first go at stamping! Let me know how I did!

(You'll also notice that my nails are much shorter than in my last pics...I had my first break in two months and had to cut them all short. So tragic...)

On my left hand I did a human footprint along with frog, tiger and bird prints. This was to convey the idea that we are just another variety of life on this planet and depend on the environment for our survival.

The base color on this hand is Essie Sand Tropez, over which I sponged L'Oreal Eiffel for You to try to get a sandy effect. The footprints are done with Julep Meryl.

On my other hand I did a seascape with a whale tail and some holographic fish.

The gradient is done with China Glaze Hanging in the Balance and Orly Shockwave. (Boy, my camera never photographs blue correctly! This should look more green-toned.) The whale is Revlon Timeless; the fishies are Color Club Angel Kiss.

And on the (blurry) thumbs:

The stamping is Color Club Angel Kiss and Beyond, using plate W104 from this set.

Hope you like! And if you have some money to spare, please consider donating at www.earthday.org!

All polishes in this post were purchased by me; all opinions are my own.