Today's mani: Spring watercolor gradient

Hi all! Have you entered my bloggiversary giveaway yet??

Today I decided to retry the watercolor gradient method that I learned from Nailasaurus (my first attempt is here). This time I was thinking about "April showers bring May flowers" for the color scheme and picked four teal/green colors: Revlon Trendy, Zoya Wednesday, Illamasqua Nomad and Essie Mojito Madness. I also mixed the polishes together to get more colors in the gradient. What do you think?

I really like the painterly look you can get from this method, and it's almost impossible to mess up!

Happy weekend!

Today's mani: Dotted double gradient

Hi folks! Today we are getting yet another snowstorm. This might be the most snow I've ever seen on the ground at one time. We're running out of room to put it all!

Yesterday I decided to fool around with some new Zoyas I got during their last sale. I got three cremes that ended up looking nice together, so I tried out a gradient dotticure with them.

The base color is Claire, and the other two are Aubrey and Brigitte. I started by making a triangle shape in dots with Claire at the tip of the nail, and making each row one dot longer than the previous. I made the gradient more gradual by mixing the polishes together to get five colors in total. Once the triangles were done, I filled in the rest of the space using the same colors but starting with the lightest color at the bottom. Then I mattified everything!

I think the end result looks pretty cool, although I have to work on getting my dots more even.

Today's mani: Reciprocal gradient with A England

Happy Friday!! Today I tried out a reciprocal gradient inspired by some of the manis at Simply Nailogical. She does some amazing stuff with gradients!

Unfortunately the colors I used weren't different enough to make the pattern as visible as I wanted. But in real life my nails still look pretty cool and subtle. I will definitely have to do this one again!

The polishes I used were A England Ascalon, Sleeping Palace and Briarwood. In case it's not clear what I did, I started by doing a gradient of all three, let that dry, then put down Scotch tape in triangle shapes and did another gradient going in the opposite direction.

Today's mani: Gruesome gradient

Happy Hump Day! October is almost over, can you believe it?? I hate how fast time goes by!

Well, you might have noticed that I haven't really gotten into the Halloween spirit as far as my nails go. Halloween just doesn't interest me now that I'm too old to get free candy. Plus, orange doesn't look very good on me. But I figured I should do at least a couple manis before the holiday passes.

Instead of orange, I decided to use a slime green color, which is equally creepy to me! I did a gradient with Essie Shake Your $$ Maker and Revlon Stiletto. When I was done, I decided it needed something more, so I did a little stamp with Winstonia plate W116 and Julep Harley (my go-to stamping silver). What do you think--is it ghastly enough?

I'll probably do one more Halloween mani, since I doubt this one will last until Friday (I'm going to be deep-cleaning our apartment for the next few days). See you then, boys and ghouls!

Today's mani: Sunset gradient

Hi all! Boy, I've been a bad blogger lately, haven't I? The truth is, I've barely done my nails at all lately. I sometimes feel like it's not worth it, because my mani will be ruined by either 1) making nail polish or 2) packing up orders. Yesterday I decided I had to do something because I had a tutoring job to go to. So I threw something together which I'm not 100% happy with.

First I did a gradient using Picture Polish Citrus, L'Oreal Orange You Jealous?, Revlon Passionate Pink and Zoya Audrina. I can't remember the last time I did a 4-color gradient (have I ever??) and it turned out nicely. I just keep forgetting that orange looks better in the bottle than on me!

The stamp is what really annoys me. I first wanted to do a cloud stamp, but after I finished the gradient I realized the stamp I picked wasn't going to work (it stamps the sky, not the clouds themselves). So I switched to this sun stamp (Winstonia plate W111), and of course I didn't manage to center it properly. Bleh. Plus I have shrinkage on my tips.

Today I've been grouchy too (lip balm making is giving me trouble, plus the endless stress of trying to find a job). But I'm going to try to perk up and do my nails more regularly. He Picks My Polish is coming up in a few days, and Mr. ALIQUID already knows what colors he wants!

Today's mani: cappuccino watercolor gradient

Happy Monday! Today I decided to try out a new-to-me nail art technique. I was inspired by the Nailasaurus mani that I featured in my Museum-Worthy manis post for September. She did a beautiful gradient using a nail art brush instead of a sponge, which makes it look more rustic and artsy than a traditional gradient. (There's a tutorial in her post if you want to see how it's done!)

I decided to do an all-brown gradient. The end result looks like a cappuccino to me!

The polishes I used were, from dark to light: Revlon Stormy Night, Julep Annemarie, Julep Otte, and OPI You're So Vain-illa.

I actually did this mani twice. The first time I put too much polish on the brush and lost the brush-strokey look I was going for. You almost want to do a dry-brush technique, and don't forget that you can go over the same place again if the color is too sparse.

Have a great week!

Today's mani: golden green gradient with A England

Hey there! Hope you had a great weekend! (Have you entered my giveaway yet?)

Today I wanted to do some sort of nail art, since I've gotten out of the habit recently. I realized that 1) I hadn't used my bottle of A England Dragon yet (a travesty!) and 2) I hadn't done a gradient in a long time. So I decided to do a triple gradient with all A England polishes.

The top color is Beauty Never Fails, the middle is Dragon, and the tips are Princess Sabra (which I swatched here). I think these polishes go perfectly together because they all have tones of gold and green, but they're different enough to make a nice gradient!

My only regret with Dragon is that the pretty orange shimmer you see in the bottle didn't really show up strongly on the nail. It is still amazing though!

The Neverending Pile Challenge: matte gradients

Hey folks! Today's Neverending Pile Challenge prompt is gradient. Another great excuse to use multiple untried polishes! For this one I decided to go all neutral and all matte (I have a surprisingly large number of matte neutrals!). I think this is the first time I've done horizontal gradients. I made each nail carry on one of the colors from the previous nail so each blends into the next.

I'm not sure what this reminds me of--TV static maybe? (Do you guys remember static??) The polishes I used were Maybelline Mod Moss, Julep Noelle, Julep Nora and Julep Amber. Interestingly, I tried this mani with a topcoat and didn't like it--I think it accented the different colors and made the mani look kind of confused.


Total untrieds tried: 45


 

The Neverending Pile Challenge: Vampy gradient

Happy Monday! Today's Neverending Pile Challenge prompt is vampy. This wasn't hard for me, since I'm constantly buying dark polishes (I think I'm a goth at heart).

I started with a base of China Glaze Lubu Heels (a beautiful black with red microglitter) and sponged on Revlon Saucy at the tips. This would make a spooky Halloween mani!

Total untrieds tried: 30

FingerFood's Theme Buffet #13: Monochrome

Hi guys! I'm really feeling spring here today--it's 50 degrees and sunny! T-shirt weather is coming soon, I just know it...

FingerFood's Theme Buffet has been going so well that after we finished all the original prompts, we came up with a whole new set so everyone could keep going! If you want to join in, just join our Facebook group!

This week's theme is monochrome, from the Greek meaning "one color". Having to stick to just one basic color is a good excuse to play with different finishes! I decided to try doing a gradient of a holographic and a creme polish. I've never done this before, but I love how it turned out--really subtle and elegant I think!

The polishes I used are Layla Jade Groove and Revlon Eclectic. Here's a sunlight shot for some more holo sparkle!

Have you seen any other gradient manis using the same color in different finishes? Leave 'em in the comments!

FingerFood's Theme Buffet #10: Dots and stripes

Finally posting this week! I've been working really hard on my next polish collection (and posting previews on my Facebook page) and I think you guys are really going to like it!

Today I got around to this week's FingerFood challenge. The theme this week is dots and stripes. I cheated slightly by making my dots into stripes!

I love this mani because it's pretty minimalist in terms of color, but still interesting to look at. I started with a gradient of Zoya Bevin and Julep Roc Solid, then mattified it with Revlon matte top coat. Finally I added alternating lines of dots using the same two polishes. In real life the dots fade even more into the ends of the gradient and it looks really cool!

Check out the rest of this week's manis!

An InLinkz Link-up

FingerFood's Theme Buffet #3: weather

Good morning! It's time once again for FingerFood's Theme Buffet! The prompt for this week was "weather". I decided to recreate another mani I did about a year ago (pic is down below).

First, today's nails:

It's a beautiful day! (Unlike the weather here lately!) I started with a gradient of Zoya Blu and Wet 'n' Wild I Need a Refresh-Mint. Then I made the clouds by sponging on Maybelline Porcelain Party with a little corner of a makeup sponge. The trick to doing clouds is to make sure there's not too much polish on your sponge--you want the clouds to be fuzzy and translucent. Finally, I painted the hot air balloon with Revlon Red Carpet, Sally Hansen Lightening, China Glaze Hanging in the Balance, and Julep Otte; I sponged one more cloud on over the balloon to give a little 3D effect.

Now here's my old mani that inspired this one:

The clouds are a little heavy-handed, but I still love this mani! I don't think I would have been able to manage the balloon a year ago though. :-)

Don't forget to check out the rest of today's challenge manis below or by following the Pinterest board!

FingerFood's Theme Buffet #1: Animal Print

Happy Sunday! Today I'm starting another nail art challenge, FingerFood's Theme Buffet. This is a weekly thing, so it shouldn't be as stressful as the 31-Day Challenge was! The first prompt is animal print. I had to do leopard print again because I love it so much, plus it's incredibly simple to do!

I decided to make things a little more interesting by starting out with a gradient background. I used two DIFFERENTdimension polishes, Totally and Gnarly, which are super bright neons with holographic shimmer. This mani is a nice antidote to the horrible winter weather we've been having here (not so bad today luckily)!

I did the leopard spots using a dotting tool and my favorite black and white polishes, Revlon Stiletto and Sinful Colors Snow Me White.

Here are the upcoming prompts for the rest of the challenge:

If you're interested in joining in, you can request to be added to the Facebook group. This is a really low-key challenge--you don't even have to do all the weeks if you don't want to! You can also follow the Pinterest board to see everyone's manis!

Here are the rest of today's animal print nails!

Today's mani: Thanksgiving nails

I finally got a chance to do my nails today! I had to do my Thanksgiving nails since we're traveling tomorrow--hopefully they'll last through Thursday...

I first did a gradient using Deborah Lippmann Just Walk Away Renee and Revlon Stormy Night, then I added some leaf stamps with Revlon Gold Coin. (The stamp patterns are all from Winstonia plate W119.) I really like the look of the gradient; I just wish the smaller leaf patterns had come out more distinctly (I think the problem is that I stamped with a foil polish).

Now I'm in the mood for turkey and cranberries...

I hope all my American readers have a great holiday! I'll be back soon with a giveaway!!


(Pssst...have you stopped by my Etsy shop yet?)

Today's mani: rainy gradient dots

Hey all! Did you have a fun Halloween? We only got three groups of trick-or-treaters because our house is up a flight of steps from the road. A bunch of lazy kids in our neighborhood, I guess. :-/

This week Revlons were on sale at my grocery store, so I grabbed three and used them all in today's mani.

It's my old pal, the dotticure! This mani feels really fall-like to me, especially since it's been raining a lot here lately. The base color is Revlon Gray Suede (a dumb name, since it's clearly tan), and the first and last rows of dots are Eclectic and Chic. For the middle two rows I blended the two blues together.

I wish my cuticles looked better, but I just cleaned the whole apartment and that's never good for your hands!

Are you doing anything fun this weekend?

31-Day Challenge #10: textured double gradient

So the gradient is probably the only form of nail art I can do with my eyes closed. Even on my first try I nailed it (pun intended). So I knew for this challenge I had to do something a little more exciting than just a plain old gradient.

I started out by doing a gradient of Julep Nina (horrible formula by the way) and Essie DJ Play That Song. Then I laid down some striping tape and did another gradient of JulieG Tangerine Dream and Crushed Candy. I'd never done a textured gradient before but always liked the look (plus I love textured polish in general). I need to get some more of those Zoya PixieDusts so I can do this more often!


Check out today's other awesome gradients!

31-Day Challenge #5: blue sea

Recently I got an aquatic-themed stamping plate (MoYou Sailor 04) and I thought the blue nails day would be the perfect time to use it!

The fish are so cute, no?

I did the gradient background with four colors (though you can really only see three):

• L'Oreal Now You Sea Me
• Color Club Endless Summer
• Revlon Plunge Pool
• Revlon Beguile (looks black here, but has a blue-to-purple shimmer)

The stamping was done with Sinful Colors Snow Me White. I finally have a decent white for stamping!

While I was photographing this mani, Trudy tried to butt in on the action.

Check out today's other blue manis!

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.