31-Day Challenge #22: inspired by a song

OK, can you guess what song I was thinking of?

(The answer is Here Comes the Sun by the Beatles!) For this mani I was experimenting with "drawing" using dots. I do like the way the sun came out, but I can't decide if I should have used a base color or not. I used Sally Hansen Lightening, Revlon Sunshine Sparkle and Sinful Colors Snow Me White for the sun and L'Oreal Not a Cloud in Sight for the sky.

Here are today's other musical manis!

Where do you sound like?

Today I filled out a survey that asks you questions about how you talk, then shows you how similar your dialect is to other people's in the U.S. Here's my map:

I grew up in southeast Michigan, so I'm glad I still sound like it, even though I've been away for nine years. I was more surprised to see that I also talk a lot like Californians! (Although I know my vowels don't sound very Californian, but the survey didn't pick up on that.)

If you grew up in the U.S., you should give it a try and see where you sound like! There's a short survey here and a 140-question one here (which is probably more accurate). I noticed that the website is a bit slow, so if it doesn't load for you, just try again later.


Last night I also got to play the manicurist a little--we had dinner with my husband's cousin and her family, and I got to do her daughter's nails! She was very patient while I worked, and let me take a picture afterwards! (I did make a bit of a mess on her cuticles, oops...)

Happy Saturday!

31-Day Challenge #21: inspired by a color

I wasn't totally sure what "inspired by a color" means, so for today's mani I just picked a color I love and went crazy with it. :-P Teal is my favorite color besides purple, so I gathered a bunch of blue-green polishes and did a waterfall mani a la The Nailasaurus. Mine is not as neat as hers, because I used a bigger brush, but I like how it looks (it's quite waterfall-ish, don't you think?).

I started with a base of OPI My Vampire Is Buff, and did stripes of Essie Naughty Nautical, Color Club Age of Aquarius, Color Club Wild Cactus and Julep Lena, and accented it with OPI Goldeneye. I like how the off-white base looks like foam at the bottom of a waterfall!

And here's a bonus Trudy for your enjoyment:

Don't forget to check out today's other inspired manis!

31-Day Challenge #20: water marble

I have to confess, when I saw today's prompt I was pretty scared. I'd never done a water marble before, and everyone said it was the hardest thing EVER, so I was pretty sure I'd screw it up. But somehow it turned out pretty decent!

This is an all-Revlon mani: my base color is Provence (which you can just barely see peeking through in some spots) and I did the marble in Enrapture, Impulsive and Blue Slate. The one thing I would do differently next time is to use a lighter color along with the darker ones to get more of a contrast. But on the whole I'm kind of amazed I pulled this off!

Oh and we're now done with the second chunk of prompts for the challenge, so I made another collage! Only eleven more to go!!

Now go admire all of today's other water marble manis!

31-Day Challenge #19: girly galaxy

I was looking forward to this challenge because I'd only done galaxy nails once before, and they turned out kinda meh. So I wanted a chance to improve! I stole the concept for this version of galaxy nails from Rachel at Royal Milk Tea, who created an adorable pastel "magical cupcake galaxy, with flying unicorns and kittens"! What other kind of galaxy could you want??

"It's a galaxy for girls," quoth my husband. I started with a white base and sponged on Zoya Ali, Essie DJ Play That Song, Color Club Age of Aquarius, and Essie Play Date. Then I added a coat of Revlon Celestial FX (had to fish for the big glitters unfortunately).

I'm definitely happier with my second attempt at galaxy nails, and I also feel like I'm living in Lisa Frank's acid trip.

Now go explore the galaxy with the rest of today's challenge participants!

Liebster Award!

I'm so honored--my pal Kirby at The Mercurial Magpie has nominated me for a Liebster Award! This award is designed to promote blogs with under 200 GFC followers. We can't all be superstar bloggers, but it makes me feel good to know that people out there enjoy what I write. I'm so grateful to everyone who follows and comments on my blog...you like me, you really like me!

Here are the questions Kirby asked me!

1. What inspired your blog name? 

 

Hmm, well, I wanted a nice Latin word because Latin is close to my heart (and also I'm bad at coming up with punny names in English!). "Aliquid" is snappy, has a meaning to go along with the somewhat random collection of topics I blog about (it means 'something, anything'), and it's similar to my name!

 

2. What nail polish color can you not resist buying? 

 

Purple and blue, definitely. I just checked, and those two colors make up almost a third of my entire stash!

 

3. You're rushing out the door and have 10 minutes to do your nails, what polish do you grab?

 

Oh god I would never do this, I would be too anxious about making a mistake and not having time to finish. I always give myself plenty of time to do my nails.

 

4. Your house is burning down/you're on a deserted island/you're being abducted by aliens, etc....which 5 polishes would you take with you?

 

Tough question! Out the Door would have to be one of them. As for the others, I just can't decide...I would probably take a holo with me though, just because they're so amazingly pretty. :-D

 

5. What inspired you to get into nail polish in the first place?

 

It was very random. I was on a little break from work after passing my qualifying exam, and I was browsing the health and beauty subforum at somethingawful.com. I found the nail care thread and saw the amazing manicures people were doing in there...and I knew I had to be a part of it! It's a little funny because I'm not at all a makeup/beauty person otherwise.

 

6. What technique have you struggled with in the past and now mastered? 

 

I guess the techniques I can do well every time would be gradients and dotticures. I.e. the easy stuff. :-)

 

7. What technique do you still struggle with?

 

Freehanding! Still working on getting thin, even lines!

 

8. What is your favorite type of manicure to do? 

 

There are so many that I'm just doing now for the first time, thanks to the 31-Day Challenge, so get back to me at the end of the month! (I am a fan of dots and geometric patterns though.)

 

9. How do you organize/keep track of your polishes? 

 

Everything is swatched on wheels and numbered, then catalogued in a spreadsheet that lists brand, finish, and color(s), with as accurate color-coding as possible so I can see the exact colors I have at a glance. My polishes are sorted by brand and stored in my Helmer. (I loooove organizing things!)

 

10. What commercial brand is your favorite? 

 

Tough, but probably Zoya because they have a good variety of finishes!

 

11. What indie brand is your favorite? 

 

Indigo Bananas! 

 

 

Well, I hope you enjoyed learning all those tidbits about me! Now I'm passing along the fun by nominating eleven other blogs:

1. My Life in Turquoise
2. Royal Milk Tea
3. UK Nail Runner
4. Zvrk Nails
5. Fedora Harp
6. Little Night Flower
7. Polish and Repeat
8. Cambridge Nails
9. Painted Fingertips
10. Blingfinger
11. Nails on the Beach

 Here are my questions for you guys:

1. What are your favorite color, brand and finish?
2. And what about your single favorite polish?
3. What base coat, top coat and cuticle products do you like most?
4. What made you decide to start blogging?
5. Do you have any other hobbies besides nails?
6. What's your favorite type of nail art to do? 
7. What nail art technique would you most like to be really good at?
8. What mani are you most proud of?
9. What's your biggest "nail fail"?
10. What's your #1 goal for your blog in the future?
11. Textured polish: yea or nay?

Don't feel obligated to participate if you don't want to, but I hope you do! And don't forget to send on the award to more blogs! ;-)

31-Day Challenge #18: half moons

This was another mani that I barely had to think about. I already knew what color scheme I wanted to use--I borrowed it from this outfit in Dragon Age II:

I like the way the coral contrasts with the blue-grey! So this is what I came up with:

The coral is Julep Gloria, the grey is Essie Maximillian Strasse-Her, and the gold is Maybelline Bold Gold. To make the half-moon shape, I used Orly French tip guides, but they didn't give me enough curve so I touched up the half moons by hand.


Now go admire today's other half moons!