Day 10 - Gradient

I seriously need to practice this skill, but that's what this challenge is about right? Most of the techniques I will be posting will be of my first try so please forgive the ones that suck. Like today's for example! I thought this would be easy. It's pretty tricky. I tried this twice (one look on each hand). I thought I liked my second try better but was on the fence. Tonight I caught my sweet little niece eyeing my second try with a weird look on her face. I asked her if she thought they were ugly and she nodded her head and said, "yep!" I love how honest kids are. I'm going to post my first and less ugly try and move on to polka dots. lol

The only gradient you can detect is of the glitter but I promise, there are two blues on my nails. I used Zoya Ibiza on my entire nail and then sponged on OPI Cuckoo for this Color which is what you can see in the picture. The glitter is China Glaze Atlantis (gorgeous). I just got Atlantis from Transdesign.com and I love it!!!

Thanks for reading!

Day 9 - Rainbow

Yesterday The Muppets Collection (OPI) finally came to Ulta. I have found some of them at other places but had yet to see the collection in it's entirety (until yesterday). I picked up a few of my favorites and can't wait to swatch them all for you. Rainbow Connection is one of the polishes I purchased and I just had to use it for today's challenge. I put one coat on top of two coats of black (Nicole By OPI - Razzle Dazzle). It is very similar to Deborah Lippmann's Happy Birthday (from what I've seen online) but isn't as pricey. It has bigger pieces of hex glitter and it looks like there may be different colors. I haven't seen Happy Birthday in person so I can't say that for sure. In addition to taking pictures of it on on top of black, I layered it over several other colors on a wheel. Many people have reported that the glitter is hard to apply but I didn't have any problems with it. I didn't have to use my brush to push the glitter around, it went on pretty evenly on it's own. I used Seche Vite as a top coat. I only used one coat but could have used another to get rid of the bumpiness. If you love glitter as much as I do, I'd pick this one up. My Ulta had every color but I've heard that they are disappearing quickly. Enjoy the pictures!!!

 Inside, no flash.

 Left to right: One, two, three, and four coats (four is way tooooo much I think).

 Left to right: My Address is Hollywood (OPI), Play the Peonies (OPI), For Audrey (China Glaze), Happy Go Lucky (China Glaze) and Snow White (Zoya). Each swatch has two coats of the base color and one coat of Rainbow Connection.

Left to right: Happy Go Lucky (China Glaze), Snow White (Zoya), and Meep, Meep, Meep (OPI).

I think it works on all of the base colors. My favorite is black, what is your favorite? 

Another Fabulous Giveaway!

Mimi's Mani's is celebrating having 100 followers by having a really awesome giveaway! She has a great blog so if you haven't checked it out yet, you should!

Here is a link to her giveaway: http://mimismanisandotherbeauty.blogspot.com/2011/11/100-follower-giveaway.html

Good luck!!

Day 8 - Metalic

I've been saving my favorite silver polish for this day. I want you to see how amazing it is so I kept it to a swatch. I took some pictures in the sun (yay it came out) and inside. Here is Zoya's Trixie:

Outside, no flash. Please excuse my scratch. My kitty doesn't know that he can only scratch up my other hand. We had a big talk about it. ;)

Outside, no flash. 

Outside, no flash. 

Inside, with flash. 

Isn't it stunning? It works well for stamping too. In fact it picked up the images a lot better than Konad Special Polish Silver did (that did not work for me at all). 

Application was very easy, it's runnier than my other Zoyas so I had to take care to make my coats nice and thin. Other than that, it went on smoothly and I only needed two coats for full opacity. I used Poshe for my top coat so drying time was very quick. Don't you love how shiny it is? This is a must have, in my opinion! Anything Zoya is a must have, you know how much I love Zoya! 

Thanks for reading!

Day 7 - Black and White

I had a bit of frustration with this one which was surprising because I thought it would be easy. I had an idea in my head which is half the battle but I just couldn't get it to come out the way I would have liked. I took some pictures of my first try before I cleaned up around my cuticles just to see if I wanted to post it. I took if off out of frustration and decided to take the easy way out and do a simple shatter. I of course regret that now and wish I would have just tried my idea again. ;) I'm going to include a picture of what I was trying to do and then the easy shatter as a compromise.

Here is the first attempt: 

I was trying to do black and white flowers using a striper brush and black rhinestones. I don't think  they look like flowers and my brush strokes are a bit sloppy. I will get better with practice. I've only used the striper brush a few times. ;) 

Here is my real picture of today's challenge:

 Before I did this look, I alternated black and white on my nails for my base color. Then, I put white shatter on the black base and black shatter on the white base. My white shatter didn't well, shatter! It had a few lines but no separation. Has anyone else experienced this with white shatter (OPI) or do I just have a funky bottle? It didn't look presentable at all so that was removed immediately and here we go! I think it's a really fun look, I just wanted to do something a little more impressive than this.

Supplies: OPI Envy (base coat), Zoya's Snow White, OPI Black Shatter, Poshe (Top Coat)

I do love how easy this look is, there are so many funky combos that you can do now that everyone is making a shatter, crackle, etc. One of my favorite combos is OPI's Rally Pretty Pink with Red Shatter on top. Do you have a favorite combination? Feel free to post pictures to my facebook page, I'd love to see them!

Tomorrow is metallic and then the challenge gets more challenging. Eeep!

Thanks for reading!

Day 6 - Violet

I've been looking forward to this day. I had my favorite polish reserved for this. It's sadly not available anymore and runs for about $20-$25 on Amazon  & Ebay if you can find it. I checked recently on Amazon and it's not there. They pop up now and then so if you are willing to pay that much for polish, keep checking! It's amazing. I'm going to let the pictures do the talking. The sun has been hiding but this beauty doesn't take much to show it's holo goodness. OPI - Designer Series (DS) Original is my choice for lavender. I'm trying to reserve it so I won't run out. I hate that it's so expensive. I want to get another bottle for a back up. It will be a sad sad day when I run out. The shade is actually called Original. It's the most Holographic polish I own. I don't have a lot of holos (YET), they are too expensive for me. I used two coats. Application was a dream, I did put on a top coat (Poshe) to try to prolong it's wear time. Holos tend to chip easily. Alright, here they are!

 Blurry picture, showing the name of the polish. Even shadowed by the bottle, it's beautiful!

 With flash to show the holo effect. The sun didn't want to come out. It's still gorgeous.

 Love it! 

 My sad bottle is getting low....it's a tragedy!

 You want this now, don't you? ;)

Ok here it is without flash, it's still very pretty. 

This would be a great thing to ask for Christmas if you can find it. These pictures don't do it justice, it's just beautiful. 

Thanks for reading! Please subscribe if you like my blog. I have a giveaway waiting in my closet for when I hit 50 followers. ;)

Day 5 - Blue

I am SO sorry that this is late. I hope the wait was worth it, I L O V E this color. I was torn between two blues and let my sister pick her favorite. 

Do you know about Butter London? I just recently discovered it. It's a bit pricey so using a coupon is a must for me. Ulta carries this line and usually has coupons in the Sunday paper. I have a few now and I love them all. I'll swatch them for you sometime. This is called Bluey. It applied so smoothly and only needed two coats for full opacity. I used three because I bumped one of my nails which is a usual occurrence for me. ;) I put two coats of OPI's Gone Gonzo! from the new Muppets collection on my ring finger and thumb. To finish, I used Poshe for my top coat. 

Tomorrow is violet and I have a treat for you. More like a tease...I will just apologize in advance for any lemmings I may create. ;) Any guesses? 

Thanks for reading!