Day 13 - Animal Print

I had a lot of fun doing this design. It reminds me of the Lisa Frank school supplies I used to love when I was a little girl. Remember Lisa Frank? I had a bunch of her erasers, pencils, folders, etc. back in the day.

I just googled Lisa Frank and had a walk through memory lane. Ahh, the 80s. 

Please excuse my dry nails. I put lotion on before I took the pictures but it didn't help too much. This challenge is killing my cuticles and skin! I will be soaking my nails in cuticle oil today, sheesh!

Ok, I used a discontinued color for my base. I know, naughty. It's China Glaze - Tickle My Triangle and then I used Zoya - Trixie for the animal print stamp which is Bundle Monster plate #221. I used Seche Vite for my top coat and OPI Envy for by base coat as usual! 

How do you like my black background? Is it better or worse? I'm trying to improve my pictures and will take any tips you can throw my way. I'm really bummed that today was overcast because Tickle My Triangle is a holo. =*(

Thanks for reading!

The Trace Face Philes

If you haven't checked out this blog yet do it now! This blog is one of my favorites. She has amazing swatches everyday. She's having a fabulous giveaway right now so hop on over and check it out!

http://www.thetracefacephiles.com/2011/11/trace-face-philes-2300-follower.html

Day 12 - Stripes

I can't believe I finally did a successful (well almost) tape mani! I really really wanted to do a candy corn manicure last month. I ordered my yellow and orange polish and broke out my scotch tape and it was a huge disaster. I kept ripping off my polish from putting the tape on too soon. When the challenge for stripes got close I started to get nervous. I recently read that the trick is to put Seche Vite on after each color and wait for it to dry (of course) before putting down tape for the next layer. I was using a top coat before but not Seche Vite. For those of you who don't know, Seche Vite is a super fast top coat. I love to use it on top of glitter to smooth out the rough texture. I should have known it would make the difference in a tape mani for me. I may have been a little more patient this time too. =) Here is a picture of Seche Vite I got from Google Images.

There are other products from this company including Seche Restore which I highly recommend.  Seche tends to get really thick and stringy when it starts to get low. Putting a few drops of Seche Restore makes it usable again and saves money.

Ok, back to the stripes! 

I really liked how this turned out. The tape lifted a bit on my ring finger and allowed the polish to seep underneath. Make sure to double check that all of the little air bubbles are smoothed out before applying any polish. I could have avoided this mistake easily had I been more careful. 

Supplies used: 

 OPI: Nail Envy (Sensitive & Peeling) for base coat

Color Club: Worth the Risque (light grey) & Revvvolution (dark grey/black)

Seche Vite for Top Coat

Scotch Tape

Thanks for reading!

Day 11 - Polka Dots

I wanted to do something fun for today's challenge. I need more practice with my dotting tool so I used a stamp. ;) I didn't want to use the same polka dot stamp I used for one of my Halloween looks so I did something different from your typical polka dot design. I like how this turned out, what do you think?

Inside, no flash.

This is the best my camera can do with it's macro setting. At least I think it is, I need to fiddle around with it more. 

Supplies: 

OPI - Steady as She Rose

Zoya -  Snow White

Konad -  Special Polish (White)

Konad Plate M79

Small and medium dotting tool

Rose colored rhinestone

Seche Vite Top Coat

OPI -  Envy Base Coat

Here is a picture of the plate I used:

As you can see, the rose on the bottom left image isn't filled in. I used my smallest dotting tool to fill in the petals with OPI - Steady As She Rose and then added a rhinestone to the center for more interest. I also use my medium sized dotting tool to go over the bigger dots in the same image so it would show up more. It stamped on pretty light and I wanted it to be more bold. The design on the upper left side is completely made up of dots. I use this plate often and have really scratched it up from the metal scraper. I suggest using an old credit card instead to protect the plate which is what I'm going to start doing. You can just cut the card in half (it's easier to use when smaller). 

I hope you liked today's design, thanks for reading!

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!!