Thursday, May 23, 2013

Disney Challenge: Inspired by Belle


Beauty and the Beast was one of my favorite movies as a kid. I saw the movie in theaters eleven times when it first came out and I've gone to the re-releases with my mom. I originally was thinking of doing a yellow or gold manicure to match Belle's ball gown, but blue is more my speed so this manicure was inspired by the blue and white outfit she wears throughout the first part of the movie.


I used two coats of OPI Don't Touch My Tutu for the white jelly base. For the glitter gradient I used  OPI Gone Gonzo, OPI Crown Me Already, Happy Hands I Blue Myself, and Sally Hansen Blingtastic. I smoothed everything out with a coat of Gelous and one coat of HK Girl. I aboslutely loved how this turned out. I actually wore this back in March when I saw the Beauty and the Beast Broadway play in downtown Sacramento.


So much glitter!!!

Friday, March 29, 2013

Extra Relaxed Challenge: Day 5, Blue


I always see everyone talking about Sinful Colors Cinderella on nail polish blogs, so when I saw it at Walmart in February I figured I had to try it for myself. I was already wearing two coats of OPI Can't Find My Czechbook, so I layered one coat of Sinful Colors Cinderella over that. It's a very delicate glass fleck that looks more like a shimmer unless you're looking at it really close up. Anyway, it's a very cute combo for spring. I used OPI Natural Nail for my base coat and HK Girl for my top coat.


Thanks for reading!

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Tri-Color Polish Challenge: March, Day 3


Second post of the night, whew! I incorporated all three colors (green, purple, and coral) for this manicure. I applied three coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, then used a dotting tool to make the dots with OPI I Eat Maine-ly Salmon, Sation Love at First Lavender, and Illamasqua Nomad.

This was a really fun and easy manicure! I like how it turned out. The coral is coming out more orangey-red than it really is :-/. Thanks for reading!

Laid Back 31 DC: Day 16, Color Opposites


I decided to go with brights over a dark color for the "color opposites" theme. I scored this amazing glitter during the Llarowe restock last walk.


This is the amazing Emily De Molly Bright Young Things. I LOVE it! It's so amazing. Seriously.

This is two coats of Bright Young Things over two coats of China Glaze Liquid Leather. I applied one coat of Gelous and one coat of HK Girl to make sure it was smooth. I will definitely be wearing this again soon! Thanks for reading :)


Monday, March 25, 2013

Creative Layering with OPI and China Glaze... and a Road Trip!

One of the great nail groups I'm in on Facebook, Polish-aholics Anonymous, has a Monday mani challenge. Today's theme was creative layering. Last week Lacquered Lover posted a photo in the group of shatter/crackle over liquid sand polishes and it looked pretty cool, so I decided to try it! I used two coats of OPI The Impossible. Once that was dry I applied one coat of OPI Black Shatter, then one coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust, one coat of Gelous, and one coat of HK Girl.


It didn't come out quite as cool as I had envisioned, but it's nice to get out of my comfort zone every one in a while and try something new. Speaking of something new, I went on a Corvette run yesterday with my grandpa and it was so cool! We drove 250 miles through scenic back roads of mainly Marin and Sonoma Counties. The weather was perfect! Here's a few photos from the trip:

Southern Sonoma County
Outside of Petaluma
Tomales Bay
My grandpa's Corvette in Petaluma
The view of Stinson Beach from Mt. Tamalpais
I really can't imagine living anywhere else! Thanks for reading. :)

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Laid Back 31 DC: Day 15, Watercolor



This is my first watercolor mani! It turned out better than I expected. I used this tutorial from Rebecca Likes Nails. I did my index finger first starting with purple and green (Color Club Pucci-licious and Color Club Twiggie), which was a mistake as it turned out too muddy.  On my middle, ring, and pinky fingers I only used orange, pink, and yellow and it turned out much better. Keep reading to see how it turned out!



I started with a base of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls and applied two coats of HK Girl in order to protect the white base once I started doing the watercolor technique. Once it was dry I applied some blobs of Color Club Warhol (pink) and used a brush dipped in acetone to swirl it around the nail. Next I used Color Club Wham! Pow! (orange) and swirled it around, then finished it off with a bit of Color Club Almost Famous (yellow). Once it was dry I used HK Girl to smooth it out.




I definitely like how it looks with the brighter colors. You can see that my index finger is darker but I added some more pink and orange and it ended up looking better than it did before!


I was at Marshalls yesterday and found the Color Club Poptastic set for $9.99, so of course I had to grab it! Please check out the other manicures for today. Thanks for reading!

Friday, March 22, 2013

Extra Relaxed Challenge: Day 4, Green


It's the fourth week of the Extra Relaxed 31 Day Challenge and today's theme is green.  I just have a simple manicure using two coats of China Glaze Exotic Encounters. This is such a nice dusty green color! This polish comes from the On Safari collection that China Glaze put out last fall. Sooo many great colors in that collection!


Thanks for reading!