#31DC2014 - Day 29 - Inspired by the SUPERNATURAL

Hello my beauties! Time for probably the weirdest prompt of the 31-day challenge... "inspired by the supernatural".

I had to think about this one for a while, and at first I thought I'd do something based on the video for Katy Perry's ET/Supernatural song. I did watch it, and it did inspire the basic colour scheme, but I ended up doing Alienware nails!

If I were a PC gamer (I'm a console peasant, come at me bro), I'd lust after Alienware computers more than I already do. For those of you who don't know, they're the name in gaming rigs. And the little alien face I recreated on my index finger is their logo :)

I applied three thin coats of Cult Nails Deal With It on the small finger and the thumb, then taped off a stripe near the tip and covered it with Wet 'N Wild Black Creme. This is meant to mimic the look of their gaming laptops, which are black but have a metallic neon strip of colour around the outside. I should have used matte topcoat over the black, as their machines are generally matte. Oh well.

Black Creme was the base for the other three nails, and I used white acrylic paint to create the alien face. For the galaxy nails, I sponged on the white paint as well as Deal With It and Soulstice Spa Kona, a light icy/aqua blue. I added a bit of the glitters from Orly Mermaid Tale (green holo hexes) and OPI Pirouette My Whistle (white hexes and silver microglitters). Finally, more of the white acrylic paint to add a few stars, and Seche Vite topcoat finished them all off. I'm quite happy with the finished look!

Boo, this one came out a bit blurry. But you can see the warm glowy quality of Deal With It. I love this polish.

I hope you like these! I'm not even a huge Katy Perry fan, but I've had that song stuck in my head for hours after watching the video earlier. I did this all for you, my dear reader, so you'd better appreciate it ;) hehe. See you tomorrow for more! xoxo

#31DC2014 - Day 19 - GALAXY nails

Hola! Today's challenge prompt is galaxies. I do love doing traditional galaxy manis, but this time I went for something different:

Outdoors in sun

Galaxy chocolate nails! Mmm...

I used mostly OPI polishes for this look--the chocolatey base (and the word "Galaxy") is Suzi Loves Cowboys, and the warm mahogany brown for the wrapper/accent nail is the same polish mixed with a little of A Roll In The Hague, a nice rich orange. The gradiated centre on the wrapper, is My Vampire Is Buff, and the shiny bits on the chocolate is the same mixed with a bit of Suzi Loves Cowboys. (Follow all that?? Haha.) The only colour I didn't have an OPI for is the yellow bit, so I used Zoya Darcy for that. The black for the separation between chocolate squares is acrylic paint. And finally, KBShimmer Clearly On Top over the accent nail, and NYC Matte Me Crazy topcoat on the chocolates. It's more of a wax-finish than a true matte, which I felt looked most like the candy.

Posing with my phone, which is also a Galaxy. Hur hurrr :)

Another indoors with flash

Outdoors in sun

Anybody hungry for some yummy choccies now? :D

Join me tomorrow for one of my favourite types of mani--water marble! xoxo

Inverted Galaxy Mani

Hi everyone! Happy Easter!

Today's design is not overly Eastery, but it's an idea that involves pastels and glitter that I've wanted to try for a while--an "inverted-colour" galaxy manicure!

Challenge Day #19: GALAXIES

Hallo, meine Freunde! Today is galaxy nails day! This is a deceptively easy look to create, and is so fun :) You pretty much cannot go wrong with the basic 'galaxy' look, although as usual I tried to spice it up a bit. As for the technique, I just went for it based on the many tutorials and pictures I've seen of the method over the years, but this step-by-step over on Beautylish explains it pretty well. I did the basic space/nebula/stars background and then tried to add in our very own spiral galaxy, the Milky Way. What do you think: nailed it or failed it?

Click to enlarge! (outdoors in sunlight)

I really enjoyed creating and wearing this, although I'm not sure if my original vision of having the spiral galaxy clearly showing there in the middle with the arms stretching out really came across. BUT WHATEVER.

I started with two coats of the lovely Blue Year's Eve by China Glaze. This is such a gorgeous polish on its own--I've got to remember to start swatching these alone or taking pics along the way--but you can see it a bit there on the top part of my ring finger. Shimmery deep glowy cerulean-blue. Yummy.

I then used a makeup sponge to dab on random patches of the following colours: China Glaze's Liquid Leather (black), Sinful Colors' #113 Dream On (fuchsia), Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mellow Yellow (creamy yellow) and then near the middle of the galaxy I used Sinful Colors' #56 Neon Melon, a bright highlighter yellow. At this point it was looking pretty messy, but the addition of the glitter polish really brings it together, so I added one coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust--one of my all-time favourite glitters ever. I took one slightly-out-of-focus shot so the rainbowy sparkle was really noticeable:

Star light, star bright, first star I see tonight... probably burned out millions of years ago, and isn't granting any wishes, because it's dead. Oooh, harsh reality. But, uh... still shiny!

After getting the background together, I used a toothpick and a white polish, Ulta's Snow White, to create the basic shape of the galaxy in the middle with dots, and then the spiral arms circling out. As I worked, the polish started to dry and get a bit tacky, and it left a little string between one dot and the next sometimes. I thought it looked like the way constellations are drawn out in the sky in diagrams, so this didn't bother me at all!

Finally, because I'm insane and always have to take it just a little too far, I used some clear polish to stick on a few large pieces of silvery-white glitter here and there--just one or two on each nail. Topped off with two coats of Seche Vite to seal everything in.

Indoors with flash. Sparkly! I really like the depth on my index and pinky fingers, with the blue and black. I kept staring at these and it felt like my fingertips were little round portals of a spaceship, gazing out into infinity. (AND BEYOND.) <3

The token "fun" shot, really just sharing because I love the index finger again in this one.

Well, that wraps it up for today. Do you like these? Would you wear spacey nails?

Join me next time for le water-marbling, which is super fun! Auf wiedersehen! xoxo