#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

Red, Black, & White Party Skittlette*

*with apologies to Marta for the name!

Hiya! I went to a party this weekend, and wore a black top with red, black, and white shoes and accessories. It was the perfect occasion to match my nails to my outfit, so...

...I did :D

The feathery thing you see me holding here is the headband I wore! It has a black band that disappears in my dark hair, so you just see the cool red feather. Très chic, in my ever-humble opinion ;)

But right, you came here for the nails! I'll just go down the list...

Index finger: China Glaze Adventure Red-y & Wet 'N Wild Black Creme, topped with NYC Matte Me Crazy. This matte is actually more of a wax-finish topcoat, and reminds me of Cult Nails Wax That.

Middle and ring fingers: Two coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls (nice off-white creme), stamped with Konad black and Bundle Monster plate BM-016. The centre of each flower has one individual glitter from Milani Jewel FX Red, except the biggest flowers, which have a small red rhinestone.

Small finger: Base of China Glaze Adventure Red-y, then several sponged coats of the aforementioned Milani red glitter. Not really sure how many coats--maybe 3?--I just went until I felt it was thoroughly covered.

Thumb: Same as the middle and ring fingers, but with Wet 'N Wild Black Creme covering half the design, just for some visual interest :)

All topcoated with KBShimmer Clearly On Top (except for the matte-ified one, of course).

I was kicking myself for not picking up the new Cult Nails Passionate Dreams collection while it was on pre-sale, because Kiss (a lovely red with a wax finish) is SO pretty. However, this NYC matte topcoat with some of my medium reds seems to mimic the effect quite well! I think the red I used here is too dark, but others I played with (Revlon Red, for example) was pretty much dead on.

The different finish of the index nail shows up well here.

One more in the sun. :)

Glitters are so hard to photograph! I wish the sparkle and glow of the small nail had come through in any of the pictures. In real life it's very dynamic and looks like Dorothy's shoes in the Wizard of Oz.

Anyway, that's all for today. As always, I hope you enjoyed this post. Thanks for reading today, and I'll see you soon! xoxo

Mint Manis for Talia

Hello. Pardon the break in the Alphabet Challenge, but today I have a very special post. I am a bit late getting this up, but I couldn't not participate in such a special dedication.

On July 16th, the world lost a beautiful girl called Talia Joy Castellano.

Talia was only 13, but had been battling two rare and dangerous forms of cancer for years--neuroblastoma and preleukemia. Despite that, she ran a wonderful YouTube channel dedicated not only to her amazing talent with beauty (makeup, nail art, etc) but to sharing her experiences with cancer, chemotherapy, and the other treatments and how they affected her. She was frank, honest, mature, and thoughtful well beyond her years, and got so much attention that she got to meet one of her idols, Ellen Degeneres, on the show--and was made an honourary Cover Girl. I get all teary every time I watch the video! :')

Talia was a beautiful, sweet, talented, and inspiring girl and has touched millions of hearts the world over as she shared her life with us (and her makeup tips... that girl had more talent for makeup in her pinky than I'll ever have). The last Instagram photo she posted was a photo of her, her mother, and her friend's hands, all wearing matching mint-coloured manicures. So in her honour... #MintManisForTaliaJoy.

Joy is the perfect name for this sweet little soul.

I used one generous coat of Orly Halo (fitting, isn't it?), the bottle shown in the photo. Atop that is one coat of NYC Nail Glossies #241, a shimmery mint/teal colour. It's very sheer and hard to wear alone, but perfect for a "jelly sandwich" look like this. With the fine gold and silver glitters, and the shimmer, the pale blue sparkles.. I think it is a very ethereal and heavenly look.

As for the angel... first I stamped with the wings from Bundle Monster plate BM-310 and Konad white, but the image is too thin and delicate to really show up against the glittery background. So I used it as a guide, and with my white striper, carefully drew in the body, dress, and made the wings fuller. A rhinestone for the head, and the white striper again for the tiny halo. Topcoated with Orly Sec 'N Dry.

Rest in peace, Talia. You may be gone, but you will never be forgotten. xoxo


(please see the other dedications below)

Alphabet Challenge: N is for... Nein! Neon-Dotted Tips

Good day, my friends! On this nice Sunday afternoon I have some N-inspired nails for you:

Nein! Nein! Nein! OK Fine, you can put dots on top of me

I just love neons in the summer :D Let's break it down!

The tips are OPI Nein! Nein! Nein! OK Fine! -- the bottle you see in the pic. Nice creamy dark grey, in which some say they swear they can see green tones. I can't... maybe my bottle is defective, or perhaps my brain is. Either way it's a nice grey, and two coats covered the tips quite well.

The neons I used for the dots are Sinful Colors Irish Green and Neon Melon (yellow), and China Glaze Shocking Pink (Neon). I used two sizes of dotting tool to create this look, putting down white dots first to make the neon pop against the dark background. I also used my black striper to line the tips, neatening them up--plus I liked the contrast; it makes it easy to see that the tips themselves are grey rather than black.

Finally, topcoated with NYC Matte Me Crazy. This is a bit less matte than some of the others I've seen... it's almost a wax-finish, which suits me fine. The other wax-finish topcoats I've looked at were fairly expensive, and this was $2.99! So I'll take it in a heartbeat.

Claw hands! Another pose with the bottle.

And one in the sun, which really shows off how bright the neons were compared to the rest :D

Neons make me look tan! *pose*

That's all for now, folks. I stayed away from holographics for a whole post! Next time we won't be so lucky... muahaha, I shall assault you with rainbows again :D see you then! xoxo

From The Vault #1

Howdy folks! We interrupt your regularly scheduled 31-Day Challenge post to bring you a picture "from the vault". And by "the vault", I mean the album that I kept on Facebook for a while (and a few from my hard drive that I never posted anywhere). My goal is to eventually get all the good ones over here to share with you :)

I apologise in advance--I will do my best to remember the polishes and plates I used for each design, but if I can't, I'll give my best estimate or a suggestion for a similar shade. I'll also apologise for the poor quality of some photos. They were taken with a phone camera, and as I'm sure you know, they often leave a lot to be desired. However, while they may not be very clear, they are generally colour-accurate.

First up, a relatively recent design:

I'm blue, da ba dee da ba da...

I started with a base of two Pure Ice blues and made a gradient fading from nude at the base to dark blue at the tip. The lighter blue is called Pussy Cat, and the darker blue is Celestial. These are both lovely metallic blues with a great one-coat formula! I made the gradient with the brushes--just dabbed it on with a small amount of polish on the brush. It didn't have to be perfectly smooth since I was putting all the rest of this business on top of it :D

Over the blue gradient I added one coat of Essie Set In Stones, the lovely shiny silver glitter from the Luxe Effects collection, and one coat of NYC 105A Starry Silver Glitter, which has microfine silver glitter and slightly larger hex glitters in very pale lavender colour and royal blue. I then used Stripe Rite white striping polish to make some tiny white stars here and there. Finally I added some dark and light blue tiny rhinestones, which I purchased from Cult Nails. They came in a wheel of assorted colours and sizes, and can be found here. Last, the trusty coat of Seche Vite to seal it all in.

I really like this one--I got lots of compliments, my favourite being "it reminds me of snowy coldness". This wouldn't seem like much of a compliment, except it came from a Canadian who loves low temperatures more than pretty much anything else on the planet, so I was honoured!

(I just realised this could have totally been my manicure for Challenge Day #5, since that calls for blue nails, but I'm not going to cheat and use an old one! I have a special mani for that one and will post it next time.)

Au revoir for now! xoxo

Challenge Day #2: ORANGE nails

Today's challenge--orange! When I think of that colour, I can only think of one thing--especially since football season is almost upon us: the Clemson Tigers! So, I painted all nails with Sally Hansen X-Treme Wear polishes--the orange is Sun Kissed and the white is White On. I then stamped tiger stripes onto the orange with Konad Special Polish in black and MASH plate #41, and the orange tiger paw onto the white nail with NYC 112A - Times Square Tangerine Creme (a surprisingly good stamping polish!) and MASH plate #36. Oh, it doesn't look too nice here though, I know. I'm cringing at how well all my stamping fails came across in this lovely high-def photo. I was kind of in a hurry, and it shows...

A+ for idea, D for execution. Rawr?

I hope you like it anyway! The idea was fun, at least--I'm going to wear this again sometime during the season for a big game. C-L-E-M-S-OOOOOOOOO-N!

See you all next time for day 3: yellow! xoxo