October Challenge: Week 4

Phew, it's been a long week! Hope yours went by better (and faster!) than mine! Both kiddo and I have been sick, which means 10-hour shifts on little to no sleep, AND my favorite cuticle nippers broke :(

But never fear, nothing like a little stomach bug and some insomnia will keep me from painting my nails! I have a challenge to complete!!

...And a challenge this week's theme has been, too! This week, I created something inspired by:

After a week of searching and trying to come up with ideas, I finally decided on this one. Using the tutorial over at The Nailasaurus, I wanted to create a foggy, misty look. For the accent nail, I didn't want to create a bedsheet-ghost, I wanted to create something kinda realistic and creepy so I decided to do a humanoid-ish ghost.

The things that look like glitter are from the glow-in-the-dark paint I used to give her a glowing aura. Looks pretty cool in the dark, but my camera simply can't capture it, and I cannot find a blacklight for the life of me.

It took me several tries to be happy with the colors for the Nimbus nails. I kept trying to throw black in there and it just wasn't working. Finally, I decided to dump the black and hoo-boy am I glad I did. 

The colors I ended up using were Sally Hansen's White-On, LAC's Lost Soul (appropriate, right?), Sinful Colors' Tokyo Pearl, and Pure Ice's Kiss Me Here. I watered them down with acetone and then used regular cotton swabs. To blot, I took my cleanup brush and mixed White-On with acetone and brushed it on in 1-2 strokes per nail, keeping it as thin as I could.

For the ghost girl, I just used White-On, Lost Soul, and Kiss Me Here, layering them on top of one another with my striping brush until I had her. I'm pretty thrilled with how she turned out!!

Next week: Monsters! There's a good chance I'm planning something big with that one... dunno ;)

Next time we see each other, it'll be time to Trick-Or-Treat! Have you gotten everything ready? What are you going to dress up as? As always, please subscribe off to the right in the Google Friend Connect widget, and leave your feedback in the comments :) Happy Halloween!

Blue India

I couldn't figure out a name for this, but it makes me think of Henna tattoos that are very popular and traditional in India, so...

Blue India.

To differentiate from the nameless salmon version I did a couple weeks ago.

I REALLY like the design. Which is why I did it again. I figure, practice makes perfect, so I'll keep plugging at it until I get it right. (I didn't, btw. I missed a finger.)

Yeah I missed that ring finger. Gorram it!

I used Sally Hansen's Extreme Wear's Blue Me Away, Pure Ice's French Kiss, and Pure Ice's Superstar! for the India, and for the gradient, I used LA Colors' Flurry. 

I used NY Color's Matte Me Crazy topcoat.

I used a new (to me) strengthener by Sally Hanson, called Instant Strength. I wasn't thrilled at first, it was extremely thin and I was kinda wary that I'd just dropped $6 on a waste. Well to make a long story short, I am impressed.
Beyond a couple of TINY chips, I haven't had any problems with it. My nails still are kinda bendy, but they have a nice strong curve. According to GoodGuide, it's the #3 nail strengthener, and the #1 isn't even sold anymore, apparently. I'm going to keep working with it for now.

What are your feelings about the India print?

I'M BACK, BABY!!!

I have finally, after too long a time, gotten internet!

Took me long enough!

After soul-searching for what I wanted for my birthday, I finally decided on internet. So I decided on a budget and went shopping and here I am!

I know. Less me, more nails!

Unfortunately, being without internet leaves me without all the inspiration I'm used to, so my manis have been few and far-between. But I do have a few to show you!

I'm not sure what to call these, beyond pretty!

I normally would not put these colors together. I do not like gold, and for the most part, and coral and seafoam aren't my favorite colors. But put them together and holy cow! These are GORGEOUS!

I can't figure out how the other blogs get their cuticles so clean... :/

To get this look, I used Sally Hansen's Extreme Wear in Mint Sorbet, L. A. Colors' Dizzy, Sinful Colors' Timbleberry, and Maybelline Color Show Bold Gold. 

To get the pattern on the pinkie, I painted the nail gold and let it dry completely, put a topcoat over that, and let it dry completely, and then painted the Timbleberry and the Mint Sorbet. Before that dried, I took a stamp that I got at a scrapbooking sale and pressed it, removing the Mint and the Timbleberry and exposing the gold underneath.

I'm not happy with the way the thumbs turned out. I'm thinking I should have just done a gold tip instead of attempting (and failing) at a gradient.

What say you?

Bubble Nails

Looking around the blogosphere I came across bubble nails. She (I can't find the post, and I don't know who the poster was *sob*) used different sized straws to create bubbly-looking nails. I went on the hunt for straws, and here are my results :)

I added quite a few layers of different glitters and added a couple of dots here and there to make it look like different-sized bubbles. I really, really liked this one :)

With the glitter topcoats.

Without the glitter topcoats.

These were HORRIBLE to get off, even with the tin foil method, I waited five minutes, and still had to scrub a little. It was sooo worth it, though.

What do you think? Do you have any suggestions? What would you do with this technique?

Dotting, Watermarbling, and Stamping

Day 8 without my nail polish and care kit. I'm cracking, my nails are chipping, and my cuticles are peeling :( Only three more days...

Here's a mix of watermarbling, dotting, and stamping! I loved this mani!  I have a problem with my white covering the other colors, though. I'm not sure why it happens, maybe it's because I'm waiting too long between drips? IDK.

No clue why I forgot to clean that pinkie... 

You can see on the ring finger what I mean by the white covering the blue. See how the blue's off-color?

This was my favorite nail of the bunch. It turned out great :)

The tutorial for this mani is here. Indigonova1 has some great designs, and I'm sure I'll be doing a lot of my own takes from her. In this one, instead of using a dotting tool for the flowers, I used a stamp. I'm still working on my precision, which has improved since this mani.

I used Sinful Colors for the white and a Pure Ice for the blue.

Dotted Gradient

This post is gonna be short, they're old nails and I'm tired lol 

This has been one of my favorite manis to date. I just wish it was better quality. The ONE stamp I have with dots is very thin and doesn't fit over my nail. It's the set you can find in Walmart, it was what I started with.

I didn't clean this one very well. It was done before I started cleaning my nails instead of waiting for it to peel off in the shower.

I decided to do the accent on my thumb 'cause it's so much bigger. I kinda liked it, though I really love doing the accent on my ring finger now.

You can see where the stamp didn't cover the entire nail on my middle finger.

I love how this looks, going from purple to white with the dots. It's a fairly easy mani, especially if you have a stamp. Just do the dots, then sponge the white at the tips :) The flower was done with a toothpick. Let down a drop and drag to form a petal.