Day 23: Inspired By A Movie

Hello readers!! You will see more "mommy" coming out today with my movie inspiration: How To Train Your Dragon! It's one of my favorite kid movies we have at our house and it was too fun to do these nails!

What are your thoughts? These are definitely not ones that I duplicated onto my other hand as it took me long enough with my right hand doing the details. I loved looking at these ones and Hailey got a big kick out of them! Thanks for reading!

Don't forget about my giveaway! Ending TONIGHT!

Day 22: Inspired By A Song

Good morning readers!! This was another interesting challenge for me, and I don't think it made for the prettiest nails or colors but I am glad I did it.

My daughter, Hailey, is almost 3 1/2, and this is one of her all time favorite songs. We sing it all the time and it was the first song to pop into my head when I was brainstorming for this challenge. She was a little camera shy for this performance but I am adding this for your viewing pleasure(I had to turn my computer volume up a lot--my camera doesn't seem to record sound loud enough):

And now for my nails:

Hahah, so what do you think? I know my spiders aren't that cute but Hailey LOVED seeing them on my nails and even wanted me to do hers. I say that's a win in my book. Thanks for reading!!

Don't forget my giveaway ends on TOMORROW!!!

Day 21: Inspired By A Color

Good morning! Happy Hump Day! Are you all excited that the work week is half way over?

Today's challenge was annoying to me at first until I started reading through the names of polish on my stash list page and there were a few I actually wanted to do. I settled for this one because I hadn't worn it on all of my nails since I got it and I love it!

OPI Mad As A Hatter is one of my favorite multiglitters and pretty hard to find these days for a cheap enough price. Of course I had to do the Hatter's Hat on my accent nail!

What do you think? I think the neon orange makes it a bit too bright and reminds me of a leprechaun but at least you can see it over that dark purple base color. Thanks for reading!

Day 20: Watermarbled

Good morning, readers!! Have you entered my giveaway? It's closing this Friday!!

I have a fun mani to show you today! I just have to say that I love watermarbling! There are a lot of different designs you can do and its not too difficult either. I did a little tutorial for you here a while back(don't laugh at my terrible pictures though LOL).

 I have to add, that it takes up a good amount of polish, though, so make sure you don't use any of your HTFs or more expensive brands. I did this mani from 3 of the new Wet n Wild On The Prowl Collection colors. I was going for something a bit darker since it's officially fall and really like how this turned out!

I used: Base coat of Julep Base Coat
Base Color of Essie Blanc(I always start out with a white canvas. The colors are so thin when watermarbled so they can look too sheer and white makes them pop more)
I watermarbled with Wet n Wild Buy Me A Drink, Ink Well, and Ready to Pounce.
2 coats of Out the Door.

 The pictures don't really capture the shimmer in the colors but I think they still look nice in the pictures regardless. I am happy with how these turned out, what do you think? Thanks for reading!

Day 19: Galaxies

Good morning everyone and thank you for stopping by my blog! Today's challenge was Galaxy Nails and I was a bit nervous about this one. Thankfully, though, it's a lot easier than I thought and I ended up loving it MUCH more than those half moon nails yesterday! It was a lot of different colors and glitters sponged on with a ripped up makeup triangle and I don't even think my pictures do it justice. Much prettier in person because the different angles show the different types of glitters.

 In the sun.

Out of direct sunlight.

I used: Base color of Pure Ice Electric!

A coat over that of OPI I Juggle...Men

Then I sponged on in various areas:

Essie Blanc,

Ulta Material Girl,

piCture pOlish denim,

Wet n Wild Jungle Fever,

a-england Lady of the Lake,

Ozotic 528,

China Glaze White Cap,

and Nubar 2010.

Top Coat of Out the Door.

I really like how these turned out and keep looking at them. I even love my right hand because it was easy enough to look as good as the left in this mani! You should definitely try it sometime!! Thanks for reading!

Nail Mail and Haul Post!

The past 2 weeks have been big for me in terms of getting nail polish! I got a lot of nail mail, and also had some new hauls from Ulta, Sally's, and Kroger. Here are the pictures(please click to enlarge!):

 a-england Lady of the Lake and Tristam! Purchased at Llarowe

 Ozotic 528, 505, and piCture pOlish denim from my husband!

 OPI Roadhouse Blues and I Lily Love You from Kroger grocery store!

 China Glaze Traffic Jam from Sally's Beauty Supply!

 My Ulta Haul on the butterLONDON sale day!

 L-R: Ulta Taupe on a Rope, Ulta Chic Peek, bL British Racing Green, bL Big Smoke, Ulta Army of 1, and Ulta Material Girl.

 The entire Wet n Wild On The Prowl Collection!! My friend Alyssa was able to find these for me and send them my way! 

L-R: Buy Me A Drink, Ready To Pounce, Behind Closed Doors, Tangled In My Web, Correction Tape, Jungle Fever, Ink Well, and Cougar Attack

essence nail art twins!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!(the extra bella and edward for my giveaway aren't pictured). Ruth was able to send these to me from Spain! I love them!!!!!

L-R: Bella, Edward, Thelma, Louise, Chuck, and Blair.

Such an amazing 2 weeks of polish for me!! Hope you enjoyed reading!

Day 18: Half Moons

Good morning readers! Today for the challenge, I had to do a half moon mani. I, personally, have never even wanted to try this because I'm not a fan of the trend. I did it for the challenge, but I didn't like it when I was done and probably won't do it again. Here is a picture for you to see anyway:

I used: Base Coat of OPI Nail Envy
Base color of China Glaze Traffic Jam
Top color: a-england Tristam (using circle reinforcement stickers)
Top Coat of Out the Door

I probably could have used better colors together but these were 2 new ones that were in my "untried" pile and I wanted to use them! What are your thoughts? Have you done a half moon mani? Thanks for reading!

Day 17: Glitter

Good morning, readers! Thank you for all of the kind words on my husbands homecoming. I am back now and will be continuing with the 31 Day Challenge as usual. Today is Glitter Day!! I am very excited to show you these polish pictures because I consider them to be the PRETTIEST 2 polishes I have out of my entire 260+ polish collection! And the best part? My husband surprised me with them right before he came home!

My husband was able to coordinate with the awesome ladies over at piCture pOlish for my surprise package while he was still deployed and they were so sweet and helpful in getting my "wish list" polishes to me! I was SO surprised to see the package arrive with all 3 polishes I loved the most from their site and even more excited to put them on my nails!

The 3 amazing polishes are shown above! Ozotic 505, piCture pOlish denim, and Ozotic 528.

I've already shown you denim in my recent flower nail challenge here. It's the prettiest blue with amazing flakies and shimmer in it. I can't wait to wear it again!

Today's mani will show layering with the 2 remaining polishes: Ozotic 505 and 528. I first saw this combination on More Nail Polish and knew I had to have these polishes one day! Get ready to be blown away! This was one coat of Sinful Colors Black on Black, one coat of Ozotic 505, and 2 coats of Ozotic 528. A top coat of Out the Door sealed it all in. All I can say is that these are the very most favorite nails I've ever done and would wear them every single day for the rest of my life! Ozotic 505 is a multichrome and Ozotic 528 is part of the Elytra collection and basically a multichromatic glitter.  Both of these polishes look amazing alone over a black base, but I had to go for the full whammy my first time using them. I hope you love them as much as I do! 

And now for picture overload!

 This picture above isn't in the best focus(click to enlarge!), but I loved how it shows 5 or 6 different colors from the same polish at one time! How can you NOT love this polish combination?!

Check out that close up!! 

piCture pOlish and Ozotics can be purchased from the Australian piCture pOlish website and range from $9.90-$14.00.

If you live in the US, you can purchase them from Llarowe here and the shipping isn't international.

I couldn't stop looking at my nails while I had this on and I still wish I could wear them everyday!! What do you think? Thanks for reading!

Day 16: Tribal Print

Hello lovely readers! This is another scheduled post. It may take me a few days to reply to any comments but I will read them all when I come back!

Tribal Print day. This was a lot easier than I thought it would be. The fun part was picking out the colors. Other than that, it's all lines and very simple to do with a thin striper brush, dotting tool, and polish.

 I used: Base Color of Essie Blanc

Stripes and dots with OPI Love Is A Racket, Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous, China Glaze Custom Kicks, and Sinful Colors Black on Black.

Top Coat of Out the Door.

What do you think? It's super fun and bright so I love it! Completely different than anything I've done before, so that makes me happy! Thanks for reading and have a safe weekend!

Day 15: Delicate Print

Hello readers!! This is a scheduled post, as my husband came home from Afghanistan yesterday and I wanted to be able to spend some time with him for the next couple of days without needing to be online. Delicate Print was today's challenge. I think there are many ways you can interpret that and this is what I came up with. I recently found the Wet n Wild Mermaid's Cove collection at a CVS out here and knew I had to have Waves of Enchantment! Gorgeous!

I used: 2 coats of Waves of Enchantment

China Glaze Passion and my favorite Bundle Monster plate BM-201

Top Coat of Out the Door

It's almost hard to tell there was a design over the shimmery color so I consider it "delicate" and I really love how these looked together!! So pretty. What do you think? Thanks for reading!

He's Home!!

Hey there everyone! I just wanted to share my exciting news that my husband arrived home safely from Afghanistan! I have a few pictures to share with you, as well as my awesome camo nails I did for when we went to the airport to pick him up!

Here are my nails:

"MY <3 IS HOME" on the fingers. 

I used: Base Coat of OPI Nail Envy

Base color: Ulta Taupe on a Rope

Camo pattern(using my biggest dotting tool and making irregular shapes) with: butterLONDON British Racing Green, Ulta Army of 1, and OPI Suzi Loves Cowboys.

Striper Brush and Sally Hansen Insta Dri Quick Brick for the words.

Top Coat of Out The Door.

What do you think? I wish the red was more of a contrast since it seems a little harder to read the words on the camo, but I still love how they turned out. 

Here are 2 more pictures from our day:

 Here is the sign we made for our door this morning. :)

And here is our group shot at the airport. :) We are so happy to be all together again!! 

Thanks for reading! I have a few days worth of scheduled posts so we can spend some family time together.

Day 14: Flowers

Well, it's flower day here for the 31 day challenge. I really wanted to try out my new piCture pOlish Denim that came in my surprise package from my hubby(stay tuned for a nail mail post this week once more of my stuff arrives) so this is what I came up with. In hindsight, using matte colors are great for how opaque they are, but not so great for nail art. The tulips ended up looking iffy but I like the concept. I think I'll try another time with creme polishes. I love how the Denim sky makes it look like a night scene of the flowers. :)

I used: piCture pOlish Denim for the sky

Zoya mattes Posh and Savita for the the tulips. 

Zoya matte Veruschka for the grass and stems.

Top Coat of Out The Door

I think I'd have liked it more if the tulips didn't look so rough. Next time.... What do you think? Isn't Denim amazing?!!! Thanks for reading!

Day 13: Animal Print

Good morning! Don't forget, today is the Buy 1 Get 1 Free butterLONDON polish deal at Ulta!! I'm heading there as soon as they open to grab my 2 polishes!! :)

Today's challenge is Animal Print. I went easy on myself for this one and decided to do a turtle shell print. It's the stamp that can be a "giraffe" print if you use different colors, but I wanted to try this instead. I saw this youtube tutorial by Miss80Million before I bought my Bundle Monster plates and have been wanting to try it ever since.

I used: China Glaze Passion

 Stamped Zoya Veruschka(who says you can't use a matte polish for stamping? if you work fast enough you can!) with Bundle Monster Plate BM-215.

Top Coat of Out The Door

This seemed too easy for the challenge,  but at least it was something I'd been wanting to try out! What do you think? Thanks for reading!

Day 12: Stripes

Good morning lovely readers! Ready for this Monday yet? I am very excited to share that my hubby should be home from Afghanistan this week!!! :D I have some cute nails planned out for that day so stay tuned for them. I filed my nails way down last night. They are way easier to work with, especially while using my iPhone, but I think I'll be happier when they grow out a bit more.

As for today, stripes were the challenge theme and these are what I came up with. I was looking for inspiration ideas last night and came across this post fromNailside(I love her designs!! Check out her awesome tape mani tutorials!) and wanted to recreate it with some other colors. My friend, Heidi, helped me pick the colors and these were born:

 

I used: Base coat of OPI Nail Envy

2 coats of Essie Blanc for the base color

Stripes using a striper brush with Nubar Reclaim, Nubar Petunia Sparkle, and Sinful Colors Black on Black

Top Coat of Out The Door

Any thoughts on these? I wish I'd gotten a picture in the sunlight to see if the Reclaim gave it's holographic effect, but I still like it non-holoed, too. I love all of the different finishes with the different colors. :) Thanks for reading!

Day 11: Polka Dots

Good morning! Today is Polka Dots in the 31 Day Challenge and this is what I came up with: constellations! I loved them when I was younger, and my husband and I claim one of the stars in Orion as "our" star from when we were dating. Cheesy, maybe, but I love the memory. :)

Index Finger: Cancer

Middle Finger: Draco

Ring Finger: Big Dipper

Pinky Finger: Libra

Thumb: Orion(my favorite constellation)

I used: Base Coat of OPI Nail Envy

Base Color of OPI Road House Blues

Layer of Wet n Wild Blue Wants to be a Millionaire for the shimmer

Pure Ice Silver Mercedes for the star polka dots

Essie Blanc for the white lines 

Top Coat of Out The Door

So what are your thoughts? This proved to be much  harder than I expected, but I do like the end result. Thanks for reading!

Day 10: Gradient Nails

Hello everyone, thanks for stopping by! Today's challenge in the 31 Day Challenge is Gradient Nails. I have really been wanting to try out my new Bella and Edward Essence Nail Art Twins since I received them on Monday and today was a day I could fit them into the challenge. Don't forget to enter my giveaway to win a set of your own!

What I used:
Base Coat: Opi Nail Envy
Base Color: Essence Bella
Then I sponged Nubar Star Sparkle(for more of the smaller holo glitter that can be found in Edward) almost 2/3 of the way up the nail with a makeup sponge.
Then, I sponged Essence Edward on the tips and a little bit up the nail to spread some of that gorgeous square and hex glitter.
Top Coat: Out The Door

What do you think? I really like this, and even though I am excited for my next challenge tomorrow, I probably won't be happy about taking this off. Thanks for reading, and I hope you all have a safe weekend!

Day 9: Rainbow Nails

TGIF! How are you all this morning? Happy it's Friday? Do you have any fun plans for the weekend? Today's challenge is Rainbow nails and I was pretty excited to do this design! Rainbow Brite was one of my favorite shows when I was little(born in the 80s) and she is the perfect "rainbow" theme. :) I watched Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer and grabbed some screen shots for you to compare to the design if you aren't familiar with Rainbow Brite. See those below the nail pictures.

Index Finger: Twink the Sprite
Middle and Pinky Fingers: Rainbow Brite's colorful sleeves
Ring Finger: Rainbow Brite's Color Belt

I used: Base coat: Nail Envy
Red: NYC 131 Big Apple Creme
Orange: OPI In My Back Pocket
Yellow: Color Club Almost Famous
Green: Ulta Limelight
Blue: Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Pacific Blue
Purple: Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Deep Purple
White: Essie Blanc
Pale Pink(Twink's face) unnamed mini Color Club
Black: Sinful Colors Black on Black
Top Coat of Out The Door

Here are some pictures for reference:

This is a Sprite named Tink

 

Here is a good picture of Rainbow Brite's sleeves

This is a good picture to show her Color Belt

So what do you think? I had a hard time doing the teeny stars, and they didn't turn out that great(and got speared a bit by the top coat) but other than that, I love them!! :)

Day 8: Metallic Nails

Good morning, readers!! Ready for another 31 Day Challenge post? Hope so, because I have today's Metallic Nails challenge to show you. When I read Metallic Nails, I was a little bummed because it seemed boring and I couldn't think of nail art to do. I thought about stamping because metallics seem to be the best for stamping, but that didn't seem that exciting to me. Then, I remembered an awesome tutorial I saw from rebecca likes nails and knew this would look pretty neat with metallic colors! She is super cool has some awesome ideas! Go check out her page!

 Sorry for the glare on the nails, this was the least shiny in the morning sunlight. Metallics are hard for me to photograph!

I used: Base coat of Revlon Quick Dry Basecoat
Pure Ice Outrageous, Silver Mercedes, and First Time for the braiding.
Top coat of Out The Door(I used up all of my Poshe! Trying this for a change, but it's much thinner and doesn't add that nice thick layer of shine that Poshe does.)

I'm not sure why I got bubbling under the layers of polish. I'm wondering if my Revlon base coat(which I hardly ever use) wasn't completely dry before I started adding layers of polish and caused the bubbles somehow? They showed up about half way through the design :( Oh well.

So what do you think? Thanks for reading!

Day 7: Black and White Nails

Good morning, readers! Today marks the end of the first week of the 31 day challenge! I am really enjoying this. The only down side is that sometimes I love my design too much and it stinks that I have to take it off after only one day to do the next challenge. At least I am going to have a lot of cute ideas for when the challenge is over.

Today is Black and White Nails day. I have already done panda nails before I started my blog and wanted to try something different. It only took about 2 seconds to realize there was a super cute animal that was black and white besides a panda:

I used: Base Coat of OPI Nail Envy
2 Coats of Wet n Wild Black Creme
Essie Blanc for the belly and eyes
OPI In My Back Pocked for the beaks and feet
Bows are from the Hello Kitty Nail Stickers off of the Born Pretty site that I won in Rebecca's giveaway!

What do you think? Up close, you can see that some of the stickers didn't lay that flat. Next time, I'll wait a long time until the polish underneath is harder so they can't sink in a bit, but love them otherwise! Thanks for reading!