Sunday, September 30, 2012

31 Day Challenge Day 14 - Flowers

Hi all!

Ok, first things first. Is anyone else pumped for the premiere of Once Upon a Time today?! I didn't realize how much I missed the show until I started seeing the promos! I had kind of a little ritual where I would always give myself a pedi while watching Once Upon a Time (not weekly, but always while watching the show) and I'm happy it's tomorrow because my toes need some love o_O.

Back to nails. For today's challenge prompt I was, once again, befuddled (I freakin' love that word). I had a couple of ideas I wanted to try out but my mojo was definitely gone and nothing came out nice enough. Before giving up and just stamping, I tried these little freehand flowers and I'm ok enough with the result to show you guys. Base color is Illamasqua Milf (yum), the flowers are Essie Play Date and Orly Charged Up and the leaves are China Glaze Exotic Encounters.




I did little blobs with Play Date then added Charged Up with a striper brush. Sometimes I wouldn't like the result or I would have too much polish on the striper so I would pat the blob with a tissue, sorta like a saran wrap marble mani. The leaves are most assuredly not my best work but it was late and I was watching Sons of Anarchy with le boy while polishing so I was distracted. I was also distracted by someone whining that he was watching tv alone and not receiving any cuddles, so I apologize for the awkward leaves :D.

There is a 92% chance I'll see you tomorrow for a challenge post that's actually on time!

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Thursday, September 27, 2012

31 Day Challenge Day 13 - Animal Print

Good...evening!

Finally had time to do the animal print mani! For this I used two coats of Cartwheels on the Catwalk from Sephora by OPI polishes. This polish was part of a collaboration with Betsey Johnson and it's a light dusty seafomy green (maybe? I dunno, I suck at describing colors). Then I stamped with China Glaze Deviantly Daring and BM 212. Finished it off with a dotting tool and Spoiled Deeper Dive.



It's peacock nails! Kinda. Meh. Carthweels on the Catwalk is a really pretty polish, and an untried so BONUS! :D

See you in a few hours for flower nails! (Hopefully)
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Tuesday, September 25, 2012

31 Day Challenge Day 12 - Stripes

'Morning!

I'm finally posting the Stripes prompt for the 31 day challenge. Thank you guys for being understanding, we had a family issue and I spent the weekend at my aunt's house in Miami. I didn't even buy any polish while over there, so you just know I had no time to spare!

Back to nails. I saw this kind of tape mani at Manicurator (post here) and I loved the irregular sized stripes so I decided to recreate that. I have to say though, this was one of those manis where I had no idea what to do and I just sat at my polish table staring at the drawers of polish with an empty mind. Then I remembered I had wanted to wear China Glaze Turned Up Turquoise so I had my boyfriend pick a color that would work well with it. He chose Sally Hansen Grass Slipper.




I really like how these came out except for that fat tip on my pointer finger, but that was because I dinged the polish underneath and was too lazy to redo it. One tip though, make sure you have different size tape, I used striping tape for the whole thing and had to place almost 5 stripes together to make the wider spaces.

As you can see, I'm hopelessly behind and busy with school. This weekend really made a dent in my time :\. Either way, I'll try to get the animal print nails up (which should be posted today) as soon as I can.

Make sure to check the other blogs for stripes (and probably some animal print).


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Saturday, September 22, 2012

Uh-oh....

Hey all!

Good news is I have a pretty nice mani to show you guys for stripes days. Bad news is the memory card is at home in my laptop and I won't be home until late Monday morning. If I can get my lovely boyfriend to send me the pics before, I'll definitely post them ASAP. Otherwise I have to ask too much of you again (bonus if you get the reference!).

Thank you guys for sticking with me and for all the lovely comments. I can honestly say I have loved doing this challenge and think we have rounded up a great group of bloggers!

See you soon!

Kat.
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Wednesday, September 19, 2012

31 Day Challenge Day 11 - Polka Dots

Hi all!

I'm currently writing this before midnight so I'm still good! Sorry it took me so long, I've been exhausted and running errands all day so when I got home I was just pooped. I'll stop babbling so I can get this in under the wire :P

I love polka dots, they always get noticed and they're so easy to do! Thing is, I had way too many ideas in my head for this challenge day and not enough time or energy to really devote to them so I went with a simple polka dot gradient. I used Essie Absolutely Shore as the base and dotted with Wet 'N Wild I Need a Refresh-Mint, Zoya Zuza and Illamasqua Muse.




I have had these on my to do list forever so I'm glad I get to check them off at least. I tried to do dots of two different sizes but, for some reason, they all came out pretty uniform. I really did love the outcome, I'm just too tired to appreciate them, I think.

Make sure you stop by all the blogs featuring polka dots today!

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Sunday, September 16, 2012

31 Day Challenge Day 10 - Gradients

Hey all!

Apparently, my last post was my 100th! I didn't really notice but I like the number 101 better, so let's celebrate with one of my fave manis from this challenge (so far).

This could get a little long, so I'm hiding it under the jump, MWAHAHAH! Here's a collage to whet your appetite before you click 'read more'.



Read more »
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Thursday, September 13, 2012

31 Day Challenge Day 9 - Rainbow

Hey all! Week's almost over, thank goodness. It's been light on schoolwork this week so I may have some time to do some extra manis! Woot!

I have a confession to make...I don't love rainbows... I know, I know I'm sorry! I definitely enjoy seeing a real life rainbow but the rainbow colors itself just don't really inspire me. Maybe its because I never think I have adequate rainbow colored polishes but, a lot of the time, I find rainbows too... loud? Don't know if that's the right description...moving on.

I still managed to come up with something I liked at least! Had to use Illamasqua Load as a base again due to a lack of white polishes. Waited till that dried, added striping tape and went to town. On my pointer I kept it simple with a rhinestone design I had seen previously on Kayla Shevonne (who was inspired by another blog, you can check out both here)



I really kind of liked this! Except for the fact that, thanks to the stripes, I couldn't help but notice it looks like I have a crooked nail? Now I can't file it right and it's driving me crazy GRAEWARWE.

To get the crispest line I worked two nails at a time (I was originally going to have two accent nails) and only two colors at a time. Once both sides of the tape were painted with the corresponding color, I removed that piece. I really hope that makes sense, I'm sleepy. 

Anyway, I hope you like this and if anyone wants further tips on how I did this, let me know in the comments! Remember there's many rainbows to see today so get with the clicking:

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Monday, September 10, 2012

31 Day Challenge Day 8 - Metallic

Hey all!

Continuing on with our 31 day challenge, today's nails were metallic! Originally, I did a mani with metallic polishes (which you may see in a separate post) but then I saw that Sarah at Chalkboard Nails used magnetic polishes for her metallic challenge, and I remembered something from my 'manis to do' list and decided to use that instead.

It's a magnetic gradient! As Sarah said, magnetic polishes use metallic particles for the effect so it kinda counts :P. I know I've seen this somewhere before, but I didn't save the bookmark apparently so if you know who I should credit, let me know in the comments!

EDIT: Big thanks to Lani who knew it was at Esmaltes da Kelly that I saw this originally! (Clicky) 




I started with one coat of Nails Inc. Houses of Parliament (purple) and then sponged Nails Inc. Whitehall (teal/green) on top. When I was happy with the gradient, I applied top coat one by one and applied the magnet immediately for the effect. I used a slow drying top coat just in case so the polish wouldn't dry without producing a strong effect.

The gradient was a bit too subtle for my liking but the other contrasting magnetic polish I have has glitter and it's a huge pain to clean up, so I decided against it. Otherwise, I really love the effect! Magnetic polishes are still cool in my eyes, especially since it looks 3D a lot of the time :D.

What do you think? Something you would try?

Remember to visit the other ladies participating for their metallic manis!

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Friday, September 7, 2012

31 Day Challenge Day 7 - Black and White

Hi there!

Sorry for the super late post, this is the mani I completely forgot I had to do and had no ideas on what to do in the first place. To do this I had to remove one of the most awesome things I've done in a while and it made me sad. Also, this mani gave me all kinds of trouble. First, I discovered all my white polishes are clumpy almost empty messes and I'm out of thinner. Then I remembered I had Illamasqua Load (teehee) which was white enough.


Load is really interesting color, like an off white yellow... let's not think of the inspiration for the name. The formula is a bit streaky and watery, needing 3 coats but they dry very fast so it's not bad at all. It's not a color I would reach for if I was in a hurry but I'm definitely glad to have it, love how it makes my nails look.

Once I had Load (teehee) on, I decided to go ahead with some fishnet nails. Stamped with RA-109 (I'm sure you're all sick of seeing this image) and then BM-209 with Wet 'N Wild black creme.




I'm extremely meh about these. It doesn't help that I was doing these in a hurry in an absolutely ridiculous heat. Isn't it supposed to start cooling down now? Blegh. Mostly, I think I'm just sad I had to take off what I had on. No, nevermind, I think it's the heat getting to me.

Sorry for the erratic post, I have about a zillion things on my mind. Hope you've had a better day and thanks for looking!

To see better black and white manis, do the clicky on the linkys!
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Tuesday, September 4, 2012

31 Day Challenge Day 6 - Violet

'Ello!

Today is day 6 of the 31 day challenge! 6 is my favorite number for some reason. Anyway, violet is purple right? I used purple.

This polish is a recent purchase and OMGS I love it. It's from the newest collaboration between Sephora and Pantone called Purple Parachute. It's also supposed to be a very close cousin to RBL Scrangie which was all sorts of purple duochrome deliciousness created by the legendary blogger, Scrangie. I've only seen one comparison and it said Scrangie was a bit sheerer but that sheerness also allows the duochrome to shine through and it was also more red based. This has a purple base with green shimmer that was being a pain to photograph. Please imagine this more prettyful, kinda like the bottle shot.




I just love the base color of this, so unique (in my stash at least) and it just shines on my nails! I might layer something over it or spice it up later but, for now, I just wanted to enjoy the color on its own.

In unrelated news, school and procrastination have already begun to kick my ass so that's why you might see less of me and shorter posts. Like I said, I'll keep posting the challenge manis but the posts in between might be a little thin. Also, I'm sick which sucks.

Have a good day and I hope you enjoyed your long weekend!

Visit the other blogs to see more purple prettyness!

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Saturday, September 1, 2012

31 Day Challenge Day 5 - BLUE!!!

Hi ladies!

If you read my blog with any sort of regularity or even if you've just seen my haul posts, you'll know of my love affair with blue polish. It's just so pretty and there's so many different blues and I need them all. So imagine my surprise when I realize I've never posted the bluest blue that ever blued.

I used two creamy delicious blue coats of (one of) the most perfect blues - Nails Inc. Baker St!



The only problem I have with this polish is that I never know what to combine with it. I've tried stamping in gold, silver, black, white and another blue and it just never looks *right*. Like the color is so electric it just doesn't play well with another polish. This is the only combo I liked - Sally Hansen White Veil (Bonus: it's an untried). 



It's difficult to describe the glitters in this polish, they're pale white but matte-y and the golden hexes. Very pretty. I almost bought this once but left it in the end, then I saw this post at Imperfectly Painted and needed it. Of course, then it was nowhere to be found. I finally found an intact display at a random K-Mart.

In reality, Baker St. is a bit deeper in color, think more of a Superman blue. I took this cellphone pic to try and show the color a bit better.


The color is still a little darker but photoshop was NOT cooperating in altering the color either. If you even admire any blue polishes - you need this one.

Also, YAY for a long weekend! Do yo have any plans? I'm going to a beach house in the south of the island. Just learned about this last night, but still pretty cool :D

Now go check the other ladies and their blues!
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