ABC Challenge Letter A - Orly Androgynie

Hi all!

Today I'm getting a late start on the ABC challenge! You might have already seen some other blogs' posts yesterday but alas, I'm starting up school again and getting all my courses in order so it's been a bit hectic. This semester I'll also be a research assistant so, hopefully, my schedule won't get too crazy and I'll still have time for the blog. If anything changes, I'll let you guys know. I'm not planning to drop off the face of the earth ;).

Back to the challenge, I chose to go with an untried for today, Orly Androgynie. This came out a while ago and it was a disappointment to some people because the glitter would sink and generally not look as fantastic as the bottle. I knew this beforehand so I placed my bottle upside down so that the glitter would redistribute. And then, I bumped the table and this happened:

Sigh. But, because I'm a trooper and I didn't have a backup plan, I grabbed the brush and just painted my nails straight from the puddle. That's also the reason my nails look a little lumpy with a messy cuticle line, since I was just dipping into a puddle and from the bottom of the bottle, I managed to get a LOT of glitter.  I'm showing two coats for the pictures below.

See? SO MUCH GLITTER. It's a shame that I lost this bottle but I've also had it for months and never used it so maybe I don't need to replace it. I kinda want to, but maybe I shouldn't.

Remember to have a look at the other awesome ladies participating! I'm psyched to be doing another challenge with a great group of blogs (some from the 31 Day challenge) and it's gonna be a very mellow schedule, just once a week with no nail art required. Don't get me wrong, I'll definitely include some because I still want this blog to have nail art but it's a relief to know that if I'm swamped with school I can just pick a pretty polish and go back to studying.

Kimber @ Kimber'sLacquerKorner
Gini @ Sassy Paints
Kat @ Hooked On Polish
Lisa @ Lozlosa
Diana @ Nails By Diana
Nicole @ Nicole Gets Nailed
Nailista
Lariesa @ Me, Myself, and Polish
Patty @ Patty And Goldie's Day Off
Meredith@ Perfectly Polished
Joanna @ Sweet Polish of Mine
Sammi @ GlitzNGlammer
Polishaholic
Dionne @ Glittery Fingers
Aly @ Wonderland Beauty
Kate @ Painted Pony Nails
Sarah @ Faithfully Polished
Small Budget Beauty
Brittany @ Pretty, Pink, and Chic
Alaina @ Dont Spill The Acetone
Simona @ Light Your Nails
Elle @ Miss Nail Polish
Holly @ Facebook (blog link coming soon!)
Sonya (link needed)

Have a great day! 

31 Day Challenge Day 29 - Inspired by the Supernatural

Hello!

Quick post just so I don't fall behind on the challenge again! This is technically a recycled mani. I did this with the Bundle Monster contest in mind but I changed my mind and submitted the other one you saw. I liked certain elements of this enough to repeat them in the other mani but, as a whole, it looked a little too haphazard? I dunno. It did feature one of my all time favorite glitter polishes!

For this mani I started with a base of China Glaze It's Alive, a weird green glitter polish that was released for last year's Halloween collection. Then I did the scratch technique and various BM stamps. There was also glow in the dark polish in between the scratch layers so the scratches glowed in the dark.

Like I said, meh. I'm sorry I only have one picture but this didn't last very long on my nails. Posting this was the only way to keep up since I have two tests tomorrow O_O.

Have a great day and check out the other ladies and their spooky manis!

-Kimber at Kimber's Lacquer Korner
-Kat at Hooked On Polish
-Diana at Nails By Diana
-Aly at Wonderland Beauty
-Meredith at Perfectly Polished
-Nicole at The Color Republic
-Kate at The Painted Pony Nails
-Cee at Absolutely Cee
-Sam at Polished Art
-Nail Narcotics
-Nicole at Nicole Gets Nailed
-Shelby at Shelby's Swatches
-Stephanie Louise at All Things Beautiful
-Mixed Mama
-Joanna @ Sweet Polish of Mine
-Patty Greenberg
-Liz and Lisa @ Lozlosa 
-Mari at Nailista
-Miss L at Beauty by Miss L 
-Gini at Sassy Paints
-Chameleon Stampede 
-Pam at Nail-E-Glance
-Me, Myself, and Polish 
- Robin Sparkles

Monday's a Day for a Color Club and Stamping Fail!

Hi, it's Monday. I feel like I haven't rested in a while, I need my alone days in my house just vegging or I get cranky.

This is another really old mani that I never got around to posting. The fail here was with the fact that I wasn't expecting the polish to be so sheer and then the stamping. Dear Lord, the stamping. It wasn't great. It was kind of crooked and hurried and I just didn't like it when I was done. One of those "doesn't-look-like-it-did-in-my-head deals".

This is Color Club Hydrangea Kiss. It's a very pretty blue but it was just a runny and streaky mess while applying which made me lose my polishing patience. I then stamped with Sally Hansen Silver Sweep and BM-221 for the misplaced mess.

I also wanted to take a minute (paragraph) to say thanks for your comments on my Cupcake Gradient post, I haven't had a chance to respond yet but it really meant a lot to hear the nice things you all said and to hear from the ones that are usually lurkers and made themselves known :D. You're all the reason I blog. Well, that and I don't really have much else to do with all the polishes except shove them in other people's face and be like "ISN'T THIS PRETTY?!".

Hope you all enjoyed your weekend and your father's day celebrations!

Monday's a Day for a Spun Sugar Fail!

Hello all and welcome to another installment of my mini-Monday fails!

In this case the fail wasn't monumental, it was just too time consuming to do both hands by the time I started to try this mani and the results weren't as perfect as I wanted.

I did the Spun Sugar mani, though it has other names like thin lines or dripping polish I like 'spun sugar' best since I think it more accurately describes the effect. Either way, to do this you plop down some polish onto any random surface you don't mind getting ruined, your boyfriends favorite shirt that you hate for example, and wait for it to get stringy and annoying and sort of drape it over your nail for a cool effect.

I started with two coats of Essie Bikini So Teeny, a beautiful clean shade of blue (cornflower maybe?).

I really like Bikini So Teeny (aside from the fact that the shimmer in the bottle doesn't really translate to the nail). It had a good two coat formula and the color is just so...pretty!

This technique is MESSY. Or maybe it's me. Either way, you were warned.

Look at all those bubbles!

I have top coat on my pinky and ring finger and just left the natural texture on my middle and pointer finger so you'd see the difference. I used Sally Hansen Hard to Get for the white and it just did not want to get stringy! Every time I use this polish for nail art it strings and frustrates me and the one time I needed it to annoy me, it didn't want to! Touché polish, touché. I'll get you back though.

I'll definitely be trying this technique again with more patience and consider doing maybe less lines and a different polish for sure. What about you guys? Something you're wanting to try or have done?

Have a nice Monday! (As nice as a Monday could be)

Monday's a Day for a Semi-fail!

Hey all! I've been a bad blogger, I know. I honestly got out of whack with my posting days last week but now I'm starting fresh with a (semi) fail for this Monday.

This mani was a fail because of what you can't see in the pics. The streakyness, the bubbling and multiple coats, it was just blagh. I used Essie A Crewed Interest which is a really lovely color. It was exactly what I was looking for, something peachy that didn't lean too pink. I'm still not sure the color is great with my skin tone but I like it nonetheless.

Now, about the formula. It definitely needs three coats to even everything out but I started with a too thick first coat and everything went downhill from there. Also, my base coat seems to be bubbling so of course, the polish bubbled too. Then I tried some nail art with tape but I didn't really know where to take it and the polish had started chipping already because it was so thick so I just removed everything.

The color is really worth having, just make sure to do thin coats and you'll be just peachy...get it? Peachy?

Have a good day!

Monday's a Day for Fails!

Good morning!

I debated whether or not to post these pictures because I just don't love them. I usually don't mind showing pictures of less than perfect work because we're all human and, from afar, they don't really look bad, so I figure it's worth showing. This particular set however, just blagh. In the end I realized I was just taking it too seriously and, really, who doesn't like to laugh at a little fail? So I might make this like a little series, something to make us laugh on a Monday and show all my sad little manis that were never posted.

The other day it was my nephew's graduation mass and I had this cute dress from my high school graduation ceremony so I knew it was appropriate for church. While at dinner I got the idea to do my nails like the print on the dress as a fun little experiment. Note to self: Don't start 'fun little experiments' at 12am.

Aside from the dots getting a little stringy, there's nothing technically wrong with them. They just didn't really turn out like I had thought in my head and I just plain don't like them. Oh well, can't win 'em all. But you definitely gotta catch 'em all! Hehe...I made myself giggle.

Have a good day and let us always remember, why so serious? It's just a hobby after all :D (Side note: I really want to see Dark Knight Rises)

Black and White Challenge Day 4 - White Base with Color

Beware of the fail ahead! You should probably avert your eyes, it's not pretty.

Still here? Ok then. Today is day 4 of the Black and White Challenge from Mateja at Purple Glitters and Dolores at Colorful Bottle. The mani of the day was white base with some color and I thought of watercolor nails! Mind you, this only happened because I failed hard at creating the mani idea my boyfriend gave me.

Behold!

Sorry for the less than stellar cleanup!

I started with two coats of Sally Hansen Hard to Get and I was really liking the stark white nails! It made them look longer somehow. I almost didn't watercolor at this point. I should have listened to myself.

Oh. They look like clown nails or something. I tried to replicate Chalkboard Nails' look but I didn't have the same colors and I just don't like the ones I chose. I'm not even 100% on which color is on which nail because I changed them up between nails when I saw they didn't spread or mix like I thought they should. The general idea though was red, yellow, blue and purple. A lime green snuck in there on one nail too to see if I could salvage it but, alas, it was too late. 

I'm sorry I don't have anything better to show you but after a day of dress shopping I'm just too beat to redo them. Not to mention that I already missed the challenge "deadline" on almost every time zone (I think?).

Remember to see what the other ladies participating came up with! You probably need it after seeing mine.

Purple Glitters 

Colorfull bottle

Biba's beauty corner 

Taya 

Nail crazy 

Mateji ustvarjata 

My nail grafiti 

Colores de Carol 

Emerald sparkle 

Wacky Laki
Omgnoodles
LACQUERED TIPS  
WelcomeTo Brianna's World! 
Pink Polish Addic
My Little Vanities
Hooked on polish
Posh nail art
Biberlee - Džumbus
Oje Gemisi Kalkiyor 
The Nail Buff