Secret Celebration of Pi Day

 I wanted to be fun and do some nails for Pi Day yesterday, but I was also planning on going out later that night and wanted something that was more uniform. I figured the only solution was to make the pi connection more subtle. I decided to incorporate implied circles by doing half moons, then I wrote in the beginning of pi across my tips! I then overdid it with some rhinestones, but it's been a while since I've used shiny 3D effects.

 I started with two coats of OPI Alpine Snow. Next, I blocked off the base of each nail and painted the remainder with Icing Daisy Dukes, which is an amazing denim polish. Next, I used the coppery Revlon Autumn Spice across my tips. I love the color combination of coppers and dark blues.

 I then used a toothpick and some SpaRitual Copper to write in the beginning digits of Pi. I'm glad it turned out semi-legible! I followed that by drawing in the pi symbol in China Glaze Blue Bells Ring and OPI Push and Shove. I wish I hadn't been in such a rush and some of the pi symbols had shown up better, but oh well.

Colors Used:

OPI Alpine Snow

Icing Daisy Dukes

Revlon Autumn Spice

SpaRitual Copper

China Glaze Blue Bells Ring 

OPI Push and Shove

Black and White Flowers

 Black nails with white flowers! Another fun time of me matching one of my scrub tops, because I'm just silly like that. They didn't turn out half bad, in my opinion!

 I started with Sally Hansen Crystalline, which is a sparkly satin white. I then waited for what felt like two hours for the polish to set to the point I could put on hole reinforcers to mark off half moons. Unfortunately, the polish was stubbornly refusing to reach that point in a timely manner, so I just freehanded the moons.

 I used Wet n Wild Black Creme for the majority of the nail. I swear, I keep trying to branch out into other black cremes but this one is so far still the reigning champion for thick inky blackness in one coat. Once that was dry, I decided to cheat! I knew I was going to be attempting fine lines, so I used regular old acrylic paint for the flowers. Some of the lines still ended up a little thick and sketchy, but it worked for the most part. My dominant hand even turned out decently!

Colors Used:

Sally Hansen Crystalline

Wet n Wild Black Creme

White Acrylic Paint

Water Spots and Holos

 My first attempt at water spotting! I'm going to have to try this again, it was a lot of fun. Then again, I like water marbling, and this isn't much different. I want to try some black over bright colors sometime, but this week I was in the mood for playing with some holographic polish. Now I just have to avoid hypnotizing myself and spending all day watching my nails sparkle with rainbows!

 The base color is Zoya Dream. I love this polish. I just picked it up at the store last week, and I couldn't wait to see what it was like. It's a beautiful blue jelly with many scattered holographic flecks. I decided to pair it with a linear holo, Color Club Over The Moon. However, I couldn't bear to cover all of the original Dream, so I left my index and ring nail alone.

 Holographic polish seems to work just fine and dandy for water spotting. It's an interesting effect! However, I felt it was still lacking a little something. I added half moons in black using Wet n wild Black Lace Creme, then traced the border in a silver KISS nail art striper and added a little gem.

 And lastly, some photos with flash, to get some of that shiny shiny holographic effect!

 Colors Used:

Zoya Dream

 Color Club Over The Moon

 Wet n wild Black Lace Creme

KISS Nail Art Silver

Shattered Gradient

 

I was in the mood for gradients, but wanted to add a Halloween twist! I'm really happy with these, probably my most successful foray into yellow nails!

 I started with a white base, just to save on layers and layers of yellow. Next, I painted on two coats of Color Club Almost Famous. Once that was dry, I grabbed a makeup sponge and created my gradient: Color Club Almost Famous, Sinful Colors Anchors Away, and Essie Fear or Desire. It took a few passes of the sponge on each nail to get the gradient as strong as I wanted.

 

 

 I then took small sections of masking tape and stuck them over the base of my nails, then proceeded to paint Sephora by OPI Blasted Black on my index, middle, and pinky nails. For my thumb and ring nails, I painted on a coat of Icing Shredded, which is a matte black flakie that I snagged on clearance and haven't seen anywhere since!

On my left hand, I toyed around with placing square green glitter as another accent. It's fun, but I prefer the contrast of the glitter-less version.

 Colors used:

Color Club Almost Famous

Sinful Colors Anchors Away

Essie Fear or Desire

  Sephora by OPI Blasted Black

Icing Shredded

Triple Textures!

 This is a bit of a two-in-one post, because I decided to do a different experiment on each hand! Heh, days off when no one has to see your lack of coordination are good for experimentation.

 My idea here was to pair three different textures. It actually ended up looking better than I had anticipated! I suppose I was fearing a total train wreck, so success is always nice. I started out with a base of SpaRitual Undercurrent, which I then let dry completely. I marked off a triangle at the base of each nail, and a chevron at each tip.

 

I then added another coat of Undercurrent to the middle section of each nail, followed by dumping a generous amount of flocking powder. I then waited for that to dry. Next, I applied a fresh coat of Undercurrent to the base of each nail and pressed each nail into mixed magenta and teal-blue caviar beads. I was so glad that the beads behaved and didn't get trapped in the velvet section. The final touch was adding textured polish to my tips. I used Icing Tini Bikini, a magenta textured polish with blue glitter, and Zoya  Liberty, which is of course the most amazing blue .

 For my right hand, I wanted to mess around with a different sort of texture.

 I still used a base of SpaRitual Undercurrent for this hand. On my middle and ring fingers, I applied a second coat before sprinkling on a liberal amount of light blue 'Stampendous' glass glitter I found in the embossing/stamping section of Joann's. I  really love how this looks. I originally grabbed it with the intention of doing hand-placed glitters for a shattered look, but as it is it looks like a really cool crystal formation.

 I then brushed on Julie G Blueberry Fizz to add texture to my thumb, index, and ring fingers. I really like how this turned out!

Colors Used:

SpaRitual Undercurrent

Icing Tini Bikini

Zoya  Liberty

Julie G Blueberry Fizz 

Day 20: Stripes

 Okay, so I cheated slightly and didn't stripe every nail. But I wanted to make the stripes an accent, and I figured doing every nail would look a bit too busy.

 I started with a base of China Glaze White on White. After letting that dry, I used my circular ring reinforcing stickers to mark off half moons. I then painted on a coat of Sinful Colors Beverley Hills, which is pretty much a perfect lavender. With the moons still covered in stickers, I used a sponge to work in a gradient on both sides with ORLY #816 (still don't know why this polish isn't named). As an extra touch, I brushed on very thin tips with the #816.

 The next step was to use many pieces of striping tape to block off my stripes. The effect worked best on the thumbs. The lines are meant to look like they're radiating outward. After zones were blocked off, I used Sinful Colors Enchanted to paint in those narrow triangles. I'm rather pleased with the overall effect!

Colors Used:

China Glaze White on White

 Sinful Colors Beverley Hills

 ORLY #816

Sinful Colors Enchanted 

Mixed Grays

I love occasionally checking out Icing's polish selection. This was a polish that caught my eye last time I was in the store.  Icing Choco Chip is a lovely polish! It's a warm light gray creme-jelly with black hex glitter  and black microglitter mixed in. It applied very easily. It is one that requires a few layers for full opacity, but it only took three thin layers to get this effect. It did take a little longer to dry, but not unreasonably long. I love that the glitter is thin enough that it doesn't create that textured feeling.

 After the base color was dry, I painted on dark gray inverse half-moons, the edged those in white nail art paint. I don't think it turned out all that bad for my first attempt at an inverse half moon, and it has a bit of a sophisticated look!

Swatch! Under certain lighting it almost looks slightly brown, which makes the name 'Choco Chip' fit a little better...

Colors Used:

Icing Choco Chip

Maybelline Impeccable Greys

KISS Nail Art White

Update!
I couldn't resist adding a stamp design and some nail art doodads.

Stamped on a flower design, then added a little nail crystal and silver microbead. Whee!