Celestial

 I'm on a roll with my nails this month! I decided to match yet another of my scrub tops this week. This time I chose a neat sun and moon pattern. I think I managed to pull it off pretty closely!

 I started with a base of Sinful Colors New Wave. I love this polish, it's just the perfect dusty navy blue. I'm going to be so sad when I use this bottle dry! Next, I blocked in the rough shapes of suns and moons with Sephora by OPI Natural Beauty. It's a nice honey-tan color that's thick enough to not need five coats for opacity. On top of that I added a splash of Sinful Colors Unicorn to brighten the shapes.

 I then took a small brush and the smallest touch of acetone-thinned Sinful Colors Coffee to start shading.  I focused on areas around where I planned to put eyes and other features, and also added a few details to the 'regular' moons while I was at it.

The features were drawn in with a little marker. For being a simple journaling pen, it's been really good about not bleeding or smearing.

 To make the clouds, I used a makeup sponge held with tweezers to first dab in OPI Alpine Snow, followed by Revlon First Class for the royal blue shading. The colors matched pretty closely when I compared it to the scrub top!

Colors Used:

Sinful Colors New Wave

Sephora by OPI Natural Beauty

Sinful Colors Unicorn

Sinful Colors Coffee

OPI Alpine Snow

Revlon First Class

Mardi Gras!

So pretty much all I know about Mardi Gras is that it involves a purple/gold/green color scheme, beads, and awesome masks. Figured that was enough for me to have fun with some nails!

 I started with a base of Sally Hansen Go Gold, which is a shiny satin champagne color. I wanted something shiny enough to be flashy yet neutral enough to show off contrast with the other bright colors.

For the mask on my ring finger, I decided to take a chance and go for a 3/4 view instead of straight on. I colored the bottom half of the face with OPI Alpine Snow. The eye mask portion was done with Revlon Beachy. I then shaded the white section with a combination of Sinful Colors Cool Grey and a touch of Spoiled Only In Creams as I wanted a slightly warmer tone. Darker details and outer blocking was done in Wet n Wild Black Creme. I shaded the eye mask bit with some Sinful Colors Coffee. A few highlights on the mask as well as some hat detailing were done with ORLY Voyeuristic Adventure, which is a lighter gold metallic. Lastly, the hat was added with panels of Rimmel Baby Bellini and Sinful Colors San Francisco. Some of the shape of the green hat tassels stretched onto my middle and pinkie nails, because it's fun to do that.

 On my thumb, I started out with the shape of the eye mask in Revlon Plum Night. I then added details in pretty much every color already used on my ring nail until it looked sufficiently fancy. I used a small dotting tool to add 'beads' of purple, green, and gold across my tips. For some extra sparkle, I placed green and purple craft glitter triangles on the 'less exciting' nails.

Colors Used:

Sally Hansen Go Gold

OPI Alpine Snow

Sinful Colors Cool Grey

 Spoiled Only In Creams

Wet n Wild Black Creme

Sinful Colors Coffee

ORLY Voyeuristic Adventure

Rimmel Baby Bellini

Sinful Colors San Francisco

Revlon Plum Night

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

Pokemon: Grass Starters

 I was at a loss for what to do for my nails today when Garnet (of The Nail Rainbow) challenged me to do Pokemon! Specifically, starter pokemon. I decided to start with grass pokemon! Maybe I'll make this a series and do the others as well. I had a little challenge with composition, as I had to fit six critters on five nails. So there are two squeezed on my thumb. At least my nails have grown out to the point that none felt squished!

 I started with a base of OPI Thanks a Windmillion. I then sponged on a small amount of Sinful Colors Song of Summer, a lighter green. The sponge effect....doesn't really show up in the matted nails. Oh well! Once that was dry, I started with my thumb. I used a fine tip marker to sketch Bulbasaur and Chikorita on my thumb.

 I colored Bulbasaur with Sally Hansen Dive In (body), Sinful Colors Strapped (shading), Sinful Colors Hey You (Bulb), Sephora by OPI Dark Room (spots), Sephora by OPI Call Your Mother (mouth), OPI Alpine Snow (Eyes and highlights), and Sephora by OPI High Maintenance (Eyes).

Chikorita was done with Sinful Colors Song of Summer (body), Sinful Colors Hey You (Shading, spots), OPI Alpine Snow (eyes), Wet n Wild Black Creme (Eyes), and Sephora by OPI High Maintenance (Eyes). 

 For my index finger I sketched out Treeko. His body was colored with Sinful Colors Hey You (Body), Sinful Colors Garden Party (shading), SpaRitual Enlightened Soul (eye), Wet n Wild Black Creme (Pupil), Sephora by OPI Call Your Mother (Belly), and Sephora by OPI Dark Room (Tails).

My ring finger has Turtwig. Colors used on him include Sinful Colors Song of Summer (body), SpaRitual Enlightened Soul (Eye and chin), Sinful Colors Coffee (head..plant and shell), Ciaté Ditch the Heels (Leaves), Spoiled Only in Creams (Shell), Sinful Colors Garden Party (Shading), Wet n Wild Black Creme (Pupils), OPI Alpine Snow (Highlights).

Snivy got to be on my ring finger. He was colored with Sinful Colors Hey You (body), Sinful Colors Garden Party (Shading), OPI Alpine Snow (Belly and highlights), Spoiled Only in Creams (shading on belly), SpaRitual Enlightened Soul (eyelid and collar), Sephora by OPI Call Your Mother (Eye)

Lastly, for Chespin, I used Sinful Colors Hey You (head), Spoiled Only In Creams (Belly), Sinful Colors Coffee (arms and face markings), OPI Alpine Snow (highlight, teeth, toes), Sephora by OPI Call Your Mother (mouth, nose).

Whew! I then went over the outlines one last time with black marker to make them look a little sharper and cover up any stray sketch lines. And of course I mattified the works to make the details show up in photos. Woo!

Colors Used:

OPI Thanks a Windmillion

Sinful Colors Song of Summer

Sally Hansen Dive In

Sinful Colors Strapped

Sinful Colors Hey You  

Sephora by OPI Dark Room

Sephora by OPI Call Your Mother

 OPI Alpine Snow

 Sephora by OPI High Maintenance

Wet n Wild Black Creme

Sinful Colors Garden Party 

SpaRitual Enlightened Soul

Sinful Colors Coffee

Ciaté Ditch the Heels

Spoiled Only in Creams

Textured Tips

 This manicure was actually a combination of happy accidents! It wasn't what I had originally intended, but I actually ended up loving it.

 I picked up Revlon Leather Skinnies out of the new Leather & Tweed collection because it looked like a nice light periwinkle blue. I assumed it would most likely just be matte 'leather', but was amazed to find that 1) it was nearly a one-coat polish and 2) it was textured! I really like its fine texture. On the nail it ended up a little darker than in the bottle.

 Originally I was going to use Leather Skinnies as a base for some fan brush nails, but I ended up running out of time before work. So I snagged Zoya Nyx since they looked to be in the same family of blue, and proceeded to quickly add sparkly tips and accent nail. I think the fact that they're pretty much the same shade of blue-grey makes the sparkle-matte contrast so fun!

Colors Used:

Revlon Leather Skinnies

Zoya Nyx 

Amethyst Geodes

 I tried to emulate amethyst geodes for this design. Every time I look I can't decide if I succeeded or not. They still look neat, so it all works in the end?

 I started with a base of OPI Thanks a Windmillion, which is a dusty neutral green. It reminded me the most of the rock usually associated with amethyst geodes. Next, I painted on loose shapes in Zoya Payton on each nail. I considered painting on the inner facets all by hand, but realized Payton was  the perfect amethyst color, and it has a great depth to it with tons of holo sparkle.

 Next, I painted on the side facing crystals with OPI Alpine Snow and a small brush. I highlighted the tips with a touch of Color Club Sweet Pea. I also added a touch of an outline in Sinful Colors Coffee. As a last detail, I used Salon Perfect Loves Me Loves Me Not to give the outer stone some texture. It's a tiny matte glitter speckle polish with pale pink/sand and black microglitter.

Colors Used:

OPI Thanks a Windmillion

Zoya Payton

OPI Alpine Snow 

Color Club Sweet Pea

Sinful Colors Coffee

Kit-Yin Yang

 So I decided to play with a yin-yang challenge by featuring a black and white cat curled together. It maybe isn't as clear as a yin yang symbol, but it was interesting to try to make it work! I thought about making a yin yang on each nail, but didn't want it to look too confusing. Instead, I kept the other fingers simple and fun!

 I started by painting my fingers semi-alternating in OPI Alpine Snow and Wet n Wild Black Creme. It's only 'semi' due to the ring nail being apart from the pattern. I then added on alternating tips in black and white to each nail. For this step I switched to ORLY White Tips as it's a little thicker and shows up over the black in one layer. Lastly, I topped each of those nails with Icing Milky Way, which is my favorite black and white splatter polish.

 For the kitties I used a thin brush and Wet n Wild Black Creme/ ORLY White Tips to draw in the kitty faces. Even my dominant hand turned out recognizable!

 Colors Used:

OPI Alpine Snow

Wet n Wild Black Creme

ORLY White Tips

Icing Milky Way