Musical Mayhem!

 I was in the mood to play around with newspaper transfer again, but I love doing it with sheet music. I knew I'd mess up a few times, so I just used my right hand as practice first. It's still passable...ish. Heh!

 I started out with three coats of Nicole by OPI Others Pale by Kim-parison  on my thumb, index, and pinky nails. On my middle and ring fingers I used ORLY Rock the World, which is a very awesome shimmery polish that shifts from purple to mauve to gold. Once the cream was super dry, I pulled out the sheet music and some rubbing alcohol. It takes a lot of pressure to transfer the design correctly, but when it works it is so worth it!

Once the transfer step was complete, I used ORLY Platinum across the tips of those three fingers. I traced the border in a dark gray Shany nail art polish and a gold Sinful Colors nail art polish. I then brushed a diagonal line of Platinum across my middle and ring nails, then also bordered that in dark gray and gold. I actually thought I was finished for a while, but at the last moment I added on some Icing Milky Way across those bands, since it kind of looks like notes! As a final touch, I added a gold treble clef to my thumb nail.

Colors Used:

Nicole by OPI Others Pale by Kim-parison

ORLY Rock the World

ORLY Platinum

Icing Milky Way

Shany Nail Art 17 (dark gray)

Sinful Colors Nail Art Gold

Holographic Space

 I wanted to have some fun and play with holographic glitter, so I pulled out a selection of crazy polishes. The  full effect is so hard to photograph, though!

 For this I started by putting one coat of Sinful Colors New Wave on my thumb and ring finger, then using it on just the tips of the rest of my nails. Once that was dry, I covered those sections with Finger Paints Peacock Portrait, which is a very flashy holographic glitter polish mixed with small silver glitter and larger light blue hex glitter. I then outlined the tips with a KISS nail art polish in silver.

Because that wasn't over-the-top enough, I added a coat of Revlon Celestial FX for large holographic glitter shapes. Finally, I used Color Club Harp On It on the tips of my thumbs and ring fingers. I think it all turned out rather fun, if a little silly!

 Colors Used

Sinful Colors New Wave

Finger Paints Peacock Portrait

KISS nail art Silver.

Revlon Celestial FX 

Color Club Harp On It

Cat Capers!

 Just because it seemed like fun, I decided to paint my cat Sam on my nails! Of course this isn't the first time I've painted Sam on my nails. Hehe! I decided this time to go a little more on the cartoony side.

 My left hand of course turned out better than my right, but I don't think the difference was too noticeable. I started out with a coat of China Glaze Secret Peri-Wink-le. Once that was dry, I painted on half-circles of Sinful Colors Anchors Away at my finger tips. I used a small brush and more of Anchors Away to put on ears and the fluffy tail. I added darker shading and his eyes using Wet n Wild The Clock Strikes Orange. I then used China Glaze White on White to add Sam's white muzzle and paws. Lastly, the darker markings were done using Revlon Espresso and his nose was made with a watered-down touch of Color Mates Going Rouge.

 I used two different sized dotting tools to make the pawprints for my ring nails. It got a little smooged on my right nail, but oh well, the idea is still there!

And here's an obligatory Sam picture!

 Colors Used:

China Glaze Secret Peri-wink-le

Sinful Colors Anchors Away

Wet n Wild The Clock Strikes Orange

Revlon Espresso

China Glaze White on White

Color Mates Going Rouge

Frog on a Lilypad

 I do enjoy how this came out! I was challenged to do lily pads with a frog, so how could I pass up such a cute idea?

 I started with two coats of Sonia Kashuk Taunting Teal for the base. I knew most of my bright greens were jelly polishes too thin to show up in one application over the dark base. So I started with a grey-green creme, Revlon After Party. I used a small brush to add on oval blobs in decreasing size. For the largest and 'nearest' pads I worked to make the shape more accurate.

After that was dry, I brushed on Sinful Colors Exotic Green. I didn't use it on all of the leaves, mainly on the larger ones closer to my nail tips. I think it makes them look as if they are fading into the distance.

For the flowers, I used a small brush again with China Glaze White on White. In the center of each I added a touch of Color Mates Butter Me Up, which is a nice bright yellow. 

The frog was done using a mix of brush and toothpick. He was a mashup of polishes mentioned above. I tried to make him cute!

 Colors Used:

Sonia Kashuk Taunting Teal

Revlon After Party

Sinful Colors Exotic Green

China Glaze White on White

Color Mates Butter Me Up

Flower Power

 

 This was actually my attempt at one-stroke flowers using acrylic craft paint, but I decided instead to go the slighty cheating route of making spiking mum-like flowers because the mistakes were easier to cover up. Only the white and blue are acrylic paint, the other colors are nail polish.

 I started out with a coat of China Glaze Turned Up Turquoise. I wanted something that would dry fast, and Turned Up Turquoise is a nice matte polish. After that was dry, I grabbed a small flat brush and blue and white craft paint. I dipped each corner of the brush in a different color, then brushed a few strokes on my scrap paper to wipe off the excess. After that, painting on the flowers was a matter of moving the brush in a zig-zagged circular pattern.

I decided to add a few details to the center of each flower using a toothpick. As a final touch, I used a dotting tool to add on small flowers in pink and yellow.

 Colors Used:

China Glaze Turned Up Turquoise

ColorMates Going Rouge

Color Mates Butter Me Up

Blue and white acrylic craft paint

Icing Mermaid's Tail is AMAZING

 Wow. I am in love with this polish. I took tons of photos in different lighting to attempt to capture just a smidge of how awesome I think this polish is. I picked up Icing Mermaid's Tail on clearance in the mall a few weeks back and just now got around to toying with it. In the bottle in my room lighting it looks like a teal glass fleck shimmer polish with a bit of blue/green multichrome. However, hold it in different lighting and POW, there's this amazing purple that just pops out.

 I painted three coats of Mermaid's Tail over Wet n' Wild Black Creme. It goes on very smoothly and is beautiful just after one coat, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to try a few coats.

 

It was just impossible to catch all of the hues of this polish in one picture! It reminds me of a peacock. I accented it with stamping in Milani Signature Gold.

 I just love that purple flash! It's much more obvious in person, but I had trouble catching it on camera.

Colors Used:

Wet n Wild Black Creme

Icing Mermaid's Tail

Milani Signature Gold

Handful of Strawberries

 

Strawberries! I needed to do a fun design to just de-stress.   I thought these turned out rather nicely! It was getting late so I didn't go the full length on the leaves on my right hand, but the idea is still there!

  I started out with two coats of China Glaze Red Satin, which is a nice bold red. It's actually more of a rich red than these photos show, but I couldn't get the true deep red to show up perfectly. I then put on a small amount of Nicole by OPI Kourt is Red-y for a Pedi on the left half of every nail to start developing a highlight. The Nicole polish is a bright tomato red color a few shades brighter than Red Satin, so it worked well!

 The next step involved blotting on spots of Milani Radiant Ruby, to create the seed cavities. After that dried, I used a small dotting tool to add in tiny spots of Spoiled Designated Driver for the seeds. As a last touch, I diluted small amounts of Sinful Colors Poudre with some acetone and then dabbed that on for some highlights.

The leaves were done with Sinful Colors Exotic Green, with small highlights in Sinful Colors High Strung and shadows in NYC Flat Iron Green. I also used small amounts of Milani Radiant Ruby to add more shading under the leaves.

Took closer-to-true pictures under different lighting! I'll try to get some natural light pictures to see if I have better luck tomorrow. 

Colors Used:

China Glaze Red Satin

Nicole by OPI Kourt is Red-y for a Pedi

Milani Radiant Ruby

Spoiled Designated Driver

Sinful Colors Poudre

Sinful Colors Exotic Green

Sinful Colors High Strung

NYC Exotic Green

In Love with Holographic Polish!

 I happened upon a polish from China Glaze's holographic line by chance at TJ Maxx the other day. It's my first linear holo polish, and I am totally in love. It's a bit of a challenge to capture the effect on camera, but in person the rainbow is much brighter. The polish is China Glaze Infra Red, and it appears more magenta on my nails. So fun!

 Just because I wanted to see how something looked stamped over this color, I tossed on some black leopard spots. It's not bad!

 Rainbows on my nails! <333 br="">

Colors Used:

China Glaze Infra Red

Wet n Wild Black Lace Creme

Pueen 09

Color Changing Polish!

 Color changing goodness! I know the colors in this are a little odd to pair together, but I only have four polishes that change color with temperature! The top image is warm nails, and the second image is cold nails (after running my hands under the faucet).

I picked up these color-changing polishes at Icing. The line is called 'Mood Swing', and the polishes themselves don't seem to have names. I started out with two coats of a polish that changes from peach when warm to coral when cold. I then used striping tape to block off sections, then applied my other polishes. One goes from pink to purple, another changes from blue to navy, and the last goes from shimmery dark teal to shimmery dark blue/purple.

 Colors Used:

Icing Mood Swing Peach -> Coral (Wild/Flirty)

Icing Mood Swing Pink -> Purple (Happy/Hopeful)

Icing Mood Swing Blue ->Navy (Energized/Calm)

Icing Mood Swing Teal ->Blue (Color/Changes)