Butterfly Fairy

 I had so much fun with this one! I had the idea of painting a fairy with some butterflies, and spent some time sketching concepts. This ended up being the one I liked the most, and I think it turned out really nicely!

 The base color is ORLY In the Navy, with a touch of Revlon Dreamer (a light blue) sponged over the top. Next, I pulled out my acrylic craft paint in white and 'golden brown'. I lightly roughed in the fairy on my ring nail with white craft paint first, then mixed a light skin tone color and gave her a little more detail. I then roughed out the shape of her wing on my middle finger first in craft paint, then filled it with foil glue. Then, I used some transfer foil to make it super sparkly blue!

 The remaining butterflies I painted with ORLY Sweet Peacock (blue) and ORLY What's The Password (orange). I added orange and blue details to the fairy's dress as well. Next, black details were added with a 0.25mm Micron pen, because cheating is fun! I used white acrylic paint for the white dotted details.

 Lastly, it's not all too apparent in these photos, but I added China Glaze Fairy Dust to the background on each nail for a little more sparkly holographic goodness. Lightly dotted throughout is also Sephora by OPI Meet Me At the Disco, which is also a holographic glitter in a slightly larger size.

Colors Used:

ORLY In the Navy

Revlon Dreamer

ORLY Sweet Peacock

ORLY What's The Password?

China Glaze Fairy Dust

Sephora by OPI Meet Me At the Disco

Acrylic paint: White and Light Brown

Black Micron Pen

Argyle

 Fun with argyle! I've been in a totally matte nails mode lately, haven't I? I can't help it, matte nails are just too awesome to pass up.

 I started these with a base color of ORLY Viridian Vinyl, which is already an awesome matte polish. Once that was dry, I diagrammed out where my diamonds would be for this pattern. It's not super straight, but I didn't feel like striping tape would be worth the effort in this situation. Next, I filled in the middle diamonds with ORLY White Tips. The outer diamonds were colored with a small brush and Maybelline Color Show Midnight Swim, which is a nice navy blue.

 Next, I took a toothpick and some more navy blue and added the dotted lines, with a touch of white where it crossed the navy diamonds. I was in a bit of a hurry, so these dots smeared just a smidge when I added topcoat. However, it really wasn't worth making things worse by trying to fix it, so I just let it be.

Colors Used:

ORLY Viridian Vinyl

ORLY White Tips

Maybelline Color Show Midnight Swim

Swan Princess

 I was challenged to do nails based on the animated movie "The Swan Princess."  It's been a while since I watched it, but I thought it was a cute and fun little movie with enjoyable songs. I had the song 'Far Longer than Forever' stuck in my head the entire time I was painting!

 I'm trying to branch out and use polish I haven't yet tried, so I started with a base of Icing Gelogic Rolling in the Deep. This is one of the first 'gel-like' polishes I tried, and it was interesting! I wish I had taken photos right after application, as it was definitely super shiny. Anywho. I started this one by first building up the background. I used a makeup sponge to dab on a gradient across the middle of each nail using Borghese Marino (dusty mid-blue) and NYC Cool Breeze (sky blue) . I then shaded in some trees with Sinful Colors Calypso (dark teal).  Those same colors were used to make the castle on my thumb.

 Next, I roughed out the shape of Odette in both woman and swan forms using NYC Pinstripe White. I continued to build up details as I went along. Her hair and the glow on the water was done with Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow, the details on her dress were Sally Hansen Ressurection, and the swan's beak was Essie Spinning Again. I did the swooshy magic effect by first starting in white, then adding Color Club Sweet Pea and Rimmel Purple Rain. A touch of Sinful Colors 24 Karat gave it a bit more golden sparkle.

Since the details were starting to blur together, I added a thin outline to the characters using an art pen.  At the very end, I mattified with OPI Matte Top Coat.

 Bonus: I remembered to to take in-progress photos!

Colors Used:

Icing Gelogic Rolling in the Deep

 Borghese Marino

 NYC Cool Breeze

 Sinful Colors Calypso

 NYC Pinstripe White

 Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow

 Sally Hansen Ressurection

Essie Spinning Again

Color Club Sweet Pea

 Rimmel Purple Rain

Sinful Colors 24 Karat

 OPI Matte Top Coat

Vertical Vertigo

 Now that my polish collection spreadsheet is mostly done, I decided that if I'm ever stumped for an idea for nail art I am going to let the whims of random number generators decide what polish I should use. Sounds like a great way to get me out of ruts and make sure I actually try all of my polish at least once!

And then of course the random number gods decided I should use a dark silver magnetic polish. Haha! I do like the dark gunmetal silver color, but I was stumped as to how I was going to artify over the magnetic. Revlon Starry Eyed is a pretty yet 'grainy' dark metallic silver, and as far as magnetic polishes go it's a pretty weak transformation. However, coverage is great! This is two easy coats.

I found my inspiration when I started thinking vertically. I painted half of each nail with two coats of ORLY Charged Up. I was originally going to do a silver stripe down the center, but I used a bright fuchsia piece of striping tape when blocking in the color and fell in love with the effect.

 I grabbed my trusty striper brush and a bottle of OPI DS Extravagance. I painted a stripe down the center of each nail. I love that effect! It still wasn't fancy enough, so I snagged Pueen stamping plate 33 and Milani Silver Stilettos (a bright silver) to add a design to the purple half.

 After all of my painterly fun, it was a nice break to do something shiny and bold that looks good at a distance. Of course, all these photos were taken after a good five hours of wear, so most of the magnetic effect had faded. Even still, the dark gray color is really pretty.

Colors Used:

Revlon Starry Eyed

 ORLY Charged Up

Milani Silver Stilettos
OPI DS Extravagance

Pueen Plate 33

Luck o' the Irish!

 Even though I've been trying out green nails for most of the week, I had to do something special for St. Patrick's Day. For this I drew inspiration from this image and knew I wanted something fluid and covered in shamrocks. Of course, I also had to add in a rainbow, because rainbows are so fun!

 I abused a long striper brush for a good portion of this design. But it turned out well, in my opinion! I started with two good coats of OPI Alpine Snow. Next, I used my striper brush and Sephora by OPI Dark Room to start drawing in some swooshy lines. Dark Room is a nice deep green that was thin enough to work perfectly for swooshies. After that, I used China Glaze Gaga for Green to develop the flowing lines more. Once I was satisfied with everything, I started adding the clover.

Using a toothpick, I scattered various sizes of three- and four-leaf clover across each nail. These were done in Sephora by OPI Dark Room, Sinful Colors Exotic Green, and Sinful Colors High Strung.

 I do rather like the viney green on white on its own, but I wanted to add that rainbow to at least my left hand. I used my striper brush again, and proceeded to build the rainbow using very thin lines of the following, from red to purple: Nicole by OPI Kourt is Red-i for a Pedi, Wet n Wild Sunny Side Up, SpaRitual Enlightened Soul, China Glaze I'm With the Lifeguard, Sinful Colors Jolt, and SpaRitual Shoot for the Stars.

On my thumb, the rainbow ends in a pot of gold created with Wet n Wild Black Creme and L'Oreal Because You're Worth It.

 Colors Used:

OPI Alpine Snow

 Sephora by OPI Dark Room

 China Glaze Gaga for Green

 Sinful Colors Exotic Green

 Sinful Colors High Strung

  Nicole by OPI Kourt is Red-i for a Pedi

Wet n Wild Sunny Side Up

 SpaRitual Enlightened Soul

 China Glaze I'm With the Lifeguard

 Sinful Colors Jolt

SpaRitual Shoot for the Stars

Wet n Wild Black Creme

 L'Oreal Because You're Worth It

My First Jelly Sandwich

 I will admit, prior to this I was pretty ambivalent about jellies. I hadn't really tried them on their own before. After all, why take the time to layer up a polish when you can get a solid creme coat in less time? However, I totally see what all the love for jellies is about now.

 Anywho, I was curious to try out a jelly sandwich with some of the new Hard Candy glitters. I couldn't make up my mind, so I just did both. I used three layered coats of glitter, with jelly in between. I left the final layer with the glitter on top for contrast. The green jelly I used was Spoiled Permission to Proceed. It is certainly an intensely bright green!

 The glitters I used in this sandwich were Hard Candy Pop Star on my index and pinkie, and Hard Candy Sweet Tart on my thumb, middle, and ring fingers. I like how layering in the green actually makes these two radically different glitters not look too out of place! I am definitely going to have to play more with jellies in the future.

Colors Used:

Spoiled Permission to Proceed

 Hard Candy Pop Star

 Hard Candy Sweet Tart

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

Stripes and Spots and Sparkles!

 I picked up some of the new Milani glitters, and was really eager to play with them! So this was something fun and quick I put together to experiment. Had to try to catch that lovely holo sparkle in multiple types of lighting (and of course I missed out on daylight photos...)

 For my thumb, index, and pinkie fingers I put down two coats of Sally Hansen Nightwatch. Of course, it looks black in these photos, but it's a really deep navy in person. I then added two coats of Milani Sugar Coated. I love this glitter! Then again, I love most any matte glitter. This one is a mix of multiple sizes of smaller hex glitter, some itsy bitsy bars, and of course a generous scattering of intense holo glitter.

 For my middle and ring finger, I chose to use Sephora by OPI It's Totally Karma, which isn't too far off in color from the glitter. I then used striping tape to make a barred design, and filled it with more Nightwatch. To match the holo effect on the other nails, I added a touch of China Glaze Fairy Dust. The holo specks are a little smaller, but the idea is there.

Sadly, I did this too close to when I had to leave for work, so the polish hadn't set completely and I had some warping of the lines near my tips. Oh well, it didn't turn out too badly!

Colors Used:

Sally Hansen Nightwatch

 Milani Sugar Coated

  Sephora by OPI It's Totally Karma

China Glaze Fairy Dust

Peacock

 This one was so hard to photograph! Some of these pictures are matted to reduce the glare, but I included pre-matte photos as well as I love both versions. I was challenged to do peacock nails! I decided to do a peacock half-raising his tail, as that gave me room to do both his head and neck as well as getting some tail feathers in.

 I decided to make the base a shimmery gold-bronze. I started with two coats of Sephora by OPI I Only Shop Vintage, which is still one of my favorite neutrals. To give it more depth, I sponged on a bit of SpaRitual Running With Wolves(dark copper)  and ORLY Voyeuristic Adventure (cool gold).

Next, I blocked in the general shape of the peacock with Sally Hansen Nightwatch, a deep navy. His beak and eye markings were done with Wet n Wild French White Creme. Feather highlights were added with ORLY Sweet Peacock, because it's beautiful AND using it for its name amused me. Next, the brown shoulder details were added with bits of Sinful Colors Coffee and L'Oreal Créme Puffs.

 I then started on the feathers. The general shape was started first in China Glaze Gaga for Green, then brightened with some neon China Glaze I'm With the Lifeguard. Next, I added an oval of Color Club Blue-ming to every feather, which is a bright seafoam teal. Within that I added a bit of Sinful Colors Anchors Away, followed by a dot of ORLY Sweet Peacock. When size would allow it, I put in the final darkest dot with ORLY Opposites Attract.

The matte topcoat I used for this was OPI Matte Topcoat, which is amazing! <3 br="">

Colors Used:

Sephora by OPI I Only Shop Vintage

SpaRitual Running With Wolves

 ORLY Voyeuristic Adventure

Sally Hansen Nightwatch

 Wet n Wild French White Creme

ORLY Sweet Peacock

Sinful Colors Coffee

 L'Oreal Créme Puffs

 China Glaze Gaga for Green

China Glaze I'm With the Lifeguard

Color Club Blue-ming

Sinful Colors Anchors Away

ORLY Opposites Attract

Itty Bitty Kitties

 Well, I'm not the best at trying to make cute cartoons on my own - every time I try it never turns out as cutesy as I hope since my instincts run toward realism. Case in point, I think I did too much shading/texture on these and they lose some of the cartoony feel. They're not based on anything, just did some preliminary sketches until I had a layout I liked, and went from there! Of course I had to include an orange kitten to represent my Sam-kitty.

 Since I was going to be going crazy with colors I decided to try this on top of a neutral base. I started with two coats of Sally Hansen Stocking Nude. When that dried it was time to start doodling some kittens! I started with my thumb nail, which ended up being a black and white cat playing with a ball of yarn. I blocked out his general shape in Wet n Wild Black Creme. His muzzle, paws, and tail tip were done in Wet n Wild French White Creme. The yarn ball was a combination of China Glaze Life Preserver and Sinful Colors Poudre. That same color pair was used to give him his nose and his paw pads. I did his eyes with Color Club Twiggie and a touch of Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow, and of course using the Wet n Wild black and white polishes for pupils and highlights.

 For my index finger I decided to do a siamese kitten. Her fur was an amalgamation of Nicole by OPI Others Pale by Kim-parison, Sinful Colors Coffee, and Sally Hansen Stocking Nude. Her eye was colored with NYC Blue Rush (and a touch of black and white).

My middle nail is a gray tabby. His fur is ORLY Mirror Mirror striped in more Wet n Wild Black Creme. His eyes are China Glaze Life Preserver.

Sam the orange fuzzy kitten got to sit on my ring nail. I repeated the use of China Glaze Life Preserver and Sinful Colors Poudre, with a hint of Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow for his fur. White muzzle and chest was added with Wet n Wild French White Creme. Hints of stripes were done in watered-down Sinful Colors Coffee.

Last but not least, the leaping calico kitten is a patchwork of polishes previously mentioned! She also has heterochromatic eyes, because it's cute.

 I then outlined each kitten with a thin line of white to help them pop out a bit more. And just because I think butterflies are cute with kitties, I added a blue sparkly butterfly to each nail. First, I roughed in the shape with black, then filled in with ORLY Sweet Peacock and dotted each wingtip with small white dots.

 For my dominant hand, I decided to be silly! I can't replicate the detailed kittens, but I can do minimalistic kittens. They're the same base color, with tips done in Wet n Wild French White Creme and lined with ORLY Sweet Peacock.

 I then used a small brush to rough in the shape of the butterflies, and then I worked in the general shape of the kittens. They're reeeeeally minimalistic, but it's fun in its own way.

 Colors Used:

Sally Hansen Stocking Nude

Wet n Wild Black Creme

Wet n Wild French White Creme

China Glaze Life Preserver  

Sinful Colors Poudre

 Color Club Twiggie

Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow

Nicole by OPI Others Pale by Kim-parison

Sinful Colors Coffee

NYC Blue Rush

ORLY Mirror Mirror

ORLY Sweet Peacock