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31 Day Nail Art Challenge — Day 8: Metallic Nails.

Okay so for day 8 of the challenge, I may have cheated a wee tiny bit. Technically, these aren’t really metallic. I had just picked up three of the new Amazing Spiderman 2 polishes by Revlon, and really, really wanted to try them out! So I grabbed two of them, Superpowered and I’m Electro, and got started.

(The third one I bought, Spidey Sense, was also gorgeous, but it’s a reddish color and didn’t really fit into the manicure I was going for. I will have to do a swatch post soon with all three!)

metallic

 

The polishes I used were:

  • Revlon’s I’m Electro (from the new Amazing Spiderman 2 collection) — Lighter blue color on accent nails.
  • Revlon’s Superpowered (from the new Amazing Spiderman 2 collection) — Darker blue color.
  • ACO by Ardene in Golden Luxury –the gold accent’s on my accent nails.
  • Sally Hansen Diamond Flash top coat.

I had to take the picture with my flash off because it was so shiny I couldn’t take a picture well enough to capture the nail art. I really love these two colors. Each one is a duocrome, shifting between colors, although it’s not as evident on the nail as much as in the bottle. Of the two I think I’m Electro is my favorite.

Also, how much do you love the quatrafoil look? It’s another nail art technique I’ve never tried before, but have been seeing around on youtube, and pinterest. I will definitely need some practice for it to look right though. While these Spiderman polishes are awesome, they’re a little thin for application which made getting the pattern right a little difficult.

Plus Superheroes! I am a huge Superhero fan girl–usually for the DC Universe (I have a Batman tattoo). I just watched the first Amazing Spiderman movie the other night with the boyfriend, so I can’t wait for the next one to come out. You can count on me to be there opening night, no doubt rocking some kind of Spiderman themed nail art.

 

 

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31 Day Nail Art Challenge — Day 7: Black and White.

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t looking forward to the black and white day of this challenge.

I started trying to figure out what I was going to do a couple days in advance. I wanted to try something different. Tuxedo nails? Nail stamping? What the heck was I going to do! Thank god for pinterest, huh? I could get lost on there for hours looking at nail art ideas (and quite frequently do). Once again, my inspiration came from a  pin on there: these geometric square nails.

blackandwhite

The polishes I used were:

  • OPI’s My Boyfriend Scales Walls — White Base.
  • ACO by Ardene’s Tuxedo — Black base.
  • Stripe Rite Striping Brush in black.
  • Stripe Rite Striping Brush in White.
  • Sally Hansen diamond Flash top coat.

Obviously you can see, mine turned out a little different from my inspiration. I didn’t really figure out I shouldn’t cram as many squares until I got to my black nails (I did the white base first). Even though they’re not perfect, they look different and made me not dread the black and white prompt quite so much. Even though I used to wear black nail polish frequently, I don’t as much any more. With the exception of Halloween, I can’t actually remember the last time I wore it as a full mani.

What do you think about these geometric nails? Which look do you prefer–lots of squares, or only a few?

 

 

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31 Day Nail Art Challenge — Day 6: Violet Nails

I love purple.

You have no idea how much I was looking forward to the violet prompt for the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge. Purple has always been my favorite color–I even had purple hair years ago! So I was super excited when Day 6 rolled around. The only hard part was trying to decide which polishes to use, and what design I wanted to try. After obsessively browsing my favorite nail art blogs for a couple of hours, I finally decided to go with Chalkboard Nails Distressed nails. It’s been on my to-try list for a while, but I’d never given it a go. I’m glad I did though! These turned out better than I imagined, and I had so many random compliments on them!

Violetnails

The polishes I used for this manicure were:

  • China Glaze’s What a Pansy — Purple Base & some strokes.
  • OPI’s  My Boyfriend Scales Walls — White base & some strokes.
  • Sally Hansen Complete Salon manicure in I love you — light purple strokes.
  • ACO by Ardene Forever Young — medium purple strokes.
  • Essence “Beauty Beats” collection in Baby, Baby, Ooooh — Darkest purple strokes.
  • Sally Hansen Diamond Flash top coat.

It’s hard to distinguish between the different shades of purple with just a picture, but on the nail in person it was striking. I feel like the darker purple base turned out better than the white base. I will definitely have to try this look again, with different colors. I also feel, it’s a nice (less messy) alternative to the paint splatter manicure–which I also want to try, but will definitely need more than a couple extra hours just for clean up.

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31 Day Nail Art Challenge — Day 5: Blue Nails.

My whole goal for starting this challenge was that I wanted to be able to branch out of my typical nail art go-to, and try new techniques I never have before. The truth is, I’m a bit of a perfectionist–I get scared doing things I’ve never done before because I don’t want to fail at it. The unfortunate part of that is that I miss out on some awesome manicures because I’m too fearful they won’t turn out.

I’ve always wanted to try a ruffian manicure. I love the look of half moon manicures, and this is similar except you leave a sliver of color near the cuticle. This is a good tutorial for how to do it. For mine, I went with blues as that was the prompt for that day. They’re not perfect, but I’m okay with that. With a little more practice, I could see this as an easy nail art option on those nights when I just don’t feel like doing a full mani.

bluenails

The Polishes used for this manicure were:

  • Sally Hansen Sugar Shimmer in Sugar Cloud –the light blue shimmer base. (I had to layer it over another light blue polish just because of the fact it was so sheer, it would have taken way too many coats to make it opaque.)
  • ACO by Ardene in Lagoon –the top color of my ruffian.
  • Stripe Rite Striping polish in black — the outline of my ruffian.
  • Sally Hansen Diamond Flash top coat.

Sorry for the dryness near my cuticles. Unfortunately, the extremely spaztastic weather of Nova Scotia is killing them, even with a ton of moisturizing and cuticle cream. I can’t wait for warmer days. My cuticles will be very happy.

Also featured: another Soy Latte from Second Cup. My coffee addition is only second to my nail polish addiction, and I don’t think I could live without either!

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31 Day Nail Art Challenge — Day 4: Green Nails.

I own a lot of green nail polish.

For some reason, I always seem to be drawn to either orange colors, or green colors, when browsing nail polish. So it means my stash has an abundance of these two colors even though–when it comes to green at least–I don’t wear it as a straight manicure often. When it came to the green prompt for the challenge, I couldn’t figure out what I should do! With St. Patrick’s Day over, I needed to come out with something that wouldn’t look like I was a couple weeks late.

So I grabbed my favorite green (which happens to actually be a LA Girl sand blast polish I got on an amazing clearance sale last summer) and tried to think of something pretty. I’m kind of in love with chevrons. I wish I could do them freehand near my cuticles, but I find I can only draw them nicely on my nail tips. I do love how these turned out–my freehand line drawing seems to be getting smoother which makes me a very happy girl! Even my roommate’s boyfriend commented on these, asking “Did you do those yourself!” I actually left them on for almost three days, just because I couldn’t stop looking at them.

greennails

The polishes I used were:

  • LA Girl Sand Blast polish in Green Island — my green base.
  • Stripe Rite striping polish in white.
  • Stripe Rite striping polish in black.
  • Sally Hansen Diamond Flash top coat.

Also featured: my favorite soy latte from Second Cup. I’m a Canadian girl, so I love me some Second Cup. Plus, the baristas at the one by where I work are just the friendliest. My boyfriend thinks I should get a job there, if only because I’m there pretty much everyday and with my love of coffee, it would be easy to sell it to others.