Mish Mash Challenge #23: Favorite Color

Mish Mash Challenge Day on the first day of the year.  HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone!!!  I've got a couple of things I am going to focus on for my blog, and one of them is to try to do a little bit of nail art.  Don't expect flawless water marbles on my first day, but little touches of something extra to start out with is probably a smart way to start.

So this week's challenge is Favorite Color.  Mine is Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Pacific Blue.  LOVE this color still!  But I went to look for the bottle, and I'll be damned if I know where the heck I put it.  I'm betting that I left it out, and my cats found it.  It's probably under some piece of furniture somewhere... I had to go with the next best thing this week, and it's a color that's similar, but not really close.

ABC Challenge - "N" is for Nicole by OPI

*Follow my blog with Bloglovin*

Hello everyone...only 4 days late on the post.  No inspiration this week - work has me beyond aggravated, and when I finally got home each night, I had no energy or will to polish.  It's unthinkable, isn't it??  Finally, I am ALMOST caught up, so I feel like I have some breathing room, and my creativity is coming back.  I was a little nervous there...crazy as it is to some, doing my manicure is soothing and fun to me.  I figure if you are reading this, you feel the same way.

Soooo... N. Had no idea what to do.  Neon came to mind - too quickly - and I figured it would be an obvious choice this week.  That made it a pass.  I assumed (rightly so, seeing the posts up already) that others would do it much better than me.  So, here is my contribution this week for N:

 

 

This feels a little like Barbie goes Goth...The pink dries matte, which I why I bought it.  There is a shimmer in there that gives it a little 'something' that I can't really describe.  The black has a shiny glass flecked finish to it.  I like the combo - and the scrapbooking scissors design when I taped it off gives it just a little bit of an edgy look.

What didn't I like?  A couple of things.

1) I can't topcoat this sucker.  I did put an extra matte top coat on the pink first before taping off for the black (it did not change the finish - polish looked pretty much the same with and without it), but the black is kind of left on it's own.   This is one day - a rough day, albeit - but only 1 day.  Already seeing tip wear.  

2) The formula on these sucked.  I swear half the bottle stuck on the brush.  It was thick and goopy.  Both applied very streaky, and felt like it dried on the brush as I was polishing.  I could deal with it with the pink, since I was polishing the whole nail, but the black - had to do 2 coats to get full cover.  Not ideal when you have tape to remove.  I had to make the second coat pretty thick, so it would soften up the first enough for me to pull of the tape relatively cleanly.  Because of this, it took FOREVER to dry.  Definitely need to introduce both to some thinner before I use again.

Colors used:  Nicole by OPI  "Still Into Pink" and "Totally in the Dark"

 

 

Now I have to get ideas going for "O".  What to do, what to do....Until next week.

 

As usual, a shout out to Kimber @ Kimber's Lacquer Korner for starting us off.  We have a new person joining the group, so it goes to show you - it's never too late.  Go on over to Kimber's page, click on ABC Challenge tab, and find out how to join.

 

And, check out all the other "N" inspirations.

Autism Awareness Mani #2

*Follow my blog with Bloglovin*

Hey all!  It has been a very busy, busy week at work, and I have had no time to do anything, let alone my manicure.  So, when I got home at 10:30, I pulled out the polish so I could post my week 2 Autism Awareness mani.

I have been working with papers and filing all week.  Add to that the forced air heat, and...yea.  Continually having to washing my hands has left them very dry, cracked and pained, so my cuticles were in no mood for any real clean up.  Just kind of ignore the angry redness and dryness, and focus in on this beautiful blue.

Photos are kind of...bad.  It's after 2:30 am, and I wanted to get this post up because the weekend is jammed up with everything I couldn't get done during the week.  So, that meant taking pictures in the middle of the night.   Probably not the most ideal time for taking pictures.

Color is Blue Funk by Studio M.  Really loving this brand...last weeks mani went 6 days with very, very minimal tip wear, and no chipping.  Add to that the $2.99 price tag - this week was also 25% off, so I had to add quite a few colors to my collection.

By the way - that shine is from the polish.  No top coat used.

The glitter used was Sweet Dreams from the Selena Gomez collection by Nicole by OPI.

Really need to call it a night...or morning??  Have a great weekend!

ABC Challenge - "K" is for Khloe Had A Little Lam-Lam

*Follow my blog with Bloglovin*

Here we all are again - wow, we are almost halfway through the alphabet!  This week is the letter K, and let me just start off with a rant.  I DO NOT like reality TV.  I think it is a major contributor in the dumbing down of Americans.  The stupidity and shallowness that runs rampant on this kind of TV is just...ugh!  Capitalizing on this type of "entertainment" is a family called the Kardashians.  I go out of my way to NOT purchase anything involved with that family, but they are not the only ones.  There are others, but I am getting too far off tangent here.  This is a nail polish blog, for crying out loud!

This is all leading me to the fact that the polish of choice today is from the Kardashian collection put out by Nicole by OPI.  Can I tell you...I hate myself for loving this color.  It was part of my St. Patrick's day exchange gift, so technically I did not buy it, so that makes me feel a little better.  Yea, I am going to run with that.

It is a dark teal, which looks like a dark evergreen in certain lights.  It goes on perfectly, is basically opaque in one coat, and dries to a glass-like shine.  Why, oh why, does it have to be part of the K-collection?  It does have one draw back - it stains like (a) _____ (insert favorite expletive here).  I was trying to be VERY careful with application, but had to do a second clean-up the next day for cuticles, which were a very nice pale shade of green, I must say.  These photos are three days in - constantly washing my hands, cleaning, hand lotions, and cold weather; my hands had a lot of abuse this week.

To add a little something to this color, I decided to do a cheat marbling.  I have not had much time to practice water marbling, and have issues with choosing polishes that will work.  Either they will not spread, or they spread so much that they break the pattern, and I need to clear the water and start over.  I didn't want to be staring at a cup of water all afternoon, so I brought out my trusty sheet protector from the letter "G" manicure, and did some pseudo marbling.  A few drops of polish, a toothpick, and 36 hours later, these are what I got. 

Yes, they look a little alien, but I did not want to drag the toothpick backwards through the polish.  The tentacles were cut off when I was shaping these to put on my nails.  But beware...you had better know exactly how you want this to sit on your nail, because once they touch the polish underneath, even if it FEELS dry to the touch, it WILL suction itself.  It was OK with this manicure, since I had so much base color mixed in the marbling, but if I hadn't, everyone would've noticed the big boo-boo on my thumb, not just me (and no, you can't see it in the photos above).

Didn't think to take a photo of these in, you know, DAYLIGHT, but you can see the shimmer that these polishes have in them.  Pretty impressive for such an inexpensive brand.

Couldn't quite capture the shimmers on the taupe and sage, but you can see a *little* bit of the blue peeking through in the green bottle.  You'll have to take my word on the taupe. 

Colors used are:
Nicole by OPI - Khloe Had A Little Lam-Lam (dark teal, used as base color)
Love & Beauty - Coral Glow (has a gold shimmer)
Love & Beauty - Taupe (has a silver shimmer)
Love & Beauty - Sparkling Sage (has a blue shimmer)

I am still working out some kinks with this method, and one of them is that I should NOT have used so much of the base color in the marbling.  With the darker color in the marble, and the dark base under the marble, once I put it on the nail a lot of the lighter coloring got lost.

Over all, I am VERY happy with how this turned out.  As long as I know what colors I want to use when I change things up, this is a very viable option to water marbling, at least until I get good at it.  There is nothing like instant gratification you get from that method, after all.

Sorry everyone...I think I am FINALLY out of breath!  If you made it all the way down to here, congratulations - you deserve a medal!! And thank you!

Take a look at everyone else involved in the challenge, sponsored and brought to you by Kimber from Kimber's Lacquer Korner.  I think "K" will give us a pretty diverse group of manicures.  Looking forward to them as much as you!