#nailartapr

I Bought This 

Sorry for the lack of posts!  I lost my camera battery and charger. :(  I've been looking everywhere, but I can't remember where I might have left it.  I'm going to borrow someone's camera or use my phone, until I find it (or maybe buy a new battery...).  But for now, here's the nail art I did in April for @californails' challenge:

Click for the nail art!

#nailartmar

I Bought This 

At the beginning of March, I decided to participate in a nail art challenge that was hosted by @californails on Instagram. I thought I'd share them here, so they can be all in one place!  And so I can tell you a little bit about how I created them.

This is a little bit image heavy, so I'm going to use a jump.  Click to see the nail art! :)

12 Days of Christmas Nail Art Challenge: Day 9 - Christmas Tree

Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree~ 

I was excited to do these Christmas tree nails specifically, once I saw the challenge list.  I had seen Pshiiit's Instagram of Christmas tree nails that she had done, and I thought that really nice!  She had a tutorial, so I decided to try them.

For my base, I used Layla Softtouch 02.  I'm not sure if it has a name other than its number, as I can't find one on the bottle.  This was a very pretty, sparkly gold color (and I will have swatched of it on its own, once 12 days is over haha).  After that, I taped up my nails and applied China Glaze Winter Holly. Then I just took some red and white, dotting around to make ornaments on the filled in trees.  I thought the Pshiit-style trees looked cool on their own, so I didn't add anything to those.  What do you think?  Which tree version do you like better? :)


Please also check out the other participants of this challenge:
XOXO Alexis Leigh
Purple Castle
It's All About the Polish
A Ginger's Nail
The Polished Mommy
Robyn Loves Nails
Teen Polish Junkie
Fancy Schmancy Nails
Mari522 (on Instagram)
nailzbyroro (on Instagram)
Artigo Beauty

12 Days of Christmas Nail Art Challenge: Day 8 - Santa

Ho ho ho, Merry Christmas...in a few more days.  Here are my Santa nails!  I decided to go with just one Santa, on my middle finger and a Santa hat on my pinkie.  I messed up a little on Santa's eye because I don't have the steadiest hand...

To create Santa, I used Circus by Andrea's Choice in Reverso for Santa's beard and the white part of the hat.  Then I dotted on his eyes and drew his smile with Orly Liquid Vinyl.  Finally, I used Revlon All Fired Up to create the red part of his hat.  (Side note: All Fired Up is my new favorite red!  So smooth and easy to work with.  My pointer and ring finger are painted with just 1 coat of All Fired Up!) 

Overall, I'm pretty pleased with how this turned out! Can't wait to show you my Christmas tree nails next. :)  

In the mean time, please check out the other participants of this challenge:
XOXO Alexis Leigh
Purple Castle
It's All About the Polish
A Ginger's Nail
The Polished Mommy
Robyn Loves Nails
Teen Polish Junkie
Fancy Schmancy Nails
Mari522 (on Instagram)
nailzbyroro (on Instagram)
Artigo Beauty

12 Days of Christmas Nail Art Challenge: Day 7 - Lights

Day 7's theme was lights/ornaments.  I decided to try lights, but I probably should have gone with ornaments, because my lights came out kind of messy. :(

But if you look at it from afar, it looks okay! :)

To create this manicure, I used 2 coats of OCC's Something Blue as a base.  Then I drew a line across my nails with a nail art brush and Orly Liquid Vinyl.  After that, I used a dotting tool and dotted China Glaze Starboard (green), Revlon All Fired Up (red), China Glaze Solar Power (yellow), and Sinful Colors Rain Storm (blue), and then used a brush to try and make pointed ends to make them resemble lights more.  What do you think? :)

Sooo, I will post my Santa nails tomorrow and my Christmas tree nails on Thursday, and then I'll be all caught up and back on track with this challenge!  (Right as it's about to end, lol.)

In the mean time, please check out the other participants of this challenge:
XOXO Alexis Leigh
Purple Castle
It's All About the Polish
A Ginger's Nail
The Polished Mommy
Robyn Loves Nails
Teen Polish Junkie
Fancy Schmancy Nails
Mari522 (on Instagram)
nailzbyroro (on Instagram)
Artigo Beauty

12 Days of Christmas Nail Art Challenge: Day 6 - Snowman

I'm so behind on this challenge!  I underestimated how much studying I would be doing for my finals this past week, and I went to a holiday party yesterday.  So I didn't have time to do my Snowman nails until today!  And, of course, all the other days got pushed back because of that.  But I'm trying to get caught up!  I might post two tomorrow so that I'll be all caught up and ready to do my Christmas tree nails.  Pretty excited about that one!  Hahaha

Well, onto the nails!

I wanted to go with a freshly fallen snow kind of background, with snow swirls still floating about.  Now, I haven't ever experienced a snow day, so I had to use my imagination for how that would actually look.  And out in the snow is my snowman!

To create these nails, I started with 1 coat of Sinful Colors Rain Storm, and then layered 2 coats of Sinful Colors Cinderella over that.  This created a pretty blue-gray with a pink shimmer that I hoped would give it more dimension.  It's gorgeous!  Anyway, after I had my base laid down, I sponged on the snow layer at the tips, using Circus by Andrea's Choice in Reverso.  As I said, I was going for swirly snow effect, so I didn't make it perfect and left some patchiness in the snow to try and show some swirling snow, lol.  After that, I created my snowman using dotting tools and more CbAC in Reverso.  Gave him a face and added some arms using Wet N Wild Mega Last Nail Color in Blackmail.  Finished off by adding random falling snow dots and 1 coat of Seche Vite.  Overall, I am quite pleased with how it came out!  I wore it out to the mall and was complimented by several cashiers, haha.

I think my snowman looks a little like Jack Skellington from The Nightmare Before Christmas.  What do you think? xD

Stay tuned for the next set of challenge nails: lights/ornaments, hopefully coming up tomorrow!

In the mean time, please check out the other participants of this challenge:
XOXO Alexis Leigh
Purple Castle
It's All About the Polish
A Ginger's Nail
The Polished Mommy
Robyn Loves Nails
Teen Polish Junkie
Fancy Schmancy Nails
Mari522 (on Instagram)
nailzbyroro (on Instagram)
Artigo Beauty

They have some great nail art! :)

12 Days of Christmas Nail Art Challenge: Day 5 - Holly/Wreaths

Sorry it took me so long to get this one up!  The nail on the middle finger on both of my hands broke, and I didn't get a chance to file my nails down to match until today.  So, here we are with Day 5: holly/wreath nails!  

I started with a 3 coats of Revero from Circus by Andrea's Choice. It's just a stark white; felt like I had white out on my nails, lol.  It was a bit streaky with the first coat, but evened out pretty well.  I feel like white nail polish is always streaky.  I haven't found one that isn't, yet!

After I got my base down, I started making a wreath on my accent nail using my LA Colors (Nail) Art Deco polishes.  I used green for the wreath, and a glittery red for the berries.  I thought doing a wreath on every nail wouldn't look so nice, so I decided to do holly on the other nails instead.  But when I was done, I thought there was too much blank space and I wasn't sure what to fill it with.  So I decided to try plaid, and that is what you see in the picture below.  Different levels of my thought process for the nail art for holly/wreath nails day.

Now that I look at it, I think the holly on its own (like on my pinkie) would have looked fine without adding anything to the blank space (like what I did for the pointer and middle).  But I don't mind the plaid either, but it probably would have looked loads better if it was on its own instead of with the holly.

Let me know what you think!  I'll have the Snowman nails up tomorrow, hopefully, and then I'll be caught up.  Thank goodness Lights/Ornaments is on Saturday.  I'll be done with finals by then, so I'll be able to work on them more and hopefully come up with something nice. :)

In the mean time, please check out the other participants of this challenge:
XOXO Alexis Leigh
Purple Castle
It's All About the Polish
A Ginger's Nail
The Polished Mommy
Robyn Loves Nails
Teen Polish Junkie
Fancy Schmancy Nails
Mari522 (on Instagram)
nailzbyroro (on Instagram)
Artigo Beauty

12 Days of Christmas Nail Art Challenge: Day 4 - Candy Cane Nails!

I was on track with this challenge and meant to post my Candy Cane nails yesterday, but I went to a family birthday party and the day just got away from me, haha.  So here they are now!

To create this manicure, I used two coats of Julep Kate as my base.  Then I used striping tape to create the lines.  I had to double up the tape to create the thicker lines, but I didn't put them close enough on several of my nails, as you can see, and some of the red bled through. :/  It was my first time using striping tape, so I'm learning from this.  But still, I like how it turned out!  The red I used was Butter London Knees Up, and I finished it off with one coat of Seche Vite.  First time doing Candy Cane nails, and I'd say it's a success!  :)

Also, please check out the other participants of this challenge:
XOXO Alexis Leigh
Purple Castle
It's All About the Polish
A Ginger's Nail
The Polished Mommy
Robyn Loves Nails
Teen Polish Junkie
Fancy Schmancy Nails
Mari522 (on Instagram)
nailzbyroro (on Instagram)
Artigo Beauty

12 Days of Christmas Nail Art Challenge: Day 3 - Snowflakes

Today I have for you my first attempt at nail art with a brush.  This was what I got after three tries of trying to make snowflakes, lol.  I'm not super happy with it, but I figured snowflakes are not always perfect and they never look the same, so this was okay.  I guess with more practice I may get better.

I used two coats of Julep Eloise as my base and then used Julep Kate for the snowflakes.  As you can see, the snowflakes are not super opaque.  There are some transparent spots, that now that I look at it, kind of gives a shading effect, haha.  Oh well.  I think I'll take this as a learning experience and keep practicing with my nail art brushes!  Also, sorry for the state of my cuticles and lack of cleanup!  I was rushing a bit to try and get this up before the day was out, which didn't happen, gahhh~  

Let me know if you have any tips for nail art/using brushes!  Or is it just a keep practicing kind of thing? :)

Also, please check out the other participants of this challenge:
XOXO Alexis Leigh
Purple Castle
It's All About the Polish
A Ginger's Nail
The Polished Mommy
Robyn Loves Nails
Teen Polish Junkie
Fancy Schmancy Nails
Mari522 (on Instagram)
nailzbyroro (on Instagram)
Artigo Beauty

12 Days of Christmas Nail Art Challenge

Hello~ I just wanted to do a quick post about this 12 Days of Christmas Nail Art challenge that Tia from Iced Lacquer is hosting.  It will be my first time attempting a challenge, and I'm pretty excited.  I love the Holiday season, so this theme is perfect for my first try!  Look out for my first post coming soon.  Editing photos right now!  It'll be a little late~  But just barely past December 1st! :)