New for Mondays - Monkey See, Monkey Do!

Welcome to Monday! In an effort to make Mondays a little more fun I'm going to start posting my mani's from the Monkey See, Monkey Do Monday Challenge. It's part of a weekly challenge brought to you by the Purple Crumpet Fairy Challenge Group. The idea is to recreate a favorite mani you've seen. And I won't  just to be inspired by it, but I'll actually TRY to recreate it. Finally, a reason to rip off other people's nail art... just kidding! (But i do love my pintrest inspiration boards)

Here's mine! Sort of a neon tribal look. pretty fun! I changed the colors slightly, but only because i just got that Nails Inc. pink, and I REALLY wanted to use it ;) I also changed the thumb, because originally I couldn't see it in the picture. i don't know? weird.

The original is done by Nik Jones, I follow her on Instagram, and you should too! 

Thanks for the inspiration Nik!

 

Spring is in the air... and on my nails!

It's spring! and there's nothing you can do about it! i'm shouting it from the rooftops! and by rooftops i mean my nails. cause let's face it, i don't shout anything.

Here's a little background on this mani. Whenever I don't have leopard print on my nails, I want leopard print on my nails. and whenever I do have leopard print on my nails, I like it that way, and I'm happy all day long. DEAL WITH IT.

So this is my RIGHT hand, meaning, yes, I have acquired the skills to paint leopard print with my non dominate hand. pure talent right there. (jk, painting weird squiggly lines is my left hands specialty)

fun fun fun fun. I painted my left hand with more muted/dusty colors. and I like it better. maybe.

I added a matte topcoat to all of these of course! with such dainty little colors, they looked weird glossy... they were just asking to be mattified. ("oh pleeease, Joy! make us matte! we promise we'll look good, you don't need to smother us in Out The Door to hide our flaws!") or something like that...

Okay, that was my quick little nail update. back to packing, moving, and general polish scheming.  (i'm working on making my very first franken polish. but it's adding up to be quiet the investment...)

Randoms from my Instagram

Here's some of my nails that i put on instagram but i did not blog about due to lack of time! My husband and i just bought our first house and we've been busy to the max, and it'll only get busier! i hope to get some fun stuff up soon. i plan to do some nail art challenges from the Spring Challenge! (check that out cause it looks so fun!)

China Glaze - Skyscraper

Sally Hansen Nail stickers

(I got these for $3, and only used half of them to do both my hands!

three cheers for short nails!!!)

Some one please tell me what this trend is called.

i love it. and i love it even more in neon.

Snowflake sandwich!

Once again I'm doing today's challenge from the 31 days of christmas hullabaloo! 
Day 8 is snowflakes. Um, i sorta had high hopes for myself on this one since i just bought 6 sizes of dotting tools, and 5 new nail art brushes (yes! brushes that are actually for nail art instead of eyeliner, water colors or dog teeth brushing. okay i made that last one up.)


so lets see what i came up with! be prepared there are more layers than meet the eye.

What we have here is: SH insta dry Whirlwind White, Models Own Juicy Jules, Blush Blue, Barry M Blue Moon

Okay, here are the nails, i bet you're asking yourself, where did that holo glitter go!? it's between two layers of Blue Moon. sassy huh?

Now you're wondering, hmm that blush blue looks really dark, how does that fit in?

no? you weren't wondering that? well it's a super sheer polish, a jelly, if you will. and i layered it OVER the white snowflake art. it gave the art a subtle look. and i liked it!

the glitter sandwich gave it all a little bit of texture that looked pretty fun, sorta like snow clouds, with a hint of sparkle. 

blamo! there's my snowflake art. it was adorable while it lasted, but with all those layers, and a load of wet laundry in the washer calling my name, i took it off after i photographed it. so sad.

31 Day Nail Challenge: inspired by a song

Day 22: Inspired by a song. This is one of my favorite videos, and a really great song! i love all the bright colors shapes, and movement. Because of all the gradient in color i knew i wanted to use sponging. and because of all the crisp lines i knew i also needed to use tape.

What I used: Julep Cameron, Nabi Lavender, CC Red-ical Gypsy (har har), CC New Bohemian, Essence Chuck, Essence Mellow Yellow, Sally girl white.

Ring finger sorta looks like boba fett.

Silly me. i had ran out of tape...and things got... complicated.

But i made the most of it!

I think the pointer and pinky are my favorites.

 

I am totally and completely disappointed in myself on this one. :( i redid my middle finger about 6 times, and by the last time it was approaching 11 pm, and i was like "screw it!" Sorry. but... manicures shouldn't take 5 hours. (there was a trip to Target (Bubble wrap!) somewhere in there, but i know that only took half hour.)

31 Day Challenge: Inspired by a color

Day 21: Inspired by a color! Today is sort of a funny day, i was inspired by a color, but inspired to do fancy, party, birthday nails, in this color! ...because it's my birthday weekend!!! My friend Lauren and I share the same birthday, 4 years apart, but still the same day. So she came to my house and we painted our nails to match each other! We were both inspired to do blue and gold.


Lauren's Nails:

What Lauren used: Butter London Big Smoke, China Glaze Gr8, Milani Gems Gold, Sally Hansen Set The Stage.

Both hands! we did it kinda random, but they still match.

i love the little laser/star burst things we did. my first time trying that look.

My Nails:

 What I used: Essence Chuck, China Glaze Gr8, Milani Gems Gold, Sally Hansen Set The Stage.

SO there you have it! Due to.. birthday...partying... i will resume the challenge on Monday;)

PS!!! if you read my post about the OTHER 30 day challenge please note that i found the original owner of that list, and i'm updating that post to link back to her, but her blog is the sugar cube! check her out!!!!

31 day challenge: Stripes

Day 12: Stripes! Stripey stripe stripe! BAH! stripes were so uninspiring to me, and i can't figure out why. this one was truly a challenge. i ended up doing a variation on stripes that i've always wanted to try but never did.

What i used: LA Colors nail art brush white, Essence nail art twins Chuck.

(i don't know who chuck is?)

Triangles and stripes.

I think the thumb may be my favorite nail. or the index finger

ring finger kind of reminds me of mummies. 

Chuck is really a very pretty blue/purple. really nice on it's own, without it's twin/partner/pal.

It's hard to say this is my favorite mani, but i'm glad i tried it, and  i could use some practice. 

also, the longer i used my nail art brush the thicker/gooier it got, and the harder it was to work with! :[

that was kinda weird, it may need some polish thinner in it. 

PS. I did a few attempt at this, and the first mani came out looking like pajamas! why oh why!?

31 day challenge: Blue

Day 5: Blue Nails! Now we're talking! I picked up Big Smoke at Ulta's buy one get one free sale on Butter London polishes, so i was dying to try it out.

I also picked up Revlon's Blue Mosaic at Target a few weeks ago, and hadn't tried it either. So what do you get when you combine two new, untried polishes?

Glitter gradient extravaganzaaaaa!!!

What i used: Big Smoke and Blue mosaic.
I think blue mosaic looks a lot like Gone Gonzo from OPI's Muppets collection.
not a dupe by any means but a close enough for me not to need both.

i love the green hex glitter in Blue Mosaic, it reminds me a little bit of DL Across the Universe.

I achieved this look by first painting all my nails with Big Smoke.

Then i painted about 1/3 down my nail with Blue Mosaic. 

Next i turned the brush sideways, and patted on the thinner lines going down the nail. 

Finally, I went back over the tips with more blue mosaic, to make sure they were very well covered.

I really do like making the glitter gradients. It's even more fun if you sponge on a shimery polish that has some micro glitter in it. yum!

Have you ever done a glitter gradient? what color/glitter did you use. link me!

Icing - starlight

it's got holographic glitters

this was 4 coats, two thin, two thick. i think this would be better as a top coat on a nice dark blue.

Barry M turquoise and Girl Flower

happy sunday! 


Last week my Barry M polishes that i ordered june 26th finally arrived. one of those was Turquoise #295. The application is everything i was hoping it would be and the color is beautiful! although more blue than turquoise to me, it's still really nice!


My sister paige used some sally hansen salon effects a few months ago and had some leftover, so i used those with this manicure, just for something fun. i actually like the sally hansen brand stickers. the only thing i don't like is that it looks like they were printed on a printer that was running out of ink. what is your favorite brand of nail stickers?

no top coat on any of these

self timer is fuuuun. :P

Thanks for reading :)