NOTW: Shimmer Gradient

...and I'm back.

Sorry about the very long delay. (So much for having summer to catch up on blog posts).  Every time I even thought about posting a blog, the idea of me typing on a  Sunday afternoon in between doing physics homework over the internet and analyzing rhetorical pieces for English just made me want to take a nap.  

With less than a month till school starts, I am getting back on track, starting with getting my typing skills up and running with nail blog posts.  

This week's notw screams summer.  If you aren't familiar with this color by now, I'll give you a break since it has been over two months.  This is Finger Paints "Drawn to this Shade."  This really is my go to color for all year long.

Sunlight

I just used Seche Clear base coat and two coats of FP for the base color.  Then, I used a torn makeup sponge and Orly Luxe to create the shimmer gradient and smoothed it out with Seche Vite top coat.

A while ago I tried to do this nail effect but failed and ended up just do a sponged shimmer all over the nail.  Click here to view that one!  I managed to keep the shimmer on the upper half to third of the nail, and I really like the way it turned out.

Shade

The red hue it produces in the shaded picture is a little more orange in real life.  However, the following pictures more accurately capture the coral hue of Drawn to this Shade.  I really could have only used one more picture, but the shimmer from Luxe is just so eye catching.

What I am about to say may sound familiar, but I am serious this time.  I have more posts to come, both soon and frequently.  Seriously, I have about 7 or 8 drafts with pictures all ready to go.

Until next time <3

17 Challenge: Mix It Up

As I promised, I have the first installment of  the Seventeen Magazine nail challenge I have started for this summer and on.  (Click here to read more about it)

I actually did this nail design last Thursday, but I was busy enjoying my first few days of summer break to post about it, but now that it is the first full week of summer break, I have found some time.

This design was #13: Mix It Up.

The description of these nails was to paint all your nails one color and then do an accent nail on your ring finger.  I normally don't really like to do one nail a completely different color with nothing that ties it into the other nails, so I'm glad this was a challenge because otherwise I would not have tried this.

The colors I used were Finger Paints "Drawn to this Shade" (no surprise here, this is only about the 10th time I've done a post on this color).  But I did use this new color my mother got me a couple of months ago.  It is called "Stranger Tides" from OPI's Pirates of the Carribean collection.  It was only a dollar at this nail store that was going out of business.  

Actual color of the dusty green

I really didn't know when or how I was going to wear this dusty pale green color, but it contrasts nicely with the coral and I have started to really like it.   I used one coat of the coral and two coats of the dusty green because it goes on pretty streaky at first.

I also think that this accent nail is really cool.  My mom and brother, who's home from college, don't really understand why one color is painted differently.  I just tell them "17 Challenge" and they don't bother me anymore.  Lol =]

If OPI is your favorite nail polish brand, just go ahead and vote for it in the poll on the left.  If it is Finger Paints or something else, vote for that one.

I hope everyone is having a good Memorial Day...and I'll see you next time for another edition of the 17 challenge (or a random post or something).

NOTW: Water Marble

Three days in a row, tic-tac-toe!  Yes, I have posted three days in a row.  What an accomplishment.

  

Anyway, I have a water marble design to share with you all today. 

Water marble in natural sunlight

I wore this on my nails for about two and a half weeks (I didn't have to take it off and certainly didn't have time to repaint them).  I have absolutely found water marbling to be really cool, but never got around to trying it...until now!  Hope you all like the final result!

Here are all the materials I used.  

1. Finger Paints-Drawn to this Shade (you'd think I didn't have any other nail polish since this about my 5th post involving FP, but i just think it's sooo pretty)
2. KISS White Nail Striper
3. (Distorted) bobby pin
4. A cup of SmartWater at room temperature

I'm not all that sure if the "room temperature" part is a huge must.  This was the first time I tried and it worked, but the room I was in was a little cold.  I probably could have drank the water and it wouldn't have tasted too bad, temp rise.  I started off by painting my nails with OPI Chip Skip and Seche Clear base coat followed by one coat of Finger Paints.

Next, I taped off my nail.  I'm sure if you're reading this post, you have already heard about how to tape off your nail for a water marble design.  I just used clear Scotch tape.

This is just a picture of my left index finger after I nudged from attempting to put the tape on my right hand fingers.  So, make sure your base color is completely dry.  It didn't really show up that much in the final result, but I still knew.  And that's what matters, right? 

Here is a picture of alternating coral and white rings in the water.  It spread pretty nicely and the polish was easy to design with. So happy I didn't have to experiment with a whole bunch like I've read about people doing.  Yay for luck!

This was just right after I had applied Seche Vite top coat, so there is still nail polish around my nail bed and on the cuticle left from after I took the tape off.  But, as you can see in the first photo, everything turned out all fine and dandy =]

Until next time (which will hopefully be tomorrow, because then that would make it four in a row *connect four*)

Nails From Three Weeks Ago!

Okay, so yet again I have discovered another picture in my queue of some nails I did three weeks ago.

These were both fun and annoying to do. I always like the nail designs that require attention to detail, and these do. The only thing is that my white striper was a little thick and I couldn't get the lines as precise as I wanted them. But I think they turned out pretty well.

Oh and another downside, it was pretty late when I decided to paint my nails, so late that I only had time to paint the right hand with the design and leave the left hand with just the background color. But it made for a cool balance and I was too tied to take it off.

I used Finger Paints-Drawn to this Shade and a white striper.

If you do want to try this design, make sure you have a thin liner and enough time to completely finish it.

Extra NOTW!

As I was flipping through my photos on my iPod, I stumbled across this nail art design from my first week of school way back in August. I really liked this design but I guess I just didn't bother posting the final result.

I just did the diagonal stripes on the thumb and ring fingers, leaving the other three fingers a solid coraly-orange colors. For this design I used Finger Paints-Drawn to this Shade and silver and white stripers. The color is more coral pink, I have a good photo of just a plain manicure on an earlier post "Nails of the Week-Coral!!!"

Nails of the Week! (Coral)

Alright, so I am really excited about this weeks nails.  I hadn't worn this color for a while only because I was trying out some of the newer polishes I had purchased during the spring.  However, when presented with the question of what nail polish to go with this week, I dug this out of the bottom of my nail case and slapped it on my nails (well, precisely painted it).  I purchased this polish at Sally's a little over a year ago, and it still looks awesome.  This polish is Drawn to this Shade by Finger Paints!

Drawn to this Shade
by Finger Paints

I'm not sure why the Finger Paints brand isn't as popular as China Glaze or even Orly because I believe that the nail polish is just as good, if not better than CG.  The brush size is medium, which is nice, but I really like the formula consistency.  To me, CG's nail polishes are a little watery and are very sheer.  But with this nail polish, it wasn't too watery and came out to be opaque in only two coats.

If there was one thing I would complain about this specific nail color, it would be the fact that the color doesn't always appear the same way in different lighting.  I know this is true for most nail polish colors, but especially with corals.  When in the wrong lighting, my nails look bright orange and does not compliment my skin tones at all.  With sunlight in the daytime, the color is a very pretty color. Luckily I was finally able to capture the real color of my nail polish on camera. It took me a few tries, though.