17 Challenge: Pastel

Hello Again,

Yet another installment in the 17 Challenge Nail Design series!  Today I present to you, pastel nails.

I originally did a plain mani with my pastel peach color.   A day later, I decided to add some flower detail on my accent finger for a little more summery and floral look.

Overall, a pretty easy and simple 17 Challenge.

Shade

Colors Used:

Peach Parfait by Ulta

Luxe by Orly (gold dots)

White Out by Orly

And because the perfection and easiness of the nail polish made for pretty photos, I present you with more pictures below.

Shade

Sun (sorry for that glare)

Indoors

I will be posting a tutorial on how to do the flowers on my ring finger, so look forward to that.

Until next time <3

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

I Went Shopping!!!

So I had a lot of errands I needed to do yesterday.  I had to go to the post office, pick up some stuff from Trader Joes, and return some things at the library.  And even though it was 11:30am, it was so busy.  But since I was over by a Sally's, I figured I might as well just stop on by and see what they have on clearance.


Normally when I go to Sally's they always have nail polish deals like Buy 2 Get 1 Free.  I hadn't heard of any of those for a while and they didn't have any signs up when I went there, so I just decided to go in there and head directly for the clearance rack so I wouldn't spend too much money.


The only thing I don't like about the clearance section at Sally's is the fact that it makes me second guess myself.  For example, I find a polish that I think looks really cute and I think about getting it.  But then all of a sudden I start to wonder why it's on clearance.  I mean, did they put it on clearance because it was so ugly and nobody would pay full price for it?  That sounds plausible, right?


However, I have managed to convince myself that the only reason why those polishes are over there is because people bought the polish so quickly, that there was only one or two left.  And of course these polishes are just limited edition, so when they want to refill the section on the nail polish rack, there isn't any more of the color.  So they are forced to remove it and discount it so they can at least put it somewhere.  With that type of thinking, I buy my clearance polishes.

Comment below if you know what I am talking about!!!

Yesterday I managed to trick/convince myself into getting two polishes.  The one of the left is an Orly color.  Have I mentioned how much I love Orly nail polishes?  I really do.  Anyway, this is a taupy grey color. When I saw this I was really excited.  I wanted to get Stiletto from Julie G's collection, but never got around to it.  This one doesn't sparkle like Stiletto does, but the color is pretty close.  It was on sale for $2.69.


The little guy on the right is by Sally Girl and is called Coconut.  This was on sale because it was a featured scented polish that obviously will smell like coconut.  I tried it on real fast when I got home and it actually smells like coconut. They had some other colors, but I figured I'd just get one.  Also, this polish will be able to satisfy my pastel requirements for the 17 challenge (click here to read more about it).  This little thing was only 69 cents.  Yay for deals!


Overall, I got two new nail polishes, and I can't wait to test them out and see what designs I can make with them.

Until next time. . .

Stirred NOT Shaken

So this is just a quick post to talk about actual nail polish.  I am taking a break from writing a 5 page history paper on the political development of Iran to tell you about this.  So it must really be important.

You know right before you paint your nails and you look at the nail polish bottle and it looks like the colors have separated?  For me it tends to happen with my light purples and blues where the darker hues float to the top, but every nail polish is different. 

Here's an example of a polish that I always have to shake two or three times before I can use it.  It's Orly's Snowcone, and not only does the polish separate really fast, but I spilled the bottle.  That's why it looks really gross on the outside.

Don't you just hate when the happens?

So anyway, what do you do to make the color come back to the original?  The easiest way would be to shake it.

I bet you all have heard this a thousand times, but DON'T SHAKE THE NAIL POLISH BOTTLE. It does actually make a difference.  When you shake the bottle, bubbles form.  Just like if you shook a bottle of water, you are going to produce bubbles.  Albeit the bubbles will not be as noticeable in the bottle, (especially when you paint your nails) but when your nails begin to dry, there will be tiny bubbles.

Sometimes a top coat, like Seche Vite, will take away the bubbles, but they will still look very unappealing.

So how can we prevent this from happening?

1. Use a different nail polish
2. Roll the bottle between your palms if the color is too separated
3. Or, shake the bottle at least 15-20 minutes before you apply (I always shake around the time I use nail polish remover to take off last weeks manicure)

Trust me, you will see a difference.  However, you still might get bubbles if you paint your nails with a fan on high speed.  But, as long as your nail polish is "stirred" and not shaken, you nails should look as smooth as a freshly shaven calf =]

NOTW: Bright, Red, and Sparkly

I am really excited about the polish on my nails for this week.  My last nails were Water Marble, a play of off Gradient, and Ombre nails.  So for this week, I just wanted something bright, sparkly, fun, and girly.   And this is what I came up with: 

Taken on a beautiful April afternoon

The base color is this jelly red by Bon Bon which my parents probably bought for me when I was like 7 (this just proves, nail polishes really don't go bad).  So I don't have a name for it.  But it basically is just your regular red, except I think more pigmented.  And of course I used Seche's base and top coats to start and finish off this nail look.

On top I added one coat of Orly-Shine on Crazy Diamond.  I love this nail effect.  It is so easy to apply.  You don't have to worry about applying the sparkles in a specific way, just paint it on there like a normal nail polish and it surely will look amazing.  

The first picture above was taken when the camera was focused, and that is about the only time you will not see the sparkles in this Orly nail polish not sparkling.  Even indoors, the sparkles will catch some light and will just glisten.  The picture directly above was taken out of focused, but is the best visual representation for how the sparkles look in real life.  Can't you just see how awesome that sparkle looks in the bottle?

I think the best thing about this nail polish was that is was free.  I had one of those Seventeen magazine coupons that allowed me to get a free Orly nail polish from Ulta, but only from a selected assortment.  However, when I went there, the Ulta didn't have the correct options.  So the lady there just gave me this one!  I guess some of the best things in life manicures are free.

Until next time <3

NOTW: Sponged Gold and Berry

Happy Friday.  I think this post managed to make it within three weeks of the last, so I'm getting better.  Lately it's been so busy with school that I really only painted my nails twice in the last two months.  So even if I wanted to post more often, I wouldn't have anything to talk about.

But on a higher note, I am going to be posting more regularly.  I have realized that when I don't have a pretty perfect nail polish on my nails, I begin to pick at it during class and then become distracted.  Yeah, sometimes I get distracted from staring at the pretty nail color a day after I paint them, but it's not as bad as literally picking the color from my nails.  So really look for some more frequent posts, I'm serious this time.

For today's Nails of the Week (that were worn three weeks ago), I have a sponged on nail design.  I started off with two coats of Ulta's Fushiamania.   I then took a makeup sponge and sponged on Orly's Luxe over top.  At first I was going to do sort of a fade going up the nail, but I decided to just sponge the gold on the entire nail.  I actually like my right better, but I took this pictures about 4 days after I painted them, and the right hand had a few chips.

However, the chips obviously weren't that bad since I continued to wear this polish for the rest of that week and the next.  I had two test coming up, a debate for English, two papers to write and a presentation for Physics.  My life is complicated...like everyone else's.

Sorry the picture is so dark.  It almost makes my hands look dead.  But I needed to hurry up and take a picture of my nails before any more chips happened and it wasn't very sunny outside at the time.  The homemade berry color is more vibrant and "poppy" in real life, and the gold glitter on top sparkles more in the sunlight.

SIDENOTE: I actually darkened Fushiamania with a good few pours of black nail polish because it looked too similar to China Glaze's Make an Entrance.  (Click here to see a NOTW of Make an Entrance)

I just cut a triangular piece from a round makeup sponge.

Apply the nail polish directly onto the corner of the
torn makeup sponge for best results.

Overall, this is a pretty fool-proof nail design.  If you are tired of the same plain nails, certainly give this a try.  All you need is a base color, a glitter nail polish, and a old makeup sponge.  I seriously got this one from my mother who bought it about 15 years ago, not even joking.

I promise promise promise that I will post more frequently.  I didn't have school today, so I might even post another nail of the week from last week, or maybe start on some of the "Other Tales" that my blog name suggests I will have.  Guess you'll just have to come back to see what the next post will be.  And yes, that just rhymed =]

NOTW---Tribal Art

Update: I'm not sure why I forgot to upload these nails, I did them about a month ago.  But I still wanted to share them with you.  I have two more that I need to upload, so be on the lookout for those.


For this weeks "Nails of the Week" I have decided to go bigger than I ever have before.  I was a little puzzled as to what I should do with my nails this week.  Last week I did a bright pink with silver and black criss-cross lines over top with silver and black flowers on the middle fingers (sorry I don't have a picture).

So this week I was planning on doing just a plain design with maybe a shimmer polish. BUT, I just recently discovered pinterest.com and as I was searching through their nails section, I found this design:   

http://weheartit.com/entry/7873474/via/ashleypola

As you can see, I modified the pointer and pinkie a lot, while I just changed a little on the thumb because that detail was just a little to detailed for me to handle.

Left Hand (I'm left handed so I think I did a pretty
good job with my right hand)

For this design I used Orly- Luxe, OPI- You Don't Know Jacques, and OPI-Arctic Snow, along with a black and white striper.  As difficult as this design may look, it was very easy if you just focus one detail at a time.  I hope some of you will try this design in the future.  If you do, please comment below and let me know how it went.

Until next time <3

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.

Nails of the Week!

For nails this week, I decided to go with another polish with a glossy finish as opposed to an opaque solid color like last week.  (For that post click here!)  This is Chantilly Peach by Orly.  The Orly brand is really good, I have four polishes from them and would not mind getting another.  The brush is the perfect size, not too fat and not too skinny, and the rubber top makes the polish easy to open.  As far as the color of this nail polish goes, I was a little concerned about it because at Sally's, where I bought it, a sheer subtle color wasn't really what I was looking for.  But I thought the color was really pretty and elegant looking so I went ahead and bought it.

It really isn't that sheer.  With one coat you can see the smile line on your
nails, but two coats (which is what I did) the color is really opaque and matches the color in the bottle perfectly.  Unfortunately, I got those ugly tiny bubbles/bumps on my nails either because 1) I shook the bottle too much, you really should roll it in between your palms or
2) the ceiling fan caused the polish to dry while I was still applying the coat.

Either way, this nail polish is really pretty.  It's one of those polishes that you can wear in the summer or the fall that goes with practically any outfit.  It not too stand-out of a color, which in my case is beneficial since I have those ugly bubbles =]