Weekly Challenge: Glitter Gradients

It has been a year now that I have made the transition from occasional nail painter to nail art explorer and overall polish enthusiast.  I have always been a process person.  I love to knit not for what I create, but the process of making it.  Same with when I make jewelry.  The process of creation is just as much fun as the end result.  The same is true for me and creating manicures.  That is part of what attracted me to going down this road to begin with.  Now it is time for me to up my game so to speak.  I have toyed around with different techniques that I have seen on others' sites and played around with some of my own designs.  I think it is time for me to embark on some mastery of skills.   I am going to set challenges for myself to attempt to become better at technique.  And this week I am going to start with glitter gradients.  I feel like this should be simple enough.  But for some reason it has not always turned out as I would have liked.

My 4th of July mani looked more like clumps of polish rather than a gradient.  

I decided to see exactly how others are creating these fab looks.  I love this video from EmJustLikeYou.  

I started with Julep's Annette, which is a light creamy dove gray.

I then added a coat of Sinful Colors's Frenzy, micro glitter of purples and blues.

I finished it off with OPI's Polka.com.  [top coat Seche Vite]

I think the finished product has turned out pretty well.  I like this as the beginning of this challenge for myself.

Mani Monday: A little ombré.

Seems like a good time for a bright ombré!!!

I do love this technique.

Colors used:  Julep's Eden and China Glaze's Pink Voltage.

These colors are so bright and cheerful.

Minions

It was a rainy afternoon on Saturday.  Perfect weather for ducks, weather forecasters, and movies.  I wish I got out to see movies more often, but I never seem to do so.  But, this past weekend I got out with my mom and went to go see..........drumroll............

Despicable Me 2!!!!!!

I loved the first one so this one has to be good, right?  How could it not?  There are minions after all.

Gru, the girls, minions, and snarky comments?  I am in!!

Of course I needed to do my nails up real quick for this....it was raining after all!  I had time.  :)  But apparently not enough time.  Don't mind my index finger:  I forgot to quick dry top coat that nail...until I pulled the tape off.  Whoops!  It got a bit wonky.  I couldn't re-do it because it was suddenly time to leave for the movie in 20 minutes.  So sloppy-ish index finger, myself, and my mum headed out to see this cute movie. And we...LOVED IT!!

What I have been up to lately...

I feel like I have been a bit more busy over in Instagram land than I have over here on Blogger in the past 5 days or so.  Probably as I have been running around so much since the end of last week, it has just been a bit easier to take that snapshot of life and keep moving.  Now that I have had a chance to sit down, let me catch you up!!

Sharknado....OH! Sharknado! 
I can't help myself, I love cheesy movies.  The worse they are, the better for me.  I totally jumped on board for the SciFi Channel's Sharknado.  In case you haven't heard, Tara Reid and Ian Zeering both have jobs again for this movie where a hurricane turned tornado carrying man-eating sharks descends upon Los Angels.  oooooo!!!!  I am getting goose bumps as to how bad this had the potential to be.  And when I heard they had it on demand, I knew I needed to have the girls over for some good food and bad movie viewing party.  About 30 minutes before people came over, I suddenly had time to sit.  MANICURE TIME!!!  

I whipped this bad boy up in a jiffy.  I must confess, not my best work.  But as I looked at it, I could not stop giggling and the fact that these nails were not good art, and it made them even more special.  Yes, those are open-mouthed sharks on my thumb and ring fingers, choppy waters on my index, bloody red on my middle, and shark bites on my pinkie.  Oh, and the movie was a great, horribly bad success!

Pretty Neutral

I let my nails breathe this weekend.  Since I was not doing any manicures or swatches, this naturally lent itself to my buying nail polish.  I actually got in the car and drove an hour to a little supply shop I love in Miami and picked up some new colors.  Even though the colors have been out for awhile, I have all of a sudden fallen in love with OPI's Euro Centrale Collection.  I picked up My Vampire Is Buff, Can't Find My Czechbook, Polka.Com, and Suzi's Hungary Again for a friend....I also grabbed a glitter from the Minnie Couture Collection, some gelquins, and Seche Restore.    All this retail therapy added up to me starting this week off with a neutral manicure staring My Vampire Is Buff.

My Vampire Is Buff with two accent nails with Zoya's Solange

It's A Royal Baby!!

I don't want to get caught up in the comings and goings of the Royals, but sure as heck, I got up super early and watched Kate and Will's wedding a few years back.  And Babywatch 2013 has had me keeping an eye on my notifications of my phone.  When they finally had the baby yesterday, I thought, Viola! Baby nails!!

Can't Find My Czechbook stamped with silver crowns.

And their baby is so cute!

This has been my week in nails.  

Mani Monday: Pretty In Pink Monday with Zoya Dita.

It's MONDAY!!!!!!!!!! More specifically: MANI MONDAY!!!  New start to the week = new manicure, but of course.  I am starting this week off pretty in pink.

Sadly, I broke my middle finger over the weekend.

Colors used for this manicure:

Zoya's Dita-  rich, deep pink cream

OPI's Pirouette My Whistle- Multi-dimensional hex and micro glitter mix

I topped off Dita with Essie's Matte About You to give the beautiful pink color a different dimension.  This color is usually pretty glossy, even without top coat.  The pink color is really receptive to the matte top coat, which gives it a rich and velvety look.  

I can never leave well enough alone, so I then added two accent nails in which I topped Dita off with glitter.   As you know, I always need more glitter in my life.  This is two coats of the OPI polish.  I do like this glitter because as you see it is how it goes on the nail.  With some larger glitter or glitter mix nail polishes I find I have to place the larger pieces so it doesn't do its own thing and clump up on the end....which can be nice if you are looking to do a glitter gradient, but not this time...Pretty In Pink Monday!!

Who Photobombed who?  

Dog Days Of Summer

This weekend my dog became a hipster.  I begged Frankie not to go that route, but he did anyway.  He has a new collar....

and it is SOOOO CUTE!!

Andy Warhol-like dogs wearing trendy sunglasses and mustaches.  This collar is so freakin' cute.  Thank you PetCo for having this.  It is so cute and colorful and....perfect inspiration for a manicure!!

For this manicure I started with two coats of Sally Hansen's Hard as Nails Xtreme Color in White On.  Then began my skittles neon manicure.

Colors Used:

green- China Glaze's I'm With the Lifeguard

yellow- China Glaze's Celtic Sun

pink- China Glaze's Pink Voltage

aqua- China Glaze's Turned Up Turquoise

purple- Circus Tight Rope

Once all these great neon colors dried, I free hand drew the icons using my Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen in Black.  This was then all topped off with my favorite top coat, Seche Vite Rapid Dry.

I tried to get a pic with Frankie today, but he was a bit fussy about having his picture taken.  He seemed to think we were going to go for a walk when I put his collar on.  Not sure where he got that idea from......

Foto Friday: Black and white cookie!

Today's quick foto post is inspired by black and white cookies.

I love sweets!!

Basic tape manicure with a white base coat....I think using Sally Hansen Hard as Nails White Out...I think....and the black is a Wet n' Wilds fast dry black.  And a glitter striper.  Sorry, the bottles are out of reach.  I will post the specific names in an update a bit later as I am running late for a girl's night dinner date.  :)  

Mani Cam with July Julep Box California Coast Collection

MANI CAM TIME!!!!!

Julep's California Collection for July was inspired by the colors of the coast...or as Julep puts it: "inspired by surf, sand, sunsets and the breathtaking natural beauty of the coastline."  I went with my It Girl Profile box this month.  Biggest reason for this choice?  Why, because there was a gorgeous texture polish of course!!  

Angela:  A deep sea blue molten

Nadia:  Sun-kissed golden frost

Tracy:  Sparkly ocean blue with a sea salt finish.

I really like Tracy.  It has a great sparkle, fine texture, and just the right amount of glitter to make this girl happy.

Nadia and Angela are not my particular favorites.  Both of them go on easily in two coats for maximum coverage.  Angela is actually pretty interesting in that when you first paint it on, it almost goes on as a flat black-brown color.  As it dries, the molten blue really pops out of it.   Nadia is a great yellow frost color that does shimmer nicely.  Both are just not colors I naturally gravitate towards.  But just watch, in a month they are going to be my new favorite colors!

Mani Monday: Orange Crush

Mani Monday time!  New week, new manicure.

Today is the last day off from work for my birthday mini-vacay.  It has been really nice to not be worried about work for five days.  Sadly, my time has come to an end.  Vacations really do ALWAYS go too quickly.  To cap the time off manicure wise, I wanted something bright.   

Orange Crush Ombre on a Bright Sunny Day!

Colors used: Julep's Parker, Zoya's Sharon, Butter London's Jafa, OPI's Brights Power, and little OPI Jinx.

Bright little orange ombre manicure to end the day.  Yay!

Sadly, I need to work with my camera a bit more.  It is not managing reds very well.  I noticed this when photographing flowers outside as well in good sunlight.  If anyone has any photography tips, I would LOVE to hear 'em!  

Side note...

For my birthday, I received a new rack for nail polish to up my total to two.  Hung this bad boy today so that my stash can have some breathing room.  I am trying so hard to fight the urge to fill up the space up!

Days 3 & 4 of my July 4th Manicure Bonanza!

It has been a pretty busy weekend here in my household between summer cleaning and organizing, to family and friend visits, and the ever present wedding plans, that I did not make time to post my holiday nails until now.  So without any further adieu, here is day 3 and day 4 of my July 4th Super Birthday Mani Extravaganza.....or, 7 days of holiday nails until July 4th.  

Day 3:  Fireworks Gradient

Sticking with my red, white, and blue color scheme, Day 3 features a couple colors we have already used, and one I am very excited to announce.  The red is Julep's Delaunay and the blue is Butter London's Blagger.  Saturday my July Julep Maven box came in the mail....which will be posted tomorrow...and I did add on their special glitter polish to my box.  It is the third polish in this picture and it is called Fireworks.  This polish is packed to the brim with glitter.  The glitter is both multi-dimensional large and small hex glitter in red, white, and blue.  You gets lots of glitter per swipe of the brush and I just love it!

I decided on basic red and blue bases to let the glitter take center stage.  I pulled the glitter down from the tip so that it looks a bit like a shower of sparkles and added the loose stars to the blue nails.  

Day 4:  Deconstructed Stars and Stripes Tape Mani

For today's manicure, I used the above colors:  Sinful Color's Under 18, Essie's Blanc, and Julep's Eloise.

I wanted to produce at least one tape manicure in this series, and this is it!  I started with the blue as a base and the moved to utilizing the tape to divide my nail in half for the coats of red.  But I needed more pizazz then to then tape it off again for the white.  Solution?  Dots of course!!  I think it gives it a hint of both whimsy and sophistication.  Not sure if one can be both, but I am running with it!