Monday Mani: Secret Galaxy by 6 Harts

This one I had a HARD time taking off... in fact, I didn't take it off until I *had* to because my whole pointer finger of polish fell off in the shower.  The tip wear on this was incredible, which is a testament to the high quality of the polishes I used.

Base coat by Northern Polish, two layers Willa by Zoya, two layers Secret Galaxy by 6 Harts, and top coat of Glitter Glaze by Girly Bits.  There is incredible sparkle to Secret Galaxy that I had a difficult time capturing on camera.  Holo only seems to want to be captured when the photo is blurry!  So you'll see that in some of my photos in an effort to show you that super sparkle.  Ignore my poor clean-up job - the macro setting is very kind to point out what the naked eye thought was fine!  All taken under studio lighting on a white background.  Love love love Secret Galaxy!

Let me know what you think of the color in the comments below!

Disclaimer: polishes purchased for my own personal use.  All opinions are my own.  No affiliation with Northern Polish, Zoya, 6 Harts, or Girly Bits.

40 Great Nail Art Ideas: Week 4 Orange, Purple, and Green + Reciprocal Gradient

Oh, boy, was this a toughie of a challenge!  I had reciprocal gradient as the pattern challenge and while I was familiar with it, I couldn't exactly remember what it was so I had to look it up.  I was also a little apprehensive because I've not actually done a gradient at all yet, but I knew enough about this cool technique to wonder if the colors weren't going to work well or just look like a hot mess (spoiler alert: I was right).  Thanks to a great Youtube tutorial by My Simple Little Pleasures, I was quickly able to learn how easy it is.  Patience and time are the key!  So I sucked it up and dove in.

Picking colors from my stash was hard.  I don't really own orange, and not much plain green.  It also doesn't help all my polish is currently stored in boxes due to my living situation so searching is a litte harder.  :)  The recent A Box, Indied had all three colors, but I felt the purple was too sheer for this and didn't "go" well in tone.  I felt a plummy purple was more appropriate.  However, I worried this darker color palette would be difficult for a gradient, even though I liked the undertones of the color combo.  I decided to risk it anyways.

I used Different Dimension Witch & Fabulous as the orange and Colors by Llarowe Doctor Bombay's Potion as the green, both from the October A Box, Indied.  From CbL's fall collection 2015 I chose Aubergine Dreams as the purple.  Luckily, because I had been wanting to try a gradient for a while I already had on hand Glisten & Glow's Ctrl-Alt-Del latex barrier.  Despite being scented, it smells like bathroom cleaner to me.  Although it doesn't bother me, I have read reviews previously to be cautious that it does bother some noses.  It is incredibly easy to apply, but I do need more practice on where to place it to get best results (there's some cracks and cervices I missed).  This stuff is awesome enough, though, that I might use it on every mani!  Especially since I'm lazy and also not skilled with clean-up (which you'll see from my pics below).

Doing a gradient is incredibly easy - I just painted onto up&up latex free foam cosmetic wedges - it's the waiting part that's the hardest.  I had to do several layers to get the orange to show, but it did eventually (kind of) work.  I used chevron vinyls to create striping down the middle to reveal the reciprocal aspect.  I've recently discovered the awesomeness that is Girly Bits' Glitter Glaze quick dry top coat - dries super fast, super tough, and super glossy that makes holo and glitter pop.

While this isn't my most favorite mani I've done, I am proud of my sponging technique on first try.  Let me know what you think in the comments below!

Shade lighting

Shade with indirect sunlight

Full sun in an attempt to show all the glitter and holo

Disclaimer: items were purchased by me for my personal use.  All opinions are my own.  No affiliation with the brands mentioned in this post

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40 Great Nail Art Ideas: Week 2 Teal + Pattern-on-Pattern

We're underway and getting down to the nitty gritty of the nail art challenge. :)  Hoping I didn't mess up my assignment!  Prompts are assigned in a really cool, but seemingly complicated, way so crossed fingers I'm on track. ^_^  This week, the color is teal and I was assigned the pattern-on-pattern prompt.

I am actually not a fan of pattern-on-pattern so I sort of dreaded this one, and creativity was difficult as I am uninspired by the prompt.  I feel like it can turn ugly and messy really quickly - I've seen even the best of nail art bloggers struggle with it.  I wanted all my colors to be teal, but I discovered I did not own as many teal shades as I thought.

Inspired by the experiment on my thumb in my last faux ombre pattern post, I used Just My Cup of Tea'l by Girly Bits as the base; Teal We Meet Again by Sephora OPI as the second color; and Swoon flakies by Girly Bits as the tips.  As my second pattern, I layered on mermaid scales vinyls by What's Up Nails using Teal Oops by Colors by Llarowe.  Per usual (ha), this didn't exactly turn out how I envisioned, but at least the scales are visible over the SOPI layer.  Because life is cruel (jk), you can see I accrued some tip wear before taking photos.  Too many layers of polish. :/

So I'm curious to know - what are your thoughts on pattern-on-pattern manis?

 

Shade with indirect lighting

Shade lighting

I used Dazzle Dry by Girly Bits before putting on the vinyls layer.  Trust me, this lives up to the hype.  I was blown away how much richer the color popped after putting it on.  Definitely am going to have to do a comparison post to show you what I mean!  Not only that, but I was pleased to see it dried very fast and created a very hard, resilient top coat.

Disclaimer:  I am in no way affiliated with the products mentioned in this post.  All opinions are my own.  All products were purchased for my own usage.

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Monday Mani: all the purples by Girly Bits

A few months ago, I created my most popular mani post to date.  I loved it so much, I really wanted to do it in other colors.  For a recent challenge in the Girly Bits fan group, I decided to use purples I own by GB to recreate the faux ombre I had previously done in green (but that was different indie makers).  I love this one just as much and I hope you do, too!  For the first time, I did these all under studio lighting.

Now, there's a little bit debate about my calling it a "faux ombre".  The art degree in me argues this counts as an ombre because it's the same color graded.  However, I've been told in the nail world an ombre is across fingers, and a gradient is per nail regardless of color choices.  I called it faux because I didn't blend.  But maybe it's faux because it's on each nail.  I'm curious your thoughts so please weigh in on the comments: do you categorize this as an ombre or a gradient?

I used Girly Bits Twitterpated, Remember Aja, and Seriously Sassy.  As usual, all applied beautifully.  Twitterpated was more sheer than I anticipated.  I ended up doing three coats because I don't like visible nail line.  Remember Aja I've already worn and it's one of my favorite purples of all time.  Seriously Sassy made the perfect tips.  I taped off on the diagonal and accented each polish with black striping tape.  I experimented on my thumb with one diagonal and one straight to see how it looks, and I totally like it and will do manis in the future this way.

What do you think of this look?  Are you excited for me to do other colors?

 

Disclaimer: all opinions are my own.  I am in no way affiliated with Girly Bits Cosmetics.  I purchased these items myself.

Monday Mani: #52WPNMC with Girly Bits Just My Cup of Tea'l and Polynesian Sunset

It's Week 34 of the 52 Week Pick N Mix Challenge with this week's prompts being lilac and teal or pastels. Considering I have a most-likely-diagnosable problem with the amount of blues and purples I buy, I figured why not give the lilac and teal a shot. Luckily for me, I have the perfect duo of untrieds to fit the bill.  From my stash I picked from one of my favorite indie handmade brands, Girly Bits. Pam released a custom polish trio in June 2014 exclusive to the GBCF Facebook group, two of which happen to be a purple and a teal. For the purposes of this nail art challenge, I'm arguing it's a lilac. ;) 

Since these were released as customs, they were available only one time to a select group of people and did not have an official description. As provided by Pam at the time of preview for purchase: "This teal leans slightly more blue than #islandtime and it has more aqua shimmer and less gold. This purple is slightly darker than #endlesslove, with prominent pink shimmer and silver holo sparks in addition to the base holo." I applied both colors in thin layers (with top coat), and both, as is my usual experience with GB, were super easy to apply and dried quickly. I had not discovered the pink shimmer (which I thought at the time was a pink flash) of Polynesian Sunset until later under the lighting of my bedroom light fan, a very pleasant surprise. I enjoyed Polynesian Sunset for two days with very minimal tip wear (only one minor chip), which is also my typical experience with GB, as a monochromatic mani. I later applied Just My Cup of Tea'l ruffian style, mimicking nail art from this post.  Both are jam packed with holo and stunning colors.

As you will see in the nail art photo, my index finger is not pictured.  To my surprise, the lilac layer pulled up with my vinyl upon removal.  While I patched the screw up with the teal polish, I felt it wasn't camera ready.  I have had the teal on since Thursday with extremely minimal tip wear, only one chip (I'm sensing a theme).  Girly Bits polishes are VERY hardy.

In the shade with indirect lighting

In the shade

In the shade with indirect lighting

In the shade

Monday Mani is about showcasing beautiful indie polishes that I've purchased through lifestyle shots. So many swatches out there are captured under lighting and conditions that aren't common of every day. My intention is to show mani's under typical lighting and wearing conditions so you can decide if the beauty is right for you or not. Please note that although colors are accurate on my computer monitor (Macbook Pro), colors do vary among devices. Professionals blogger swatches are perfect - here's my life lessons from a handmade artisan.

Disclaimer: All reviews and opinions are my own. Products were purchased with my own money. No affiliation with Girly Bits or their products.

An InLinkz Link-up

Monday Mani: #52WPNMC - Elevation Walk A Little Farther and Girly Bits Winter Sanctuary

Week 32 of the #52WPNMC is about Outlines.  I wanted to try out my new zebra vinyls from Nail Vinyls and thought this was the perfect prompt to do so.  Now, as we've already learned, I don't own any neons, which, I have to admit, make for a pretty stellar zebra pattern.  So I had to make do.

Walk a Little Farther is from the January 2015 collection by Elevation Polish and is a soft baby blue with intense blue micro shimmer.  I wore it for one day on its own and got several compliments.  The shimmer is not that prominent unless under more intense lighting.  Formula was on the thick side so I actually created bubbles during application.  My nail chemistry has a harder time with EvP so I'm still working on my technique with it, but overall I would say it's a nice creme.

I laid down my nail vinyls and applied the sparkly gorgeousness that is Winter Sanctuary, a collaboration between Girly Bits and epic blogger Cosmetic Sanctuary.  It's a stunning medium to dark cobalt blue shimmolo with a hint of purple and a scattering of holo microglitter in it.  Now, I didn't put on enough to see the hints of purple, but I for sure see the lovely sparkliness of the microglitter.  This has quickly been put on my favorites list.

Here's my epic fail whale confession: I'm still perfecting my technique with vinyls in trying to figure out when to take them off for clean lines.  Instructions say right away, so the balance is trying to get the second polish on in one coat.  As a result, I tend to put on too thick a coat.  When I put on the PDQ top coat from Colors by Llarowe, it smeared Winter Sanctuary.  So I waited longer on the right hand before applying the quick dry topcoat (which seems counterintuitive, honestly) and it smeared a little less, but nonetheless smeared.  So not quite sure about that, but I'm hoping it's user error.

I definitely want to wear both these colors again, in a more monochromatic look to enjoy their full beauty.  Perhaps each with just tips for a little pizzazz (I'm starting to get bored with a monochromatic look, which is what I usually do to fully enjoy the beauty of polishes).  I'm loving the zebra look so I'll still be experimenting with those to get my technique perfected.

Let me know what you think in the comments!  Any tips or suggestions as to the smearing?

Indirect shade lighting

Indirect shade lighting

Indirect shade lighting

Indirect shade lighting

Indirect shade lighting

Direct sun lighting

Monday Mani is about showcasing beautiful indie polishes that I've purchased through lifestyle shots.  So many swatches out there are captured under lighting and conditions that aren't common of every day.  My intention is to show mani's under typical lighting and wearing conditions so you can decide if the beauty is right for you or not.  Please note that although colors are accurate on my computer monitor (Macbook Pro), colors do vary among devices.  Professionals blogger swatches are perfect - here's my life lessons from a handmade artisan.

Disclaimer:  All reviews and opinions are my own.  Products were purchased with my own money.  No affiliation with Girly Bits or Elevation Polish and their products.

An InLinkz Link-up

Monday Mani: #52WPNMC - Girly Bits Cosmic Ocean and piCture pOlish Sea Jewel

It is week 31 of 52 Week Pick N Mix Challenge (#52WPNMC) for which I chose the prompt Oceanic.  I picked two ocean-y colored and named(!) polishes just for the occasion, then used tip guides to create a faux mermaid tale reminiscent effect.  Although, on afterthought, I kind of wish I had thought of mermaid scales.  (And, yes, been less lazy with the clean-up.)

I used basecoat then put down two layers of black undies to make the colors pop even more (although I know the colors look fine on their own, I just wanted the extra effect).  First came two layers of Cosmic Ocean by Girly Bits Cosmetics, a blue/green/purple duochrome.  I could not find the purple, but I definitely saw several dimensions of blue and green.  It's just stunning (I've actually used it in my nail polish jewelry).  Then, using the tip guides, I put on a thick layer of Sea Jewel by piCture pOlish, a green and silver metallic green that dries with a smidgen of texture.  I layered on topcoat, which really made things pop even more.  I didn't have any troubles with application, and both dry fairly fast with my nail chemistry.

It is hard to capture all of the colors of Cosmic Ocean because it changes so easily and frequently under different lights.  You can literally move two feet and see a different color dimension to it.  I'm really digging how this mani turned out.  Tell me in the comments below what you think!

Under shade lighting, highlighting the dark green color aspect

Under shade lighting, highlighting the dark blue hues

Shade lighting

Direct sun, showing off all the sparkle!

Shade lighting, angled to show dark blue hues

Shade lighting, angled to show various dimension

Monday Mani is about realistically showcasing beautiful indie polishes that I've purchased.  So many swatches out there are captured under lighting that we simply don't use every day.  My intention is to show mani's under typical lighting and wearing conditions so you can decide if the beauty is right for you or not.  Please note that although colors are accurate on my computer monitor (Macbook Pro), colors do vary among devices.

Disclaimer:  All reviews and opinions are my own.  Products were purchased with my own money.  No affiliation with Girly Bits or Picture Polish and their products.

An InLinkz Link-up

Day3JNAC - 13 Days of January Nail Art Challenge: Half and Half

So this is turning out to be *quite* the learning experience.  Things I learned yesterday: the answer to the question "Do I still need to wait several minutes after applying quick dry top coat before trying nail art with Scotch tape?" (the answer is yes); pulling tape off not-completely-dry polish creates a cool, but undesirable effect; sometimes doing lines freehand is easier; using a second color to completely cover the basecoat color is easier said than done.

However, like usual, Girly Bits did not disappoint.  Although My Ten Friends will always hold a special place in my heart, Girly Bits is quickly becoming possibly my second favorite indie brand.  The formula is so amazing that it doesn't require clean-up if you've got good technique.  Unless I slip, I'm able to paint with BOTH my hands without clean-up being warranted.  Dries quickly and the wear on it is AMAZING.  Tomorrow will be my third day wearing it and I'm willing to bet I'll end the day with hard-to-notice tip wear.  Oh, and she also makes pretty colors. ;)

Today's nail art is half and half.  Of course, this was WAY cooler in my head... also would've helped if I was patient with the tape.  Ah well, live and learn.  I used What Happens in Vegas Ends Up on Facebook (2014 version) and What Happens in Vegas Ends Up on Instagram (2014 version).  I wish the camera would capture the stunning glitters in this better - they're a gorgeous surprise.  The purple glitter in particular is breathtaking.  Maybe tomorrow's sun pictures will do it justice.

Indoor Lighting

An InLinkz Link-up