Earth Day is EVERY day Flower Power Nails: Week

Testing, testing *tap,tap,tap* Is this thing on?  Its WEEK 17 of the Year of Polish Challenge!!

To be honest, I really put off this week's challenge almost in protest because I really do feel that Earth Day is every day (or should be)!  Then I was reading the Challenge closely and it says Earth Appreciation for this week.  One of the most beautiful natural things to me on Earth is flowers.  Its pretty evident that I love having flowers on my nails!  So I went with it and was not let down!!

To give credit where due, the flowers on these nails are inspired by lovely and down-to-Earth Robin Moses (Cheerful Flowers and others)  but with a Nails, Actually spin!  Please check out Robin's nail art on Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, and her blog?  You won't be disappointed!

I did these by first applying one generous coat of I Need a Refresh-Mint to base coated nails.   I then used Robin Moses' petal brush strokes to create flowers in Planks A Lot, Boom Boom, and Big Daddy.  I used a nail art brush to put dots of Sunshine in the middle of each flower then had the exceptional idea to use the large hex glitters from Golden Nirvana (Klean Color) to be my flower centers.  Last, I used Tokyo Pearl to add shiny accents to each petal and covered with Julep's Fast Drying Topcoat!  These nails started out being so so but now finished they are some of my favorites!

Power to the Flower!

Glitter Starburst Nails

As promised, I've done some more nails with the ultra striking but painstaking glitter placement!  These actually didn't take long at all to do and turned out so great!

Essentially, I put on one coat of Julep's Helena over base coated nails.  I then brushed on Julep's Brooke for some shimmer.  I then brushed a generous amount of Milani Glitters Teal onto a notecard and picked out the large teal glitters.  Since the Milani glitter is suspended in clear lacquer I just picked up each teal glitter with a toothpick and quickly placed it on the nail in a starburst pattern.  They have enough polish on them to stick, generally!   I do love how these turned out!  I'm thinking next about doing a mosaic design in this fashion on one nail.  What do you think?  Cool?

Morse Code Nails

Don't you just love Pinterest?  These nails are directly inspired by something I found on Pinterest and thought "what a neat idea for nails?!"

Incidentally, the note card below is the source of my inspiration for these Morse Code Nails:

Cute right?  You can actually buy them here!

Without further ado, here are the nails in question!

I think the design and colors for these nails make them . . .  - - -    -.-.  - - -  - - -  .-..!

Late April Polish Haul *Pic Heavy*

So...I broke down and bought/ordered more polish.   I can't help it if I have a good eye for great deals and too-die-for glitter polishes!

First, I have to share how I scored the Pretty and Polished polishes.  I essentially stalked the Facebook and Etsy site until the bottles dropped and snatched them up within a few minutes.

Now, I *know* that there is controversy about Sticks N' Stones being the Lynnderella Connect the Dots dupe.  I also know that I've waited months to order from Lynderella and have YET to get my hands on one bottle of any Lynnderella polishes :(  When it becomes available again, I plan to buy some Lynnderella polishes but until then, I plan to enjoy Sticks N Stones without guilt!

So a rare swatch fest ensued because I just had to see what these new indie glitters looked like!  Sticks N Stones is over a base of Julep's Taylor,
Party On My Yacht is alone, two coats,
Jawbreaker is alone, two coats,
Hello, Dolly is over a base of Julep's Emilie,
Valentino is over a base of Sinful Colors Forever Pink!

Next, I have to share the awesome stash of Klean Color polishes I bought for $1 each at a flea market in Cleburne.   I have been searching for Chunky Holos for quite a while and when I came across these, I snapped them up!  I also bought the six other polishes below!

 I ordered this Resort collection mini set from Ulta and adore every polish.  So pretty!

I cannot contain my excitement to finally own some Hits polishes!  I ordered these from Llarowe and they are worth every penny!

I found these darling polishes by Jessie's Girl at Rite Aid!

These Julep polishes are part of my $50 gift certificate order from my Easter Mystery Box!

Couldn't resist buying this chunky red glitter.  I have some ideas in mind!

My Sinful Color collection keeps growing!  Check out these gorgeous polishes!

I read about Wet N Wild Chrome polish on Nouveau Cheap's blog and went around town trying to find them .  I was successful at an out-of-the-way Rite Aid!!

This polish fiend is such a lucky girl!   Can't wait to use all of these in some awesome nail art!

Blue Green Glitter Nails

I love pairing polishes!

Dots of Summer Nails

Being a relatively new resident of Denver, I have come to appreciate the extra long "summers" I had in Texas.  Snow in April makes me long for flip flops, shorts, and summery neon nails.   I am vacation right now (in Texas, incidentally) and did these Neon polka dot nails.

(Sorry about the quality of my photo taken with my Droid--I inadvertently left my digital camera at home!)

The base is KleanColor Teal Envy with a chunky holo top coat.  The white dots were made with Sinful Colors Snow Me White and the inner dots were made with Sinful Colors Innocent, Amethyst, Boom Boom, and Wet N Wild Megalast Club Havana.  I also topped each dot with a matching chunky holo color.  The dots were made with two sizes of dotting tool heads.   C'mon Summer!

Week 16 of the Year of Polish Challenge: Gradient Dotticure

I've been wanting to try a gradient using the one step sponge gradient technique from LaynieFingers so I  did it tonight.  But then I remember that my challenge this week is a dotticure.  And my brain smashed the two manis together and the Gradient Dotticure was born!

I did the gradient just like Laynie did with a white base color and gradient colors in Wild Rose, Disco Purple, and Iceberg Lotus.  I then applied small dots in reverse color order.  The Wild Rose didn't show up very good on top of Disco Purple so I added dots in Dream on.  These look pretty cool in my opinion!

Franken #3

I just can't stop the franken-makin'!   My franken polishes have taken on a forensic feel with their names and thus Forensic Frankens has emerged.  I'm excited to use my forensic science interest and apply it to nail polish:)

The polish below was born of my love of pepto pink, multi-color/ multi-shaped glitters, and "Dr. G., Medical Examiner."

Love the glitters in this...including copper glitter!  Pennies!

What worse than a polish addiction?

A franken polish addiction!

Another Franken!!

So this time, I wanted a pretty blue glitter franken.  I mixed and mixed and mixed and finally came up with this beautiful concoction.

I call this bundle of glitter fabulousness ANTIFREEZE POISONING!  I remember watching a show talking about Antifreeze poisoning and the crystals that form in the urine .   This polish reminds me of the crystals.  I found the picture below on wikipedia which shows the calcium oxylate crystals.

The top nail is without a base color and the bottom nail is with Wet N Wild's Bijou Blue as the base.   Sexy!

Illusive Glitter Fun Nails

I love all the nail art I've been seeing with painstakingly put glitter pieces!  I used some hex glitter polish plus some new Avon, Essie, and KleanColor polishes to make these nails.

I started out with two coats of Illusion on my base coated nails.  I then painted my thumb nail with Holo Pink and drew a heart shape with Holo Pink on my ring fingernail.  Next, I outlined my middle finger with Magenta Magic hex glitter.  I used the same glitter to make a free form shape and the starburst shape on my index and pinkie fingers.   These are very busy nails but I plan to do a set of nails with each design: free form shapes, starbursts, and the Madeline Poole inspired glitter outline.     Can't wait to do more of these!!

A Rainbow of Julep Polishes

I put all my Julep polishes together today and took a picture.

Sooooo pretty!!!

And...five more Julep polishes soon to be added :0)

Julep Easter Mystery Box...OMFG!

I am so freakin' happy!  After going for "It Girl" for April, I also opted for a $20 Julep Maven Easter Mystery Box.  I was totally floored by what I received!!!

Not only did I get chocolate, more argan oil, fast drying topcoat, and Melissa, Hayden and Anne BUT I also got a $50 gift certificate.  You know I wasted NO time in spending the certificate.

Using my maven discount and the gift certificate, I bought the April American Beauty box which has the Best Pedi creme, Eva, and Rene.  I also added Emilie, Taylor, and Brooke.  For $23.50, I was able to get eight Julep polishes, a top coat, argan oil, pedi creme, and chocolate.   SCORE!!

Iridescent Glitter nails

Let me preface by saying that its pretty apparent that I love glitter polishes.  I've spent more money on glitter polish than a car payment in the last few months!!!  Sometimes, I do like to add loose glitter to my manicure, though.  I recently acquired some very cool loose plastic iridescent glitter from Michael's and one day this week I put them on my wet polish and covered them over with a couple of coats of clear topcoat to reduce the sandpaper effect.

The polishes used are Sinful Colors Sweet Dreams and Wet N Wild's Eggplant Frost.  I used some purple iridescent glitter on the blue nails and some turquoise iridescent glitter on my purple nails. Li love the effect!

Nail Polish Tag

The Rules:

1: Answer 10 Questions

2: Pass to 5 bloggers

3: Make sure the bloggers you tag know about this.

1:  How many nail polishes do you have?

     Well over 300 bottles by now...storage is a major issue.

2:  What is your favorite brand of nail polish?

      I love indie brands like NerdLacquer and Lynnderella.  I also love Sinful Colors because its cheap, it has some crazy/beautiful colors, and its easy to find.

3:  Do you like crackle polish or do you have it?

     I only own two crackle polishes and I've used each once.  Its not very versatile or in.  

4:  What is the brand of your first nail polish?

     Probably Bonbons when I was a pre-teen.  Small, cheap, and tons of glitter options.

5:   If you're going to have a nail polish line, What would you name it?

    Great question!  Uuuummmm...probably Forensic Nails or something like that..I like the idea of naming polishes after criminal terminology, forensic science, and medical terminology.  I named my first franken, which I made last night, Dragonfly Autopsy!

6:  What nail polish does not compliment you?

    Neons, especially the oranges, yellows and lime greens do not compliment my skin tone.

7:  What nail polish compliments you?

    Vibrant, bright colors with sparkle or glitter

8:  Name 2 of your nail-art best friends?

   My friend Jaime who has given me polish and let me paint her nails.  IDK about the other person...I really need to make blogger friends ;0)

9:  What was the best nail polish gift you ever received?

    A set of Muppet collection minis from the above nail art best friend!

10:  Thank the blogger who gave you this tag:

      She thankfully didn't "give" me this tag.  Its voluntary!  Thanks, mynailgraffiti.blogspot.com :)

Feel free to do this tag.  I'm not passing it to other bloggers so they don't feel obligated to pass it on to others.

My First Franken!

As I announced on my Facebook page today, I asked for and got some glitter polish advice from Amanda at Nerd Lacquer a few months ago.  She gave me some tips on where to get supplies and what kind of glitter to use!  I am in the process of ordering mini bottles, glitter,  and base (if I can get my hands on it)!   I don't plan to sell polish though.  For now I just plan to make small batches for me, my friends, and my blog followers to win in giveaways.

Still, I couldn't wait to try out mixing polishes tonight after finding that Walgreens is selling Wet N Wild polishes for .69.  I bought two bottles of clear topcoat and poured 1/3 of each into empty polish bottle I had already cleaned out.  Thus my FIRST FRANKEN was born!  She's a total, gorey mess of glitter goodness that I like to call Dragonfly Autopsy.  This what I imagine the guts of dragonflies look like.  What can I say...I am morbid like that ;0)  Check it out and lemme know what you think!

The swatch base is Sinful Colors Innocent with Dragonfly Autopsy topcoat on top!

Bridges, not Walls Nails

I recently saw this post on Pinterest that said "People are lonely because they build walls, not bridges."  I was inspired to do some nails with that profound message.

So not easy to tell but my nails say "Build A Bridge, Not Walls."  These nails have one coat of Snow Me White and two coats of Whimsical.  Last, I used Niecy to write the words and my take on the Golden Gate Bridge!  These are some nails that do make me wish I had longer nails for more canvas! 

Cute Easter Bunny Nails: Week 15 of the Year of Polish Challenge

I got home from the gym this morning and lamented my unpolished nails.  I had a little time before I had to take a shower and get ready for work so I sat down to paint my nails with one of my newest polishes, OPI's I Have a Herring Problem.  I love this color.  Its hard to tell because I painted over almost every nail with glitter but I Have a Herring Problem is a dark, slightly bluish grey with sparkles.  Its stunning by itself so I invite you to google its swatches from my fellow nail bloggers! 

After applying two coats of I Have a Herring Problem to base-coated nails, I applied one coat of Sally Hansen's Hard as Nails Rockstar Pink glitter polish.  I then free-handed this bunny in Sally Hansen's White On on my left ring finger nail and wrote the word "Easter" on my right ring finger nail.   This bunny is actually inspired by a bunny that Robin Moses did in this youtube tutorial!  Check it out because those nails are too cute to be believed! It may be hard to tell but I gave it some blue glitter eyes from a Milan Special FX teal glitter.  I filled in the lines with Ebony Hates Chris and filled in the nose and inner ears with Sephora's Techno Pink.  I covered all nails with a top coat and generous amounts of Julep's cuticle oil to prevent smudges while it dried.    These nails are some of my favorites!

DNA Themed Nails

As mentioned when I did the Periodic Life nails, I really did have a work-in-progress design of a  DNA set of themed nails.  I finally got around to painting these the other day.

I started with two coats of Midnight Queen on each base-coated nail and then free-handed most of the designs with Sinful Colors Snow Me White (not pictured).  You should always do a design base with white to help colors show correctly on top of dark colors.   I then went back in and added the colors.  On my thumb I have letter blocks spelling out "LIFE" as a kind of joke..."DNA, the building blocks of life"  from Jurassic Park.  My index finger nail has chromosomes painted in Happy Ending.  My middle finger sports a DNA double helix structure with those memorable base pairing of guanine and cytosine and adenine and thymine.  My ring finger has DNA profiling in several different blues.  My ring finger has my favorite element which makes up part of each nucleotide as a 5 carbon sugar called deoyxribose!

I wonder what other Science themed nails I can come up with??  I'm thinking Physics next!