31 Day (Week) Challenge - Day 20: Water Marble

Hi everyone!!

I'm back!!! Got back last week but there have been so many events that I have had to go to and things to catch up on so I haven't been able to post on here. I promise I will catch up soon!

I'll put up a few pictures of my trip as soon as I can (hopefully this week).

Anyways, back to the point of the post! Last week's challenge was water marbling. It took a long time for me to decide on what color theme I wanted but I eventually went with blue; something that looks like water. Take a look at my attempt and tell me what you think about it!

To get this look:

• After putting on my base coat, I put on one coat of Sinful Colors Snow Me White to use as my base polish.
• For the water marbling, I used Sinful Colors Snow Me White, Revlon Plunge Pool, Revlon Midnight Haze, and Revlon Downtown. I used a toothpick to swirl the patterns for each nail.
• I sealed the deal with my trusty top coat.

  

I absolutely love how my middle finger turned out! And of course that was the first nail that I did so obviously I couldn't recreate something even close to that for the other nails...womp womp. But I do like how all of them turned out! There wasn't a single nail that I had to redo because of being disappointed with it or it just messing up completely. Yay!

 I hope you all like it!! I sure do :) But still, I would love to hear what you think of my water marbling! Let me know in the comments section below. Or if there is a color scheme you would like for me to try out or some type of...well, anything! Just let me know below. I try to respond back to everyone.

As I said above, I will try to get a few pictures up from my vacation (although picking a few is going to be very hard because I have over 1000 pictures). But I'll try! I hope you all have a great Tuesday!

31 Day (Week) Challenge - Day 19: Galaxies

Hi everyone!

I have the next 31DC post for you and I was able to make this one because I had to do something with my nails for my trip anyways! And what a better mani to have for a cruise to Alaska! I thought that the galaxies mani could somewhat represent the northern lights as well, so it sort of goes, right?

Anyways, this is going to be a quick post because I need to head out to the airport soon! Take a look at my attempt.

To get this look:

• After applying a trusty base coat, I applied one coat of Sinful Colors Snow Me White because I don't like applying black polish directly to my nails. 
• I followed the white with two coats of Sinful Colors Black On Black.
• Then I used a sponge to sponge on blue polish (Revlon Plunge Pool), lavender polish (Revlon Enchanting), bright pink polish (Revlon Colorstay Wild Strawberry), and yellow polish (Revlon Sunshine Sparkle). After all of that, I went back and added a little bit more of the blue polish.
• I also sponged on some Orly Space Cadet because, well, it has the word "space" in it. I had to use it! Plus the multichrome glitter particles went with the whole look perfectly.
• I also added some silver glitter by applying one coat of Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Ice Queen.
• I sealed everything with a top coat.

This was super easy to create and I love how it turned out! I even did the galaxies on my big toes so I'm totally galaxy-fied!

I've seen other bloggers add white dots to this type of mani too and I tried that out on my toes (I did my toes before my fingers) and I didn't like how it looked on me. Maybe I should have tried to use a light grey instead of white? Who knows. But I like the effect the glitter brings to this look.

Well, there you have it! What do you all think of this? Let me know!! This is my very first attempt at galaxy nails. I've tried sponging in a similar way before but the mani wasn't actually a galaxy mani. So hopefully you all think my first attempt was alright!

I hope you all have an amazing couple of weeks and I'll see you all once I get back!

31 Day (Week) Challenge - Day 17: Glitter

Hi guys!

Today, I have for you the next post in the 31 Day Challenge: Glitter manicure! I had a hard time thinking of something to do for this one so I decided to go find some inspiration. Kayla from Nails by Kayla Shevonne is my absolute favorite nail blogger so I went through her blog and found this! The whole manicure looked like so much fun so I knew that I had to try it out! My challenge mani for today is inspired by her Mish Mash Mint Mani.

To get this look:

• After applying a base coat, I applied two coats of Sinful Colors Timbleberry to use as my base polish color on all of my nails. It's such a pretty coral!
• Pointer: I used a dotting tool and Sinful Colors In The Spotlight to apply glitter dots randomly on my nail. I then used a small detail brush to outline the dots with Sinful Colors Black On Black.
• Middle: Using a small detail brush and Sinful Colors Black On Black, I made a drippy outline. Then I filled in the drips with Sinful Colors In The Spotlight using my detail brush.
• Ring: I used my detail brush to add a rectangular section of glitter to the side of my nail with Sinful Colors In The Spotlight. Then, using my small detail brush, I added the black outline and random black lines to the non-glitter area.
• Pinky: With Sinful Colors Black On Black and a small detail brush, I painted a triangle and the triangular lines. Then I filled in the gaps with Sinful Colors In The Spotlight using a detail brush.
• I smoothed everything out by applying my favorite top coat.

I think my drippy nail would have better if I made the drips using the glitter first and then outlining it. But what's done is done! I also don't like my pinky nail. Oh well. Out of all the nails, I think the pointer finger nail turned out the best with the leopard print!

However, all together, I do like this mani! I think it's fun and it's definitely something that would be fun to wear over the summer. What do you think?

I think the glitter went well with the coral polish as well. So that's always a plus!

Let me know what you think of this! I would love to get some feedback/tips form you.

Make sure you check out my friend's 31DC mani at My Life In Turquoise.

I have several great ideas for next week's 31DC mani so make sure you tune in next Monday! But before that, I have the 3rd post for you for May's Tri-Polish Challenge tomorrow. There's a cool technique that I saw that I want to try out for it.

That's 17 down and 14 more to go!

Weekly Challenge - Cocktail: "Shaken, Not Stirred"

Hi everyone!

Today is the last day for cocktail week! Something that I always think of when I hear the word "cocktail" is James Bond. Therefore, today's mani is inspired by 007! Two aspects of James Bond in particular served as my inspiration for this manicure:

http://scifipulse.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Bond_gunbarrel.jpg / http://0.tqn.com/d/cocktails/1/I/5/L/-/-/94116773_9.jpg

The first is the shot (no pun intended) of James Bond through a gun barrel and the second is the Vesper Martini, which James Bond always orders "shaken, not stirred" and claims to have created.

It's a rag tag mani but I think it works together just because I believe the main aspects of Bond were captured.

To get this look:

• Thumb: I tried to create the gun barrel by using Revlon Silver Screen as the base polish and Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen Black for the swirls. I also used Sinful Colors Snow Me White to make a white hole in the middle to show the open end of the barrel (the thumb was a bit of a fail; I tried to create a gun pointing back to towards the barrel, but I couldn't figure out how to do it in that small of a space).
• Pointer: The logo of James Bond "007" has to be in a JB mani! I used Revlon Top Speed Golden as the base polish and then used Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen Black to write 007. I had to add some "bling," aka glitter, so I used Sally Hansen Gem Crush Lady Luck.
• Middle: James Bond is always in a tux or a nice suit so I had to include that! I made the tuxedo using Sinful Colors Snow Me White and Sinful Colors Black On Black.
• Ring: The Vesper Martini! This is where the cocktail part of this challenge comes in. I used Revlon Top Speed Varnished as the base polish and then created the martini using Revlon Silver Screen and Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen Black. I tried to make the glass look frosted so I did that using Essie Matte About You and then I used Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen Yellow to make the hanging lemon peel. Again, I added some glitter from Sally Hansen Gem Crush Lady Luck to have a light, blingy effect.
• Pinky: What's 007 without his women, right? I added a strapless red dress to finish off the look. Revlon Top Speed Golden was used as the base polish once again and then the dress was made using Zoya Sarah. 

**I used a small detail brush and a dotting tool to make this mani**

I'm pretty pleased with this mani! It took a long time just because there were so many different polishes that were used and there was something a lot going on on each nail. Do any of you think of 007 when you think of drinks/cocktails? It's so classic for me!

Let me know if you all like it! I hope that you do. It was a little hard for me to make the mani because my nails are super narrow. I try to keep them a little longer to compensate; I need more room so I keep them longer since my nails are not wide at all. But I try! It definitely is a challenge trying to fit everything onto a skinny little section but it's not impossible.

Hopefully you all like it and if you want to take a look at my other cocktail challenge mani from this week, you can do so here.

Take a look at the manicures the other challengers created for this week below!

Now, I'm finally off to bed! I love the warm weather but my allergies have finally kicked in and they're definitely winning this war. Allergies: 1 | Ruthvi: 0   :(

Check back tomorrow for the next 31 Day Challenge post. Good night, everyone!

Review & Swatches - Revlon Summer 2013 Haute Tropics Collection

Hello hello!

I hope everyone is having a great Wednesday. It feels like a Friday to me for some reason. Since summer is so bright, most of the summer collections usually have bright, bold nail polishes, and Revlon is no different! This is part of the Revlon Limited Edition Summer 2013 Haute Tropics Collection! Wow, that's a mouthful! The collection has eight bright, fun polishes, but I was only able to snag three, so those are the ones that I will be showing you.

The above three bottles are the only ones I was able to grab.

From left to right: Mai Tai Ask?; Lagoon Afternoon; Belize, Please
The names of the other polishes in the collection are: Cabana Queen; Plunge Pool; Coast is Clear;
Hello, Bali;  and Secluded Beach. They all look lovely so I hope I can get a hold of the rest soon and swatch those as well!

Mai Tai Ask? is a bright orange creme/jelly. It took about 2 coats to reach opacity, although 2 finger needed 3 coats, and the formula was a little runny, but not too bad. I absolutely love this color and I think it's just so fun looking that I wouldn't mind wearing it alone!

Just to see how the color would look with a topper, I added Sally Hansen Ice Queen.

Lagoon Afternoon is a deep, bright blue creme/jelly which totally reminds me of the ocean! I absolutely love the color and I needed 3 coats to reach opacity. The formula was also a tad bit too runny but after I got used to it, it wasn't a problem. My only concern with this one was that when I removed the polish, it stained my nails slightly blue (even though I used a base coat) so I'm not sure if I would use this one just alone on my nails, but then again, that always seems to happen with blue polishes so it isn't a big concern for me. I will probably definitely end up using it for some nail art.

Also, sorry about the pictures! I didn't even notice the blue on my palm until after I started editing the pictures.

Since this polish reminded me so much of water, I added Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Glass Slipper (flakies!!) to make it look like sparkling, crystal water! It really does look gorgeous!

Belize, Please is a hot pink/fuchsia creme/jelly. It required 2 coats to reach opacity and the formula was just like the rest, just a little bit on the runny side. This color is fantastic but I loved it even more after adding a topper! There were no stains with this one after removal.

My topper for this one was Sinful Colors Let Me Go and I think I liked this combo the best out of the three.

Regarding the formula, even though I said that they were a little runny, it's to be expected with jellies. They weren't hard to work with after you wiped off the excess polish from the brush.

Another quick note: I have been hearing around the nail community that this collection is full of dupes. I'm not sure if they are, but I love these polishes and the collection and in my opinion, there is always something that is different in every polish that is somewhat the same color, even if it's the slightest difference. 

Overall, these shades are very fun and perfect for the summer. This collection also really is Limited Edition because not only does it say "Limited Edition" on the displays at Walgreens, but the bottles also don't have numbers on the caps, which means they are limited edition. So get these while they're still here! Out of these three swatches, I would say that my favorite stand alone polish is probably Mai Tai Ask? because I've been liking orange a lot lately and then Belize, Please is my favorite with the topper that I picked out.

I have a great nail art idea with Lagoon Afternoon so hopefully I can show you all that soon!

The product(s) were purchased by me and I am providing an honest review.

31 Day (Week) Challenge - Day 14: Flowers

Hello hello! I hope everyone had a great weekend! We're back today with the new challenge mani for the 31 Day Challenge! I'm starting right off the bat by saying that I was disappointed with my mani but I didn't have time to fix it or create a new one. So I'm stuck with this one for this post. Womp womp :(

My favorite flower is the white calla lily so I really wanted to do something with it. I'm just not going to say anything more than that because I really am upset with the end result.

A lot of polishes were used to create this so bare with me again!

To get this look:
 Lily

•  I started by working on the lily. I needed an undie so I used Orly Country Club Khaki. It actually ended up being the perfect base for my accent nail!
• To create the green background for the accent nail, I sponged on Sally Hansen Insta Dri Lickety-Split Lime and Revlon Colorstay Spanish Moss in random spots. 
• For the actual calla lily, I used a small detail brush and Sinful Colors Snow Me White to create the heart shaped petal. Then I used my smallest detail brush and Revlon Colorstay Bonsai to create the shadow/hole where the center piece comes out.
• I needed to add some shadows to the calla lily because it looked too fake to me so I mixed together Sinful Colors Snow Me White and Revlon Downtown to create a light blue because I don't own the right shade to use as the shadow color. I added some of that custom blue to the left side of the petal and to create the shadow from the center piece.
• I didn't have the correct shade for the center piece either. The polishes that I have are either too yellow or too orange, nothing in between. So I mixed together Revlon Sunshine Sparkle and Sally Hansen Insta Dri Snappy Sorbet to create a light orange. I used my small detail brush to create the carrot-shaped piece.
• I add some darkness/shadow under the calla lily, I used Zoya Yara and the sponge to dab a little of that polish under the petal on bottom right and left sides of the accent nail.

Other nails

• I used Zoya Pixie Dust Vespa on the other nails.  

I'm actually proud of my calla lily but it's the Pixie Dust that, I think, ruined my mani. I haven't used it before so I thought it would be a darker color and would just add some sparkle. But this was about 3 coats (1 nail was 2 coats) and the color was still a lot lighter than what the bottle shows. I do love the polish, just not with this mani. I also think I ended up crapping out on the shading because the lighting was bad in my room. It looked good in that light but ended up looking completely different in natural light and you could see the the stark difference in the shading. But what's done is done! Hopefully I'll be more happy with my next challenge mani.

** Just in case someone wants a reference to the flower, here's a picture**

http://pphotography-blog.blogspot.com/2012/01/calla-lily-flower.html

I hope you all at least like my attempt at creating the calla lily! Be sure to check out my friend's flower post at My Life In Turquoise!

Now that's 14 done, and 17 more to go!

31 Day (Week) Challenge - Day 12: Stripe Nails

Hi everyone!

I hope you all had a great weekend, I know I did! I definitely think today's challenge mani is one of my all time favorite manis. Originally, I had planned to just have nude nails with some black stripes over it because I couldn't think of anything special to create with stripes. But then, I found my inspiration! I stumbled upon (yes, literally using stumble upon) a home decoration website and voila! found my mani. To add a little more to my inspiration, I realized that one of the vases we have with random pieces in it would fit into the mani perfectly and I opted for the feather accent.

http://www.arthouse.com/product/opera-fun-super-stripe-black-and-pink-125

I took the pink and black stripes and decided to have a feather as my accent. Also, even though the picture with the striped wallpaper has a silver lamp, I thought gold would do a better job standing out. The great part about my mani was that it matched the outfit that I wore on Saturday! I had to go to my friend's engagement party and the outfit was white and pink so it fit perfectly. Here's what my attempt looks like:

To get this look:

• After putting on my favorite base coat, Essie 3-Way Glaze, I used Revlon Top Speed Pink Lingerie as my colored base coat. It's a lovely soft pink! 
• Then using my thinnest striping brush, I added stripes to all of my nails, except my ring fingers, with Sinful Colors Snow Me White, Sinful Colors Black On Black, and Revlon Copper Penny (shown in the picture above)
• For my accent ring finger, I used my wide, feathery striping brush and Sinful Colors Black on Black to create a feather and then finished it off with a little Revlon Copper Penny dot at the base of the feather
• I sealed the entire mani with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Top Coat so that I can enjoy it for a couple of days!

Although I absolutely LOVE this mani, I was in a bit of a dilemma after I had finished creating it. I liked the stripes that I made on my right hand better, but I liked the feather from my left hand better. Hence, I have pictures of both hands above, hah. But I do love how the stripes turned out. I love how I was able to get them to stay thin! I also love how I was able to keep the feather looking plush and full the same way the inspiration feather really is.

I really hope you all like this mani as much as I do! And definitely let me know if you agree with me about which hand has the better stripes and feather. I'm curious to see what you all think looks better! So, as always, feel free to leave me comments in the section below! And if there is anything that you would like me to try out or want to see, please, let me know!

Can you believe it? 12 down, and only 19 more to go! These challenges are getting more exciting now!

Have a great Monday, everyone!

Tri-Polish Challenge (April #1) - Dotticure

Hey guys!!

I'm participating in my very first tri-polish challenge, hosted by Debbie Crumpet from The Crumpet!!! It's so exciting doing all of these challenges! So just like the 31-Day Challenge, this challenge has rules too.

Rules:

• Crumpet's Nail Tarts will be choosing three colors each month and you must ONLY use those three colors to create the manicures
• The colors for April are Turquoise, Orange, & Pink
• That being said, you have free use of white, black, silver, gold, and glitter toppers
• You must choose 1 polish to represent each color choice and use the same three polishes throughout the challenge
• The challenge has 4 posts each month: the Tuesday and Thursday of the 3rd and 4th week of each month 
• For April: 16, 18, 23, 25

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Here's a look at my first challenge mani!

I saw an amazing mani by Manicurator that I have been wanting to try and make. You can see her mani here. She created an amazing stained glass effect and I wanted to see if I could do something like that. It didn't turn out quite the same and I think it's because 1) she used darker polishes and 2) she used jellies. Mine are the complete opposite, light cremes. The mani still turned out pretty cool.

To add a little something extra, I added dots!

To get this look:

• As always, I started off with my favorite base coat Essie 3-Way Glaze
• The base was created by randomly dabbing China Glaze For Audrey, Sinful Colors Island Coral, and Maybelline Color Show Orange Fix
• I dabbed the different polishes several times until I was satisfied with the look
• Then I used dotting tools in various sizes to create the dots. The black dots were Sinful Colors Black On Black, the white dots were Sinful Colors Snow Me White, and the gold dots were Revlon Colorstay Fall Mood
• To top it all off, I used my trusty Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Top Coat

 *** I know the dots are not well made. My shoulders and back muscles are still pulled and I couldn't keep my hand steady for very long and ended up rushing 
**The turquoise that I am using is the closest to turquoise that I have**

I hope you all liked my attempt!! I'm looking forward to coming up with something else for this Thursday's (April 18) challenge mani!

Drugstore Haul

Hi everyone! I hope you had a great weekend! I had to run to a few drugstores to pick up some things and I guess it was my lucky day! Of course, I have to check on the nail polish to see if there is anything new or if there are any sales. SALE!!!

I ended up getting 9 polishes in really fun colors!! They remind me of Spring so I'm really excited to try them out and get out of this winter funk. Hopefully, I'll have the swatches for you soon, even though I'm not a big fan of swatches because I think they're boring and I'd much rather show you my nail art. But swatches are great to see how a polish will look before you get a bottle, if you want to make sure you will like it.

Stay warm, everyone!

Hues of Blues Color Block

Hi everyone!

The Crumpet is having an amateur nail art contest this month!! And the theme is BLUE. I haven't really liked any previous blue nail art designs that I have done so I decided to create a whole new mani. There isn't any prize but it's just nice to enter into a contest! Especially because this is my first! There are some great entries already so it's going to be tough!

For this contest, I decided to use as many blue polishes as I could. I settled on four different shades of blues that seemed to go well with one another. I've always wanted to try a color block mani because I've seen some great ones on other blogs and loved the look! So I used the four different blue polishes and made color blocks with them.

For this mani, I started off with my favorite base coat, Essie 3 Way Glaze. Then for the base color coat, I used Sally Hansen HD Laser. I knew that I wouldn't be able to make full color blocks with the separate colors so I decided to have a base color coat and then make the blocks with the other three remaining polishes. The teal block was made using China Glaze For Audrey and the dark blue coat was made using Spoiled The Parking Meteor Expired. The Spoiled polish was a bit disappointing because in the bottle, the polish appears to be a blackened blue polish with lighter blue and purple flecks. While applying it, the polish looked promising but as it dried, the polish lost its blue and purple fleck colors. You can only really see the true color in bright light and only at certain angles. The light blue block was made using Revlon Downtown. This is a glitter polish but since the blocks are so small, the glitter wasn't showing up as much as I had hoped. So I went back and added a layer of Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Glass Slipper to add some sparkly flakies and give it a nice sparkle. I finished off the look by adding light blue striping tape to show the distinct blocks and then put on my favorite top coat, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri.

I had a hard time with the striping tape but I think it all worked out in the end. You can kind of see the blue flecks in the Spoiled polish on my ring finger in the above picture.

** My cuticles look oily because I had used hand lotion a little while before taking these pictures and apparently, the lotion wasn't absorbing

I am sooo happy with how this turned out! I had seen this type of mani on Pinterest and other blogs and really wanted to try it out. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to do it!

I hope you all liked the look as much as I do! Wish me luck for the contest!!

Sally Hansen Review & Swatch

Hi guys!

I'm sure you all have already seen these, but Sally Hansen has an HD collection that has amazing, bright colors to choose from. I only ended up getting one for now just to try it out and see how it would look.

Here, I have Sally Hansen HD Hi-Definition Laser. It's an amazing color and definitely one of my favorite polishes in my stash. It's a vibrant, duochrome blue with some glass flecks in it. I tried the polish over a light base, a dark base, and by itself. In my opinion, the polish looks best worn either with a dark base or by itself (the pictures below show the polish worn by itself). The formula is smooth and easy to work with. Since it is a duochrome, I had to apply two coats to get the full effect (the full effect can be seen better with a darker base coat).

**The pictures have the polish without any colored base coats and with two coats of polish. This is what the polish looked like with the light hitting it at different angles

 

Such a beautiful polish, right? I love it! Have any of you tried any of the other HD polishes from Sally Hansen? What did you think of them? Let me know in the comments section below!