Tri-Polish Challenge (April #4) - Splatter

Hey guys!

Can you believe that this is the last post for April's Tri-Polish Challenge hosted by Crumpet's Nail Tarts? May's challenge will be here soon, though, and the colors for May are blue, grey, and red so it'll be exciting coming up with new manis for that!

But back to this month's last post. To refresh, the colors for April are Turquoise, Pink, and Orange. I haven't used Orange for the last two posts so I had to bring it back for this last post. I wanted to do a splatter mani but I don't have any nail polish thinner. I tried to do it without the thinner anyways but it wasn't working for me. So I decided to do a freehand splatter! I was pleasantly surprised at how well it turned out.
**The turquoise that I am using is the closest to turquoise that I have**

To get this look:

• After applying a base coat, I put on two coats of Sinful Colors Snow Me White. White nail polish is always streaky unless you apply a few coats. You could still see some streaks through the second coat but since I was going to be putting splatters over it anyways, I decided to leave it
• I then put "blobs" (one at a time, of course) of China Glaze For Audrey, Sinful Colors Island Coral, and Maybelline Color Show Orange Fix. 
• Using a toothpick (you could use any pointy/sharp object), I dragged the polish outwards to create the splatter look. 
• I also added dots of each polish here and there to enhance the effect
• To end it, I finished off with a top coat!

Doesn't it look cool? It wasn't hard to create either. What do you all think of my final post for the Tri-Polish Challenge?? Leave me comments in the section below to tell me what you think! I hope you all liked it! I have a tutorial for this so I'll be putting that up soon.

Check back soon for my next 31 Day Challenge mani! Animal print is next and I have a great idea for that :)

Tri-Polish Challenge (April #3) - Fusion Dotticure

Hi guys!

There's only one more tri-polish challenge post for April left after today! But don't worry, Crumpet's Nail Tarts hosts a tri-polish challenge every month!! So to recap: April's colors are Turquoise, Pink, and Orange.

**The turquoise polish that I am using is the closest to turquoise that I have**

I had such a busy schedule today so I decided on the simplest of manicures for today's challenge. Nonetheless, I think it looks cute in its simplicity! I might be sticking with simpler manis for a while just because I'm job hunting and am running around like crazy these days. Sigh! Job hunting is so stressful! Anyways, take a look at my mani!

To get this look:

• After putting on a base coat, I put on two coats of China Glaze For Audrey on my thumb, pointer finger, and middle finger
• I then put on two coats of Sinful Colors Snow Me White on my ring finger
• To end the base polishes, I put on two coats of Sinful Colors Island Coral on my pinky finger
• After letting my ring finger (the white nail) completely dry, I used a small detail brush and Sinful Colors Island Coral to create the wave
• Then using China Glaze For Audrey and a small dotting tool, I added dots to the white section of my ring finger 
• Of course, I ended it all with a shiny top coat

I'm happy with this being so simple but hopefully I can do something a bit more dramatic for Thursday's post!!

I had originally intended to do a tape mani but I couldn't cut the tape properly in the wave shape that I wanted. One peak would end up pointy, bigger, or lopsided, so it was so hard to get it to stay the same shape!! Any tips??

What do you all think of the look? Leave me comments in the section below!!

Tri-Polish Challenge (April #2) - Retro Arrowheads

Hey guys!

Today is day 2 of the Tri-Polish Challenge hosted by Crumpet's Nail Tarts! To refresh, the colors for April are Turquoise, Pink, and Orange.
** The "turquoise" I am using for the challenge is the closest color I have to turquoise**

I thought about doing something a bit more abstract so I ended up with funky arrowheads! Surprisingly, I ran out of tape after doing my thumb and it had taken so much time already that I decided to just freehand the rest of it, so it is a bit sloppy, but I tried very hard to keep the lines as straight as I could!! My back and shoulders are still spazzing so it was tough.

To get this look:

• After putting on my favorite base coat, I started off with the black arrow at the base of my nail and created the arrow using a small striping brush and Sinful Colors Black On Black 
• I then went and added the other black "arrows" near the middle of the nail using the same small striping brush
• Next up, I used a striping brush and China Glaze For Audrey to create the full turquoise arrows and the half arrows
• The full pink arrows and half pink arrows were made using a small striping brush and Sinful Colors Island Coral
• I made my pointer finger the accent nail, and instead of making half arrows, I just kept it as full arrows and did not add the vertical white stripe
• To finish off the look, I added the white arrows and the stripe down the nail using the striping brush and Sinful Colors Snow Me White, and then, as always, ended it all with my favorite top coat

This was hard to do after I ran out of the tape and I like how it turned out, but I think it would have been amazing if I had been able to do this look on all of the nails using the tape. No use crying over spilled polish though, right?

The overall look ended up turning out pretty cool. It has a retro/tribal look to it, don't you think?

I hope you all liked my mani and I look forward to coming up with another look for next Tuesday's Tri-Polish Challenge post!!  But before that, check back soon for my next challenge mani in the 31-Day Challenge!! Leave me comments in the comments section below to let me know how I'm doing! I love getting feedback!!

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!

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!!

Cherry Blossoms

Hey everyone! My mom needed to get her nails done again so I, of course, used the opportunity to try out some more looks! Her nails are REALLY long so I decided to make some cherry blossoms on her nails because there's more than enough room to work with and I can easily create some small blossoms and lots of branches. And since both of our nails are skinny (but long) I figured cheery blossoms would look good too.

I love the color of cherry blossoms so I had to find colors that matched them to create the look. For the base coat, I used China Glaze Poetic, a very soft pink that went with the theme perfectly. The color is so simple but beautiful and I'm so glad that I found it in my stash! For the branches I used a nail art pen, Nubar Black. For the blossoms and the centers I also used nail art pens, Nubar Fuchsia Frost and Nubar White respectively.

I'm happy with how this turned out and my mom loved the look as well! I'm definitely going to be making some more cherry blossoms in the future.

Thanks for visiting!!