Tri-Polish Challenge (May #4) - Layer It Up

Hello hello!

Today is the last post for May's TPC, can you believe it? May seems to have flown by!

Sorry for the late post. I decided to go see Star Trek, finally, and just got home! It's a good thing I had the pictures ready, otherwise I don't think I would have been able to put it up until later tomorrow. (In case any of you are wondering, Star Trek was really good!)

To refresh, the colors for May are Red, Grey, and Blue.

For today's mani, I decided to use all three polishes and just layer them, but so that you can see all three colors. Take a look!

To get this look:

• I first applied my base coat and then applied three coats of Revlon Coast is Clear because it is a very sheer polish, but I applied most of the polish over the lunula and a little down the sides.
• I then applied one coat of Revlon Midnight Haze in the same shape of my nail, but a little down the nail so that the blue polish was still visible.
• Using two coats of Revlon Revlon Red, I created the same shape over the grey but a little more down so that the grey was still visible behind the red polish. 
• I sealed everything up with my favorite top coat.

I actually love how this turned out! It is much better than I was expecting. The best part about this mani is that it is super easy! And if creating the rounded tops are hard to do with the regular brush, I think using a detail brush to create the outline would help. Either way, this mani is super simple but fun. Plus, I love how the whole look makes each color pop!

What do you all think of my last TPC mani for May? Let me know below! If you want to see some more great looks, check out the ones the other challengers have created below.

I have a busy weekend ahead of me so I am not sure if I'll be able to post anything this weekend. If I do, then I do. But if not, check back on Monday to see my next 31DC post!

Tri-Polish Challenge (May #3) - Tie-Dye Explosion

Hello everyone!

Today is the third TPC post for May! These TPC posts finish so quickly; I can't believe that there is only one more post left for May! And even though May is almost over, Chicago can't seem to get its weather in check. Oh well...

Remember, the colors for May are Red, Grey, and Blue.

For today's post, I decided to use a drag marbling technique. I found an awesome tutorial by Brie from Lacquerheads of Oz. Take a look at how my attempt turned out!

To get this look:

• The tutorial says to use white as a base polish to create the look but I tried to do this several times with a white base polish and even if it was completely dry, I ended up peeling it over when I was dragging the other polishes.
• I worked with one nail at a time and first put a long red blob using Revlon Revlon Red on my nail, followed my a long grey blob using Revlon Midnight Haze, and then ended with putting a small blue blob using Revlon Coast is Clear. I put the blue last because it's a very thin polish and whenever I put it first, the red would end up mixing in with it and would overtake the blue.
• Then I used a toothpick (you can use a needle or any other pointy tool you may have) to drag the polish outwards (from the blue polish blob to the grey polish blob). 
• To get rid of the bumps and ridges, I added my favorite top coat.

It's the not as clean as Brie's tie-dye design but I think with some practice, I'll get used to this. I only got this end result after trying this out about 7 times on one of my nails, and I still ended up having to redo my middle nail three times after the other nails were done.

I think it turned out quite nice for a first attempt, don't you think? Have any of you ever tried the drag marbling technique? There are several other designs you can make with this aside from the tie-dye look.

I also love how the blue gives the whole look a nice pop! The pinky nail, to me, turned out the best, which is odd because usually I am the most disappointed with my pinky nail. Take a look at my pinky in the first picture I posted and the next picture.

Clean up was really hard. I should have used tape around my nails but I thought that it wouldn't get that bad. Clearly, I was so wrong and the nail polish decided to get back at me for not listening to the tutorial! I was also surprised at how hard this was for me considering the drag technique with a single polish blob is not hard at all. I even made a tutorial for that! Practice makes perfect, huh? I'll definitely keep trying!

Anyways, let me know what you think of this! Also, don't forget to check out the other great manicures from today! Check back on Thursday for the last TPC post for May.

Tri-Polish Challenge (May #2) - Put Me Together

Hello hello!

Sorry for being a little late on this post (it's only 20 minutes late!!). I had guests over at my house all day and then had to go to an awards ceremony for my brother at his high school. It was a fun, busy day!

To recap, the colors for May are Red, Grey, and Blue.

I didn't have much time to create my manicure so I went with something that was super simple to create but cute at the same time. I've seen this kind of manicure around on many different blogs so I can't really put up a direct link for where I got my inspiration from. Anyways, check out what I have for you today!

To get this look:

• I started off with using Sinful Colors Snow Me White as my base polish color (after applying a base coat, of course).
• Using a detail brush and Revlon Revlon Red, Revlon Midnight Haze, and Revlon Coast is Clear, I created colored squares/blocks.
• After letting the blocks/squares dry completely, I used a large-sized dotting tool and all of the polishes to add dots in between each of the blocks, creating puzzle pieces that fit together.
• I sealed it all with my favorite top coat!

Before I go further, I want to apologize for the horrible pictures! I was in such a rush because we were getting late for the awards ceremony so I quickly took the pictures and ran out the door.

This manicure was probably one of the easiest ones I've ever created. There's really nothing to it because the squares don't have to be perfect and the dots don't necessarily have to be perfect either. As long as the dots overlap the squares, you're good to go! If any of you want me to make a tutorial for this, let me know in the comments section below so I can add it to my list of things to take care of ASAP!

What do you all think of my puzzle pieces attempt? I really like it! It's cute, fun, and ended up being a conversation starter for me at my brother's high school because of the bright, bold colors!

I've seen this manicure created with actual color themes, such as shades of colors, pastels, warm colors, etc. That's why I was a bit hesitant at first to do this, since it has no real color theme (aside from being nautical colors). But I think the colors worked well together! What do you all think? Let me know below!

Make sure you check out the other great looks for the 2nd TPC post. And be sure to check back on Monday for the next 31 Day Challenge post! I have a great idea and I'm very excited to try it out and show you how it ends up looking!

Tri-Polish Challenge (May #1) - Ikat Print

Hey guys!

The Crumpet'sTri-Polish Challenge is back for the month of May! I have the first post for that challenge for you today. But first, let me go over the rules again:

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 May are Grey, Red, & Blue
• 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 May: 21, 23, 28, 30

 The brands/colors that I ended up choosing are:

Revlon Midnight Haze, Revlon Revlon Red, Revlon Coast is Clear

Revlon Midnight Haze is a metallic shimmery grey, Revlon Revlon Red is a bright red creme, and Revlon Coast is Clear is a light shimmery tiffany blue.

Now onto the good stuff! I decided to do ikat print for the first day of the challenge because I really wanted to do it in April but ended up not doing it. I also love how ikat looks and how the manicures for it end up turning out! Take a look at it.

 To get this look:

• I wanted to have a lighter base color so after applying my base coat, I used Revlon Coast is Clear as my base polish color.
• I then used Sinful Colors Snow Me White and a small detail brush to create white triangles on all of my nails.
• After the white had dried, I used Revlon Revlon Red to create a smaller, red triangle within the white triangles.
• Normally, the next step would use black polish, but since this is the first manicure for May's Tri-Polish Challenge, I wanted to use all three polishes. I used Revlon Midnight Haze to imperfectly outline the white triangles and then add a smaller triangle within all of the red triangles.
• I sealed the deal with my favorite top coat.

I absolutely love how it turned out! It's a cleaner version of the ikat because it is really supposed to be a little more rough looking (to compare, take a look at my other ikat print manicure) but I still like it.

What do you all think of it? Let me know in the comments section below!

Take a look at the other great manicures for the first post in the Tri-Polish Challenge!

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!

31 Day (Week) Challenge - Day 9: Rainbow Nails

Hey guys!!

I'm super excited to show you all my challenge mani for today. Originally, I was going to have one balloon on each finger but then I realized that I would have to lose one color since there are only five fingers. So I decided to have two balloons on each finger so that I could fit in that extra color.

I'm also dedicating this party inspired mani to my boyfriend's nephew because his 1st birthday just passed!!

A lot of polishes went into creating this challenge mani. I wanted to have a base color because I didn't want to have the balloons and confetti on my bare nail and I didn't want to have a white background either. So for my base polish color, I used one coat of Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Platinum because I still wanted to have a VNL. The red balloons and confetti were made using Sally Hansen Maximum Growth Perfect Cherry. All of the orange was created by Sinful Colors Courtney Orange. I used Revlong Sunshine Sparkle for the yellow but it was too light so I ended up going over it with Wet n Wild Fast Dry The Wonder Yellows. The green I used was Sinful Colors Irish Green. The blue was made using Rimmel London Marine Blue. And last but not least, the purple came from Nicole by OPI Prized Possession Purple. Now for the detail work. For the balloon strings, I used Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen Black. To make the "shine" streaks on the balloons, I used Nubar Nail Art Pen Basic White. Of course, none of this would have been possible without my handy dandy small detail brush!

Even though there were a lot of nail polishes involved in making this mani, it would super easy because of the detail brush. I worked with one color at a time so that I didn't have to keep cleaning the brush after every single use. But I'm not going to lie, as easy as this mani was, it was highly time consuming because of all of the small detail work.

This is such a fun mani and it makes me so happy every time I see it! It just reminds me of parties and all the fun that goes along with it. I really hope you all love this mani as much as I do!

Be sure to check out the challenge mani by My Life In Turquoise!

That's 9 down and 22 more to go!

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!

Open Heart

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!!

Since I'm doing the 31 Day (Week) Challenge, I haven't really had time to do any nail art for Valentine's Day before today. I used my mom to create the look that I have for you today.

As always, I started out with my favorite base coat Essie 3-Way Glaze and then put on three coats of Sinful Colors Forget Now. This polish is extremely light so you can see the nail through the polish even with three coats but only if the light hits the nail at certain angles. For the accent nail, I used Ulta Shining Star from their Holiday Collection. This polish is also quite thin and light so I think I ended up putting three coats of this as well. Using a thin striper brush and some valentine-y polishes, I created the open heart, making sure that the two sides didn't touch.

Take a look!

This whole look is so simple and easy to do! Plus it's sweet and doesn't have too much going on if you're the type of person that doesn't like too much busy work on your nails. The accent nail still gives the whole look a little something extra without overpowering your nails.

 

What do you think of the accent nail?? 

I hope you all liked the nail art!! The colors are so bright and fun that they make me all cheery looking at them!

Have a great day everyone!

31 Day (Week) Challenge - Day 1: Red Nails

Hey guys!

Today's the big day!! This week's theme is red nails and since yesterday was the Superbowl, I of course had to do something that played along with that as well.

To get this look, I used my favorite red polish out of the bunch: Revlon Valentine. It looks a bit bright in the picture but the color is actually darker and looks almost maroonish. For the accent nails, the base color that I used was Revlon Colorstay Bonsai. That one was really light and I had to put on several coats.

To go along with the second football theme, I used a striper brush and my white polish to make the "yard lines" of the football field and added the Latin numerals for the 47th Superbowl: XLVII

 
I really like how it turned out!! And I'm definitely going to be enjoying by manicure for the week. I think this one was a great start to the challenge!

One down, only 30 more to go! Stay tuned for next week's ORANGE themed nails!!

Vampire Bites

Hey everyone! I have some Halloween nails for you today I found this design on another blog site recently and thought of trying it out myself. Here's what my finished product looks like:

To get this look, here's what you're going to need:
 
Polishes: (the exact ones I used are in brackets)
- Flesh-colored/nude polish [Orly Country Club Khaki]
- Bright red polish [Sally Hansen Perfect Cherry]
- Dark red polish [Revlon Valentine]
- Deep red/burgundy polish [Ulta Rio Red]
- Glitter red polish [Zoya Sarah]

- Your preferred base and top coat

Supplies:

- A pair of tweezers

- A detail brush

- A medium-sized dotting tool

- A makeup sponge

Directions:

1) Apply a base coat to all of your nails

2) Apply your flesh/nude polish to all of your nails and let dry

3) After the flesh polish has dried, use the detail brush to paint "blood" on all of your nails EXCEPT YOUR RING FINGER!! Your cuticles should look like they are bleeding

4) Move on to your ring finger while the blood is drying. Break off a small piece of your makeup sponge and use your tweezers to dip it in the dark red polish. Dab it on a napkin or paper to remove most of polish and then use the remaining amount to create 2 medium-sized circles on your ring finger. These are supposed to be the bruises around the bites

5) Now use your dotting tool and the deep red/burgundy polish to create a dot in the middle of each of the bruises. These are the bites

6) While the bites are drying, go back to the other fingers. Use your detail brush and glitter red polish and go over all of the blood

7) Return to your ring finger. Use the detail brush and bright red polish to create blood "dripping" out of each of the bites. After that dries, use the detail brush to go over the "drip" with the glitter red polish

8) After you have given sufficient time for everything to dry, finish it off with your favorite top coat!

I hope this helps and you all enjoyed it!

Autumnal Blur

I did these a few days ago since it is now fall. I wanted to do something to match the colors of the leaves changing because Fall is my favorite season and the leaves are gorgeous! Especially the trees near me. There are so many around me that turn bright red. These trees start turning red at the tips of every leaf and VERY slowly move down the leaf. So right now, some of them are half red and half green, where the tips all around the tree are red and in the middle, towards the trunk are still very much green. It looks breathtaking. Enough about these trees...!

One of the things I like about Fall is sitting in the car and just staring at the trees passing by. So I tried doing something to match what that looks like.

 This was easy to do but just took a steady hand.

1) Always always apply a base coat!!
2) The base color that I used was Revlon Golden
3) Then I used an art brush to lightly swipe across my nails. But I only used each color on a few spots on my nails and sometimes even only swiped across once for certain colors. The key is to not take up too much polish on the brush so that you can see the brush stroke on the nails.
4) Here are the colors I used, in order:
- Wet n Wild Sage in the City
- Zoya Sarah
- Revlon Sunshine Sparkle
- Revlon Amber Ablaze
- Zoya Edyta
5) Then to add some sparkle, I used Jane Megawatt and wiped the polish brush on the edge of the bottle so that most of the polish was off the brush. Then I swiped over the nail in the direction I did the other colors.

What do you think of my blur of autumn colors??

Double-cross

I got a few new bottles of polish and absolutely love the colors! So, naturally, I had to use one of them right away.

 The base color was from one of the new bottles! Revlon Vixen. It's like a deep red, burgundy, maroon-ish color. But it is soooooo pretty! I threw on silver x's over it to add a little something extra.

Do you like the color?

Lines and Arrowheads

My mom really loves triangles and lines so here is another one of those with me trying to match one of her outfits. I actually have fun trying to figure out a new way to do these too so that she gets a new design every time!

The base color was a gold/grey and then I used brown to make the lines and then the crown felt a little empty so I added red arrowheads to all of the crowns. My mom also loves dots and black so I added a black dot as well in between the arrowheads and the lines.

I'm not sure how many more of these I'll be able to do! But I'm always up for a challenge :)

Something different

I saw a picture of this on Pinterest and loved it! So I thought I would do something similar and see how it looks. Plus, I recently got surgery so this was the first thing I did due to me not being able to move or walk around. Using 4 different colors kept me occupied for a while.

This was easy to do, just took a little more time because I had to be extra careful to make sure I didn't mess up even a little bit on the middle and ring fingers.

1) I used teal on my thumb, index finger, and pinky finger.
2) I applied a lighter burgundy to my ring finger and then gold on the middle finger.
3) After the middle and ring fingers had dried thoroughly, I used a gold glitter polish on the ring finger and painted half the nail at an angle (I did not use tape for this part because the burgundy polish I used always peels off easily).
4) I used the teal and burgundy from the other nails and put different sized dots on the middle finger using a dotting tool.
5) Finish it off with a top coat!

Simple, just a little tiny bit time consuming. I hope you liked it!!

Hearts, Pink, and Red

I love doing nails on holidays! This time, it was for Valentine's Day. I wanted to do something sweet and not too out there.

I painted all of my nails a shiny pink and then after it dried, painted the tips of the nails a bright, shiny red. 

For the thumb and ring finger, I used an art brush to make a white heart and a black heart in the middle of it. Finished it off by adding black dots around the white heart. 

For the rest of the fingers, I used the smallest dotting tool that I have to make white dots in the pink portion of the nails. 

Voila!

Gobble Gobble!!

For thanksgiving 2011, I decided to paint a turkey! It was actually quite easy...I just forgot to clean up the sides before taking the pictures.

I started out by painting my nail a bright red. Then used a brown to paint the body. I did this my making 3 large dots and then blending them together. Then I used a dotting tool to make the eyes and mouth. I finished it off by using a nail art brush to make the gold streaks.

I couldn't figure out what to do with the other nails so I just made leaf-like things and used the same brown as the turkey's body for the base coat, and the art brush for the gold leaf outline.

Enjoy!