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!

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 13: Animal Print Nails

Hi everyone!!

I'm super excited to show you the challenge mani that I created for today! It's simple and I think that it doesn't have too much going on, which I believe is the case for the most part with animal print manis. I decided on doing french tips with the animal prints overflowing onto my bare nail (on top of the base coat, of course). So check it out below and let me know what you think! Welcome to The Polish Zoo!!

 I used several different polishes so bare with me! And everything was used after applying a base coat.

To get this look: 

• Thumb (zebra print): French tip was made using Sinful Colors Snow Me White and the zebra print was made using a medium sized detail brush and Sinful Colors Black On Black
• Pointer (leopard print): French tip was made using Piggy Polish Stand At The Edge. The leopard print was made using Revlon Top Speed Varnished and Sinful Colors Black on Black and a medium sized detail brush and small dotting tool
• Middle (cow print): The french tip was made using Sinful Colors Snow Me White and the spots were made using a medium sized detail brush and Sinful Colors Black On Black
• Ring (giraffe print):  The french tip was made using Orly Country Club Khaki and the print was made using a medium sized detail brush and Revlon Totally Toffee
• Pinky (tiger print): The french tip was made using Sally Hansen Insta Dri Snappy Sorbet and the print was made using Sinful Colors Black On Black and my smallest sized striping brush

 

This mani was quite fun to create and I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. I didn't want an overpowering animal print mani this week so I opted for the french tips instead The entire look was not time consuming either because I just made quick french tips and didn't have to worry about them being super clean since I was going to put the print over it anyways. Also, animal print is never PERFECT. There are always some imperfections so it allowed me to just go with flow in creating the different prints.

My inspirations! 

What did you all think about my mani? I really like love it!! Let me know your thoughts on this one or if you have any suggestions/tips/ideas to help me next time I decide to do an animal print mani.

Make sure to check out my friend's post today at My Life In Turquoise!

13 down, and 18 to go!! Check back next Monday for the flower challenge mani!!

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!

Malted Easter Eggs

Hey guys!

Easter is coming up this weekend so I thought of creating a mani that was simple and easy to create! A friend actually showed me a similar mani and I thought it was really cute and perfect for Easter so I had to recreate it! Easter is all about candy and pastels so this mani is dedicated to the malted easter eggs candies that I love so much :)

I thought I would throw in a picture of my inspiration!

I used several different polishes to create this mani. My thumb was made with Revlon Colorstay Bonsai. My pointer finger was made using Revlon Top Speed Pink Lingerie. My middle finger was made using Revlon Sunshine Sparkle. My ring finger was made with Wet n Wild Wild Shine Rain Check. And last but not least, my little pinky finger was made with Sally Hansen White. Most of the malted easter egg candies I've had have had brown spots so I decided to go with brown for my mani. The brown specks were made using a small dotting tool and Revlon Totally Toffee. To get the dusty look of the malted eggs, I used Essie Matte About You top coat.

I love love love this mani! I think it's so cute and perfectly Easter! The mani is also very simple and super easy to make. All you really need to do to make this mani is find pastel/Easter colors, add some brown or colored speckles, and top it with a dusty finish! I hope you all liked this mani too and I hope that it gave some you ideas for your nails.  

For another idea, take a look at my last year's Easter mani here!

Happy Easter!

31 Day (Week) Challenge - Day 8: Metallic Nails

Hi everyone!!

I have a funky mani for you today to fulfill my metallic challenge! Metallic things always seem to be pretty funky to me so I decided to do something like that for my mani because I couldn't think of something else, hah. I think I could have done something different to it to make it a little better. Also, I could not capture the real colors of the polishes even if my life depended on it. I think i ended up taking about fifty pictures and then gave up. Then tried again a little while later, still with no luck. So please bare with me on these photos.

This mani was made using SEPHORA by OPI Queen of Everything. Then I used a medium sized detail brush and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Purple Potion to add the purple/blue metallic/duochrome polish on top of the silver metallic polish. It still seemed a little plain so I went back and added the stripes using Sally Hansen Crackle Ink Splatter.

The mani was very easy to make since it only involved striping across the nail. But I really like how it looks! It's so different and "out there" and quirky!

I really hope that all of you liked my mani and enjoyed seeing something different! I definitely had fun creating it and can't wait to show you next week's challenge mani!

Don't forget to stop by at My Life In Turquoise and see my friend's challenge mani for this week.

Woo! 8 down, 23 more to go!!

31 Day (Week) Challenge - Day 7: Black & White Nails

Hey guys!

I can't believe it's already week 7!! Time has been going by way too fast. This week's theme is black and white and I knew just what I wanted to do for this mani. It's the perfect theme to combine my two favorite things. I give you nail art and pandas!

Any one of my close friends can tell you how much I love pandas. They're adorable and definitely my favorite animal!!

The face of the pandas and the french tips of the accent nails were created using Sally Hansen Insta Dri Whirlwind White. The eyes, ears, and noses of the pandas were made with Wet n Wild Black Creme. For the "bamboo" on the accent nails, I used Nubar Nail Art Green Frost and Nubar Nail Art Mint Frost. (And as always, I started off using my favorite base coat, Essie 3 Way Glaze and topped it all off with my favorite top coat, Sally Hansen Insta-Dry Anti-Chip Top Coat).

I'm happy with how this turned and it was super easy to do after I figured out which tools to use. I thought I would be able to make the entire face of the panda using a small detail brush but quickly found out that it was too messy. I ended up using dotting tools in various sizes to get the eyes and nose and then made the ears using the detail brush. I absolutely love how the accent nails turned out and think they look perfect!

The only bad about this mani is probably my habit of not waiting long enough for the mani to dry. I applied to top coat too soon and it kind of smeared the pandas. The bamboo was fine though. 

I think it's really cute and I hope you all liked my mani too!

Also, check out my friend's mani for this week at My Life In Turquoise!

Wow! That's seven down and twenty-three more to go!! Stay tuned for next week's METALLIC nails!

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!