31DC2013: Day 10 Gradient

Press Sample Purchased by Me

Goood Morning loves!

Today's theme in the 31 Day Challenge is gradients! I really enjoy gradient nails and don't find myself doing them enough. For today's nails I wanted to try and add something a little extra to the gradient. I was stumbling around the internet and found this image of shadows jumping over a lake at night. I decided to try and recreate this image!

I started off with a white creme base using Cult Nails Tempest just to give a good base for the gradient. Then I painted directly onto a makeup sponge using Sephora by OPI Never Enough Shoes, butter LONDON Giddy Kipper and Pure Ice Bikini on top.

I sponged the polish onto my nails until I had a gradient I was happy with. It's not the most perfectly blended gradient, but I still really like it! Then using Sephora by OPI Never Enough Shoes I freehanded the figures jumping in the air! I tried to make them all a little different in shape and size to give the effect of how it would look if a real group of people were jumping!

These were really fun to do and I'm glad I went a little bit of a different route for the gradient theme! I can't believe we are already a third of the way through this challenge. It is flying by and I'm really proud of some of the manicures that I've come up with already :)

Make sure you are checking out Emily over at The Lacquerologist! She has been coming up with some absolutely killer manicures! Also be sure to enter our giveaway :)

Check out last years gradient nails here!

31DC2013: Day 8 Metallic

Purchased by Me

Morning friends!

I hope you are all having a wonderful Sunday! Today's 31DC2013 prompt is all about metallic nails. I love the look of metallic polishes, but I really struggled coming up with a design for todays prompt. I actually scratched 3 manicures yesterday before coming up with the idea of doing cogs in gold, silver and bronze!

I started off my manicure with Sephora by OPI Never Enough Shoes, which is a black with flecks of gold, silver and bronze throughout. Then I started freehanding the cogs using Essie Penny Talk, Essie Good As Gold and Essie No Place Like Chrome.

I loved this look, but it was screaming at me to be matted. I pulled out OPI Matte Top Coat and matted away!

As much as I like this glossy, I think I like it even better matte! The cogs really pop against the black background. I wish I didn't have to take this off to do another day! Alas that is the nature of the challenge!

What do you think of these cogs? Do you prefer this matte or glossy?

Make sure to head over to The Lacquerologist to see her metallic nails! Also make sure to enter our giveaway!
You can see last years metallic nails here!

The Digit-al Dozen Does Heartbreak: Bleeding Heart

Here we are with day 2 in The Digit-al Dozen Does Love and Heartbreak. Today's nails are of the heartbreak variety. They will be the only heartbreak nails I do, but I really like the overall outcome. They are kind of cool!

Even though I am lucky enough to have a wonderful Valentine I know a lot of people aren't and don't like February 14th all that much. So I again went to google to find some inspiration and found this wicked heart with with looks like stab wounds to it. It is actually a really cool image!

I started with a coat of black creme and then added a coat of Sephora by OPI Never Enough Shoes to just give the black a little more dimension. Then I added the white heart in the middle with Milani White On The Spot and my medium striping brush. Then the next step was going back with my striper and China Glaze Adventure Red-y, white creme and black creme and adding all the stabs. For some of them I first did a dot for a puncture and then added the drip with my striper. All in all this was actually pretty easy and didn't take much time at all!

Even though this heart is pretty dark, it looks really abstract to me and I'm totally digging it! Would you wear something this dark for Valentines Day?

Make sure you check out the other ladies nails!

Sincerely Stephanie Does Let Them Have Polish

Morning ladies and gents and lacquerheads!

Today I have some nails that I blatantly copied from Let Them Have Polish! I had just finished a swatch marathon and needed something simple to put on my nails that would still look fabulous. I remembered this manicure of Cristina's that I had pinned to my inspiration folder months ago and decided to just do exactly what she did!

The only thing is I have none of the exact same polishes Cristina used, but I have very close dupes. I started off with one coat of NOPI Keeping Up With Santa. Then used the saran wrap technique and SOPI Never Enough Shoes to add a little edge.

Then I stamped with Essie Good As Gold and Konad M83. Add a coat of Seche and I had some gorgeous LTHP nails on my nails!

I loved these and was actually wearing them when I was sick last week so they stayed on for 5 days! Cristina is pretty much a nail genius and I love her blog. If for some reason you have never heard of Let Them Have Polish! then run over and follow her now. :)

Hope you're all having a wonderful day! We're getting close to Christmas! Less than a week away! Eeeeeeeee!

Products in this post were provided for my honest review.

A Classic: Half Moon Leopard Print

Gooooood Evening Folks! 


Today is the second day in the SNAAARKM challenge and the mani today is supposed to be a 'classic'. There were so many different ways I could have gone with this, but I decided to go with animal print, because you can't get much more classic than that! I saw this tutorial on Nails by Kayla Shevonne and decided to give them a shot. I was wearing a dress that weekend that these went perfectly with! I should have snapped a picture, maybe next time lol. 

I pretty much followed Kayla's tutorial but made it a little different. I started by placing the reinforcement on my nude nail and painting the rest of my nail using Essence Nude It! Then I took the reinforcement off and used a small nail art brush and Borghese Che Bella Red to fill in the half moon portion of my nail. Then I used my Stripe Rite black striper to make the line between the red and the nude. Then I used Orly's Luxe and Sephora by OPI's Dating the Drummer to make my leopard print. Finally I used Wet n Wild Black Creme to finish off the leopard print and give it some definition. 

I liked this look, but next time I do half moons this way I will do one nail at a time because Nude It! dried a little too fast and some of the polish pulled up and was bumpy even when I tried to add Che Bella Red. A coat of SV smoothed it out, but it looked a little odd to me. I'm used to doing half moons the opposite way. 

How do you like the way this turned out? I think it fits the day of a 'classic' mani! Have you ever paired anything with a half moon? 




Check out the other girls participating in this challenge! Alaina of The Little Canvas, Ryan of Dream A Little Dream of Polish, Ave of Polish Pixelle, Megan of Let there Be Lacquer, Nicole of My Nails. My Polish, Kristen of In the Name of Polish and Amanda of Fashion Footing.

Black and White Challenge: Day 3 Technicolour Sound Waves

Good Morning loves!


This is the third post in the Black and White Challenge. So far day 1 and 2 have been incredible and rumour has it that today is going to be even better :) 


Today's challenge is a black base with some colour. When I first heard this day I got something stuck in my head about music and sound waves. I just went with that thought and this is what I came up with! 

My thumb is supposed to represent a speaker with music coming out of it and the rest of my nails are supposed to be the sound waves from the music. My friends thought it looked like something Daft Punk might sing, something very technicolour. 

I started with 2 coats of Sephora by OPI's Never Enough Shoes, which is a black with multi coloured micro shimmer glitter throughout. Then I took a striper brush and created some sound waves with Essie's Marshmallow. I wanted the waves to have more dimension. Then I grabbed a rainbow of colours, which I will list below, and went at it with my striper brush creating the technicolour waves of sound. 

To get the speaker on my thumb I took China Glaze's Stone Cold and covered half my nail with that. Then created a square inside that with Wet n Wild's Black Creme. Then went back with my dotting tool in Stone Cold to add the dots in the speaker. Then I used a white striper to  create the music notes. 

Polish used:

China Glaze For Audrey

Stripe Rite Blue

Essie Jamaica Me Crazy

Stripe Rite Pink

Stripe Rite Red

Essence Glamorous Life

Essence Wake Up!

Orly Emberstone

Essence Wanna Be Your Sunshine

Stripe Rite Green

Sally Hansen Ivy League 

That is the order that I used the polish from my index to my pinky to create the rainbow sound waves. 

I really liked the final look of this and actually my brothers girlfriend came over yesterday and asked if I could do the same thing on her! So I did :) 

I'm really digging these technicolour sound waves, what do you think of them? 



Don't forget to check out what my gorgeous challenge buddies have done, aka the Sexy 6!

Nails and Noms

Let Them Have Polish

The Nailasaurus

Fab Fingertips

The Lacquerologist