Robin's Egg Nails

Today I bring a look I did ages and ages and ages ago and just never got around to posting. So seems to be a common theme.
I remember being so thrilled wearing this look. And, looking back to the pictures, I am still thrilled with it. Robin eggs? Always great!

Avon- Vintage Boutique Swatch

Today I bring to you a polish I am absolutely in love with. I got this polish about a year ago and I have been trying to save it as long as possible. Yes, I could just buy more, but I always feel like I should save every bottle. It;s kind of dumb, but still.

Anyways: Vintage Boutique, from Avon

Grunge Nails

After a short hiatus born out of sheer laziness, I finally bring to you a post. I've had the pictures for these (and so, so many others I have to get to) for absolutely ages.

Duochrome Week: Day 5- Love & Beauty Blue/Green

As the first Duochrome Week comes to an end, we part with a recently reviewed polish: Love & Beauty's Blue/Green. I want to rename this so badly, but I can't think of a well-fitting name. But anyways, this polish really surprised me. I kinda used it as a last resort, but I am so so glad that I did.

Duochrome Week: Day 4-China Glaze Awakening

This polish has popped up here before. Not too long ago, really. I used it in my Violet day for the 31 Day Challenge, and it took on a whole different look then than it does now. It's a versatile polish that I am happy to show today, this time over a gold base instead of black. Here is China Glaze's Awakening.

Duochrome Week: Day 3- Essie Shine of the Times & China Glaze Smoke and Ashes

I'm not actually entirely sure if either of these polishes counts as a duochrome. You see, I originally planned on using Smoke and Ashes because it looks like it has duochrome shimmer in the bottle... but on the nail, it just falls flat. And I'm pretty sure Shine of the Times is a holo flakie buuuuut just in the context of this post, we're going to say that these both classify under the theme of changing to at least two different colors at some angle. Alright?

Duochrome Week: Day 2-Paying With Platinum

So I'm behind a day, but it's alright you know, I can catch up tomorrow. Just.. try not to expect too much promptness. But back to Duochrome Week! Today I have a polish that I've had for forever, but haven't tried because for some reason I thought that it wasn't going to look as good on the nail as it did in bottle. I don't know why I thought that, but for the longest time I did. And I regret that. Because it is amazing.

Duochrome Week! Day 1: China Glaze, Reggae to Riches

I have some very exciting news. As of this day, the third week of September, it is officially Duochrome Week. Why? Because duochromes are awesome and deserve their own week. It'll go from today (Monday) until Friday, featuring a different duochrome (obviously) each day. Should be fun!

We start off this marvelous week with a polish that my mom bought, actually. I've wanted to try it out for a while, but it's not a shade I really am fond of wearing. But I'd hear such excellent reviews of it, I just had to try it (and coincidentally, it's the polish that inspired Duochrome Week).

Forever 21/Love & Beauty Polish Swatches

So I finally am bringing to you the swatches from the Forever 21 nail polishes. There are six shades here: Brown/Gold, Sunset Gold, Baby Pink, Natural/Pink, Light Green, and Blue/Green. The names are horrible. Descriptive, I guess, but horrible nonetheless. I put two colors on per hand, because I had six, and using that much acetone didn't appeal to me. Anyways, without further ado, let's get on to these colors.

From front to back: Brown/Gold, Sunset Gold, Blue/Green.

From front to back: Light Green, Natural/Pink, Baby Pink

Fiery Gradient

Today I have a nice gradient to show. To say that I am completely in love with it is an understatement. I've been wearing it for about four, five days now (the longest I've worn the same look since probably June!), and I still catch myself staring. Without further rambling on my part, here is my fire-inspired gradient:

31 Day Nail Challenge: Day 31-Recreate Your Favorite Challenge

Sooo this is a day late. Heh, my bad. I was actually out though, not just procrastinating (for once). It's September, man, how did that happen?!? I was not ready for September. But back to the challenge. This day... was kind of a boring theme. I really wanted to use a few new polishes, and they happened to both be purples, so I made some purple skittles! (Obviously recreating the Violet day challenge.)

31 Day Nail Challenge: Day 30-Inspired by a Tutorial

One day left! There is one day left of this challenge! I remember all way back to day one, where I accidentally never used the right color. Oh, memories. But anyways, I have been so excited for this day. I've known what I wanted to do for the past few days, and I am not at all disappointed in it. I present to you: sugar coated nails!

31 Day Nail Challenge: Day 29-Inspired by the Supernatural

Oh man. I can't even tell you how much I had to contemplate the design for today's challenge. I was at a complete loss, and I was about to give in and do some simple ghosts, or some skulls (though I wasn't sure if the technically counted as 'supernatural'?) when it came to me. Zombies! I'd done zombie look around last Halloween and absolutely loved it. I did basically the same thing, but with a different background.

31 Day Nail Challenge: Day 28-Inspired by a Flag

I had honestly no idea what flag I wanted to do up until about noon. I kinda just gave up and it ended up working better than expected.

31 Day Nail Challenge: Day 27-Inspired by Art

I knew 'Inspired by Art' was going to be a difficult day. I spent a while thinking about what kind of artwork I wanted to do. Right off the bat, I knew I didn't want to do any recreations of famous paintings or anything. A) That would be so hard (not that I'm shying away from a bit of hard work- I love really getting into nail work that take maybe an hour or two or even more- but I wasn't really prepared to do that. I don't really have grade-A brushes, and my paints are limited) and B) I feel like that would be the obvious route. And while there have been many many talented artists, I've never really been one to get really stuck on a certain era, or artist, or whatnot. And then I thought of an idea I'd been mulling over a while. Stained glass!

31 Day Nail Challenge: Day 26-Inspired by a Pattern

So I was thinking about patterns and I didn't want to do anything simple. Typical me, I was... over ambitious, to say the least. I chose a blue chine plate pattern to do because I am a self-sabotaging person.

31 Day Nail Challenge: Day 25-Inspired by Fashion

Fashion was today's inspiration challenge. I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do for the day, since I hadn't done much preparation the day before. I flipped through a few pages of a magazine and came across a picture that had some colors I really liked and thought, "Well hey, why not use this." And so I did.

31 Day Nail Challenge: Day 24-Inspired by a Book

Inspired by a book sounded easy in concept. I have a nice collection of books that I love; but creating a nail theme around just one? Easier said than done. Well, for me anyways, it's probably way easier for most people, but hush hush now. So I thought about it. I'd done Hunger Games inspired nails before, and loved how they turned out, but I didn't want to just redo a design. So I took a different aspect from the wonderful trilogy to translate into nail art: forests.

31 Day Nail Challenge: Day 23-Inspired by a Movie

So I wasn't really picking up any movie inspiration for this challenge. I can't even actually remember the last movie I watched. But I figured I could get away with doing a TV show because hey same difference, okay? And I chose one of the best shows ever to showcase on my nails for the day: Avatar: the Last Airbender!

31 Day Nail Challenge: Day 22-Inspired by a Song

Inspired by a song was a tiny bit easier than inspired by a color. I opened up my music library and for some reason the first thing to pop into mind was "Jar of Hearts" by Christina Perri. It started off well enough but ended a disaster, and I'll leave it at that. Then, for no real reason, "Blueberry Kisses" by Lady Gaga played in my head. And I thought "Hey, blueberry nail art would be awesome. Let's throw in some mouths too, even though I suck at them." And.. well, here it is.

31 Day Nail Challenge: Day 21-Inspired by a Color

Inspired by a color. I had right next to no idea what that meant when I first thought about it. I mean I'm still not all too sure what it really means. But as I was brushing my teeth the night before I had to do this look, I thought... toothpaste. A nice bright blue jelly color with some square white glitter would look just like toothpaste. Unfortunately, I had neither of those things. And thus, this was born...

31 Day Nail Challenge: Day 20-Water Marble

Ohhh water marbling. I was almost excited this morning to try it out. And then I got a bit of nail polish and water on my keyboard, and cleaning up my fingers alone was tragic (even with tape!). And also, I just... did not water marble well.

31 Day Nail Challenge: Day19-Galaxy!

Galaxy nails! I love galaxy nails! I thought today was water marbling (something I've only done, like, once) and thought,"Well maybe I'll do tomorrow's design today and do water marbling tomorrow." Turns out I didn't even have to! Oh it was such a lovely surprise.

31 Day Nail Challenge: Day 18-Half Moons

Half moons! I was so glad for this day. I really dig half moons. Plus they're so simple. Fantastic. I didn't get very creative though. I had taken off the glitter nails right after I took the pictures because I didn't want to be scrubbing for ages the next day, so I tried out a color I'd been eyeing for a while. And loved it. A lot. Until I added the half moon part for the day's challenge. Then it was just 'eh.' But it was great the day it lasted. Anyways, half moons:

31 Day Nail Challenge: Day 17-Glitter

Ahh, glitter. Your best friend that stabs you in the back. That's not harsh. That's words from anyone taking off glitter nail polish. When I first read the day's challenge, I was excited. Then immediately apprehensive. Glitter nail polish is awesome. It's gorgeous. But it adheres to nails like super glue. A common complaint, but not at all a hyperbole.

31 Day Nail Challenge: Day 16-Tribal

Right. Tribal. Tribal nails are nice, fun, creative. I used to do a good deal of tribal nails. I tried to do a popular design I'd been seeing around lately (though it's arguably more 'Aztec'? I think so anyway). It uses a striper brush though, which I don't have, so I did my best with the regular polish brush. Enough rambling? I'd say.

31 Day Nail Challenge: Day 15-Delicate Print

So I didn't really have a clear idea of what 'delicate' print entailed. I mean yeah there's lace and um, I don't know what else. You know what's super delicate and also adorable and makes for a great print? BUNNIES!

31 Day Nail Challenge: Day 14-Flowers

Flowers are always a nice design, especially when it comes to nail art. But floral prints can be so overdone, you know? For today I decided to do something simple, but effective. I'd had it in my mind a while now, and I'm fairly pleased with how it came out with.

I painted some tulips on my nails with a minty green background. The stems and grass look really really dark, unfortunately, but the green I was using wasn't as bright as I'd thought it would be. I'm glad with how bright the actual flower part is though. I think this would look nice with a white background and some yellow and pink tulips too. It'd be nice in spring instead of the usual floral prints.

These were freehanded with some acrylic paint. They're clearly not the most amazing tulips ever painted, but, hey, they're at least identifiable, right? I hope so. 

Colors Used:

Minted, Revlon

31 Day Nail Challenge: Day 13-Animal print(s!)

Animal print. I was wary of today. At first, all I could think of was some boring old leopard print, so typical. But then it hit me. Instead of animal print, why not animal prints?

31 Day Nail Challenge: Day 12-Stripes

At first I thought stripes might be harder than polka dots. Strips just seemed so boring. I thought about it for a few moments and then plaid popped into my mind. So I went with it. And, oddly enough, liked it.

31 Day Nail Challenge: Day 11-Polka Dots

I can't even begin to tell you how much of a pain this day was. Polka dots. I think out of all the days, I was least looking forward to these. Just.. polka dots! I could not for the life of me think of something interesting. I tried to do half white/half red nails with a black strip between them with a little lace design, and have little dots between the lace, based loosely off of two other semi-similar designs I'd done before, but it was just... just a tragedy. In desperation, I did a lady bug design, but it was so so so unoriginal I couldn't bare to leave them on. After I took pictures of them, I started putting on a new purple color, and then thought "this would make an excellent gradient" and then after that I had a major epiphany and thought "MATTE POLKA DOTS."

31 Day Nail Challenge: Day 10-Gradient

Gradients. Oh how I love gradients. I was super excited for this day because gradients are like the best things ever (okay not really, but they're nice and simple and so easy to do but still look so nice especially with the right colors).

31 Day Nail Challenge: Day 9- Rainbow

Ugh. Rainbow. I hate this look with a burning. I don't have anything against them (or, didn't, let's say), but I do not wear rainbows a lot, or ever really. So to make a good rainbow design would have probably needed both time and contemplation. Which I did not have. When I was doing this 'design' for lack of a proper term to describe the atrocity, I was also watching two of my cousins, and you cant really have time or contemplation when doing that. I so wish I would have redone them but I had tried a few designs already and decided to give up, because I didn't really have the time to do another set. So, keep that in mind and try not to let the horrors below scare you off from ever coming here again.

31 Day Nail Challenge: Day 8- Metallics

Heh, so I'm a bit late again, aren't I? I'd like to say I was bust, or under the weather, or some other valid excuse but no, I was mostly just lazy and didn't feel like editing pictures/writing up a post. I'd also like to say I'll try not to do it again but who am I kidding, probably I will do it again, we're only 10 days into this thing. 

But aside from that, metallics! I was pretty excited for this one, because I do love a nice metallic shade, but then I realized I only really had a few silvers, a gold, and a purple metallic to work with. Originally I did a gold nail with glitter flakies, but it was just so boring I couldn't bare to pose it (though it pained me to waste all that gold polish; I''m more than halfway through Next CEO by OPI, one of my favorite polishes ever, and I'd hate to be out of it). So after some contemplation, I thought, "Hey, why not half moons?"

31 Day Nail Challenge: Day 7- Black & White

Woo! We're officially one week into this challenge! How exciting! Also we're FINALLY DONE WITH THE COLORS! Well the basic colors, anyway. I can't even tell you how glad I am. Not that I didn't enjoy it, it's just that I prefer a more direct challenge besides just a color or whatever. So black and white. I had thought for a few days I was going to do a half moon with some lace around it. Classy, elegant, very feminine and whatnot. But instead I did something entirely different.

31 Day Nail Challenge: Day 6- Violet

I think it's been a nearly everyday occurrence so far in this challenge that the color I applied turned out to be... not quite the color hoped for. So violet came, and I was so pumped because I have tons of purples to choose from. I had my idea all in mind, and I was so positive that my color was actually purple. But.. no. It turned out reddish. Disappointed, I tried to fix it because I really didn't want to change me whole design, so I added the most sheer purple color over it and said, "You know what, close enough. I'll just call it red violet." And so I did.

31 Day Nail Challenge: Day 5-Blue

I was really excited for blue. I went in with a firm idea of what I was going to do, got the colors all ready, and set out to work.

And after I started, I quickly realized my plan had fallen apart.

I intended to do a night sky for today's challenge. Easy enough, right? It was mostly just a modified galaxy design. But then the blue-ness got lost in it, and by the end of trying to fix it, it seemed too barren and plain. So I added a city skyline to my night sky and thought, "Yeah, this looks pretty good. But the buildings are kind of lost against the background." So I added some lights on the buildings. And it looked better, but still, it didn't pop out, it more blurred together still. So I added a matte top coat. And after that, I gave up because there was nothing else I could think to do.

31 Day Nail Challenge: Day 4-Green

Green was an interesting day for me. I have a scarce amount of green polishes (I think my collection is about half just blues and purples) so it was about as difficult as yellow's day to come up with something. At first, I tried to do a lime green (which actually was more on the yellow side, go figure) with black and blue crackles over it, but it turned out so horribly I could not bare to let it slide. So instead, I took a look at my polishes and said: I am going to try out some fish scales!

31 Day Nail Challenge: Day 3- Yellow

Sorry this post is a day late. I had the pictures uploaded and everything, I just never got around  to editing them! Yesterday was a day highly saturated with procrastination (which was unfortunate for both this blog, and writing- any other Camp NaNo-ers out there?).

Now, yellow. Yellow is not a color that really suits me, and I don't have a single yellow polish. I had a really bright orange-y yellow polish that I was going to use and add a layer of a sheer white over, in the hopes of a miracle, but I couldn't get it opened. So I brought out some paint and had a very vague idea in my head that completely failed once I put brush to nail. I had hoped to do an intricate-y looking pattern of swirls in a dark brown on the yellow, but instead, trees. Trees happened. I don't know how or why but once I started to do a swirl, it turned into a branch. But I kinda liked it and there wasn't any going back, so I went with it.

31 Day Nail Challenge: Day 2- Orange

In my last post, I think that I admitted my Day 1 turned out more orange than anticipated and turned into Day 2. If not, well then, there you go. I was browsing through my yellow/orange/red line of polishes (a very, very limited selection, let me tell you) and I picked up Rimmel Sunset Orange. This is a color one of my sisters bought and I have to say I will be so so sad if I have to part with it. It's a really coral-y looking shade in bottle, looking way more pink-ish than orange, but it came out much more orange in pictures, especially when matte-ified.

31 Day Challenge: Day 1- Red

I've finally started the 31 Day Nail Challenge. I'm pretty excited for it; hopefully it'll really bring out some nice designs. Pretty much every nail blogger has done this challenge, but I hope you'll forgive me for being so unoriginal.

So today's entry is red! To tell you the truth, I had done a design for red, but the color, which looked really coral-y in bottle, turned out far more orange, and so I'm going to save it for Day 2. So I went to do red, and I really don't wear it that much (I only have two bottles of red nail polish, can you believe it?!), so this day I felt very uninspired. I picked up some silver and black and planned on doing simple polka dots, when the idea hit me: braided nails!

China Glaze Optical Illusion

Hello! Today I am super excited for this post because I have recently fallen in love with this polish. It is called Optical Illusion by China Glaze. I found it at a Sally's beauty store a few months ago. It comes from the Prismatic collection, and the price was very affordable. I picked up Optical Illusion, a lovely teal color (though it looks super silvery in these pictures, it really is very blue in person).

4th of July Nails

For the 4th of July, I have some nails to celebrate the American Independence day! I know it's kind of a location-specific design, if you know what I mean, but I hope you'll enjoy them anyway.

Legend of Korra Season Finale Nails!

So you may or may not know that the season finale of the show Legend of Korra is tomorrow. If not, well, there you go! I happen to be a big fan and so the idea struck me as I was thinking of what to do with my nails. On the left hand I have the Equalists (the "bad guys," for those who don't watch the show) and on the right hand is Team Avatar/The Krew (the "good guys"). The pictures are terrible. I couldn't get a cooperative picture and the lighting was horrible, so bear with me. They look a lot better in person, but, obviously, I can't put my real nails on here. I don't even know how that would begin to work.

Equalist Hand

Nails From the Past: Easter Pastels/Florals

Until I get a real, up-to-date design done, I'm going to be gradually posting nails from the past. They are, quite obviously, nails I have done in the past. (And all of the pictures I grabbed off my phone, so don't judge me if the quality is kinda bad, alright?)

First up are probably my favorite design that I've ever done: some pastel gradients! It was Easter, and of course I had to break out the pastels. Once I finished the gradient, I thought they looked a bit plain, so I added the flowers (free handed, too!) and I was in LOVE with it! I'd definitely be tempted to do this design again, maybe with darker colors, or neons. These were done with a set of acrylic paints and covered with a Sally Hansen top coat.

Hey there!

Hello! :D
So this is my first post on my super duper new and official nail blog! Mostly, it will probably be a place to showcase my nail art, which I've been dabbling in for the past few years, or to show some swatches whenever I can get my hands on a new bottle of polish (hopefully often). I'd love to try and make some tutorials eventually (that is, if I don't forget about this thing) and hopefully it'll be a nice way to improve my art and inspire others, too!

Stick around for some posts of some older designs that I did, and by next week I want to attempt the 30 Day Nail Challenge. Should be fun! (Though I'll bet I'll be out of polish remover by the end of it.)

Signing off,
~Val