A Very Sparkly Christmas

Merry Christmas!  I have a simple, yet very sparkly look for this holiday. I didn't originally want to go the traditional red and green route, but y'know. Do it for the sparkly. I used China Glaze Ruby Pumps (an all time fave) and Zoya Giovanna (a new fave, and one of my first Zoya polishes). The glitter actually came in little bottles at the dollar store. 

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!

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 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 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).

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 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 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 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 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 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 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!

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).