ncLA Nail Wraps- I See You

These have been hiding away forever! I got these over the summer with my Little Black Bag purchase, they're nail wraps from ncLA, in I See You.

I See You was a limited edition set, so I don't know if some are still available. I choose this one because I love Egyptian stuff, when I was younger I actually wanted to be an Egyptologist and read all sorts of books. So by the time I got to my second year in art history I already knew everything and anything ancient Egyptian :). 

These nail wraps applied very easily, much nicer than Sally Hansen's. They stuck well and lasted through showers (my hair is very thick and most of the time any decals get scrubbed off my nails), although the tips got very raggedy very fast. I'm thinking this is an err on my part though, since I'm not pro with nail wraps. I fineally got tired of the feeling anytime i pushed my hair back or scratched my nose, so I peeled them off in history and went naked nails for the rest of the day. They came off really smoothly, without any problems. I would say though to NOT SKIP THE FIRST TOP COAT RECOMMENDED ON THE INSTRUCTIONS. Very important and I'm glad I didn't skip it (due to my aversion to base coats), the wraps peeled up some of the polish and I would hate that to happen to my natural nail, seeing as my nails peel so easily. All in all I like these wraps, but I don't think I would buy them again, just because of my annoyance with the wear. I'm too much of a perfectionist lol.

Henri Matisse- La Gerbe

For day 27 the challenge calls for nails inspired by a piece of artwork. For an art student this was very hard, I've seen at least a thousand pieces that could work in the past three years. I decided to go with one that I had seen in person at the LACMA, Henri Matisse's La Gerbe.

It was made in 1953 and is ceramic and ceramic imbedded in plaster. This thing is huge, it weighs 2,000 lbs. You can check out more pictures of it, history, and information of the piece here.

I used:

NYC French Tip White

Revlon Red

Clair's Black and Blue Nail Art Pens

Stripe Rite Yellow and Green

Revlon POSH

NYC Spingstreet

*Fanfare Plays*

Originally I did this manicure for Julep's Super Bowl nail art contest, but after re-reading the rules I found that you have to be 18 or older to enter :(. Very saddening, I would have loved to win a jersey. 

I'll be posting football nails again on Sunday with my team nails, any guesses who I'm rooting for? :)

I used:

NYC French Tip White

Revlon Red 

Clair's Black, Blue, and White Nail Art Pens

Oh yeah, the title is such because this kept playing through my head while painting this:

Connection to Marilyn

Today is inspired by a pattern, and I recently just got the perfect dress for it.

I got this dress at a small shop called Artifact in the Market at Tivoli Village. Its such an AMAZING shop, cute little knick knacks and lots of artwork. My faveorite part though is that the owner, Molly, has this wall she does up every month with a different lady. The wall will have vintage clothes and accessories similar to the ones the lady wore. She's done Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, Coco Chanel (I missed that one :( ), and I happened by when Marilyn was up. Fell in love with the dress you see me in up above, and it fit me like a glove. This is the similar dress Marilyn wore:

She wore this for her role as Ellen Arden in Something's Gotta Give

 This is just a happy day for me all around, because I adore Miss Norma Jean as well ^-^.

I used:

NYC French Tip White

Sally Hansen Black Out

BM-323

I don't like how cruddy this stamping job was. I've lost my scraper and the gift cards I was trying to use just wouldn't do the trick :(. Hopefully I'll find it soon, it has to be somewhere.

Night Light

Today I'm very excited to share Born Pretty's glow polish in color #2. 

Over all nails I have two coats of #2 with no topcoat, with the exception of my index finger which has one coat of OPI Insti Dry.

On my ring finger #2 is layered over two coats of Maybelline Green With Envy with the added top coat, middle finger is the same but with no top coat, ring finger has two coats of NYC French Tip White under #2, and my pinky just has #2.

#2 glows best over the white and the top coat seems to have no effect on the glow.

The glow has to be "charged up" under a light before it will really glow, wearing it around won't do it. The glow lasts for about half an hour after exposure to light.

This is all over Green With Envy. My final thought is that this is a decent enough glow polish. Application was easy and drying time wasn't long. Removal isn't hard, the polish is a bit gritty and leaves a strange feel to your nails even with a basecoat. I just wish it didn't need to have direct light to get the effect of glowing :\.

Julian's Doodle

So my friend Julian draws fantastic doodles, really intricate and just awesome. The other day in math i saw one on his binder from awhile ago, and across the top it had little drippies with stripes through them. I thought it was awesome looking, and my striping tape had just arrived, so I made a manicure version.

I really love this look, even though it took me FOREVAH to do. Tape is more finicky than I thought.

I used:

NYC Sidewalkers

Clair's Pink and Black Nail Art Pen

Thanks again to Julian for inspiration!

All Hail McQueen

I've been so excited for this challenge, because I love fashion so much ^-^. I decided to do a mani based on Alexander McQueen's spring/summer 2008 collection.

(the dress on the left)

I thought this dress was really fun and enjoyed re-creating it. I hope I served McQueen's dress well. 

I used:

Midgi Pink Nail Art Pen 

NYC Plaza Plumberry
Sally Hansen Blackout

Doritos, Burritos, Flamingos.

Unless you've read The Kane Chronicles that probably made absolutely no sense to you whatsoever. They have a monkey named Khufu that only eats things ending with an O. So you might've guessed now my nails are based on The Kane Chronicles today.

The Kane Chronicles is written by Rick Riordan and is about a bunch of teenagers who channel the powers of the Egyptian gods. After reading Percy Jackson I knew this series would be good too and I was not disappointed. I used an ankh because, well, it's Egyptian. More specifically it's their symbol for life.

I used:
NYC Lexington Yellow
Maybelline Bold Gold
BM-322

"I don't do fashion, I AM Fashion."

Great words spoken by none other than Coco Chanel, my absolute favorite person ever. Today's nails are FINEALY movie inspired nails, I was really dragging my feet with this one because I just felt so meh to all the ideas I came up with. After really horribly executing one idea I decided to use my inspired by fashion design instead.

Oh and the credit for this mani's design goes to Supa Nails, I loved her Coco nails I just had to do them myself ^-^. Granted I did make a few changes, the interlocking Cs were giving me a headache :/

And don't worry there is a movie involved, also one of my top favorites. It's called Coco Avant Chanel, and is pretty much a biography about Gabrielle Chanel before the brand. If you want to watch it (and I do highly suggest it) make sure it has subtitles, unless you speak French. 

I used:

NYC Sidewalkers

Sally Hansen Black Out

NYC French Tip White

Clair's Rhinepebbles

Kelsie's Nail Files Contest Entry

I'm so excited for this, this is my first nail art contest ever! ^-^ Kelsie at Kelsie's Nail Files is having a contest for her one year blogiversary, and the challenge is to create a look based on something from her Pintrest board. Here's the inspiration I chose:

And here's the nail art:

I REALLY love those shorts. I think I will need to make them this summer. For the jean part of the nails I used a tutorial from Glamour.

I used:

Revlon First Class

Stripe Rite Green, Yellow, and Pink

Clair's Black and White Nail Art Pen

NYC Spring Street

Sally Hansen Brisk Blue

Ironically I have a purse that matches too, now I just really need those shorts!

Sonnetarium- Samurai Princess

Finals are over, so I can get caught up with posting now! ^-^ Today my first ever purchased indie came in the mail, Samurai Princess from Sonnetarium. Its a white and black hex glitter of multiple sizes and white and black bar glitter too.

Here is once coat over Essie Tart Deco.

 I decided to be silly and take pictures with my sword letter opener. xD

I absolutely love this polish, you don't have to fish for the glitter and its a great formula, will definitely be ordering from Sonnetarium again!

Let's Take a Polaroid Picture

Hey chickas! Let's bring some song-inspired nail art to your frostbitten fingertips shall we?

Today's mani was inspired by Skyler Stonestreet's song Polaroid Picture. Its a fun bubbly song that makes me smile, it actually is one of Polaroids official songs I believe. I painted a camera on my accent nail, and little Polaroid frames on the rest. My dad used to have a Polaroid, he would take pictures of me doing ballet with it. I wish it hadn't gotten stolen :\.

I used:

NYC French Tip White

Clair's Blue and Black Nail Art Pens

Revlon Red

Midgi Hot Pink Pen

Stripe Rite Yellow

Revlon POSH

Viva Las Vegas

Almost done with this challenge, we're on the third section now! Day 21 is "inspired by a color", and I'm sure it could be interpreted many ways, but I like the way some other bloggers have done it and been inspired by a nail polish name. So I chose Nailtique's Vegas, cause I'm a Vegas Girl of course. ^-^

What is Vegas best known for? Gambling! The whole strip is just rows and rows of casinos waiting to gobble up tourist's money. I have here the best known ways of money spending, cards, roulette, slot machine, poker chips, and dice.

I used:

Revlon POSH

Revlon Red

Clair's Blue, White, and Black Nail Art Pens

NYC French Tip White

What do you guys think? Make you want to take a trip to Sin City? :)

I've Lost My Marbles

So I cheated with this post too >.< Instead of actually doing water marbling I just did a stamp, but you'll see why tomorrow because I really just wanted to get to inspired by a song nails.

I used:

Sally Hansen Gone Grey

Sally Hansen Brisk Blue

BM-320

I also know I've been slacking on the posts these past couple days, I was über ridiculously busy. I'll make up for it with tomorrow's post, promise!

Omnomnomagon

Today's post is just a bit random, it's not a swatch, not a 31 Day Challenge post, just some random nail art I did for funzies :). A ffamily member suggested I do Pacman nails, and I know ts not a new idea, but I was excited all the same because when I first started nail art that never even crossed my mind as being possible. It just seemed too advanced and way out of reach.

NOMNOMNOMNOM :)

I used:

Sally Hansen Black Out

Clair's White and Blue Nail Art Pens

Revlon Red

NYC Spring Street

NYC Lexington Yellow

Midgi Light Pink and Blue Nail Art Pens

“Erre es korakas, Blinky!" Dionysus cursed. "I will have your soul!” 

Does anybody else think of Percy Jackson and Dionysus's obsession with PacMan? No? Just me?

I like how this manicure turned out overall, but I think in the future I will give it another go and make it better. For gosh sakes the dots are bigger than the ghosts xD. It is nice to see that my skills are progressing though, and something I thought was impossible is now achievable :)

Polish Days- Something New

I'm really excited to share this manicure with you, this one turned out great! This is for Polish Days January, and this month's theme is something new. Whether its a new technique, polish, stamp, decoration, ect. I killed two birds with one stone on this one, this is both a new style I have never tried before, and a brand new polish!

The new style is called Ruffian, its like a backwards moonicure. I have seen this styles loads of times, but only recently learned the name for it from Chalkboard Nails. The new polish is Revlon first class, a gorgeous creme blue. For the sliver of gold I used OPI Rising Star. And there's one more new thing...

A blue dress that matches the polish! I thought it was quite serendipitous when I realized they matched so well. This is the dress I wore to that new years dance I told you about, I guess I got three birds with this post!  

So tell me girls, what are some new nail polish trends you're excited to try in 2013? :)

OPI Burlesque Little Teasers

Hello chickas! If you were on holiday break these past weeks, how was your first day back to work?school? Mine was alright, and now that school has stared up again I'm going to try to keep posting on a regular schedule. So it won't be oh-my-gosh-a-zillion-posts-in-five-minutes like over break, but it also wont be cricket-cricket for a couple days anymore, I'm going to at least try to post once a day or every other day.

So here we have OPI's Burlesque Little teasers collection, aren't the tiny bottles adorable ^-^? I've been wanting The Show Must Go On ever since I got a pedicure with it, but everywhere online a full bottle could be raher pricey, for the item AND shipping. But I found this collection on eBay for five dollars (and I think s&h was two or three dollars) and I was sold. It had the color I wanted and some other fun colors too, why not?

 The first color is Rising Star, a shimmery gold color. All of the polishes in this collection were rather sheer and took about three coats to get to opaqueness I wanted. I myself don't wear gold too often, I mostly stick to silver with jewelry. But I think Rising Star will be nice for some nail art.

Next is Take the Stage, a gorgeous coppery orange color. All of these polishes have a shimmer to them, I just can't seem to get enough shimmers can I? This polish really reminds me of fall, not so much the leaves but just the general color that comes to mind with fall.

Shown here is Ali's Big Break, a very pretty red with a subtle shimmer. I don't have many reds, and none a shimmer, so this is a nice addition.

Lastly is the long anticipated The Show Must Go On! which after reading the description on the box is kinda pinkish, which is fine by me. I've been wearing this one all day and in different lighting it can appear red, pink, or orangey with a yellow shimmer. All in all just a gorgeous color, and I may have to spring for a full size bottle when this mini one runs out, or just be very conservative.

So what do you think? Would you buy/wear any of these polishes?

Spectrum Cosmetics- Dark Matter

This polish arrived the other day and I haven't had the time to write a post about it till now. Its my first ever indie polish (I din't understand the term "indie polish" for a long time too). This is though, the second indie I've purchased, Samurai Princess hasn't arrived yet. It comes from an Etsy shop called Spectrum Cosmetics. I saw this polish moths ago and loved it, and on a random whim looked it up and saw she had it in stock again! The shade is called Dark Matter, lets take a look:

Here is three coats without a top coat. The polish is sheer with holographic glitters that shine in an array of rainbow colors. It dries matte and a little rough. 

  

Here it is with two coats of OPI Fast Dry top coat. Its a gorgeous polish, and I like it more than Zoya Storm. I usually don't like black polish unless it's paired with nail art, but the sparkle in this polish makes it nice. The only bad thing I have to say about this polish is that its terribly pungent, a very strong smell that made me a bit dizzy. But after a while it wasn't so bad and I was able to do a full manicure.

The polish also came with a note, I love when a salesperson does something personal, even if its brief.

 

I really love this polish, it reminds me of the night sky, Probably while its called Dark Matter. I can't wait until the other indie polish arrives so I can try that one out too, and decide if indie polishes are my thing or if I prefer regular polishes.

Galaxy Loophole

Today's challenge theme in galaxies, but nobody necessarily said I HAD to do the stuff up in the sky. So I found a loophole, the Samsung Galaxy phone. You can call me a cheater, but I prefer to think of it as strategic planning.

I copied all of the widgets at the bottom of the phone, the telephone, contacts, messaging, and internet. I like how this turned out, I think i'm getting better at free-handing stuff. 

I used:

NYC French Tip White

Stripe Rite Green 

NYC Spring Street

Clair's Black Nail Art Pen

Stripe Rite Yellow

Sally Hansen Brisk Blue

Midgi Blue Pen

Moon Flower

Have you ever seen moon flowers? They're a gorgeous plant who's blooms only open up once the moon rises, and then they wilt when then sun rises to be replaces by new blooms the next night. They're fascinating to watch, my Grandma has some in her front yard. Anyways, I've lost track of the days again, but I know it supposed to be half moons, or as The Daily Nail calls them, moonicures.

Moonicures themselves are pretty cool, but I prefer when they are fancied up. I thought semi-stamping one part would be neat, and I was right. Definitely a technique I'll be using again.

I used:

Sally Hansen Gone Grey

NYC French Tip White

OPI Suzi and the 7 Düsseldorfs

BM-323