Why am I Such a Misfit?

I find that spirit week sometimes inspires some great, and odd nail art. Today was based on the Island of Misfit Toys, and the criteria was to just be mismatched. I took this quite to heart, and my dad this morning (not knowing it was spirit week) thought I had gone off my rocker!

I used:

Maybelline Onyx Rush

Pure Ice Platinum Basecoat

NYC Sidewalkers

Essie We're in it Together

Sally Hansen Lacey Lilac

Julep Clara

Julep Coco

Revlon Infamous

Stripe Rite Green, Pink, and Yellow

I pretty much just included designs from all the elements in my outfit. This post taught me that I need to figure out another way to take ootd pics without my brother, since all of his turned out blurry. So became the weird leg-selfies. If you want to see my doll make-up you can check it out on my Instagram, @haleighbug333. I only took a picture of that right before washing it off sadly, so it's a little smeared. Expect more spirit filled nails from me this week!

Oh! I included a video of the misfit toys themselves in case you also had the song stuck in your head :)

Mark of Athena

Athens! The city where the Parthenon perches atop the Acropolis! Since I'm and art nerd you know I can't help put put some art history in here, so skip over this to the nail art if it doesn't interest you :). The city of Athens was named after the Greek goddess Athena, as many people know. Athena was the goddess of wisdom and military tactics. She was also an eternal maiden, meaning she remained a virgin. When she had children they were literally a brain child, they came out of her head (like how she came out of Zeus's head) as a gift to the men she admired. This earned her the name Athena Parthenos: Virgin Athena. The Athenians held modesty and virginity as important traits in a woman, so this is why they not only named their city after her (which in mythology was a scorn on Poseidon and is why Poseidon and Athena hate each other) but the Parthenon gets it's name from her too. It is a temple to her, after all. The Parthenon used to have a large marble and gold gilded statue of Athena, but it was stolen by the Romans and lost forever. In mythology it is called the Mark of Athena, and is considered when the power of the west shifted from the Greeks to the Romans. It is said that Athena in her Greek and Roman form (Minerva) would task her demigod children with finding her lost mark to regain her powers (the Romans had made her much less powerful and admired). They always ended up dying in some way or getting lost forever, because what's a Greek Tragedy without the tragedy? Another symbol for Athena was the owl, characterized for it's wisdom. So that is what I have painted on my nails.

This owl was actually inspired by the sweater made by Evelina Barry, one of my favorite Youtubers. You can check out her diy video here.

I used:

Maybelline Onyx Rush

Sally Hansen Brisk Blue

Sally Hansen Cobalt Blue 

Essie In  the Cab-ana

Venique Rolling Tides

German Montana

Today we visit Berlin, another city that is high on my places-to-go list. I was inspired by the end-to-end graffiti on the Berlin Wall for my nail art look.

I tried my hand at making a graffitiesque style. I think I could definitely use some practice, the design in theory has a lot of potential.

I used:

Sally Hansen Brisk Blue

Clair's Black and White Nail Art Pens

Essie In the Cab-ana

Acrylic Paint

Don't forget about the giveaway here!

Cherry Blossoms

"See the cherry blossoms in China" is waaay up on my bucket list. They're absolutly gorgeous and I wish I could have them here in America. Well, my plum tree out front has little blossoms, but it's still shorter than me after about seven years of being there. It doesn't really count.

I used:

Essie In the Cab-ana

Essie Tart Deco

Julep Clara

Clair's Black Striper

Ciutat Comtal

 So when I googled 'barcelona fashion' there was a lot of topless women. I mean A LOT. I was quite shocked. Amongst all that I found a nice color blocked look which you can see below, third photo from the left.

I rather like the gray/pink combination, something dull with a zap. I applied this look just using the brush from the bottle, I didn't want to deal with tape/brushes/dotting tools today.

I used:

NYC Sidewalkers

Essie Tart Deco

(source)

Dont forget about the giveaway!

K'in Sotz' Bak Tz'am

Yay for Sharpies! They make detailed manicures waaay easier. I used one to draw Mayan hieroglyphics on my nails today. From index to pinky it reads, "Sun, bat, heron, throne." I wasn't really going for a coherent sentence xD.

I used:

Essie Tart Deco

Sharpie Fine Tip Marker

DO NOT EAT THE PISTACHIO ICECREAM

Anyways. The second part of the Gluttony prompt calls for painting something that makes your stomach growl, and nothing does that for me more than sushi! Seriously, I will eat sushi anywhere, anytime. Best food in the world. I would eat exclusively at Kona Grille or Ra if I could.

I'm really going to need a sushi fix in the next couple of days now! There's no ignoring it. From index to pinky are as follows: California Roll, Shrimp Sushi, Tuna Roll, and Salmon Sushi. Not featured is Crab Crunch or the Vegas Roll (which is to diiieee for!).

I used:

Clair's Black Nail Art Pen

NYC French Tip White

Revlon Infamous

Revlon Posh

Essie Tart Deco

Revlon Red

What makes your stomach growl?

Pretty Please with Chanel on Top?

Hey guys! First I have a story to share with you, I rode the public bus all by myself for the first time (!). It was kinda scary but it was a double decker so that was really cool, though not as cool as the Knight Bus. Anyways, I'm super excited about a contest that I have entered, Rite Aide's Nail Extravaganza. The rules are simple, enter your most creative nail art look and ask your friends for votes. The top 20 finalists then have a shot at the grand prize. So here's my entry:

 THE CLAAAW

I really love this look! It made me smile whenever I looked down on my nails today. I always love when a manicure can do that :)

I used:

Chanel Taboo

Essie Tart Deco

Revlon Red

NYC Lexington Yellow

Clair's White Nail Art Pen

Born Pretty Rhinepebbles

So here's the pretty pretty please, I would really appreciate it if you guys would vote for me! You can vote here every day until the 24th. Go go go! :D

Pin Flowers

You guy's must think I'm crazy with all these challenges I'm participating in, the Time Periods Challenge, my challenge, and now this 7 Deadly Sins Challenge. Honestly these have really helped me out inspiration wise, my creative juice has been sucked up by art class. My AP Exam is next Friday, and I still have around 10 pieces to complete. Yay. So I probably won't be posting much except for the 7 Sins and Around the World (Time Periods has a bigger time slot to enter).

For the first week we focus on lust, and the first prompt is to do something you have wanted to do sooo badly. I've always wanted to do that vintage/flower/pinstripe look, so I took this opportunity to try it. What's really funny is that Kelsie from Kelsie's Nail Files seems to have had the same craving at the same time I did xD. I guess theres a bug going around. You can see her sweet manicure here.

I used:

Essie In the Cab-ana (which still refuses to properly photograph, I will tame you one day!)

Essie Tart Deco

NYC French Tip White

Revlon Red 

Revlon Posh

Go Insane, Go Insane...

Throw some glitter make it rain...

I've wanted to try this look for-ev-er, but I could never find a nude polish that was juuust right for me. Enter Maybelline forever fawn! It is a little on the grey/yellow side, but it's a good fix to my craving for now. Down the road I know that I DEFINITELY want to try OPI Don't Pretzel My Buttons. Drool.

The application was very tedious for this polish though. It's very sheer, and I don't like visible nail lines, so it took many coats to be opaque. Then it bubbled like CRAZY. Ugh. SO I took it all off and did it again one thin coat at a time, with two minuets under my heat lamp between. This thankfully solved that problem. It did have a lot of bald spots though, and would spread nice at the base of the nail, then die out at the nail line. So I had to get creative and just applied polish to the bald spots... which made a lumpy appearance, but was all smoothed out with a topcoat! So yeah. This polish has a lot of problems (and I don't think I will be buying Cover Girl polish again), but like I said, I had a craving. *Sigh*

After all of that drama I used Essie A Cut Above for the glitter gradient. I did this by painting a light sprinkling of glitter to about half-way down my nail, then made the top part more dense. The formula and amount of glitter in the polish is perfect, super easy to work with, no fishing needed. Plus, pink!

A Star is Born

This mani started out totally different in my head, but for some reason I  just got stuck on the idea of stars and this happened.

I used:

Essie Beyond Cozy

Clair's Black Nail Art Pen

I don't have much else to say about this post, it was just sorta random lol. I really like it though, even though the stars were kinda a pain in the butt xP. I'll be back tomorrow with something new for the blog :)

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!

What a Stud

You must be tired of my pun titles xD. Anyways, my studs from Polish Me To Go arrived yesterday and I had to play with them. Instead of posting spererate posts for each look I thought I would just put them all here together.

For the first one I used OPI Suzi and the 7 Düsseldorfs as a base. I kept this one really simple because I was going out with friends to First Friday last night and didn't have much time for something elaborate, and the stud is quite large. I also photographed this last night with my parent's camera, which annoys the hell out of me. I can't get it to focus and there's seemingly no way to turn off the flash, resulting in an odd photo quality. Anyways, I really like this stud  and it stayed on with just one coat of topcoat applied under it. I used this method with all of the studs or I just stuck them directly onto the wet polish, they hold on really well and don't sit too awkwardly on the nail. 

Yay my camera was charged for usage again for the rest of the photos! I really like the gold and pink in this one, it seems girly yet professional in a way. I think that using silver would have detracted from the look. I used NYC Pink Promenade as a base here.

Like how I only did accent nails? It seems to be my thing. I always think that accessories make the outfit and I guess an accent nail is the accessory of nail art. I used Venique Rolling tides as a base.

Also with the studs came some little rhinepebbles, which I totally wasn't expecting and was a nice surprise. What was really great about this set is that it came with a great variety of studs, enough of them to do actual designs (where some I've seen come with like three of each kind), and it didn't cost me a fortune. I think in total I payed four bucks for them with shipping and handling. Great quality too, AND they arrived super fast! Anyways before I start sounding like an ad campaign lets get back to the actual nail art. I really loved this one, the pink polish and rhinepebbles made in girly but the studs toughned it up, things I like to do in my everyday wardrobe. Like I'll wear a really frilly flowery dress and put it with a leather jacket and boots. The base color here was Essie Tart Deco, a new fave of mine. Oh, and it didn't show very much in the picture but the rhinepebbles glitter little rainbows in the light, how great is that?

THIS. TOOK. FOREVER. OMG. I really really wanted to do a stud flower but they just would not sit right. And then you can't scoot them around because it smears the polish -__-. It's my fault for being a perfectionist, but I wanted it to be just so, and after a gazillion (ok three) tries I got it perfectly ^-^. I think due to the effort this is my fave look. Base color is Maybelline Green With Envy.

So tell me guys, what was your fave look? And have I convinced you to try studs if you already haven't?

Flutterby Butterfly

So I"m actually going to check the day numbers for this one and it turns out we're on day... *runs to room*... 15! Delicate print day. I went through loads of my plates trying to find the perfect "delicate" print and I finally settled on this one because what could be more delicate than butterfly wings?

I loooove this! I was hoping that the purple would be more opaque but I like it more this way, kinda gives it the translucence of actual butterfly wings! Sure I had to mega adjust whatever in the photos so it could actually be SEEN and look like what they actually look like on my hand. My camera does not like to pick up on light things. Totally worth it though so I could share these with you ^-^

I used:

Essie We're In It Together

Midgi Silvery Purple Pen

Notice how I knock these posts out of the park so quickly? I don't paint my nails in like five seconds, throughout the day I get bored and paint them, them edit and bomb you with the posts all in one sitting. Just in case you were wondering ^-^.

What Nail Art Looks Like at Three AM

Yeah. Thats pretty much all I have to say about this post. I was up really late last night/this morning listening to Harry Potter and decided nail art at the same time would be a good idea. It's not THAT bad but I could have done better. While stamping the bottom half smeared so I decided a really thick french tip would make up for it >.<. Yay sleepy Haleigh brain.

I used:

Essie Leading Lady

Sally Hansen Silver Sweep

BM-306

Oh yeah this is for day something or another for the 31 Day Challenge. I really have lost count of the numbers, but at least I know the required designs :)

Earn Your Stripes

Hey again! Here is day something or another of the 31 Day Challenge, I can't remember. But I do know its stripes for today! I already had Tart Deco on, and since its such I nice color I decided to put it with today's challenge.

I kept it really simple today, just a chevron accent nail. I haven't played with my stripers much so this was fun. 

I used:

Essie Tart Deco

Clair's White Nail Art Pen

Clair's Black Nail Art Pen

Well thats all I have for today, I REALLY gotta finish cleaning my room now xP. At least I have Harry Potter to listen to ^-^.

Essie- Tart Deco

This is the first of many swatch posts to come in the next few weeks, I went on a huge online spending spree when I got my debit card. This was the first polish to get here, its one of two polishes I ordered from Target. About ten minuets after the postman rang the door bell (and after my dog had gone mad barking) this polish was on my nails and getting photographed.

The formula went on very thick and would have only needed one coat, but I was cleaning my room and moving my hand around a bit and it slid a little leaving kinda see-through spots. This was my fault, I think I added a very thick coat that caused it to slide. Its a great pinky-orange shade, a nice salmony color. I fell in love with it at first sight, as I have been wanting a color like this for a while and struck out with Revlon's Infamous when it wasn't quite right, but Tart Deco is spot on.

I can't wait for my other polishes to get here so I can show you guys! :D

Pretty in Pink

Hello my lovelies, how was your first day of 2013? Mine was wonderfully lazy, watched lots of Dr. Who. While watching the mad man and his blue box I cranked out this look for you :)

Today when I thought about doing a manicure I thought, "PINK!" What better way to start the year, very first manicure being pink. So with pink in mind I took a look-see at the 31 Day Contest to see if pink could work with the next challenge, and I thought day ten's gradient criteria would be lovely. I stamped houndstooth over it to give it more spunk and ta-da! I'd say 2013 is off to a good start.

I used:

Essie We're In This Together

Venique Hot Date

Sally Hansen Black Out
BM-322

Notice the watermark? I finely figured out how to make a decent one without photoshop, seeing as I don't have photoshop. It makes me feel more, official is a good word ^-^. I also feel very accomplished for pushing myself to finely get it done too. So what manicure did you start the year off with?

Oh Tannenbaum...

I know I know I have been gone FOREVER. I've had a lot of crap just come up this week, and I even had a manicure all done and pretty for you but I didn't get around to photographing it so then it chipped and blah... So to make up for it I'm back with some awesome nail art for you!

Christmas tree ornaments! This design has been floating around in my mind for awhile now and today I fineally sat down and brought it to life. Its so fun and festive, I'm going to have to keep this one on for a while. Don't worry, that doesn't mean its going to be an eternity till my next post again!

So as you might've guessed like a zillion polishes were used here, no acrylic this time, I'm so proud of myself! Here goes:

Revlon POSH

ncLA Hollywood Hills

Sally Hansen Co-Bolt Blue

Maybelline Blod Gold

Midgi Lime Green Pen

Midgi Light Blue Pen

Revlon Infamous

Essie Leading Lady

Revlon Red

Sally Hansen Pronto Purple

Sally Hansen Silver Sweep

Sally Hansen Brisk Blue

NYC Lexington Yellow
Sally Hansen Black Out

and finished off with Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat

Whew!

Hope you're having a tinsel time this holiday season! :)