Blue Brush Stroke Gradient

I've been in a major nail art funk lately. I can swatch all day, but I can't come up with a design for the life of me. I believe it's due to an overload of inspiration. Sounds silly, but there are so many talented bloggers producing awesome art that it can be a little overwhelming! In a good way, of course! ;) So since my own brain isn't cooperating, I snagged this idea from A Little Polish! I didn't really have any idea how she did it, so I just went by what it looked like.. It went ok! Not as brush-strokey-looking as hers, but I am happy with them.

The light blue is Dreamer (Revlon) and the darker blue is Mount Royal (American Apparel). 

Has anyone tried brush stroke art like this or like A Little Polish's? I wanna seeeee! 

Thanks for reading :)

Day 20 - Water Marble

All that can really be said about this attempt is: It didn't go as badly as I expected. I used only American Apparel - Army Jacket and China Glaze - Mahogany Magic. I added dots to cover up some weird spots. From a distance, it looks a lot cooler :)

I really love the color combination. I think the thing that hurt me the most was the sort of tooth pick I used for dragging. I have crappy squared tooth picks. They do not work well at all! 

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter (or just a nice Sunday!)

Thanks for reading :)

Day 18 - Half Moons

After a few days with extremely limited internet due to technical difficulties, I have some half moons for Day 18 of this challenge.

The pictures genuinely don't capture how cool it turned out. I had to use weird lighting to get the Nubar 2010 to show up at all against my naked nail. The blue is American Apparel - Mount Royal.

This is from yesterday, though, and I have a very awesome post for later today! I finally did some galaxy nails that I am super happy about :)

Thanks for reading!

Day 15 - Delicate Print

Ahhh the half way point... feels good, man!

I promise this stamping was actually very pretty, the pictures just didn't turn out very well.

The purple also didn't seem to photograph very well. The base purple is American Apparel - Imperial Purple and I stamped with a Wet N Wild silver. This is the first stamping I've done about which I literally have no complaints. I just wish the photos showed it better!!

I think it's mainly my cuticles that are making me hate my photos. But honestly I have no idea what more I can do for the little jerks. They just want to be dry and peel-y! 

I was REALLLLLY happy with Imperial Purple. It was actually fun to apply! 

I got some nail art wheels in from Born Pretty Store, so I'll be having fun with those for awhile. Small complaint: They are super hard to do nail art on if you're not incredibly careful. I was not careful. I ended up removing all of the designs I did, even the ones I was happy with, because I screwed up the good designs while working on the other ones. 

Sorry this seemed like such a whiny post! Thanks for reading :)

Day 5 Blue/Day 6 Purple

I did do my nails yesterday, I just couldn't find the time to post them. I was pretty dissatisfied with the pictures, to be honest, and that probably helped me procrastinate a bit! I am quite sad that my camera doesn't seem to want to capture the darkness of certain blues and purples. I'm sure everyone has seen a swatch or two of American Apparel - Mount Royal, and they look nothing like this:

In reality Mount Royal is a very deep blue with an almost purple undertone. Either way, I was covering it up anyway so are pictures after the addition of Sally Hansen Nail Prism - Garnet Lapis:

In many of these photos, the finished product looks more blue than purple (also apparently my kitties were around when I was photographing as I noticed a few hairs on my fingers as I was editing the photos!), but that's just because this polish is hard to photograph. It ranges from blue to purple to even some copper if you catch it at the right angle. The second picture of the layering does a good job illustrating the blue to purple shift, I think. I am happy to say that I own not one but three Nail Prisms. They are all easily over 10 years old, and I found them in my closet when I went home to Pennsylvania over the holiday. Easily one of the greatest nail polish discoveries of my adult life!

For my day 6 purple I chose Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Purple Potion with two coats of China Glaze - Seniorita Bonita on top. 

Outside

Again, Seniorita Bonita is much more... vibrant(?) in person. Shimmery with little flecks of pink throughout, it really is a stunning polish. Sadly, the brush that it came with is quite deformed, but at least it still applies well. 

Purple Potion is quite awesome as well, I just neglected to photograph it on its own. 

I think tomorrow... there will be stamping! I need practice! ^.^

Thanks for reading :)

  

Day 4 - Green

As green is my favorite color, this was destined to be a good day! The greens I chose were China Glaze- Westside Warrior, American Apparel - Army Jacket, and Sinful Colors - Innocent (dark to light)

Flash

The gold is a nail art striper by Sinful Colors called Flower Girl. I really like this striper, it gives super great coverage for a glittery type polish. 

This is my first attempt at anything of this nature. I didn't use tape, just nail art brushes. It could be a lot cleaner, but I'm definitely satisfied for my first attempt!

Thanks for reading :)

Note: Am I crazy or does this manicure totally match my blog?! ^.^