NOTD: Gold & teal splatter

Hey, guess what I haven't done in a while? A nail art post, that's what. I actually have a bit of a backlog to work through so there's a sliiight chance I might even post more often for a brief spurt. These nails are from about a month ago, and the base is a prototype I made for what eventually became my current Tu B'shvat collection!

NOTD: Hanukkah nails! (1/?)

Happy Hanukkah everyone! I don't have anything super profound to say about this nail art, but it was surprisingly fun to do, and very easy! I was thinking about starting with only one lit candle and then adding a new one every day, but that would mean leaving this on for eight days, and if you know me at all, making me wear the same nail polish for even three days is cruel and unusual. Even if somehow a Hanukkah miracle occurred and it didn't have any chips or tip wear in that spam of time. I suppose it would be a seasonally appropriate miracle, but I'm not patient enough to test it out :D I have a few Hanukkah nail designs planned out, but I'm not committing to a full eight days of new nail art, so let's see how many I can manage!

NOTD: Coooooookkkkkkiiiiieeeeeee!!!

I think this might be the fastest turnaround I've ever done on a post, and that includes 31DC (I usually try to run a day or three early so that I have time to prepare posts). I painted my nails, photographed, and edited everything within a span of three hours for this post! I had originally done this design yesterday, but the photos were pretty terrible because of the overcast weather, and this morning I redid them because I had pretty bad tip wear.

I did these nails as part of a challenge posted in a Facebook nail art group I'm in, where the theme was "Matte + Glossy". I dunno what brought cookies to mind, but I decided to run with it! I made the base of the cookie matte, and then I added drops of glossy top coat over the chocolate chips, which also made them a little bit bumpy, adding even more realism! And then of course, I had to make a simple Cookie Monster accent :D

Polishes used:
Bourjois- In The Navy (blue base)
perfect Chic- Frost (cookie base)
Careline- Hot Chocolate (brown outline)
Superficially Colorful- Mud Slide (chocolate chips)
Ga-de- Whitest White
LeChat- Black Magic
Golden Rose matte top coat

Swatched: OPI Pretty Penne + Red Fingers & Mistletoes

Hi everyone, it's been a while!

I accidentally got overzealous on nail trimming recently and I now have pretty short nails, but I swatched a couple of new OPI polishes while my nails were still at post-31DC length, so here they are!

Pretty Penne

Shade

Sunlight

I saw this swatched by Swatch And Learn a while ago, and ironically, even though she wasn't all that impressed by it, I was so taken with her swatches that I picked it up the next chance I got. And I absolutely stand by that impulse buy :D I love it! It's a little sheer, needing 2-3 coats for opacity, but it's very easy to control and I really love the color. I can't quite quantify it- the first word that comes to mind is 'copper', but it's also kinda gold and kinda silver.

Red Fingers and Mistletoes

Sunlight

Shade

What is it with polishes called Mistletoe? I love Orly's Meet Me Under the Mistletoe and I absolutely adore this one, too- I picked it up in a destash sale and I had no idea what I was getting, but I am glad I did. This is a jelly, so it also takes 2-3 coats to opacity. Even then, there's a liiiiiitle bit of VNL in direct sunlight, but it's not a big deal. I love how rich and jewel like this is.

#31DC2015 Day 25- Inspired by Fashion

You know, I think this is the third time in this challenge where I freehanded something that I really should have used a stamping plate for. 2015, the year I was a complete masochist and picked out really difficult (for me) ideas for every. single. nail art challenge.

Side note: I was surprised that I didn't see a single nail art for Inside Out on day 23!! To be honest, the only reason why I didn't do Inside Out was because I thought it would be the obvious choice! Well... I'll do it next year. And with my luck, next year like half of the entries will be Inside Out :3

The fashion I was inspired by was Steampunk. You can't really tell so well under the gears, but I did a saran wrap mani of two different browns as a base, to give it a more antique and worn look. The gears were done with acrylic paint and a paintbrush, except for the clock face, which was nail polish. I tried it glossy first, but I ended up liking it WAY better matte. I'm pretty happy with this mani, but I'm SUPER pleased with how my middle finger came out!

Polishes used:

Orly- Golden Maharaja (darker brown shimmer)

L'oreal Paris- Mysterious Icon (lighter brown shimmer)

il makiage- Pearl Jam (clock face)

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#31DC2015 Day 21- Inspired by a Color

My name is Leah, and I have a confession to make...

...I really like the color pink. Like, a lot. When I started out blogging, I objected to it. I felt like it had been force-fed to me too much as a kid and even as an adult, and I had a knee-jerk reaction to pink as a "stereotypically girly" thing. I felt like, well, if I'm going to indulge in this girly hobby, at least I won't fall into excessively girly color habits, right?

And look, I'm still as much of a grumpy feminist as I ever was. I still oppose the whole idea of branding everything and anything for little girls in eye searing pink, with no other color options available. I'm miffed when "his" and "hers" items are allllways pink and blue. It just annoys me, because there are other beautiful colors out there, and all genders should be allowed to partake of all colors with no shame or pressure. It's just that me, as a nail artist, I've grown to appreciate it personally. And so, as my own kind of apology to the color pink, today's post is dedicated to all of it.

I've kind of had similar epiphanies about orange and yellow, although my objection to those had always been aesthetic rather than oversaturation related. I have learned to give my love to all the different colors of the rainbow

I can't believe I just went on a feminist rant about pink nail art. My apologies. Here, have my nails:

Polishes used:
Perfect Chic- Mist (gold base)
Perfect Chic- Hot Fuchsia (fuchsia shimmer)
Perfect Chic- Lovey Dovey (baby pink [dries matte w/o topcoat])
ILNP- Champagne Blush (pink holo [!!!!!!!!!! i need to swatch this on its own at some point it's amazing])

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#31DC2015 Day 18- Half Moons

I always forget that this day exists for some reason. Honestly, I'm not a huge fan, I'd much rather do a french tip than a half moon. But alas! I'm also not that great at them, weirdly enough. I don't have vinyls, so I'm stuck with freehand for these fellers. I'm okay with how they came out, mostly because the gluequins I stuck on the border between the two colors hides how sloppy the half moons actually are :D :D :D

Also! This is the first mani I have ever done using Zoya!!!!!! I picked up a few Zoyas in a destash recently, my first ever. They're virtually impossible to get here, so I'd been lemming that brand for years, and now I have some!

Polishes used:
Zoya- Dream (blue)
Impala- 099 (gold)



   

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#31DC2015 Day 8- Metallic

Duochrome counts as metallic right? It totally counts. I decided. Plus, I just bought ILNP Bishop from a destash and I haven't had the chance to try it yet, so here it is.

Polishes used:
ILNP- Bishop (base color)
Golden Rose Color Expert- 69 (gold stamp)

Stamping plate- Mash 44
Triangle Decals- from Decopopshop on Etsy

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#31DC2015 Day 4- Green

For green I immediately knew that I wanted to do a circuit board inspired mani, and because I'm a masochist I decided to freehand the design instead of stamping it. (also I couldn't find the stamping plate with the circuits so...)

Polishes Used:
ANNY- Paradise on Earth (green base)
Golden Rose Color Expert- 69 (gold stripes)
Golden Rose Color Expret- 43 (blue LED light accents)
Golden Rose Color Expert- 58 (silver accents)
LeChat- Black Magic (black accents)

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#31DC2015 Day 3- Yellow

So for this mani I basically lined up a bunch of my favorite yellows and dotted them on randomly. I couldn't decide whether to wear this glossy or matte, so I did both. What do you think?

Colors used:
Color Club- Disco's not Dead (base)
Golden Rose Color Expert- 69
Chic- 292
Color Club- Psychedelic Scene
Ga-de- Mellow Yellow
Ga-de- Curry Delight

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#31DC2015 Day 1- Red

IT BEGINS!!!! This is my third 31DC, so I should be an old hat at this by now. But lately I've been demonstrating a chronic inability to post more than once a week, so let's see if I survive this year! In 2013 I got to day 25, in 2014 I made it all the way through but not all of it made it to my instagram. My goal this year is to finish the whole challenge AND crosspost to instagram every day. Wish me luck!

Since this is a post-every-day kind of deal, I'm not going to wax poetic most days unless I have something specific to say about the mani. Probably for the best, really :)

Polishes used:
Essence- Do you speak love? (red cream)
Golden Rose- Color Expert #69 (gold)
Golden Rose- Jolly Jewels #121 (red glitter)

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NOTD: Red and black gradient

Hello all! I have a simple and classic manicure for today. I have wanted to do a red to black gradient for a while, but I always remembered that at inconvenient times so I never got around to it. Now I finally have! I'm actually not thrilled with this, the gradient is a little too sudden for my taste. I'll probably do these again at some point. But they still look pretty nice, so here they are:

NOTD: Purple gradient x2

I'm baaaaaaack!

I've been gone for ages. Between Passover, the convention, and moving to a new apartment, I've been super MIA from this blog. I've been on Instagram and Facebook a little, but I slacked off there too. I've been making tons of new nail polishes though, and I'll share them here over time!

Recently I made two different nail arts on a similar purple gradient base. They're not identical, but because of their similarity I decided to put them both in one post.

This one is from shortly before I moved:

For this one I used a Golden Rose Color Expert lavender (which I have since broken so I can't remember the name), and Color Club Disco Dress in the gradient. I can't remember what I stamped with, but the colors I used to fill in the squares are Color Club Eternal Beauty (purple holo) and Cherubic (beige holo)

This one is from just recently:

For this mani I used OPI You're Such a Budapest and Golden Rose Color Expert 59. The music decals and the treble clef accent are both from the Born Pretty Store (if you go and buy them use my discount code to get 10% off! It's in the sidebar, check it out)

Swatched: Random Superficially Colorful polishes

Hey all! I don't especially have a theme for today's post, I just thought I'd share swatches of some more Superficially Colorful polishes that I picked up on Black Friday.

I'll admit that these aren't my best swatches ever, they came at the end of a long day of swatching so my cuticles were a disaster and the lighting isn't perfect. But they're still really pretty polishes, so I needed to share!

I don't have anything to say about them individually so I'll address them as a group. The formula was great, opaque in two medium coats, not too thick and not too thin. They all have a very similar shimmer that isn't in your face glittery but is a more subdued, classy kind of gorgeous. New World and Cornucopia are more metallic shades (New World is completely smooth while Cornucopia has the tiiiiniest hint of brush strokes, but only if you're really looking for them), while Omaticaya is more of a jelly. They all have some holo but Omaticaya's holo is the most prominent. Overall I've had a fantastic experience with every single shade I've tried so far from Superficially Colorful, and I'd recommend them to anyone! I have one of her thermals on its way to me and I can't wait to get it :D

NOTD + Preview!

Today I have a preview for the Passover collection! This is an early version of a polish that I'm planning to release for Passover. I've still got to tweak it a bit- the glitter sinks to the bottom and it took four coats to be opaque. But still, this one turned out so pretty that I needed to wear it as a full mani!

After I wore it by itself for the purpose of swatching in natural daylight, the next day I added some stamping accents and little gold decorations, which is why this is also an NOTD post. This is some more Born Pretty Store stuff I picked up on Black Friday, the stamping plate is BP-L 004, and the little treble clefs are also from there.

So, what do you think of this color?

NOTD: Red and gold stripes

This is a pretty simple design and a lot of people have done it, but there's something that's just classic and timeless about red and gold with minimalist art-deco style stripes.

Polishes used: 
Ga-de Hypnotic Red
Ga-de Gold Glamour

31DC2014 Day 26- Inspired by a pattern

I took today's inspiration from a very personal place. For my 20th birthday, my dad got me two strings of beautiful pearls- one freshwater and one saltwater- during a business trip he took to Beijing. I've worn both strands of pearls many times since. Today's art is inspired by the little satchel he brought me the pearls in- a beautiful burgundy color embroidered with elaborate gold and cushioned on the inside to keep the pearls safe. In the nearly  decade since the satchel has gotten a little frayed, but it still is very dear to me. Since I queued the posts for the high holidays in advance, I will no longer have this art on by the time this post propagates, but there's a high likelihood that I'm wearing one of the strings of pearls :)

(I couldn't find an exact match to the burgundy, so this is my closest  shade!)

I'd also like to note that this post officially means that I've gotten further in 31DC than last year, woo!

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