#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])

An InLinkz Link-up

#31DC2015 Day 12- Stripes (+ swatch!)

So yeah... this is definitely a holo streak. We're on day five straight where holo is a main component in my manis. What can I say, I have a type! I regret nothing. I also have a particular attachment to this color combo- I love the teal/fuchsia/orange look, or variations on it.

The base for this polish was ILNP Mega, and this is my first time wearing it, so I decided to snap a few photos of it by itself before I put the stripes on top. I'm going to say something blasphemous, and I'm terribly, terribly sorry! But I'm not that impressed by this polish! It took four coats to reach opacity, and while the holo does look really lovely, it wasn't as strong as I expected. I've always thought of ILNP as the benchmark brand for indies, but Mega was kind of a disappointment for me. It was fine, but it didn't wow me like I was hoping for it to.

That said, the formula is fine, if thin, it dried reasonably quickly and to a completely smooth finish with no patches or streaks. Even though I used four coats, I was able to put the striping tape over it after about fifteen minutes (with the help of some fast dry topcoat but still) and it didn't dent.

Polishes used:
ILNP- Mega (holo base)
Color Club- Mrs. Robinson (fuchsia stripes)
Ga-De- Orange Poppy (orange stripes)
China Glaze- Custom Kicks (teal stripes)
LeChat- Black Magic (black stripes)

An InLinkz Link-up

NOTD: Goth skittles

Now isn't that a pair of words that you would not expect to see strung together. but that's the only way I can really describe this particular manicure. I was trying for a jet black holo look, but I ended up getting a gunmetal holo instead so I shrugged and added some red accents. Initially the stripes were the same color as the red hex glitter, but when I added topcoat they bled to a pale pink so I painted over them. And thus, I ended up with two different reds and a gunmetal grey, when all I really wanted was a black holo. Sigh. Still, I made lemonade and I think these came out pretty nice, if unexpected!

Polishes used:
Ga-De Black Swan (black base)
Beauty Care almost-black holo
Orly Smoulder

NOTD: Summery freehand geometric doodles

I haven't done a full manicure of just freehand painting (no stamps, tricks, striping tape, or any techniques) in a while, so it was time to do one! And since it's been crazy hot lately, it needed to be in bright, summery colors. I went into these nails with absolutely no plan in mind and I'm actually pretty pleased with how they turned out! I could have done better cleanup, but honestly the end result is so pretty that I didn't even mind my questionable cuticles. I kept this on for nearly a week, which for me is about a thousand years in nail polish time.

I also took pictures of my right hand, which is unusual! Obviously I couldn't draw anything nearly this precise with my non-dominant hand, so instead I used the same set of colors to do a striping tape thing with some spiraly things from eBay.

Polishes used:
Ga-de Purple Paradise
Ga-de Mint Green
Ga-de Peach Sorbet

Sinful Colors + GoldNails summer collection

Recently Sinful Colors released a new bright, summery collection in collaboration with Goldi from GoldNails, and they sent me a few nail polishes to review and create some designs with. I am very excited to show them to you here!

לאחרונה, סינפול קולורס הוציאו קולקצית לקים בהירה וקיצית בשיתוף פעולה אם גולדי מ-GoldNails, ושלחו לי חלק מהלקים לסקור ולהכין איתם נייל ארט קייצי. אני מתה להראו לכן מה הכנתי!

In this post I have swatched each of the three colors I was sent, plus three different nail designs, each on a different base.

בפוסט הזה עשיתי סוואצ'ים לכל שלושת הלקים שנשלחו אלי, פלוס שלושה נייל ארטים- כל אחד על בסיס אחר.

Cinderella:

Cinderella is a soft blue cream polish with a hidden pink shimmer. What a perfect name for this polish! This color is perfectly reminiscent of Cinderella's beautiful blue ball gown from the classic Disney movie. The shimmer doesn't change the overall color, but it adds a softness and a magical tone to the look. I used four coats for this swatch.

Cinderella זה לק תכלת אם גימור קרמי עם שימר ורוד עדין. איזה שם מושלם לצבע הזה, נכון? זה בדיוק מזכיר את השמלה המהממת שסינדרלה לבשה בסרט דיסני הקלאסי. השימר לא משנה את הצבע עצמו, אלא מוסיפ לו גימור רך ועדין וקסמי. בתמונות האלה אני מרחתי 4 שכבות.

Easy Going:

Easy Going is another very soft shade, this time a pale nude/pink color that is almost white. I can see why it's called Easy Going, this is a very laid back and easy to wear polish. It's a great base for nail art, too! This polish applied very streaky at first, but after three coats and top coat it is smooth and even.

Easy Going זה גם צבע מאוד עדין, הפעם ניוד/ורוד שכמעט לבן. גם ללק הזה יש שם מאוד מתאים לצבע שלו- זה צבע שממש קל ללבוש אותו, הוא נטרלי אך לא משעמם בכלל. בשכבה הראשונה הלק הזה יצא מאוד לא אחיד, אבל שמתי שלוש שכבות והוא קיבל מראה אחיד ומבריק.

Boogie Nights:

Boogie Nights is a bright, cheerful cream/jelly hybrid which is almost but not quite red. I can't quite call this orange either, I don't really know how to describe it! This one is definitely my favorite nail polish of all three, it's so energetic! I used three coats for this swatch.

Boogie Nights הוא צבע זוהר ושמח, עם גימור קרמי/ג'לי ממש מיוחד. הוא יושב על קו התפר בין אדום וכתום, כך שאני לא ממש יודעת איזה מהם להגדיר אותו! הצבע הזה הוא בהחלט האהוב עלי ביותר מבין שלושתם, הוא ממש אנרגטי ומרענן! בתמונות האלה שמתי שלוש שכבות.

Now for the nail art!

ועכשיו לנייל ארט!

I created this look with a dotting tool, but it can also be recreated with a toothpick or a bobby pin.

את הלוק הזה הכנית עם כלי מנקד, אבל אפשר להכין אותו אפקט אם קיסם שיניים או סיכת סבתא.

I created this look using striping tape as guidelines, but regular tape will work as guidelines too- just be sure the nail polish underneath is 100% dry before applying it.

את הלוק הזה הכנתי עם סלוטייפ שמיוחד ללקים, אבל אפשר גם עם סלוטייפ רגיל. רק ממש חשוב לוודא שהלק 100% יבש לפני ששמים עליו סלוטייפ!

I created this look using the water spotting technique. There are many tutorials for this technique and I am not sure where it originated, but I will briefly describe it: Place a few drops nail polish on the surface of a cup of water and let them spread out for a couple of seconds. Then spray the surface of the water with a mist of cosmetic alcohol or hairspray. The nail poilsh will begin to bubble and split, and in a few more seconds it will look the way it does on my nails. Then you dip your fingers into the water, so that the pattern is transferred on to your nails. It is quite easy to do, although it's pretty messy.

את הלוק הזה הכנתי עם טכניקת "Water Spotting". יש הרבה טיוטוריאלים לזה, אבל אני אסביר בקצרה: לוקחים כוס מים (כדאי בחד-פעמי) ומניחים עליו כמה טיפות לק. אחרי כמה שניות הלק יתפזר על משטח המים. משפריצים קצת אלכוהול קוסמטי או ספריי לשיער עליו, ומייד הלק יתחיל לבעבע ולהתפרק בצורות שנראות כמו מה שיש בתמונות כאן, טובלים את הציפורניים בתוך הכוס, והלק נדבק לציפורניים. זה ממש קל לעשות, אבל עושה המון בלגן!

Sinful colors can be purchased at Superpharm branches all over Israel, and it usually costs between 10-15 shekel per bottle. They have a lot of beautiful colors, and they are very affordable, go check them out!

ניתן להשיג סונפון קולורס בסניפי סופרפארם ברחבי הארץ, בדרך כלל במחירים של 10-15 ש"ח לבקבוק. יש להם המון צבעים מהממים, תלכו לראות!

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 catchup- Day 16-17-18

Catchup part one! I'm not going to get  overly wordy today, on to nails!

Day 16- Geometric

Day 17- Glitter

(quick explanation: Hanukkah is a long way off, but I made this glitter for my Hanukkah collection of my indie brand that hasn't launched yet, it's called Topsy Turvy and it's Dreidel themed. I was gonna make a bigger deal of it but I'll discuss this more later!)

Day 18- Half Moons

Next four tomorrow!

An InLinkz Link-up

31DC2014 Day 12- Stripes

I am trying to get more creative with my color schemes, and I came up with this. One of my coworkers commented that it looked "very 1980's". Whaddaya think, should I call this retro? Or accidentally retro?

An InLinkz Link-up

NOTD: Well, teeeeeechnically...

...I'm late. But it's still Thursday somewhere, right? I think this counts as a success. Two more days to go and I'll have completed my self challenge!

I actually posted this over on my instagram a couple of days ago, but the next nail art I have is something I want to dedicate a bit more time to, so I'm gonna post this now. Most of you guys don't follow me on instagram anyway ;)

So how do you like this new pose? I keed, I keed. Blogspot keeps glitching and posting my stuff upside down, but since people do actually pose like this and it looks just fine, I don't have the energy to fight with blogspot formatting to fix my photo orientation.

Anyway, it's almost 1 AM, so have a good night!

NOTD: Springy Skittlette

I'm back to shorties! I've been playing the harp more recently, so I need to keep my nails short for the forseeable future. Still, there's a lot to be done with tiny short round nails, if you are creative enough. I recently picked up China Glaze "For Audrey", which I've been given to understand is a collection staple. So I immediately needed to use it in a skittlette!

Polishes used:

China Glaze- For Audrey

China Glaze- Secret Peri-Wink-Le

Sacara 104 (I think... there are a few similar ones and I forget which I used)

NOTD: Interview Nails 4 & 5- The grand finale!

Yes, folks, that's right! No more interviews for me! (For the time being anyway). I have officially signed with a new job, which I started a week ago.

The thing is, interview nails 4, while pretty, were nearly impossible to photograph. And interview nails 5, the ones I got the offer with, were tipworn and unimpressive. So I've lumped the two kinda mediocre presentations into one, to save space.

For the first mani, I matched them with a new pair of fingerless gloves that I absolutely adore- a soft grey with subtle sparkly threads woven into it. I really wish I'd been able to get better pictures of this, but my camera would just not cooperate. I tried a ton of different lighting, angles, and poses (with and without the gloves in case that was the fault), and I only came up with a couple of usable pictures:

Polishes used:
GA-DE Black Orchid (dark grey)
Indigo Bananas Pan (green-blue duochrome, but with matte only the green is visible)
Unnamed generic light grey

For my second mani, I was called in for the interview kind of last minute, and I still had the Ciate that I swatched from my 2013 roundup on. I had just done a bunch of polish stuff and didn't really have the energy to do anything elaborate, so I just stamped right over my swatch. I then proceeded to forget to take pictures for five days, hence the tipwear. (Really, what got into me though? I never leave polish on for five days!)

All things considered, it held up quite well! Since this just plain black on top of something I swatched just a few posts ago, I don't think I need to list the polishes for you :)

And thus ends the saga of the Interview Nails, at least for a good long time I hope! I've actually been at this job for an entire week already, so I have a bunch more things to share (like my first day of work nails and a few suprises!) But I'll be saving that for another post. My first week was pretty nuts, even just in terms of getting readjusted to 8 hour work days and waking up at a decent hour for transit. I'm hoping I'll manage to scrape together the energy to do multiple posts this week!

31DC2013 Day 21- Inspired by a color

Oh come on- you must know by now. It's going to be turquoise. What else?

I think I have more turquoise in my stash than any other color. Although I use that term very broadly- it also includes teal and aqua, since basically anything on the blue-to-green spectrum is incredibly appealing to me. For my blog I use the tag "blue-green" as a catch all for the color, but today I think it's fairly turquoise.

I rarely do design skittles, but I'm especially happy with these.I'm absolutely going to do some iteration of this manicure again once the challenge is over!

Tomorrow is the first day that really worries me. I honestly have no idea what I'm going to do!

To see who else is participating in today's challenge click the jump: