Nail Crazies Unite! - "Gold"

I joined a nail art group on Facebook called Nail Crazies Unite that does weekly nail art challenges!  Here's the line-up for March:

I wasn't sure what I wanted to do for this week's theme.  I had thought maybe I'd paint pots of gold, or make it look like gold coins all over my nails.  I ended up doing something much, much simpler, partly because I ran out of time, and partly because I honestly need to work on basic techniques more and get stronger at them.  Here is my simple design:

I used "Gobble Me Up" by Ice Polish (press sample from Thanksgiving) as the base, and then I used "Auld Lang Syne" by Above the Curve as a glitter gradient starting at the tips and lessening towards the cuticles.  These suckers were so SPARKLAY in the direct sunlight - it was awesome!!  Definitely perfect for the "gold" theme.  I'm pretty happy with how it turned out - my glitter gradients are getting better :)

Here are some more designs from the other members of this group!!  Hope you all enjoy the rest of your weekend - don't forget about the "Spring Forward" time change nonsense today! :P

~~~~~~~~~~

An InLinkz Link-up

Meow-di Gras

Hope you all had a fun Mardi Gras yesterday!  Mine was uneventful and I spent the day fighting a migraine that's leaked its way into today :(  So I will be keeping this short and sweet!

A few weeks ago I purchased two new polishes freshly released from one of my favorite indies - Ice Polish!  One of those polishes is Meow-di Gras, and I used it as an accent on the tips of my nails - check it out:

I am so totally in love with her new labels!!!  But then again, I've always been a fan of penguins <(")  This glitter is sooooooo sparkly!!  I wish I could have caught that better in my photos!  It also spread out very nicely considering it is a glitter bomb and those tend to clump.  I adore the cat glitters in this mix, too - just makes it so fun and unique :)  I freehand painted the cat wearing a Mardi Gras mask, just for fun :)

What do you think?  Are you a fan of glitter bombs, or cat glitters?

Challenge Your Nail Art: Fall Colors

Hard to believe Thanksgiving is tomorrow already!!  I'll be spending the morning making grilled bacon guacamole and sweet potato bacon and chive biscuits.  Yummo!!

Today is the third theme for Challenge Your Nail Art - Fall Colors!

I have to admit, this one had me stumped a little.  You'd think such a vague subject would be easy, but I operate better on specific themes rather than leaving it to my imagination - go figure :P  So I decided to go with something a bit simple, and a little new technique for me :)  Here's my design:

I found every polish I had of my favorite fall colors (the reds, oranges, golds, and browns of the changing leaves).  I lined them up so they would look like they were turning from red to brown/black and sponged them on that way in a long gradient design.  From left to right, I used "Friday the 13th," "Donna," and "Akiko" polishes from Above the Curve, "Gobble Me Up" from Ice Polish, "Latte," "Mocha," and "Dark Roast," from Model City Polish, and "Blackest Night" from Colors by Llarowe.  The beautiful glitter gradient is "Pilgrimatic" from Different Dimension.  

I'm surprised at how lovely this turned out!  I'll be a little sad to take this off, but happy to know that this type of design worked for me ^_^  Sooooo many options out there now!  The world is mine!  Bwahahahaha!!

Make sure you check out the other lovely designs by some more amazing blogger gals!!  See you tomorrow morning for the last design <3

NOTE: Links I've provided are NOT affiliate (i.e. I get no kickback when you click on them through my post).  I simply provide them for your convenience :)

An InLinkz Link-up

Princesses and Villains: Cinderella & Evil Stepmother

Oh man, I am so happy it is Friday!!  I've got some Halloween costumes to finish this weekend, as well as lots of nail art :D  Good stuff!

So this is a very awesome post for me in more ways than just nail art - let me tell you why :)  Ice Polish is the very first company to ever send me pre-release polishes to swatch and review.  I was (and still am) a baby blog, and at that time was still trying to paint my nails without making a huge mess - and I was still working on my photo skillz.  For her to have sent me polish meant a lot to me, because it was giving me an opportunity, and I will always be very grateful for her taking a chance on me :)

Mushy stuff aside, let me show you the last Princess/Villain set, which happens to also be the set Ice Polish sent to me to review :)  Coming full circle!  Here is Cinderella and Stepmother:

Cinderella is a beautiful powder blue with a subtle holographic effect in the sunlight.  It is a thin formula, and took 3 coats to make it opaque for me.  Dried in under five minutes to a shiny finish.  Stepmother is a gunmetal grey with a more powerful holographic effect in the sunlight.  It took about 3 coats to make it opaque, as well, and also dried in under 5 minutes to a shiny finish.  Again, another perfect set!

Cinderella and Mulan have been the only two princesses I feel I was able to capture pretty well.  Though, I had to re-paint the skintone on this Cinderella, because what I had done before made her look like a Warhol painting O_o  Lesson learned about using low artificial lightning when painting.  But my Stepmother looks awesome! :D

I'm bummed this is the last set, but had a lot of fun doing these!!  I hope you enjoyed them, too ^_^  Today is Friday, which means another round of You-Pick-My-Art!  We're sticking with a Halloween theme since it is only a week away!  So make sure you check my Facebook Page for this week's options!  See you soon <3

*Note: Cinderella and Stepmother were sent to me as a press sample months ago, NOT for this art.  Links I provide are NOT affiliate (i.e. I do not get a kick back when you click on the through my bog).  I simply provide them for your convenience :)  

Princesses and Villains: Mulan & Shan Yu

Sorry for the delayed post today - I slept in later than I anticipated.  Clearly I needed the sleep :P

I gotta say, this is my favorite set so far with regards to accuracy.  This is the first princess I'm not embarrassed to show!  Hooray!!  Here is Mulan & Shan Yu over Mulan and Shan Yu by Ice Polish.

Mulan and Shan Yu (the polishes) are my favorite of the Princess/Villain polishes in the Dreams Come True...Not If I Can Help It! collection, not just because they look fantastic together, but because they have the loveliest colors to me.  The application was really smooth, and even though Shan Yu's formula was a bit thicker than the others, it still applied evenly without gooping or pulling.  It was practically opaque after one coat, but I added one more to make sure it was nice and even.  Another great set of polishes by an awesome indie brand :)

And like I said, I'm darn proud of this art!!  I feel like I finally captured the Princess well instead of making her look like the oddball cousin :P  I hope you all enjoy this art, too!

Next Thursday is the last Princess/Villain set, so keep an eye out for it.  Tomorrow is the next round of You-Pick-My-Art on my Facebook Page - we're going to go old-school horror for that one ;)

See you soon! <3

*NOTE: Links in my blog are NOT affiliate (i.e. I get no kickback when you click on them).  I simply provide them for your convenience :)

Princesses and Villains: Aurora & Maleficent

I've come to the conclusion that my Princesses are always gonna look like poop.  For some reason, I just can't seem to paint them well.  Oh well - you win some, you lose some!

This week's Princess/Villain set is Aurora and Maleficent from Ice Polish :)  Here you go!

Aurora is a gorgeous baby pink with a light scattered holographic effect, and Maleficent is a beautiful duochrome with a nice sparkle in the sunlight.  Maleficent was a limited edition polish and is no longer available, but Aurora is still up for grabs in the Etsy shop!

Tomorrow is the next round of You-Pick-My-Art!!  Be sure to check my Facebook Page and vote for your favorite!  See you soon <3

*NOTE:  One of these two polishes was a prize for winning a giveaway.  While it was not purchased, it was NOT supplied for the purposes of a review.  Links are NOT affiliate (i.e. I do not get any sort of kickback when you click on them through my blog),  I simply provide them for your convenience :)

Princesses and Villains: Belle and Gaston

Alright, I'm gonna cut right to the chase, here - I hate these nails.  I painted over them multiple times, I tried Belle 3 different ways, and Gaston twice before I threw in the towel and accepted that the Nail Art gods are trying to tell me that's the best I'm gonna do for now :P  So, I left it alone, fixed it up, took some pics, and washed my hands of it.  Practice makes perfect, and I will most definitely be coming back to this design again in the near future :)

So, without putting it off any further (and I'm wincing as I upload these), here are Belle and Gaston over the beautiful "Belle" and "Gaston" polishes by Ice Polish.

For some reason this lighting made the polish look more butter yellow, when it's definitely more golden, like in the other pics.  At least you can see the pretty gold and light pink flecks of glitter in this macro ^_^ 

Like I said, lots of room for improvement in the art, but the polish is great!  I applied two coats of each polish to make it completely opaque, and they both dried very quickly, as every polish by this brand has thus far.  Belle dried to a semi flat finish, whereas Gaston dried to a shinier finish.

I love that Ice Polish managed to replicate the beautiful gold of Belle's dress for this polish, it's just lovely :)  And the deep maroon/red of Gaston is perfect for him, as it reminds me of his barely-fitting shirt.  She did a great job with this duo!

To keep up-to-date on Ice Polish, here are some social links for you.  I'll provide her shop link, too, though she is currently on vacation mode.

Facebook: Here

Etsy: Here

Instagram: Here

There will be no You-Pick-My-Art this week since I will be out of town, but I will still be posting for you :)  Hope you all have a wonderful Thursday!  See you soon <3

Princesses and Villains: Jasmine & Jafar

So last week I showed you Ariel and Ursula from the "Happily Ever After...Not If I Can Help It!" collection by Ice Polish.  This week I have the next set: Jasmine and Jafar!

Jasmine is a lovely light seafoam green with a subtle holographic shimmer.  Jafar is a deep magenta purple with purple micro flakies and a linear holographic effect.  Same as usual - really easy formula to work with, opaque in 2 coats, spread evenly, dried in under 5 minutes.  Love this polish :)

For some reason my villains are looking way better than my princesses so far :P  I'll work on that for the next pair.  Speaking of, I have Belle/Gaston, Mulan/Shan Yu, Aurora/Maleficent, and Cinderella/Stepmother left - which one do you want to see next?? :D

Princesses and Villains: Ariel and Ursula

The indie polish brand Ice Polish launched a "Happily Ever After...Not If I Can Help It!" princess/villain line of polishes.  I had the pleasure of reviewing Cinderella and Stepmother a while back as a pre-release.  After she launched the full line, I snagged all the rest that I didn't have, because they are so beautiful!!  Ice Polish is one of my favorite indies because she has one of the best formulas I have come across.  In the pics I'm about to show you, I've been wearing the polish for 4 days with no wear, tear, chips, or any kind of damage.  It's a darn good polish!

So after acquiring all the princess/villain duos, I decided to do something fun with all of them!  I wanted to hand paint each princess and villain on top of their corresponding nail polishes.  I am going to try to post one set a week for you for until all 6 sets are done.

Without further ado, here is the first duo: Ariel and Ursula!

As you can see, Ariel is a beautiful coral pink color with a light holographic effect in the sunlight and very subtle light green (the color of her tail) micro flakies.  Ursula is a dark, almost metallic purple, also with a holographic effect, and dark purple micro flakies.  Both were opaque in 2 coats, dried under a minute to a semi-flat finish.  

I gotta say, I love how my Ursula turned out!!  Pretty happy with that one ^_^  I didn't intend to make Ariel's neck look so pencil-like, it just happened that way when I was trying to paint her hair to look like it was flowing in front of it.  Oh well :P 

Both polishes (to my knowledge) will be available for purchase in a few weeks when the shop re-opens.  In the mean time, I have Belle/Gaston, Cinderella/Stepmother, Mulan/Shan Yu, Aurora/Maleficent, and Jasmine/Jafar left to paint for you! :)

Which princess/villain duo do you want to see next week?