Golden Oldie Thursday - Texture

Hi everyone! This is a fast lunch break post - work is killing me lately! My textured manicure is coming to you in the form of a glitter and a crackle. I didn't have any old/unused textured polishes. The glitter for this manicure is one I've had since my birthday last year and still hadn't ever busted out: Butter London Rosie Lee. The crackle over the top is from AVON. I've had it for a good three years and the fad came and went so quickly, I never even had a chance to try it! I was a little bummed out because AVON called this polish Mosaic Effects, and the picture on the bottle was of a jagged, squarish crackle, so I had hoped that maybe this one would be different from regular crackle polish. It was not, but nevertheless, here it is!

 Here are a few shots of it as well with the flash on.

And this is Rosie Lee all by herself. I did three thin coats of polish to get it opaque. I love all the sparkle!

 

Well that is all - I have to get back to work! Make sure you take a look at what the other girls did for this challenge!

An InLinkz Link-up

Golden Oldie Thursday - Dots

Good morning! I have some dots for you today featuring some more of my ancient nail polish! I started off this manicure with an AVON polish I bought at least 9-10 years ago. It was surprisingly still in great shape - no thinner required - and went on well. This is AVON Watermelon Shimmer.

After that, I added some dots with two more old polishes: Loreal Presto and Sally Hansen Heartbeat Creme. I've had both of these for at least the last 8 years. They are old, but were also still the perfect consistency. Yay! I tried a new pattern with my dots - not creative at all, I know - but it's new to me!

Here is AVON Watermelon Shimmer all by itself. It's pretty nice - the dents in the polish are my fault: I was a little impatient. :)

Thanks for checking out my nails today. Make sure you look at everyone else's dots, too!

30 Day Flower Challenge Day 30: Inspired by Another Participant

Well, it appears Dahlia and I are alone in this challenge, but that is ok, because she did so many cute manis, I had a tough time picking. She was a lot more creative than I was with her representations of a lot of the flowers, too. I initially had it narrowed down to SIX of her manis from this challenge, and after much deliberation, I decided to recreate her carnation manicure. I love how creative this was and it looks so pretty in the photographs! Here is how mine turned out.

I started off with Avon Casablanca for the base, then added my 'petals' with Pure Ice SuperStar! using a fine nail art brush.

I used three thin coats here. I've had this polish for a long time, so I'm not sure if you can still buy it, but it's a really pretty, and has a great formula, even after all of these years.

Make sure you check out what everyone else did for this one. Although it is just the two of us now, we did decide to open this challenge up so that anyone who wants to do a laid-back version can do it, too! The inlinkz close on 12/31/13 at 11:55pm ET, so please feel free to start whenever you want! If you do, let us know because we would love to see what you come up with!

Laid-Back NEW31DC Day 3 - Gold

For this manicure, I basically pulled out every gold polish I own and did a mosaic style mani with them. It was fun to see how all the different golds look together, and I really like how this one turned out. It was one of those few times when my indecisiveness was a good thing. Take a look!

For this mani, I used Loreal Because You're Worth It, Avon Gleaming Gold, Julep Sienna & Vivien, Milani Gold Glitz, China Glaze I Herd That, Sephora by OPI Blasted Gold, L.A. Colors Art Deco Nail Art Lacquer in Gold Glitter, Essie As Gold As It Gets, OPI Goldeneye, and two of my Migi Nail Art Pens which don't have names.

Thanks for looking, and be sure to check out what everyone else did!

10 Day Holiday Nail Art Challenge: Day 8 - Holiday Water Color Technique

This mani is special because it is the very first time I ever tried the watercolor technique. It was fun and looks pretty. I'm definitely going to try it out again with different colors.

I used a base of Julep Kate, then added NYC Wing It Wine Creme, AVON Glimmering Gold and Zoya Ivanka - a Christmas gift from my beautiful sister! Thank you Katie! Here's another pic. I really love how this turned out!

Here's a pic of Julep Kate by itself. You can hardly tell, but it has a slight shimmer. It's very pretty - makes me think of snow!

Thanks for looking, and be sure to look at what the other girls created!

Nail-Aween Nail Art Challenge - Mummy Nails

It's day four of the Nail-Aween Nail Art Challenge, and I had to think long and hard about how to do mummy nails. It's a look that I have seen so many times, I needed to figure out how to put my own spin on it. So, I thought about mummies and that led me to tombs, which led me to the fancy sarcophagi from ancient Egypt, and there was my inspiration. I decided to use what I learned in art history about ancient Egypt to help me out with this mani. Take a look.

with flash

in natural light

I started out with AVON Gleaming Gold, then added my stripes using Bath & Body Works #33 and Mash-46. The eye of Horus was done with the same blue using Mash-36 and then I filled it in with   Pure Ice Black Rage and Pure Ice Super Star!. I'm very pleased with the way this mani turned out! Here is a picture on AVON Gleaming Gold all by itself.

with flash

in natural light

Thanks for looking, and be sure to check out the other participants in this challenge!

datyorkLOVES

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My Nail Journey
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Summer Challenge Day 13 - Dolphins/Whales or Favorite Water Animal

Day 13 (July 25th) of the Summer Challenge is Dolphins/Whales or Favorite Water Animal. Thank goodness this was toward the end of the challenge because it took me weeks to think of this one! I decided to go with seahorses, because they are always the sea animal that makes me the most excited at the aquarium (mostly because they are just so stinkin cute!). :)

For the background, I used Salon Perfect Blue Raspberry. After that, I painted on my seahorses using NYC Taxi Yellow Creme, Finger Paints chocolate brown, and Avon Gleaming Gold using my new nail art brushes!! My nail art can be so much more detailed now - I am so excited! I added the seaweed along the edges using China Glaze Four Leaf Clover, and used a small dotting tool to add the bubbles using Pure Ice SuperStar!.

  
Here is Salon Perfect Blue Raspberry by itself. This is a super inexpensive polish I found at Walmart. It's not the best polish ever, but it has amazing shine with no topcoat and they have a lot of really pretty colors.

Thank you so much for looking! A full outline of the challenge can be found here. Please be sure to check out the other participants in this challenge, too!

1. Theodora from Red Hair and Black Nail Polish
2. Kaki from GlitterObsession
3. Cuti-CLUE-les
4. Whimsical Glam
5. Sue from Creative Nail Design by Sue
6. Sangy from Lipgloss Affairs
7. Taya from Taya
8. Kelly from Adventures in Nail Art
9. Diana from Nails by Diana
10. Alexis Leigh from -XOXO Alexis Leigh
11. Namira from Namira Rahman
12. Chiro from Nail of This Week
13. IsaBella at IsaBella's World
14. Beautilicious Blogger
15. Nikki from Little Green Heart
16. Peace Love and Polish

Valentine's Day Crackle Mani

I got some Sally Hansen Crackle polish for Christmas, and had been dying to try it out. Since it was the weekend before Valentine's Day, I decided to try my hand at drawing a little heart on there as well. The result was a bit busy, but I still liked it. I did something similar with my toes, but skipped the crackle. Here is a picture of how the nails turned out.



Loreal Sock Proof French Tip White, Avon Cotton Candy, and Sally Hansen Crackle Overcoat Cherry Smash

 I loved the way these nails turned out, and I promise they will get better and better as I get more practice.