31 Day Challenge Day 4 - Green

This mani was done for a friend who specifically requested it, inspired by a custom-painted keytar played by the keyboardist of our favorite band. First the inspiration:

Henrik Klingenberg from Sonata Arctica with his epic green keytar

Now the nails!

I used L.A. Colors - Palm Tree for the base, and used tape to mark off the pieces on all but my thumb, painted over with Wet & Wild Wild Shine - Metallica. On the thumb I tried to re-create the gradient on the actual keys with the sponging method and the same colors.

31 Day Challenge Day 3 - Yellow

I was kind of dreading this one. Yellow polishes, 99% of the time in my experience, either have shitty formulas that streak and drag and are a PAIN, or they stain horribly. Or both. But I think I managed to avoid both problems with this one by using a shimmer as the base color...

I have no idea what the brown thing on my ring nail is or how it got there.

I used L.A. Colors - Seashell (two coats, still a little sheer but acceptable), and my yellow Kiss striper to make some flower-like nail art, then decided it needed a bit more bling and went over the yellow striper with a subtle green/orange glitter striper from Diamond Cosmetics.

I really like how this turned out. Seashell is a gorgeous yellow-gold, one of my favorites to wear on its own. Of course, my camera didn't capture the glitter striper very well. I have got to figure out how to fix that problem.

31 Day Challenge Day 2 - Orange

For orange, I just *had* to re-create a mani from before I started blogging, the one mani that got me the most compliments EVER, despite being stupidly simple. One of my first freehand nail art mani's, actually.

Sorry for the horrid tipwear... I didn't get around to taking pics until after a car-maintenance session involving changing the oil and oil and air filters... that shit's rough on nails!

The base color is a layering of Sinful Colors - All About You (sparse gold glassfleck) over L.A. Colors  - Tahiti Sunrise (shimmery pinky-red-orange). Over that I used a black L.A. Colors striper for the tiger stripes and obviously topcoat.

31 Day Challenge Day 1 -- Red

I've been slacking on nail art lately, so I think it's time to dig out my folder of Challenges that I've been stashing for a while. I'll go ahead and start with the 31 Day Challenge. Day 1 is Red.

I used my favorite classic red, Color Club - Red Cadillac, and sponged Sally Hansen Gem Crush - Cha-Ching! on the tips. Yeah, I really like glitter tips. 

Frosted

I was feeling a bit ice-princess.

This is the dark silver glassfleck from the Claire's Disco Inferno mini set, tipped with Color Club - Covered in Diamonds. 

My camera really doesn't like picking up holo bits, it seems... the tips are much blingier IRL!

Copper patina

Finally got around to using matte top coat. I keep staring at all the cool things other people do with it, and I've had this one for a while, but never used it. Until...

...I had this neat idea. Two coats of Finger Paints - Tiffany Imposter is the base color, which reminded me of the green oxide on old copper stuff. So to kinda keep with that theme, I used Wet & Wild Craze - Free, Free At Last (gold crackle) in a light and patchy way, then topped it off with Hard Candy - Matte-ly In Love. 

This looks so much better in person. My photography skills are... not that good, really.

I love all the punny names for matte top coats. They make me smile. :D

Vampy sparkles

Just a little quickie layering today. 

I managed to not paint all over my fingers! Be proud of me!

I started with one careful coat of China Glaze - Seduce Me, added another careful coat of Wet & Wild Wild Shine - Night Prowl, and then halfway down a layer of Revlon - Scandalous.

Both Night Prowl and Scandalous are purple glitters in a black jelly base, but Night Prowl only has microglitter while Scandalous has microglitter and hex glitter. The jelly base lets Seduce Me show through in good light, giving it a more purple-pink tone behind the black and a very subtle gradient look.