Black and White - Crumpet Challenge day 1

Sometimes, I think I have to learn a lesson over and over and over again. We may see a lot more of that lesson this month, since I've chosen to join Crumpet's Nail Tarts challenge.

Today, the theme is Black and White. I decided to try a dry marble french, as seen here. The lesson is: my photos stink. And I should look closely at them before removing a manicure, even if I have to do several in a day so that I can post them on time.

The ingredients are simple -- Sinful Colors' Black on Black plus Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On. The marbling wasn't bad, even. But I didn't remember to clean up, there's weird cotton ball schmutz hanging on the edge of my nails, and I can absolutely, positively do better. Way better.

Tomorrow, I'll try silver nails. Well, later tonight, but you'll see it tomorrow!

Messy snowflakes!

Once again, my vision and the reality of my manicure had, let's call it, creative differences. Still, it turned out okay:

Strangely, I got a lot of compliments from total strangers, even though you have to squint to see the snowflakes underneath my mess of topcoat.

The base is Revlon Royal, and I used my dotting tool in Sally Hansen White On and NOPI Lights Kim-era Action to make snowflakes. I wanted more sparkle, so I decided to break out my new bottle of Color Club Covered In Diamonds, and it was jell-o thick and really clumpy. I put some thinner in after the manicure, so I'll try it again later. And use a very light hand.

Once again, I'm certain the others following the challenge had far prettier results. Go check them out!

Frosty the poorly proportioned snowdude...

For this challenge, I looked for some snowman ideas, and I saw, and really liked, this one:

While I didn't have the exact same colors on hand, I think my version isn't bad...but I made his head too small to be able to fit on decent sized features, and there's no way a scarf will work since his mouth sorta covers his neck-al area.

The turquoise base is Sally Girl Dumped and the nose is Amped. The snowman and ground are Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On, the black is Sinful Colors Black on Black, the silver is Elle Dancing Queen, and the shimmery white is NOPI Lights, Kim-era, Action.

I got dotting tools (straight from scenic Guangzhou!) and used a bunch of them. Unfortunately, the biggest one fell out of the tool within 10 or so dots. I'm going to try to epoxy it back together. I'm pretty sure the epoxy will cost more than the entire set of tools did, including shipping. I know, I shoulda ordered from bornprettystore or ... not China, but we've been poor lately. Maybe Santa will bring me some cash. And I won't feel obligated to spend it on "bills" or "living indoors".

I can't wait to see what my fellow challengers did! Check it out here!

Candy Cane Lane

Because I believe in torturing myself, I keep finding more reasons to water marble. Since the chances of me figuring out the striping tape or making a shape that looked more like a candy cane than a sick worm were, let's just say, limited, I figured the water marble was my best shot at recognizable candy cane-itude. And then I realized that my shirt today is sorta candy-cane-esque, though it totally doesn't match reds.

The base is Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On. I used Finger Paints Sketch n Etch and China Glaze Ruby Pumps, with more white between the dots. I'm getting better at this, but the only finger that really looks candy cane-y is the middle. By the way, double dipping leads to interesting, but not really pretty results, as is evidenced by my index finger. I also figured out how to get two fingers out of each marble, which feels less wasteful.

I did tape the heck out of my fingers, but oh, there was still a ton of clean-up. Here's my right hand, after tape removal, before acetone.

Go see what awesome candy canes my fellow challengers came up with!

Santa Claus is Comin' To Town

This one may be a ways towards the abominable side of the spectrum. I had a grand idea, and...well, it was executed. I'm so not good at straight lines.

For the 12 Days of Christmas Nail Art Challenge, the song I couldn't get out of my head was the Fred Astaire version of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town".

You're very welcome.

So I started with a base of Finger Paints Cerulean Seascape with a couple of coats of Darling Diva Ringer (it's a lot like Fantasy Fire! Lovely!) that I'd been wearing for a couple of days. It looked suitably wintry-night-ish. On my thumb, I overlaid a few coats of Sally Hansen CSM Runway Red-y and made a belt out of Sinful Colors Black on Black and the weird Style Essentials Gold. On my index, ring, and pinkie, I made houses out of Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow, L'oreal Park Ave Luncheon, and Sinful Colors' Savage, respectively. I added roofs in the gold, and dotted on windows and doors in black. My middle finger is supposedly Santa's beard -- it's a coat of Commander in Chic with White On saran-wrapped on top.

Does it look like a town? Like a beard? I think I have Santa's belly under control (though if it were black, it might look more like a pilgrim hat than a belted torso!)

It's a learning experience, and I'm having a ton of fun trying new things. I sometimes wish the actual results had any connection to what I'm picturing in my head, though!

Go see what the awesome things my fellow challengers did!

Turkey Marble!

Happy Thanksgiving, to those of you who are celebrating today. I think it's wonderful that we take time to expressly put gratitude into the world, whether we do it every day, or just today.

So this is my second shot at a water marble. I started with a coat of Sally Hansen CSM Haute Chocolate, then marbled a mix of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mellow Yellow, L'Oreal Downtown Chic, Finger Paints Sketch n Etch, and Sally Girl Amped. It started out rough, but I got better at it with each finger, so my right hand worked better than my left.

I dotted on each individual color in the barer spots, and I really like it. I think I've got more of the hang of water marbling. It's still a huge pain and messy as heck.

Time for me to make some green bean casseroles and give thanks with my loved ones.

Flocks in Flight!

So for my Llama Nails weekly challenge, F, I had a vision. And as usual, the execution of the vision is....suboptimal. But I'm getting better.

I first mixed up sally girl Epic and Sally Hansen White On to get a sky blue for two coats. Then I sponged on more White On for clouds, and gave it a couple of hours to dry while I saw an arachnologist debunk the Spiderman movies (did they need debunking? No. But it was entertaining) at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.

After I got back home, I cut up some masking tape and made mountain shapes. I didn't have a great mountain color, so I mixed some Sally Hansen CSM Good to Grape and Haute Chocolate (Walgreen's has all Sally Hansen CSM polishes for $1.88 right now! Go!) and painted it on, one nail at a time, removing the tape right after painting.

I used my smallest skinniest brush (I need a smaller skinnier one!) to paint on wide Ms to be birds in flight, with the V being on my middle nail, with the Haute Chocolate.

Overall, I think I got the effect I wanted, though as always, it would be better if I had steadier hands.

NOTD: Fire! Flames? Something like that....

So my original plan here was to make a sun-rise gradient, but halfway through the process, I decided I wanted brighter red on the tips, so I changed it to flames by sponging on the color in a oval way instead of straight across, and added the blue dot like the center of a burning match.

I used Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Mellow Yellow, Sally Girl Amped, and Maybelline Keep Up the Flame for the gradient, and the blue dot is OPI Unfor-greta-bly Blue. SV is the topcoat. I think I

I did this manicure on Friday, and it hasn't worn well -- lots of tip-wear, and some other assorted chips. On the other hand, this morning I went to the DMV to renew a car registration for a friend, and the DMV lady went on about how cute my nails were and seemed agog that I had done them myself. It totally made my day. I bet she doesn't hear "you totally made my day!" that often at the DMV, so it was good for both of us.

Also! I found a really cool website for style stuff through another blogger, iHeartPrettyPolish: Copious. She found a great Deborah Lippmann Across the Universe dupe: here. It's by Hot Mess, and called "Across the Trailer Park". I joined up with Copious, and I'll put a link for anyone else interested in joining here. They offer $10 credit for signing up, so the polish will be free! (Well, $0.60 in fees, but it's got free shipping. I'm all about this!) I'll post again with pictures when it comes and I can show it off.