31 Day Challenge - Day 1: Red

It's been a long time since I've properly painted my nails. Over a month, which is probably a record for me. I've been so busy with school that it's been hard to do, and I've felt more than a little bit uninspired. To get myself back in the game, I've decided to do the 31 Day Manicure Challenge, which I've been oggling for a while but never got around to doing!

Day 1 is red nails. Red is a very tricky color for me, because in general, I absolutely loathe it. I only have around three red polishes, mostly gotten from nail polish sets, or the occasional red that I actually really like. This is one of the reds that I actually like, because it's such a dark shade: Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Brilliant Bordeaux.

I feel so strange wearing red nails! It's hard for me to sport a mani that's purely red, so I added some accent nails - a glitter gradient of Sinful Colors All About You.

I'm not sure who first made this mani challenge, but if someone could point me in the right direction, that'd be great! Here's the list, for anyone that might also want to try the challenge.

My Second Polish!

I started college on Monday, and I've been too busy/tired to paint my nails then blog about it. But, yesterday I decided to paint my nails with another franken I've made! This one isn't quite as nice as the first -- I love the colors of the glitters, but in the bottle it looks sort of gross because some of them bled and tinted the base. But, as these are just for me, I don't care as long as they look pretty on my nails. So, here it is!

I can't take much credit for it, really, as the glitter is pre-mixed, but I still love it. I'm calling it My Sonic Screwdriver, as it definitely reminds me of The Doctor's Sonic Screwdriver. It's full of gold, blue, and purple hexes (the purples being the ones that bled into my base, but they've still kept color). I initially bought it because it seemed sort of steampunk-y, but once I saw it, it screamed Sonic Screwdriver at me. Hence why it's layered over Jessica Indigo, a TARDIS-like color, so the blue glitters aren't too visible. Even despite the bleeding glitter, I'm so in love with this! And it's perfect for the new season starting tomorrow.

Gradient mani and my first very own nail polish!

So, tomorrow is a big day for me. I start college tomorrow, and wanted a super pretty mani for the day, even if I'm less than excited about school starting up again. This mani is doubly special, as it's both my first time trying a gradient, and one of the three nail polishes I made yesterday! This is my favorite of the three, and the one I was most excited to make. It reminds me of mermaids, and what can be better than that?

I'm calling it Mermaid's Slumber as of right now. It has aqua hexes, fuchsia hexes and moons, and a random purple hex that made it's way onto my thumb. I bought it as a pre-made mix, but as I'm only making polishes for myself and maybe for friends for gifts, it's not a big problem.

My gradient was done with China Glaze Sea Spray and Sinful Colors Athens, and was sponged on. For my first time, I think it came out pretty well! The shift is sort of subtle, because the colors are blueish hues, so it doesn't look as drastic as other colors could. I wanted it to look ocean-y, to match  Mermaid's Slumber, and I absolutely love it, and I'm happy with how it came out. Now, here's just hoping none of my glitters bleed too much!

Rainbow Polish - Taffy

I acquired my third indie polish today! I had Copious credits, and found this on there and fell in love with it. After applying my credits, I only had to pay $1.50, which I was more than happy to pay. So here it is, Rainbow Polish Taffy. There aren't too many swatches of it online already, so my mani consisted of three colors; Sinful Colors Be Happy on my thumb, Sinful Colors Snow Me White on my ring finger, and OPI Pink Friday on my pinky, middle, and index fingers. And let me tell you, this polish looks completely different on each color, it's incredible!

Bottle shots to show the colors of the glitter; there's pink, white, purple, light blue, and light lime green in varying sizes of hexes, and light blue squares.

See how the colors seem to change? On pink, the light blue almost looks silvery. On white, the white doesn't show up, but it makes all of the other colors pop unbelievably. On blue, the blue shows up a hue lighter, but all of the other colors pop as well.

I'm so happy I bought this, as I love it already. It's just so beautiful, and so versatile. I'll definitely be ordering more, because there are also other beautiful colors, as seen here at their store.

Glitter Sandwich

I've been slacking a bit on doing my nails. No real reason for it, I just haven't had the inspiration I wanted. It hasn't stopped me from buying nail polish related things, though! I have a new indie polish coming from Copious that will be here hopefully tomorrow, and I've finally bought some glitter to start my own frankening adventures! And then there's the other purchases I made; $230 in textbooks for school, and a TARDIS tea mug! But anyways, on to the nails~

I used JLB Nail Lacquer's 06 for the base, which is a pretty pink jelly base. I haven't been able to find much about the brand on the internet, and I have no clue where it even came from since I took it from my mom. For the glitter, I used Milani Jewel FX Gems, a pretty multicolor hex glitter. I hadn't really thought of it until I was done, but the result sort of looks like Deborah Lippman and Claire's Candy Shop! On the nails with no glitter, it's a good three or four coats of 06, and for the nails with glitter it's 2 coats, glitter, then another coat or two of 06 until the glitter looked a little milky. 

Karine's Noir Désir

Here's the second and final indie nail polish I own at the moment- Karine's Noir Désir! Karine is actually the lovely starter of our Birthday Club, and her collection of polishes were made for each of us. Noir Désir was mine, and I absolutely love it!

Pictures don't do this polish nearly enough justice! It's a black jelly base, packed with flakies and glitters of just about every color you can imagine. There's blue, green, turquoise, orange, yellow, and they shift to every color in between. Here I wore one coat of black as the base, with a coat of Noir Désir, then top coat, but I've also just worn three or so coats of itself and it looks great. I've never not received a compliment while wearing this polish. Not to mention the formula is great- There's no "fishing for flakies" like you have to so often!

Sadly, Karine is no longer selling this collection. If she was, I'd pick up a bottle of Naïade for sure, and now I'm kicking myself for not doing it. She has an amazing blog here, where she posts her amazing nail art and frankens!

P.S., I now have a Facebook page for the blog! Check it out here, and maybe like it if you feel compelled to.

Layla Holos - Flash Black

I have one, yes, one, holo nail polish. A bit depressing, I know, but I didn't get truly obsessed with nail polish until after China Glaze and OPI had their holo collections. But one day in Ulta, I saw the Layla polishes and new I had to get one, despite it being around eleven dollars. I don't regret it one bit. (And, my holo collection will be expanding, as I'm in the middle of a very lovely swap with a girl in a nail polish group I'm in, for the Hits No Olimpo Collection, which I'm sure I'll be showing off when I get them).

Anyways, I'm going away for the weekend and wanted to wear something that would last. Last time I wore this, it lasted for quite a while, and it's beautiful so it's all perfect. I did two coats of the polish, a coat of top coat (which then dulled the holo, of course), then another coat of holo on top of the top coat to bring that shine back.

Thankfully it was nice and sunny today for pictures, but my camera couldn't quite pick up the holo as well as I wish it could have, but it still looks beautiful I think! $11 is probably right around my limit for nail polish (unless it's something super amazing. I might pay more for the Nerd Lacquer Doctor Who nail polishes, but who wouldn't?), but it's a polish that's very much worth it's price.