Week 31 - Neon

Okay, posting this quickly because I'm at work. First off, please excuse the state of my cuticles! They've been impossible to keep moisturized in the first place and yesterday I had to wash my hands several times with some harsh soaps while going through things at work. I really need to figure out where a local Lush store is for me and pick up their cuticle cream that I hear only good things about!

I did these Saturday night and just got around to the chevron taping last night at about 2am, so these pictures are in the early morning of Day 3 for this mani. That considered, these held up quite nicely! Shown here is my right hand... I tried a color experiment with a pink and blue retro-looking accent nail on my other hand and didn't like how it came out. So, because I rarely photograph my right hand, I'm usually 10% less careful about coloring within the lines, so to speak, and also it was late at night.

The orange glitter shown here is China Glaze's Riveting and the bright orange neon is China Glaze's Japanese Koi. Neons are notoriously sheer, so what you see is probably 4 or 5 coats. Also, surprise surprise - Japanese Koi dries matte! I did not notice this before as it is only my second time using this color and first time using it all on its own. :)  But here it is made glossy with a coat of Seche Vite.

This is also my first time using Riveting all on its own and w-o-w, it is freaking gorgeous and I love it to pieces. Okay, so maybe this week's mani was an excuse to try-out and showcase Riveting rather than ACTUAL neons... I know I've enjoyed wearing bright orange on my nails these past few days.

Riveting by China Glaze
Japanese Koi (Neon) by China Glaze

Week 5 - Metallics

OPI's Designer... De Better!
OPI's Warm and Fozzie

From the OPI Muppet Collection:
Base color - OPI's Designer... De Better!
French tips - OPI's Warm and Fozzie

Filling in the weeks that I missed due to starting the challenge mid-November. Did this one last night and have been staring at it all day. So shiny. I love love love the base color. I don't know if you can tell, but there are bright copper-raspberry flecks in the silver that give it a unique warmth. My second time taping French tips. Can be a little tricky shaping the tip to make it even on both sides, but I'm learning, practicing, and mostly have it down.

Week 22 - Inspired by a Flag (February 27, 2012)

British Columbia has the weirdest flag, I dont even know. But I did have fun!This was all free-handed. Got to use my nail art brushes all legit-like to make the union jack and first time doing french tips with regular scotch tape (they turned out pretty okay).

Oh, and if you think my ring-finger sun looks a little wonky, just take a closer look at the flag... I was just trying to be true to the source material - *cough cough*.

Blue - Essie's Aruba Blue
Red - China Glaze's Red Pearl
White - China Glaze's White on White
Yellow - Orly's Hook Up

Week 18 - Inspired by a Movie or TV show

Sorry for the condensed format! I initially threw this together to make posting it on Facebook easier and in one piece.

Direct link to a bigger and better quality picture here: http://i.imgur.com/fxvOv.jpg

Farscape nails! Since its sort of niche, I thought I'd provide a brief (and informative) collage so that you'd know what's what.

Farscape aired from March 1999 to Oct 2004. I remember watching it every Friday night with my dad, so there a lot of good memories tied to this show. Bought the whole series and am making Jacob watch it with me! As of painting this, we're on season 1 and almost on season 2. There were a few other characters I wanted to include (namely, John Crichton, the main character) but alas, not enough fingers on my left hand...

Peacekeeper thumb
China Glaze's White on White
OPI's What's a Tire Jack?
China Glaze's Red Pearl

Zhaan index
Base is Orly's Sweet Peacock
Sides - Nina Ultra Pro's Big Spender
Very light overall application of China Glaze's Blonde Bombshell

D'argo middle
Base is Orly's Act Your Shoe Size
Tattooing is Zoya's Kelly

Rygel ring
Base is Zoya's Jem
Green is OPI's Leaf Him At The Altar
Gold is Nina Ultra Pro's Big Spender

Chiana pinky
Base is China Glaze's Sea Spray
Sponging light silver is China Glaze's Platinum Silver
Sponging dark silver is Zoya's Freja

Right hand - Moya
Orly's Fowl Play
with Essie's Shine of the Times on the ring finger only

Week 9 - Rainbow (November 28, 2011)

Purple, China Glaze's Coconut Kiss
Red, China Glaze's Red Pearl
Orange, China Glaze's Japanese Koi (Neon)
Yellow, Orly's Hook Up
Green China Glaze's In The Limelight (Neon)

I painted all of my nails white and then cut thin strips of tape to lay over each nail at random. Then I painted over with one layer of a color and then lifted off the tape.This one did not turn out like I had imagined in my mind because I did not have proper tape for this style of taping. I used regular scotch tape and cut each piece various sizes of thinness. However, the chemicals in the polish ate at and weakened the tape so that when I tried to pull it up, it would instantly break as if brittle. I ended up tweezering the tape off, bit by bit, and getting polish everywhere on my other hand.

Though I didn't know it at the time, what I needed was tape more resilient, like blue painter's tape or those fancy shiny nail strips.

Week 8 - Taping (November 21, 2011)

This one took forever because I didn't have any Seche Vite at the time. Still a newbie, wanted to try some new pretty colors I had gotten plus nail stickers!

 Purple, China Glaze Coconut Kiss
Green, OPI Sephora, Leaf Him At The Altar
Teal-blue,  OPI Sephora Mermaid to Order

Did a base color of the green (a muted, earthy green with a nice silver metallic shimmer) and let that dry. Then did a half-ways diagonal taping of the teal-blue (let that dry), and then carefully realigned more tape along the blue/green diagonal and added my final strip of tape down the middle, where I painted the purple on the top-left side of the nail.

I remember not liking the stickers much after I put them on, but I was really excited about my taping success and wanted to make it extra special! Either way, it was a fun manicure to wear and I got to combine some really nice colors.

I don't remember how many coats the green was (I think 2, no more than 3), but both the purple and the teal-blue were one coat each in this picture. As you can see, both are wonderfully opaque in their single coat applications. :)

Week 7 - Inspired by a Tutorial (November 16, 2011)

My first ever "nail art", this week's challenge was to make yourself try something new, fun, and challenging! This is the second manicure I had ever given myself, so it's a little rough around the edges, but all around not too shabby! I had no toothpicks or dotting tools, so I had to make due with... I don't remember what. But it was goofy. :P

This is the tutorial I chose to duplicate:

And this (below) is what I came out with. Cell pic, so sorry for the slight blurriness. Also, this is before I had any tools or know-how for proper clean-up, so I just focused on not flooding my cuticles.

Black, Sephora OPI What's A Tire Jack?
White, China Glaze White on White
Pink, Orly Elsbeth's Rose
Yellow, China Glaze Sun Worshiper
Teal, Sephora OPI Mermaid to Order
Glitter, China Glaze Fairy Dust