Camo Nails & Super Mega Holiday Giveaway (50+ prizes)

I’m going to make you read through my post before you get to the giveaway link! Or you can just scroll down, but that’s not very nice.

Normally my husband tells me I should stop buying nail polish; but when we at Walmart picking up some last minute things we needed for our friends’ wedding he saw the big display of Sinful Colors. He must have seen the colors Envy, Beau Khaki, and Nirvana right next to each other because he instantly picked them up and told me I should do camo nails. Any time he wants to feed my addiction is alright with me. So I started with a base of Beau Khaki and then painted on splotches of the other two. I was looking up camo patterns and realized I needed another very dark brown or black. The best thing I had for this was Zoya’s Claudine, so I used that for the little straight splotches on top. I wanted to do the matte top coat for this one, but I’ve been using it so much lately that I decided I’ll just do it the next time I do camo nails. And hey, this look would be great if you’re out turkey hunting!

So now for this huge giveaway! A couple lovely ladies from Happy in Holos and Aly’s Dream Polish have put together an amazing grouping of three different rafflecopters with prizes equal to over $1200! Included in the prizes are four out of my seven first creations. Click the image below to get to the post on Happy in Holos.

Legend of Zelda

Today was really exciting for me. The new Legend of Zelda game came out for the 3DS and there was a new special edition 3DS XL that came out. I’m not even going to play the game and I already have a 3DS, but my husband really wanted them. I’ve been telling him over and over he can’t get it because we don’t have the money, but I reserved the bundle on Monday while he was at school. I’m usually awful at keeping surprises from him, but when he found the DS today (in the dishwasher) he was so excited. In honor of LoZ I did green and gold nails with a triforce accent. I used Sinful Colors Envy and Zoya Kerry. Sorry for the quick badly done photo!

Wear It Wednesday

As some of you may have seen on my facebook page (please give it a like!), I won a naming contest recently. Daphine Polish was holding a contest to name one of the polishes in the new 2013 holiday collection. The polish was a dark lavender holo so I tried to think of a name that was both related to the color purple and the holidays. Thus the name Bahplumbug was born! My name won, which felt so amazing for me because I don’t win contests often and this one was more than just a raffle. Joanne, the owner of Daphine Polish, sent a great little package of Bahplumbug and some other little treats for my nails and my stomach!

Bahplumbug is a lovely color to wear on it’s own, I’m so glad I got it! In a darker room or in the shade it looks like a shimmery purple, and in direct sunlight it has a more subtle rainbow holo than some other polishes, so it’s not overwhelming of the base color. The photos on the left side are in the shade and the ones on the right were taken with the flash on. In direct sunlight you will get an effect similar to the photos with the flash. This is two coats of Bahplumbug with a topcoat. The polish goes on smooth and lasts for a few days with no chipping and minimal wear. I would definitely recommend buying from Daphine Polish.

All opinions on this post are my own and were in no way influenced by the maker or anyone else.

Wedding Nails

Last month our friends Sara and Droo got married. I was a bridesmaid, my husband was a groomsman, and our kids were the ring bearer and flower girl. The bridesmaid dresses were marine blue and our shoes were silver. I wanted to do nails to match, but I didn’t want to go too crazy. I did marbled accents again, in the wedding colors of course, but this time used my matte top coat so my nails weren’t too shiny. I used China Glaze’s First Mate, Zoya’s Trixie and Neve, and Fresh Paint’s matte top coat. I really love how this came out, and I’m starting to love the marbled accents more and more. There is some chipping and wear on the tips because I didn’t get to take a photo before we left for the weekend.

Pokeball Nails

As some of you may know, the new Pokemon games came out last month. My husband and I each got one and I wanted to celebrate with something Pokemon on my nails. I’m not sure if my hand is steady enough to actually do any of the monsters on my nails, so pokeballs were the next choice. For this look I used China Glaze’s White on White and Zoya’s Andi, Storm, and Claudine. My right hand is a little sloppy and my middle nail broke, but what can you do?

Wear It Wednesday

I think of Zoya’s Faye as a sister color to Tinsley. It’s a pretty purple with a lot of gold shimmer. This time I actually have a swatch of my own, and look out for swatches being added to past WIW posts.

Rainbow Pixie Dust

I was so excited to get the final pixie dust color that I needed to do this. Sadly it didn’t come out quite as nice as I had wanted. Though I do have some other ideas  for making the blended colors work better. The colors, in rainbow order are: Chyna, Beatrix, Solange, Chita, Liberty, and Carter.

Wear It Wednesday

I recently got my first Julep polishes. The one that stood out most to me from my box was Ciara. It’s a vampy maroon in my opinion, though they say magenta on the site. It has very pretty teal micro glitter. The combination of the two colors looks so good in the bottle, that I had to try it first. I think the glitter actually looks better in less lit areas. In stronger light the dark base takes over, but overall it’s a really cool color.

Opal Nails

This first version has been one of my favorite manis so far. I started off with a base of Neve and let that dry, then painted on a layer of Giovanna. I used a crumpled plastic snack baggy (we were out of plastic wrap) to “sponge” off some of the green while still wet. This makes a cool effect to begin with, but I went to 5 Below and picked up a few Fresh Paint polishes and wanted to use them. I painted on Sugar Crush then used the matte top coat. If you have a 5 Below near by, I really recommend picking up some of the Fresh Paint polishes, they’re 3 for $5 which is an amazing deal for what seems to be some nice polish. I feel like I should have done the matte coat on top of the base colors and then again over Sugar Crush, but it came out awesome either way.

In this version I used China Glaze’s Rainbow then topped it with Sugar Crush and the matte top coat again. I think for this one I shouldn’t have used the matte coat, it was better when it was shinier and looked more opal-y.

My First Creations!

When I started doing all this nail art a few months ago I never thought I would make my own polishes. I started seeing so many indie brands, and easy ways to make polish for yourself. For these unnamed colors I used Lime Crime loose eye shadows that I haven’t been using. Unfortunately these are no longer sold, but they can probably be recreated fairly easily with other pigments. I bought the bottles filled with base from SillyLilyPolish on etsy. She also provides the red glitter and white flakies seen in two of the polishes. The other glitters I bought from Sally Beauty Supply.

The black polish looks so good in the bottle, but I put way too much glitter in it, so it came out very texturized. The second picture here is the black with the white flakies/glitter on top. I ended thinning that one out afterwards.

The light purple and blue came out really well. The consistency is good and coverage with two or three  coats is plenty. For some reason I decided to put white underneath these and it left a ugly line around the edges. There really isn’t a need for anything underneath.

The red came out pretty well too, but I’m still not a fan of big glitter, even though I made this one myself. The polish differs from the picture of the bottles up top because I added another [gold] glitter to it later, but I think it broke up because it’s meant for crafts, not polish. I love the color on this one because it has an orangey tint to it. I think it would actually be really nice without the glitter.

The dark purple came out ok. I think the glitter might have bled and lost it’s color, that’s why you see silver flecks in it. This polish could have used a little more thinning out as well. The white flakies look great over it, especially after I thinned it out.

And lastly, the green. This one came out great too. It has the same consistency and coverage as the light purple. I did 3 thin coats and the glitter shows through the most on this color.

I had a lot of fun experimenting and mixing for these colors. I would love to make my own indie brand, and start with a line that has colors similar to these. This will take a lot of time and work, but I’m willing to put in that effort to get my formulas right. If you would like to see my brand come to life you can donate any amount with the paypal link on the right, or email me to find out how else you could help out. Even liking my facebook page will help out a little. If I get enough interest I can work out pre-orders for my first collection, or wholesale pre-orders if you have a shop you’d like to sell them at. If you have any ideas for names for these polishes, or other polish colors you’d like to see please leave them in the comments or email me.