Essie - Turquoise & Caicos

I always love wearing this color! Here's two coats of Essie - Turquoise & Caicos.... First with flash:

Then, without flash: (I think this shows the color more accurately.)

Mardi Gras Nails!

When I saw Spoiled - Pet My Peacock in the store, I immediately thought of Mardi Gras. I decided to layer this over Essie - Sexy Divide. I was really disappointed with the quality of Pet My Peacock, though. The base is really thick. This made it hard to apply multiple coats, which was definitely necessary to get enough glitter on the nail. Overall, not too pleased with these, but I thought I'd post them since it's Mardi Gras. 

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Conversation Heart Nails

Here are some more Valentine's Day nails. Check out my pink gradient nails, my heart stamp nails, my pink and red glittery nails, or my valentine's crackle nails for other Valentine's Day nails!

To do these, I started with two coats of Pure Ice - Super Star on my pointer, two coats of Essie - French Affair on my middle finger, two coats of Essie - Lilacism on my ring finger, and two coats of Essie - Mint Candy Apple on my pinky. 

Then, I used a fine-tip brush with Sally Hansen InstaDri - Rapid Red to write the conversation heart sayings on the nails.

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Nail Challenge Recap

Here are the nails I have done for the past 30 days for the 31 day nail challenge. Day 31 is recreating your favorite challenge. The way I'm going to interpret this is that I can do any challenge over again, rather than recreating the nails I did for that challenge. Check back tomorrow to see what I decide to do! I can't believe it is already the last day of the challenge!

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Day 30: Nails Inspired By A TUTORIAL

I had seen these nails on Cutepolish's YouTube page for nail tutorials, and I thought they were really cute. I'm not sure these really required a tutorial, because they were so simple. Here's the tutorial anyways. 

I started with two coats of Pure Ice - Super Star. Then, I used a fine-tip brush with Essie - Coat Azure for the blue lines and Sally Hansen InstaDri - Rapid Red for the red line.

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oh no!

I was limited to bringing just a handful of my favorite nail polish to Austria. So, I wrapped them all carefully in bubble wrap and other padding. Then, when I opened my suitcase in Vienna, I saw a plastic bag full of Essie - French Affair. I couldn't believe it had broken!!! But, then i opened the bag, and I guess the pressure change in the airplane had just caused the lid to come off. So, the nail polish remaining in the bottle was salvageable, but I lost about 1/4th of it in the bag. :( Better than what I had originally expected...

Lapiz of Luxury Set in Stones

I always enjoy the simpler manicures for everyday wear. I wouldn't wear most of my 31 day challenge nails out, because they are too over the top for me. That being said, I really like these nails. I started with two coats of Essie - Lapiz of Luxury. Then, I applied two coats of Essie - Set in Stones on the ring finger. I finished with a coat of Seche Vite. 

Two coats of Lapiz of Luxury:

With flash:

Without flash:

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Day 26: Nails Inspired By A PATTERN

Argyle is my favorite pattern AND I've been wanting to do these argyle nails, so today's challenge was the perfect day to try them out. I started with two coats of Essie - Mint Candy Apple. Once that was dry, I used scotch tape to tape off the outer triangles. Then, I painted over the tape with one of my new Wet n Wild megalast polishes called On A Trip. Then, I peeled the tape off, leaving the diamond pattern. I finished off the design by drawing a silver diamond with So Easy Stripe Rite - Silver. 

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More Valentine's Day Nails!

Here's another set of Valentine's Day nails I did today. I started with two coats of Essie - Primavera.

Then, I used three pieces of Scotch tape per nail to tape off everywhere on the nail, except where I wanted the lines of glitter to be. I painted along the lines with Milani Jewel FX - Red. I had to sort of push the glitter into the cracks, since not enough glitter was concentrated in the untaped area. Then, I peeled the tape off. Some lines still had gaps, so I used a toothpick to pick up some extra glitter on the tape I peeled off, and I placed the glitter in the gaps. 

I think they looked just fine after the last step, but to make it more Valentine's Day-ish, I decided to draw a little heart on the ring finger. I dipped the rubbery end of a bobby pin in white polish and used that to create two dots for the top of the heart. Then, I just dragged the dots down to a point. 

Here's where I think I went overboard...I used my Milani Nail Art Polish in White Canvas to create white lines between the two red glitter lines. It looks alright, but I prefer the nails without the white lines.

Here's a pic of the polish I used:

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Day 24: Nails Inspired By A BOOK

Today's nails are inspired by The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and a little by The Girl Who Played With Fire. The thumb is a snowy, wintry scene inspired by the brutal cold on Hedestad. The pointer finger is a dragon. The middle finger is a framed flower...inspired by the flowers Henrik received every year. The ring finger is fire. The pinky finger is the Swedish flag, since the book takes place in Sweden.

To do the thumb, I started with two coats of Essie - Dive Bar. Then, I sponged on Pure Ice - Super Star. Finally, I used a q-tip to dot on some falling snow. 

For the dragon on the pointer finger, I followed this tutorial. I started with two coats of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Mellow Yellow. I used a fine-tip brush and Pure Ice - Black Rage for the dragon and Sally Hansen InstaDri - Rapid Red for the dragon's eye. 

For this nail, I started with two coats of Essie - Jazz. Then, I stamped on the flower using BM06 and Sally Hansen InstaDri - Pronto Purple. I used a fine-tip brush and Pure Ice - Black Rage to draw the frame around the flower. 

For the flames, I started with two coats of Wet n Wild Wild Shine - Sunny Side Up. Then, I tried using flame stamps on BM07 and BM08 using Pure Ice - Black Rage. They didn't stamp very well, but I used the stamp as a guide for the rest of the design. I used a fine-tip brush with Sunny Side Up, Mellow Yellow, Rapid Red, and Super Star to paint on the flames.

For the Swedish flag, I started with two coats of Essie - Mezmerised. Then, I used a fine-tip brush and Mellow Yellow to paint on the stripes.

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Day 23: Nails Inspired By A MOVIE

These nails are inspired by the movie, Ocean's Eleven. 

Here they are in the sunlight:

And with the flash:

For the "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign on my thumb, I started with two coats of Essie - Dive Bar. Then, I used a q-tip for the various dots... Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Mellow Yellow, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Rapid Red, and Essie - Mezmerised. I filled in the yellow polka dot diamond with Pure Ice - Super Star, and I wrote Las Vegas with Rapid Red and a fine-tip brush. 

The 11 is modeled after the 11 in the movie poster (above). I started with two coats of Pure Ice - Super Star, and painted the 11 with Rapid Red and a fine-tip brush. 

I started with two coats of Wet n Wild Fast Dry - SaGreena the Teenage Witch. This is supposed to be like the green felt on a poker table. Then, I painted on three poker chips using a fine-tip brush. The colors are Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Rapid Red, Essie - Mezmerised, and Pure Ice - Black Rage. Then, I used the fine-tip brush with Pure Ice - Super Star to create the dots. 

I thought this one was pretty self-explanatory, but my parents couldn't tell what it was. They are just the card suits. I started with two coats of Pure Ice - Super Star. Then, I used BM19 with Rapid Red to stamp the pattern on the first time. I did this again with Pure Ice - Black Rage.

Here, I started with two coats of Rapid Red. Then, using Super Star and a fine-tip brush, I painted two squares. I create the dots with the fine-tip brush and Black Rage.

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Day 22: Nails Inspired by A SONG

These nails are inspired by Party in the USA!! It's one of my all-time favorite songs. :D The nails are inspired by both the lyrics of the song and the music video for the song.

The thumb is the Hollywood Sign..inspired by the lyrics, "Look to my right and I see the Hollywood Sign." I did the thumb by applying two coats of Wet n Wild Fast Dry - SaGreena the Teenage Witch. Then, using a fine-tip brush and Pure Ice - Super Star, I wrote out HOLLYWOOD. 

The pointer is a Converse sneaker..inspired by the lyrics, "Who's that chick that's rockin' kicks?" I did this by applying two coats of Sally Hansen Hard as Nails - Black Heart. Once that was dry, I put tape over the bottom 2/3s of my nail and painted the tip white using Pure Ice - Super Star. I used a fine-tip brush with Pure Ice - Super Star to draw the laces, and I used Salon Perfect Nail Art Liner in black to draw the black line, as well as create dots for the eyelets.

The middle finger is a taxi cab..inspired by the lyrics, "Get to the club in my taxi cab." I did this by applying two coats of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Mellow Yellow. Then, I used Pure Ice - Black Rage with BM17 for the checkered pattern on the tip, and it obviously smudged a lot. Then, I smoothed the edge by tracing it with Stripe Rite in Silver. I painted on the words "Taxi Cab" with a fine-tip brush and Pure Ice - Black Rage.

The ring finger is an American flag...I think it is obvious where the inspiration for this came from. Also, in her music video, she has an American flag as a backdrop for the stage. To do this nail, I painted on two coats of Sally Hansen InstaDri - Rapid Red. Then, I used a fine-tip brush to paint the blue in the corner using Essie - Mezmerised. I used Milani Nail Art Lacquer with Precision Brush - White Canvas for the stars and stripes.

The pinky finger is a cowboy boot inspired by the boots Miley wears in the music video. They zoom in on these boots a lot in the video.

I did these by starting with two coats of Essie - Sand Tropez. Then, I drew the boot using Pure Ice - Black Rage and a fine-tip brush. I used Sally Hansen InstaDri - Rapid Red with a fine-tip brush for the wings, and Pure Ice - Jaguar with a fine-tip brush for the gold.

Here's a picture of all the polish I used. 

I wish I had done a butterfly for my last nail, rather than the cowboy boot..inspired by the lyrics, "The butterflies fly away."

Here's the music video for Party in the USA:

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