Animal Mani

31 Day Challenge - Day 11 - Half Moons - Owls

11:00:00 AM

Happy 100th Post!!!!!  I cannot believe that I have done 100 on this blog!!!! Thank you all for your continual support!!!  Here is to 100 more!!! <3 <3

_______________________________________________

Welcome to Day 11 - Half Moon Manicure Day!!!!  I have a love hate relationship with half moon manicures.  I think they look awesome with the right color combination, but for me, it always ends in a disasticure.  I typically use the technique where you use reinforcement binder labels and place them on the top of the nail by the cuticle.  I start off with painting a base coat of some awesome color, add a layer of quick dry top coat, and then stick on the sticker.  I then paint on the second color, which in many cases doesn't layer right or look right over the top of the other color.  Then when I peel off the sticker, part of the base comes off with it, or there is the top color underneath the sticker.

For this manicure, I did not want that to happen.  I was thinking of doing a Halloween colored half moon, but wasn't feeling it.  Nicole was awesome and was drawing up post-it pictures and tweeting me ideas, but since it is a half moon and my little canvas is, well, little, I would have barely any room for her fantastic ideas.  Seriously, she had an idea of doing a half moon with a haunted house under the moon, but it would have looked like a black spot being so tiny.

Then I remembered a really cute half moon idea which only used the naked nail as the base.  That idea....OWLS!  Since it is Fall, I pinpointed some Fall-ish colors and began painting.  Here's how the lil guys came out...







Colors Used:
  • Blue Owl
    • Sinful Colors - Rain Storm
    • Revlon - Dreamer
  • Purple Owl
    • Sinful Colors - Amythest 
    • Revlon - Charming
  • Orange Owl
    • Sinful Colors - Country Orange
    • Ulta - Sun-Sational
  • Green Owl
    • Essie - Stylenomics
    • Revlon - Sassy
  • Pink Owl
    • Sinful Colors - Fig
    • Ulta - Flamingo
  • Eyes
    • Ulta - Sun-Sational
    • Sinful Colors - Black on Black
For three of my fingers, I used the stickers to paint the half moon, but as you can kind of see on the pointer finger, I had an issue with the polish bleeding underneath the sticker.  With my nail art brushes, I decided to draw on the arches, which was sooooo much easier.  I will be doing this from now on!

To get the look, I painted on the colors I wanted to be the body of the owls.  Then, with my nail art brush, I painted the stomachs in complimenting colors.  With my dotting tool, I added the eyes and spots on the stomachs.  With a toothpick, I drew on some lil beaks for the guys, and called it a day.

These were a pain in my behind to do.  I think my left hand took me 45 minutes and the right hand 30 minutes.  The first hand took longer because I was using those stickers and was having such a huge issue.  They definitely took a lot of patience, so if you don't have that, then these nails aren't for you!  Who knows, maybe I was doing them in some bootleg way that took much longer than they needed to be.  If I do them again, the lil guys will be going on an accent nail.

Do you like the owls?  Have you done them?  Found an easier way to do them?  How do you do half moon manicures??

As a reminder, this is the challenge....do not forget to check out the other amazing ladies posts!!!



Fun and Random

31 Day Challenge - Day 10 - Gradient - City Skyline

11:00:00 AM

Looks like we are finally done with the colored days and now are onto the technique days.  Day 10 brings us to Gradients, a technique which I have grown to love.  My first gradient was a skittle manicure which took forever to complete, but was so pretty in the end.  Next, I attempted beach sunset, then most recently a glittery gradient for a Guest Post at Polish Pixelle.  Each time I do a gradient, I feel more confident and believe I have gotten better.  With this manicure, I feel that I have rocked the technique.  I seem to have completely covered all white spaces, while at the same time having a pretty blend of colors.

I didn't want to do a simple gradient for this manicure.  Since this is the nail art challenge, I needed to incorporate nail art somehow.  I began planning the manicure by thinking what aspects of life are a gradient of colors.  Looking at the sky, I realized that the skyline itself was a gorgeous gradient.  I Googled "skyline nail art" and found a cute city skyline nail art done by the one and only @cutepolish.  I loved the gradient colors and the nail art, so I had to try it.

Here's how it came out. Excuse the messy edges, I had a hella hard time cleaning them and finally gave up.  Blue stains, white is a butt to come out of the edges.  I really don't care.







Colors Used:

  • Base
    • Sinful Colors - Snow Me White
  • Gradient
    • Sinful Colors - Midnight Blue
    • Ulta - TuTu Cute
  • Glitter Top over Gradient
    • China Glaze - Fairy Dust
  • Buildings
    • Sinful Colors - Black on Black
    • Sinful Colors - Unicorn
Pretty, pretty, pretty.  Love these nails and how they brought life to a very simple gradient.  I followed the video pretty much step by step.  I painted on a base of white nail polish.  Then with a make up sponge, I painted on Midnight Blue and Tutu Cute and dabbed onto the nail.  Instead of putting a quick dry top coat on like cutepolish did, I put on a coat of Fairy Dust.  To me, Fairy Dust looked like stars in the night sky, so I had to put it on.  Then, I added my black buildings and lil yellow windows, and was done.  I avoided adding the crescent moon because I thought it would take away from the starry look in the sky and would ruin the art.

If I were to attempt these nails again, I think I would do a tad more purple.  Although, with the amount of purple I do have, it gives the illusion that the buildings are glowing on the skyline.

What do you think?  Good gradient, bad gradient?  Would you ever attempt these nails?

As a reminder, check out the other lovely ladies!!!


Cloud Mani

31 Day Challenge - Day 9 - Metallic Nails! - Scalloped Tips

11:00:00 AM

Hello there!!!  Today I bring you Metallic Day, or as it is known, Day 9 of the 31 Inspired Days of Nail Art Challenge!  I own 10 different metallic polishes, including 2 crackles, so for me finding a polish was not going to be too difficult.  As me to find a jelly though, it's nearly impossible in my collection.

When I sat down to do this manicure, I pulled out all 10 of those polishes and began staring.  What did I want to do....how was I going to use more than one of these polishes and not make my nails look like an obnoxious shiny, metallic mess.  I remember seeing in my Twitter feed that @MrsManPolish newest love for what The Daily Varnish calls Scalloped Tips.  This technique is also known as the "cloud" manicure as seen on the blog nailside.

I originally tried the technique with three metallics, and boy was it a barfy, metallic disasticure.  So, I started searching my stash for a perfect colored cream that would look good with any of my metallics.  The winner, Sinful Colors Rain Storm, an amazing dusty, medium blue.  Let's take a look...






Colors Used:

  • Funky Fingers - Zeppelin 
  • Funky Fingers - Favorite Girl
  • Sinful Colors - Rain Storm
The next day I refreshed it with some matte top coat...check it (they kinda look the same but you can see it's flatter)





It is super easy to get this look!!!!  Start with a base coat of whatever color you chose.  Then with your second color, using the bottle's brush place it 3/4 of the way up the nail.  When it starts to form a rounded drip, stroke the brush downwards.  Then do the same 1/2 the way down, then the last 1/3rd of the way down.  With your third color, do the same thing.  If you want to have a more ruffled look, you could do this technique with as many polishes as you want.  If my directions stink (which most likely they do) check out either The Daily Varnish's or Nailside's tutorials above!  

Which look do you like better??  Shiny or flatter?  I loved both equally, I seriously could not stop looking at these nails!!!  I cannot wait to do this technique again!   So simple and eye catching!  Have you tried?

This is the 31 Inspired Days Challenge...don't forget to check out the other lovely ladies!!!!!








  • Nicole from Polish Me, Please!
  • Ave from Polish Pixelle,
  • Jessica from Once Upon a Polish, 
  • Cynthia from Of Life and Lacquer



    • Animal Mani

    31 Day Challenge - Day 8 - Black and White - Pandas!

    11:00:00 AM

    Welcome to Day 8 of 31 Inspired Days of Nail Art!!!  Day 8's theme - Black and White!  The two simplest colors, although, some people say that they aren't a color but instead a shade.  Or maybe it's the other way around, I'm not 100% positive on that whole thing.  Either way, the theme is black and white.

    To me, black and white can be kind of boring.  Think about it, what things are black and white....dice, checker board.....meh.  Okay, a checkerboard does look really cool on a nail, I've done it before, but I just was not feeling it for this challenge.

    So me, the crazy Alaina who is never happy with a simple manicure, got to thinking "How could I turn black and white into something less boring?"  The lightbulb went off, and I realized I could do an animal manicure!!!  My choices were zebras or pandas....guess which cute option won.

    Let's take a look.






    Colors Used:
    • Sinful Colors - Snow Me White
    • Sinful Colors - Black on Black
    Cute right?  I took inspiration from Google Images where I searched "Panda Nail Art."  I believe cutepolish also did this design because one of the pictures looked like her nails.  If you would have told me a year ago that I could recognize someone by looking at their nail pictures online, I would have thought you were crazy. Today though, I see someone's nails and can immediately identify the owner.  *hangs head in shame*

    To get these lil guys, with a paint brush, I painted arches onto the nails which were going to have panda heads.  Once the arches were there, I used the bottles brush to fill in the tip of the nail from the arch.  When dried, I used my dotting tool to add the ears, eyes, and nose!  On the ring finger, I painted on two coats of white, and with the dotting tool added some lil paw prints!

    I love animal manicures.  Seriously, who could hate them!  What's your favorite animal manicure?  Have you ever done pandas?

     As a reminder, this is the challenge....and don't forget to check out the other lovely ladies!






  • Nicole from Polish Me, Please!
  • Ave from Polish Pixelle,
  • Jessica from Once Upon a Polish, 
  • Cynthia from Of Life and Lacquer