Playing with PixieDust

I stopped by Ulta last night and played around in the clearance section for a while. You can't beat the finds in a good clearance section sometimes and Ulta is no exception. I found a few Zoya polishes marked way down and snatched them up!

Two of those polishes are Zoya PixieDust textured polishes. And I love them. I have a bit of a love affair with textured polishes, though I only had three. I am so glad I could add these to my collection.

Green and Copper

It's been a week since I've posted and I feel terrible. It has been an absolutely insane week and I had so many things going on. Starting today, though, I'm back to my normal routine and will be posting regularly again. 

I was at Wal Mart with hubby this weekend and I picked up a couple of Salon Perfect polishes. One of which was Dirty Martini. I really only grabbed it because hubby loved it so much. He's really been digging green nail polish on me lately. I'm glad he picked it out, though, because it's a gorgeous shade.

Christmas Post #10 - Dry Marble Tree

Sometimes, the best nail art designs are the simplest ones. Of course, I still need them sparkly but there's something nice about a simple design. With everything that was going on in my last Christmas post, I thought I would do something simple this time around.

Christmas Post #9 - Matte & Glitter

 I've been loving the combination of glitter and matte top coats these days so I wanted to do a Christmas design based on that. I picked my favorite Christmas-y polishes and went to town!


Also, I'm playing around with hand posing and photography a bit. So, for the next week or so, my photos might be all over the place. Sorry!

Christmas Post #8 - Water Marble

It's been a long time since I've done a water marbled manicure. I don't know why because I love doing them. I always get frustrated and angry but, when it's done, I always love it. 

I've also recently rediscovered my love for a matte finish manicure. It's amazing how much a matte top coat can change a nail color. But throw a matte top coat over some glitter and you can make amazing things happen.

Christmas Post #7 - Candy Canes

Who doesn't love candy canes? Well, I'm sure some people don't. Anyone who doesn't like peppermint, perhaps. But I love them. They're such a fun candy. I especially love the fruity candy canes. But the classic red and white stripes of a peppermint candy cane are what I love. With my love of patterns, and all. 

So, translating candy canes to nail art is one of my favorite Christmas designs. It's super cute, super festive, and (best of all) SUPER easy!

Christmas Post #6 - Snowman

So this isn't necessarily a Christmas post but oh well. 

My favorite thing about this time of year isn't the holidays, oddly enough. I love the snow! I adore it. Living in Michigan, I am one of very few people who seem to like snow. Most people whine and groan when it snows but I just want to play in it. And what is the first thing we want to do when we play in the snow? Build a snowman!

Christmas Post #5 - Presents

I am very fifty-fifty on this manicure. I was really happy with it at first. I had a very specific idea in mind and it did not go where I wanted. Still...

Christmas Post #4 - Santa!

When planning my Christmas designs, I knew right from the start that I had to do a design inspired by the big man himself; Santa Claus! You can't forget about the jolly old fat man and his fabulous red suit. He brings joy to millions and he's instantly recognizable. Best of all, his suit is SO SIMPLE to recreate as nail art!

Christmas Post #3 - Christmas Glitter!

Well, we are in the last two week stretch before Christmas! Since there are only days left to show our holiday cheer, all of my posts from here until the 25th will be Christmas designs. I have a lot of fun ideas and I can't wait to share them with you all!

For today's design I did something simple but SUPER sparkly!

Snowy

I don't want to do solely Christmas nail art this month. I want to add in some fun Winter-themed nail art, too. Winter is my second favorite season; right after Fall. What I love about it is snow. Snow is just so pure and pretty and sparkly and soft looking. I just love it!

This is a design that I actually did over the weekend and never got around to posting. It's all about snow. And orange. Just because. :)

Christmas Post #2 - Polka Dot Gradient

For my second Christmas nail art post, I wanted to do something not necessarily Christmasy but in Christmas colors. I rummaged around in my stash and realized that I don't have a lot of greens. Well, I do but not nearly as many as the other colors I have. I need more! Ha ha! 

Snowflakes

I wanted a nice wintry design because, frankly, it hasn't felt all that wintry here in Michigan. The temperature is all over the place and we haven't had a decent snowfall yet. Since we are less than three weeks away from Christmas, I want to be in a snowy frame of mind. 

Christmas Post #1 : Simply Stamped

One of the new polishes I got last month was A-England Tess D'urbervilles. It's so gorgeous! I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it at first, then I decided to wait and do something Christmas-y with it.

Shredded Half-Moon

I didn't realize quite how many new polishes I had that I hadn't tried out yet. I thought I had used most of them and then I found a bunch more! This is a manicure that I meant to post yesterday and totally forgot about! 

A Silver Box Birthday!

Silver Box of Polish is one year old today! Woo hoo! It's been so fun blogging for the past year. I have learned so much and really pushed myself creatively! I hope the next year is even more fun with lots of sparkle, shine, and colorful nail art!

It took me a while to decide what I should do with my nails for my Blogiversary. I thought, "Why not do something you've been itching to do?" So, Spongebob Squarepants nails it is! Spongebob is my favorite cartoon!

Funky French

I got so many new polishes this month and I've been trying to run through them. I've only got about three left that I haven't tried yet. Today I used two of them!

Heavy Metal

Last week I got my first two piCture pOlish nail colors. I love them. So much. I have to get more. First, I need to use these pretty pretties! 

Today I used piCture pOlish Heavy Metal. G-O-R-G-E-O-U-S!

"Grunge" nails

This is actually a manicure I did a few months ago that I never posted. It was done over top of the water color nails I did.

 

Holo & Glitter

I got another Nfu-oh holographic polish in the mail the other day. I love them so much. The holo effect is so strong and they are a pretty large bottle of polish. I think holographic polishes are one of my favorite finishes. It's such a unique effect and it's very attention grabbing. Anytime I wear one, I get tons of compliments. So, as soon as I got it, I had to use it!

Shimmery Geometric

Hubby took me shoe shopping the other day and, while in the checkout line at DSW, I saw a display of Anise nail polishes. They were buy BOGO and, at only $6 a pop, I couldn't resist. I picked out a couple shades and was on my merry way.

The first one I used is called Sparks Fly. L-O-V-E!

Super Girlie Nails!

A few months ago, I did some nail art that reminded me of Lisa Frank. If you are a girl who was in elementary/middle school in the 80s or 90s, you should know all about Lisa Frank. Super brightly colored school supplies and stickers covered in cutesy animals with hearts and glitter. I loved it. Every girl had a Lisa Frank sticker collection. Well, when I found a Lisa Frank section at Five Below the other day, I squealed with joy. Seriously. I squealed. I saw a sheet of Lisa Frank glitter temporary tattoos and had to get it (along with some other stuff!). 

Here's the beautiful thing about temporary tattoos; they work just like water decals for nail art!

Pond Spots

I kept seeing a "pond hearts" design on Pinterest and I wanted to recreate it but, for some reason, I never did. Well, a few days ago, I gave it a shot. Then, I forgot to take photos and ruined my nails before I could. So, I did it again! I used this tutorial from Adventures In Acetone and gave it my own twist.

Bubbly Studs

I have a fairly decent collection of nail studs, but I don't use them nearly often enough. I'm not sure why. So, I decided to go stud crazy today!

Simply Pretty

I have had a wonderful week and it ended on a very happy note. So, I decided to make my nails just as bright and cheerful. Unfortunately, I was also feeling a little lazy. I ended up doing something very simple and bright.

It's hip to be a square!

I had a couple of fairly catastrophic breaks in the last couple days and one of them broke straight across the top. It really made me miss my square nails. Since I had to go short anyway, I decided to go back to squares. I love them! I'm so glad I went back!

Just a Quickie : Simple Spots and Studs

Base color - ULTA Blues Cruise
Dot color - Butter London The Full Monty
Studs from The Born Pretty Store

Backed Up Halloween

I have been such a bad blogger this month! Ugh! I have been so busy. I have been doing my nails, though, and today I have three Halloween manicures to show you!

Just a Quickie : Spooky Sky

Base color - Ulta Little Black Dress
Clouds - Julep Stefani
Moon - Julep Blake
Bat - Sally Hansen Black Out

Candy Corn French

Someone suggested candy for a Halloween inspired design. Of course, when you think Halloween candy, candy corns come to mind. I wanted a less literal design, though, so I decided a cute French mani inspired by candy corns would be fun!

Textured Jack-o-lantern

I've always liked the combination of textured and smooth polishes. It adds depth to any manicure. So, when I decided to do a design involving Jack-o-lanterns, I knew exactly what I was going to do.

Zombie Nails

This is another fun design for Halloween. The idea behind it was zombies. I didn't want to do faces so, instead, I went with zombie "skin" inspiration. 

Just a Quickie: Ghosts and Spooky Eyes

What did I use?

• OPI DS Mystery
• white acrylic paint
• nail art brushes
• dotting tools
• Wet n Wild Go With the Glow 

Autumn Branches

I've been gone for over a week! I'm a terrible blogger. I've just been so busy and tired from work. My nails needed some rest anyway. I've had some nasty breaks and had to back to shorties. Oh well. At least my nails will be a good (even) length for Halloween.

So, it finally feels like fall! It's been cool and gorgeous out and I couldn't be happier. I hate warm weather so when summer is over, I'm in heaven. I wanted to do a design that was an homage to fall but not dark. It's been sunny so I wanted something fresh and bright. 

The base color is NYC Skyline Blue. I used a striping brush and Julep Olivia to make the branches. I used a dotting tool and my two favorite autumn shade polishes (OPI Deutsch You Want Me Baby and Danke-shiny Red) to make the "leaves."

It wasn't until I was finished that I realized that these look like cherry blossoms! This would be super easy to modify to match any season! Pink blossoms for spring, green leaves for summer, and white for snow covered winter branches!

31DC2013 Day 31 - Honor nails you love

There are a lot of nails that I love. I am constantly seeing designs I adore on Pinterest, Tumblr, and Bloglovin'. So, this was tough for me. I had finally decided that I was going to choose something from Sammy at The Nailasaurus, I just couldn't choose which one! Her site is definitely my FAVORITE nail art blog. So, what did I do? I handed the task over to hubby. Therefore, today's prompt is actually honor nails your husband loves. :) This is the end result!

31DC2013 Day 30 - Inspired by a tutorial

I had a hard time choosing a tutorial for this prompt. So, I did what anyone would do. I Googled nail art tutorial and picked the first one that caught my eye.

31DC2013 Day 29 - Inspired by the supernatural

There are two things that I've kinda always loved: pirates and vampires. (One Halloween, I'm seriously going to dress up as a VamPirate.) Well, when this prompt came up, I almost did something ghostly purely because I wanted to use my glow in the dark nail polish. But I would much rather do something vampire related and bloody so that's what I went with instead.

31DC2013 Days 27 & 28 - Inspired by art and Inspired by a flag

Today I find myself a day behind in the challenge again. Fridays are just too busy. But this double post will catch me right up.

31DC2013 Day 26 - Inspired by a pattern

I was so tempted to do a polka dot manicure today since that's my favorite pattern. I decided, instead to use a pattern that I found on Google. 

31DC2013 Day 25 - Inspired by fashion

This prompt is so intimidating. There is nearly NO END to what you can choose from as your inspiration. I spent over an hour surfing the webs and then I saw the most amazing outfit by Betsey Johnson (whom I love) and had to use it! It's bright, colorful, and playful. Just like Betsey!

31DC2013 Day 24 - Inspired by a book

My favorite author has been Dean Koontz since the 6th grade. I have almost all of his books. But my favorite book of all is Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. I was going to do an Alice design but I feel like everyone has done one. Even I did a Cheshire Cat mani a while back! So, instead, I went with a short story by Edgar Allan Poe; The Gold Bug.

31DC2013 Day 23 - Inspired by a movie

So, my friends would not at all be surprised by my movie choice for this prompt; The Nightmare Before Christmas is just my favorite movie. It's hubby's favorite, too! We watch it all the time and not just around Christmas or Halloween.

31DC2013 Day 22 - Inspired by a song

I knew going into this challenge that when I got to this prompt, I was going to have my husband pick the song. I don't really know why but I knew that he would be able to name something good right off the top of his head. I was right. With less than 30 seconds thought, he said, "I got one but you're really gonna have to pull something out of your hat for it." He chose She's a Beauty by The Tubes. It's his favorite 80s song. I, too, love the song but I had no idea what I should do! After I listened to the song, I decided to take my inspirations directly from the music video.

31DC2013 Day 20/21 - Water Marble/Inspired by a color

Once again, I'm a day behind. Friday nights are not good for me and this challenge. Between work and the girls coming over for movies/manicures, I just don't have the time. But here I am, making up for it!

31DC2013 Day 19 - Galaxies

I haven't done very many galaxy manicures on myself, mostly on others, but I love them! They're just so much fun. You definitely need to dedicate a little bit of time to them, but it's so worth it! Going in to this challenge, I think this was the day I looked forward to the most!

31DC2013 Day 18 - Half Moons

I had really high hopes for this manicure but it just didn't turn out quite as I had hoped. It isn't terrible, though, so I'm going with it!

31DC2013 Day 17 - Glitter

I actually DID do these nails yesterday. I just didn't get to post them until today.

I was excited for this day of the challenge because I LOVE glitter! I have a decently large glitter collection from the craft store so I thought I'd use a bunch of them to do a sparkly skittles mani!

31DC2013 Day 16 - Tribal Print

This was my very first attempt at tribal nails. I've been avoiding them, honestly. But it's part of the challenge and I promised myself I would try.

31DC2013 Day 15 - Delicate Print

I have to be honest. Today, I was feeling a bit unmotivated and a little bit lazy. Therefore, I took the easy way out and just did a stamping manicure. It turned out so pretty, though!

31DC2013 Day 14 - Flowers

For today, I wanted to try something I've never done before. Since flowers is the challenge prompt, I thought I'd give one stroke flowers a shot.

31DC2013 Days 13 - Animal Print

I know I should have posted yesterday but I had a really long day and late night and just didn't get a chance. The prompt for yesterday was animal print. I thought about doing zebra print or leopard, at first. Then I decided to do an animal print that I've never done before.

31DC2013 Day 12 - Stripes

Since I love patters, today's challenge prompt was another one I was excited about. Stripes are fun! I knew I wanted glitter stripes so I chose the glitter first and then chose the base color to match.

31DC2013 Day 11 - Polka Dot Nails

I love patterns. All patterns. Polka dots, though, are my favorite pattern. They're so fun and playful. That's why I love my dotting tools so much! And that's why I instantly knew what I wanted to do for today's challenge prompt.

31DC2013 Day 10 - Gradient Nails

For this prompt, I thought I would just go simple. I love gradients both because they are so pretty and because they are so easy to do. 

31DC2013 Day 9 - Rainbow Nails

I was really excited for today's prompt! Until today...when I realized that I had no idea what I wanted to do. I thought that the easiest way to tackle this problem was to take the literal approach. Rainbows!

31DC2013 Day 8 - Metallic Nails

I already knew from the beginning that I wanted to do water spotted nails for this prompt. I knew which colors I wanted to use, too. This was an easy one. 

31DC2013 Day 7 - B&W Nails

This challenge is starting to get the best of me, I think. Sad, I know, since I'm only a week in, but I never seem to be happy with the first few attempts at my designs. Today was no exception. I scrapped and started over three times before I settled for a black and white splatter mani.

31DC2013 Day 6 - Violet Nails

This idea actually came from my friend, Trisha. She asked me to do a camouflage design on her nails and we ended up not actually getting a chance to do so. I have plenty of purple polishes so I thought camo nail art would be a great way to use some of them.

31DC2013 Day 5 - Blue Nails

I was excited about today's prompt because I have a new Julep polish that I hadn't tried out yet; Julep Lacey. It's such a beautiful blue. Unfortunately, I didn't have a lot of time to do my nails today so I decided to do a stamping manicure. 

31DC2013 Day 4 - Green Nails

I had quite a bit of trouble coming up with something to with this prompt. I don't have a whole lot of green nail polishes to choose from. Then, I remembered that I recently got a new green, ULTA Envy. 

I've been loving the waterfall nail art that Sammy at The Nailasaurus has been creating lately so that was my inspiration.

31DC2013 Day 3 - Yellow Nails

The challenge prompt for today is yellow nails. Now, I am not the biggest fan of yellow on myself. I just don't have the skin tone for it. There's something about yellow nails, though. They're just so fun and lively! I wanted to stay simple with this manicure but still have some fun.

31DC2013 Day 2 - Orange Nails

So, the challenge for day two is orange nails which makes me very happy since orange just so happens to be my favorite color. I couldn't decide what exactly I wanted to do, though. Hubby instantly came up with an idea; "Make them look like oranges!" I loved the idea so that's what I went with.

31DC2013 Day 1 - Red Nails

Here we go with my very first 31 Day Challenge. Yay! 

Day one is red nails:

Watercolor

I was looking back at some of my old designs and realized that it's been forever since I've done a watercolor manicure. I wasn't thrilled with it the first time around so I thought I'd give it another go and see if it turned out any better. I think it did...

My darling dotting tools.

Seriously, guys, I love my dotting tools. I would say that they are, without a doubt, one of my favorite tools in my nail art-senal. (See what I did there? Arsenal? Ha ha ha!) Whenever I'm stumped or feeling uninspired, my dotting tools always come to the rescue. They are so quick and easy to use and, come on, who doesn't love polka dots?

Shredded

I love using tape to make manicures. It's cheap, it's easy, and I keep finding new things to do with it. Recently, hubby offered his hobby knife set for my nail art use. I found out that it works great for making nail art stencils! 

 

I'm on Fire!

My friend is moving soon and, as a going away-type party, there's gonna be a bonfire later this week. I was trying to think of something to do with my nails today and I was inspired by fire. I thought a cling wrap marble with all of the colors that make us think fire would be fun!

Just a Quickie: Fan Brush Tips

Butter London The Full Monty

Sally Hansen Twisted Pink 

Hey, check out my latest post at Polishpedia! It's super duper cute!

 

Taking shape...

I had a few nails break recently and I had to do something about them. Instead of cutting my nails down to nubs, though, I decided to try a new nail shape. 

More Color Changing

Today, I have another color changing polish to show you. As in my last post, this is a Funky Fingers polish from the Solar Collection. It's called Lil Miss Sunshine and it's a pearl white that turns orange. I was trying to decide what to do with this one and my friend, Heather, suggested zebra/tiger print. Genius!

 Zebra when white...

Color Changing

A couple weeks ago, I got two new Funky Fingers polishes. They are from the Solar Collection and they change colors in reaction to sunlight. Cool, right?! Unfortunately, I kept forgetting about them until it was too dark to try them out. On the rare occasion that I would remember, it was rainy and cloudy. Well, today it's sunny and I remembered! Whoo hoo! My only concern was whether or not a top coat would alter the color changing effect of the nail polish. So, for your viewing pleasure, I have not only created a pretty cool little manicure for you, but I've also compared between top coat and no top coat.

Sugar Spun

One nail art technique that I've always been interested in is sugar spun nails. Every time I came across a picture of them, I would want to do them but, when it came time, I never followed through. I'm guessing it had something to do with the cleanup afterwards. Regardless, today I decided to give it a shot.

Just a Quickie: Holo & Blue

Base Color: Nfu-oh 61
Stud: Silver Metal Star Stud from The Born Pretty Store.
Accent Color: Wet n Wild Blue Moon
Stamping: BM-201

Water Marble Color Block

The other day, I was trying to decide what design I wanted to do to my nails. I was torn between a water marble and a color blocking design. Then I thought, "Why not combine the two?" So that's what I did. 

Just a Quickie: The Flintstones