31DC2016 Day 21 - Inspired by a Color

As per usual for me during the 31 Day Challenge, when it comes to the inspired by a color prompt, I like to choose a nail polish and use the name as inspiration. I actually knew right away what polish I wanted to use.

Textured Nails with Spiderweb Accent

I can't do Halloween manicures without using some of my Halloween themed nail polishes, right? One of those polishes is China Glaze But of Corpse (don't we all just love those pun nail polish names?). I really love this one and decided to do a very very simple design with it.

31DC2015 Day 18 - Half Moons

I had a bad couple of nail days. Five total breaks, three of which were on my photographing hand. To fix it without losing a ton of length, I changed the shape up instead of cutting them down.

Anyway, for the half moon prompt I was going to do something with negative space. Then I realized that I did just that for the red nails prompt on day 1. So instead, I went with a simple gradient half moon.

31DC2015 Day 12 - Stripes

I had some difficulty coming up with something more creative than just striped nails for today's prompt. I do so love stripes, though. So I compromised. Simple stripes it is but using some pretty textured polish to shake it up a bit.

I Love Textured Gradients

I don't know exactly what it is but I am a sucker for textured nail polish. Maybe it's the visual interest. I usually spend most of the day staring at my nails when I wear them. Maybe it's the feel of them. I also spend a lot of time running my fingers over my nails. Maybe it's the versatility of them. You can wear them rough or add a topcoat for a whole new look! Regardless, I don't think I'll ever get tired of them.

I picked up another one of L'Oreal's textured polishes the other day and I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it first!

Textured Christmas Nails

I don't have a whole lot of textured nail polishes (maybe seven or eight) but I love them so much. I forget about them for a while here and there but eventually I remember and then all I want to do is wear textured polish for days. I knew I wanted to do at least one textured Christmas manicure and, when I decided what to do, I knew exactly which color I wanted to use. 

Sparkle and Splatters

Sometimes, I don't know quite what I want to do with my nails. Sometimes, I have no clue whatsoever. When this happens, I like to slowly go through my stash and see if any colors jump out at me. Every once in a while, a single color will inspire an entire design, right off the bat! That was the case with this design.

When I was looking through my polishes, I came across one that I hadn't used yet! And I bought it months ago! Funky Fingers Hip City Jack was just sitting at the back of a drawer in all of its frosty, sparkly glory.

31dc2014 Day 17 - Glitter

I love glitter so much. If I could cover everything I own in glitter, I would. Hubby would never go for that, though. My initial design plan for today was going to be way over the top. Glitter galore. I chose, instead, to keep it simple and let the nail polish do all of the work.

Diamonds (or pearls) in the rough.

Hubby and I had to take an impromptu road trip to Toledo, Ohio yesterday morning. I didn't have very much time to do my nails but I couldn't just leave them naked. So, I grabbed a polish from my stash that I actually hadn't used before; Taffy Tart from Sally Hansen's Sugar Shimmer line. I slapped it on and went on my way. I loved it so much that I just kept staring at my nails almost the entire drive. 

When I got home, I just had to add something to my nails. Just to make it a little more fun.

Textured Color Block

As some may notice, I've changed the look of my blog a bit. I wanted a fresh and simpler look. I'm using this revamp as a nudge back into regular blogging. I've been pretty bad about keeping up with my blog but, to be honest, I just haven't been doing my nails as much as I used to. With work, the puppy, and personal stuff, I just haven't been able to do them on a daily basis. This, unfortunately, means that I've also been neglecting my nails a bit, too. I just wasn't caring for them like I should have so they aren't in the best shape.

Well, no more of that! Back to pretty pretty nails and blogging and babying my nails! Now, on to the manicure!

Opening Day

Well known fact: Hubby and I are HUGE baseball fans. As a matter of fact, most of Michigan (especially here in the Detroit Metro area) loves baseball. Most of us really believe that Opening Day should be a national holiday. Seriously, it's one of the most exciting days of the year, for us.

To commemorate Opening Day 2014, of course I had to do a baseball inspired manicure!

Sparkly Texture

While I was grocery shopping the other day, I came across a display rack for L'oreal Paris Color Riche Gold Dust. Well, I'm a sucker for textured nail polish. ESPECIALLY glittery textured nail polish. And these gold dust nail polishes are so so so sparkly. I was torn between two colors and asked hubby to pick one for me. (He picks out a lot of my nail polishes for me.) He couldn't decide, either, so he told me to get both! Well, I've only tried one, so far, and I am IN LOVE!

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.

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.

Texture, Stamping, and Glitter, Oh My!

I wanted to play around with some textures today, but I also wanted to do some stamping. Simple solution; stamp on a textured polish. Oh, and why not throw a kick-ass glitter in there, too?

For my textured color, I used OPI Vesper. On my pinky, ring finger, and thumb nails, I stamped a zigzag design from BM-201 in Art Club Venice. For an accent of some glitter, and to vary up the texure a bit, I topped my middle and index nails with one coat of Pure Ice Spitfire. That's one coat, folks! Look at that coverage! You could probably get close to full coverage with two coats if you didn't feel like using it as a topper. Also, I can't get over that holographic shine! It's just so blingy!



Look at all of those colors! You know, for less than $2 a bottle, you just can't beat Pure Ice glitters.

Needle Marbling and an Experiment

I wanted to do a needle marble and thought it would be fun if hubby picked out the colors for me. I told him to pick out a good Spring color combination. He really likes all of the colors in my Julep collection so that's what he headed for. 

The three colors he chose are Niecy (pink), Robin (blue), and Rebel (silver holographic). I mixed up the color combo just to add a little more fun to the manicure. I really like the way this turned out.

This manicure inspired me to do a little experiment. I wondered how needle marbling would work with a textured polish. So I tried it out.

This is OPI Vesper (from the Bond Girl line of Liquid Sands) and I swirled in Butter London Trustafarian. I love the way the colors contrast. I don't consider this experiment a success. The thickness of Vesper kept Trustafarian from swirling as easily and smoothly as it should have. Hubby thinks it looks cool but I don't care for it. I am known for being overly critical of myself, though. Ha ha. Oh well. I'll wear it anyway.

The Girls' Nails

Friday night was movies and manicures night so, as tradition dictates, I did the girls' nails. Trisha had a pretty clear idea of what she wanted. Today, she is taking part in a walk-a-thon to help stop world hunger. She wanted something stop sign related and something like footprints in the dirt. Easy! 
 

The thumb is Wet n Wild I Red a Good Book and I used Art Club White to make the stop sign. Durring this process, I realized how awful I am at drawing octagons, haha! The rest of her nails are Julep Jill. I used Sally Hansen Black Out for the footprints and the post on the stop sign. The footprints are done with a dotting tool. 

For Heather, we played around with several different ideas. At one point she said, "Ha ha, that kinda looks like tie-dye." I instantly knew what I wanted to do. A tie-dye needle marble! We used ORLY Fancy Fuchsia, Sinful Colors Endless Blue, and Sinful Colors Innocent.

Yesterday, I went to my mother-in-law's house to do her nails. As purple is her favorite color, I am almost completely restricted to purple manicures for her. I don't mind though. Purple is gorgeous and it looks fantastic on her. Plus, it makes her happy. I did a simple glitter gradient with her. The base is OPI Planks a lot and I sponged on Sally Hansen Bejeweled from the Gem Crush line. Let me just say, if you are a hard core fan of glitter, this line is for you. These aren't glitter toppers. They are full-coverage glitters. The colors are lovely and the mixtures of glitters are beautiful. I do suggest, however, using the glue trick if you plan on wearing these because removal is a bit of a nightmare.

Textured Animal Print

Let me just start by saying that I am IN LOVE with this textured nail polish trend. I have three textured polishes (one Julep and two OPI) and I can't wait to get more. For this manicure, I used the Julep textured polish or Sea Salt Finish.

This is Julep Jill. It's a smoky beige with a lovely textured, matte finish. I thought some stamping over top would be fun and I chose an all-over cow spots design from BM-222. I did the stamping in Art Club Black. 
 

Mixed Textures

Hubby and I went to Ulta today (not even for nail polish) and, on the way out, something caught his eye. It was the OPI Bond Girls display. He is a pretty big James Bond fan, so he was really interested. All six of the Bond Girls shades are Liquid Sand polishes. They are all so damn pretty! I couldn't help but get one. I ended up grabbing Jinx. I was so excited because this is my first textured polish.

This polish is amazing. Hubby and I both agree. It applies just as well as any good polish. Two coats does it. I paired it with Sally Hansen Snappy Sorbet.

I wasn't 100% sure whether or not I was on board with the textured polish trend. Jinx sold me. I love it. It's hard to capture the textured finish with my camera indoors (as usual it's too dark out) but it's great. Just rough enough to add some visual and textural interest but smooth enough that it doesn't feel scratchy or distracting. One thing's for sure, no camera can capture just how sparkly this polish is. There is a stupid amount of shimmer, sparkle, and shine that you almost forget that it's a matte finish. 

I can't wait to get my Julep Sea Salt polish to see how it compares to OPI's Liquid Sand.