Down to a Fine (Nail) Art - ModCloth Inspired

     

     Happy Thursday! Today's post is inspired by a dress I found while browsing one of my favorite online retailers. It's no secret that I'm fat. (Oh, no! She called herself the f word!) I'm not ashamed by my size at all, but finding clothes that I actually like can be a bit of a challenge. ModCloth definitely gives me options that I love. While I was browsing through the dresses, the one that inspired this look really jumped out at me! 

     For the inspo, the details, and how you can save $20 on your first ModCloth purchase, get out the rest of the post under the cut!

Falling for Nail Art: Bump In The Night

     I did my Bump In The Night nails two nights ago and almost posted them early because I'm so in love with them! For this look, I decided to go with a mixed manicure including a texture, some stamping, a little glitter, and nail gem. It's perfect for Halloween, or any time if you really like bats! You could most definitely change this up to suit your own style.

Check out all the details after the cut! You don't want to miss out on this one.

Falling for Nail Art: Creepy Crawlers

      I don't know about you, but I loved making Creeper Crawlers when I was a child. My dad and I were all about it. I can't tell you how many times I burned myself on that stupid oven. Get me near a real bug and I'll freak out! Today's look is a little subdued. I did some simple nail art with a Bundle Monster stamping plate. Check out all the details after the cut.

Falling for Nail Art: Sweet Treats

       Good morning, ghouls! Halloween is just around the corner. I absolutely love the holiday. I picked Sweet Treats as the inspiration for challenge because of all the great candies, cookies, and whatnot this time of year. I decided to do one of my favorite treats: CUPCAKES! I'm always baking something in my apple green Kitchen Aid mixer named Sir Mix-A-Lot. (Lame name, huh?)

Check out all the details after the cut!

Falling for Nail Art: Cloudy Skies

      I'm trying to catch up on the nail art challenge. I absolutely hate that I'm behind, but life gets in the way. The weather here has been really gloomy. Imagine that! Cloudy skies, lots of rain, and cooler temperatures. It really gets you down. There's a cure for that, though! Great nail art.

      This look features two of my favorite Zoya polishes: London and Trixie. For all the details and whatnot, click the Read More link below! 

Falling for Nail Art: Great Pumpkin

      Pumpkins. Pumpkins everywhere. This time of year is my favorite. It's finally getting cold outside, and I can start wearing my favorite chunky sweaters and dresses with tights. My house smells delicious thanks of the insane amount of pumpkin candles I have everywhere. I've already made my almost famous spicy pumpkin soup twice. I even bought pumpkin costumes for the cats. (You can check my Instagram for pictures.) Needless to say, I'm obsessed with pumpkins. This challenge was a breeze. 

     For all the information, check out the rest under the cut...

Falling for Nail Art: Sweater Weather

        I'm back to the nail art challenge! My cold is still going strong, but I had polish my nails last night. I didn't have a lot of time and needed something fairly easy. I decided to go with some stamping. I'm sure I would have had more inspiration if it were actually sweater weather here. This weekend has been in the 80s. This is Pittsburgh! It should not be 80 degrees in October.

      This picture isn't very good, but there are better ones after the jump.

Falling for Nail Art: Early Sunsets

      I don't know about you, but I love the early sunsets of autumn. I really enjoy watching the sun go down. Just don't wake me up for a sunrise. I don't think any sunrise is amazing enough to get me out of bed that early. I treasure sleep too much. 

      This nail art is pretty simple. I think anyone could easily duplicate it. The best part is that you only need a sponge and a paintbrush. Well, time is also a factor. Check out all the details after the cut.

Falling for Nail Art: Back to School

 

          Happy Autumn! Happy first day of the nail art challenge! And more importantly, happy birthday to me! Today kicks off my Falling for Nail Art challenge. It runs from today, the first day of fall, through Thanksgiving. If you missed my initial post on this, you can check it out here.

          Just a warning, I am by no means a nail art master. I'm hosting this challenge to better myself and have some fun along the way. The first day's theme is Back to School. I decided to do a mixed manicure.


Check out more after the cut...

Falling For Nail Art - Fall 2013 Nail Art Challenge

          Hey all! I'm excited to announce that I'll be hosting a nail art challenge that starts on September 22nd! Not only is that the first day of autumn, my favorite season, but it's also my birthday. This challenge will run through Thanksgiving. Each week there will be two challenges. I think I've come up with some great themes to inspire nail art. 

          What do you think? I didn't want to be specific with what time of nail art you had to do. If you aren't good with water marbling, you don't have to do it. If you think you aren't good at painting straight lines, don't worry about it. This is all up to your interpretation of the theme. 

          Please join in on the fun! You don't have to have your own blog to join. You can share your nail art on my Facebook page (I'll share them with my fans), on Pinterest (I'll repin them to one of my boards), or on Instagram (I'll make a special tag for them. Check back for that!) so everyone can see. If you're a blogger, let me know if you're participating. I'll link you to the master list of participants on this post, plus I'll be sure to include your posts in my challenge posts. 

         Don't think you can commit to all the days? No problem! Think you might be a little late for some? No sweat! Post what you want, when you want. This is all in good fun. Feel free to share this your readers or friends. The more the merrier, and I'd love to see what you've got! 

        Let me know if you have any questions! You can leave a comment here or message me on Facebook.

12 Days of Christmas: Day Eleven - Christmas Trees

    Womp, womp, womp. This is not my best work. Actually, this is terrible. It looked so much better in my mind.

     I used tape to create the trees, a striper for the string of lights, and a dotting tool for the star. I wish I had more time to do these over again. Unfortunately, I'm too tired from work this week. After the fact, I thought about a dotticure tree. I think it would have looked worlds better.

     I can't wait to get a new camera. I wish I could have captured the holo glitter in the green polish. 

     We're almost done with the challenge! I wonder what else is in store. :)

12 Days of Christmas: Day Ten - Holiday Song

     Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer was always my favorite Christmas song. Every child loves singing it with the funny interjections, right? This is my favorite manicure of the whole set! I'll try to top it with the remaining two days, but I know it won't be possible. I'm pretty proud of my little reindeer.

     Look at these little holo cuties! Adorable, right? Don't worry, they weren't hard to create. I started with a base coat, and then painted on the brown base using Nubar Gem. I've never had a reason to wear this brown holo, but this was perfect! I used dotting tools for all the details. Super, super simple.

         So, what's your favorite holiday song? I'm pretty partial to the Hanson Christmas album, but that's just the teen in me.

12 Days of Christmas: Day Nine - Gradient

     My, oh, my! We're so close to being done with this challenge. I honestly thought I wouldn't make it this far. Today's challenge is a gradient. I thought this was the perfect time to try out my newest China Glazes. I picked up the Holiday Charms mini set at Sally's a few weeks ago. Originally, I was going to gift it, but decided to keep it myself. Terrible, I know.

     For this look, I started with two coats of Merry Berry, a deep berry jelly with a lovely squishy feel. I was amazed by the coverage! It was fully opaque in two coats. The dry time was great. 

     For the glitter gradient, I used Glitter All The Way, a multi-sized glitter filled with purple, emerald, ruby, and gold. I started with a nearly dry polish brush and did the base of the glitter down the nail. After it dried, I added more at the base. I repeated this a few times until I got the coverage I wanted.

     I finished it off with a coat of Out the Door. The finish is nice and smooth. The glitter wasn't top coat hungry like I expected. 

     My hand looks mammoth with the China Glaze mini bottle. I have to admit, I'm not usually a fan of minis, but these are much better than others. *cough* OPI *cough* 

     Does anyone actually read my posts or do you just look at the pictures? ha

12 Days of Christmas: Day Eight - Favorite Holiday Character

   This was a tough one to narrow down. A few characters came to mind, but one stuck out from my childhood. The Abominable Snowman! What can I say? I have a thing for big furry guys. ;)

     This was super simple. I used a white base, a coat of Seche Vite, and cotton balls. The face is a base of RBL Faraway. I used dotting tools and stripers. While this isn't practical, it was fun for a minute! 

     Who's your favorite holiday character?

12 Days of Christmas: Day Seven Candy Canes

     Candy canes sound pretty simple, right? WRONG. I hated doing these. I think it was just my striping tape that didn't agree with the red holo jelly I used for this look. I'm not sure what I did wrong, but it was a pain.

      I used WNW White Creme as a base and Hits Ares for the candy stripes. For some reason, the jelly formula of Ares didn't work well for this look. For the silver, I just used a simple striper from Sally's.

     My thumb turned out to be my favorite. It's the only one that looked how I imagined before I started this. 

     This is a look I won't be trying to duplicate. It was a nightmare. I think this was my fifth and final attempt. I was just fed up at this point. 

     What's your latest nail art fail?

12 Days of Christmas: Day Six Water Marble

     We're half way through the challenge! Can you believe it? Christmas is right around the corner and I'm not even near ready for the holiday.

     For today's water marble challenge, I used sugar plum fairies as my inspiration. I would have used red, white, and green if the next challenge hadn't been candy canes. I had to mix it up a bit.

     For this look, I used WNW White Creme as a base. For the marbling, I used OPI Rumple's Wiggin', Essie Play Date, OPI Funky Dunky, and WNW White Creme. I absolutely love this purple marble! 

     I couldn't stop staring at my nails after doing this. I've not tried water marble very many times. This is probably my 4th or 5th attempt. I think I should do this more often. 

     Of course I couldn't leave well enough alone. I added OPI Servin' Up Sparkle on top.

     Glitter makes everything better, right? Sugar plum fairies dance and twirl and sparkle. I think this is a perfect representation of that.

     What do you think? 

12 Days of Christmas: Day Five Snow

   
     Snow. What an ugly word! I hate snow. If I could have autumn all year round, I would never complain about the weather. Luckily, Pittsburgh hasn't been hit with the white fluffy stuff yet. The weather has been great lately, but enough about that. On to the polish!

     This was a simple look. With how much I've been working, I had to take an easy day. I used a few of my favorite pastels for this look: Illamasqua Nomad, Illamasqua Jo'Mina, and Essie Where's My Chauffeur. I was getting tired of the red and green polish already. I had to mix it up.

  I used a Bundle Monster plate and Zoya Trixie to create the snowflakes. I love how simple and clean this looks. To fill in some of the empty space, I used a small dotting tool. I finished it off with a coat of Seche Vite.

     This is definitely a fun, simple, and refreshing holiday manicure. I love pastels in the winter. 

     Is anyone else hoping the snow holds off?

12 Days of Christmas: Day Four Inspired by a Holiday Movie

      I'm not sure about you, but Elf is one of my favorite holiday movies. I really wanted to use Gremlins as an inspiration. Unfortunately, I failed miserably when trying to paint Gizmo on my nails. It was a hot mess. I opted for a bit of an easier task.

     Aside from the penguins that were featured a few days ago, I've never free handed nail art before. This was quite a learning experience for me. I used my dotting tools and a striping brush to create the elf body. For the lettering, I just used a dotting tool. the body took me a good 15 minutes to paint. I removed it and did it over several times before I was happy with it. 

       For my thumb, I wanted to make swirly twirlies, but it didn't turn out quite like I had anticipated. I used a Bundle Monster stamping plate for the image. It didn't turn out very well and I thought glitter might help it out. Wrong. It was just a hot mess.

     See what I mean? The glitter just didn't work out well. Maybe it's before I'm just not a fan of gold tones on me. I feel that I'm far too pale for it. However, I think the letter nails would have looked better with a full coat of the gold. I guess I'll know better next time.

     This was a lot a fun to do. I never would have imagined that it would turn out how it did. I'm pretty proud of myself. My boyfriend loved it; he told me not to remove it. I'll probably duplicate this for Christmas with the family. 

     What's your favorite holiday movie?

12 Days of Christmas: Day Three Tape Manicure

     Day three! Today's challenge is a tape manicure. I used this as a chance to try out a half moon again. My inspiration came from icicles. I didn't want to get burned out on all the red and green, so I went with a blue holographic base: Color Club Blue Heaven.

     I used the same paper hole reinforcement stickers as I did in my first half moon post found here. I decided to not use a base color for this. I like the natural half moon in this. 

     To add to the icy feel, I used a simple silver glitter striper around the crescent of each nail. It made the lines cleaner without overpowering the holographic look the polish. To finish it off, I used a coat of Seche Vite. (That's a big surprise, isn't it?) What do you think of this look? 

12 Days of Christmas: Day Two Penguin

     This month is flying by already! For any of you who work in retail, I'm sure you can relate. It's just going to get worse the closer we get to Christmas.

     Today's nail art challenge is penguins! Who doesn't love penguins? If you don't, I don't want to know you. Penguins are one of my favorite animals to see at the zoo. They're such funny little birds.

     For this look, I started with a base of Essie Leading Lady, a dark red jelly filled with red glitter. By itself, it's gorgeous. Two coats delivered full coverage. Clean up was easy and the red didn't stain me as so many do. 

     These cute little guys were easy to make. I started by making the body with a simple brush stroke using Cult Nails Nevermore. After that, I used a large dotting tool to make the face and belly with Wet N Wild White Creme. The eyes, beak, and feet were also made with dotting tools. For the yellow, I used Cult Nails Feel Me Up. For the orange, I used Essie Fear or Desire. I finished it up with a coat of Seche Vite.

     After I had already removed this, I thought about adding a scarf or hat. I'm pretty upset that I didn't think of it beforehand! If I replicate this later on, I'll definitely dress them up.