Galaxy Nail Art

I've had galaxy nails on my to-do list for awhile now, but I was putting it off until my nails grew long enough to have enough space to get a decent "picture" in.  After being inspired by all the amazing swatches at Nouveau Cheap's epic galaxy nail battle, I decided two things:  #1 this would be another epically (spell check does not like that but dictionary.com tells me that's the proper spelling of the adverb tense) long manicure if I did it on all 10 nails, #2 my ring finger nails were long enough.  When you add 1 + 2 you get:

I ended up using several of the same colors she used without even realizing it, but I did intentionally use one my many China Glaze Riveting's inspired by what appeared to be her boyfriend's use of it and my love of it. The one thing I changed up was instead of making the stars by dotting a light polish, I used my dotting tool to pick up and put down the large hex glitter out of my Revlon Whimsical.  I love the idea of an old sponge roller too.  I found my makeup sponges are so absorbent that they are worthless for nail art and I'd been looking for an alternative that was cheap.  This was perfect since I had several I don't use anymore and it really works amazingly!

I used LA Looks Black Velvet as the base of the nail.  This is quickly becoming my favorite nail art black.  Perfect formula, it spreads perfectly, can be used in one coat for small art, and is only $1.  For the galaxy I used:


 (in this general order, one or two may have been switched around)

Wet N Wild Lavender Creme
Wet N Wild Red Red
China Glaze Riveting
Wet N Wild Blue Moon
Revlon Mysterious
Zia Unnamed off-white frost with silver sparkle
Revlon Whimsical


I then covered it with a light coat of Petites Stardust.  Careful, this one surprisingly has enough coverage that a regular coat will be too much glitter.  Note the difference in coverage between the right and left pictures.  Otherwise I'm really impressed with how these came out on my first try!  For the rest of my nails I used Wet N Wild Everybody Loves Redmond.  


I was not happy with the red, it was just too orange, but I didn't have anything better.  But the next day I hit up Rite Aid's Wet N Wild deal and got Burgundy Frost which worked perfectly!  I wish I had this exact shade in a creme though, I didn't want the distraction of frost or shimmer or glitter or anything.  I really feel like accent nails with nail art needs a complimentary but subdued color on the rest of the nails to allow them to stand out.

In the end, I love this art and can't wait to try it again with other colors. Also I loved that both my husband and my older daughter knew what it was right off the bat! What do you think about galaxy nails?  Have you tried it?

Somebody Loves Me!

And that somebody is my husband!  I've been sick on the couch since yesterday and I've needed a redo on my mani.  The water marble gave up after a week.  Three polish plates popped of climbing in a bounce house with my Girl Scout troop Thursday.  Then some started peeling, chipping, and cracking.  But I was almost out of acetone and there just no point in trying without plenty on hand.  So the dear ran out to Sally's to pick some up.  I mentioned that they were having another Red Dot sale and he went and had them pull all of their back stock of a discontinued color I had mentioned.  Now, 9 extra bottles of one polish color may be excessive, we'll see.  Maybe if this blog gets off the ground I have giveaway stock now, or I'll sell some once they're HTF.  But for now, I can do whatever nail art I want with it without worry because it's going to be a very long time until I have to worry about running low.

China Glaze Riveting

Water Marble Mini Me

The day after I did my first water marble mani on myself, my youngest came down with a fever and we were stuck on the couch for the day.  She's a total diva and more into the beauty stuff than I, so why not take advantage of her lethargy to give her a really neat mani!

Base of NK Really White

Water Marble with NK Really White and Crayola Grape Raisin, Blueberry, Green Apple, Orange, and Bubble Gum

Top coat 2 coats of SV 

Unfortunately her manis don't last very long because she's a dedicated picker, but she enjoyed it while it lasted!

Water Marble!

I really, REALLY tried to put this technique off until my nails were a bit longer, but I just have no patience.  This was so much fun, there was very little learning curve to it, and it really didn't take that long for the results that come out of it.  I had originally planned to just do it on accent nails, but it was too fun and easy, I'd do two, top coat it, and within an hour, I was doing another pair of fingers!  I ended up with a full mani that's impressed everyone.

I started with a base coat of Gelous, 2 coats of Sinful Colors 24/7, and 2 coats of Seche Vite.  I know, we've started this off with a lot of polish already!  I probably could have just used one coat of the 24/7 since it's just underwear, but the 2 coats of SV is really necessary because if you get a bad marble, you can use your clean-up brush and some acetone to brush off the marble without bringing the underwear with and then slap on more SV and save starting over from scratch!  Since I had this happen 3 times (I was trying for a certain design, otherwise this has a much higher success rate), it seems to have been a good plan.  I topped the marbling with at least 4 coats of SV.  This is good and bad as you'll see later.

Sorry about the weird color balance, these pigments are very hard to correct for, the nails are pretty true to life, my hands are not that color ;P

     

Sinful Colors 24/7 and Dream On, China Glaze Riveting, NK Really White, LA Colors Black Velvet

I think Riveting has become a serious favorite of mine. Can you see on the middle finger of the picture on the right how it's swirled over the black?  AMAZING!  I'm going to have to stock up on it since it's already hit the clearance racks and will be HTF soon!

This is the best home mani I have ever had!  Here's how my left hand looks 6 days later.

Overall standings:  Day 3 one finger's full plate of polish popped off, I saved it and re-glued it once I returned home (ring finger in this picture, looks the same as the day I put it on, that white at the edge is polish, not chipping);  Day 5 another polish plate fell off, I re-glued it (pointer finger in this picture, my aim was off, it's glue too far back so you can see some exposed nail at the tip, oops);  Day 5 a not so small, but not huge chip on my right thumb, not very noticeable though, I can live with it;  Day 5 same thumb polish plate popped off, re-glued it and it looks just as good as new except that chip.

As you can see, Day 5 seems to be hitting the limit, but I'm going to try to wear them through Friday to show off at a gathering I go to on Fridays, that will mean over a week with the same polish!  AMA-ZING!  That pop off on Day 3 was my nail snagging and ripping at something, frankly I think the polish saved my nail from breaking, so not too shabby.  The thickness caused by all the polish plus my excessive coats of SV creates a lot of strength and depth which I like, but it's a catch 22.  The thickness saved my nail plus allowed the "plates" to pop off in a repairable way instead of chipping or peeling, but it may have also led to them popping off in the first place, maybe they wouldn't have popped off if I didn't put so many layers on?

One thing I noticed and am really frustrated by:  When the nails came off, I got to see what my nail plate looks like after nearly a week with the same polish on, and they're quite stained.  24/7 isn't all that well pigmented, obviously while Gelous is providing the strength I need to grow my nails out, it's not protecting the plate from staining.  I'm working hard at staying well-hydrated to prevent as much as I can, but what's your favorite base coat?  Does it do a good job at preventing stains?

Girl Scouts Rock the Mall!

In addition to being addicted to nail polish, I'm a Daisy Girl Scout leader.  This year marks 100 years of Girl Scouting in the US and this past Saturday our council tried to put off a huge sing along on the National Mall with 200,000 Girl Scouts.  I say "tried" because the general consensus seems to be they failed miserably and it was an embarrassment to the Nation's Capital.

But anyway, I did a special pedicure just for the day!

I have awful feet, I know.  I'm an avid gardener among other feet uglying activities that I do barefoot or in flip flops pretty much always.  But I'm working on them!  The blue is Revlon Mysterious and the green is Wet N Wild Fast Dry SaGreena the Teenage Witch (I love the Fast Dry names!) with the painting done in NK Really White.  I have shown these off to EVERYONE!  I cannot draw for anything, so I totally impressed myself with these, especially the right one!  And I just adore these two colors together, they're definitely going to make more appearances as a pair around here.

My Girls trying to keep cool

Giveaway!

What a sellout I am ;P  I never win anything, so I'm taking all the entries I can get.  Polished Indulgence is having a terrific little giveaway over on her blog for her birthday!  Go on over, check out all the polish goodness she has to offer, and enter for yourself!

Simple Bling

One of the things I've learned on this new fingernail polish journey is how much layering really can effect a polish.  I'd often see these in-the-bottle-gorgeous chromes and glitters, bring them home, and be so disappointed. Well guess what?  It turns out that layering them over other colors has a massive effect!  Here's 1 coat of Sally Hansen HD DVD over 1 coat of Wet N Wild Ebony Hates Chris and topped with 1 coat of SV.

It's a blue/purple duo-chrome with an ultra-fine glitter/shimmer. 

I tried to get the two colors in the pic, but it was hard even though it shows up very well inside or outside.  You can see the purple at the top of my pointer finger.  This was easy to put on, a little thin, but not too bad.  I had it peel back after a very long shower and fixing it with a touch-up brush was quick and easy, which always bodes well for the formula.

Shades of Grey!

I'm sure everyone has seen by now the press release from Pure Ice today about the coming Five Shades of Grey collection.  I first saw it over at Prim and Polished today and my mind was BLOWN.  I read the first book.  I sort of enjoyed it.  I wouldn't feel okay recommending it to anyone else.  But this collection is such a terrific combination of colors and finishes and textures, I just can't wait to have it!

Sparkling Darkness

I've been trying to put this off until my nails got longer, but I'm not patient enough.  Does the fact that these are actually freehanded tips make up for my impatience?  I think I did a pretty darned good job for someone who a month ago looked like a 3rd grader when I tried to paint the entire nail!  The worst was the middle finger you see, it was a bit wide, so I painted over the too-wide glitter with the black using a detail brush.  Worked out wonderfully enough until the SV dragged it when I top-coated it.  That's the little ding you see dragging into the CG on that finger.

2 coats of Wet N Wild Fast Dry Ebony Hates Chris
1 coat SV
2 coats of China Glaze Liquid Crystal on the tips
2 coats of SV

Something This Way Nautical Comes

Thursday I thought I'd try a sponged gradient.  It failed.  My base was already on in China Glaze's Riveting and I had Revlon's Mysterious out as one of my gradients, so it was time for a quick change of plans.

I ended up with this funky french that reminds me of something nautical.  I've been trying for days to put my finer on what it is, but it's just not coming to me.  But between them and my homemade strawberry-lemonade, I felt like a fancy lady of summer!