February Challenge Day Four!

Today is Day Four of the nail art challenge.  The theme?  Inspired By A Pattern.  I almost did zebra stripes and leopard print, but figured I shouldn't because it's kind of a cop-out for me.  I love both prints, especially with a rainbow background.  This time, however, I was inspired by something else.

I spent Saturday at a friend's house, painting my half-moon nails while he was painting a HUGE canvas.  It started out looking like a puzzle, but as he filled in the areas he sketched, it began to look more like camouflage.  I had done rainbow eye makeup before coming over, and it apparently inspired him to really get going on his painting.  It turned out SO awesome, I'm really tempted to steal it.  So as I sat here, pondering what pattern to use, it hit me: why not use the painting as inspiration?  It's got a base of camouflage print, and it's rainbow-y, so why not?

He let all the paint dry completely, then did something we nail art addicts are familiar with: he put painter's tape over top of the pattern, went over it with black paint, then took the tape off.  Here's the gorgeous result:

I LOVE THAT PAINTING.  I swear I'm going to commission him to do one for me one of these days.  His other two paintings are just as awesome, both are black and green, my main colors of choice. 

I used a dotting tool to place the polish on my nails in a camouflage-ish pattern...and accidentally deleted the "before" photo!  I let my nails dry completely and then put on a coat of fast-drying top coat for protection, then let that dry.  I took some striping tape and placed it on the nails in a random pattern, then put two coats of Orly "Goth" over.  One coat was not opaque enough, but two really did the trick.  I pulled the tape off right after applying the second coat, which is REALLY important.  If you leave the tape on and allow the polish to dry, then remove the tape, it will result in one hot mess.  I let the polish dry and followed up with a coat of Gelous. 

Enough about that, I bet you want pictures!  Here they are :)

And here's a nice closeup for you:

And Hatsune Miku decided to drop in to say hello ;-)

I hope you have enjoyed this manicure!  Don't forget to stop by the pages from the other participants!  I'm excited to see what they all have for today's manicure.  I'm certain that they will all have some really gorgeous nail art.  I love how creative they all are!

My Little Pony Mani: DJ Pon3

After I did my Fluttershy manicure, my best friend requested DJ Pon3 from My Little Pony.  She's made a few appearances in episodes, such as the one where Rarity has the chance to impress a famous designer.  The pony was the DJ at the fashion show, and is quite a popular character for a "background pony".

So here's a picture of DJ Pon3:

For this mani, I wanted to have fun.  I used Essence Gray-t To Be Here as base for my thumb, then used striping tape to create a checkered pattern.  I used Sally Hansen HD polish in Cyber and Orly Goth for the black and purple.  China Glaze White on White was used for the cutie mark nail, Cyber was used on the middle finger, and Funky Fingers Zone was used on the pinky.  On those two nails, I put a coat of Lush Lacquers' Salt 'N Peppa.  For the ring finger, I mixed blue and white acrylic paint and put on two coats and let dry.  For the cutie mark, the bass and treble clefs and leopard print on the ring finger, I used black acrylic paint.

On to the mani! 

This took about two hours, because I had to wait for the polishes to dry.  Sally Hansen's Cyber is a thinner polish but is such a GORGEOUS purple, it's worth the wait for it to completely dry.

I hope you've enjoyed this installment of My Little Pony Manis.  Have a great weekend!

February 9-Day Nail Art Challenge Day Three!

Good morning/afternoon/evening and welcome to Day Three of Erica's Nails And More February 9-Day Challenge! I hope you've been having a good week so far and have checked out all the other participants' posts.  I've been absolutely blown away by how amazing, talented, and creative they all are!  The half-moon nails I've seen have made my jaw drop, they are all so gorgeous!

Today's theme is Glitter Loaded Nails.  I admit, I cringed at this one.  I have a love/hate relationship with glitter polish; it's gorgeous and sparkly, but such a pain to remove.  I've spent ten minutes with a cotton ball full of acetone on my nails, tin foil holding it in place, only to be rewarded with super-dry cuticles and nails.  However, after much agonizing over polish color AND the impending possibility of acetone-dried nails, I realized...I can use glue as a base coat!

I've heard of this trick before but hadn't tried it yet.  I've given it a shot and you know what?  It's super easy!  You just use some Elmer's School Glue instead of a polish base coat.  What I did was take some glue and put it on my palette, then used an old art brush to apply the glue to my nails.  I let the glue dry, then applied to coats of a pretty shimmery pale blue as a base, then three coats of Rainbow Honey's 20% cooler polish from her Equestria line.  I let that dry, then put on a coat of Gelous top coat.

I had a really hard time choosing what polish to use.  I have lots of glitter polishes, both from major companies and from indie companies.  In the end, I chose 20% Cooler because it's got RAINBOW GLITTER.  I love anything rainbow colored that sparkles or shimmers.  My nickname is Niji, which is "rainbow" in Japanese, because my nails, eye shadow, hair, and accessories always have lots of bright colors in them.  Not to mention the fact that I love rainbows...every time I see one I feel comforted.

As always, enough talking already and on with the pictures!

Bottle shot!

Isn't that color GORGEOUS?!?

I have to admit, this time I think I did well on picking a color.  I LOVE this polish dearly, and you might remember it from my Rainbow Dash manicure I did last year.  The glue base coat did so well too, I've already peeled this mani off because I was working at school, and the polish chipped off TWO NAILS, despite my use of gloves.  Oh well, that's what to expect when doing work study!

Don't forget to stop by the other participants' pages and check out what they have for Day Three!  I can't wait; if the half-moons were so awesome, then the glitter bomb nails must be to die for!  Have a good weekend all <3

February Nail Art Challenge Day Two

Gooood morning/afternoon/evening to you!  I hope you're having a fantastic weekend and are ready for the Superbowl.  As for me, I'll be watching the Puppy Bowl on Animal Planet.  If I want to be watching the Superbowl, it will be alone because my husband hates sports, and I LOVE watching sports.  I have to be in another room watching because I tend towards the "screaming and shouting at the ref as if he can hear me" type.

Today's challenge is Half Moon nails.  I can tell you, I had major issues with this one.  I went to a friend's house to motivate him to do a painting, and did my nails while he painted and we talked.  I tried about four different things before making my friend help me out on what polishes to use.  In the end, I ended up using China Glaze White on White, Lush Lacquers' Lite Brite (my FAVORITE glitter polish), and an unnamed Funky Fingers purple holo.  As I was typing about the Superbowl, I realized that two of the colors are the same as the team colors for the Baltimore Ravens...so I dedicate this manicure to Chris; dude, I hope your team wins!

Enough about that, on with the pictures!  Only three this time because I must say, I'm disappointed in this.  This isn't my best work, and I had a bit of a hard time getting the glitter where I wanted it, but I do like it.  I love rainbows (my nickname is Niji, which is "rainbow" in Japanese), which is why Lite Brite is a favorite glitter.  It looks STUNNING with white undies, which also bring out the mini holo glitter in the polish.  I absolutely recommend Lush Lacquers; their polishes are so adorable and FUN.  Check them out on Etsy!

No more chatter, on with the pictures!  Enjoy :-)

Don't forget to stop by the other participants' pages to see what awesome work they've done!  I LOVED all the galaxy nails I saw...while you'd think that all galaxy manis look the same, they don't!  Just like the universe, they're all beautifully, gorgeously diverse.  I can't wait to see what they'll all have for Day Two of the challenge <3

ENAM February 9-Day Challenge: Day One!

Am I excited to show off what I have for you today!  As you now know, today is Day One of the Erica's Nails And More February 9-Day nail art challenge.  Today's nail art challenge is: Galaxy Nails!

My first attempt at this was last week.  I've watched the tutorials thinking "This looks kind of hard...", but when I actually tried it, it came out better than I had expected.  It was easy and way fun, the kind of nail art that takes a while to do.  I love that, because to me, getting lost in creativity and losing track of time is a WONDERFUL thing.  I think this took about an hour or so; I'm not entirely sure, because I was absorbed in doing this and listening to Buck-Tick (yes, I love Japanese rock <3).

I want to share this awesome drawing, done by a Miss Alex Redden.  She's the daughter of a good friend of mine, and the moment I saw this, I KNEW it needed to be on today's nails, but as an accent nail.  I totally hope I've done it justice!  Alex and Christy, thank you so much for allowing me to use this as inspiration!  I really think that without it, I would be having some boring nails!

So on with the photos!

I used Orly Goth for the base, then Haley's Comet, a mini Orly yellow, and a rose holo polish from Claire's over the yellow.  Haley's Comet was sponged on around the edges of the yellow and rose, then I sponged on a black holo polish from NYX for some "stars".  I also took a toothpick, dipped it in white polish, and dotted on the stars.  For the comet, I used the yellow polish, took a brown polish and dabbed it on for the rock, and took a thin striping brush and black polish to create the craters in the rock and the black accents on the nail.  I used some small yellow glequins for stars, and the base is Essence Grey-t To Be Here.  I LOVE that polish, it's a gorgeous gray with rose pink shimmer.

I hope you like the nails, and I hope I did Alex's artwork justice in my recreation.  Be sure to check out the awesome manicures from the other challenge participants!  Have a great Friday everyone :-*

Erica's Nails And More 9-Day Challenge!

I am SO excited to be participating in yet another nail art challenge!  I've been feeling "dry" lately, at least creatively, so it was really nice to have my Fluttershy nails done.  I'm usually inspired by other things and sometimes (okay, most of the time) have a hard time coming up with something on my own.  So glad these challenges help with that, thanks to having a theme.

So here are the themes for the month's challenge:

I just about had a conniption upon seeing the theme for the first day!  This is really bringing me out of my comfort zone again; I'm really not that great with polka dots or gradients, but I'll be giving it a shot...and as for the galaxy nails, well, I hope my sponging skills come in handy!

Stay tuned for Day One of the challenge!

Fluttershy Nails

I was pondering doing swatches of Zoya polishes today when someone on Instagram commented on my Rainbow Dash mani: "I need this in my life, only with Fluttershy".  I haven't done any nail art for quite a while, so I thought, why not?

I admit to being a HUGE My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fan.  Heck, I've loved MLP since it came out when I was a child and I love this revamp that was done.  I can't wait to get started on doing 3D nail art because then...oh the possibilities!  I am excited just thinking about all the possibilities.  Until then, I'm relying on acrylic paint to help me out with the fiddly details.

I found three pictures, two of Fluttershy and one of her bunny, Angel.  I had all my polishes ready to go, then had to dig out my acrylic paints with WET NAILS.  No polish was smudged, thankfully. 

I'm rather proud of how these turned out and can't wait to do the DJ Pony next.  Enough blabbing for now, on with the photos!  Hope you like them :)

And here is my workstation, where it all happens!  

Have a fun and fantastic Friday night, thanks for stopping by!