Deadly Sins Challenge Day 13: Pride - Finger Paints Tough Art to Follow with Studio M Covered in Diamonds

Hi everyone!

Another Deadly Sins Challenge mani today. This week, the theme is Pride. The prompt for this one was "Recreate your own work to make it even better". One thing I am proud of is how far I've come with respect to nail care, polish application and the quality of my manicures in general. One of the very first manicures I was really proud of was this simple manicure of Sinful Colors Last Chance and Studio M Covered in Diamonds. Right after I wore that mani, I swore to myself that I would wear it again soon because I loved it so much! Two years later, I still hadn't recreated and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity. I really didn't change the essence of the manicure at all. I just figured with how far my nails have come, it's bound to look even better. 

The base I used for this was an untried. I used Finger Paints Tough Art to Follow.  A deep forest green almost jelly. It was a little uneven with application and I had to pain about two to three coats to get it looking nice in real life. In pictures, it looks like it could have used another coat. I went ahead and used Studio M Covered in Diamonds again. Color Club has the exact same polish with the exact same name. This polish is not for everyone. Those mylar flakes do tend to clump and stick up here and there and it takes careful maneuvering to get it even and sitting properly. Even so, I love the effect of the shards.

Here is FP Tough Art to Follow by itself. 

This is the one picture of that mani I loved so long ago. Despite the stubby nails and lack of clean up, I still love this picture. Look at those shards glow!!

I forgot to ask my husband to rate this one. I guess we'll never know...

See below for what the others have done for this challenge!

Deadly Sins Challenge Day 12: Envy (A England Dragon with Jessica Iridescent Eye stamping)

Hey hey! This is one of those rare weeks when I'm actually going to have both of the manis for this week's challenge done! This is the next to the last week and I'm actually going to be really sad when the challenge is over. I liked having some guidelines for what to do for my nails. For today's mani, the prompt is "Let the 'Green Monster' guide you to some enviable nails". I went all out with the green for this one. Green for the base and sorta green for the stamping. Even the names of the polishes together remind me of a green monster: a green dragon with iridescent green eyes!! I took way too many pictures to show what A England Dragon looks like by itself so I'll make that another post. This is A England Dragon with Jessica Iridescent Eye stamping. The stamp design is from the Cheeky XL plate B.

These first three pictures are taking with my lamp indoors. It shows you how subtle the stamping looks under those lighting conditions.

The next two pictures are shown under sunlight and under shade. The sunlight picture shows the holo of Dragon. In my next post, you'll see Dragon by itself and you can really see the holo then.

These last two pictures I took on a cloudy day because that seems to be the best time to see the color shift!

So, by now you guys must have realized when I really love a mani, I have a hard time limiting myself to a couple of pictures. I hope that's ok with you all. I use Chrome every where I go and I have no trouble getting my pages to load so please tell me if you guys are experiencing difficulties getting my pages to load for any reason.

Also, can't leave a post alone without giving the hubby rating for the mani now. This one got an 8/10. He really liked it :-)

See below for what the other ladies have done for this challenge.

Seven Deadly Sins Mani: Day 11 - Envy (aka. My first quilted nails, with Urban Outfitters Smush)

Hello everyone!

Time for another Deadly Sins Challenge mani. The prompt for this one is Envy. "Who would you like to be? Let us know recreating another challenger's work." When I first saw this manicure by Nail Wish, one of the creators of this challenge, I knew I had to do it for this week. It's a technique that I had been wanting to do ever since I saw the first one on Instagram but it was her mani and this challenge that clinched it for me.

The color I used is Urban Outfitters Smush. I obviously didn't recreate her mani exactly...(her's is better). I didn't want yet another purple mani but I wanted something in the pastels so I chose this. I also didn't have the little tiny pearls so I used Revlon Metallic for the intersections of the lines. This is three coats of Smush, followed by a coat of Sinful Colors Over the Top topcoat, then Hard Candy matte topcoat. I waited for it to mostly dry then I used the edge of my scraper to create the lines. The angle is all wrong on the ring finger. I'll just pretend it's an accent :-)

I really did like the end result, even though I need practice and it could be more refined. Maybe a less matte matte topcoat next time.... What do you guys think?

Oh, also, there is this thing I do with my husband for every manicure I do. I ask him to rate it on a scale of 1-10 based on his opinions and preferences. His answer usually surprises and amuses me. For instance, hubby rated this initially a 9/10 for uniqueness. Then when he found out that I wasn't going to be putting a glossy topcoat over it, it became a 2/10 because "it's not finished until you put the shiny stuff on top. I can't give a good rating to something you don't finish." :-D

Seven Deadly Sins Challenge: Day 9 - Wrath (My first water spotted nails!!)

Hi guys! So, it's time for another challenge post. The details of this challenge are explained in this post.  Today's challenge prompt is Wrath. "Get mad trying, again, that technique you know it's going to be a fail."

So, for my wrath mani I decided to tackle a technique that has made me pretty angry in the past, the water spotted technique. To know what I'm talking about, here is the tutorial I first saw by cutepolish and then some brilliant examples of this by Spektor's Nails. My initial problem was that I kept trying to use hand sanitizer and could not find the right one. I would keep getting one giant spot in the middle which was not at all useful. Then, on instagram, where I vented about this, someone suggested I try using hairspray. Two dollar Suave hairspray and a few attempts later, I think I got the hang of it! So here are my water spotted nails.

For the base I used Forever 21 Love and Beauty Lavender and the gold is L'Oreal Because You're Worth It. To tell you the truth, I'm a little meh about the mani right now. Maybe it's because of my color choices or maybe I need to add a third color. I'm not writing the technique off at all. I just need to try it with other colors, I think.

Here is Love and Beauty Lavender all by itself. Isn't it pretty?

Deadly Sins Challenge - Day 5: Greed (Dior Golden Light)

Hi all! It's that time again. Another Deadly Sins Challenge mani! This week's theme is Greed. The first of the two challenges says "Go wild and use your most expensive and precious polish." I decided to use a polish that my lovely husband got for me as a spur of the moment gift. I normally don't buy any truly expensive polishes so this was truly a treat. The color itself seemed so amazingly pretty in the store (oh those department store lights). This is Dior Golden Light.

I have stamped it with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Wined Up. The image comes from the Cheeky XL plate D. I just want to take a minute to express my love for the soft XL stamper as well. This was a perfect combination of plate, polish and stamper.

This is Golden Light before any stamping. It's a pretty sheer polish on it's own. The index only has one coat, the middle finger two, the ring finger three and pinky sort of a fourth. I went with three coats on all fingers for the mani.

Not my most exciting polish and I'm not sure how long it would have taken me to actually wear it if it wasn't for this challenge. It is really pretty though and now that I know how sheer it is, I think it would work well over other polishes. 

Seven Deadly Sins Challenge Day 3: Gluttony

Hi all! Ok, so you might be wondering, she did a day 1, and now it says day 3....where did day 2 go? The way this challenge works is that you can do one or two challenges per week and each of those challenges are numbered. I can only probably do one challenge a week and depending on which challenge it is, I'm probably going to be skipping days here and there.

So, on to this week's challenge, Gluttony! Day 3 guideline is, "Delight yourself with a Sugar Spun inspired manicure". I had done a sugar spun mani before but had been less than pleased with those results. When I started playing with some of my Barry M polishes that I purchased on my trip to London, I realized that the creme/jelly consistency that a lot of them had really lent itself well to creating thin sugar spun lines. I also really wanted to do sugar spun over a gradient so this was the perfect opportunity!

The polishes I used for this are Barry M Prickly Pear, Bright Purple and Plum. After the gradient, I used Plum to create the sugar spun design. I really tried to make the lines as thin as possible and I think I did a better job than with my last attempt. My hands were a mess afterwards though. It took me four episodes of Parks and Recreation to get both hands done! I got into a good rhythm after a while of dripping polish on one nail, then replenishing the drop on the foil and cleaning up the skin around the nail while waiting for that drop to thicken. The sparkles come from INM Northern Lights topcoat. I love the density of the holographic glitter in this, perfect for a topcoat.

This manicure went through a lot of stages and was a creation built over days. Here it is with just regular topcoat.

Here it is before any topcoat. Love this picture!

Here is it as just the gradient. I wore it this way for a day or so. Not perfect but I knew I was going to cover it up so I didn't stress.

Click below to see what the other ladies part of this challenge have been up to.

Seven Deadly Sins Challenge Day 1: Lust

Hi everyone! So, on today's post, I'm super excited to say that I have joined a challenge based on the Seven Deadly Sins! I usually stay away from challenges because I never know if I'll have the time to do all the challenge manis and sometimes the actual challenge topics just don't call for any creativity in me. This particular challenge was created by Alice from One Nail to Rule Them All and Helena from Nail Wish and it's called the Deadly Sins Challenge. 

Illustration by Dahlig (her DeviantArt is http://dahlig.deviantart.com/)

The first week challenge is Lust and we can do both of the challenges or just one. I chose the Day 1 challenge and decided to do something that I've been thinking about for a long, long time. 

I had seen a Tadashi Shoji dress on Pinterest that immediately had me wondering what it would look like as a mani. After having it in the back of my mind for a while, I decided that I needed a black jelly to make it work, so frankened one. Then I sat on it some more. 

Finally, this challenge was what prompted me to get my act together and see if I could capture the lace under black guaze look. 

I think it looks ok in pictures but it falls a little flat in real life. I did enjoy finally getting my butt in gear and trying to get my idea onto my nails. The polishes I used are Sinful Colors Snow me White and WnW Black Creme. The black jelly is created from the Black Creme.

Here's the dress that inspired me:

From: http://www.stylebistro.com/runway/New+York+Fashion+Week+Fall+2012/Tadashi+Shoji/1dHUggmWw-D