Nail Challenge Day 6

The challenge this time is a gradient nail. At first I wasn't too sure, cause I haven't really done many of them. But it was surprisingly easier this time around and didn't take much time at all. Only thing I can say about the pictures is that they're a bit darker than this mani actually looked *kicks camera*.





Polishes used -both untried- were:

-A-England 'Elaine'
-A-England 'Princess Tears'

Nail Challenge Day 5

The next theme is Valentines Day. I was hellbound and determined to do a water marble for this. I won't go into what a pain that turned out to be (I have no luck when it comes to water temperature). I managed to get it done, but the next day I decided I could do better so I took it off. Anyway...a few hours, much cursing and way too much wasted polish later, I finally managed something I was happy with:



It's not the best, but it's not the worst either. I plan to really practice doing these once the weather warms up and room temperature water is easier to come by (old house, drafty, etc.). Boiling the water and letting it cool to room temp. helped a lot, as did setting a bottle of it in hot water for a while. But since I'm lazy, I'm going to wait until Mother Nature is more willing to lend a hand (no pun intended).

I'm dubbing this entry the 'Magical Mystery Marble' because the polishes used were:
-Essie Mystery Polish #1.....Found it at TK Maxx w/no name. It's pinkish white.----Untried
-Essie Mystery Polish #2....Same as #1, but a nice red.----Untried
-OPI 'Skyfall'----Untried

Nail Challenge Day 4

This days challenge is 'Inspired by a pattern'. And let me tell ya, I struggled with this one. Mainly because I can't paint a straight line using my left hand. The eliminated at least 3 ideas I'd had. Somehow, once again I found myself looking at Mardi Gras related pictures and found this:

See that white, purple, green and yellow diamond one in the lower right corner? That's what I decided to go for. 'I can just use striping tape' I thought to myself.

Epic fail for reasons unknown. Finally, I kept playing around and came up with this:

Please excuse my finger in the way in the second one.

Polishes used in this were:

-Models Own 'Gold Rush'
-Essie 'Sexy Divide'-----Untried
-Models Own 'Purple Haze'-----Untried
-Picture Polish 'Kryptonite'
-Nails Inc. 'Piccadilly Arcade'

Nail Challenge Day 3

Day 3 of the month long challenge is 'Glitter Loaded'. Which is fine, cause I have LOTS of glitter polishes so it was easy to fill the untried part of the contest requirements. My inspiration was Mardi Gras. I had some colors picked out and my friend Angie Tordoff said they looked like MG colors, so I had a look at some masks, switched one of the colors for the green and this was born:

Out of all the manicures I've done (contest and otherwise), I think this is my favorite. I wish the pictures did it justice, cause this is one of those manies that has you staring at your hands most of the day.

Polishes used were:

-A-England 'Camelot'-----Untried
-Revlon 'Scandalous'-----Untried
-Butter London 'Shambolic'-----Untried
-Orly 'HALO'-----Untried
-Picture Polish 'Kryptonite'
-Nails Inc. 'Piccadilly Arcade'

Nail Challenge Day 2

And now we have Day 2 of the challenge, the Half Moon manicure:

This was a bit of a tough one due to having to use those round paper hole reinforcement thingies like this:

I actually ended up cutting mine in half which helped keep them pressed onto the nail a bit better.

The polishes used for this were:

-Models Own 'Gold Rush'-----Previously untried
-Illamasqua Phallic

I know the Phallic looks almost black, but it's actually a really cool blue as you can see in this picture from Scrangie:

Overall, I'm pleased with the way this came out despite all the cursing I did while trying to get those damn stickers lined up properly.

Nail Challenge Day 1

As most people know, I've really gotten into nail art these past few months. So when Erica of Erica's Nails and More announced she was going to do another month long challenge, I jumped at the opportunity. Not because I think I'd win, but because it was a way to attempt certain types of manicures that I felt I could use the practice on. I've always been curious about nail art competitions, so I figured why not?

The first type of mani for the contest is called a Galaxy mani, for obvious reasons. I've always admired these and if you do a image search for them on Google you'll see some pretty awesome ones.  There's a zillion different things you can do for these, which is probably why I had so much trouble making up my mind.  I literally made three attempts at this before settling on the one below.

The polishes used in this were:

-Barry M basic black
-Emily de Molly 'Dark Crystal'
-Essie 'Midnight Cami'
-Nails Inc. 'Holland Park Road', 'York Street' and 'Sumner Place'

Since Erica is living vicariously through us due to being on a self-imposed 'No buy', we're required to use at least one untried polish in each manicure.  All three Nails Inc. polishes were previously untried..mainly because I picked them up earlier in the day in a mad dash to the store looking for some pastels :)

Hmmm

A friend asked me recently if I was ever going to do anything with this blog besides the entries from my Malta trip. I'd said I doubted it, but after a trip to the mall yesterday I figure there are a couple of things I'd like to speak up about. Both have to do with...

FASHION

It's about now that, if she were here, my sister would put a gun to my head and tell me to slowly step away from the keyboard. And I can understand why...I'm one of the least fashion conscience people around. My cool weather 'wardrobe' consists mainly of hoodies and jeans...and my warm weather one is tank tops and jeans, with the odd pair of cut-offs thrown in. I have 2 jackets. One is a black biker leather and the other one isn't. My shoe collection is made up of trainers, a pair of dress boots, a pair of hiking boots and a pair of heels that probably have 3 inches of dust on them as they haven't been worn in an ice age. Basically, I spend half my time looking like I just got out of bed and the other half like I'm about to hop on a Harley.

But my sister isn't here and at any rate, I'm sure she'd agree with the points I'm about to make.

UGG-Lee

Okay, I can live with the fact that these boots are not only in existence but also very popular. I myself would never wear them but to each his own. What I can't stomach are these girls that feel the need to wear the big, furry variety with a skin tight track suit...which is almost always hot pink or electric blue...and about 5 lbs. of makeup. To be honest, I thought this particular trend went out a year or so ago, but just yesterday I saw three overly endowed blondes decked out this way. Who the hell decided that this was fashion??

( I'll bet you anything that some celebrity happened to throw on her boots to run outside for a second and was spotted by some brain dead fashion automaton who thought she was wearing the 'latest thing' and ran out to copy it. That's how this crap gets started, you know.)

Sorry, but you don't look cute. You look like you've probably also got a tramp stamp tattooed on your lower back and a butterfly naval ring encrusted with cubic zirconia (cause we both know you can't afford Swarovski crystal. You blew most of your money on Max Factor and Britney Spears' latest perfume). Be honest now...you also own at least one pair of pants that have 'Juicy' written on the ass, don't ya?

Bottom line (no pun intended), scrape off the Pan Stick and get some decent clothes or just hang a sign around your neck that says 'WILL HOLLER FOR A DOLLAR'.

No, as a matter of fact I don't want to see your underwear

It's a trend that just won't go away. Everyday, on every street, you see some wanna be gangsta walking around with his pants hanging at least halfway off his ass. And he's WHITE. This guy wouldn't know the Wu Tang Clan from the Backstreet Boys even if they showed up at his upscale middle-class home and put his head through his plasma screen television after beating him senseless with his Wii controller.

'Jailing', as it's commonly known, came about because prison inmates aren't allowed belts, resulting in their pants usually sliding off their hips. Naturally, the style carried over onto the street. I don't think I'm taking too much of a leap here when I speculate that it was originally a type of identification in certain circles. Much the same way certain tattoos are used to show if a person has been in jail and what their crime was.

(I've also heard that, while inside, wearing your pants in such a way also meant that you were open to certain...ahem...activities, shall we say. But I've only heard that definition once, so it's hard to tell how accurate that one is.)

Bottom line? You wouldn't make it a half block in the 'hood', Holmes, so quit trying to act like you're just minutes away from your next drive by when the only gun you've ever held was connected to a gaming console and the only crack you've ever seen is your friends cause he's dressed just as stupidly as you are. You want to 'keep it real'? Go try to rob the local mini-mart. I bet you a 4-0 that you don't make it past the fingerprinting before bursting into tears and yelling for your mommy.