Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day!! For another hour and ten minutes at least ;) Today's theme for the April Nail Art Challenge is in fact Earth Day. I was really excited about doing something for today because I really do love this planet. It's pretty amazing what we have available to us in nature and all to often I am awestruck by the vastness of it all. 

I wanted to do something that showed my love of this planet while also portraying part of the beauty of it. I did an homage to what earth looks like from space (the ocean and the continents) and put a little bit of a spin on their shape...and number ;) 

The base color for this is China Glaze's Man Hunt - which I love by itself - and I used plain old painters/masking tape to create the heart shapes. To add the varying colors within each heart, I dabbed out China Glaze's Def Defying, Desert Sun and Kalahari Kiss along with OPI's Don't Mess With OPI onto my palette. Using a damp makeup sponge I dabbed the polish onto my nail to create "continents."

 Happy Earth Day to you all! I hope you got to appreciate some little bit of awesome-ness that the earth has to offer today :)

Happy Polishing! 

February Nail Art Challenge - Day 1: Hearts!

I contemplated continuing with the 31 Day Challenge today, but thought better of it when I realized that  today was my last day to pretend like I will keep on schedule with the February Challenge. I'm off to a great start! BUT, I made it! The monthly challenge only "requires" you to complete your nail art between the days listed so I'm still alright. Phew! The theme for today's challenge is hearts and as I just recently did a very Valentines-y mani with a heart, I wasn't quite ready for the pinks and reds again. As shown in my last post, I have now acquired/hoarded some of Lime Crime's fabulous (and summery) nail colors and I couldn't resist using all of them in this look! I wanted something a bit non-traditional and I think that this mani accomplishes that. Maybe? What do you think?  

These were super simple to create. I used my trusty detailing brush (that has become my favorite of all my nail art brushes!) and created lots of lines. At first I was worried about there being a consistent distance between each line, but as I progressed farther into the mani I realized that I liked it a little bit messy and free hand looking. I think you could probably also use a pin or toothpick to create the lines. 

I've also added these to a link up hosted by Tara over at Fabulous but Evil. Check out her blog for fabulous manis by some fabulous ladies!

You should also check out this awesome blogger of the month award that is put on by the talented Debbie at The Crumpet! As time goes on, there will be many talented entries, but I thought I would give it a go and enter it myself! :)

Happy Polishing! :)

Valentine's Day mani...in January!

Valentine's Day is coming up soon and while my boyfriend and I will likely get something small for each other, for the most part, we don't make a huge deal out of the day...I mean, I'll totally be a fun person to be around if he doesn't get me flowers...so yeah...totally NOT sarcasm...

Anyway! I find all of the Valentine's Day products and themes to be adorable and I miss the days of making a "mailbox" for your desk in elementary school and seeing if maybe, just maybe, the boy(s) you secretly like gave you an extra special Valentine sometime during the day. 

I wanted to create something fun as Valentines got closer and since there are currently a few nail art challenges/contests going around on Reddit and Instagram that have a Valentine's Day and I couldn't resist coming up with something to enter in them. I really, really, REALLY love how this turned out! 

I've had a few requests for a tutorial on how to do the middle finger, so I might work on some way to show how I did it soon. Let me know if you'd be interested in seeing one as well!

Happy Polishing :)