Challenge mani #5: Nature

For quite some time now, I've been fascinated whenever I see someone's galaxy mani post, and just the other day as we passed a rack in Rue 21, a friend of mine commented on how cool the "new" galaxy leggings look.  SO when the "nature" theme rolled around in this challenge, I decided why not attempt my very own nail galaxy?!

I dare say it turned out pretty well and I have no idea why I waited so long to try a galaxy mani!  This was surprisingly easy and FUN.  Choosing colors definitely got my creative juices flowing and really, the sky IS  the limit! hehe

According to one blogger who will remain anonymous, you have to use a black creme base for it to look realistic, but I think my alternating Zoya Ibiza and Skin Food 05 (darn Korean brands!) create a lovely dark blue shimmery space. ;)
This mani made me like Ibiza more than I did at first application a few weeks ago, but I still had some pulling/dragging issues and re: drying completely... let's just say galaxy manis are GREAT for covering up slicing gouges and sheet marks!

This may be a bit of a "wild" and colorful galaxy, but whatever... I think it's purty!  And boy did I ever use a plethora of polishes for that prettiness:

Top row, L-R: OPI DS Extravagance, Cameo Colours Lacquers The Glass Slippers, Zoya Ibiza, Cult Nails Tempest, Hits Cha Cha Cha,
Bottom row, L-R: OPI Solitaire, OPI The Living Daylights, NOPI Just Busta Mauve, Sally Hansen Lacey Lilac, Venique Galoshes Glow, Skin Food 05

My favorites were probably The Glass Slippers (amazing super sparkly white yet not white; it's made of tons of tiny pink, blue/green, and gold flakies) and Just Busta Mauve.  :)

Using tiny chunks of makeup sponge and a tweezers, I pretty much went to town; a dab or two here, a smoosh (no, not a smooch !) over there, swipes of flakie glitter, and dots of Tempest with one of my dotting tools.  I also used the dotting tool to place The Living Daylights "glequins."

Yup, I officially L♥VE it and foresee many more nail galaxies in my future. :)  I think next time, I want to try making actual constellations on them; hearkening back to my adolescent years with my little friends, studying books on stars and learning as many of the constellations as we could. :)  "What is life but a collection of memories, made and yet to be made?!" - uhh, ME!

Knock Your Socks Off! A sock-inspired mani

Say whaaa . . . ?!  YES, you heard me correctly (or rather, you read that correctly ;-).  As a dear blogger buddy of mine has said, inspiration can come from ANYWHERE!  So when Liesl (yes, the Liesl of  Liesl Loves Pretty Things) posted a photo of her ailing knee, our mutual friend Essie (a la iHeartPrettyPolish) zeroed in on no, not the knee, but the SOCKS, and suggested we do a mani based off of them. :-)  And such is the life of a nail polish addict . . .& her friends!

I'll spare you the XL-sized photo of this one! ;-)

A flurry of comments ensued as we chimed in and agreed that would be a nifty way for our three blogs to connect, (I'd like to take this moment to mention that I'm incredibly honored to have anything to do with their blogs, as they're totally amazing & have earned their place in the big leagues!) and for us to have fun with something, shall we say, unique & a tad off-the-wall? :-)

And then I imagine our minds separately set to work attempting to puzzle through what we were going to do with a sock and a knee injury and . . . nail polish.  Well, this is what my cogitation kicked out:

First of all, can I just say how unbelievably GLAD I am that someone from PAA (Polish-aholics Anonymous, a fab Facebook group) mentioned their copious research on bulbs & came up with "daylight" compact fluorescent bulbs (Wal-Mart brand, no less!), because it looks like it's going to be stormy 'til the end of time here.  I was rather despondent until I remembered the lightbulbs I just bought!  For having no light box & simply putting one into our resident living room floor lamp, I am stunned at the color accuracy and ease with which I was able to get quite satisfactory photos!  Ok, that digression got to be a lot longer than I anticipated!  My apologies, but I was/am quite excited about this.  :-)  I can take awesome photos in the middle of the night!  Boom bayyyby!

This is what I used:

L to R: Sally Hansen 4-in-1 Complete Care (used as base), L'Oreal Eiffel For You, Zoya Neely, Zoya Yara, NYC French White Tip, NYC Skyline Blue, China Glaze Rich & Famous, Venique Ga-loshes Glow, NYC Matte Top Coat.  Oh, and the tiny craft paintbrush!  Couldn't have done it without him!

I really couldn't think of anything to do but replicate the look of the sock!  So after my ever-present base coat, I started with two coats of Zoya Neely on all my nails, then used the saran/cling wrap technique on thumb, pointer, & middle to sorta sponge on L'Oreal Eiffel For You - a beautiful, warm greige - to mimic the heather look of the sock.  I also went back over that with some sponged-on Neely to soften the boldness of the greige.

Originally, I was just going to do stripes on the standard accent nail, but since this is a mani in honor of Liesl's injury & her awesome sock, I thought: "why not do the pinkie as an 'accent' as well, like she does?"  :-)

I was able to use Yana, Skyline Blue, and of course, French White Tip right out of the bottle, but I had to get a bit creative for the other stripes.  So the pink & yellow-green were products of Rich & Famous + white and Ga-loshes Glow + white. The heather stripes didn't quite come out as good as they first appeared (esp. with the matte coat), but I don't think it was too shabby! :-)  Especially in light of this being my first attempt with freehand stripes.  It would probably be fine for someone with a steady hand, but that's not me!  And I suppose the medium latte with an extra shot earlier in the day didn't help much. ;-) ...well, it did...it kept my head from hitting the keyboard at work!

Originally, I had not given any thought to my topcoat, but as I was gathering my polishes, it dawned on me that DUH, socks are not shiny, so MATTE is the obvious choice!!! :-D  I was quite pleased to have thought of that, and I think the matte is the perfect icing on the sock, so to speak. :-)

Well, I think that's all I have for you.  Please be sure to head over & check out Essie's & Liesl's posts - they're as stellar as always! :-)  And remember: inspiration can be found anywhere - have fun with it!

Thanks for reading!!