Laid-Back 31 Day Challenge: Purple

I'm so excited about today's post not only because purple is my favorite color, but because I have a very special polish to show you. This polish was created by Becca from Franken Femme. She's just started a new blog about frankening. Besides being really informative about the whole polish making process, Becca has created some truly gorgeous polishes. I'm always curious to see what she'll come up with next.
 

 

When I opened the package Becca sent I was almost speechless. It was like someone had created my perfect polish, probably because that's exactly what happened. I gave her a few hints about my favorite things and she whipped this up. I think that's the beauty in frankening. You can take all your favorite elements (purple, duochrome and flakies in my case) and smush them together into one amazing polish. Becca sent me a cute recipe card along with the polish. It says this polish was created using "suspension base, purple jelly polish, blue jelly polish, flakie polish, and duochrome glassfleck."

 





 

This bottle shot does a great job of capturing the color shift and showing how truly beautiful this shade is. I had a slightly harder time getting a good shot on my nails.

 

 

 

 

I'm still traveling and made the difficult and shocking decision to bring only this one bottle of polish with me (plus base and top coat of course). All the pictures here show two coats. It has great coverage and is completely opaque in two coats. Despite layering it on a bit thick it dried really fast. I'm curious to see what it would look like with a darker base coat underneath though, so you'll probably be seeing this one again soon.
 

Here's my attempt to capture the color shift on my nails. The picture above is indirect sunlight and below is direct sunlight.

 

 You can find more of Becca's creations at www.frankenfemme.blogspot.com and check out the links below to see what everyone else is doing for day 5 of the challenge.



Pokemon Challenge Week 5: Flying

Zubat, I choose you! Said no one ever after going into any cave. Poor Zubat. He gets a bad reputation, but he's really pretty cute. He just wants to snuggle your face... With his fangs. No big deal right?

For my week 5 flying Pokemon I painted Zubat on my thumb. The other fingers represent his wings except my middle finger which shows a close up of Zubat about to attack.

I'm still away from home and don't remember the names of all these polishes, but if you want to know something just let me know and I can update it later.

Check here to see what everyone else did this week:

Pokemon Challenge Week 4: Bug

I'm officially a week late for week four, but better late than never. I chose Butterfree for my bug type Pokemon. Butterfree is such a cutie, I thought there would be a few more of him this week, but it looks like everyone picked something different.

I was home for a total of two days before heading back out on the road again so things like picture quality and my ability to remember what polishes I used are a bit lacking again.

In my attempt to catch up I put my week 5 flying Pokemon on my left hand and Butterfree from week 4 on my right so this was all done left handed. Not too bad for being painted wrong handed.

Here's everyone else's bug Pokemon:

Laid-Back 31 DC: Pink

I'm finally back home and getting settled in by painting my nails for day 4 of the 31 Day Challenge. Today's theme is pink, conveniently just in time for Valentine's Day.

 

 

This time I've gone with a fairly simple design, but I think it's cute and perfect for Valentine's Day. I had big ideas for pink skittles similar to the gold ones, but it's my first night back and my bed is looking better than even my polish stash. I must be tired!

 



 

Here's what I've used:

Pink- Spoiled, Fuzzy Dice

White- Spoiled, Pearly White Teeth over 1 coat of white

Black- Wet n Wild, Black Creme

The hearts were painted with a small brush.

 

 

Here are the rest of the pretty pink nails:

 

Laid-Back 31 DC: Gold

Day three of the challenge has snuck up on me! I've been away from home for work the last few days. I thought I'd have a bit of time to do my nails in the evenings, but we haven't gotten back to the hotel until 9:00 the last four nights in a row. I've had some very exhausting days to be sure, but I didn't want to get behind on the challenge so here are my gold nails, and they're even still on time!

My first thought on this challenge was to get out all the gold things I have. Then of course to stick them all on my nails at the same time. The result? Gold Skittles!

For the base I used Nina Ultra Pro, Big Spender then one at a time I painted on a second coat and stuck on the decorations. The thumb and pinkie got a dusting of craft glitter I found at Michael's a while back. It was about $6 for a pack of 16 different colors. The index finger has bar rhinestones that came in a pack bought on Amazon. The middle finger has holographic hex glitters that came in a pack of little vials with different colored and shaped glitters that I found at the Dollar Store. That's also where I found the little vials of micro beads used on my ring finger.

These pictures are before top coat. I had read somewhere that some of the cheaper micro beads can bleed color when top coated. These were definitely cheap and did bleed, but I was surprised to notice that the hex glitters also bled some of their color. Luckily with the gold base it's not really noticeable at all.

Sorry this last picture is so dark. It's just one of the hazards of trying to take decent pictures in a hotel room, I guess. I really like how these last two pictures show the shape of the bar rhinestones. They're just like tiny bars of gold!



Laid-Back 31 DC: Silver

Today is the second day of the 31 day challenge and the theme is Silver. I've been dying to try out my new silver studs and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity.

I've got a new and unimproved look going on for today's post. I found out I'll be traveling for work all this week and next so I had to break out my old laptop and say goodbye to reasonable computing speeds and my beloved Photoshop. My attempts to create my usual watermarks in GIMP tonight did not end well as you can see. Five googled tutorials later and I'm still just as confused.

I'm glad painting this manicure was much more fun than tonight's photo editing attempts. I started with my base coat and then layered 2 coats of Spoiled, Daddy's Credit Card. I wanted the studs to pop so I added a stripe of pink- Spoiled, Fuzzy Dice and then applied them with an orange stick dipped in clear polish. I finished it all off with a coat of Seche Vite.



Check the links below to see what everyone else came up with today.

Laid Back 31 DC: Black & White

Today is the start of Crumpet's Laid-Back 31 Day Challenge. I've been wanting to do one of these for a while, but I didn't know if I'd be able to stick it out with new nail art every day for a month. The laid back challenge requires just 2 manicures per week. Along with the Pokemon challenge I'm doing that will make 3 each week through the end of April. I'm going to try my hardest to stay on schedule. Wish me luck!

Today's theme is Black & White

I had a hard time deciding what to do until I had the idea to use the colors on top of my bare nails without a solid base. I just started doodling with a small brush and some dotting tools and this was the result.

The thumb is my favorite design. It was the last nail I did and I almost regret not repainting all the others to match. It looks especially striking from a distance. You'll have to take my word though since all my pictures are close ups.



I used Wet n Wild, Black Creme and Finger Paints, Paper Mache. It's all topped off with a coat of Seche Vite.

Since today's theme is black and white, and since my kitty chose this particular photo shoot to wreck up my light box I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to introduce you. This is Styx the cat. He's a one year old kitten at heart who thinks every box he encounters belongs to him. I got off easy with this little rip in the tissue at the top of my light box. Given the opportunity he would surely maul it into submission one mouthful of cardboard at a time.





Here's what's in store for the next few months. Check back to see what I come up with and check out the links below to see what the other ladies are doing.