Paint All the Nails Presents: Pastel Geometric

Press Samples

Hello! It's that time of the month again, in which the bloggers that are in my Paint All the Nails group come together and link up with nail art. Previous posts can be found under this tag. The theme for this month is Pastel Geometric. 

Ever since I reviewed Paint Box Polish's Ciao, Gelato! Collection, I have had them sitting on my desk, waiting to be used in a nail art design and I thought they would be perfect to use for this prompt. Initially I thought of possibly doing stamped decals but I haven't had luck yet with that technique so I went another route and did this stamped marble instead. If you need a tutorial of how to do that, Emily of Very Emily has an awesome video of this in her Bundle Monster Mochi Stamper review. 

I started out with a blank white base, using Pretty Serious Absence. Then I applied about four strips of striping tape randomly crossed on my nail. Once that was done, I took a stamper and dabbed blobs of polish and then pressed the stamper onto my nail. The colors I used are Paint Box Polish Ananas, Fragola, Fruit de Bosco, Melone, Pistacchio, and Puffo. 

I really like the final result. The colors have a muted watercolor effect and the white lines are a nice soft contrast. I did have a bit of bubbling, which annoys me to no end but otherwise, this was an easy technique, if a little time consuming. 

Make sure to click on the links below to see all the other bloggers' posts, I love how pretty and springy everyone's nails look!

An InLinkz Link-up

31 Day Nail Art Challenge 2015: Week Three Round Up

Provided for Review

Purchased by Me

Hey everyone! Here is a round up of week three of the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge (or #31DC2015) that I have been posting on my Instagram. Here is Week One and Week Two.

If you have never done the challenge or would like more info on it, check out Chalkboard Nails' blog and her FAQ of the challenge.

Disclaimer note: I took photos of my nails as the days came and went so the lighting will be different within the photos depending on the weather on each particular day. 

Day 17: Glitter

I had planned to do some type of glitter placement but I was looking through my collection and saw my bottle of OPI Absolutely Alice, a much loved older OPI, and immediately grabbed that instead. And while Absolutely Alice is a stunning polish by itself, I wanted to add just a little extra something so I painted some white daisies with gold studs. The daisies were inspired by Lindsey of Wondrously Polished.

Day 18: Half Moons

I used this prompt as an opportunity to do a nail art look I have wanted to do for ages, which is an eye look. Polish My Life Stripped and Elevation Polish Cerro Torre 2 are the beige and white and the dots were acrylic paint. I thought about adding eyelashes but I am glad I didn't, I like the simplicity of this final result.

Day 19: Galaxies

I think the last time I did galaxy nail art was last year's 31 Day Challenge and I am not sure why I don't do more. It's a technique that doesn't require you to be precise and the final look is always eye-catching. I won't list all the polishes I used because it numbers more than 10, but also because I don't remember what I used as I am typing this post up. 

Day 20: Water Marble

The dreaded water marble prompt. I was actually looking forward to it this time. I feel like I have come a long way from last year's single accent nail. I may have jinxed myself though, because I ended up having to do three attempts before I found a color combination of polishes that spread well enough. Polish My Life's cremes usually work well for me for water-marbling (should have used those first!), the three I used were Purple Flower Power, Peaches Anyone? and Strawberry Whip & Chill. I also did a light layer of Nina Polish Infinity Gauntlet. 

Day 21: A Color

This prompt is one that takes me while to figure out what I want to do. The prompt itself is just unspecific and broad. So I decided to just do something I have wanted to try, which are these swimming pool blue (which is a color!) nails. The original design I re-created is from @stephstonenails. I used a Saran Wrap technique with Essie Blossom Dandy and Strut Your Stuff. 

Day 22: A Song

I chose one of my favorite Queen songs, "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" as my inspiration. The video has Freddie Mercury wearing his signature white tee and black leather, so here are my simple LOVE nails using Different Dimension EVP (a new polish, which I will have a review of next week) and the letters are done in white acrylic.

Day 23: A Movie

Grand Budapest Hotel is a recent movie favorite of mine but then I love all of Wes Anderson's movies. The colors and imagery he uses in his films is something I admire and for this prompt I wanted to use this scene from the film: 

Those colors! I love the slick red lacquered elevator backdrop with the royal purple uniforms. I used Floss Gloss Gangsta Boo, added topcoat, then used Virtuous Polish Humility, which dried to it's matte finish, and added gold dot "buttons".

Thanks for reading! Check back next week for my forth and final round of the challenge. 

31 Day Nail Art Challenge 2015: Week Two Round Up

Provided for Review

Purchased by Me

Hi everyone! This is a round up of my nail art looks from week two of the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge (or #31DC2015) that I have been posting on my Instagram. 

If you have never done the challenge or would like more info on it, check out Chalkboard Nails' blog and her FAQ of the challenge.

Disclaimer note: I took photos of my nails as the days came and went so the lighting will be different within the photos depending on the weather on each particular day. 

31 Day Challenge 2015 Day 10 Gradient Nails

I actually did a whole other gradient but I hated how it looked so I scrapped that one and ended up doing this simple two tone gradient. I used KBShimmer Alloy Matey and American Apparel Hassid for this gradient and then a light coat of KBShimmer Dust in the Bottle on top. 

31 Day Challenge 2015 Day 11 Polka Dots

I love dot nail art, it's such an easy method and you can really go crazy doing all sorts of looks. I decided to do something simple and did confetti rainbow polka dots. It reminded me of Rainbow Chip cake frosting! American Apparel T-Shirt was my white base and the dots were acrylic paint.

31 Day Challenge 2015 Day 12 Stripes

For this prompt I went with negative space horizontal stripes using a lot of striping tape and Indigo Bananas Polish of Unusual Quality, Synonym Bun, and Volcanic Dust. I ended up applying a double layer of topcoat to prevent any gaps made by the negative space and it turned out so glossy! It looked like shiny ribbon candy, yum. 

31 Day Challenge 2015 Day 13 Animal Print

I personally don't really like animal print as a design that much so I played a little fast and loose with this prompt with a fish motif. I used Pahlish Draw Me a Sheep with a light layer of Ninja Polish Infinity Gauntlet and stamped over it with fish and seashell from Moyou London Sailor Collection Plate 07. On my other nails I applied Pahlish Laughter of the Stars and added Seashell studs from Daily Charme. 

31 Day Challenge 2015 Day 14 Flowers

For this prompt, I wanted to go bold with my colors and chose a rose red with violet and pale pink to add some contrast, all hand painted using acrylic pain over a black polish. My floral nail art usually looks wild and full blown, I have yet to master the art of tightly done flowers. Still, I like how this looks, especially over the black base.

31 Day Challenge 2015 Day 15 Delicate Print

This prompt has been a challenge for me in the past. It's so open to interpretation! I decided to go with some stamping. I used Cupcake Polish Berry Good Looking, What in Carnation? and Elevation Polish Zhenjin for a triple layered look, the design was from a random Winstonia plate I had. 

31 Day Challenge 2015 Day 16 Geometric

And last but not leas, geometric! I applied dabs of color using KBShimmer cremes (from her Summer 2015 collection) and then stamped a black design from Moyou London Kaleidoscope Collection Plate 04. My photo is a little out of focus, so I apologize for that. 

Check back next week for round up number three!

31 Day Nail Art Challenge 2015: Week One Round Up

Provided for Review

Purchased by Me

Hi everyone! I have been doing the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge  (or #31DC2015) this year again on my Instagram and I thought that this time I would do a weekly round of all the looks on my blog. If you have never done the challenge or would like more info on it, check out Chalkboard Nails' blog and her FAQ of the challenge.

Side note, I took photos of my nails as the days came and went so the lighting will be different within the photos depending on the weather on each particular day. 

Day One: Red Nails

I used Sinful Colors Energetic Red from the Back to School Class Act Collection with Sinful Colors 24/7 (from the same collection) to do a pink outline. I love pink and red together!

Day Two: Orange Nails

I did a orange on nude geometric look for this day. Elevation Polish Cerro Torre 2 is my go to nude so I used that as my base and various China Glaze oranges I have in my collection. 

Day Three: Yellow Nails

Vertical stripes for this prompt with yellow and white together. 

I was craving lemon meringue pie when I did this so to me, it ended up looking like layers of a lemon meringue pie slice. 

I used Polish My Life Stripped as my base, Polish My Life Good Morningside, and Color Club Almost Famous.

Day Four: Green Nails

Chevron ombre for the green prompt! I used chevron Nail Vinyls, Polish My Life Stripped, and from top to bottom, these greens: Elevation Polish Cuernos del Paine, Elevation Polish Vivid Lichen, Kiko Nail Polish 296 Meadow Green, and Elevation Polish Alpine Heights. 

Day Five: Blue Nails

More stripes! I didn't intend for this but it looks like the unofficial theme for my challenge is stripes. I varied with vertical and horizontal stripes for the blue theme using Polish My Life Stripped, Essie Style Cartel, Kiko Nail Polish 335 Ink Blue, 

Day Six: Violet Nails

Something different for this color prompt. I was going for a syrup clear to color gradient if that makes sense. I used clear topcoat and Darling Diva Polish Have You Ever Mistaken for a Man? as well as a line of gold on top with gold striping tape. 

Day Seven: Black and White Nails

I had grand plans for this prompt, I wanted something dramatic and complex! But time was not on my side so I decided to do a stamped look. I used Polish My Life Stripped, Munda de Unas Black, and three designs from Moyou London's Pro XL Plate #20

Day Eight: Metallic Nails 

For this prompt, I had no real plan in place when I sat down to do my nails. I had my bottle of Elevation Polish Khan of Khans sitting on my desk and thought I wanted to something that looked a tapestry or cloth. I applied Essie Bell Bottom Blues for the base, applied a layer of matte topcoat. Once the base was dry, I used a dry brush technique to brush on Khan of Khans and then very subtly  dabs a bit of Elevation Polish Zenjin.

(Direct Sunlight)

Day Nine: Rainbow Nails

I love doing rainbow nails, they always make me supremely happy. I wanted to have each nail show all seven colors of the (traditional) rainbow, so I did a rainbow dotted gradient. I applied a double layer of a ridge builder base coat so it would cover a bit of my nail staining but you could also still see my natural nail below the dots. For the dots, I reached into my drawer of acrylic paint and used those instead of nail polish. Acrylic paint dries much more quickly then polish (less chance of smearing when I apply topcoat) and it has an even formula for each color. A layer of matte topcoat and a final scatter of silver dots and that's it! 

My favorite look so far was the Rainbow Nail prompt. Check back next week for round up number two!

Gradient All The Nails!

Purchased by Me
Provided for Review

Hi everyone! I have something different for you guys today. I am part of a small group of nail bloggers on Facebook. We support each other's blogs and on monthly occasion, will do a themed group challenge. I wasn't able to participate in last month's theme of floral nail art as I was just returning from Las Vegas and then prepping to go to Canada but I am very excited to be able to participate in this month's theme of gradient nail art! The caliber of these other awesome nail bloggers is just outstanding so make sure to visit each of their blogs in the Link Up widget at the end of my post. 

Ahhh, gradients. It's a relatively simple form of nail art that can be very eye-catching. And with the popularity of the many latex barrier applicators out there, it's much less messy to apply a gradient then it used to be. I received a bottle of Glisten & Glow Ctrl-Alt-Del when I was at Cosmo Prof and have been using this latex barrier for a few weeks now so if you are looking for a one to try, I can recommend that one. 

As for what colors to pick, you can do a two to three to four color gradient depending on how complex you want to go. I decided to a two tone gradient of turquoise to white using Polish My Life Stripped and B Squared Lacquer Plur. Then I applied a layer matte topcoat (Polish My Life Mat(t)erialistic) and after that was dry, I applied a splatter of gold acrylic paint. Acrylic paint is awesome for splatter nail art because any stray splatter on my skin will wash off with water. 

Under Direct Sunlight: 

I love how this turned out! There is a slight textured feel of the splatter against the matte base. And the turquoise/white gradient is complimented by the gold splatter. 

Thanks for reading and please check out my fellow bloggers' gradient nail art below:

An InLinkz Link-up