That girl is on fire

Hello again!
So apparently I'm like the worst blogger known to mankind, what with all my unscheduled leaves of absence - life kind of takes over periodically, and my scheduled posts only last so long!
My apologies, dear readers.

Anywho!

Passionfruit fields forever

Hello again!

Today I have for you my first attempt at watermarbling. 

Now don't laugh at this first picture, I was trying different combinations of colours, to see which ones might spread well enough to let me create designs.

I started from the thumb, and landed on a decent combination on the pinky.

I then proceeded to marble my left hand, and this is what it looks like!

This is Revlon 'Cotton Candy' and 'Passionfruit'
You can see on the index finger, that the flower is a little smudged.
I'm pretty sure it happened because I didn't clean the top of the water properly before pulling my finger out, and got some of the wet polish on the design.
Such a shame!

Very proud of these babies, they were my first successful watermarble!

Thanks for stopping by,
xNai

She's a brick...

Well hello there!

Today is the 29th, and that means graveyard nails, and a fairly pic heavy post.

I decided to give you step by step images of what happened to my nails for this challenge!

Blue Gradient

I started with a blues gradient for this mani, and I used 5, count 'em, FIVE blues to achieve this look.
I also didn't use top coat yet, as obviously, this is only step one!
The blues are (lightest to darkest): ulta3 'bluebird', 'blue heaven', Sinful Colors 'why not', essence 'Walk on Air', and ulta3 'midnight fever'
Also, this is probably the fakest my nails have ever looked to me. So strange - they look like stick on nails, eh?

Blues Gradient

This is me trying out a new hand angle. Thoughts?

Then, because I loved the gradient so much, I did it on both hands, and on my right hand, I chucked a bunch of different top coats, to see how it would look.

L-R we have Seche Vite, a Spectra Flair top coat from Gloss 'n Sparkle's Etsy store, my Rimmel Matte top coat, and two essences - 'glitter top coat', and 'space queen'.

Slightly blurred to show the holo, and the glitter sparkles.

For step two, I did a bit of a watermarble. I used ulta3 'lily white' and Revlon 'just tinted top coat', to create the alternating marble, so the blues would show through.

Any clues yet as to my design?

I had real trouble finding the right polishes to achieve the alternation in the marble. Obviously I couldn't use a fast drying top coat, and the Just Tinted spread so nicely on its own, but was a pain in the backside when it came to spreading in the white. Oh well, managed it eventually!

Tada! Completed graveyard mani!
I decided I wanted to do something a little bit out of the ordinary for this, not your typical skull and crossbones, cemetery at midnight mani, which I know I could never do justice to anyway, so I was thinking laterally, and came up with this: a watery death/grave!

The idea is someone's drowning, and that's their hand sticking up out of the waves, calling for help that will never come...Macabre, right? :)

For the hand I used 2 essence nudes, 'nude it!' and 'toffee to go', and painted it onto a plastic ziplock bag first, allowed it to dry for a couple hours, then stuck it straight onto my nail like a decal! Applied some topcoat, and was good to go!

I am really SO happy with this mani, thought it looked magnificent from beginning to end.
What do you guys reckon? Too morbid, or just right?

As always, thanks for stopping by!
xNai


ps: Points if you can recognise the reference in the title...;)
                                                     

Poiple and Owange

Hello there lovelies!
So today marks the second of our 'This is Halloween' challenges -  the dreaded watermarble!

I'm not gonna lie to you, I kinda intentionally went into this one with like zero inspiration, and the only thoughts to cross my mind were 'please don't mess up, please don't mess up, please don't mess up...WHY WON'T YOU SPREAD?!'
Thus, you get simple, and still themed, sorta, watermarble!

Orange and purple watermarble

For this watermarble, I used revlon polishes, Siren and Rock, because I figured they're thin enough to spread.
I had wanted to add in some black and green, but none of my blacks at the time were spreading, and the green was just dropping to the bottom of the cup. Sad face.
Still, these colours look wicked together.

In more direct light

You can see that I've dipped two fingers in at a time, as the flowers sort of meet between my fingers!

Then I decided to mattify it using my Rimmel Matte Finish top coat.

Mattified Marble

I like the way it sort of sharpened the edges of the marble. It might have something to do with the fact that without the glare from the glossy finish, you can really see the design. The actual colours don't look quite as rich though. You win some, you lose some!

And that's that for day to of the 'This is Halloween' challenge!
Go have a look at some of the other challengers, there are some stunning, and really inspired manis around here!

Thanks for stopping by,
xNai