Lazy Days of Summer Challenge #2- Summer Ombre

Oh man do I both love and despise having to do an ombre. First, I love it because it's easy and it's fun and looks super cute when you're done. Second, I dislike them because I need to seriously dig through my polish stash and find enough polishes with which to accomplish a halfway decent ombre. In my last challenge, I did a blue one, seen HERE. I was pretty sure blue was the only color I had enough of in my collection to do this type of manicure and was relieved when that challenge was over.
Enter in the Lazy Days of Summer Challenge....Summer Ombre? Oh poo! "How will I ever do this?" I thought to myself. "I don't have enough of a variety in my polishes to do another one!"

Well, I was wrong. I was very wrong. I do have enough! I was able to pull off a bright neon pinkishness one!

So, I like it. I think I should have rearranged the polish order a bit, but oh well! This is just proof that I really need to swatch my bottles!
Thumb- China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy
Index- Color Club Poptastic
Middle- Color Club Warhol
Ring- China Glaze Strawberry Fields
Pinkie- Essence Ultimate Pink

Be sure to check everyone else's out too!

Victoria Vertel

http://www.manicurator.com/

https://www.facebook.com/Manicurator

Alyson Epstein

http://beadsnailsfood.blogspot.com/

http://www.facebook.com/BeadsNailsFood

Amanda Murphy

http://mandyspolish.blogspot.com/

Hannah Fabiny

http://polished-prisms.blogspot.com

http://www.facebook.com/PolishedPrisms

Sue O'Connor

http://creativenaildesignbysue.blogspot.com 

Katee Baum

http://www.agirlandherpolish.com

http://www.facebook.com/AGirlandHerPolish

Charlotte-Louise Bennett

http://charlottes-nails.blogspot.co.uk/

Jessica Francis

http://nearlynaturalnails.blogspot.com

https://www.facebook.com/NearlyNaturalNails

Karine Assemien

http://karinea0a.blogspot.com 

Jen Guin

http://thepolishedzombie.blogspot.com

Jessica Brown

http://jessicasnailtales.blogspot.com/

https://www.facebook.com/JessicasNailTales

Ashley Rowlands-Vanderzande

http://onenailtoanother.blogspot.ca

Pryanka Arora

http://nailsparks.blogspot.com/

Anna Freedman, Erin Obriecht, Robin Storesund

http://www.polishedcousins.com

http://www.facebook.com/PolishedCousins

Maribeth Robienczak

http://obsessivecosmetichoardersunite.blogspot.com/

Kayono Lan (aka Johanna)

http://kayonolan.blogspot.de/

Sharra Farivar

http://alira23.blogspot.ca/search/label/Polished%20Prisms%20The%20Lazy%20Days%20of%20Summe\

Nichole Mowery

http://aotnf.blogspot.com

Stephanie Oblas

http://alittlepolish.blogspot.com

Thanks for reading!
-Amanda

ASBMF- Day 4- April Showers

So, I've been writing papers and finishing projects non-stop for the last 2 days while going to work a few times too. My brain is mush and I'm still not done! I told myself I needed a break and doing my nails is definitely a great one! Hooray for working the creative part of the brain!

Next on my ASBMF Challenge is April Showers. I wasn't sure how I wanted to approach this design, so I put it off for a bit. Good thing I did! The last 2 days have been nothing but rain  in April and provided me with the inspiration I needed.

I knew I wanted to start with a gray base since rainy days are usually dreary. I looked through my stash I found the perfect gray polish- Barielle U-Concrete-Me. It was the perfect watery gray I needed for a rainy day! I applied 2 coats of it.

Looking outside, I spotted the Rhododendron bush that has been in full bloom for a few days now. Perfect addition to my gray background, says me! So, with the dotting tool, I took my bright pink- Essence Ultimate Pink- and made informal flower designs. Then, I took my green striper brush and added a few leaves. The black striper brush was used to add the center dots/stamens to the flowers. Next on my list was to add some rain for the April showers. I figured I'd keep with the really informal look of this manicure and simply took the blue striper brush and made a few quick swishes down the nail. Here's what it looked like:

Not horrible. I actually quite liked it. Yet, I felt as though something was missing. So I looked through my polishes again and pulled out Jesse's Girl Fire Fly. It's a clear based polish with color shifting micro glitter. It reminded me of the shimmer of dew so I snatched it up and applied it to my thumb nail for a test.

Gah! I didn't know if I liked it....it showed up more gold on my nail than in this picture...and gold just doesn't make me think of dew. But I continued to examine my thumb nail...and thought a bit. I rocked my finger back and forth, watching as the colors shifted in different light. I didn't hate it. It started to grow on me. I kept it! I applied to the rest of my nails!

I'm really glad I kept it. It added that extra oooomph! I think it actually resembles the decreased viability that goes along with a particularly heavy spring rain. It really does invoke a rainy day feeling. I know it's suppose to be "showers" but here, in Northeastern Pennsylvania....April is unpredictable and more often than not, we end up having spring downpours!

Colors I used in this manicure.

I hope you all enjoyed!

Thanks for reading!

-Amanda

Candeo Colors 'Sprouse'

This is one of the first Etsy indie brand polishes I was able to buy. I just think it's the best thing ever that there are people out there mixing up one of a kind glitter and pigment concoctions and starting their own businesses! I feel like it would be a dream job for me! Maybe some day in the future I'll finally perfect my haphazard hobbies like making jewelry and mosaics and make some money with them. Oh, and throw in learning how to make nail polish! ...no big deal, right? HAH!

Sooo...nail polish time! I present to you Candeo Colors Sprouse. This is a clear base polish with some amazing glitter in it! Let's start with a bottle shot!

Is that not amazing, or what? You've got holographic micro glitter that blankets the whole thing! And then there are varying sized hex glitters in a royal blue, white, and black. Lovely!

As this is a clear based polish, I needed to decide on a base color. I had just bought some new Essence colors and they were staring at me and screaming pick me! pick me! I ultimately decided on Essence You Belong to Me- a lovely muted sea green color. 

Pictured above are two coats of You Belong to Me and 2 coats of Sprouse. Sprouse went on the nail beautifully! The glitter for the most part was easy to get out of the bottle and on to the nail. I did keep the bottle upside down before using, so that could have been influential to the glitter application. 

SO MUCH GORGEOUS GLITTER!

I seriously am liking this polish. It can truly be layered over any colored base- it's so versatile! If you'd like to purchase your own, you can find the Etsy shop here. They are currently closed, but should hopefully be open again soon. In the meantime, you can check out their Facebook page here. I can't wait to purchase a few more of these gorgeous glitters!

Thanks for reading!

-Amanda

Happy Easter!

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday with your families! I just wanted to quickly share my Easter nails with you. These are not only my holiday nails, but are also the first result of a nail challenge! I've never done one before and have truly wanted to. For those of you who may not know what a nail challenge is, let me do my best to explain. Someone comes up with an overall topic for nail art and then breaks it down into a specific challenge for each day/week/month. Bloggers and non-bloggers alike are more than welcome to participate and it's just amazing to see the different works of art that each individual makes for that day's/week's/month's topic! The one I'm participating in was created by Hannah over at Polished Prisms. It's a spring themed challenge and it's AMAZING! She shared it in a group we're in on Facebook and the response to participate was a resounding YES!

Here is what her challenge consists of:

(Image taken from Polished Prisms)

As you can see, it's a fun challenge, and extremely laid back! No need to do a new design every day if that's not what you want to do! If you would like to participate, be sure to head on over to the Facebook page here, and request to join. You can see what everyone else is up to and share what you've created!

Alright, enough jabber, let's get to the nails!

As you can see, challenge #1 is Spring Pastels. I thought I had more pastels, but in the end, I had enough to get the job done!

I knew I wanted to do something girly and fun for Easter and pastels seemed like a great way to go, so I was able to knock out challenge #1 and an Easter manicure at the same time! I chose to do a skittle manicure (every nail a different color, but still in the same tone/color family) and I'm in love with my dotting tools so that had to happen. 

I used the same colors throughout. The base colors on my nails are as follows:
Thumb- Essence You Belong to Me
Index- Zoya Sweet
Middle- Essence A Lovely Secret (I just need to say how much of a SURPRISE this polish was! Never would have guessed this sparkly deep gorgeousness would come out of this tiny bottle!)
Ring- Essence Mellow Yellow
Pinky- Nubar Blue Hydrangea

Then with my dotting tool, I just layered the colors. I have to say I'm pretty happy with my Easter/April Showers Bring May Flowers Challenge #1 designs!

I hope you all have a wonderful day, and thanks for reading!
-Amanda

This is how I do Valentine's Day!

Okay, let me preface this post by saying that this is by far my most absolute favorite design that I have ever done. I hope this never ever comes off my nails! I'm incredibly proud of myself.
Alright, so, instead of doing the normal pink, red, and white design for a Valentine's Day themes manicure, I branched out. I wanted something that made me feel all warm and fuzzy and comfortable, because honestly, that's how love makes you feel! So, without further delay, here you go!

First, I started with a base of Zoya Sweet (aww how fitting!), and a base of Essence Mellow Yellow on the index finger. Then I used my dotting tool for all the dots and the heart. I outlined the heart with my black nail art brush and finished it all off with a nice topcoat.

I'm in love with this heart!!!

I'd love to do these designs a little larger and use peacock feather colors.


Hope you enjoyed!