A girl and her love of nail polish

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30 Day Challenge Day 19: Galaxy Nails

30 Day Challenge Day 19: Galaxy Nails

I’ve been looking forward to Day 19 of the 30 Day Challenge because I’ve been wanting to try galaxy nails and needed the kick in the pants to do it.

Galaxy Nails nail art manicure

By most accounts, creating galaxy nails is a simple nail art project. Well, it is and it isn’t. The technique is simple: dab and dot. Ok, got it. The challenge comes in that it requires a fair amount of restraint. Less is definitely more when it comes to galaxy nails. I read several blog posts and watched many video tutorials, all of which said basically the same thing: be sparse, don’t overdo it with the sponging, leave some space.

Galaxy Nails nail art manicure

But even fully armed with that knowledge, I found it difficult to know when to stop. I think a few of these came out rather nicely; a few are kind of meh. Overall, it was fun and I will definitely do it again.

Galaxy Nails nail art manicure

I used a lot of different colors here, but not all of them were used on every nail. I started with two coats of Orly Liquid Leather, a high-gloss black creme, for the base, followed by one coat of Poshe fast-dry top coat. When it was dry, I sponged on various combinations of these with the corner of a makeup sponge:

  • OPI DS Mystery (untried):  purple-black jelly with gold shimmer
  • Orly Meet Me Under The Mistletoe (Untried): green/gold duochrome
  • Orly Stone Cold (Untried): bright medium blue shimmer
  • Zoya Wednesday: dusty turquoise creme
  • Cult Nails Enigmatic (Untried): eggplant with strong shimmer
  • A-England Morgan Le Fay: sheer white iridescent shimmer
  • Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Wine Not (Untried): berry red with shimmer
  • Kiko 359 (Untried): peach creme

I finished each nail with one coat of Jordana Lilac Hearts. It’s a glitter polish with large purple hearts, but I just left those at the bottom of the bottle and only used the glittery base to get the effect of lots of small stars. Then I put on on a few (too many in some cases) dots with NYC French White Tip using a small dotting tool.

Galaxy Nails nail art manicure

Finished up with one coat of Poshe and called it a night.

30-Day Challenge, 30 Days of Untrieds

Please visit some of the other bloggers that are participating in the 30 Day Challenge this month.
I know we will need a lot of encouragement to get through! Click here to see them:



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30-Day Challenge, NOTD

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30 Day Challenge Day 15 – Delicate Print: Sally Hansen Salon Effects Polish Strips

I’m proud to say I’ve made it to the halfway mark in the 30 Day Challenge, but this particular manicure is a bit of a fail. For the delicate print theme, I wanted to try some Sally Hansen Salon Effects Real Nail Polish Strips, my first time using them (satisfies the 30 Days of Untrieds challenge I’m participating in simultaneously).

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Real Nail Polish Strips Vine And Dine

The pattern is called Vine And Dine, and it features a pale blue flower with green leaves and vines on a shimmery white background.

The application on these wasn’t too bad. I used a single strip to cover both my index and ring fingers. They’re a little bit stretchy to enable you to get smooth coverage, which I achieved on my index finger but not on my ring finger (the first one I put on). What I didn’t like was that once on, the strip was a little bit see-through. It would have benefited from a coat of white polish underneath, but the instructions said to put it on a clean dry nail.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Real Nail Polish Strips Vine And Dine

After that I used two coats of Zoya Robyn (bright blue creme) on my thumb and pinkie, and then three coats of Color Club Fly With Me (shimmery yellow-green) on my middle finger.

I tried to do some dot tips with larger dots of A-England Morgan Le Fay (white shimmer), topped off with smaller dots of the alternating color, but the effect did not come out as I had hoped. The A-England Morgan Le Fay dots came out looking more like a failed french tip.

Oh well. I did like using the nail strips so will try them again some time. Not sure how long the open package will last without drying out but I did tape it back up and put it into a Ziploc bag.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Real Nail Polish Strips Vine And Dine with Zoya Robyn and Color Club Fly With Me

Anyone tried Sally Hansen nail strips over polish or do they really need to go directly onto the nail?

30-Day Challenge, 30 Days of Untrieds

Please visit some of the other bloggers that are participating in the 30 Day Challenge this month.
I know we will need a lot of encouragement to get through! Click here to see them:



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30 Day Challenge Day 14 – Flowers: A-England Iseult

I figured from the get-go that I wouldn’t be able to pull off anything too extravagant for Day 14 of the 30 Day Challenge. But I didn’t want to do just basic dot daisy flowers, so I looked around for some other options. I found this video tutorial on a modified dot daisy and decided to use that but in a different design.

Flower Nail Art with A-England Iseult

To satisfy the 30 Days of Untrieds challenge that I’m doing simultaneously, I started with three coats of A-England Iseult, a pale shimmery pink creme. This is a great, versatile color. It’s pretty on its own but also provides a great backdrop for nail art.

Flower Nail Art with A-England Iseult

For the flowers, I started with Zoya Jolene, a bright pink creme, and used the head of a pin as a DIY dotting tool. I started with five dots to create the flower, and then used a toothpick to drag from the center of each dot to the center of the flower to create some lines on the petals.

I then used the same technique with Sonia Kashuk Smoke and Mirrors  to create a smaller silver metallic flower with a small dotting tool.

Flower Nail Art with A-England Iseult

I applied one coat of regular top coat and then added clear and pink rhinestones, some bigger some small. I sealed them with one coat of Poshe.

Flower Nail Art with A-England Iseult

It wasn’t too challenging but I think it’s cute. A nice easy way to do a fun design.

30-Day Challenge, 30 Days of Untrieds

Please visit some of the other bloggers that are participating in the 30 Day Challenge this month. I know we will need a lot of encouragement to get through! Click here to see them:



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30 Day Challenge Day 7 – Black & White: Dice With A-England Morgan Le Fay

I almost didn’t make it through Day 7 of the 30 Day Challenge without having to buy another bottle of nail polish (*the horror!*). It wasn’t the theme of black & white that was the problem; it’s the fact that I’m simultaneously doing 30 Days of Untrieds.

I only have one bottle of black polish, which I’ve already used, so if I couldn’t come up with a suitable untried white, I would have no choice but to go buy something new.

Luckily (unluckily?), I was saved by A-England, which also happens to be the brand I featured yesterday for the violet day of the 30-day challenge. Loving this brand, so easy to apply, and beautiful!

Dice Manicure With A-England Morgan Le Fay

This manicure includes: two coats of NYC French White Tip under two coats of A-England Morgan Le Fay (untried), with Orly Liquid Vinyl. I finished it with one coat of Poshe fast-dry top coat. I liked the shimmer that A-England Morgan Le Fay brought to the table. There’s more going on here than if I had used a basic white creme.

Dice Manicure With A-England Morgan Le Fay

The dice theme is pretty easy, which is good for me since I am not that comfortable with dotting tools yet. I actually used the head of a pin as my dotting tool, and it worked pretty well for me. I didn’t get them totally uniform in size, but I’m working on it. The Daily Varnish has a great post on DIY dotting tools, if you want to check it out.

Here’s a quick iPhone photo of what I did with my left hand … too complicated to take a one-handed photo with my other camera!

Dice nail art with A-England Morgan Le Fay

Have you used any household items as dotting tools? Let me know what you’ve had success with.

30-Day Challenge, 30 Days of Untrieds

Please visit some of the other bloggers that are participating in the 30 Day Challenge this month. I know we will need a lot of encouragement to get through! Click here to see them:



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30-Day Challenge, Indies, NOTD, Swatches

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30 Day Challenge Day 6 – Violet: A-England Elaine With Stamping

As soon as I looked over the requirements for the 30 Day Challenge I knew right away what polish I would be featuring on Day 6 when we got to violet: A-England Elaine. I’m simultaneously doing 30 Days of Untrieds, this covers both challenges.

I got A-England Elaine (untried) along with three other polishes from the company’s The Mythicals line in July when the company offered its mega-sale, and I’ve been dying to try it ever since. It is described by the company as a “smoky violet amethyst.” Yum.

A-England Elaine With Sonia Kashuk Smoke And Mirrors

I’ve read a lot of blogs that sing the praises of A-England and its incredible formula. I’m happy to say that these reports are NOT greatly exaggerated. Elaine is a beautiful polish that goes on very easily with a high-gloss finish.

This is two coats of A-England Elaine. No topcoat, and look at that shine!

A-England Elaine With Sonia Kashuk Smoke And Mirrors

Perhaps I should have left Elaine to her own devices, but I wanted to add some stamping to this mani. I recently bought the Salon Express kit off of Amazon for about $5, which I would recommend as a great starter kit for anyone that is curious about nail stamping but doesn’t want to devote a big budget to it out of the gate.

A-England Elaine With Sonia Kashuk Smoke And Mirrors

I’m still working on getting the stamping technique down, and I don’t yet own any stamping polishes. This is Sonia Kashuk Smoke And Mirrors, a shiny metallic silver polish. I used a larger tri-heart design on my ring finger and then a small heart on my index finger. Then I tried to freehand hearts on my middle finger and pinkie.

Not the greatest results, but I wanted to give it a go. After all, I’m no shrinking violet. 🙂

30-Day Challenge, 30 Days of Untrieds

Please visit some of the other bloggers that are participating in the 30 Day Challenge this month. I know we will need a lot of encouragement to get through! Click here to see them:



Category:

30-Day Challenge, Indies, NOTD, Swatches

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