A girl and her love of nail polish

Posts tagged ‘Cult Nails’

Crumpet’s Tri-Polish Challenge Day 2: Cult Nails Fetish With Stripes

Here’s Day 2 of the Tri-Polish Challenge from Crumpet’s Nail Tarts.

The basic rules are that you have to pick three polishes, one coral, one purple and one green, and then use those same polishes to create four different manis. You can also add in white, black, silver, gold and glitter toppers.

Sinful Colors Island Coral, Amethyst, Juelp Courteney

The three colors I chose are Sinful Colors Island Coral, Sinful Colors Amythest and Julep Courteney, but for this mani I left out the purple one.

Cult Nails Fetish with Stripes

Cult Nails Fetish with Stripes

For the base I used two coats of Cult Nails Fetish, which is an unbelievably amazing polish that goes on super easy and dries to what the company describes as a “wax look finish.”

Cult Nails Fetish with Stripes

I then used some new striping brushes to add lines with Sinful Colors Island Coral first on the inside, and then Julep Courteney on the outside. I did not use a top coat because I wanted to keep the original finish on Cult Nails Fetish.

Cult Nails Fetish with Stripes

Admittedly the lines on this do not look very clean …this didn’t come out as well as I had hoped. But I hope you can still get the gist of what I was aiming for.

Cult Nails Fetish with Stripes

Check out the rest of the challenge participants here:


Category:

Nail Art Challenges, NOTD

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30 Day Challenge Day 20: Water Marble

I’ve made it to Day 20, two-thirds of the way through the 30 Day Challenge. Hooray! The challenge themes are real-deal from here on out, starting with today’s water marble.

water marble: cult nails manipulative and revlon fashionista

Water marbles are tough for me. I’ve played around with them a few times, including this earlier attempt where I definitely learned a few good lessons. I think that the success or failure of a water marble is largely dependent on the polish choice. If the polishes don’t look good or behave well, you’re sunk (pun intended)!

It took me a little while to pull together the color choices on this one, but I have a lot of blue polishes that I really love, so I decided to go that route.

water marble: cult nails manipulative and revlon fashionista

I started with two coats of NYC French White Tip and used it plus Cult Nails Manipulative, (pale aqua with shimmer) and Revlon Fashionista (deep teal). Revlon Fashionista is my untried for 30 Days of Untrieds. Just having an untried in here violates the water marble rules I set for myself after my last attempt, but that’s just the way it goes when you’re in the midst of a challenge!

water marble: cult nails manipulative and revlon fashionista

For this one, it was actually the untried Revlon Fashionista that performed the best. The drops easily spread out across the top of the water. Both Cult Nails Manipulative and NYC French White Tip refused to spread very much. In general the whole thing dried pretty quickly, so I had a few tries that fell apart before I even got to finish drawing the design. I used a dotting tool to add some Revlon Fashionista.

water marble: cult nails manipulative and revlon fashionista

And cleanup was a real bitch on this one. The blue polishes, primarily Revlon Fashionista, really didn’t want to come off of my skin. Sorry for the mess, I really did try very hard to clean up but to no avail.

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, Water Marbling

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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:



Category:

30-Day Challenge, NOTD

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30 Day Challenge Day 10 – Gradient: Cult Nails Untamed with Zoya Lotus

It’s day 10 of the 30 Day Challenge, which means I’ve survived one-third of it. Woo hoo for me. Today’s theme is gradients.

Since I haven’t done this kind of gradient before, I tried to keep it simple. For the gradient, I used two colors, Zoya Lotus and Cult Nails Untamed. The latter satisfied the 30 Days of Untrieds challenge I’m doing simultaneously with this one. I also added China Glaze Luxe And Lush, a layering polish with holographic flakies, to make it a little more interesting.

Gradient manicure: Cult Nails Untamed with Zoya Lotus and China Glaze Luxe And Lush

I started with two coats of Cult Nails Untamed as the base, then a coat of Poshe fast dry top coat. I let it dry completely before starting the gradient. Untamed is a medium pink sheer-ish polish with a fine shimmer. Zoya Lotus is an amethyst purple with a stronger pink/gold shimmer (click to see it on it’s own).

Gradient manicure: Cult Nails Untamed with Zoya Lotus and China Glaze Luxe And Lush

I know there are several different techniques for doing gradients; I used a makeup sponge and brushed the polish directly onto it, then dabbed it onto my nail. I dampened the sponge a little with water before I started so it wouldn’t absorb quite as much polish … not sure if it made a difference or not. I put the darker color on first and then the lighter one, making sure they overlapped some in the middle. As I dabbed the sponge on my nail, I moved it back and forth a little, tip to base, to make sure I got Zoya Lotus where I wanted it, and also to help with the blend a bit.

Gradient manicure: Cult Nails Untamed with Zoya Lotus and China Glaze Luxe And Lush

I added another layer of Poshe, then one coat of China Glaze Luxe And Lush, followed by one coat of Gelous since the flakies are chunky in the CG, and finally another coat of Poshe.

Gradient manicure: Cult Nails Untamed with Zoya Lotus and China Glaze Luxe And Lush

I wasn’t able to achieve as much of the blend in the middle as I wanted, so perhaps this technique wasn’t the best for that. It also might have been my polish choices: the Cult Nails Untamed was sheer and light in color, so it didn’t blend into the Zoya as much is get absorbed into it.

Still, I’m glad to have my first sponge gradient under my belt. Any tips you can share would be greatly appreciated.

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

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