A girl and her love of nail polish

Posts tagged ‘Kiko’

30 Day Challenge Day 24 – Book: Put Me In The Zoo

I went to my son’s bookcase for the idea behind today’s post, Day 24 of the 30 Day Challenge, inspired by a book. The book I chose is one we’ve been reading a lot at bedtime lately, Put Me In The Zoo by Robert Lopshire.

Put Me In The Zoo

Put Me In The Zoo Polka Dot Nail Art

If you’re not familiar with it, it’s about a spotted creature who wants to live in the zoo but is rejected by the zookeepers. He meets two children and tries to show them that he should be in the zoo because of all of the wonderful tricks he can perform with his spots (changing color, putting them onto other things, throwing them up in the air). But in the end the children tell him that maybe the zoo isn’t the best place for him afterall. With all of his talents, he should be in the circus instead.

Put Me In The Zoo Polka Dot Nail Art

My manicure is based on the scene in the book where, after changing his red spots to blue, orange, green and then violet, he turns his spots to all of those colors at once.

Put Me In The Zoo Polka Dot Nail Art

For the base I used three coats of The Nail Junkie’s Daffodil, followed by one coat of Poshe quick-dry top coat. Daffodil was an untried for me, for the 30 Days of Untrieds challenge I’m participating in simultaneously.

For the dots I used the head of a pin as my dotting tool with the following colors:

  • Blue: Nails Inc. Baker Street
  • Orange: Kiko 359
  • Green: SInful Colors Last Chance
  • Violet: A-England Elaine

I finished it with one coat of Poshe.

Put Me In The Zoo Polka Dot Nail Art

“With all the things that you can do, the circus is the place for you!”

Have you ever based a manicure on a children’s book?

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:



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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