A girl and her love of nail polish

Posts tagged ‘nail art’

30 Day Challenge Day 4: Green – Fishtail Braid Manicure

It just got interesting! For Day 4 of the 30 Day Challenge, I really wanted to make this a challenge. Since I’ve never tried a fishtail braid manicure, that seemed to fit the bill. I’m also simultaneously participating in the 30 Days of Untrieds challenge, so this covers both.

Fishtail braid manicure with sinful colors exotic green

If you’ve never seen one of these manicures, you take three colors and alternate them as you paint wide stripes across your nails, making it look like a braid. I modeled mine after a very popular tutorial from Lucy’s Stash.

Fishtail braid manicure with sinful colors exotic green

The theme for the day is green. This mani includes

  • Sinful Colors Exotic Green (untried)
  • Sinful Colors Last Chance (untried)
  • Petites Color Fever Daze (untried) *part of my giveaway haul*

While in theory this isn’t difficult nail art to pull off (swipe, swipe, swipe!), in practice it wasn’t easy. I don’t have much experience doing free-hand nail art, so wasn’t able to get the edges very neat. I wasn’t able to do a very good job with the cleanup, either, so you can see the flaws (poor little make-up brush wasn’t really up to the task).

I did get more comfortable with it as I went along, so I felt good about that and think I will brave it again sometime.

Here’s a look at Sinful Colors Exotic Green on it’s own before the braid, two coats, no top coat:

Sinful Colors Exotic Green

Have you mastered the fishtail braid mani yet? Any tips?

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 3: Yellow- Sinful Colors Let’s Meet

So I had no yellow polish except one that is sort of a green-yellow, so I went out and grabbed one. Yellow’s not my color — on anything — but them’s the rules of the challenge. It is after all, Day 3 of the 30 Day Challenge, and means we’re all committed to yellow today. I’m simultaneously doing 30 Days of Untrieds too, so both are covered.

Sinful Colors Let's Meet yellow nail polish

Sinful Colors Let's Meet yellow nail polish

I picked up Sinful Colors Let’s Meet (untried), which I would describe as a Tweety bird yellow with shimmer. I’ve been looking at some of the other bloggers’ efforts for today’s challenge, and like many of them, my first attempt at this challenge did not turn out as I had hoped so I scrapped it.

But I’m actually quite pleased with my second try, and it’s making me come around to the benefits of bright yellow polish. I’m a little sad that summer is unofficially over because I think this is a perfect summer combo.

Sinful Colors Let's Meet yellow nail polish

This is three coats of Sinful Colors Let’s Meet, and then I applied the rhinestones sandwiched between two layers of topcoat. The idea for the two-stone design came from a post I had seen earlier in the month from Chalkboard Nails, where she featured a work-appropriate manicure she had done for a friend.

Sinful Colors Let's Meet yellow nail polish

That idea stuck with me, and it was something I’ve been wanting to recreate. The ring finger originally was going to be a straight line too, but as I was laying them out on a piece of paper during mani prep they got knocked around a bit and it me the idea for this pattern … a happy accident.

Have you found a yellow polish that works for you?

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, Swatches

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30 Day Challenge Day 2: Orange – Zoya Jancyn with Cos Bar Copper

Orange (tangerine?) was definitely the “it” color of the spring. I didn’t even own one before I bought Riveting from the China Glaze Capitol Colors collection back in March; now thanks to some I bought and a cool giveaway win, I have six or seven.

For Day 2 of the 30 Day Challenge, we’re moving onto orange. I’m simultaneously doing 30 Days of Untrieds, so both challenges are covered here.

This is three coats of Zoya Jancyn, with Cos Bar Copper (untried) from the special Shops At Target collection on the tips. I finished it off with some orange/red striping tape and a generous coat of Poshe fast dry top coat.

Zoya Jancyn with Cos Bar Copper

Zoya Jancyn is an almost-neon tangerine. It runs a little toward the thin side, so this took all three coats and really could have used one more but I didn’t have the patience.

Cos Bar Copper is more of a shimmery orange than a copper, though that’s what was called on the Target Web site when the line launched. It’s not too frosty, so I like it quite a bit. Can’t speak much to the formula since I only used it on the tips, but what you see is only one coat, so that’s promising.

Zoya Jancyn with Cos Bar Copper

For the Cos Bar Copper tips, I used Scotch tape as a stencil to get a clean edge. Your base polish has to be really hard and dry for this technique, and even then I recommend putting the tape on your skin a few times before you apply it to your nails just to reduce the stickiness a bit. I read that tip on a blog somewhere but cannot remember where.

I then added the stripping tape. Calling this vintage is not an exaggeration. I’ve had it in my little nail art box since I was in junior high or maybe early high school, so around 20 years. Perhaps not surprisingly, it’s not staying down all that well on the edges despite the top coat. Alas.

Did you go orange-crazy this year? Still loving orange polish or are you so over it?

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

30-Day Challenge, 30 Days of Untrieds

Click here to see all of the other bloggers that are participating in the 30 Day Challenge:


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Sally Hansen Magnetic Nail Color Silver Elements

Today I’m showing you Sally Hansen Magnetic Nail Color in Silver Elements, my first foray into the world of magnetic nail polish.

I actually don’t own this one but was able to borrow it (sorry, no bottle shot!). We were at a family gathering in Rhode Island when all of the pre-teen/barely-teen cousins started an impromptu polish party on the front porch. I of course had to check it out to see what they were doing, and what they were doing was putting on this polish, which one of their moms had purchased for them.

This was the tail end of our gathering, and all of the menfolk were champing at the bit to go home, so this was a very quick application for me. Really I just wanted to see how it worked, and I have to say that I was more than pleasantly surprised.

The polish went on very easily and looked great on its own (like a silver foil). But then the magnet creates darker black holographic-ish waves, eye-catching but not too flashy.

Sally Hansen Magnetic Nail Color Silver Elements Magnetic Nail Polish

The magnet, which comes as a separate cap over the top of the bottle, has a small guide to help you line it up at the cuticle end and not hit the top of your nail. I found it very easy to use. My trick was to turn my finger so that I was basically pointing at myself; that let me see where to place the guide and how far it was from the top of my nail so that I could make sure it was level.

I followed the instructions on the bottle: put one coat on all of your nails, apply a thick second coat to one nail and then hold the magnet over it for 10 seconds. Move onto the next nail and repeat.

Sally Hansen Magnetic Nail Color Silver Elements magnetic nail polish

I happened to have a small stash of polish, including my Poshe topcoat, so this is two coats of Silver Elements plus one coat of Poshe. I got a little over-confident in Poshe’s drying ability — maybe not taking into account that it was a thick second coat — so I ended up dinging my index finger in the bathroom, which is why it’s not included in these photos. *sigh*

But all in all I really liked this polish. It’s an easy way of applying “nail art” without requiring too much time, energy or skill.

Sally Hansen Magnetic Nail Color Silver Elements magnetic nail polish

I recently used my Ulta Rewards to procure a bottle of Layla Magneffect, so we’ll see how that one goes. Right off the bat, the magnet on it looks like it will be harder to use than the Sally Hansen one, but who knows. Will show you what I end up with!

What magnetic polishes have you tried? Any favorites?

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