OPI Atomic Orange

31 day challenge. 
Day two: orange nails.

As was true with the red nails, orange is not a prominent color in my collection. Though my fair skin tone can pull off a cherry red (which makes me feel sexy), orange usually isn't something that I find attractive. Nor is it a color I usually reach for outside of nail art or Halloween. I probably should, as orange is Mr. Manicure's favorite color, but I never found an "attractive" orange. Until now.

OPI Atomic Orange is a vibrant, red-based orange creme. It was released with the OPI Brights collection, and it definitely is just that. Though Atomic Orange is a vivid, summery color., it doesn't feel like a neon, and is quite wear-able. I wore it to work today and got several compliments on the color from fellow teachers.

I don't know why it's almost coming 

out as salmon-y - it's not at all.

 
And then, because I thought another plain colored mani would be monotonous, I decided to spice things up with an accent of Zoya Destiny.  This is a PixieDust finish in a coraly-orange color, with gold glitter. As with all of Zoya's PixieDusts, this polish seems to radiate in all lights, and therefore, makes it virtually impossible to photograph correctly. Destiny is a lovely orange, not over the top, but look how she shines!

 

One thick coat of Zoya Destiny over OPI Atomic Orange. 

You can still get Zoya Destiny from their website. I purchased my bottle of OPI Atomic Orange at Target, but if you can't find it there, it's available at most internet shops. 

Essie Scarlet O'Hara

It's been a while. And I know the "life is getting crazy" excuse can only cut it for so long, since I see blogger friends of mine who have busier jobs and just had babies who are schooling me on this whole blog thing. So, to keep me motivated to keep up with my blog regularly, I've decided to take the September 31 day nail polish challenge. Although, I probably will stray a little, and make up my own daily themes for a few of them.

Day one: red nails.

I don't own very many reds in my collection - around 6, maybe? When I wear them, I tend to reach for my bright cherry, pin up girl reds or as a glitter topper. Today, I decided to finally break out of my comfort zone, and try out Essie Scarlet O'Hara. I know, I know, I've had this on the shelf for a while, and I've only swatched it onto a nail stick (for shame!). I totally bought this strictly for the name, since I LOVE the book Gone With the Wind, and adored Vivien Leigh's performance as Scarlett in the movie.

Essie Scarlet O'Hara is a deep, ruby red with lots of shimmer. The polish went on flawlessly - no pooling, not too sheer and with two coats, it looked wonderful.

 Two coats of Essie Scarlet O'Hara with
top coat.

The color of Scarlet reminds me of those beautiful red candied apples you see around Halloween, but never buy because you know you will break your teeth and can't afford the emergency dental care. I believe the people at Essie were trying to capture this in a bottle, and they were spot on:

 

Va-voom Vivien! 

Now, I want to watch GWTW for the 1,000th time, while staring at my nails.

"Ki-wi?" Or "When fruits go bad."

So, I was all jazzed about our classroom fruity fiesta and decided to try more nail art. Kiwis can't be so hard to make, right guys? Right? Guys?

I began with two coats of Revlon Posh for the kiwi base. Posh is a bright, green which reminds me of the new grass during spring. This creme applies like a dream! I probably could have gotten away with one solid coat of polish (I just always prefer two).

Two coats of Revlon Posh. 

So gorgeous!

And then I created this monster. I started with an oval dollop of OPI Alpine Snow. I took a nail brush to create the white kiwi lines. I probably should have used a toothpick or a thinner brush in order to make it more delicate. A small dotting tool and China Glaze Liquid Leather completed the kiwi.

Ugh. This kiwi is rotten.

Yeah, no bueno. But, that's the beauty of nail art. Sometimes you need to fail (epically) in order to keep motivated and in order to improve.

Let's get fruity!

We have been studying various fruits in my preschool classroom, and after the success of Watermelon Day manicure, I tried my hand at some festive strawberries.

I started with two coats of Zoya America - the prefect tomato (or in this case, strawberry) red creme! My photo doesn't do it justice - it's really a bright, beautiful red.

   

 

After a quick layer of top coat, I added a line of China Glaze Starboard to the top of my nail. Using a small nail brush, I created the triangle points. After finishing all the strawberry tops, I used China Glaze Lemon Fizz and a toothpick to make the seeds.
 

Ta da! Quick and easy strawberries :)

I think these turned out super cute!

World Cat Day

I just found out it was World Cat Day - I'm the worst crazy cat lady on the planet! I quickly threw together some nail art to celebrate. Please be advised I did this in under an hour, and while it's not the greatest, it does a smile on my face and I had to share.

I wanted a neutral background, so I began with China Glaze Seashell. I don't normally do "office friendly" or nude colors very often, primarily because I love bright colors, but one of my issues with nudes is because I dislike having to do more than one or two coats of nail polish. This is three coats of Seashell, and you can still see some bald spots. It's a great peach-y color, but at three to four coats, I don't recommend this (unless I have a fluke bad bottle).

On to the kitties!

 

Pointer: I used China Glaze Liquid Leather and a dotting tool to make a cat silhouette. I know these are normally thin, graceful cats, but this is an homage to my fatty mcfatterton, Mr. Nibs and is a little bulkier on the tush.

Middle and ring: China Glaze Life Preserver and China Glaze Ingrid for the cat faces. China Glaze Starboard for the eyes and Zoya Shelby for noses and ears.

Happy World Cat Day everyone! But especially to Nibbler.

Watermelon Day

Did you know that August 3rd is National Watermelon Day? Well, now you do :)

Watermelon nails in natural sunlight.

How to:

I began with two coats of OPI Alpine Snow. Next, a quick dry top coat was added to make sure that the nails were completely dry before applying striping tape (otherwise, it becomes a gooey mess). Top coating a base color whenever you do nail art is also a great idea, because if you mess any details up, you can use nail polish remover to fix your mistake, without destroying your carefully painted base color.

The striping tape helped make a clean white line for the mani, and also acted as a guide where the melon and the rind would be painted. One finger at a time, I used a generous coat of butter London Snog and Zoya Yara, quickly removing the striping tape on the nail before any polish dried to create a clean, sharp line. Then, I would move onto the next nail, continuing the process until I was finished.

Under a lamp, indoors. You can see the yellows
in Yara better than the first photo.

I think they turned out pretty cute. Now, off to celebrate this holiday with some delicious, ice cold watermelon slices!

Mentality Lisa. Oh, and BIRTHDAY!

Today is my 30th birthday, and I had originally planned on doing a large hex glitter placement manicure. But then, I received my package from Mentality yesterday. Once I pulled Lisa out of it's bubble wrap, it was over. I was head over heels in love.

Mentality Lisa is a purple-red holographic. But wait, there's more! Lisa is part of the Luxe Textured Glass Holo collection, which means it's not only a gorgeous holo, but also a glass fleck (like a glassy/diamond glitter) and slightly textured (it's not as gritty as the Zoya PixieDust collection, but more like a fine sand finish).

Lisa was a little thick to apply (but it's jam packed with goodness), and could almost be a one coat-er with careful application. I always do two coats for good measure, and it was simply stunning when dried.

 Two coats of Mentality Lisa, with Seche Vite top coat.

The shift in colors is absolutely wonderful.

But while Lisa is beautiful on her own, this is my birthday mani, so had to I kick it up a notch. BAM! KandNails CK04 plate with Butter London HRH just spiced up the party. I have begun practicing on my stamping recently (read: this week), so while this may not be perfect, I love the way this turned out.