31 Day Challenge: Day Ten, Gradient: Whole Lotta Girly Bits

Hi everyone! Apologies for the late post, I meant to post my challenge mani last night but I fell asleep editing photos, lol! I'm not sure how other bloggers feel, but editing photos is probably the most boring aspect of blogging for me. On the bright side, maybe it could cure a case of insomnia?! :P

Polishes used L-R: Girly Bits Lover's Coral, Mint To Be, and Private Dancer (not pictured Jini Goes Indie!),
OPI My Vampire is Buff

About this design: The other day I received an awesome nail mail package from Girly Bits Cosmetics, including their new creme polishes that were sent for review. I'll have swatches very soon, but in the mean time, here's a bit of a teaser. The colours are so fun and bright I had to use them right away, and since they look good together, combining them in a gradient seemed to be the perfect solution.

Taped gradient featuring Girly Bits polishes

I've done some regular gradients before, so I decided to challenge myself by taping off sections for a taped gradient design. My taping skills still need some work but overall this wasn't an extremely difficult design.

Taped gradient featuring Girly Bits polishes

How to get this look: I used OPI My Vampire is Buff as my base and sealed my pinky, middle and index nails with KBShimmer Clearly On Top - a fast dry top coat. I waited for about 30 minutes for that to dry before taping those sections off with scotch tape (tip: remove the tact by sticking the tape to your skin a few times).

Taped gradient featuring Girly Bits polishes

The gradient was done with a makeup sponge and Girly Bits Private Dancer, Lover's Coral, and Mint to Be. The glitter on my ring and thumb nails is Girly Bits Jini Goes Indie! - a great multi-coloured glitter topper with pink shimmer.

Taped gradient featuring Girly Bits polishes

Overall, I'm really happy with how the colours worked well together. The coral and mint do not make for a smooth gradient, but they look great together nonetheless. My taping skills still need some work, my lines are not always even and my angles are off on my middle finger, but that's something I want to practice.

What do you think of this look? Have you tried a taped gradient design?

---

An InLinkz Link-up

Simple Spring/Summer Florals Inspired by MrCandiipants

Hi everyone! I've been inspired by the easy nail art suggestions and blog posts that have been submitted for my survey (if you're interested, you can find the details here). So I decided to do some easy nail art for tonight's blog post.

Simple spring/summer floral nail art

The inspiration for this was an amazingly simple floral design done by MrCandiipants aka Candice. She's done a few variations on this design, and I love each and every one of them. You can find the YouTube video tutorial she did here.

Simple spring/summer floral nail art

The thing I love about these flowers is that they don't require any fancy nail art tools. You use the brushes in the nail polish bottle to make the petals and the dots in the centre. Just make sure to wipe all the excess polish off of the brush before making your flowers. When I made my strokes for the petals I worked from the outside to the middle.

Simple spring/summer floral nail art

My base polish is Lime Crime Milky Ways. And for the flowers I used Lime Crime Once in a Blue Mousse and Butter London Trout Pout. The dots in the centre are Misa BreakAway, a dark purple with a shimmer - not that you can see the shimmer, it's just what I grabbed.

Simple spring/summer floral nail art

I'm so in love with these! It's one of those designs where I can't stop staring at my nails, they please me so much. And they are so easy I was able to do them on my right hand. The flowers on my right hand are a little bit more awkward, but they are supposed to be kinda awkward in the first place. :)

What do you think of these? Have you seen MrCandiipants' easy florals before?

Tape Manicure With Shimmer Polish Erica

Hi everyone! A quick reminder that my current giveaway ends in less than two hours, see the original post HERE for entry details. I'm back with another gorgeous creation from Shimmer Polish. I don't know about you, but I'm really enjoying these polishes, and I love slowly working my way through them.

I have a love/hate relationship with tape manis. Love because I enjoy the look of them, and there's endless possibilities. Hate because waiting for the base polish to dry thoroughly can be such a drag. I don't know where I got the idea to combine studs and a tape design, but that was the starting point for this mani.

Shimmer Polish Erica

Shimmer Polish Erica is a clear-based glitter polish that can be layered over another polish or built up to full opacity with 2-3 coats. Erica is described as a "crystal peridot," and while it appears to be light green, that's the result of the mixture of glitter. It's mainly made up of gold, silver, green and teal (from what I can tell), with a good helping of gold holo glitter. I love how it sparkles in the daylight and in low light.

Tape mani with Shimmer Polish Erica

I started with a base of OPI My Vampire is Buff (of course!), and used one coat of Erica where I did the tape design. I had planned to use circle studs but didn't like how they looked, so I made a last minute switch to the stars. Everything was done, then I looked at my nails and realized...

Tape mani with Shimmer Polish Erica

...they looked like Christmas trees! Grrrrrr... FML. Not that I have anything against holiday decor, just not in late May. Maybe if I was gearing up for half-Christmas. ;)

Tape mani with Shimmer Polish Erica

Otherwise I love the combination of the glitter with the base polish. It has a softer look I think.

Shimmer Polish is available on Etsy, from Harlow & Co., and Overall Beauty. Follow Shimmer on Facebook, and the Shimmer Polish blog for updates.

What do you think of this design or this Shimmer Polish?

*Shimmer Polish provided for review, all opinions are my own. See my disclosure policy for more details.*

Seven Deadly Sins Challenge, Day 9: Wrath

Hi everyone! How was your day? I was supposed to work on my dissertation today, but I felt so tired that I didn't get much done. I probably should work on it over the weekend, but I also have a bunch of stuff I want to swatch and review for the blog. Blogger problems I know. ;)

But I finally got a chance to start on this week's challenges. The prompt for today is as follows: "Get mad trying, again, that technique you know it's going to be a fail." Well the only technique I've really failed at is the sugar spun mani, and I have no desire to revisit that again any time soon. So I decided to do a water marble. I haven't done one since the Advent Calendar challenge I did back in December. But a water marble is one of those techniques that can go horribly wrong, so I thought it would be appropriate here.

"Water spotted" water marble manicure

"Water spotted" water marble manicure

There are some people who can do very perfect water marbles. Corynn Musser, aka @mucking_fusser on Instagram, immediately comes to mind and her work is so beautiful. But while I appreciate the skill, intricacy and talent that goes into these perfect water marbles, I'm more interested the chaotic, disruptive, unpredictable aspects of the technique. So when people started doing the so-called "water spotted" technique, I knew that was right up my alley.

"Water spotted" water marble manicure

To make this even "wrathier" I used red and black. My base is my beloved OPI My Vampire is Buff, the red is Colorama Deixa Beijar from their Cremoso line, and the black is Orly Liquid Vinyl. Basically I dropped the red and black in the water and moved it around with a toothpick as if I was doing a water marble. Then I sprayed hairspray into it, which caused it to break apart and spread. The black didn't really want to break apart, but the red was perfect for this technique. I assume that it's the different brands that account for this.

"Water spotted" water marble manicure

"Water spotted" water marble manicure

I know that there are imperfections in this, a few places where there were bubbles, that sort of thing. But overall, I really love how this turned out. I enjoy looking at how the polish spread and moved in the water, and each nail is so different and unique. I plan to explore more with this technique.

What do you think of this? Have you tried the water spotted method?

Essence Nude Glam Swatches and Review

Hi everyone! I have swatches of four of the Nude Glam polishes from Essence - there's other Nude Glam polishes but these four are the only ones available in North America (at least according to the Essence website). They caught my eye over the weekend when I was out polish shopping, and I thought "well, why not?" I'm always on the lookout for a good nude polish that works with my skin tone. I was only able to find two over the weekend, then today I found the other two when I was at the drugstore. Score! Complete set!! :P

Essence Nude Glam polishes

Café Olé is a pale taupe creme with a very subtle shimmer. I really like this one and found it very flattering. The formula was perfect and I used three coats here, but really two would do - I have some staining on one of my nails from my peacock mani, so I wanted to cover that up. It's similar to Models Own Nude Beige (reviewed here) but is more neutral, while the Models Own has a slightly more reddish tone.

Essence Nude Glam Café Olé

Essence Nude Glam Café Olé

Cotton Candy is a very, very pale pink. It's more of a sheer than a creme and I used three coats here. There were no problems formula wise. This is probably my least favourite of the bunch, I just find that there's many polishes like this on the market. It looks very similar to Deborah Lippmann's Prelude to a Kiss, and I'm sure you can probably think of some other dupes.

Essence Nude Glam Cotton Candy

Essence Nude Glam Cotton Candy

Iced Strawberry Cream is a pale muted pink creme with a silver shimmer. It's a tad frosty but not too much for my taste. This was three coats but two would work - again, covering up the staining. The formula was good but I did have some issues with bubbling, although I'm not sure if that's my fault or the polish. I also found this one very flattering on me.

Essence Nude Glam Iced Strawberry Cream

Essence Nude Glam Iced Strawberry Cream

Peach & Cream is a pale peachy nude with a delicate shimmer. I used three coats and you can still see the nail line. It has a good formula, I just wish it was a bit more opaque.

Essence Nude Glam Peach & Cream

Essence Nude Glam Peach & Cream

My favourites out of the bunch are definitely Café Olé and Iced Strawberry Cream. The other two I think would look better on other skin tones. My only issue with this collection is the limited range of shades. "Nude" is defined as "flesh colour," so why are these all so pale? Just a thought.

What do you think of these? Did you pick up any of the Nude Glam polishes? Do you care for nude polishes, or would you prefer I banish them from the blog? ;)