Day 29: Inspired by a blogger

So after waking up yesterday and feeling like poo, I just didn't have the energy to do my nails...I have a feeling the person who was most disappointed by this was me;)

Anyway, with writing this blog I have seen so many different nail techniques that I just love and want to try.  For tonight's mani, I took my inspiration from a blog called polishandpearls.com where Jen shows a tutorial on how to do a fish tail manicure using three different polish colors.  While at CVS the other day I purchased  the Physicians Formula Endless Color  Custom Nail Trio in Fashion Icon.  This set comes with three smaller bottles of polish that snap together and are made to coordinate with one another.  I decided to use the deep, army green on my fingers.  I have to say that this polish did not go on as smooth as many of my other polishes do.  After two coats of the green, I then used the blue and yellow to make the fish tail effect on my ring fingers. I also found that these polishes were not as pigmented as I expected- 1 coat was not enough when making the fish-tail effect on the nails.  This as especially since the packaging shows that this polish can be used for doing fun nail designs.  

All said and done I think that I will need to use light polish to get the fish-tail effect to really show.  I think that I also need to start the design closer to my cuticle.

Maybe next time....

Day 27

Not only did I wake up with an awful head cold this morning but I was having a big day at church.  I was getting confirmed!  I know, the right of passage for every 13 year old and at the ripe age of 36 I was going through the process myself.  Unfortunately, with the antics of the morning, I went to my confirmation with naked fingers (heaven forbid!).  Once I got home I sat down and did my nails.  For today's mani I used Ulta's Vintage Violet  and then I did an accent glitter on each of my ring fingers with Milani Disco Lights.  These two colors go so well together.  This is a combo that you could wear to just about anything!

***So total bummer...I forgot to take pictures with my camera before taking off my polish:(

Day 23- Inspired by nature

With the weather currently hitting the 20 degree mark during the day, I was really in need of a fun pick-me-up polish.  While at Justice the other day I picked up a few polishes DIRT CHEAP!  I used the hot-neon pink for my base coat.  Now I must say, this polish has almost a matte finish with a bit of glitter to it.  It also does not seem to wear very long, but that being said, I also didn't use a base or top coat on my polish.  I then used my Konad and stamped flowers on my fingers.  I love the contrast of the hot pink and black!

Day 26....in the home stretch

The theme today was a mani inspired by your country.  Sometimes I am so black and white with things I figured it had to be red, white, and blue.  After a few minutes I realized I really need to think outside the box!  Why not a stars and stripes embellishment to a favorite color?!?

 

I first started with 2 coats of Zoya Juno polish.  I just received a few bottles I ordered in the mail and so far, I am in love! 

 

I then decided to add a few stars and stripes using my Miliani Nail Art Polish in Canvas.  A fun addition to my purple mani!

 

 

 

 

Day 22: Fabric mani

 

 

For today's mani I decided to go with a dark blue polish that I have had from Avon for YEARS!  Since this polish has always reminded me of a dark wash jean I figured that could be my fabric inspiration!  Nothing special, just a dark blue mani to get me through this frigid weather!

Day 21- a little out of the loop

Okay, so my crazy busy weekend was actually a little more along the lines of insane busy! 

 

This weekend I:

• Got my son off to scouts for a weekend of camping.  Upon his arrival home there was A LOT of laundry (man did it stink!).
• Had to pick up girl scout cookies at the reorder station.  They have changed things around this year and I was not able to get all of the cookies I needed (ugh).
• Had a number of people swing by for cookie pick ups throughout the weekend.
• After borrowing stage pieces from my school back in December for our Church Christmas pageant, I needed the help of my friend (and his truck) to get the pieces back to my school.
• With my son away for the weekend, my daughter had a Justice gift card burning a hole in her pocket that she wanted to use.  Sad for us, the store nearest us is closing.  Lucky for us they had EVERYTHING on sale- at least 70% off!  We were able to stock up for spring and summer!
• In addition to my regular teaching gig, I do some consult work as well which I did on Saturday.
• Saturday evening we went to dinner with some old friends to celebrate a birthday- awesome Italian food and great friends!
• Did my grocery shopping for the week.  Man, I would save a ton of money if my family would just stop eating!
• After my son's arrival home, we worked on cleaning his room.  It just amazes me how he can get toy shoved into every crevice of his room!
• Sunday I did some cooking to have my parents over for dinner!

With all of these things going on i didn't get a chance to paint my nails once!!! I know, I was so disappointed:(  I made a point of cleaning up my nails after my shower- trimming the cuticles, filing my nails, and then doing a coat of the new magnetic polish I picked up this weekend!  I was not a huge fan of magnetic polish in the past.  I have to admit though that most of my apprehension was the price of the polishes!  When I took my daughter to Justice they had a bunch of polishes on sale.  I was able to pick up this magnetic polish for $0.19!!!  I figured I couldn't pass that up!  I love the subtle "flower" design on each nail- I think it looks more like a star or rays. 



Day 16: Contrasting colors

A little bit of a busy day, but not necessarily crazy-busy status!  After a few meetings at work had to run to the store to pick up a few items for my son's camping trip this weekend and then headed home.  Lucky me- hubby had made some delicious dinner (chicken cutlets and veggies).  After gettting some girl scout cookies to a member in my daughter's troop I then decided it was time to sit down and get to painting...my nails that is!  Tonight I searched through my massive polish drawer and found an awesome deep midnight blue for my base coat- Revlons Royal.  I then, using my trusty Konad stamper, stamed a plaid pattern across each nail in white using my Konad polish. I then added a blue tip to each nail and then attempted to add some silver detail to each nail.  Not bad but I feel like I need to work on my stamping a little more to get used to the technique. 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 15: Watercolor mani

As with many of the other challenges that I have had so far, I have never done a watercolor mani.   I first started with two coats of my white base. 

 

As directed on the many tutorials I watched, I began adding small blobs of colored polish over the white base and smearing/dabbing the color with my small paintbrush dipped in acetone.  Here is the final product.

 

 

I am liking this polish technique a lot.  It gives a nice mix of color and no nail is the same which I kind of liked.  I did have some people saying that my nails looked like dyed Easter Eggs!  Hee-hee, maybe I will use this technique for Easter time!

 

Day 14- Stamping Mani

 

I recently purchased my first Konad plate and immediately attempted using a few of the plates and polishes out.  I am totally in love!  I purchased the Konad stamper/scraper set, Konad white and black stamping polish, and plate numbers 63 and 64.  For my 14th mani of January, I decided to use my Avon polish in Cotton Candy and then I used the herringbone pattern on plate 63.  I will need to continue to refine my stamping skills but I am loving the fact that I have so many options with just a few plates in my arsenal!

 

 

 

Happy Stamping!

 

 

CVS Haul

Since I had to go to CVS to pick up a card for my nieces Sweet 16 I of course had to peruse the makeup aisle.  I new from nouveau cheap's blog that there were a number of items in the milani line that are now discontinued and marked WAY down!  I have picked up a few other Miliani polishes that I really love so I thought I could always use a few more for my collection!  I think the people in CVS probably though that I was NUTS the way I kept running over to the price scanner to find out how much everything was....However; I am pretty secure in my nuttiness since I scored some awesome deals!All of the polishes were between $1.17 and $1.45 a piece! WOO HOO!  The base color of the 3D  polishes are on the sheer side but the flecks of glitter are gorgeous!  Every polish has a number of various colors that my camera just cannot do them justice!  I have not tried the nail art polishes but I will be sure to let you all know how they are in my future posts!

 

 

 

Day 13: pick-me-up mani

After digging through my drawer and looking on the Internet fora bit for some inspiration, I decode to go with a very sheer OPI polish that I have owned for quite a while (Y'all Come Back Ya Hear) but I was never very thrilled with since it is so sheer.  After two coats, I then added a deeper orange polish to the tips of each nail (China Glaze Riveting).  I then put a thin silver stripe under each of the orange tips with my Orly Instant Artist in Platinum Glitter which lately I seem to be using for a number of my manicures!  I am actually very happy with the look of this manicure.  Of course taking a loser look I get a little obsessive over my silver stripes but since I am only wearing this one day I am not going to stress. 

 

Have a great Monday!

 

Day 12: Tape Mani

I have attempted tape mani in the past but I think that my mistake was not letting my inital coat dry all of the way.  After picking up a few new milani polishes at CVS I decided that I would use two of these to do my mani...as usual, we will see how this comes out! 

As you can see my attempt at a design on my ring finger just didn't turn out as expected...I am loving the two colors but obviously they cannot be layered and I need to really work on my taping skills. The polishes are both from the Milani HD line and are lighter colors but have some great multi-colored sparkle to them.  I terms of the tape mani, I am seeing other tape manis using very thin metallic tape for nail decoration and I am wondering if that is the route I should go, thoughts?

Day 11... sweet 16 party

I am a little late posting this one but yesterday I had to deviate from the 31 day challenge.  I was supposed to do a splatter manicure but I didn't feel that splatter went with the theme for the Sweet 16 party I was attending, which as you can see below, was a masquerade theme!  Everyone was told to wear black or white so I decided to do my nails red and then use my new Kondad to stamp each of my nails with a black swirly pattern.  It looked awesome!

 

 

One of CBM's crazy kids! 

My not so crazy busy husband- just kidding.  I attempt to keep him movin' and groovin' most days of the week! 

Weekend Mani...and a Diet Coke

First I would like to send a warm thank you from one Crazy Busy Mama to another..I was tickled pink(The MAC type shade of pink from their Viva Glam line endorsed by Nikki Minaj herself) to be asked to author on my dear friend Mikell's new Blog. I have not been as diligent with the 31 day nail challenge but Mikell has inspired me to at least keep my nails looking manicured and fun!!! I have been changing them up at least three times a week. This weekends Manicure is Pinterest inspired. Polish Used: Cynthia Rowley(It was a three pak of day glow colors & Clear coat Cynthia Rowley) All found at the bargin beauty aisle in our local TJ Maxx The nail Art pen was purchased at our local CVS Pharmacy/White

The polish dried as a matte finish...I cannot say that I really liked the matte finish but once the clear coat at the end was applied I was much happier with the results...

Hearts and Pink my favorite combination...very difficult when painting the hearts on the right hand...but as Crazy Busy Mama Mikell always says: "Practice makes perfect." Hope you all like the final result.

Thank you again for taking the time to stop by...I look forward to posting again...Happy Saturday everyone!!! Peace, Christina

OPI The Great and Powerful Oz

Okay- I am going to try and contain my excitement here but OPI is coming out with a new line to go along with the new The Great and Powerful Oz movie.  I found this info out just a short while ago: here is the link .  There are some fantastic colors here- I am especially looking forward to trying the liquid sand seen below!

Day 10: geometric manicure

After a bit of googling to find out different ways of doing the geometric manicure I opted for the free hand approach.  I painted my fingers with a base coat of either a white polish or a hot pink polish.  Once that had dried I used my Orly artist paints to paint various angles and shapes on my nails.  I am really liking the effect of this look.  It is a very bold look but I think that it is going to be a fun look to get me through Friday at work!

***FYI- i still have a little bit of clean up to do around my cuticles:)

Day 9: Saran Wrap nails.

Well today is a very exciting day indeed! Not only did my BFF give me an awesome new lip pencil (I will preview tomorrow), but I also received part if my Konad order from amazon and I also Saran wrapped my nails! Woo-Hoo!  (look people, a crazy busy mama gets excited about these little things in life!)

The Saran wrapping was pretty easy.  I first applied my based coat of Wet and Wild Through The Grapevine- a deep pink/purple.

I then put a second coat of Ulta- Vintage Violet.  I worked two nails at a time applying the lighter pink color and then blotting the nails with the Saran Wrap.  It gave my nails a nice textured look, but word to the wise, make sure your base coat is dry before attempting to paint and blot the second color- you can see on a few fingers my blotting took most of the color off.  I then decided to add a stamp using my new Konad on my ring fingers.  Loving this look!