Day 10: Re-Create Your Favorite

Well, we're here, Day 10 of the November 10-Day Challenge. Where has the time gone?

Day 10's Challenge is to re-create a challenge mani, and I am choosing to do Shea's half moon. I LOVE half moon manis, and I loved her twist of using glitter as the base color.

For this, I two new polishes I received as gifts, so this mani is extra special.

Here is the base color. Funky Finger Sand & Stilettos

Funky Fingers Sand & Stilettos

 This is one blinged out polish! I could not stop staring at my fingers! This is two coats, topped with Gelous and Seche Vite.

I'm sorry, but I don't know the name of this red polish! It was given to me in a Color Club Winter Affair Scented Minis set. One set, topped with Seche Vite.

Well, that's it for the November Challenge, I had a great time doing this challenge, got to try lots of new techniques, it was great. I'm sad to see it go, but rest assured, the Challenge train will keep moving after the holidays :)
-Kara

Liebster Blog Award

I want to thank the lovely and talented Amber from And Then There Was Polish who has bestowed the honor of the Liebster Blog Award upon me! The gist of the Liebster Award is that it is given to your favorite blogs with fewer than 200 followers. Once you have received the award, you must give 11 facts about yourself, answer 11 questions, then pass the award on to 11 more blogs with fewer than 200 followers. Kind of a blogger chain, if you will. Fun, right? Here we go!

11 facts about me...

1. I love books. All books. Paper books, digital books, audiobooks. Love them all.

2. I played fast-pitch softball from ages 8-19.

3. I am 6 feet tall.

4. If I could, I would live off of peanut butter and chocolate.

5. I'm taking college ASL classes.

6. I hate wearing dresses, but love dressing my daughters in them. Cruel, huh?

7. I love to watch trashy reality shows like "The Hills" and "America's Next Top Model" while I paint my nails.

8.I love to take hot baths, but I'm too tall for most bath tubs.

9. I love the smell of apple blossoms. If you ever come across a soap that is apple blossom scented, let me know.

10.My kids are my life.

11. I love to play video games, though I haven't had much time to play them since having kids.

And here are the questions Amber left for me:

1. What is your favorite brand of polish? Zoya. I have more Zoya's than anything else, they are so smooth and creamy! 
2. Do you have any pets? I have one cat, Bonnie.
3. How many polishes do you own? Oh, jeez, do I really have to answer this? More than 150, less than 250. Let's just leave it there, shall we?
4. What is the color you want most right now, but can't have? OPI Parlez Vous
5. What is your favorite TV show? Of all time? Friends. New shows? Modern Family, Big Bang Theory, Doctor Who...
6. Favorite food? Cheese. Specifically Boxing Cheddar, it's super aged and delicious. I discovered it when I was pregnant with B, and have been hooked since.
7. What is your worst habit? I bite my cuticles. Bad for a nail blogger, huh?
8. What is your dream career? Can I get paid to paint my nails and blog about it? If not, I don't know, but I'm thinking about becoming an ASL interpreter.
9. What is the strangest talent you have? I can clap one handed. It's so weird, you don't even want to know.
10. What is your favorite song? Shambala by Three Dog Night. It always makes me feel happy and upbeat.
11. Who is your celebrity crush? Ian Somerhalder

 I'm going to ask the same questions to:

1 Punky's Polish
2 Renolyn
3 Polish Insomnia
4 Painting Awareness
5 No Bottle Left Behind
6 Nail Engineer
7 Hawaiian Chicky
8 Polish Gone Crazy
9 Show Me Your Top Coats
10 Paper Thin Nails
11 Glitter Me This

Thanks Amber!

A Holiday Mani

Welcome back, polish lovers! I was playing around with holiday mani ideas and decided to pull out my new Butter London West End Wonderland. Here's the fun holiday mani I came up with :)

This is Nicole by OPI Kourt is Red-y for a Pedi, with Butter London West End Wonderland as an accent nail and free-handed onto my tips. A bit glitzy for everyday, but so fun for a holiday party or something. I am not much into gold glitter, especially the opaque kind, but I am loving West End Wonderland!

-Kara

Day 9 :Water Marble

Wow. Day 9! We're in the home stretch!

Today's challenge is water marble, and boy, was this a challenge! I tried 3 times before I got these results. Water marbling is just too random for my OCD self!

For this I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear  Blue It, Mellow Yellow, and Fuchsia Power. Boy, was clean-up a pain, thank goodness I was given the tip of putting Vaseline on my fingers before dipping, because without that, it would have been sooo much worse!

Not much else to say about this mani other than I definitely need more practice. And in the future, I will probably keep the water marbling for accent nails and not the whole mani.

Check out the other water marbling manis!

-Kara

Day 8: Gradient

Happy Black Friday everyone! I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, and to my international friends, a happy Thursday! I am now officially done Christmas shopping, so I feel pretty good about that!

Can you believe it's already Day 8 of the 10-Day Challenge? Where has this month gone? Day 8 is Gradients. I had such a hard time with this challenge. I practiced for over a week, and had just convinced myself that I was incapable of doing gradients when it worked! I was so happy with the outcome that I had to wear it a second day - not the mani I had planned for Thanksgiving, but I couldn't bring myself to remove it!

For this I used Zoya Arizona and Zoya Lo. I think it looks like a sunset :)
By the way, if you are planning on trying a gradient, be warned - cleanup is ridiculous. I swear half my hand was stained orange!

The next Challenge is Water Marble - another pain to clean up, I'm sure. I'd better start practicing, as this is another technique I haven't tried before.

Make sure to check out everyone else's gradients.

-Kara

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope you all have fun plans, great food, and great company. I know that's what's in store for me!

To celebrate, here's a turkey mani I did! Okay, I did this for a Thanksgiving mani contest last month, and I knew I wanted to use it here for Thanksgiving. So here is my turkey :)

This is my first ever free-hand nail art! I love my little turkey, I think he turned out super cute!
I used Nicole by OPI The Next CEO as the base color, and for the turkey I used Ulta Fine Pruned, Nicole by OPI Kourt is Red-y For a Pedi, Essence Mellow Yellow, Zoya Arizona, FingerPaints You're Kiln Me, and FingerPaints Ch-art-coal Black.

I hope you all have a very happy Thanksgiving. I know I am thankful for all of my followers! Cheers!

-Kara

Guest Post at Show Me Your Top Coats!

Doing a guest blog post at Show Me Your Top Coats , here's a teaser, check it out :)

-Kara

Blue for Diabetes

I have been so busy with the kids and school work that I have not had as much time for manis and blogging as I used to. Unfortunately, I was too late to get in on Blue Manis for National Diabetes Day, but I wanted to do a blue mani anyway to show my support. Better late than never, right?

My grandfather had Diabetes, so it is something that I have always been aware of, and, while I do not have diabetes, I have to be aware of the elevated risk for myself and my children that comes from having it in the family. I have never had the pleasure of meeting my grandfather, as he passed away before I was born, but I know he was very much loved by my family and still missed to this day.

On to the mani. This will probably look a little familiar to you if you follow my blog. This was inspired by the Inspired By Another's Nails from the 10-Day Challenge. It has honestly become my new favorite mani!

 

Please forgive the terrible photo, it was the perfect storm of dead batteries in the camera and the kids being awake (as you can tell from the leg in the top corner), so this was taken with my phone.

This is 2 coats of OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui, my favorite TARDIS-y blue polish topped with Essence Special Effects Topper Circus Confetti.

I am LOVING Circus Confetti for these glitter gradients!

-Kara

Day 7: Stripes/Lines

Welcome back! I haven't posted since Thursday, and it feels like forever since my last post! Weekends are really busy for me and the kids, and I just haven't had time to sit down and do my nails in a couple of days, but I'm back now, and ready to show you my November Challenge Day 7 entry!

Day 7's theme is Stripes/Lines. In my head, this mani was amazing, in real life...meh. I consider myself fairly good at nail stamping, I've never really had a problem with it, but I had also never tried a straight line image before. Let me tell you, getting straight lines onto curved nails? Not easy. And my pinkie? I should know by now to not even attempt to stamp on my pinkie, it never comes out right. I must have repainted my pinkie 7 times before I gave up and just went with it. Apparently, I'm not meant to have a good Stripes/Lines mani.

For this mani, I used 4 untried polishes I've recently received as swaps, and I'm pretty proud of that :)
This is Essie Bikini So Teeny, Essie Mod Square, Butter London Slapper, and Technic Party Brights Bora Bora Beach. Then I used Konad special black stamping polish and Vivid Lacquer plate V001.

 

Day 8 is Gradient Nails!

Be sure to check out what the other girls did for Day 7, links below :)

-Kara

Day 6: Inspired by Another's Nails

I'm sorry this is going to be a short one, I had to put this together quickly as the girls would NOT sleep last night.

Challenge Day 6 is Inspired By Another's Nails. I was going to do the Wizard of Oz nails from Chalkboard Nails, but I didn't have the right tools. I tried 4 times, and the gingham just would not come out right! So, I scrapped it and had to find something simpler. A cop-out, I know, but I was really really tired, and the kids kept waking up, I just wanted to get it done!

The nails that inspired me came from the Nailasaurus. This was not only the first nail blog I discovered, but this was the first glitter gradient I had ever seen, and I was hooked!

Without further ado, my Sammy-Inspired glitter gradient

I only own two gray polishes *gasp* and neither was quite right, so I layered! I used NYC Sidewalkers over Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicures Greige Gardens. The glitter I used is Essence Special Effects Toppers Circus Confetti, and I dabbed it on to make the gradient effect. Most people swipe it on, but my personal preference is to dab. It's all topped off with Seche Vite.

Day 7 of the Challenge is Stripes/Lines. Going to have to start practicing!

-Kara

Orly Miss Conduct

Not much going on with me today, so I'm going to just jump right in!

Today's mani is so fun, I didn't think I would love this polish as much as I do! Orly Miss Conduct is a magenta polish with gorgeous scattered holo - so fun! I actaully painted this on my nails last night, and wore it all day today. I got so many complements on it! Then tonight, I decided it needed a little something extra. Check it out!

Orly Miss Conduct

This is 2 coats of Orly Miss Conduct stamped with Konad's special black stamping polish using my Vivid Lacquer stamping plate V001. I cannot tell you how much I love this plate! The full nail images are HUGE, so they actually fit my large nails! Check out my other post featuring the Vivid Lacquer plate here.

Here's a macro so you can see the beautiful scattered holo in Miss Conduct. Gorgeous, isn't it?
B thought so too, she snatched the bottle off of the desk and managed to get it open, and poured half the bottle out all over the carpet. Yay.

-Kara

Day 5: Half Moons

Welcome back everyone! I hope everyone had a great weekend! I managed to survive B's birthday, and I am now officially the mother of a preschooler and a toddler! Where does the time go? Even though I'm sad my baby is no longer a baby, I'm glad to have it over, so I can stop stressing about it, haha.

Before I get into my Challenge Day 5 mani, I want to say a quick Happy Belated Veterans Day, and a huge THANK YOU to all Veterans and families of Veterans. Thank you for the sacrifices you make so that my children and I can enjoy all the freedoms this country has to offer.

****

Today is Day 5 of the November 10-Day nail art challenge, something that I LOVE - half moons! You can check out my first half moon post here.

I had so many ideas for half moon combos floating around my head, but decided on something a little different. A matte flakie half moon!

half moons

 For this, I used a base of China Glaze Liquid Leather, then I carefully dabbed on UP Colors Banho de Mar. I waffled a bit on the next part. To mattify or not to mattify? I decided to just go for it, and used NYC Matte Me Crazy over the whole thing, and I am so glad I did. It really changes the look of the mani!

 

I hope you enjoyed this mani, I know I did!

Can you believe we are already half-way through this challenge? Day 6 will be Inspired by Anothers' Nails. Off to scour the internet for inspiration!

-Kara

Day 4: Delicate Print

Welcome back! I hope everyone had a great Saturday! I was stuck doing the garage sale again, and it was freezing! It was so nice to come back home to a nice warm fire, but boy, am I exhausted! In other news, B's birthday is tomorrow! So if you haven't entered the giveaway, then please do so now!

Here we are at Challenge Day 4 already! Where is the time going? No matter, today's theme is Delicate Print. When I think delicate print, I think dainty and floral, so that's what I went with.

Avon Suede Soft Violet

For this, I used two coats of my new suede polish, this is Avon Suede Soft Violet, then I used my Konad stamping plate m73 with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Silver Sweep. No top coat for this one, it's a suede!

I hope you like this mani, I actually love it, and am going to keep it on for B's birthday party tomorrow!

Keep checking back for more challenge days, next up is half moons! That should be fun!
Follow the links below to see what delicate prints the other girls have come up with!

Til next time,
-Kara

Sassy Lacquer Jack Frost

Happy Friday everyone! I have the busiest weekend coming up! We're having a garage sale, so all day today I spent out in the garage. In Oregon. In November. It was freezing. And I get to do it all again tomorrow! Yay! Then Sunday is B's birthday, so somewhere in between the garage sale and the kids, I have to find time to clean and set up for her party, and of course, Sunday I will be selecting a random winner for the Giveaway, so make sure you enter!

Anyway, my hands and nails are rough today after being out in the cold and dust all day, and they were starting to split, so I had to file them down. I was going to just leave them naked since I will be back at it again tomorrow, but when I arrived home, I had some awesome Nail Mail, and couldn't resist trying out my new polish!

Sassy Lacquer Jack Frost

This is Jack Frost by Sassy Lacquer. As you can see, it is gorgeous! Jack is a blue cream polish with teal shimmer, square white glitter, small white glitter, and micro teal glitter.

Isn't it pretty? I love it so much! Here's a better look at the teal shimmer.

Jack Frost was really easy to work with, nearly opaque with one coat, but I wanted more of the square glitters, so I used two, then topped it off with Seche Vite. This polish is so winter-y, it really puts me in the holiday spirit! It will definitely be coming out again closer to the holidays.

Jack Frost, and all of Sassy Lacquer's other creations, can be found on her website.

What do you think?

-Kara

No H8

Bullying is not funny. It is not cool. It is not right. And more importantly, it is not okay.

Most of us are, thankfully, residents of countries that support tolerance and many of our families have settled in these places simply for that reason. Generations later, it is our responsibility to perpetuate that message of tolerance across our new social platforms, including the internet.

As members of the nail polish blogging community, we all share a love of beauty, color, and lacquer. Other than that, we are remarkably different: from our race to our religion to our hair color...even to our polish application techniques. To marginalize anyone because of those differences is completely unacceptable and today I take a stand against that. I refuse to allow other people's view of "normal" dictate how I behave, believe, and blog.

In solidarity with a multitude of bloggers linked below, my purple manicure represents my proud commitment to the No H8 movement. Today, November 8, I dedicate my post to ending bullying of any kind and to encouraging diversity and imperfection among our colorful community.

Please note that Llarowe will be donating $2.00 of every purple polish sold on her site from 12am Thursday, November 8 through 12am Friday, November 9 to Pacer.org, an organization devoted to anti-bullying education.
 
If you or someone you know suffers from bullying, there is help.  Please visit the following sites for support and encouragement:
StopBullying.gov
Report Cyber Bullying
National Suicide Prevention Hotline - 800.273.TALK (8255)
Eradicate H8
_____

For my purple mani for Nov 8 No H8 Day, I've used Butter London Scoundrel, I love this color!

Sorry for the poor picture quality, I had to use my phone's camera :(

-Kara

Challenge Day 3: Inspired by a Tutorial

I am absolutely giddy over today's mani! The Challenge today is Inspired by a Tutorial, I decided to use the Cinderella manicure posted by CutePolish on YouTube, but switched to Snow White, because, well, the only tattoos we had around the house that would fit my nail were Snow White or Jasmine, and in the end, I chose Snow White because I liked the color scheme of her dress better. Sorry Jasmine. Maybe next time. Oh, and no one tell A I used a couple of her tattoos.

Snow White Nails

 This mani was so fun because I really got to get creative with it, instead of doing all of my nails the same with the princess as an accent nail, I went with a "skittles" mani, where each nail is different.

China Glaze Ruby Pumps & Dorothy Who?

For my thumb, this is 2 coats of China Glaze Ruby Pumps, isn't it gorgeous? Same on my pointer, but I added China Glaze Dorothy Who? for a blue/red glitter gradient, my middle finger is 2 coats of China Ghaze White on White with a temporary tattoo. My ring finger took the most work, it is 2 coats of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mellow Yellow, then I used a piece of striping tap to cover a diagonal line. I then carefully painted Ruby Pumps over the yellow on one side of the tape, and Dorothy Who? over the other, and slowly removed the striping tape. My pinkie is 2 coats of Mellow Yellow with a cannibalized piece of another tattoo. Everything is topped off with Seche Vite.

10 Day Challenge

So there you have it, Day 3: Inspired by a Tutorial, I hope you like it, I absolutely love it. The next Challenge Day is going to be Delicate Print, so be sure to come back for that. Also, make sure you go see what the other girls have done for their tutorial manis, the links are below.

-Kara

OPI DS Extravagance Funky French

Hey hey, welcome back! Today's mani is a funky french tip I did a last week and never got around to blogging about it, I love the look of this, but unfortunately, it didn't last long. My nails chipped so badly the next day, it was absolutely ridiculous how bad it was, which is too, bad because I love OPI DS Extravagance - it has such depth!

Anyway, here it is :)
OPI DS Extravagance, tipped with China Glaze Liquid Leather, and a nail gem for a 3D accent

OPI DS Extravagance

What do you think? Are you a fan of 3D accents?

Til next time!

-Kara

PS Don't forget to enter the GIVEAWAY , it ends Sunday!

Challenge Day 2: Polka Dots

Welcome to Day 2 of the November 10-Day Challenge! Today's challenge is Polka Dots. I had a hard time with this one because I actually did polka dots for Day 1, and I wanted to do something different! I had about 4 polishes set aside ready to do a purple/gray "dotticure" when A tells me "You know who has polka dots, mommy? A ladybug!" She's right! Ladybugs DO have polka dots! So in honor of my brilliant 3 year old (I'm only slightly biased), I give you...

...Ladybugs

Ladybug Nails

This is a super simple mani - I started with 2 coats of Nicole by OPI Kourt is Red-y For a Pedi. When that was completely dry,  I taped off my tips and painted those black with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Black Out. I then removed the strips and when that was dry, using the same black polish, used my striping brush for the lines, and my dotting tool for the polka dots, then topped it all off with Seche Vite. Easy!

So there you have it, thank to A, Ladybug Polka Dot Nails!

I hope you like my Day 2 Submission. Stay tuned throughout the month of November for future submissions, in the meantime, check out what the other ladies did!

-Kara 

EDIT: Just want to add, make sure you've entered the GIVEAWAY, only one week left til the big day!

Galaxy Nails!

Hi there! I hope everyone is doing well tonight. I'm still recovering from Halloween! Between staying up late Trick or Treating and all the sugar in their little systems, the girls' schedules have been way off, and things are just now starting to get back to normal. Well, as normal as things ever are around here.


I love today's mani. I just received Elixir Lacquers Kind of Connery on loan from a friend. If you're not familiar, this is silver, green, and blue micro glitter and pale blue, silver, and white hex glitter in a blue jelly base. Put this over black, and, viola! Instant Galaxy Nails!

I used 1 coat of China Glaze Liquid Leather and 2 coats of Kind of Connery. Look at all that glitter! I love the blue micro glitter in this polish, it's absolutely gorgeous. Kind of Connery is super easy to work with, it required no "fishing" for glitter, and there was no "strategic glitter placement" like most glitters require (in my experience). I topped it with a thick coat of Gelous, and 1 coat of Seche Vite.

Ready for the photo bomb?

 It's so pretty!

Elixir Lacquers Kind of Connery

Here's a close-up so you can see the blue/green micro glitter in there. Gorgeous!

 And here's a bottle shot for you.

I love this polish. Love. I'll be sad to part with it, but will definitely be purchasing this for myself at some point. Next time I want to try it over blue!

If you'd like to buy Kind of Connery, or check out the other Elixir Lacquers creations, head on pver tp their shop. Their products are all 3-Free and cruelty free. They retail for $10.

What do you think? Will you be trying the instant galaxy mani?

-Kara