Leopard Print!

It's been like a week since I've posted! I'm sorry. I've just been so into the nail art lately, that I've been wearing it longer than usual.

Day 13 of the 31 Day Challenge is animal print. I chose leopard print. I can't even put into words how much I love leopard print. I love wearing a leopard print blouse with a pencil skirt. I have a leopard print fleece blanket that I love snuggling up with in the winter. If it has leopard print on it, I want it. But, I've never done a leopard print mani before. I was always so intimidated by them. As it turns out, they're much faster, and much easier then I expected. The nice thing is, even if you don't have a steady hand, it can still turn out nicely.

The base color I used is Barefoot by Bonita. This is a really lovely nude color. The first coat is pretty transparent, but it evens out really nicely with the second. It's also really shiny - it reminded me of a jelly because of the shine. Maybe it's one of those creme-jellies. At any rate, it applies really smoothly, and I loved this color against my skintone.

You guys, I'm so happy with how these turned out! For the spots, I used Cappuchino by Santee and NYC's Black Lace Creme. Basically I just painted random blobs, and outlined those blobs in black. Like I said, I was so pleased with how easy it was. My BFF said they looked like printed nail polish strips, not something hand painted, so that made me happy. I'm more into natural leopard print colors, but I can't wait to play around with other colors on my nails. What's your favorite color combo for leopard print?

Recently, I ordered a plethora of things online to send to Nicole in an upcoming swap. I also got a few things for myself, because I have no self control.

I ordered a bunch of mini candles from B&BW. 3 for $5!

Sorry for the blurry photo. New B&BW scent, Kleencolor Winter Wonderland, NYX Carnical, Kleancolor Chunky Black Holo.

Hope your week is going well!

Red & Gold Gradient

I'm up to Day 10 for The 31 Day Challenge! And Day 10 is gradient nails. For this look, I was inspired by Rebecca's gradient nails, which can be seen here.

Here we go. So, first I started with a base of Burgundy by Santee.

At my previous job, we sold Santee polishes for a buck. I got 50% off, and really should have purchased more. Burgundy is an appropriate, albeit not very creative name for this polish. My favorite color - a deep, berry red. The application process was not great. The polish was pretty thick, and I kept smudging it. It also seems to want to hang out in my cuticles, no matter how much acetone I use in clean up attempts. My apologies for that. I used two coats for opacity.

Next, I sponged on a light coat of Sea How Far You Go from Nicole by OPI.

It's hard to give an accurate description of how applying it went, considering I only sponged one coat on. But it did sponge on easily! I love the antique-y feel this polish has. So pretty!

Next, I sponged a coat of Sally Hansen's Set the Stage over Sea How Far You Go.

The glitter pieces were a bit hard to pick up, but with the sponge it was easier. I imagine it is sort of a pain using the brush to apply this.

Overall, I'm really pleased with how this turned out. It's sorta regal and Elizabethan-y meets gore and goth meets glitz and glam. For a while I thought it seemed too Holiday-like, but today it reminds me of Gryffindor, so I guess it depends on my mood. A friend of mine really loved them, and said they need a matching fancy party dress. What do you guys think? I can't wait to try more gradient manis like this!

You might have noticed my nails are shorter than they were last post. A couple nails broke on my right hand, so I took that as an excuse to chop 'em all down. While I like how they look when they are longer, especially for the blog, I do feel much better with them shorter. They're so much more comfortable at this length. When they're longer, I feel like they're in the way, and I never really get used to them. I know that my "longer" is pretty short for a lot of nail bloggin' ladies - I have no idea how you guys do it! But, I am glad this mani looks good even on shorter nails, because I worried it would look odd.

Today I had my interview with that gallery. I think it went okay. It was pretty short, and not very discussion-based, but hopefully I make the cut.

Also I think I'm developing a dairy allergy. Bleh!

What have you guys been up to?