I don't know if you know this (here I go again) but I LOVE football. It's so much fun to watch. I could literally watch football 24/7 and never get bored, it doesn't even have to be teams I know. But I am an ardent fan of my dear Houston Texans and the New Orleans Saints. I hope they never ever play each other, or else I'm pretty sure my heart would rip in two.
Anywho, yesterday was possibly the awesomest game ever for the Texans. I'm not sure if you're up-to-date or even really care about football drama, but I'll fill you in anyway. Our regular quarterback, Matt Schaub, got injured, so he was replaced by Matt Leinart. Leinart was in for less than one game when he got sacked and his collarbone is broken and he's out for the season. So, because there were no quarterbacks named Matt left, we must turn to TJ Yates.
Now, nobody had any expectations of this kid. A third string quarterback winning the game? Fo realz? But they did it. TJ was freaking awesome and I am as goshdarn proud of him as I'm sure his parents are! Of course the rest of our team was amazing as usual, the defense was fantastic and Arian Foster was running like a BEAST (in the best way possible). I just wanna give 'em all a big ole hug.
All right, enough of me waxing poetic about one of the greatest teams ever. Here is the mani I did in honor of the Texans.
(hey look, I figured out how to make the pictures bigger!
This is what I did on my right hand.
For the base I did OPI Roadhouse Blues (which luckily happens to be the perfect Texans blue). On my thumb (not pictured cause it's boring) I wrote "#1" because if it's not pretty obvious by now WE ARE NUMBER ONE. On my index finger I wrote "Yates" because he deserves major credz. I also did his number, 13, on my ring finger. I thought it was pretty ironically awesome that he was lucky thirteen.
On my middle finger, I had to do the Texans logo (duh) and I just did pretty much the same design on my pinky as on my left hand. I used Essie One Of A Kind for all the red.
For all the white stuff, I used the other Kiss Nail Art Pen that the ever-wonderful Leslie sent me along with a black one. I am gonna have to get me one of these in every color under the sun because they are freaking awesome. I need a gold one to do a Saints manicure! I found that with the white one, you do have to go over the design 2-3 times to make it opaque and you need a topcoat to prevent it rubbing off, and it weirdly cracked after I put the topcoat on but it wasn't very noticeable and I don't think it affected the overall look of the design. It was so easy to use, so it's all worth it.
Anyway, this reminds me why I love freehanding so much! It was a lot of fun to do and I'm so happy with how it turned out. I'm actually going to voluntarily wear this more than one day! I might be totally sick of it tomorrow but you never know.
Anyway, I'd like to conclude what has been a rather long post by saying HECK YEAH, TEXANS.
**If you haven't already, vote in my As Seen in Theatres contest!
Also, about the giveaway: for those of you that entered, I forgot to ask for your email addresses to notify whoever wins. So you'll all need to check this coming Saturday's post to see the winner, because you'll have 48 hours to respond or I'll pick someone else. So make sure you check my blog on Saturday, or if you want to, email me with your GFC name so that I have your address. I'll post this on every post until then so that hopefully everyone gets the heads up.
Finally, some of you who entered the franken contest didn't sign up for the giveaway, but I assume you'd all want to be entered anyway. If you don't, let me know. That is all.**
So today's challenge is "delicate print" which is pretty vague but I figured I would just use something dainty and frilly from the stamping plates and use a pastel, which is why I started with
3 coats of Revlon Gumdrop.
I really wish I had another lilac, because this one is not the best. 3 coats is pushing it and it takes f o r e v e r to dry. It does smell faintly sweet but not noticeably so.
Look! I got off my lazy sick bum and took a picture outside!
It's nice. I would definitely call it delicate. Although I don't like feeling so girly all day, but purple is better than pink. This would make nice wallpaper too...
Hmm. I don't have much to say about this one! I like it. I feel guilty when I'm not funny, but really not everything lends itself to hilarity! I do what I can. :)
Goood evening, people who may or may not exist because no one ever comments. *Makes "awww" motions, á la Stefon on SNL*
It's okay. I'm used to talking to myself.
Anywho. Today, my featured polish is Mr. Sandman from Milani.
Which is why this song has been stuck in my head all day.
Anywho. This is a weird color. It's not gold, or silver, or bronze, but kind of a mix of all of them. I would say it's metallic, as it has some brush stroke-iness which most metallics have.
Outside, sun
Outside, shade. It looks kind of blurry, which is weird, since my fingers aren't blurry, just the brushstrokes...
Inside. Now this is kind of blurry. I don't know why I can't get good indoor pics.
Lampliiight.
Fluorescent liiiight.
Two coats, smooth application. I like this color because it's really interesting. It kind of reminded me of Bacterium from Illamasqua's recent-ish toxic nature collection. I google-image-searched it and I think they're actually pretty similar. Bacterium is a tad lighter and appears to have a little more dimension going, I would say. I can't compare for you since I have no idea where you get Illamasquas. Here are some swatches of Bacterium from Chloe's Nails. Here is another swatch from Konad Addict. You can see that Bacterium has a bluish hidden shimmer thing going on there.
So it's safe to say that they're not dupes, but I think Mr. Sandman might be a good sub, if your Bacterium itch needs to be scratched (ew).
Aaanyway, that wasn't enough, and since my last Konad attempt was a fail, I felt like I needed to redeem myself, so I did one of the full-nail designs since those are easier for me.
I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Celeb City for the stamping, aaand I'm not sure what plate. I'll find that later.
This turned out much better than my previous hot mess. It is subtle, but it shows up better in real life than you can see in the picture. I'm actually surprised with how much I like it, since metallics aren't really my thing.
So! That's all I've got for you today. You could always leave a comment about it... *nudge nudge*
I couldn't think of a snappy title for this post, so I just decided to tell you what it's going to be about. Is that disappointing? Do you enjoy the weird titles? Or would you prefer that I use self-explanatory titles regularly? I'd like to know what you think.
This picture isn't very color accurate. It makes African Violet look much more blurple than it is.
This one's better, but not completely color accurate. It's a leeeetle too reddish.
Inside by a window
Laaaamplight
Outside
This was very nice polish. I only used one coat! I also really like the way the bottle looks, not sure why. I might have to go back into American Apparel, no matter how creepy, just to get some more of these!
Then I did this with Milani Gold Lame (too tired to find the accent key. It's la-MAY, not lame.)
Aaand this with Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Fairy Teal.
But these colors were a little too Mardi Gras-esque for me, sooo... I put Sinful's Love Nails over Fairy Teal.
Inside by a window
Outside
So! American Apparel is doing well so far, tomorrow I'll have Peacock for you. I'm excited! Are you?
Goood afternoon, fair citizens. My stomach is killing me. It's been hypersensitive ever since I had an appendectomy last year, so I'm trying to do as much as I can while moving as little as possible. At least this means I don't have to go to the gym!
Anyway, I can't remember where I first saw this mani idea, but I thought I'd give it a whirl. Anybody figured it out yet? The title ringing any bells?
It's a newsprint mani! I made my own little tutorial for you guys, aren't you special?
So here's everything you need. Rubbing alcohol, something to hold it in, clear nail polish, a base color (needs to be pastel so the newsprint will show up), scissors, and newspaper. I cut it into the little pieces on the left.
You dip your finger in the rubbing alcohol and then slap the piece of newspaper on top. You should press down and count to thirty, I discovered. Obviously I couldn't show you that, because I only have two hands.
This is how my left hand first turned out. I wasn't pressing down enough or keeping it on long enough.
This is my right hand, after I had gotten the hang of it. You shouldn't press it down for too long, otherwise the newspaper itself will start sticking.
I painted over my left hand and redid it. Then I put a topcoat on it, otherwise it will smear.
Voila!
C'est magnifique! This was pretty easy, and looks quite snazzy, if I do say so myself.
Anywho, on another note, I have not been able to find silver shatter anywhere! Ulta had the POTC collection but not silver shatter! I thought maybe I'd see the Sally Hansen shatter stuff somewhere, but I went to Sally Beauty, Walmart, CVS, and Kroger without any luck. I suppose I still need to check out Target, but after that I've got nothing. Help?
My friend Meg loves rainbows. If it has color, Meg has already organized it in rainbow order. She's a little OCD, but don't tell her I said that.
Anyway, she really liked this one, so it can be Meg's Mani.
Inside
Outside
I used two coats of CG Boundless Color Midnight Magic for the base, then, (in rainbow order of course): Essie One of a Kind, CG Boundless Color Candy Corn, Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Yellow Kitty, Orly Mint Mojito, and NYC 204A.
I used a toothpick for all the dots.
And yes, this looked just as cool in real life as it did in pictures.
I think this has to be my favorite artsy-fartsy thing that I've done so far. It makes me so proud when people say "Whoa, did you do that?" and I can modestly say that oh, it's nothing, really. But. Y'know. It's pretty awesome.
I'm sure you all love it.
P.S. Click on the pictures to see the shimmer in Midnight Magic!
I saw that quote somewhere today, but I can't remember for the life of me where. However, it applied to today's mani, so I slapped it on here.
I was having a little bit of polisher's block, I must admit. I was looking at all my precious babies and couldn't seem to strike the right combination. I initially thought I was going to paint my nails green and then stamp pink flowers on top. However... I um... *cough* totally failed at Konading *cough* What? Did you say something? Must have been the wind...
Anywho, that didn't pan out, but I did take pictures of the Orly before I scrapped that idea.
2 coats, grody lamplight, woo.
Anyway, I had no idea what to do, and then, I remembered... this gorgeous design from The Polished Perfectionist.
So I started with Sally Hansen Salon Professionals in Pat on the Black
I remembered the bottle shot! Yay!
I only did one coat because I wanted it to look more purple burgundy (plurgundy?) than black.
Then, using a makeup sponge, and splopped Zoya Faye on the tips, just like AmyGrace. I'd never done any sort of sponging before, so I was a little nervous, but it turns out it's really not that hard, and I was very happy with the results.
Outside
I tried out a new pose, what do you think?
Inside, fluorescent light.
Anyway, I'm quite happy with how this turned out! This is why I love nail bloggers, they're so inspirational!
Today's nail art reminds me of the wallpaper in a parlor room. I don't even know what a parlor room is, but it sounds like a place where people would drink tea and wear gravity-defying hats.
Anywho, I started with Revlon Minted.
Two coats, outside.
I then whipped out my handy-dandy Scotch tape and did this:
Outside. Not sure why I don't have any indoor pictures... my bad.
I added Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Blue Away over it. And voila! Insta-parlor walls.
I don't seem to have much to say today, not to mention I'm starving and I have some work to do, so I guess I'll end it here.
Since I'm on an artsy-fartsy kick, I am going to force myself to come up with different and creative nail designs this entire week. I'd forgotten how much fun nail art was. I'm actually a little excited! Whee!
So today's art-fart is tame, but I thought it was pretty.
Also I totally forgot to take a bottle shot. Forgive me, I'm a sad excuse for a blogger. :C I'll try to remember to edit one in later.
Outside
Inside
Ugly lamplight
Please don't click on these pictures. My hands look awful. There's red residue in my cuticles from Cajun Shrimp yesterday and there's a huge chip in my index finger and little hangnails on my middle and ring fingers that I couldn't even see in real life... but anyway.
I used only one (one!) coat of Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Fairy Teal. Let me just rave about this color for a minute. It is gorgeous. Such a dreamy, dark teal... I could get lost in this polish for days. And only one coat! That just makes it fricking amazing. Not to mention fairies are cool.
Buying nail polish is a really agonizing experience for me. I love shopping, but I hate spending money, so going to Ulta is like sending a lactose-intolerant ice cream lover into a Ben & Jerry's factory.
I can literally spend an hour going back and forth between nail polishes, painfully setting one down only to pick it up again milliseconds later. It's quite difficult.
This past trip to Ulta, I first thought I was going to get Essie Turquoise and Caicos, since I know that I don't have anything like it. Then I saw OPI You Don't Know Jacques, the whole Essie French Affair collection, Orly Galaxy Girl, numerous China Glazes, and just TOO MANY TO PICK FROM AGHHHH. In the end, I decided to get OPI Cajun Shrimp, not even thinking that I might have a dupe for it.
Well. I do.
First, here's Cajun Shrimp on its own.
Outside, shadyish.
Outside, sunnyish.
Inside by a window.
That's two coats. It's a lovely color, slightly pink undertones, really nice, bright creme. Now, when I got this home, I began to have the sinking feeling. I went to my polish drawer and pulled out Essie One of a Kind. Looking at the bottles side by side, I couldn't tell if they'd be that similar.
The Essie looked substantially darker and oranger than the OPI. But, on the nail...
Sun. Order from L to R: OPI, Essie, OPI, Essie.
Outside, shady. Same order as above.
The Essie is a teeeensy bit darker and more pigmented than the OPI, but there's really no point in having both of them, they're way too similar.
This made me very mad. As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, money is not something I like to spend lightly, and I was kicking myself for not even thinking that I might have a similar polish at home. I missed Turquoise and Caicos! AGGABLAH.
I hadn't done anything artsy in a while, so I figured I should punch it up a little bit. Here's what I did:
Outside, normal light. Ignore the obnoxious fuzz on my index and middle fingers. I had already started removing the polish on my right hand so some cotton fuzz got stuck to this hand. I used tape and Nyx 162 for the design.
Camera was being a buttface and said it was out of memory so I didn't have any room for indoor pics. Camera sucks. I deleted everything on it and it still says the memory is full, so I'm using my grody old camera.
Anyway. Major bummer. Anything like this ever happen to you?
