Snake Skin Nails

I bought a bunch of new polish in the past few weeks, and I've been trying to figure out how to use them all in clever ways. I've really been wanting to use this brown color.. even though I think it's slightly ugly... but still cool... Anyways, this is Orly Buried Alive from the Dark Shadows collection.

This color looks more like a combination of these two pictures. For some reason, I thought it had more of a green tint to it? 

I also recently bought OPI's Just Spotted the Lizard from The Amazing Spiderman collection. Every time I went to Ulta to buy it, they were out of this color, so I eventually just bought a 4-pack of tiny little ones. I stamped this color on, attempting to make it look like snake skin. This is actually a really cool color! See the blue and brown tints in it?? It does that on my nail, too!

Magic Mike comes out tomorrow!! Are you as pumped as I am? You should be. Since Independence Day is just around the corner, I'd like to show you a picture of some true American heroes in what is soon to be my new favorite movie.

31 Day Challenge: Day 30 Inspired by a Tutorial

Does anybody else watch The Client List? It's actually a horrible show, but I haven't stopped watching it. It's supposed to be about a masseuse from Beau-frickin-mont whose husband runs away, leaving her with the kids and a pile of debt. She does what apparently all masseurs do when the going gets tough - starts dressing extra slutty and giving "happy endings!" These people have ridiculously stereotypical southern accents and strange close-minded feuds with salon-shop bitches. If you're incredibly bored and want to see Jennifer Love Hewitt's giant boobs on display, you should catch up on this Lifetime gem.

I love Japanese cherry blossoms! I actually had a framed Van Gogh poster of them in college. It now resides in my sister's apartment along with all of my other furnishings. Today's challenge is inspired by a tutorial. I found this one about how to do cherry blossom nails.

I used Ulta Mint Condition as the base and just random black, white, and pink polish - just use what you have!

31 Day Challenge: Day 28 Inspired by a Flag

Movie/TV update: I watched W./E. today because I thought it was going to be a tragic yet cute love story. It was tragic, alright. The cute part not so much. I suggest this if you really want to hate yourself and others for a while. To make myself feel better, I watched a bunch of Merlin again (he's so cute!) and the ever-ridiculous bro-on-bro love of Franklin and Bash. I feel like I'm going to end up watching a lot of BBC America this summer. What happened to all the shows I liked last summer? Oh yeah, they were cancelled.

For today's challenge, I was supposed to be inspired by a flag. I thought of the obvious American flag, and then branched out a little with the flags of Ireland, Italy, France, and Germany (all places of heritage for me) but have you seen their flags? They're super boring and just stripes. Finally, a brilliant idea hit me -  the 2012 Olympic flag! I'm super pumped for the Olympics this summer. AND they have a pretty cute flag!

I'm not sure why the 2's look different. The second one looks a bit ridiculous. I made it look worse, of course..

Alrighty, I started off with a base of a pretty blue from Ulta and then used a striping brush to draw on the white bits.

I used another striping brush to do the red. This was a little tough, since the brush was kind of a fatty, but I think it turned out pretty well anyway.

Next, I used a brush-tipped marker to draw on the outline of the numbers.

Then I filled in the numbers and fleshed out the outline a little. Alllmost done!

Then I used the markers again to draw the Olympic rings. These were microscopic and tough to draw, but decent-looking in the end.

I mutilated that second 2. I really considered just making it like the first one... but I gave it a shot. Oh well. Te gusta? I actually really like these!

31 Day Challenge: Day 25 Inspired by Fashion

Have you guys been watching all of the Diamond Jubilee coverage? Well I definitely have. I think I was meant to be a queen... Somebody get on that.

I have been doing this challenge forever. And I'm not gonna lie, I'm about ready to be done. Today's challenge is inspired by fashion. Truthfully, I hate most outrageous fashion stuff. Models walking out in unflattering trashbags just isn't my thing. However, Lady Gaga's outrageous clothes somehow don't count. She just makes it work! I could never, ever ever ever, wear the stuff she pulls off. My nails today are inspired by one of her famous see-through black lace dresses.

I started off with a couple layers of Ulta Sweet Nothings. Then I used a striping brush to add in two black stripes. No, I didn't try to draw her lacy undies. This is more of an abstract interpretation!

Finally, I used a stamping pattern from Drikk DRK-A for the lacy dress. I think they turned out pretty well! A little weird, but still pretty sweet, I think.

 

31 Day Challenge: Day 22 Inspired by a Song

In keeping with tradition, Glee's finale last night made me want to die, bawl my eyes out, and throw up all at the same time. Damn you, Ryan Murphy! I won't give away any spoilers, but if you haven't watched it yet you'd better get crackin' because people WILL be talking. Right now I'm watching SyFy's Alice, which is really weird.. but good! It's got the girl I hate from Private Practice (I mentioned her a few posts ago) but this character is slightly less horrible. This guy is by far my favorite character -

I keep forgetting that these SyFy movies are meant to be watched over the course of days, so they take up my entire evening. Ah well. It gives me time to paint!

Sorry this challenge is taking me so long. Sometimes I just need a few days to admire my handiwork! I was really liking my bright summery colors from last time, so I decided to do something similar today! Today's challenge is a design inspired by a song. I thought of a million different ones I wanted to do, but I ended up choosing "99 Red Balloons" by Nena. Here's the original German version, which I find to be a lot more fun to sing than the English one. PLUS it's 80's-tastic - big hair and embarrassing wardrobes all the way. Anyways, feel free to rock out to this delightful ditty while you browse my pictures!

I started with Ulta Mint Condition for the sky - no flash.

Flash!

Then I used a dotting tool to make a variety of balloon sizes and add in the white shine blobs. Finally, I used a tiny brush tip pen to make the strings! The red color is "e-nuf is e-nuf" from Essie. Sorry the red kinda smeared... It doesn't look as bad in person.

Hopefully these don't look too much like 99 red sperms going by.

I went for a very cartoony balloon here. Me likes! 

31 Day Challenge: Day 13 Animal Print

I hope the Cheshire Cat counts as an animal, because that's what I did for today's animal print challenge. I started off doing a giraffe, but I didn't have a yellow/orange that was quite right. Another reason to buy more colors!! *teehee* I actually got a new stamping plate, which is how I got these zebra stripes. I may be the world's worst stamper, but I recently join an exclusive stamping club on Facebook and they gave me some advice about how to make mine stop looking so horrible - and I think it helped! I'm still not a pro, but at least they're not hideous pieces of stamps this time.

Alice in Wonderland

I'm obsessing about Disney movies lately. Nothing new, really. Today's obsession is Alice in Wonderland!! I wanted some crazy nails, and that's definitely what I got. I probably should have planned this a bit more, but I actually think this came out pretty well.

Cheshire Cat
The first character I tried to paint was the Cheshire Cat. I did a purple base coat then taped over where I wanted the stripes. Believe it or not, it took ages to find tiny tape.

Alice
This was the toughest one to do. I'm terrible at free-handing stuff, and somehow this bow just didn't want to work out. It looked good, then I played with it, and then it was terrible, so I fixed it again... now it's ok.

Queen of Hearts' Rose Garden

Ya got me, this is not a person. But it's preeeeetty! I feel like this one came out of the best - which is a minor miracle. I basically blobbed on paint, outlined with a sharpie, and hoped for the best.

Queen of Hearts & Card Guards

My card guards (pointer finger) are meh. The paint pen just wasn't working and ended up smudgie. And that's all I have to say about that. My Queen is a really sweet glitter I got a while back. Give me a break, everyone in Wonderland is stoned anyway.

Here's all the colors I used!!

Revolon Top Speed: Cherry, Violet, and Jelly
Ulta: Mint Condition and For Bitten
Spoiled: Ants in My Pants
Kiss Nail Art White
Nicole by OPI: One Time Lime

I think the next movie on my list is Snow White... Wish me luck!