Showing posts with label dots. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dots. Show all posts

I'm finally back to the 31 day challenge! Today, we have dots. I utterly failed at capturing the true magic of this manicure. I think I need to take a photography class or something.

I started with a base of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Black Out and put in a coat of Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat to seal it. Then I dotted it with, from cuticle to tip: Pure Ice Tease, Kleancolor Forest Fairy, Mari Moon Artsy, Jessica Iridescent Eye, Wet N Wild Gray's Anatomy, and Sally Hansen HD in Byte. The beautiful duo/multichrome goodness of Artsy, Iridescent Eye, and Gray's Anatomy really comes out in person, but this is the part I couldn't capture. The Pure Ice and SH HD colors look very very similar dotted like this. I need to swatch them, because there's a possibility they might be dupes or at least very very close.


Overall, I like it! I need some practice getting straight lines when I dot. They tend to go a wee bit diagonal on me. But that's ok, it gives it character!

Well, one day I'll get back to doing the challenge manicures, I promise! But since Easter is tomorrow, you know I had to do appropriately themed nails! So, I did eggs. Man, I need to practice doing more detail work with my right hand (I'm left handed!). Some of my lines look wobbly and smudged on my left hand, but that's OK. Most people in the wild won't even notice.

Today I have pictures of both hands, because every finger is different. Lemme tell you, it's hard to take pictures of my right hand with my camera. It's just not easy to hold in my left hand *at all*. This is why most of my pictures are of my left hand! I'm planning on getting a more compact camera in the near future. That should help a bit.



I used a lot of different polishes for this, so I'm just going to list them. I don't think you want to know what color exactly was used for each and every line and dot!!

I started with Nailtiques2 and Orly Bonder, then a single coat of Sally Hansen Insta-dri Whirlwind White. Then the colors!! I used the same colors for the gradients and the details. Here they are:

Kleancolor Bikini Green
Kleancolor Sheer Pastel Purple (which is totally pink!)
Kleancolor Mango
Orly Snowcone
Orly Spark
Sinful Colors Snow Me White

Finally, a light purple franken that I mixed up using an old Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On as a base. Can you believe I don't have any lavenders or lilacs or any other pastel purples? I need to remedy this! I topped the whole thing with Seche Vite, naturally.

Manicure number 2 for the 30 mani challenge is orange. Maiya over at Tarts N Talons did a similar manicure not too long ago with white, gray, and black. I decided I wanted to give the look a try, and did it with different shades of orange. I'm on the fence about this one. I think I needed to use more dots, and also I might like it better on a solid background, maybe white.

I apologize for the super craptastic picture. My camera batteries are dead (again!) so I used my phone and the weather here is dismal so I had horrible lighting.


I started with Nailtiques 2 and Orly Bonder, then put on a couple coats of an iridescent, super translucent no name polish that I got from a dollar store. Sadly, it doesn't really show up, either in the photo or in person. Then I dotted it with Sally Hansen Xtreme in Crushed and Sunkissed, Spoiled Jail Bait, and Wet n Wild 9.0.2.1.Orange. I topped the whole thing with Seche Vite. 

I'm really not loving this, so it's probably going to come off tonight. On to the next color!

Hiya! I'm starting this blog mostly to help myself remember what manicures I've done, and to share with my friends. I'm not a professional, not even close. My clean-up may suck most of the time, and my designs aren't always perfect. And that's just fine with me! I'm also not a photographer. I do my best, but my pictures don't look anywhere near professional. Hopefully, I'll get better with practice.

So I've decided to start with the 30 day/week/whatever challenge that has been floating around for a while. I know it's old news, but I needed inspiration this morning, so I've decided to go with it. I don't paint my nails every day, nor do my manicures *ever* last a week, so I'll just be going down the list as I redo my nails. First up: Red!


For this, I started with Nailtiques 2 ('cause I have peely nails. They're getting better, though!), and then a coat of Orly Bonder for grippy goodness. After that, 2 coats of Orly Star Spangled and a coat of Revlon Quick Dry Topcoat. The dots were done with Spoiled Bite Me and China Glaze Poinsetta. I put a coat of Seche Vite topcoat over everything, to seal it in and give it that shine I love so much.

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