31 Day Challenge - Day 01 - Red

The 31 Day Challenge - Day 01 - Red. Red splatter over nude. The reds I used are OPI "Red Lights Ahead.. Where?," Zoya "America," and Sally Hansen "Runway Red-y." the nude is Essie "Topless & Barefoot." I used a toothbrush to splatter the polish onto the nail. Looks like blood and reminds me of Dexter (I can't wait til the season begins!).

Blue & Teal Polishes Comparison

I often get asked to do comparisons of nail polishes to find "dupes" or polishes that are extremely similar to exactly the same. Tonight I've compared 3 blue/teal colors that are pretty popular.

The first shade, which I compared both of the other shades to, is OPI's Fly. This is a color that came out in January 2012 in the Nicki Minaj collection (which I really love!). I even got a backup bottle of Fly because it's the perfect creme teal and I dread the day I run out of it.

Here is Fly compared to Essence "Let's Get Lost."

Let's Get Lost is a lot more blue than Fly. The difference is pretty apparent in the photo, and even more so in real life.

Next I compared Fly to "Shocking Seas" which is by Maybelline.

Shocking Seas is also a lot more blue than Fly. I would compare Shocking Seas to Let's Get Lost, those 2 are actually a lot more similar than either of the polishes are to Fly.

What do you think? Are either of the cheaper alternatives close enough to Fly?

Essence is sold at Ulta stores and Ulta.com for about $1.

Maybelline Color Show polishes retail for $3-$4 at drugstores like CVS, Rite Aid, and Target.

OPI retails for around $8.

Ombre Manicure with Floral Stamping

I did this manicure earlier this week. I chose 3 of my most beautiful OPI nail polishes and wanted to find a way to use them together and this ended up being the result!

First, I painted an off-white base color, and I used OPI - My Boyfriend Scales Walls (seriously, I love that polish! I need a backup already!). Next I did a gradient using my 3 OPI colors and a makeup wedge. Those 3 colors (from cuticle to tip) are:

• OPI - Dim Sum Plum (the bottle I'm holding)
• OPI - No Room for The Blues
• OPI - Fly

I think I might have sponged on 2 layers of the gradient to make the colors look really bold. After that dried, I used one of my stamping plates (BM16, which I got in a large set through Amazon), to stamp on the daisy pattern. I love how girly and whimsical that plate is! I had to stamp it twice on each nail to fill up my entire nail since the BM plates are so tiny, but I think it turned out great considering it's 2 stamps and not just one.

I can't get over how nicely the colors blended! What do you think?

NOTD: Pink & Green Tribal Ikat

Well, here goes nothing- my first post! I have wanted to start a blog up for some time now to accompany my Instagram posts and to go into more detail on my manicures.

I'll start with a manicure I did a couple days ago: a pink and green ikat pattern over nude.

The base color I started off with was OPI's "Did You 'Ear About Van Gogh?" Then I added thick stripes of the pink (OPI's "If You Moust, You Moust") and green (Essie's "Mojito Madness") on alternating sides of the nail. Next I added an off-white blob in the middle of each thick stripe, and for this I used OPI's "My Boyfriend Scales Walls."Last but not least I used a black Sally Hansen nail art pen to draw a staggered pattern both in the middle of the white and around the pink/green. I sealed with Seche Vite topcoat, and that's it!

I like this pattern. It's different from a lot of other nail art which can be really girly. I wasn't sure about the color combination because I am one of the seemingly few people who don't think pink and green go together, but I ended up liking it a lot. I also really love the Sally Hansen nail art pens. I use them for leopard print nails as well and they work so much better than a striper polish or using a toothpick or dotting tool!

What do you think of this manicure? Do pink and green go together?