Neon vertical gradient holo nail art happyfuntimes!

As much as I'm excited for autumn and cool weather and pumpkin spice and Halloween nail art, it is still summer.  Technically autumn doesn't begin until September 22; it doesn't feel like autumn begins until at least October here in Maryland.  So, behold, I have more in-your-face neon nail art for you!

This is pretty similar to the last vertical gradient that I did, except this time I used a white base and focused on neon polish rather than holographic polish.  (But don't worry, I still added a holo top coat because YASS.)  Also, this time I didn't go in the order of the rainbow, but in the order of however I felt like it.

 

My nails almost-flawlessly transition from Essie Strut Your Stuff to Salon Perfect Loopy Lime to Sephora Brazilian Sun to ORLY Ablaze to OPI No Doubt About It to ORLY Hot Tropics.  Admittedly, the OPI to ORLY nail could be a bit brighter, but I got impatient after 3 sponged-on coats and didn't feel like doing 4 or more.

 

dat holo <3

Half of these polishes dried matte, because they're neon and apparently that's a thing with neon polishes.  I don't really know why.  Is it because science?  Do super-neon colors work better as chemicals if they have a matte finish?  Someone who knows things about making polish please tell me.  As fun as a half-matte, half-glossy nail would be, I chose to go all glossy because China Glaze Fairy Dust has a glossy finish.  And this manicure NEEDED to be holo because ALL manicures should be holo.  (I think my new-found obsession with Simply Nailogical's YouTube videos just may be turning me into a holosexual.  Cristine, be proud, you've converted another one!)

After a few days, I decided to add to the magic that is this mani.  How else to add to this besides a trippy vinyl design? :D

I didn't really feel like getting out my macro lens, but I took a sort-of macro with my regular camera.

My edges got a teeny bit sloppy, because I laid the black polish on thick and it smeared a little when I lifted off the vinyls.  A bit disappointing, but still an incredible mani, don't you think?

I still have a couple of bright summer-y manicures to show you over the next few weeks, so stay tuned!  Are you getting sick of the brightness and looking forward to deeper autumn manis?  Personally, I'm SUPER stoked for autumn, but neon polish is my favorite so I'm going to stick with it as long as I feel like it.  And by that, I mean until I start thinking of great Halloween manis!

October nail art challenge Day 22: Critters

This design ended up being quite hodge-podge, but those are sometimes the best kind, right?

The most Halloween-y critters I could think of are bats and spiders, so they're all over my nails today!  I even have cobwebs on some of my nails!  Ahh!

My darker bat nails that you can barely see in these pictures have a fun surprise - they're glow in the dark!  I found Sinful Colors' glow in the dark top coat from their Halloween collection at Target the other day and I'm super excited about it!  Some of the bats are shadows in a glowing sky, others glow in a dark sky - because there's nothing creepier than glowing animals.

The glowing photos didn't turn out super great, and I couldn't even have the bottle in the shot

 because it glowed so bright that it outshone my glowing nails!!

This was a fun design in which I used mostly indie polish.  The black glitter is Heather's Hues Witches & Werewolves & Ghosts, Oh My!, the purple is another Heather's Hues from the Monster Mash Mani of the Month box that I got last month, called Vampirette.  It's soooo pretty!  I kind of wish I hadn't covered it up with so many bats.  The green on my thumbs is Creative Cuticles Nail Polish Ooze on the Rocks, and the neon orange that I used is a commercial brand - ORLY Ablaze.

The bats also come from the Monster Mash box - they're vinyls by Nails Redesigned.  And once again, the decals I used are by Naildrobe.

Here's the challenge image for you once again!  The clock is ticking on this one, with only three designs left!

Destash Sale!

This has been inevitable for months now.  My nail polish stash has finally reached its breaking point, so I'm selling off some of my underappreciated stash!  Please note that there are no flaws with these polishes (save for some separation in a few of them, which can be fixed).  And I'm not hating on any of these polishes or brands.  In fact, I'm selling these off because I recognize that they're too pretty to be stuck in my Helmer, getting passed over for my other shades!  It's just that I either never reach for these shades, or I have another bottle or two of a very similar color by a different (or the same) brand, or some combination of the two.

Some are lightly used (LU) - one full manicure or 4-nail swatch; some are barely used (BU) - used in nail art or Do I Need Them All but never fully swatched; and some are like new never used (LNNU).  (I say "like new" instead of "brand new" because most of these have been sitting in my stash for a while and I feel weird saying that they're "brand new.")

Note to indie makers: if you feel that I am doing your business a disservice by reselling your polish at these prices, please contact me!  I don't want to offend any of you, because I truly love you all. 

$6 Polishes

Finger Lickin' Lacquer Rockin' Robin: LNNU
Philly Loves Lacquer Wooder Ice: LNNU

Zoya Sage: LNNU
China Glaze Don't Be Foiled: LNNU
Jamberry Ruby: LNNU

$5 Polishes

Sally Hansen Fuzzy Coat Fuzz-Sea: LU
Sally Hansen Big Smoky Top Coat Smoky: BU
Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Trouble Maker: LU

Zoya Frida: LU
Zoya Mikka: BU
Essie Style Cartel: LU

OPI Pineapples Have Peelings Too: LU
ORLY Saturated: BU
ORLY Hook Up: BU

Virago Varnish Faith Hope Courage: LU (some separation has occurred)
Firecracker Lacquer Purple Peep-le Eater: BU
Smoky Mtn Lacquers Eggstra Special: BU
6 Harts Polish Blue Eyed Bunny: BU

Finger Paints First Edition: BU
Finger Paints Monet Money: BU
Finger Paints Magritte's Masterpiece: BU

China Glaze Ingrid: BU
China Glaze Flying Dragon: LU
Julep Elle: LU

$4 Polishes

Sweet Heart Polish Peach Cobbler: LNNU
Zoya Anais: LNNU
Jior Couture Seeing Is Believing: LU

$3 Polishes

CDB Lacquer Passionate: LU
CDB Lacquer Everyone's a Star: LNNU
Gothic Gala Lacquers Pretty in Peep: LNNU
Live Life Polished (I'm not 100% sure if that's the right brand) Blue Moon: LNNU
ULTA Aubergine Queen: BNNU

Amelia Knight Color Couture Gold Glitter: LU
Amelia Knight Color Couture Coral Creme: BU
Amelia Knight Color Couture Silver Metallic: BU
Amelia Knight Color Couture Purple Metallic: LU
Pop-arazzi Lime-ousine Ride: LNNU

Covergirl Glosstini Pyro Pink: BU
Covergirl Glosstini Flamed Out: LU

As a special, I'm offering my nail polish cozies at a reduced price with every bottle of polish that you purchase!  Standard size cozies are regularly $5, Long cozies are regularly $6, and Mini cozies are regularly $4.  But if you're buying from my stash sale, then you can get Standard/Long cozies for $3 and Minis for only $2!  Polish cozies are a great way to help protect your pretties in the mail; they're also adorable when giving polish as a gift!  Colors will be random but I promise that they'll be pretty.  You can order up to one special-priced cozy per bottle of polish that you order; if you'd like to order extra cozies, they'll be regular priced.  (Large sized cozies are not applicable to the special pricing as none of the polishes that I am selling require a large cozy.)

Shipping charges & payment

Shipping costs $4 for up to 4 bottles.  Add one dollar per bottle above that.  So if you order 3 bottles, shipping will be $4; if you order 8 bottles, shipping will be $8.  Orders of $50 or higher will receive free shipping.  I will ship USPS First Class, which includes a tracking number.  If you wish to add insurance, signature confirmation, or any other USPS add-on, you will be responsible for the additional cost.  These prices are for United States postage ONLY.  If you are international, shipping charges are likely to be quite high but they can be arranged.

Payment will be done through PayPal.  After you fill out the form below, I will calculate your total and send you a PayPal Friends and Family request.  There is no fee for this if you use your bank account directly (rather than a credit/debit card)!  Please allow up to 24 hours for a request to be sent as I am a human who can't just hit refresh all day. :)  If your total is not what you expected, feel free to contact me before paying and we'll figure it out.

I will do my best to check the form responses quickly and make sure to update this post with the polishes that have been sold.  In the event that multiple people request the same polish before I get a chance to update the post, I will solely go on a first-come, first-serve basis according to the time stamps on the Google Forms response.  I will NOT allow bidding on any of the polishes, nor will I play favorites to anybody.

If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me at katenailingit@gmail.com.

Okay, I think that covers everything.  Fill out the form below, and share this post with anyone you think might be interested in buying off some of my stash!

What did I do on vacation?

I spent the last two weeks of July in Michigan with my family and friends.  It was an amazingly fun time!  But, of course, I can't go two weeks without redoing my nails.  And, since my loved ones universally recognize me as The Nail Girl of the Family, I got several requests to do peoples' nails.  Let's have a look at what I spent my vacation downtime doing!

My first few days in Michigan were spent at my oldest sister's house.  Unfortunately, she couldn't take much time off of work.  But it was kind of okay, because I got to spend one entire day with my two year old nephew, and I had another whole day to myself - in which I spent most of the day painting my nails.  I wanted to match my new bathing suit and my new dress, a feat that would admittedly have been easier in high school when 80% of my wardrobe was the same shade of blue.  But I accepted the challenge with my intermediate nail art skills!

 

the clothes in question.

I used Jamberry Arcade on my thumb and pinky - a wrap that I bought specifically to match my dress.  Zoya Ryan was another easy choice for my middle and ring fingers to match both the dress and my bathing suit.  And to help match my bathing suit, I threw in one nail of CDB Lacquer Passionate.   

(side note: I used a blow dryer to heat up my Jamberry wraps this time, and 

they went on SO smoothly!  never using my space heater for wraps again!!!)

I painted my toes to match my bathing suit a bit more exclusively, but I was silly and didn't take a picture of it!  I used the dry brush technique and ORLY Saturated, Zoya Oceane, Sephora Papaya Daiquiri, and Passionate and Ryan again.  I'm so bummed that I didn't take a good picture of it!  Maybe I'll just have to recreate the pedi soon.  I am, after all, going on an end of summer vacation to Ocean City, Maryland this weekend, where I will be wearing my bathing suit a lot!

The same night that I did my nails, I painted my sister's nails.  Purple is her favorite color, so I definitely wanted to use Saturated on her.  Still on a dry brush kick, I did two accent nails using Zoya Tallulah and Sinful Colors Bikini.  The white background is Salon Perfect Sugar Cube.  

She loved her nails so much!  Steph has never much bothered with makeup or nail polish, and now that she's a mom she bothers even less.  I painted her nails in her basement hunched over an end table, but we might as well have been at a high-class spa for how excited she was about her manicure!  Then, when she woke up her son in the morning and was trying to put his clothes on, he grabbed at her nails and said, "what's that?!"  <3

At a girls' night with my best friends from high school, my friend Melanie wanted a simple grey manicure.  I used China Glaze Intelligence, Integrity, and Courage on most of her nails with an accent of CDB Lacquer He Sees All.

I painted a few other peoples' nails, but I was having too much fun with them to really think about taking pictures for the blog.  All of the other manis that I did were simple colors with an accent color, though, so you're not missing out on any super-special nail art!

What's your favorite look from this post?  Have you ever painted your nails to match a vacation or trip?  Let me know in the comments!

Neon Dotticure Nails!

I have a super fun manicure to share with you today!  As you all know, I love neon polish and I love abstract nail art.  So I decided to check off a manicure that I've been meaning to do for a while by combining both of those things into a neon dotticure!

This look was semi-inspired by an Instagram photo by Emily of lacquerologist, quite almost an entire age ago.

I absolutely love this look, so I decided to do my own adaptation of it.

My favorite part about the dotticure is that it takes so little planning and thought.  Sure, I chose which size dotting tool to use for each color, and I tried to keep an even-but-random distribution of the colors, but overall this design just flowed out of my brain and onto my nails very smoothly.  There was no second-guessing myself, no slip of the hand causing outrage or frustration.  Just lots of dots and fun!

I used a whole slew of colors for this manicure.  I actually had to force myself to not use any Zoya polish, because I feel like I've been neglecting my other brands for the past few months.  And aside from one indie polish that I just got a few months ago, I ended up using all polishes that I bought last summer: Essie Strut Your Stuff, Sally Girl Peace (I love Sally's eensie weensie little minis!), ORLY Saturated, ORLY Ablaze, and Sephora Brazilian Sun.  The one indie that I used is CDB Lacquer Passionate.  Such a fun cluster of neons!  And the white background is Julep Bunny, which I adore for its super-subtle gold shimmer.  I can barely see the shimmer on my nails in person, and it definitely doesn't get picked up by the camera.  But a macro photo actually picks it up in the bottle pretty well:

 

As you can see, the shimmer is made up of gorgeous gold flecks.  While the macro (and even the bottle in person) makes the shimmer look pretty intense, it's much more subtle on the nail.

The shimmer doesn't show up as much in this photo, but if you know it's there than you can kind of see it!  I'd be more disappointed in how invisible the shimmer becomes if I wasn't so in to magic and secrets. ;)  But the shimmer of Passionate, the pink dots, really stands out in this macro shot!  I love how well you can see each and every color overlapping.

What do you think of this type of blog post?  Do you really wish I'd made a tutorial of this look?  Let me know in the comments!

Nifty Color Blocking Nail Art

I had a lot of fun with this nail art design!  I guess I'm just best at abstract nail art.  That way my brain doesn't decide that the design has to look perfectly just so only to be disappointed in the wibbly turnout.

This look was inspired by Fierce Makeup and Nails, painting for The Beauty Buffs.  I took a screenshot of this design way back in November, but never got around to actually trying it out until a few weeks ago!

The original design by Fierce Makeup&Nails.

Naturally, I decided to go with blues rather than purples; but then I thought, why not throw some greens in there as well?  And then, when I got to my ring finger on my right hand, I decided that instead of doing a blue accent, I'd use pink - mainly because I really wanted to try out a newish pink polish, I Brake For Colour by China Glaze.  If I had a third hand, I'd probably have done pink with a blue accent on that hand! :)

The background for the blues is Chick Pick Polish Neon Blue, while the lighter blue is Zoya Ling.  (The moment I painted on Ling, I sort of wished I'd gone with Robyn instead - Robyn would have stood out from Neon Blue much better.  Oh well!)

 Don't want to leave my thumbs out! :)

The green background is Salon Perfect Escape to Neverland, and the lighter green is Zoya Tilda.  As I said before, the pink background is China Glaze I Brake For Colour; and the lighter pink is Zoya (sensing a pattern here?) Wendy.  I got Ling and Tilda fairly recently, so I was super excited to pair them up in a mani with my other creme from Zoya's Tickled collection!  The white polish on all nails is Salon Perfect Sugar Cube.  I want to point out that Escape to Neverland is a One-Coat Wonder!  The coat does have to be a tad on the thick side, though, so be careful not to flood your cuticles with too much polish.

I really, really like this design.  It's so very 70s groovy to me!  I actually kind of love how the green showed through the white polish.  Some people might think "that needs another coat of white," but I think that makes it all the more groovy!

What is your favorite style of nail art - abstract or traditional?  Let me know in the comments!

Want to see more nail art posts, or perhaps something different?  Let me know by giving your feedback here!

 

P.S. Don't forget - my blogiversary giveaway ends tonight at 11:59 pm!  There are lots of ways to enter, and lots of ways to find the giveaway too.  Head to the giveaway tab on my Facebook page, follow this link to the original blog post, click on the giveaway post in my Pages, or follow this mobile-friendly link!

LPL Glamghouls Day 20: Spiders and Spiderwebs

Today's challenge theme isn't one I was super excited about, but it ended up being a lot of fun!

I decided to be a bit simpler than with previous challenges, and do roughly the same thing on every nail.  Five different styles of pattern just takes way too long, even for this out-of-work blogger.  But I spiced it up by using a few different colors for my background.  I considered doing a gradient background, but decided that I was too lazy even for that.

So, I used my three favorite Halloweeny colors: PS I Enjoy Acid Pops by Twisted Colors, Ablaze by ORLY, and Hot Tropics by ORLY.  I've used these three in several of the Glamghouls challenges now.  They're all just so bright and fun!

I got a little bit confused on my first three spiderwebs, but definitely didn't feel like starting over, so I just went with it.  Then I watched a few different YouTubers paint on their spiderwebs and realized that I was drawing my curved lines backwards!  I started out using my white Sally Hansen striping poilsh, but it was a bit too gloppy for the small curved lines, so I switched to my white Sally Hansen nail art pen.

Obligatory "my thumbs look cute but don't photograph well with my other fingers" shot

My spiders are also a bit sloppy... I think their bodies are too small for their eight legs.  I started out using my black Sally Hansen nail art pen on my left thumb, but sadly the ink inside just doesn't stay thick - it all ends up pooling somewhere and it gets way too sheer.  So I switched to using my black striping polish, which is a little harder to control in such small detail.  So don't mind my wibbly, lopsided, chunky-legged spiders!

 

There are only four challenges left this month!  Which one are you most looking forward to?  Let me know in the comments!  I'm excited for candy corn and matching my costume!

LPL Glamghouls Day 16: Witches

All right, I missed day 13, which was bats.  I had some business things to attend to during the day, and I also had an important networking event in the evening.  And I didn't think to paint the designs the day before - I was busy swatching the We'll Take the Lot collection that day.  Anyway, nevermind all that, because today is...

 

Witches day!  Holy crap, these designs took forEVER.  At least three hours.  There's just so much going on here!

At first I thought I'd do the same designs on both hands, like I have previously during this challenge.  But when my left hand started taking for-freaking-ever, I decided to just do plain socks on my right hand.

I used a kajillion different polishes to do all of this, and as before I gathered inspiration from a plethora of different YouTubers.

 

Those darned thumbs are just too hard to photograph with my other fingers! 

My left thumb was inspired by PackAPunchPolish, and I used Nina Ultra Pro "Black," Zoya "Malia," Zoya "Mitzi," and Sally Girl "Crazy."

The cauldron on my pointer finger was inspired by part of HotPinkZebraPolish's video.  I used Sally Hansen CSM "Trouble Maker" for the background, Finger Paints "Ch-Art-Coal Black" for the cauldron, ORLY "Ablaze" for the fire, and a combination of Sally Hansen "Peace" and Spoiled by Wet n' Wild "Show Me the Money" for the potion bubbles.

The witch face on my middle finger comes from IHaveaCupcake's Halloween monsters video.  Her face is Sephora "Caipi Freeze," her hair is Finger Paints "Monet Money," the buckle on her hat is Zoya "Ziv," the hat stripe is Ch-Art-Coal Black, and her hat is ORLY "Hot Tropics."

I LOVE the bubbly potion on my ring finger, which I borrowed from ArcadiaNailArt.  The background is a mix of Malia, Trouble Maker, and Zoya "Nyssa" - I wanted a murky purple like in the video, but I think I just ended up with a slightly lighter version of Trouble Maker.  The potion bubbles are Twisted Colors "PS I Enjoy Acid Pops" with a thin coat of Show Me The Money on top.

My pinky is pretty simple - a broom, inspired by the same HotPinkZebraPolish video - though I think she did a much better job of it.  By the time I got to my pinky, I was beginning to get impatient with this nail art and I just wanted to be done.  The background is Ablaze, while the broom is made up of Nyssa, OPI "How Great Is Your Dane," and a few stripes of Ch-Art-Coal Black.

My right hand is a lot more simple - just some solid-colored witch socks and shoes.  I still really like them!  From thumb to pinky, I used Spoiled by Wet n'Wild "Green to be Heard," Malia, Mitzi, Crazy, and China Glaze "Happy Go Lucky."  I actually painted all of these colors on top of Black, because originally I thought I'd do striped socks on my right hand - but then I decided that it'd still take way too long.  The shoes are all Ch-Art-Coal Black, and the buckles are all Ziv.

What do you think?  What's your favorite design that I used?  Let me know in the comments!

And as usual, here's the challenge image for you!