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!

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!

LPL Glamghouls Day 7: Jack O' Lanterns

It's October 7th!  Know what that means?  It's one day until my four-year anniversary with my boyfriend, for one thing.  But this post is about what's today - the next design for the Laidback Polish Lovers October nail art challenge!

Today's challenge is another classic symbol of October and Halloween season: Jack O'Lanterns!

 

Doing today's challenge made me realize that my orange nail polish is severely limited.  I only have five orange polishes, and only two of them are cremes!  Looks like I have some buying to do! ;)  The one I decided to use is Sally Girl "Crazy," a mini so small that I think I pretty much used up the whole bottle in this one manicure!

I didn't quite feel like drawing faces on all ten nails, so I used a bunch of different YouTube videos for inspiration.  My right hand was inspired by Totally Cool Nails' video, though I didn't feel like doing a French tip on every nail.  I especially like the scary monster face on my ring finger. :)

I LOVE these three!  This look was inspired by My Simple Little Pleasures' video, and the thumb and pinky on my left hand were inspired by MissGlamasaurus1's video.  The basic jack o' lantern faces were inspired by cutepolish's Halloween guide - I expect I'll have that one linked in just about all of these challenge posts!

My white and black polishes are the same as always: China Glaze "White on White" and Nina Ultra Pro "Black."  Though I did also use my Finger Paints "Ch-art-coal Black" striping polish, and I also tried using my Sally Hansen I <3 Nail Art pen in black.  (The pen didn't work so well for me - I find it easier to paint with my left hand than to draw!)

Once again, here's the challenge image for you:

 

Are any of you participating in this?  Which design are you most excited to do (or see me do)?  Let me know in the comments!