Nail Art: White Roses

Today I have my creation for #nailartnov challenge: black and white. I was actually really excited about this challenge! I really like black and white looks, because it is really about the design rather than the color. I had a hard time deciding on what to do, but I settled on something I had seen and wanted to recreate for a while. I was inspired by Centralparkkitty and Nail_Art_N3rd on instagram for their rose designs in color, so I wanted to try it in just pure white. Here is what I came up with:

I used Rimmel Lasting Finish PRO in Black Satin for the background. Rimmel Lasting Finish PRO is my favorite drugstore polish and am so sad it is being discontinued! I need to stock up before they are all gone. Anyway, for the white roses, I used a dotting tool to add my layers and I used Sally Hansen White On. I don't know if you can see it well, but I also painted some leaves in a grey/green, OPI Nein!Nein!Nein! OK Fine! but it kind of blends in with the background. This design really didn't take me too long at all. I want to recreate this in color soon, but for now I really like the simple black and white. What do you think?

Swatch and Review of Maybelline Color Show: Embellished Blue (Brocades)

First of all, Happy Veteran's Day! I greatly value our veterans and hope that they all feel how very much appreciated and honored they are today and everyday. Our country would not be the great country it is without our service men and women!

I have something very rare for you today: a nail polish I don't like. I know, you're thinking, how is this possible? Well, it happened. Not only did I dislike this polish, but I disliked it so much, I returned it. Yeah, that bad. It looked so beautiful in the bottle, but I soon found out it was not what I expected. The polish I am talking about is Maybelline Color Show Embellished Blue from the Brocades collection. I was on the hunt for Silver Swank because I saw a friend wearing it and it is gorgeous! I ran to my local Rite Aid looking for it, but sadly they ran out. Lucky for me, I found this gorgeous blue color! I loved it and was so excited about it. That is, until I got home and put it on.

 

Stock photo from Maybelline

As you can see from these horrible pictures this polish was really textured. It looks kind of smooth though, right? Yeah, that is under THREE coats of Seche Vite AND a coat of matte top coat. This is pathetic! I used only one coat of the actual color and most of my nail here is top coat. It wasn't advertised as a textured polish and some of the others in the collection are not textured, so that was a definite surprise. Another surprise was that the color didn't look as gorgeous on the nail. I should have taken a photo with just the regular top coat, but I wanted this color off my nail as soon as possible. I had hoped the polish would be really sparkly and have a great dimension of glitter since there was a good mix of glitter, but I was again, disappointed. The color wasn't truly all blue either. I felt like there were some green flecks, which wouldn't be bad, but was definitely more pronounced on the nail than in the bottle. The worst part was that it was difficult to apply! You would think with everything that put me off the polish it would at least be easy to apply. Nope, not the case. I only did one coat, but that one coat was terrible. The small glitter clumped together so badly I thought I got a bad batch. It was so clumpy going on, I wasn't even going to try to apply it on the rest of my nails. So, if you were thinking about getting this color, save yourself a headache and $3.99. It wouldn't be worth it if it was free. Highly recommend that you do not buy this polish. Now if I could just find Swanky Silk... Thanks for reading my little rant today.

Nail Art: Maroon and Silver Stripes

I have been wanting to perfect the nail striping tape technique. Every time I have tried recently, I wasn't completely happy with it. This time, I think I pulled it off. For #nailartnov the challenge was maroon for day 7. I'm a little late posting this, but I hope you like it! I used Zoya Trixie as the silver base and Zoya Payton from their new winter collection as the overlay.

I let the silver base dry first and then added striping tape in a pattern over the silver. I added Payton over the striping tape and made sure to remove the tape while the polish is still wet. Added top coat and that's it! I have some fun ideas in my head for Christmas nail art with this technique!  I really love both of these Zoya polishes. They both applied beautifully with the perfect consistency. I highly recommend Zoya! Thanks for reading!

Nail Art: Fox for Nail Art November

Have you seen this YouTube sensation- Ylvis "The Fox" or "What Does the Fox Say?"? I hadn't seen the video until today, you need to check it out! This month I am again participating in a nail art challenge. Day 4 was Fox and everyone had been tagging their fox nails with what does the fox say? I had to google it and now it has been stuck in my head all day! On to the nail art, I wasn't really sure of how to paint a fox, but I saw a few tutorials and this is what I came up with:

At first, I did a fox on all my nails, but I didn't like the way that looked. I swapped that out for the large polka dots and I like this a lot better. I used a larger dotting tool and a striping brush for this design. I painted a base of white (Sally Hansen- White On) and for the fox, painted the lower half of my nail orange (Essie- Meet Me at Sunset). I added the ears with a fine brush, dotted the eyes and nose and added the whiskers with the striping brush. What do you think? I think it is cutesy! I've done two cutesy designs recently and I think I need to move to edgy to balance it out now. Do you participate in the monthly nail art challenges? I do as much as I can, I missed "movember" on the first but I plan on doing the next one for the 7th, which is maroon. If you participate I'd love to see your designs on Instagram (@HandtasticIntentions). Thanks for reading!

Swatch and Review of Sephora by OPI: Leotard Optional

Hello! I hope you all had a fun and safe Halloween! No dressing up for me this year, but I did watch some scary movies! Today I have Sephora by OPI: Leotard Optional. SOPIs are being discontinued from Sephora to be replaced with the new Sephora X line. I snapped up a bunch of SOPIs so that I could take advantage of a great deal. I bought several from Hautelook for $3 each! Leotard Optional was one of them. I have been searching for the perfect nude for my skin tone, which had proven to be a bit difficult. My skin is darker and tanner than usual nude polishes and most of the time they end up looking too yellow toned or the color suddenly looks sickly grey on my hands. Luckily, I think Leotard Optional may be the nude for me! I figured my nude would have to be a little darker for it to blend well and I think I found my match. It is a somewhat mocha toned brown-tan. In some light it looked a little pink leaning, but it was really nice. 

You all know I don't normally wear such subdued colors, so it was a bit difficult to get used to this. I really like it though! This was only two coats, and it applied beautifully. No streakiness or patchiness to speak of, and it wasn't too thick or tacky either. Quite enjoyable to work with. I have noticed all SOPIs are a perfect consistancy. Make me wonder why they are discontinuing the line. I heard some complaints that it doesn't last that long. I can't really speak to that since I change my polish so often! I heard the new line is supposed to have an amazing formula, but it is also higher priced than SOPI. Originally SOPI was $9.50 each but the new Formula X is $12.50. Whatever the reason, I am very happy with the ones I own and am sad to see the line go. If you have the opportunity to get some, scoop it up now! Thanks for reading!