Nail Art Challenge Day One: Favorite Color

So today is the first day of Erica's Nails and More's ten-day nail art challenge. The prompt for today is *dun dun dun dun* favorite color!

Here's the list of the prompts for each day. Pretty fun, huh?

So without further ado, here's my design for day one:

My favorite color is actually orange, but for some reason I have almost no orange polish. I decided to go with my favorite polish color, which is my beautiful OPI Cajun Shrimp. I picked out a bunch of other reds and pinks and used them together in my design.

A while back I was planning to do a pencil design tutorial, but CutePolish beat me to it. I decided to change it up a bit today to incorporate my favorite color by turning them into colored pencils!

This morning I was all nice and set to paint my nails, when all of a sudden the patch on my middle finger decides to start tearing (see this album to look at the terrible tear beforehand). I had to spend more than fifteen minutes soaking off the nail glue with acetone (which really made me grimace - I never use real acetone unless I have to) and then another 15-30 minutes applying another tea bag patch.

Finally everything dried and I was all set to go. The painting didn't take too long (it was much easier than I expected) but at the end I realized that my cuticles were a dry and crusty mess. This meant another half hour or so waiting for the polish to dry, and then the time it takes to apply some cuticle cream. The edges of my patch really looks like crusty cuticles, which is going to drive me crazy, but there's nothing I can do to fix it.

I grabbed my handy dandy oh-so-wonderful Burt's Bees lemon butter cuticle cream and went to work. Have I ever mentioned how much I love the smell of this stuff? It's like heaven in a little tin.

Finally, I was FINISHED! *cue applause* and then it was time for pictures!

I think this went pretty well. My colored pencils look a bit like cupcakes, which kind of annoys me, but when  I decide to paint cupcakes on my nails I'll already know what to do. The color on my pinkie didn't show up as well as I wanted to, but you know, you live and learn, right?

Here are some more pictures:

Close-up time!

I really think I'm improving at taking pictures of my
manis without holding a bottle of polish in them!

These weren't supposed to be upside down.
Woops.

Sideways-ish picture. Just because I felt like it.

Both left and right hands. I'm glad you can't see the right
hand too well, because it just turned out... bad.

Heh. Get it? I'm holding a pencil. With pencil nails.
This idea sounded so much cooler in my head.

Here are all of the polishes I used:
Base coat: Beauty Secrets Ridge Filler
Pencil Base: Essie - Sand Tropez
Thumb: Sinful Colors - Gogo Girl
First finger: OPI - Sparrow Me the Drama
Middle finger: Sinful Colors - Boom Boom
Ring finger - OPI - Cajun Shrimp
Pinkie: OPI - Steady as she Rose

If you liked this post, stay tuned for the rest of the challenge! Don't forget to follow me here, on Facebook, and on Twitter. And please head on over and follow the most talented Erica on her blog and on Facebook.

Thanks for reading!

-Muffin

Very Corn-y Nails

Hey, guys! Fall is rapidly approaching, so I decided to paint my nails to represent what that means in Illinois: corn! I spent hours trying to figure out what to decorate my nails with next, and I found the inspiration all around me!

You will need:
- base coat
- yellow polish
- green polish
- a dotting tool
- a topcoat (optional)

Start of with your base coat as usual. Next, paint your nails yellow. This doesn't have to be perfect, as most of it will be covered up later. 

Sally Hansen - Lightening

Using the green polish, paint the "husks," or paint the nails green and leave a V shape in yellow. Try making them all look a little different, and I also loved using a thin amount of polish to get the stripey look of the corn husk.

Essie - Mojito Madness

Next, use your dotting tool and the yellow polish to make the little corn pieces. Place a drop of polish on an index card and dot it onto the yellow section of each nail.

This is another one of those designs where you can use a topcoat if you'd like, but I chose not to just to preserve as much of the texture as possible.

That's just about it! I hope you enjoyed this fun fall food design, as well as that lovely alliteration I accidentally created.
If you'd like to see more of my designs, please follow here, on Facebook, and on Twitter!
-Muffin

Watermelons

Hello all! This week I'm posting a tutorial for a very summer-inspired design that will teach you how to decorate your nails with mouth-watering watermelon slices. Enjoy!

You will need:

- Base coat

- Red polish

- dark green polish

- black polish

- dotting tool

- light green polish

- top coat

As usual, paint your nails with your favorite base coat. Next, use the red polish to cover your nails with two solid coats.

OPI - Cajun Shrimp

Next, paint the tips of your nails with the darker green polish. You can do this freehand or use tape.

Essie - Mojito Madness

Use the black polish and a dotting tool to draw on the watermelon seeds. This can also be done with a black striper.

Sally Hansen - Black Heart

Using the edge of a makeup sponge, dab on the light green nail polish onto the tips of the nails in stripes (like in the picture). This is a subtle step that really adds to the design.

Essie - Navigate Her

And there you have it! Cover with a top coat to protect your design.

Sally Hansen Strengthening Top Coat

Thanks for reading! Please write your questions and comments below and don't forget to follow me here and on Facebook!