ESSC 2014: #inspired by one or more techniques

Hey folks!

Okay, I really hope this isn't cheating, but today I pulled out a design from a month ago I wanted to post but ran out of time for. I've got a lot on my plate right now with college applications and all the crazy stuff of senior year, so I figured this would be a good time to pull out an older design. It still fits the theme, though, because as I did this just as school was really getting into full swing, I thought of it as a goodbye to summer and hello to the rest of the year. 

There's actually a funny story behind this one; it started out as summery flowers, but they completely failed, so in anger I smashed the brush against my fingers. And then I thought... abstract art?

I have seen this kind of design online before as a grunge nail art style, but I thought it was fun to mix it up and make it something very subtle and soft.

My base color is Essie - Navigate Her. I then wiped off the brushes of my other polishes and painted on the remaining color, alternating going horizontally and vertically. The three polishes used for that are Essie - Mojito Madness, China Glaze - Secret Peri-wink-le, and China Glaze - First Mate.

Okay, I'm off! Time to ask some teachers about writing college recommendations. Gotta love senior year, right?

Oh, and this is the last day of ESSC! Aww, who else is sad. I love doing nail art challenges; even if I'm not always happy with what design I made each day, it forces me to step out of my comfort zone a bit and try new things. Thanks soooo much to Fuxia91 and Pedrìnails for making this challenge happen! You ladies are the greatest!

Catch you all later!

ESSC 2014: #Tropical

Hey everyone! It's day 6 of the Endless Summer September Challenge, and the theme for today is Tropical!

Okay, so if you guys hadn't figured this out yet... I really love gradients. So whenever there's an opportunity to do one, you can bet I'm going to take it! For my tropical design, I decided to do a sunset with a palm tree in the foreground. 

(Oh, if anyone's curious, I sort of attempted to do a better, updated version of this very old nail art post). 

Y'all ready for this?

I started out with two coats of China Glaze - Snow to make my gradient pop. 

Wee, it's gradient time! From top to bottom I have Sally Hansen - Perfect Plum, OPI - Cajun Shrimp, and Sally Hansen - Sun Kissed.

Then with my cheap dollar store nail striper, I added the palm tree in black. First I drew the trunk, then the branches coming out of it. I finished up with the leaves and a little island detail on the bottom. I also tried to make the tree extend onto the pinkie nail because I thought it looked kinda funky on its own, but I rather stupidly forgot that the two fingers don't like up right, so... woops.

Time for a top coat!

There ya have it! After this there's only one day left of the challenge.. aww! I'm going to have to do a bit of brainstorming to figure out what I want to do for the last day. Lemme know in the comments if you have any suggestions for that, as well as what you thought of today's design! :)

ESSC 2014: #Summer Fruits

Hey folks! It's time for day 5 of the Endless Summer September Challenge! Let's just jump right into it today.

I chose pineapples for the summer fruits prompt because... oh, they're just cute. I also have a fun pineapple pattern tank top that I figured I could use for inspiration, so that made things way easier.

Here I've got Julep - Winona for the base, Sally Hansen - Lightening for the pineapple, and Essie - Mojito Madness for the stem (I used a dollar store nail striper for the black dots).

I had a little trouble getting the pineapples in the right shape, because today I learned that my poor yellow nail polish is really getting pretty old and icky... but hey, pineapples are never perfectly smooth anyway, right?

So... two more prompts left for ESSC! Aw, I'm already getting sad. Until next time... anyone have any other summer fruits they love?  I'm a pretty huge fan of raspberries (we grow a little patch of them and always end up with a ton over the summer), but I figured those wouldn't look as cute translated into a nail art design, hehe. 

See y'all later!

ESSC 2014: #destinationcity

Howdy folks! 

So, a lil side note before we jump into the post! For anyone who follows me on Facebook, you might have seen that this happened over the weekend.

Ten minutes later: 

Sigh. It's always sad when a nail breaks (although it's kinda fun to turn them into stilettos, I gotta admit). This nail break has a pretty entertaining story to it, though, so I thought I'd get into that a bit!

So on Saturday I ran the Crazy K, a local 5k run. The fun thing about this one is that it's not just a 5k... it's also got a ton of obstacles, most of which involved copious amounts of mud (see the picture below of me sliding into a mud pit), 

Wee, that's me in the brown shirt. 

 We also had to climb over, under, and through random stuff, as seen here:

I may have taken the longest shower of my life after getting home from this.

So, all these obstacles are pretty fun, but sadly, my nails didn't enjoy them as much as I did. One broke on my left hand, and two cracked on my left. I'd already been planning to file them into points for October (wee, fun scary Halloween nail art), so I figured I might as well just cut them down a wee bit early! Hooray! ... Aanndd, that's the story behind my new nail shape, folks. 

I guess I should move onto today's challenge, which I'm not as excited about:

Okay, it's okay to have those days where we're just not feeling the nail art, right?
I tried three different designs, and all failed pretty badly, but I really don't feel like a fourth attempt (failing over and over again starts to get old pretty fast), sooo here's my destination city nail art nail fail. Sigh!

Y'all know I visited Italy over the summer (eee, so beautiful), so I decided to do something I saw there for my destination city design. Attempt one was some Roman-themed columns... nope. Terrible. And then I figured I could paint nail polish on tape and cut out some wavey shapes (for Venice's water... because it was pretty, ya know...) with a pair of one of those cool craft scissors, but they couldn't cut through the tape properly, so there went that idea too. I then decided to attempt to replicate this picture I took while I was there:

Yeahhh... it's at least sort of similar, right?

K, that's all for now. I'm hoping I'll have an easier time with the summer fruits theme (I'm thinking pineapples!), so... see you all then!

ESSC 2014: #flowers

Hey folks! Okay, this is going to be a quicky post because I have had one crazy busy day, got home at 8:30, and now what I most want is to flop ungracefully into my bed and sleep for forever. Here we gooo!

Yay, flower time! I tried to do some vintage-style flowers here, and other than the mistakes that happened as a result of me rushing everything (I'm looking at you, smudgy topcoat...), I think they turned out pretty well! I don't have a step-by-step of how I did these because honestly, you just make some random dots on your nails and they end up looking kind of like flowers. Easy peasy.

Oh, if you're wondering, the background is Essie - Navigate Her, the leaves are Essie - Mojito Madness, the dark pink is OPI - Sparrow Me the Drama, and the light pink is OPI - Steady as She Rose.

Apologies for the paper cuts on a few of my fingers! I don't think my school textbooks like me very much this year (although I guess that's fair, because the feelings are completely mutual).

Okeedoke, I'll be back... whenever. Hope you all enjoyed these! Even though nail art doesn't feel as fun when you're rushing to get it done at 9:00 at night, I still like the vintage feel of these, and I love any chance to use Mojito Madness in a mani (seriously, favorite green EVER).

Later, everyone!