12th Man Waterfall

The whole city of Seattle is super excited about the Seahawks' playoff run right now—me included! So I decided to try out a waterfall mani (a technique invented and made famous by The Nailasaurus) in Seahawks colors to match my 12th Man jersey and help celebrate the playoff spirit.

This was my first time trying a waterfall look on top of a dark base color, so I had no idea what to expect or whether it would even work, but it turned out great! I think waterfalls are really perfect for showing off your team colors because they're genuinely fun and easy to do, and they look impressive paired with a matching jersey or other accessories.

I used OPI I Saw...You Saw...We Saw...Warsaw for my base color, and the stripes were created with four different polishes:

• Nars Galathee
• FNUG Bandana
• Sephora by OPI It's Totally Karma
• Zoya Rikki

Galathee, It's Totally Karma, and I Saw...You Saw...We Saw...Warsaw are pretty much my go-to polishes when I want to do something Seahawks-themed. Bandana and Rikki were new additions this time, but I love the extra depth and sparkle that they add to the group.

What do you think—do you like the idea of using team colors in waterfall manis? What team's colors would make the BEST waterfall?

Thanks for looking! GO HAWKS!

Seattle Seahawks Nail Art

We're big Seattle Seahawks fans in my house, so when they played their big Monday night game recently, I decided to do some crazy Seahawks-themed nail art to celebrate (and to match my jersey!).

As you can see, I couldn't decide exactly what kind of look I really wanted, so I did a little bit of everything. I started with a base of Nars Galathee on my thumb, middle finger, and pinky, and then a base of Sephora by OPI It's Totally Karma on the other two fingers. Then I used striping tape on my middle and ring fingers before adding a coat of OPI I Saw...You Saw...We Saw...Warsaw and peeling the tape off. I applied the blue hex glitters (from the Born Pretty Store) to my pinky using a toothpick and clear nail polish, and a coat of ILNP Matthew Peri finished off my pointer finger. Finally, I applied the Seahawks helmet waterslide decal from Nail Country Decals to my thumb and finished everything off with a couple coats of topcoat.

After wearing this mani for a full week (butter LONDON P.D. Quick Topcoat does not mess around!), I decided that the design on my ring finger—the navy blue with the bright green stripes—is probably my favorite. The two colors together in a pinstripe just look really sharp, I think. What about you—which nail do you like best out of this random assortment?

Anyway, thanks for reading! Go Seahawks!!

31DC2013 Day 1: Red Nails

It's September once again, which means many of the big names in nail blogging are all participating in the 31 Day Challenge. If you're not familiar with the challenge, it's designed to stretch nail art skills and creativity: every day for 31 days, you create nail art based on a particular theme (various colors, patterns, and even media types are all on the list).

After seeing my favorite bloggers' results for the first few days of the challenge, I decided that I needed to get in on this fun, too! However, since I'm still new to nail art and my schedule also gets pretty crazy this time of year, I'm going to spread the challenge out over a couple of months instead. I know that eliminates what is probably the most challenging part of the challenge—having the dedication and inspiration to do something new every single day—but, baby steps, right? I'll still be working on my skills, which is the most important thing to me right now.

Anyway, on to the manicure!

Day one of the challenge was red nails, and I came up with this red glitter gradient that photographed kind of terribly but was quite rich and pretty in real life:

My camera completely flattened out the depth of this manicure, so you'll have to trust me that the glitter gradient at the tips looked much nicer in reality. I used NARS Jungle Red for the base color here (which I wasn't thrilled with, by the way—three coats and I still had issues with streakiness!), and then carefully applied I Love Nail Polish Bella to the tips in increasingly shorter layers to create a gradient effect.

If you're curious about what else the 31 Day Challenge has in store, there are some great little graphics over at Chalkboard Nails that show the full list!

Nail Art: Pink Tips and Studs

I'm often pretty busy with work, chores, etc., so it's not unusual for one nail art look to take me a couple of days to complete. I'll start by applying a base color one day, and then a day or two later, I'll go back and incorporate some fun details when I have another small chunk of time. That's what happened here: I started with the base color from my previous post and then added to it the next day. It's actually a really great way to approach nail art, if you have the patience for it, because you don't need to be nearly as careful about messing up your base color when it's had a day or more to fully set up.

Swatch: Galithée by NARS

For my first real post here, I thought I'd start things off simply with a little swatching action!