31 days challenge. Day 9: rainbow nails

Here're my nails for day 9! I'm not completely satisfied with those, I with the gradients came out smoother, but they're fine for the first time...gotta work on my skills!

List of used polishes:

Red - Sally Hansen Rapi-Dri Racey Rouge

Orange - Dance Legend 304

Yellow - Zoya Creamy

Green - Essie Pretty Edgy 

Blue - Rimmel Blue Eyed Girl

Indigo - Rimmel My Denim

Violet - Zoya Pinta

Everything topped off with a coat of INM Out The Door.

If you want to know how to do gradient nails, this tutorial by TheNailasaurus is out of this planet!

31 days challenge. Day 8: metallic nails

Hey everyone!

So i went straightforward with this day's theme. Plus, i needed to swatch this polish i got when i was in Malta. And here we are, silver nails with Gabrini 322.

Gabrini 322 is an average silver foil/metallic opaque in 2 coats. It lasted 3 days on me with minor chipping.

Shown on the photos with a coat of INM Out The Door.

31 days challenge. Day 7: black&white nails

First of all, I'm officially of age now! Can't buy strong alcohol like vodka or tequila 'till i'm 21, but as for the rest it's a carte-blanche :)

This day's been preventing me from going on with the 31DC for too long. For some reason I found it so hard to create a black&white look, though I love the way these 2 basic colors look together and there are so many nail art ideas out there. But when my BornPrettyStore order arrived, I knew I couldn't keep putting it off anymore.

First I wanted to stick on some lace, then stamp (yes, my stamping plates from Llarowe've arrived!), then do stripes...this is what I ended up doing - a look inspired by one of Lucy's Stash manicures. 

I started by painting on 2 coats of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White on, then, using dotting tools of different sizes, dotted 3 black dots in descending order (i'm using Sophin Ceramic 02) and, finally, applied golden round studs in 3 different diameters from BornPrettyStore with a pair of tweezers. I finished the manicure with a generous coat of INM Out The Door to seal and prolong it. You need to be really careful with this step, because there's a change of smudging your pretty nails if you're not.

Thoughts: I want to touch my nails all the time :D And I received a ton of comments from men today, which means success to me :)

7 down, 24 to go!

Karma Duty series. Comparison of teals: Nubar Stylish Peacock vs. Orly Sapphire Silk vs. OPI Ski Teal We Drop

Hi everyone!

I was supposed to post a black&white nail art, but I kind of messed that up so I'm going to redo it, and for now I have a comparison for you. Personally I love this kind of posts, so I hope you'll enjoy it, too.

So this was actually inspired by a lady from a Russian LiveJournal nail community, who requested a comparison between Nubar Stylish Peacock and OPI Ski Teal We Drop. It was actually so long ago even I don't remember. As my 18th birthday is approaching (it's tomorrow!), i'm cleaning up all my karma duties :)

The moment I pulled out the bottles out of my stash, I knew they were nowhere the same or even similar (well, to us, polish addicts, that is). So i decided to compare them to another teal I have in my collection, that is Orly Sapphire Silk.

By the way, I couldn't believe my eyes, but I only have 3 teal creams in my shash! The advantage is that that means I can order more without feeling ashamed of it :D

Onto the comparison, here's a bottle comparison pic.

More photos and some text under the cut :)

31 days challenge. Day 6: violet nails

Ok, so i kind of failed the 'paint your nails every day' challenge, but as the pattern part is coming it's getting challenging enough for me, since i have really unsteady hands. Plus the law school and social life - now i actually have some, the leadership camp has brought me a new boyfriend! Anyway, i decided to take it easy and repaint my nails at a usual pace and actually enjoy the nail art i'm about to do. Now that supplies from Born Pretty Store have arrived, i can do some looks i've been looking forward to.

As for now, here are my violet nails. I did them the day i returned from the leadership camp i was a staff member at, having slept only 2 hours that night, so imagine how exhausted i was and please forgive the not-the-most-accurate way i applied nail polish that time.

I used 2 coats of Orly Fowl Play from Birds of a Feather collection. It's a gorgeous purple jelly base filled with copper and blue flakies and silver glimmer.

I had to use flash to take these photos 'cause it was already dark outside, and i don't have a lightbox yet, but this way you can see best just how gorgeous this polish is.

Please click on the photos to enlarge them and appreciate the texture.

 6 down, 25 to go!

31 days challenge. Day 5: blue nails

Hi everyone!

Tomorrow i'll be back and will post myself instead of using scheduled posts, but for now you'll have to deal with the blogger robot :D

I'm using my last backup on blue nails (who knew i wouldn't have the opportunity to paint my nails specially for my favorite color's day :( ) and that is a polish i bought in Malta, Gabrini 337, although i believe it's a Turkish polish, not a Maltese one.

It's a wonderful teal jelly that is leaning more blue than green (it does look like it has a strong green hue, but it only looks like that in the sun - in most types of light it's definitely more blue than green), and it contains sparse small silver flecks that look light bluу because the base color tints them. 3 coats for full opacity, anв the wonderful squishy feeling remains. Topped with a coat of INM OTD for longevility purposes.

5 down, 26 to go! Stay tuned for tomorrow's violet nails!

31 days challenge. Day 4: green nails

Hi everyone!

This and tomorrow's post are scheduled ones as i'm going to be out of town for a couple of days. I'm using some of my backup here, which, i realise, is not quite fair, but i've got 20+ freshmen to mentor this week-end! And i was one of them only last year...ah, time flies.

Anyway, really didn't like the way these nails looked in real life, they actually seem prettier on photos, but that's my opinion. Maybe the weather wasn't right or the color combination not entirely appropriate for September..When i decided to go for a green and gold combo i was picturing leaves turning yellow on the background of their green brothers and sisters, but it came out looking like New Yeaк to me x) Or, maybe, that's my silly mind.

This manicure features 1 coat of basecoat, 2 coats of Essence A Walk In The Park (a medium forest green creme) plus a coat of Essie As Gold As It Gets (gold flecks) topped with 1 coat of INM OTD.

31 days challenge. Day 3: yellow nails

Hi everyone! 

For day 3 i wanted to do something more than just paint my nails yellow. And then i remembered a manicure i saw a while ago and that i even have the same polishes that i've bought to recreate the manicure.

It's not entirely yellow, but i tried to leave at least 60% of the surface yellow. I'm using Misa Endless Keys and Misa Under My Sunbrella here, both are, respectively, warm yellow and tangerine orange shimmer/glimmer in correspondendly coloured jelly bases. They're not too opaque and i don't think they were meant to be. However, they open endless opportunities for layering, and this is exactly what i did here (i didn't use the sponge method for this gradient). 

For this manicure apply 2 coats of Under My Sunbrella over a base coat, then cover about half the nail (or more or less, depending on how do you want the colors to correlate) with Endless Keys, repeat on all nails, then cover your tips with another coat of Endless Keys, top it all with a coat of your favorite top coat (i'm using INM OTD, as usual) et voila!

3 down, 28 to go! Green nails tomorrow!

31 days challenge. Day 2: orange nails

Hi everyone :)

As it's rainy and cloude in Moscow these days, i wanted something really bright on my nails. And then i remembered i had this awesome in terms of color but terrible, as all neons, in terms of application polish, China Glaze Sun Worshipper, or a Zoroastrian, as i like to call it :D Check out the article on Zoroastrianism on Wikipedia to find out why.

It's the second time i've used it. When i was painting my nails for the first time, i didn't even know it was a neon. I thought it was something i'd hoped Papaya Punch would be - a nice mango orange bordering yellow. It is, actually, but it's neon, not a creme.

Still, i love it. This time i layered it over a plain white creme (Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On), i used 2 coats of Sun Worshipper and, to be completely honest, it could use a third one. As neons dry semi-matte, i topped it with a coat of INM OTD (but i do it all the time, i never wear nail polish without top coat).

The quality of the photos isn't the best today, i'm very sorry, it's getting dark sooner and sooner. Sigh. Summer, could you please come back? I could even sacrifice my birthday that is on 19th.

More photos under cut, and stay tuned for yellow nails tomorrow!

31 days challenge. Day 1: red nails

Hello, everyone!

I'm starting the well-known 31 days nail art challenge today, and for my red nails i've chosen the most banal red nail polish ever :D But it also happens to be awesome and beautiful, so devil may care :)

OPI Vodka&Caviar is from the Russian Collection (which gives it extra points :)). It's a wonderful jelly, however, i couldn't see the visible nail line after just 2 coats, and it's extremely easy to apply! It may be due to that my nails are not very long, but that doesn't change the fact that it's quite pigmented. The coats dry very thin and very fast, i needed to wait about 10-15 minutes before i could use my hands again without being afraid of ruining the freshly painted nails :D

Onto the photos :)

Stay tuned for tomorrow's post featuring orange nails!