31 Day Challenge (v.2!) Day 10: Gradient Nails!

**Quick FYI - Ladies please update your links. I had to remove one person from the challenge list since they have not participated at all**

Hiya Ladies! Welcome to Day 10 of the 31 Day Challenge! Today's challenge mani is Gradient Nails!

This is a challenge I can get behind. I adore gradients in all forms, and I had an idea of what I was going to do for this one from day 1. Although I did change it up a bit at the last minute, because I just can't leave things alone!

For this mani I started with a base of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Bubblegum Pink. Then I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Pacific Blue to add a diagonal gradient. Lemme tell ya, Pacific Blue is a gorgeous Blue, but it stains skin, so doing a gradient with this was a PITA! Once I had the gradient finished and top coated, I decided that it looked a bit naked, so I grabbed Bundle Monster plate 208 and added a gradient Butterfly stamp using China Glaze Urban-Night and VIII. Gradient over Gradient! Is that overkill? Either way, it created a cool effect. It kind of reminds me of an airbrushed mani. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out, considering I had no idea if the gradient stamping would look good. And by the time I finished this (around 2am) there was no way I was going to re-do it.

Of course when I went to take pics, the battery on my camera dies, and my backup camera was already charging, so I was camera-less! Hence my later than usual posting. My camera battery takes forever to charge, and mornings are pretty busy since I have to feed, bathe and play with my son. hopefully my posts won't be this late again!

Now that I'm done babbling, I give you...dun dun dun! Double Gradient Nails!!

I really like how these turned out. The gradient is pretty bright and it really did look naked with the diagonal gradient by itself. Pacific Blue really was a bit dark to use with this pink, but in the end it worked out okay. I think the stamping really pulled it together and gave it some extra zing. I also love pink, blue, and purple together, so this mani makes me all sorts of happy. IRL it really does look airbrushed. Another mani that I'm going to hate to take off!

What do you think of the double gradient idea?

Be sure to check out the Varnished Vixens' gradient manis!

Kimber at Kimber's Lacquer Korner
-Kat at Hooked On Polish
-Diana at Nails By Diana
-Aly at Wonderland Beauty
-Meredith at Perfectly Polished
-Nicole at The Color Republic
-Kate at The Painted Pony Nails
-Cee at Absolutely Cee
-Sam at Polished Art
-Nail Narcotics
-Nicole at Nicole Gets Nailed
-Shelby at Shelby's Swatches
-Stephanie Louise at All Things Beautiful
-Mixed Mama
-Joanna @ Sweet Polish of Mine
-Patty Greenberg
-Liz and Lisa @ Lozlosa 
-Mari at Nailista
-Miss L at Beauty by Miss L 
-Gini at Sassy Paints 
-Chameleon Stampede 
-Pam at Nail-E-Glance
-Me, Myself, and Polish 
- Robin Sparkles  

31 Day Challenge (v.2!) Day 6: Violet Nails!

Morning Ladies! I really hope this post makes sense, since I'm running on maybe 90 minutes of sleep and am still on my first cup of coffee. :)

First of all, If you haven't entered my giveaway, DO EET!!! Also, my special guest today will be "Random Cat Hair", and since he snuck into some of my pictures without my knowledge, he asks that you admire him and just kinda chuckle at his sneakiness.

Today's challenge was Violet/Purple nails, which meant that I was incredibly indecisive and didn't actually decide what I was doing until the very last second. I had actually planned on doing a checkerboard mani for these, but for some reason I really wanted to play with my dotting tools, so I went with a multi-purple mermaid scale dotticure instead. This is my first time attempting this design, and I'm fairly pleased with how it turned out. My ring finger is less than stellar, but since it's not noticable IRL, I didn't bother re-doing it. Not that I want you guys to have to see manicure wonkiness, but this mani was time consuming and by the time I was done there was no way I was re-doing anything that wasn't glaringly obvious! It was a lot of fun though, and I'll definitely be trying this with different colors in the future.

For this mani I started with a base of Color Show Iced Queen, a lovely soft yet vibrant lilac purple. hen I added the dots in a straight line using China Glaze VIII and Grape Juice, Petites Mystical, Essence Break Through and Iced Queen again. The trick here is to dot in between the row above where you're currently dotting, creating a fish-scale type effect. The hardest part was keeping my darned dots centered between the dots. I'm not good at much around 2 am, and that's when I chose to do my dotting, so a few of the lines are dotted like I just finished a plethora of jager bombs. ;)

I also don't know why my camera has decided that it really must make my hands look so lobstery, but okay. I'd rather have lobster hands and color accurate photos I suppose.

And now, without further adieu, I give you.....*drumroll please!* VIOLET NAILS (co-starring Random Cat Hair!)!!

Did you spot Random Cat Hair? That guy is a show-off, I swear.  He lives to try and sneak into my photos.

Anyway, this didn't turn out half bad for a last minute change in mani plan and my first attempt at mermaid nails sans stamping. Would you rock this look?

Our next challenge will be Black and White Nails on Friday. I'm excited about that one since it's rare that I wear either color these days!

Don't forget to check out the rest of the Varnished Vixens Violet Manis! I guarantee they rock!

-Kimber at Kimber's Lacquer Korner
-Kat at Hooked On Polish
-Diana at Nails By Diana
-Aly at Wonderland Beauty
-Meredith at Perfectly Polished
-Nicole at The Color Republic
-Kate at The Painted Pony Nails
-Cee at Absolutely Cee
-Sam at Polished Art
-Nail Narcotics
-Nicole at Nicole Gets Nailed
-Shelby at Shelby's Swatches
-Stephanie Louise at All Things Beautiful
-Mixed Mama
-Joanna @ Sweet Polish of Mine
-Patty Greenberg
-Liz and Lisa @ Lozlosa 
-Mari at Nailista
-Greta at How Was Your Day?
-Miss L at Beauty by Miss L 
-Gini at Sassy Paints 
-Chameleon Stampede 
-Pam at Nail-E-Glance
-Me, Myself, and Polish 
- Robin Sparkles 

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!!
-Kimber

Purple Dotticure!

Hello ladies! First of all, thank you all so much for your feedback on yesterday's post. It means the world to me that you like what I do here! I also enjoy an eclectic mix when I read blogs, so I'm definitely keeping it that way. :)

Now, onto the polish!

Today I'm sharing a dotticure I wore while my BFF was in town last weekend. I used Sally Hansen Lacey Lilac as my base color (ugh! The formula on this girl was another nightmare! Gloppy, gooey and downright not pleasant. The color, however, is just gorgeous, so I suppose it was worth it!), and then used several sized dotting tools and random shades of purple for the dots. I love the randomness of the pattern. Just some dots hanging on the side of my nails. No rhyme or reason, but they still look fab! I loved wearing this and so many people commented on it. I swear if I could get away with it, I'd wear dots all the time! ;)

Details:

1 coat OPI Nail Envy Matte
2 coats Sally Hansen Lacey Lilac
1 coat Seche Vite
Dots: CG VIII, Orly Wild Wisteria, Spoiled 2 Weeks Sober
1 coat SV

I don't want to sound conceited, but I love this mani!! Not bad for a 5 minute dotting job, right? I did manage to get a random polish string on my pinky, but that wasn't really noticable IRL, so no big.

What do you think of dotticures? Something you'd wear?

Thanks for dropping by and as always, Happy Polishing!

-Kimber

China Glaze VIII meets with Fowl Play!

Hi guys! I am being indecisive and can't quite figure out what I'm going to be doing here this week. I had originally planned on making this week "Flakie Week", but in all honesty, and no offense here, I am on flakie overload. This past week we've all been inundated with not only the new Finger Paints Flakies, but the new Zoya Flakies as well. I don't know about you guys, but despite how awesome those Flakies are, I'm about over Flakies at the moment. No matter how much us polish fanatics love something, when it's all you see and hear about? Kind of loses its appeal. So I'm now shelving my flakies and going in a different direction.

I *do* have one flakie for you today, since I had worn this before flakie overload set in. In fact, I'm still wearing it since both my kiddos were sick yesterday and this morning, and I won't have a chance to change polish until later tonight. I'm sure you've all seen this polish, since it's one of Orly's stunners from 2011, but I had yet to wear it since I'm so far behind on my untrieds. I'm also really bad about being "on trend", so I'm not usually wearing the polish of the now. I have a fondness for older polishes, as well as choosing my polish by my mood. I was in the mood for something pretty, yet kind of subtle, so I chose Orly's Fowl Play.

Usually when I wear a Flakie, I layer it over another polish. Not just because I conserve them since they're hard to find out here, but because I'm lazy and don't really want to layer on 5 coats of polish for opacity. If I can accomplish it in 2-3 coats by layering, then hey! Why not? Fowl Play is a darker purple jelly base with flakies, so I chose to layer it over China Glaze VIII, a deep eggplant creme. I love VIII. It's such a deep purple that it's almost black, but when the light hits it just right? That eggplant color comes to the surface. Love it! Here is VIII on her own:

Wow! I have stubby little fingers! Ack!

I adore this color! I tend to look best in darker colors and vampies, and VIII is one of my fave colors to wear. See how she looks almost black, but then that eggplant hue kinda sneaks in? Forgive the smudge on my pinky. I managed to whack the light box as I was setting up for pictures. I am a huge clutz. Seriously. I have been known to walk into walls, and I can break a toe on absolutely nothing. Graceful, I ain't!

Here is Orly's Fowl Play over CG VIII. Using a darker base color really darkened up this polish, but the Flakies are very visible. One of the things I didn't like about Fowl Play was that the flakies seemed kinda buried in the base. They seem to come out and play more when layered over a darker polish.

Despite being on Flakie Overload, I still love Fowl Play. It's a bit different from the Flakies that we're seeing at the moment, and not quite as in-your-face flashy. This mani reminds me of a speckled river rock from the creek by my Grandma's house in Pennsylvania. Ahhhhh, good times!

The formula for both of these was lovely. VIII was a bit thick, but spread evenly and leveled out well. It's a stainer though, so try and stay away from those cuticles! I'm not the neatest polisher (I still always manage to touch a cuticle or 2, and inevitably flood at least one nail! Maybe I should lay off the caffeine!), and it took some work to get this off the side of my finger. Fowl Play is a bit smoother as far as formula goes, but it's rather sheer, so if you wear it alone, be prepared to use at least 3 coats to get close to bottle color. I recommend layering it, since I am lazy and fewer coats means my bottle will last longer. :)

I hope you're all having a fabulous Tuesday! Thanks for the Blog Award nominations as well! You guys are too sweet!! I'll post about those later this evening, when the little one has finally passed out and is no longer clinging to my leg. Also, hi to my new followers! We're a small group over here at the Korner, but you guys are all so wonderful! I read all your comments, and I try to respond when I can. You can also feel free to tweet at me or email. One of the reasons I started blogging was to connect with other polish fanatics. I met the wonderful Marisa through Twitter and blogging, and she is just so much fun. I harass her almost daily now, and we have some great chats. She always perks me up when I'm feeling blah, and I never would've met her had I not started blogging. So say hi! Tell me a story! Share your fave polish! Share your blog! Anything!  *Singing* Won't you be my neighbor!

Wow. I need to lay off the coffee. :)

Happy Polishing!!

-Kimber