Muse!!!

Tonight I'm going to the Muse concert in Orlando!!!!  I'm sooooo beyond excited.  To celebrate, I decided to try a little nail art.  I settled on doing gradients as base colors, then taping them off to do a peekaboo styled mani with the gradients popping through the black.  I also decided to attempt to recreate the album art for Muse's last album, the Second Law, on my accent nail.  It may come as a surprise, but I've never done a legitimate gradient, so I used this tutorial from Lissa's Polish Addiction.  I think that came out well.  Here is my first step.

Here are macros of the gradients.

Next, I taped off my mani using some striping tape.

Yeah, I may've been over ambitious with the taping...

Then, I topped the gradients with Wet 'n Wild Black Out.

Next, I removed the tape.

Once the polish is tacky, you can push down the parts that are sticking up, and take a  manicure stick and clear off the bits that fell back into the gradient parts.

Here they are without any topcoat.

Next, I applied a topcoat and did the album art on my accent nail.  

Here's the album cover for your reference.

It's not 100% accurate, but I think it looks pretty good.

Here's another shot of the final product!

I used polishes from Color Club, OPI, Kiss Nail Art, and Sally Hansen to create this look.  I decided to split it up into two nights work, so that I wouldn't spend too much time at once, which worked out pretty well.  I'm so super excited about this concert!!!  I'll be adding photos all night with my Instagram, so if you aren't a follower, you can find me here.  I'm set as private, but I will add you if you request.

Have you ever done a striping tape mani?  What about an album art mani?

Holiday Nail Art: Wintry Christmas Tree Scene

Well, for some reason, my internet is working tonight.  It's like there's no rhyme or reason for when it chooses to work, but I won't complain.  Just a few little housekeeping issues to discuss before we can get to the good stuff.  Firstly, you'll probably notice that I have been changing my watermark a bit.  I don't think that my photos are great enough to be stolen by anyone, but I'm trying to make sure I'll be covered (for the most part) in case that does happen.  Secondly, I'm hoping to start doing more in depth reviews.  I usually do a more cursory overview, but I think I need to be more detailed.  What kinds of things do you think I should definitely include?  As an example, I'm thinking of adding in a photo of the bottle with the brush and a little blurb about the brush shape and ease of use.  Let me know in the comments what else you'd like to see in my reviews.

Tonight, I'm going to show you a look I was sporting a few weeks ago.  My left hand was a winter Christmas scene, and I tried to make my right hand more Hanukkah-y.  I celebrate Christmas, so I wasn't really sure what to do for Hanukkah nail art that would make sense but also not be too contrite.  I hope you like my feeble attempt!  I like how this mani came out.  Here are the eight million polishes I used for this manicure.

Bottom row: Kiss White, Sonnetarium Snowfall, GB 8 Crazy Nights, CC Gift of Sparkle, Dollish Space the Final Frontier, Dollish You'll Shoot Yer Eye Out, GB Eggnogaholic, Essie Blue Rhapsody
Top row: CG Riveting, CC Berry & Bright, SH Jumping Jade, GB Banana Hammock, and CG Spontaneous

On my left hand, I used Color Club Gift of Sparkle on four of my nails and Dollish Polish Space, the Final Frontier as my accent nail base color.  I haven't done a full mani with Space, so I can't really comment much about its application.  I can say that it's a black jelly with blue micro shimmers that tint the polish navy blue when it's by itself.  I topped Space with Sonnetarium Snowfall, which is a clear based polish with three sizes of white hexes and iridescent hexes.  Snowfall is a bit goopy, so you'll definitely need the dab method to make sure it spreads evenly. I then used Essie Blue Rhapsody, Kiss White, and Kiss Silver Glitter for the snowflakes.  I added a snow bank on my ring finger with Girly Bits Eggnogaholic, topped it with Sally Hansen Jumping Jade as a tree, and ornaments and lights with Girly Bits Banana Hammock, China Glaze Riveting and Spontaneous, and Color Club Berry & Bright.

On my right hand, I again used Gift of Sparkle and Space as the base colors.  I topped my thumb, ring, and pinkie fingers with Girly Bits Eight Crazy Nights.  I used Dollish Polish You'll Shoot Yer Eye Out, Kid on my middle finger over Space.  I then drew snowflakes on my pointer finger with Kiss White and Silver Glitter.

I'm not the artistic type, really, so I was quite pleased by this design.  You can purchase Girly Bits at her store, Llarowe, Overall Beauty, Harlow & Co, and Mei Mei's Signatures.  You can purchase Dollish Polish at her store, Llarowe, and Overall Beauty.  You can purchase Sonnetarium at her store.  I purchased the Color Club Winter Affair polishes and the China Glazes at Sally's Beauty Supply.  Lastly, I purchased the Kiss nail art polishes at Kroger.

What type of information are you most interested in when you read a polish review?