Day 12: Stripes - Color Club: Cold Metal and Silver Icicles

A lot has happened in the past week.

My dad, who is in Stage 4 of renal cell carcinoma, has gotten a lot worse. I was at my parents' house last Saturday, planning to just hang out with my mom, dad, sister, brother-in-law, and nephew. Unfortunately, when the home health care nurse came to assess my dad, his blood pressure was WAY too low, and he had some other complications as well. We had to take him to the ER Saturday night, just a few hours after I painted my nails. The manicure is messier than normal because my two-year-old nephew just had to help his Aunt Tonya paint her nails. I actually let him try to paint my pinkie nail with the base coat, but I ended up with clear polish all over my finger. Then when we were at the hospital, I had to entertain my nephew, who kept whining about finding the damn basement at the hospital. I was like that tour guide from Pee-Wee's Big Adventure: "There's no basement at the Alamo!" Instead, we rode the elevators about a dozen times while my mom and the rest of the family helped get daddy registered in the ER.

Anyway, here is Color Club's "Cold Metal," a vibrant blue from the Foiled collection. This is just one coat.

Stupid me forgot to bring my nail polish remover with me to my parents' house, so I'm a little Smurfy around the cuticles.

Next, I used two silver polishes to create stripes, but I didn't want to do a traditional stripe design. Instead, I drew lines of different lengths to create the illusion of icicles. I used the brush from the Art Deco silver glitter dipped in Wet n Wild's "Silvivor" to draw the lines. Then I added a little of the silver glitter for a bit of added bling.

So, that's it for stripes.

Day 11: Polka Dot Nails - Confetti: Belle of the Ball, Color Club: New Bohemian, NYC: French White Tip

I kept trying to think of what to do for my polka dot nails. Pink with black dots? Red with white dots? Hmm... Then I looked down at my feet:

DUH. These socks are amazing. They keep my feet warm and cozy without making my feet feel too hot or sweaty. Luckily, I had just received an eBay haul with the perfect purple color for the base: "Belle of the Ball" by Confetti. I used a dotting tool to apply "New Bohemian" by Color Club for the blueish-teal dots on all my nails, then added white dots to my ring fingers and thumbs for accents. 

Hey, look! That's my right hand! Here's another view of "Belle of the Ball" on its own, back in my left non-dominant hand:

And here's the finished product with the cute little polka dots:

I should have added a few more white dots on my ring finger. Oh, well. Here's another view of the dottiness:

The color is a bit better in this shot. Overall, I was very pleased with how well the polishes matched my socks. The colors were almost exact matches! And I received several compliments on the cuteness of these nails -- including from the cashier at a store I visited today! My friend Noura told the woman that I have a nail blog, and the cashier asked for the web address! I hope she (and you!) become an official follower using Google Friend Connect. I've got some new goodies I'm keeping for a 50 followers giveaway. Now I just need 50 followers! ;)

Day 10: Gradient - Color Club "Shabby Drab" and "Rad Nomad"

My inspiration for this gradient manicure is an ornamental cabbage that my parents have. It looked like this back at Thanksgiving:

Now that it's January, though, the purple has faded deeper into the green, so the plant is almost totally purple even though there is still a hint of green. When I tried to recreate this gradient on my nails, though, I couldn't get the shading right. Here's what the first attempt looked like:

This photo was taken at dusk with a flash, but you can still see how pretty the purple leaves of the cabbage look. I started with a layer of Color Club's "Rad Nomad," a dark lavender from the Back to Boho collection, and then sponged on some OPI "Green-wich Village" at the base of my nails. I then sponged on some Color Club "Shabby Drab," a lighter lavender from the Back to Boho collection, and then more of the "Rad Nomad" at the tips. I wasn't happy with how the gradient looked, so I stippled on some no-name glitter mixture from that Pretty Woman set I got for Christmas. 

I re-did this design a couple of days later, but I think it looks worse than my first attempt:

I left off the green and the glitter and tried to fade the lighter "Shabby Drab" base into the darker "Rad Nomad" on the tips. Maybe I should have used different colors because I still don't like the end result.

What do you think? I had a hard time getting my gradient to "gradiate." Do you have this problem, too?

Christmas Haul 2011

I believe I may have reached my nail polish saturation point -- or at least my husband thinks so. He about had a fit watching me open up four different packages containing nail polish and another that included stamping plates. Besides, my Snapware containers that I use for my nail polish are about to burst, so I guess I'll push pause on buying any new polishes... unless I can find that elusive China Glaze OMG collection cheap on eBay! ;)

Here are the polishes and plates my sister gave me for Christmas this year. I got three sets from Color Club: "Back to Boho," "Beyond the Mistletoe," and "Foiled," and one set of no-name polishes from a brand called Pretty Woman. I also got a set of 21 new nail stamping plates from Red Angel.

I love those new polishes, but I am most excited about using the new Red Angel nail art stamping plates, which you can buy for around $12 from Amazon.com.

What sorts of nail polish goodies did Santa bring you this year?