Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Day 23 Is a Jump to the Left

Hello and happy Tuesday.  Do you know what I love? Musicals. Any type. I also love Tim Curry. We were obsessed with the movie Clue when we were kids and watched it over and over. I can still recite it.

Here's something to know about my childhood... we never really watched kids movies.  We loved scary movies and things that were weird.  In the Tim Curry library,  our next movie was It. Loved it.

And then I was introduced to The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The rest is in April movie history.  I fell in love with the campy, silly, freaky movie that took over my early high school life. Have you ever been to a live action showing of RHPS? Best. Thing. Ever.

With Halloween just around the corner,  random channels are starting to play the movie. I'm not going to lie. I totally get up and dance the Time Warp and Rose Tints My World. I sing along. The hubs hates the movie,  which I think somewhere is grounds for divorce.  Lol.

Here are my RHPS nails. My heart melts because they are so awesome.


Here are close ups of each nail.


First, the lips from Science Fiction,  Double Feature.  Did you know that they were Magenta's lips? True story.



It's just a jump to the left!!! And then you step to the righhhhhhht! So funny story about the Time Warp. There's a scene where Magenta and Riff Raff rock their elbows and forearms together,  and its called elbow sex. For some reason my middle sister and I did that action when dancing and singing to the song. Weird and kind of wrong!



This one is supposed to be symbolic of Columbia with her bright orange hair and sparkly striped pants. Somewhat of a fail here as it didn't come across as in-your-face as I wanted it. 



Pinky finger is reflective of Frankenfurter in his surgeon scrubs and pearl necklace.  I gotta say, I really liked this and it was the least amount of work! Figures. 



Last but not least is my thumb which is supposed to be Janet at the floor show / Rose Tints My World. If you know what you're looking at here, I think its totally awesome. But if you don't,  its a little weird.  


So, what's the verdict?  I personally loved these and made sure I went shopping at places that I could force the clerks into checking out my nails, lol. I also sent a preview to my middle sister and she was in love. 

So, let me know your thoughts and if you enjoy campy ridiculousness that is Rocky Horror. 

A toast!
April


Monday, October 7, 2013

Day 22, Inspired by a Song

Hello lovelies... I hope you all had a great weekend.  My football winning streak is over. We played like poo, it rained on and off all morning, and now it's super cold and I am freezing.

Bonus though, I got caught up on the challenge and I can see the end!! Today's prompt is inspired by a song, and I love music so this one was tough. I have several playlists on my ipod, and one is just my favorites.  I was flipping through them and trying to think of what I could translate into nail art... and stumbled upon this diddy.

The Black Keys are a phenomenal band. I've liked them for a long time, and was super stoked when they recently won a Grammy.  Gold on the Ceiling is one of the songs on the aforementioned playlist.



I painted the nail entirely white, using Essie Blanc. I then freehanded the keys on there with black polish. The tip, or the ceiling, I used Nicole by OPI The Next CEO and topped it off with some gold glitter.



Overall,  I'm okay with how this turned out.  But I do need to purchase a new paintbrush.  The one I have is jut not fine enough,  so the lines weren't as neat as I wanted them. But I like the concept.  Not exactly a literal interpretation of the song, but hopefully ya'll get it.



So, what's on your favorite playlist?
April


Here's the video if you've never heard the song.

Thursday, October 3, 2013

Day 21, Inspired by a Color

Today starts the last section of the 31 Day Nail Polish Challenge, and they are mostly "inspired by" prompts.  The first inspiration is a color.

I love color. I love almost all colors, and I like to miss-match them in my wardrobe.  I also color code EVERYTHING. My coworkers laugh at my OCC with color coding my days of notes. I use a different color every day (going in rainbow order, of course) and then I can look back and say, oh yes. That was the orange day, September 17th.

My niece,  Pickle, used to make it a goal to know what all of our favorite colors were. I didn't have the heart to tell her that I changed about 5 years ago from pink to green. And I recently purchased a new green polish.

I pulled out all my other green polishes and of course, wanted to go dark and light.  Inspiration struck to do a saran wrap mani. (Please forgive the pictures as it was cloudy outside this morning and my pics reflected everything! )



My base coat is Zoya Hunter, and the light color is Essie's The More the Merrier. After the base coat is dry, you swipe on the top color and while it's still wet, tap it off with scrunched up saran wrap.



I have to admit it... I'm in love with this. It looks like a mix between tie dye, algae and marbling.  And throw in some Jackson Pollock splatter art. I just adore this.



I cant wait to try this with other colors.

If you had to choose one color to wear the rest of your life, what would it be?

Cheers!
April


Wednesday, October 2, 2013

20 Days of the Challenge

Well hello there.  I cannot believe that I've made it to day 20. I seriously thought that I would be so far behind that I would just quit around day 10. But I made it to the dreaded water marble.

I actually re-did this one from my first look because it was a hot mess. I took a deep breath,  watched several tutorials,  and did a do over.



I cant remember what tutorial I watched, but it was a similar design from this one. And let me preface this with that I've only really attempted water marbling a few other times. And I'm kind of partial to purple nail polish.



I used three different colors here for the marbling: Essie Jamaica Me Crazy, OPI Do You Lilac It and Essie No More Film. My base was a light coat of Essie Lilacisim.
So, you drop good size blobs into water and repeat with other colors.  Take a toothpick and then cut in your design.  Dunk your nail in and then collect off the excess. Bring out your nail, and the design is transferred onto your nail. Oh yeah. Best part? It comes out of the water dry.




I think with a little more practice this could be very cute. My pinky got a little funked up, but ended not being as annoying as I thought it would be. I definitely need to check out some more ideas and tips. I saw one that was a striped look that I really liked.

So that's all for today! Let me know what you think!
April

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Day 19- Galaxy Nails For The Win

Happy Tuesday my nail polish buddies.  When I first looked at this challenge,  I was super intimidated by today's prompt. But let me tell you, I don't know how I've lived without doing a galaxy mani before.



I started with a base of Sinful Colors What's Your Name, which is a dark dark blue with blue micro glitter.  I then took several other colors and sponged them on, layering the colors. Adding a holographic sparkle glitter on top... and this is heaven.



That pic is actually of the rarely seen right hand. I of course did my left first, and then did my right. I honestly prefer my right hand!! A stunning simple galaxy look.

Here are some pics of my left... I followed a tutorial that suggested to put these starbursts on top, and again... I prefer it without!



And forgive the blurriness,  but I wanted to show the intense sparkle that the holographic top coat provided. 



Seriously,  I couldn't stop staring at this. I also would stop random women and make them look at my hands.  I don't care how weird it looked. I had to shout this one from the roof tops I loved it so much. I see a million more galaxy nails in my future. 

I'm dying to hear your thoughts on this one.
April




Monday, September 30, 2013

Day 18, Half Moons

Greetings and happy Monday. Did you all have a good weekend?  Once again my football team won, and we're on a streak! Also celebrated Oktoberfest like a champ.

Remember the in your face neon pink from yesterday?  I wanted to use it for my half moon mani today.




I used paper hole protectors to mark off the moon shape, and then used Orly Fowl Play as the top color, which is a duo chrome purple with specks of glitter.






Super fun, right? Such an easy way to upgrade a normal look.

On a side note,  my local Ulta FINALLY got their fall collections in. (Stupid Midwest) I bought 3 Zoya's, an older China Glaze that I found hiding, and two clearanced random Ulta polishes. I had a few Pixie Dusts in my hand, and I ended up putting them back. I think I'm just over the whole textured polish thing.

The next couple of days will be toughies, so I'm relishing in this one for a bit.

Let me know your thoughts!
April

Sunday, September 29, 2013

Bonus Post, Blackbox Polish

Hey-o! I have a bonus post for you that actually doesn't revolve around the 31 Day Nail Polish Challenge!  I was looking at colors to re-do my mani, and remembered I had this one from my August Blackbox.

This is China Glaze Surfin' For Boys. It's a bright coral neon, but in the bottle I was pretty underwhelmed.  It looked like a shimmery version of a bright summer coral, so I wasn't in a hurry to swatch it.

Putting this polish on I went whoa!!! This is neon. And not just regular neon, like punch you in the face neon. When I was outside around twilight,  it literally almost glowed in the dark.

But chickadees,  this formula was atrocious.  It was like trying to smear mayonnaise on my nails. It was thick, streaky and also dried to a satin finish which was weird.

After I put the top coat on, I liked it better.



In the shade the brightness came through much better.


I'm using this in my next "day" challenge,  so look forward to that!
April