31 Day Challenge 2013 - 20 Water Marble

This was only my second attempt to experiment with wate rmarble nails. Despite the air bubbles and bumps, I am calling it a success. GO ME!

I used Ulta3 violet, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Turquoise and Mint Sorbet, topped with Sally Hansen Mega Shine top coat.

But of course, I wasn't satisfied with how messy them looked, so I had another go. I still had major trouble getting any sort of pattern, but I did get the air bubbles and smoothness under control. I also decided to protect my sanity a bit and only did two marble nails on each hand.

31 Day Challenge 2013 — 18 Half Moons

I got a little swept up with the Halloween/Dia de los muertos (Day of the dead) holidays, though neither are celebrated to any great extent in Melbourne. I wanted to do a sugar skull candy mani, but I didn't want to take another break from the 31 day challenge. So I tried to incorporate both into the one mani.

I ended up wasting so much time doing and redoing everything when I should have be studying and I still didn't love the end result.

But here it is, Essie Blanc with a bunch of Ulta3 in yellow, orange and purple, and the mint green was Sally Hansen. I used a dotting tool and a small brush. In hindsight, I should have taken out more than one dotting tool to save myself the hassle of cleaning it between colours.

 

In direct sunlight

I used my new Essence Express Dry Drops to hurry things along. It worked pretty well, though it gets a bit greasy! I grabbed it when I finally saw it available in a priceline store, — they are usually all gone when I go past an Essence stand. No wonder for only $3.50!

Might be do a comparison post after exams, with the various fast dry items I have.

31 Day Challenge 2013 - 04 Green Nails

The first time I attempted some half-moon nails, I ended up with a right ol' mess. I didn't have experience with taping and didn't let the first layer dry properly nor stick it down firmly.

Anyhow, I  have a whole box of hole protectors (am I the only one who thinks that sounds funny?) for my printed materials for Uni. So I gave it another go, this time waiting patiently and also cutting them in half so that they stuck on better and created a nice seal.

However, I made the mistake of choosing a jelly polish as the main colour, so it's not quite opaque despite 3 fairly thick layers (hey, it was a new polish that I hadn't used before!)

I used an old Revlon Lime polish and the Ulta3 Jelly (ok, it was named jelly, what did I expect?)

It wasn't planned, but it turns out today, 7 September, AKA federal election day, is the perfect day for me to have green nails to reflect my own personal political stance!

My right hand

For some reason, both my index fingers have wonky moons

Left hand

One day, I will put in a bit more effort and take photos with my nice camera... and try to do them during the day so I can photo under natural sunlight!