Sunday Nail Art-Tan, Brown, and Gold

Hi everyone! How've your weekends been? I've been watching lot's of Twin Peaks lately, which I guess is a little old for me, seeing as it was made in 1990, but it's SO GREAT! It's started getting really creepy and dark, which is just how I like it!
 So anyway, it's starting to get chillier here in NJ, and that can only mean one thing...autumn's here! I actually like fall alot, sweaters, blankets, my birthday, apple cider, and, for nail people like me, fall nail polish colors! Unfortunately for me, I'm really not a fall colors fan. I mean, reds, oranges, all these berry tones and dark greens, I'm not saying I hate all fall colors, you all know I looove me some navy! But in my head these fall colors just don't go together nicely. However, there is one fall palette that I like and will use, tans browns and golds! I love all the great brown shades that come out in the fall. And although gold is more of a "festive" color I suppose, I always put it with the fall colors. So today's nails are going to feature those exact colors:

Tan brown and gold! So this is one of the simpler designs I've done...it's also my first time ever trying chevron nails. I picked up these great chevron craft scissors at Michaels the other day, so I was like awesome I can do chevron nails now! Yay!

How it works is, you take some tape, I used masking tape cuz I prefer masking tape to scotch tape, and use the craft scissors to cut strips of the tape and boom, instant chevron "stencils"! I did get a little ocd though about the width of the strips, so yeah it kinda took me a while to cut all the tape. Idk i just get like that sometimes...

The dark brown is OPI-Berlin There, Done That, the fine gold glitter is Sally Hansen-Golden Rule (I am like so into that glitter right now! I can't explain it's just so awesome!), and the lightest tan/nude is OPI-Did You 'Ear About Van Gogh?. I am still unable to get over the amazingness of that name. I think it's my favorite polish name in my entire collection. And I have a polish named Nova!

 So after all the base colors were dry, I used a toothpick to put a piece of large gold glitter on my index fingers and pinkies, near the cuticle. (the glitter on my index finger is catching the light and looks green :P). Then I gently pressed my little tape chevron stencils onto my ring fingers and thumbs, and just painted the other colors on top. It was so easy!

I really like these nails, and I'm going to have to keep practicing with my chevron-ing. I really love the chevron look, so be ready for more chevron designs in the future!
Also my cat has been occupying my desk chair all day...I guess he thinks it's his chair now. I had to do my physics lab on the floor. And I'm sitting on the floor typing. Because I can't use my chair. Thanks a lot cat.
So thank you for reading guys! I have to go and find out who killed Laura Palmer now so...no spoilers!  

http://www.defectivegeeks.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/tumblr_lgkyodqE8C1qgrkbso1_500.jpg

Dale Cooper is the best.
I'm serious Twin Peaks is like my new favorite thing. 
Ok I'm done obsessing now. 
Byee
~Nova

Sunday Nail Art-The Resistance

Hi everyone! Gosh I'm SO excited to share my nails with you guys today! So if any of you know me, or even if this is your first time on this blog you can just check out the pics on the sidebar, you might see that I'm kind of a fan of the band Muse. 
Correction: Muse is my ALL TIME favorite band. Of all time. *Ever*
So first a little background, in case you've never heard of them. Muse is a UK band that formed in 1994, and consists of 3 members. They have released 6 studio albums, Showbiz, Origins of Symmetry, Absolution, Black Holes & Revelations, The Resistance, and The 2nd Law. Just saying...I own all 6. They have been nominated for 5 Grammy awards, and their 5th studio album, The Resistance, was their first album to win a grammy, for best rock album.
Ok so...nails:
Also I was totally listening to Muse on my ipod while doing these so :P

This manicure was inspired by the album art of The Resistance. Yayy! Glitter!
Let me just apologize now because I took like 50 pictures. These nails were just so sparkly and awesome I couldn't help it.

So the base here is Julep-Michelle. It's this awesome dark grey blue that's sorta almost black, but it's not, it's blue. God I just have such a love for navy/dark blue polishes! I must have at least like 5 navy polishes that are all basically the same color.

Michelle is a really great color and it's got a nice formula this is 1-2 coats, only some nails really needed the second. 
After that I applied a coat of Orly-Etoile to give it a nice silver shimmer. It's supposed to replicate the stars from the album cover. I sorta forgot to photograph this part :/

And after that came the glitter! Yayy! I picked this glitter up from Michaels. so technically it's "craft" glitter, but I was like wtf craft glitter=nail glitter, so voila. 

Basically the second I saw the awesome large hex glitter I knew I wanted to do nail art based on The Resistance. 

The design on the album has like a lot of gaps and holes in this honeycomb like pattern, so I tried to leave gaps between the glitters on my nails. My camera sort of fails at picking up sparkly stuff, but in person the design is definitely more visible. I tried not to get too glitter happy :)

On the thumbs I sorta wanted to do like the center of the album, where the Earth is in the middle of everything, but like I said, I GOT GLITTER HAPPY :0 I had like no room left to put the Earth. Oops. I did it a little better on my left hand:

I was able to leave more room in the middle of the nail. But still no earth :(
I used both large and small hex glitter in this design, cuz you can see on the album the hexagons get smaller and smaller. 

After I placed all the glitter I used a toothpick and white polish to make larger stars. 

I finished this design with THREE coats of top coat (!) cuz I really wanted the surface of the nail to be smooth and I didn't want the glitter sticking up or falling off. That's the only thing with large glitter, it tends to stick up in places. Other than that it's AWESOME. 

Overall I LOVE these nails! And the great thing is, even if you don't know what in the world Muse is (although you should!! They Rock! Literally!!) this design still looks really cool! I don't ever wanna take these off, they're like the coolest thing I've ever done.

Whew modesty be daaaamned.

 I guess I should also say that The Resistance really isn't my favorite Muse album at all...I just looove the album cover. clearly. My fave album by Muse has to be Absolution. I mean really, somebody go and listen to that album right now because I love it and it is fantastic.

So is anyone else here a Muse fan? Or is it just me...

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a3/Muse_melbourne28012010.jpg

Yay Muse!

Anyway I hope you all liked this post and found it......ready for this....amusing 

:D

I know I know...I'm pathetic and I suck

I should just not be allowed to say words

Ok bye guys

~Nova

Double Post-Mermaid Style Nails

Hello everyone! Whew I'm back from that long break I took. So yeah I had sleepaway band camp and stuff...God band camp is literally NON STOP work! We have to learn drill and music and be good so our band instructor won't yell at us. But you know it's actually a lot of fun...we slept in cabins with our friends and had theme days like purple day and superhero day and we had a talent show and it was awesome! Ok that was 5 days, so then after that we had Labor day weekend which I spent with some family, and I went SHOPPING which was fun, as always. Then SCHOOL started again. I got to meet all my teachers and stuff...I'm loading up on honors courses so I'm probs gonna be like super busy during the year :( so yeah I've been busy lately...But it's a long 4 day weekend so it's back to posting! 
Today's I've got another fun double post for you guys with my good friend Carlee. If you missed our last double post you can see it here. 
Today's theme was mermaid inspired. Carlee is sporting this lovely polish:

"Hi blog readers! So this is Carlee and this polish is Sephora By OPI-Mermaid To Order. This polish is an aqua blue/teal color with a shiny metallic finish. It's a little frosty and you can see some streaks and brush strokes but it doesn't take away from the appearance. 

This is with only one coat plus a quick dry top coat, but another coat of polish could be used for touch ups or if you have larger nails. This polish goes on very easily, it's pretty thin but still thick enough for only needing one coat for opacity. 

This polish is also a little different depending on the lighting, it can look more green or blue, and these pics are making it look a little more blue than it really is. 

I love this polish and it's probably the favorite polish I have ever used, I am just IN LOVE with it! I think this is a serious must have for everyone's collection, I mean, it practically glows. So these sell for about $9 a bottle, but I got mine in a special gift box that came with other polishes, I don't remember what it was called...
That's all I've got for today thanks for reading my post everybody!"
Ok so to go along with Carlee's nails I thought I would just pull out one of my metallic teals and swatch it, but then I thought geez that would be so boring. I was thinking about some nail art to do to match Mermaid To Order and then it was like hey, it's got mermaid in the name, it's time for Mermaid Nails!! Yayy!

So these are the mermaid nails I came up with. Whenever I think about mermaids I think about colors like gold and metallic greens and blues, like the polish above. And I also think of this:

http://norribeth.webs.com/photos/Take-a-splash/08_hp-mermaid.jpg

Yeah I know I'm a nerd. Most people think of like the little mermaid and Ariel and stuff right...?

http://images.fanpop.com/images/image_uploads/Ariel---Flounder-the-little-mermaid-223085_1280_1024.jpg

But whenever I think of Ariel I think of this:

http://i598.photobucket.com/albums/tt66/beth_soprano/Daily_Firefly/May25ariel.jpg

Two by two hands of blue...

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIOa1rZz-jWF2kANnHsN1Y4sQQW_MnFOGasWHWllOSFUlci_RBDrSsNhfGcx2h1GWi3kesXb801ZLkFZw49PjLjnmt30rLH31ywcVfqFyuhj-vGM-Bsha1V63TcJukmbau5w8WlqIzNCmv/s320/firefly_8_ariel.jpg

Ok sorry about my tangent...For those of who get this I bet you all agree with me. and for those of you who are looking at me like wtf yeah...sorry.
Ok so back to nails.

 I started with my lovely black base, then used striping tape to block off the fishnet pattern. I painted rows of Sally Hansen Lustre Shine-Plume(the gold), Wet N' Wild-Caribbean Frost(greenish teal), and an unnamed metallic blue polish onto a make up sponge and dabbed the gradient onto the nail. I remove the striping tape and voila. My mermaid mani is complete. almost

Just to add a little extra dimension and color, I painted a veeery thin coat of Essie-Shine Of The Times, a multidimensional iridescent flakie topcoat to give it a little more mermaid-ness.

 So this was the final result. These nails were actually very easy, I should do some more striping tape gradients in the future. I always love working with striping tape. It's fun.
Ok that was actually a pretty long post, thanks for reading guys!
And here's a pic of my band camp cabin:

Yeah it was purple day.

That's our entire band lol. I feel really nerdy now. This whole post was sorta nerd filled. And also yes, it was still purple day. 
Hooray for nerds, we're the coolest
~Nova

Deborah Lippmann-Cleopatra In New York

Hi everyone! Happy Friday, I'm going bowling tonight to raise money for our marching band trip, can't wait! I'm probably the worst bowler you've ever seen but hey, it's worth it! Lol last time I went bowling I completely broke my thumb nail...hope that doesn't happen this time :-/
Today's polish is a great one, I picked it up around Christmas time, Deborah Lippmann-Cleopatra In New York. I absolutely love this polish! It is so pretty and unique(I don't have any like it in my collection) and I love the name of it too...God it's awesome!

Cleopatra In New York is an awesome black jelly/crelly base with small and medium sized gold glitter mixed in. The base isn't so thick that it covers the glitter in the previous layers, so this polish has really great depth to it.

The formula on it is all right, the black base is a little sheer, and I'm wearing 3 coats here for full opacity. The glitter is abundant and easy to get onto the brush/nail, but I would give the bottle a nice shake first. I also added a little polish thinner to it to ease the application. A little bit of dabbing is needed for the glitter, but it's really not too bad at all. Here's a closeup: can you see how the glitter from the previous layers shows through but it slightly covered, I love how much depth this gives the polish!

Anyway, this polish is kinda special to me because it's actually the most expensive bottle of polish in my collection, at $19. I have this thing where I refuse to spend more than $20 on a bottle of nail polish, because that's just obnoxious, but you know...how could I resist this 19 dollar nail polish?!

So yeah, that's all I've got for today. Thanks for reading everyone and I'll see you tomorrow! Byee

~Nova

Double Post With Rose Gold Glitter

Hi everyone! How's everyone's day been? We got rain over here and band practice was cancelled, so I did lot's of swatching yay me! So today's post is a super fun one. Several days ago my friend Carlee sent me some pictures of her nails and wrote up a little blog post/description for me and wondered if I would post it for her. Of course I said yes, so today I'm happy to present Nicole By OPI-Haley Good Lookin'. This is actually pretty cool because I myself don't own any Nicole By OPI polishes! So these are the pics she took:

So Haley Good Lookin' is from Nicole By OPI's modern family collection. I feel like I'm the only person on the planet who doesn't watch Modern Family. 

This polish is a mix of rose-y gold glitter with some larger pieces of pink and fuchsia glitter mixed in. It definitely leans to the "rose" part of rose gold. This is a full coverage glitter and is meant to be worn on its own, so I don't really think you'd be able to layer it over anything. 

Ok so according to Carlee "the formula's ok this is one coat and you have to dip the brush back in a lot and dab it on. The brush is a nice medium size and spreads out easily. These pictures do not have top coat." 

So yeah when she sent me these pics I thought it would be cool to do sort of a "double post", so I picked the polish in my collection that I thought best matched HGL and I have swatches for you guys!
This is a Love & Beauty polish by Forever 21, I picked it up like AGES ago and never really used it. Don't know why because it's so pretty!

So this is sort of rose gold polish but it definitely leans more gold, in the bottle it looks sort of pinker but on the nail it's a much more of a golden color. It's small gold, silver, and pinkish copper glitter in this coppery-pink base. You can't really see the base color that well in the pics.

So this polish was kinda sheer and is probably more appropriate for layering, but I felt like wearing it on it's own and think it looks really cool this way. I really love this glitter color, it's almost like a nude glitter! Does that make sense? Not really...

The formula was very nice, it was a little sticky but that didn't make application any harder. This is 4 coats I believe, and there's a teensy bit of nail line showing, but it doesn't really bother me. Here's a closeup so you see the little glitter particles:

 Overall I really like this glitter! It looks really great on my skintone and I love the color. It also only cost $4 so hooray for cheapness!

So that's it for today! And if anyone else wants to write a blog post and would like me to post it feel free to send me pics and a description anytime! Thanks for reading guys and I'll see you all next time!
~Nova 

What I've Been Wearing (On My Nails)

Hey friends readers and other people! I'm back! Yay. I know I've been like mia for weeeeeeks now...I have a good explanation. I promise. Soo if you didn't know I was in China for 2 weeks...so obviously there was no blogging to be done there. But I had a great time I was there with my mom visiting family, my grandparents, who by the way, live in THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE, and eating Chinese food. Which in China, is nothing like the "chinese food" they have here. And dear God it was sooo hot! And I watched lot's of movies and TV and stuff. Cuz I was in the middle of nowhere and had nothing to do. But like, American TV stuff. I watched lot's of big band theory, and friends, and elementary, and FINALLY got a chance to watch Person of Interest! Yay me. And, of course, I bought more nail polish. The good thing about the middle of nowhere is that things are CHEAP! I got 5 bottles of polish for like 8 bucks. CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT!! Ok so then afterwards my mom and I stopped in Shanghai just for a couple days, and I bought more nail polish and visited some more family and stuff. And so I got back like 2 weeks ago i guess, on Friday night.   So yeah ALL of last week I was mostly free and probably should have updated this blog, except I was kinda busy yaknow...being the laziest ass in the world and watching friends all day and yeah...And then last thursday my family and I went to upstate New york to spend some time in a lake house with our neighboors, and we didn't get back till Sunday. And band precamp started on Monday and I'm away marching and playing in the hot hot sun from 9-2. So I guess this week I'll be able to get some blogging done, before leaving for band camp in Pennsylvania on Sunday, and will have no computer access/free time for all 5 days. So yeah August is like a super busy month for me. But I'll try and post some stuff for this week! I did do my nails after I got back from China and I have pics of those for you guys today!
So what I attempted here was a turquoise stone effect. Like this:

I'd seen lots of turquoise stone manicures so I thought I'd give it a try. So this is what I ended up with...

 So really not sure how I feel about these. I do think the effect is really cool...but I probably should have picked a more turquoise-y base color. What I'm wearing here is Urban Outfitters-Absinthe. It's a couple shades darker than what you see in the pictures. And that really isn't the color of absinthe. It annoys me when polish names are like that. If you're gonna name a polish absinthe you might as well make it the actual color of absinthe. But the dark teal color is still quite pretty! 

So after a couple coats of "Absinthe" I used plastic wrap to dab on white and grey polish. Then I used the water spotting method to get the black lines. It's basically where you put a few drops of black polish onto the surface of water, spray it with something like hairspray, which will create fine lines in the surface of the black polish, then dip your nail into a part you like to transfer the polish onto your nail. Much like water marbling. 

This was my first time ever using this sort of method, I don't even do water marbling that much because I find it sort of tedious. I think for a first try it came out pretty well though! I really like my pinky and index finger, I managed to get the finest lines on those. The other nails all seem to have larger chunks of black polish. 

Overall I think this is a manicure I'll be trying again sometime soon. Maybe with like other colors and stuff, it's a really cool effect and I got SO many people asking me how I did these! 
So that's all I've got you guys today! I'll be posting some more stuff this week (hopefully) before band camp so yay! Have a great rest of the day everybody!
Oh and fyi, THIS is absinthe

Please don't ask me how I knew all that.
~Nova