Clovers and Gold

I wanted to wear some St. Patrick's day looks, and this is one that I pinned a while ago (originally painted by Glitter and Nails) and have been wanting to wear because the colors are awesome together.  My camera, however, does not capture Four Leaf Clover at all.  The problem, I think, is my flash.  When I simply use a lamp to light my photos the colors are MUCH truer, but the pictures are always blurry.  When I use the flash they are clear, but colors are off.  Do you have any tips?

*1 coat Hoof Lacquer
*2 coats China Glaze Four Leaf Clover
*3 coats China Glaze Gingerbread
*2 coats Out the Door

In real life, Four Leaf Clover is much darker and greener.  Here it looks like Aquadellic or For Audrey, but it is actually a really pretty blue-green cream.  It applies easily and I used 2 coats to get a clean, smooth finish.
Gingerbread is a polish that I bought a couple of Christmases ago and it is just stunning.  Macro photos are always rough on coverage, but in real life you can't see any gaps or nail.  I used 3 coats, even though I don't usually do full-coverage glitter, and loved it!  It is a warm holo gold glitter in a clear base.  It is pretty dense, but still sparse enough for layering in one coat.
I loved this look and it wore well until I went to work.  Then some tape took off a whole index nail and somehow I lost a whole accent nail.  I spotted it on the floor later--it just slipped off, like I had a glue base!  It made removal a lot easier, but it also made it come sooner than I had hoped.  

New 31DC: Splatter

Holy moley!  I don't know what I really expected when it came to a splatter mani, but not...this.  One thing that I am committed to, and love that many other bloggers are too, is being real about our nail adventures.  That includes the less than stellar.  Which 75% of this challenge is. 
First and foremost, Chalkboard Nails' tutorial really had the single best piece of advice: put down a big piece of wax paper.  If you think it's too big, it's not!

 

When I hear "splatter paint" I think of my childhood and homemade shirts.  Then, I think of Lisa Frank.  Thus, my color choices:
*1 coat Yello-Out
*1 thick coat Sinful Colors Snow Me White
*China Glaze Sun Worshipper, Four Leaf Clover, Gothic Lolita and Pool Party
*1 coat Wet 'n Wild Kaleidoscope

I wanted a neon blitz on my nails.  I got...something like that.  By the way, this was way messier and tougher clean up than my water marble disaster learning experience, even with some solid taping.  I realized that I was holding my hand like I do in pictures and splattering my palm too.  This is not for the sleepy!

I used a regular soda straw (probably from Wendy's because you NEVER use it when you have a Frosty...that's all plastic spoon!) that I cut into quarters.  I bet you can tell which finger I started with and where I ended up :)  Actually, my ring finger was first, then my pinkie (I got cocky).  I learned that some colors were blobbier (totally a word) than others.  Four Leaf Clover, a pretty bright teal cream, tended to be my worst enemy.  It overtook each nail and was hard to get to splatter instead of spill down.

I liked the color combination of the neon creams.  I wish that I had not used Sun Worshipper, though, because it is not truly opaque.  As you can see on my pinkie, it kind of layered into new colors.  Awesome neon marigold color, but not really what I had envisioned.  Gothic Lolita (always gorgeous in its bright purple-ness) and Pool Party (neon pink wonder) were pretty cooperative.  When I was less than satisfied with this outcome, I asked myself what Lisa Frank would do in this situation.  Add glitter!  So, I layered a coat of Kaleidoscope holo silver perfection over it all.  (In case you were wondering, adding glitter is ALWAYS the answer)

 

I actually really like how my thumb turned out!  That's a Lisa Frank dream!  This is what I pictured for all of my nails.  Index and parts of Middle aren't too shabby, but Thumb is really '90s rad.  I think that next time I'll get (and by that I mean swipe from a coffee shop) some smaller straws that don't hold as much polish inside and have a little more control in their splatter.  The improvement I saw as I moved from finger to finger was encouraging and means that you and I have not seen the last of some splatter fun.  Have you splattered before?  Any tips for avoiding Pinkie?  Any Lisa Frank love you just need to get out?  I totally understand.

31DC: Rainbow

This is a combination of the past challenges (except metallic, I guess): rainbow!  I had found a lot of really cute rainbows to try and there are a lot of really great interpretations for this challenge.  I decided to try a really cute pin I found on Pinterest.  I tried really hard to find this original source, but couldn't.  If you know who made this mani let me know so I can give credit!  This has 5 untrieds!

*Yello-Out base coat
*1 coat Sally Hansen Insta Dri Presto Pink (thumb)
*2 coats Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Sun Kissed (index)
*1 coat China Glaze Four Leaf Clover (middle)
*1 coat Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Blew Me Away (ring)
*2 coats China Glaze Gothic Lolita (pinkie)
*2 coats Sinful Colors Snow Me White
*1 coat Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Disco Ball
*Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Black Out
*1 coat Seche Vite

The colors I chose were so pretty on their own that I almost just left them a skittle.  I really wanted to see if I could pull of the balloon, though.  Overall, they were okay.  Almost every plosh was a one-coat color, which was awesome with so many to use!  I can't find my scotch tape right now, so I used some old French manicure strips I found, that actually had a good shape to them.  Because they are old, though, the adhesive was a little funky, which made for some bad lines.  I should have taken the time to clean up edges, but this one took a while and I didn't want to push my luck and mess up what I had. 

I had to add just a little sparkle to this one (though these creams are SO pretty) with some Disco Ball over the white. This was fine on all my nails except for the Four Leaf Clover. This got a funky green tint to it--I must have hit some wet polish? But it didn't show up on any other nail...oh well! I think I'll definitely try this one again sometime, maybe not as a rainbow. I'll need to work on my strings a bit, but overall I was actually surprised about how well this one came out!