3DC: Inspired by a Color

3 weeks in!  I really did not think that I would make it this far into the challenge because it's pretty demanding, so I'm pretty proud of myself.  Today kicks off the final third: inspirations.
Inspired by a color is a little bit unfair because I have already posted color inspiration manis here, here, and here for Go Pink Wednesdays, and I'll have a couple more coming.  But, a challenge is a challenge, so I went ahead and tried another one.
I bought MaxFactor's Fantasy Fire on a blog sale a while back.  I know that this is super sought after and have been hesitant to use it because it's so small!  I decided to kind of let this be my color inspiration today.

The red/purple combo with the dark blue base is really pretty.  I have quite a bit of nail art coming up this week, so I really just wanted to do something simple and easy, and there's not much that's easier than layering glitter!  You can see the sparkle of Fantasy Fire in this next photo:

*1 coat Sally Hansen Hard As Nails
*2 coats Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Co-bolt Blue
*1 coat MaxFactor Fantasy Fire (ring finger)
*1 coat Finger Paints (thumb and middle)
*1 coat Nubar 2010 (index and pinkie)

 

 

I used 1 coat of Fantasy Fire over the navy Co-bolt Blue.  It's hard to really see in these photos, but in real life the pretty purple-red shimmer is very strong.  I hate that this is so expensive and hard to come by because I'd love to use more layers of it, but that bottle is so tiny!

 

I wanted to play with the red-blue color combo, so I used red-shifting flakies over the top of the navy.  I decided to use both Nubar 2010 and Finger Paints Flashy to compare them.  They both have red flakes of glitter that lay flat and are really easy to apply.

 

 

The flakes in Flashy are consistently a bit bigger than 2010, but the two are really close to each other.  I didn't think they'd be so similar when I used them because the bases appear so different, but it's really pretty hard to tell them apart on the nail.

Do you own any of these pretties?  How do you pair your flakies?  Any cool combos I should try?  What about Fantasy Fire?  Do you have it?  How do you use this tough to find jewel?

31DC: Galaxy Nails

I LOVE today's challenge! I am SO excited to keep working at the galaxy mani! This is such an easy way to do nail art because it is imprecise. I didn't muck it up too bad for my first attempt, which make me think you really can't botch this one. The effect is so amazing and looks so complex, but this went really quickly for me. I looked at a lot of tutorials and photos to get color and technique ideas because this looked so intimidating. I mainly used Adventures in Acetone's colors ideas (especially Nubar 2010) and Polish and Pearls' technique.

*1 coat Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Hardener
*2 coats Fantasy Makers Nail in the Coffin
*Aengland Tristam
*China Glaze Elephant Walk
*Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Green With Envy
*Color Club Wild At Heart
*Nubar 2010
*1 coat Wet n Wild Kaleidoscope
*1 coat Seche Vite

Nail in the Coffin was my only untried for this mani. It is rather thin, so I used 2 coats which built well. I strayed from my beloved Black Out cream because this one has some micro shimmer that I thought would add dimension. I used a small wedge-shaped makeup sponge that I ripped up for each color to add the layers. I started with Tristam because it is a gorgeous, holo-filled dark blue, which I almost used as my base. I realized afterwards that you really can't see this one, in photos or real life. Oh well!

After that, I sponged Elephant Walk around the edges of Tristam. I tried to focus on different areas of each nail, which I will probably work a bit more on in the future. After the gray, I used Green With Envy to further define the "arc" of my galaxy, if there really is one.

I used Wild At Heart because it is a gorgeous deep purple filled with holo glitter. This looked amazing! It was a little sheer in places, so I sponged layers until I was happy with how it showed up. After that, I sponged 2010 over the top, mainly though the purple areas. This flakey really doesn't show up well in the photos, but was a-mazing in real life! The red of the glitter really added a different aspect to this. I'm glad that I sponged it because it let me be more particular about where it went and it actually was pretty dense.

Over the top of everything I did one coat of Kaleidoscope. This glitter is so pretty and I don't use it nearly often enough! It is sparse enough to really let your base show through and has a good mix of micro and medium silver holo glitter. I know a lot of people use white or silver polish to dot on stars. The larger pieces of glitter in this really served that purpose for me. It made the look really come alive and reminded me so much of the night sky! I used a thick coat of Seche Vite not to really dry this, because the thin sponging dries really fast, but to amp up the shine. I also helps sort of blend everything together, giving a smooth finish to it all.

This was my very first attempt at a galaxy mani (I guess, in hindsight, I probably should have practiced before the challenge day!) and I love how it turned out! I know that there is plenty of room for improvement and technique tweaks, but I could not stop looking at my hands! I will fess up to the fact that I really haven't been able to do a mani each day with my work schedule. On Sundays I try to get my challenge posts for the week painted and photographed, and then post and write each night. This means I'm painting a lot of themes in a row and don't leave the polish on long. I also do the blogger-cheat and only paint my left hand. When I saw how this worked out, I couldn't resist painting my right hand too and wearing it until I changed for a pink mani. I cannot wait to do this again!
Have you played around with galaxy manis yet? Did you fall in love like I did? What colors did you find worked well? Any other cool tricks or techniques you discovered? I'd love to hear about them!

TRUly lovely

It's been a long, tough week. I'm happy for a couple of days of rest and wanted to give my nails some well-deserved loving. I took off my UPS mani, filed down my little brokens, and even put on a base coat. And then I slept.
I wanted to put up a new, current manicure, but instead will show one I did while my mom was in town last month that I did not post. I was inspired by this lovely combo that was posted over at Nail Loopy. It's one that makes so much sense, as soon as I saw it. Also, I adore her blog, so I'm excited to try my hand at what she does!

<Insert photo here, if blogger weren't being obnoxious!  Ugh!>

*1 coat Sally Hansen Hard As Nails
*2 coats Zoya Tru
*1 coat Nubar 2010 on accent finger
*1 coat Out the Door

Blogger is killing me right now.  Totally.  But, I really wanted to give some credit for a great mani that I adored, and I don't know when it will let me get my pictures up, so this is it.
Tru is such a pretty, dusty purple shade.  It translated much darker on my nail than I thought it would, but I got over that.  The shimmer is absolutely gorgeous in it.  It is such a strong pink/red shimmer in the sun that it's hard not to just stare at my hands! 
Instead of Chole, which is on my wish list, I used Nubar 2010 as my accent because of the strong red shift in it.  This was the PERFECT color compliment to the shimmer in Tru.  It looks like it is made to pair with it.  It is great coverage in one coat, but sparse enough to let the color and shimmer of Tru show through.  I really was sad to see this combo go. 
Sorry that there is no visual for this one, but I guess you really aren't missing too much.  Head over to Nail Loopy to get the idea and fall in love with this combo!