Girly Girl Challenge #3: Delicate and Elegant

Hello Again!

...and we're back!

Time for another installment of the Girly Girl Challenge!
Today is day 3 and that means...

Delicate & Elegant: Adorn yourself with a lovely pattern, color or technique.

So since my blingy manicure was a little OTT, delicate and elegant definitely seemed to be called for.  I recently picked up a Color Club set for french tips so I went for a classic elegant look.  I paused after I wrote this to chuckle because I am aware that a debate exists as to whether or not french manicures are only for porn stars now.
LOL

OK, moving on, classy and elegant, right?

So there we go!  Delicate and elegant!  I started by freehanding the french tips in, appropriately, Color Club - French Tip then I added a sheer pink Color Club - More Amour.  I'm not really fond of the super bright white tips, so, this gives the clean look of french tips while keeping it all soft and pinky.

Then I added a little nail art.  Nothing too crazy, just a little pink flower for each finger.  Done with a dotting tool, the flower is China Glaze - Designer Satin and the centre is essence - wanna be my sunshine?

My only gripe with this mani is that because the french mani is the default look for gel nails, it's giving me the feeling that my real nails are fake.  Nothing wrong with that, I just keep getting surprised when I look at them.

Hope you like it.
'Til next time,
Amanda

Please check out what the other ladies participating in this challenge have created!
Challenge Creator: Lindsey of Neverland Nail Blog
Ashley of Follow The Yellow Polish Road
Stephanie of A Little Polish
Kelly of Devilish Polish
Jodi of Captivating Claws
Danielle of Polish. Glitter. Rock & Roll!
Elly of Polishable
Olivia of Unprofessional Nails
Kate of This Charming Kate
Bethany of A Plethora of Nails
Lizzy of The Do It Yourself Lady
Eugenia of Talon-ted
Johanna of Neues vom Kellerkind
Ashley of Smashley Sparkles
Sarah of See Sarah Swatch
Emily of The Lacquerologist
Jess of LuvMyLacquer
Tressa of O' Natur Nail

ChiChi of I'm just me...ChiChi

CR of Color Me Silly
Amanda of Berry Polished
Robin, Erin, and Anna of Polished Cousins

Bonny of Over Stuffed

Taylor of REJOICE!
Jess of Nearly Natural Nails

Contact Me

If there is any need to contact me (comments, questions, swaps etc.)

I can be reached at faulka [at] gmail [dot] com

Amanda

Nail Mail!

I've gotten quite a bit of nail mail recently, so, I thought I'd put some of it in a post.  I can't put it all in one or this post would be way too long.

So first up is a parcel I received a couple weeks ago.  I bought it from Amazon and the seller shipped promptly and securely.  Yay! 

Girly Girl Challenge #2: Bring on the Bling!

Happy Daylight Savings Time!

It's the first week of the challenge and I'm already behind!  Yikes!  The good news is that I've already done the challenges for this upcoming week so I'll just schedule those posts and there won't be any delays this week. :)

Challenge #2... let's consult the chart shall we?

Gimme That Bling!:  Diamonds are a girl's best friend so put some sparkle on those nails!

So, I love blue with diamonds and I love blue stones so I figured, why not put it all together?
I kept this manicure relatively simple because I wanted the stones to really stand out.

I started with a base of Essie - Midnight Cami.  It's a gorgeous midnight blue with subtle shimmer (the shimmer seems very shy in my pics).
Then I added giant blue rhinestones at the base of my nail.  Last, I framed the blue with two small clear rhinestones on either side.  I'm pretty happy with how this turned out.  I wanted non-fussy bling and I think that's what I got!

Be sure to check out what the other ladies participating in this challenge have created!
I'm so behind that theirs are all up.

'Til next time,
Amanda

ETA:  I know the rhinestones are ridiculously huge, but when it comes to diamonds, it's go big or go home.  Am I right, ladies?


Challenge Creator: Lindsey of Neverland Nail Blog
Ashley of Follow The Yellow Polish Road
Stephanie of A Little Polish
Kelly of Devilish Polish
Jodi of Captivating Claws
Danielle of Polish. Glitter. Rock & Roll!
Elly of Polishable
Olivia of Unprofessional Nails
Kate of This Charming Kate
Bethany of A Plethora of Nails
Lizzy of The Do It Yourself Lady
Eugenia of Talon-ted
Johanna of Neues vom Kellerkind
Ashley of Smashley Sparkles
Sarah of See Sarah Swatch
Emily of The Lacquerologist
Jess of LuvMyLacquer
Tressa of O' Natur Nail

ChiChi of I'm just me...ChiChi

CR of Color Me Silly
Amanda of Berry Polished
Robin, Erin, and Anna of Polished Cousins

Bonny of Over Stuffed

Taylor of REJOICE!
Jess of Nearly Natural Nails

Walk on the Wild Side

essence has just arrived here in Canada.  I knew I wanted to do a mani to celebrate and I've seen so many acid coloured zebra manicures that I  knew I wanted to try one.  I've seen lots of colours on one nail, I've seen one colour each nail, I've even seen professionalDQ paint a wall of her kitchen in a rainbow zebra.

I wanted to try it, but of course I wanted to try my own spin on it.  This is what I came up with.   A rainbow zebra that progresses down my nails with some overlap.

I think this might be my favourite manicure I've ever done on myself.

The colours I used were: Thumb = China Glaze - Pool Party + essence - wake up!

Index = essence - wake up! + essence - wanna be your sunshine

Middle = essence - wanna be your sunshine + essence - lime up!

Ring = essence - lime up! + essence - let's get lost

Pinkie = essence - let's get lost + essence - break through

I used Bundle Monster plate BM-223 to stamp and Konad Special Polish in Black.

Sorry for all the pics, I'm just so in love with these nails.  Anyways, last but not least...a rare daylight shot of my nails.  (There is a reason I named my blog NOX nails, after all)

So, there it is.  I freakin' love it and I think it's a worthy welcome to essence in Canada.

Hope you all love it too!

'Til next time,

Amanda

Girly-Girl Challenge #1

On the weekend, Lindsey of Neverland Nail Blog asked for participants in a great challenge she created.

It's her Girly-Girl Challenge.
This is the challenge as it is laid out.

Lindsey suggested posting the challenge results on Tuesdays and Thursdays and I'm going to try and stick to that schedule.  I'm really liking this challenge because I'm a little commitment phobic, so a fun, relatively short challenge with posting flexibility seems right up my alley.  Plus, I'm not the girliest of girls so this actually is a bit of a challenge.

So, let's get to the challenge, right?

Day 1: Think PINK

Well, I wanted to use several different pinks and I had animal prints on the brain so I decided to do an Ombre manicure with leopard print over it.  Then I added little spots from two shades down the Ombre.

This manicure really pointed out to me how few pale pinks I have.  On the pinkie, I had to resort to white dots.

On my thumb, the base colour is China Glaze - Traffic Jam, index finger is China Glaze - Designer Satin, middle finger is China Glaze - Make an Entrance, ring finger is Essence - Ultimate Pink and pinkie is OPI - Pink Friday.  The leopard was stamped with Rimmel - Black Satin and Bundle Monster plate BM-223.

I hope you like it as this is my first challenge entry.

Anyone who happens by this post should definitely check out the entries from the other challenge participants.  I know they're all excited to participate and I'm sure their entries will all be amazing!
I know I'm excited to see all the designs.  I'm off to work right now but I can't wait to see them all tonight!

Challenge Creator: Lindsey of Neverland Nail Blog
Ashley of Follow The Yellow Polish Road
Stephanie of A Little Polish
Kelly of Devilish Polish
Jodi of Captivating Claws
Danielle of Polish. Glitter. Rock & Roll!
Elly of Polishable
Olivia of Unprofessional Nails
Kate of This Charming Kate
Bethany of A Plethora of Nails
Lizzy of The Do It Yourself Lady
Eugenia of Talon-ted
Johanna of Neues vom Kellerkind
Ashley of Smashley Sparkles
Sarah of See Sarah Swatch
Emily of The Lacquerologist
Jess of LuvMyLacquer
Tressa of O' Natur Nail

ChiChi of I'm just me...ChiChi

CR of Color Me Silly
Amanda of Berry Polished
Robin, Erin, and Anna of Polished Cousins

Bonny of Over Stuffed

Taylor of REJOICE!
Jess of Nearly Natural Nails 

Thanks for looking!

'Til next time,
Amanda

A Grey Day

Another stamping mani!  Yay!

Okay, so I need to apologise for these pictures in advance.  I had been wearing this polish for several days already and was just about to change it to something else when I remembered I hadn't photographed it.  That's why there is so much growth showing near the cuticle and there is so much tip wear. 

On top of that a pen slipped and jammed me in the cuticle.  That's the cause of the damaged index finger cuticle.  If that wasn't bad enough, it actually damaged my nail bed and created an indentation in my nail that I'm still waiting to finish growing out.

Alright, after all that, on to the mani!

I started with a grey base, Gosh - Miss Grey.  Then I stamped with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Lacey Lilac and Bundle Monster plate BM-209 on index, middle and pinky.  On my ring finger and thumb, I first stamped a fishnet pattern from BM-209 in SH Xtreme Wear - Plum Power (it barely shows up) then I stamped a flower from BM15 also in SH Xtreme Wear - Lacey Lilac.

The idea had been for the flower to look like it was growing up a trellis but the "trellis" part not showing up kinda ruined that.

Anyways overall, this was a semi-nailfail but it wasn't a total failure and it was a learning experience.

Thanks for looking!

'Til next time,

Amanda