Rosette manicure: May NCC #4

Hello sweeties! Today I’m sharing with you my last floral manicure for May’s Nail Challenge Collaborative theme.

Roses and stripes and dots and neon… oh myyyyy

Yeah, there’s a whole lot going on here! I got a little lazy and didn’t want to do the striped floral design on all my nails, so I just dotted up the rest of my nails.

Rose manicure

I think it’s a bit too busy for my taste. And is it just me or does it remind anyone else of Easter eggs? Not really the look I was going for, but I really do love how the floral nails came out!

Rose manicure

Oh and excuse all the pink on my ring finger’s cuticle. I got a bit messy with painting the flowers on, and that neon pink was a beyotch to remove!

Polishes used/ how I did this:

• Index finger:
  • Base color: KBShimmer Rum Me the Right Way… This yellow is crazy awesome! Yellows don’t tend to flatter my skin tone, but this banana bright yellow that borders on neon looks good on me! The formula is pretty good – it’s not KBShimmer’s usual amazing creme formula, but it’s better than most pastels or neons. It took 3 coats to get a smooth opaque nail.
  • Dots: KBShimmer Sarong Place, Sarong Time… Another gorgeous polish from KBShimmer’s Summer 2015 collection. I love this fuchsia! It worked perfectly for dotting and the flowers, and I can’t wait to wear it as a full mani!
• Middle & ring finger:
  • Base color: KBShimmer Rum Me the Right Way
  • I put striping tape down, then painted ellagee Snoozing in the Hammock over… I LOVE this  polish! Snoozing in the Hammock is a gorgeous light periwinkle, and it’s beautiful.
  • Roses:
    • Pink roses: Virago Varnish Tsunami Mommy with accents of Virago Varnish Bikini Boardwalk… These neons are both from the most recent collection by VV. I saw reviews on this collection on YouTube and promptly bought all of the polishes! Neons continue to be a weakness of mine. Tsunami Mommy is a beautiful hot pink, almost magenta leaning. And Bikini Boardwalk is a gorgeous neon baby pink.
    • Purple roses: KBShimmer Sarong Place, Sarong Time with accents of Polish my Life Muscat Martini… Muscat Martini is my favorite pastel almost white purple. LOVE it!
  • Leaves: Zoya Hunter… A beautiful hunter green creme.
• Pinky:
  • Base color: KBShimmer Rum Me the Right Way
  • Dots: Virago Varnish Tsunami Mommy

Check out more floral manis from the talented ladies of the NCC:

And now for your daily David Tennant:

Blue Mosaic Color Blocking: September NCC #2

For my second geometric manicure for the September NCC, I played with striping tape and ended up with what looks like an abstract R2D2. I find striping tape so annoying to work with sometimes – this manicure was certainly one of those times!

My abstract R2D2 mani

I really do love the end product though. This took foreeeever (does anyone else get flashbacks to The Sandlot here? Fooor-ev-eeer… loved that movie as a kid!). All that hassle with striping tape resulted in a really pretty manicure! I used a bunch of new polishes I recently picked up, including my very first Chaos & Crocodiles polish!

Sparkly striping tape mani

Ugh, that C&C holo is digustingly beautiful! C&C put out a Secret Agent collection, filled with a rainbow of gorgeous holos. I picked up 3 – the blue you see in this manicure (Sleeper Cell), a lavender called Decoy, and a red called Security Breach. They are all just soooo stunning. Oh! And I saw that people who bought the whole collection got a really amazing package with Secret Agent-themed items. I kind of wish I bought the whole collection now… Hey, there are always restocks right?!

Look at that Blonde Ambition in my hands! So pretty!

Anyways, I just love this manicure!

Colors used:

• Base: OPI My Vampire Is Buff… I can’t believe I didn’t own this before now! I love this super-smooth creamy nude!
• Barry M Damson… a stuuuunning cornflower vibrant blue! Love this so much!
• Chaos & Crocodiles Sleeper Cell… very strong blue holo with some hues of teal. Love love love!
• Colors by Llarowe Blonde Ambition… a gorgeous golden nude with a very strong linear holo. Someone posted in a polish-themed facebook group that this is almost identical to Color Club Cherubic, so you need to own one of them! I haven’t swatched them next to one another yet, so I can’t say for sure if they’re dupes (& which one you need). BUT the color and holo is to die for, so you have to have one!

So yeah, I love it! Do you see what I mean about an abstract R2D2 though? Do you have Chaos & Crocodiles polish – if so, what others are must-buys? Also, any suggestions on making striping tape less annoying?

Check out more geometric manicures:

First Striping Tape Manicure

It was my birthday last week (yay!), and despite thinking that I couldn’t possibly need any more nail supplies my mother was awesome enough to get me striping tape, nail studs, brushes, and a variety of other fun things. So I had to try out my new toys!

 

I used one of my all-time favorite colors, a bright minty green. I recently bought a few China Glaze polishes from Beyond Polish, which offers them at $3- $3.50! Highlight of my Summer was a must-have… it’s this amazing pastel neon mint green that I’m in love with! 

 

And who doesn’t love a sparky mint green like Orly Sparkling Garbage? So I knew I had to use both! To accentuate the gorgeous greens, I started off with a nice neutral color – Essie Chinchilly. I love this color, but the polish was very sheer & thin/ almost runny. It was extremely patchy on the first coat, but I was pleasantly surprised that the 2nd coat made it evenly opaque.