Catching Up on the 52 Week Challenge!

Hey guys!  Sorry I haven't posted in a while.  School and work have gotten really busy lately, and it's approaching finals soon.  I've still been polishing my nails and everything, just haven't really had the time to go through and edit pictures.  Only 2 more weeks until the quarter's over and then I can do some soul-feeding with nail polish, Assassin's Creed, random DIY crafts, and some self-pampering.  And I need to clean the house...but that's another story.

Anyways!  Onto the nails :)  Previously, I was behind on the 52 Week Challenge, but now I am finally up to date :)  Since I haven't posted in a while, I just decided to let everyone see what I've done over the last couple weeks all at once.  So enjoy!

Week 9: Rainbow

Week 7: Black and White

Week 8: Saran Wrap

More details after the jump!

113. OPI - Don't Mess with OPI

Don't Mess With OPI is a lovely blue-toned green cream.  It's very muted, yet it still makes a statement.  It is also quite similar to Jade is the New Black.  Perhaps a comparison post is in order.

This was a lovely two coater.  Consistency was wonderful, and OPI's brush is always a dream to use.  Shown with no topcoat.

Pardon My French!

Today I just have a french manicure for you guys, but it's a little more interesting because of the colors used.  I feel like this would be a good mani to wear with a LBD :)  The base color is Rehka, a rich red that is actually darker in real life than in this picture.  The tips are AA's Hassid.  I actually tried to freehand the tips, but they didn't look that nice, so I covered the lines with white striping tape in order to make it a little cleaner looking.  Funny how the striping tape is actually a bit transparent.

52WC:Week 6 - Inspired by a Game

I'm a little behind on this challenge, but I am determined to catch up and see this through to the end!  I love the different themes, and this week is inspired by a game!  I chose to be inspired by Maplestory!  While hard-core gamers may scoff at this MMORPG, this game took up a large portion of my life during middle school/early high school.  I spent probably hundreds of hours on this game and made a few high level characters before the game got heavily modified to make it easier to level (I guess due to waning interest in the game).  Here's one of them, my lovely level 131 Ice/Lightning Archmage:

Kinda fugly now, but high level equips generally are.

On the thumb is an orange mushroom, one of the harder monsters a noob can encounter.  On the middle finger are maple leaves, iconic of the game.  And on the pinky is a green slime (cute little monsters, but oh so annoying), on a sparkly green and gold base.  The green and gold base represent the forest of Ellinia, where these slimes are often found.

For the thumb, middle, and pinky nails, I used a combination of striping brushes and dotting tools to create the pictures.  The clouds on the index finger were made with a dotting tool, and the gradient on the ring finger was done with a makeup sponge.

112. Zoya - Megan

Megan is a light lavender-grey cream.  It is from Zoya's Winter 2011 Collection, Feel.  The problem is, Megan does not really stand out in this collection to me.  It's an elegant color, I just can't say it's a very memorable color.

Formula was nice on this polish.  It was fluid, but not hard to control.  This is 3 coats, shown with no topcoat.

111. Zoya - Monica

Monica is almost an eggplant purple, but not quite so dark and vampy.  It's a good medium red-toned purple, a great fall color and very flattering.

Formula was good and opaque in 2 coats.  Monica nearly applied herself, it was that easy to work with :)

110. China Glaze - Liquid Leather

Liquid Leather is one of my favorite black bases to use in nail art.  Not much to say here, it's your basic black.  It makes a good base for sparkle/duochrome topcoats :)

Slightly watery formula, with a little cuticle flooding.  2 coats shown here.

109. Zoya - Shelby

Today I'm showing you guys Shelby, a perfectly bubblegum pink cream.  It kind of reminds me of classic bubble gum, much like Hubba Bubba.  I don't really do pink, but I figured I didn't have anything else in my collection like this, so I went ahead and bought it. :P  Shelby's such a nice girly color, but I might just swap it away, due to the mere fact that I probably will not ever use this again.

Formula was iffy.  The consistency was thick, patchy, and hard to level.  It required 3 coats to get even.

108. Jessica - Pumpkin Delight

Haha, this name reminds me of Turkish delight...that dessert the White Queen used to seduce Edmund to the dark side in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.  Pumpkin Delight is a perfect fall color.  It's a pinkish-bronze foil, with gold and pink shimmer throughout.  Definitely reminds me of the color of falling leaves.  However, I had to take this color off prematurely, due to some spray paint adventures.  In some lights, this polish looks a bit pink, but it is a nice bronze in most lights.

Formula was good, easy to get nice even coats, but a bit slow to dry.  The brush was also kind of big, making it hard to cleanly polish my nails.  This is 2 coats with Poshe on top.

107. Zoya - Evvie

First things first, I love the name of this polish.  It reminds me of:

So cute!

Speaking of Pokemon, I carved a Pikachu pumpkin at a party my PI held last weekend.  It was my first time carving a pumpkin (I truly am a city girl), so it didn't come out as well as my inner craftsman would like.  But it did look pretty decent.  It was fitting for Halloween too, since it looked a little bit creepy (those eyes *shudder*).

Not the best picture, but you get the point.

Usually I'm don't really celebrate/do anything for Halloween (as shown by my lack of Halloween-themed nails), so this was a nice change of pace.

Pokemon fanaticism aside, Evvie truly is a lovely color.  I guess you would call this a dark sage green cream.  I don't know all these special names for colors, but what I do know is that this is a nice, dusty, blue-based green.  I love these dusty colors; they're so flattering on many skin types!

Application of Evvie was much like with Natty:  easy to control, a little more liquidy than most Zoya creams I have, but perfectly opaque in two coats.  No complaints about this polish!

52WC:Week 5 - Giants Won the World Series!

Hey guys!  This week's challenge is orange.  It's especially appropriate because it was just Halloween...AND THE GIANTS WON THE WORLD SERIES!  Ahem, sorry for my outburst there.  Normally I'm not a huge sports fan in general, but my boyfriend follows sports, so I've picked up a few things.  That, and it's my hometown team,  how could I not support them? :)

So for this week's challenge I did a slightly-Giants' themed mani.  I'm a tiny bit late in posting this, but here it is.  I did the SF symbol using a striping brush as an accent nail, and an orange over black gradient on all my other nails.  To make the orange pop more, I did the SF symbol and a gradient in white over the black, and then I filled in the symbol and did a gradient of orange over the white.  Then I coated the orange parts with glitter, because glitter makes everything better! XD

Colors Used:
China Glaze Liquid Leather
Zoya Arizona
Sinful UFO

106. Zoya - Natty

Natty is a faded denim kind of color.  This color kind of reminds me of Baubing for Baubles or Zoya Kelly.  Definitely less dusty and gray than Kelly though, and maybe a hair dustier than Baubles.  I'll definitely have to do a comparison at some point.  I absolutely love dusty polishes in the fall!  It's a pop of color without being offensively bright!

Natty went on like butter.  The formula was a little thinner than most of my Zoya creams, but that's a good thing.  Sometimes Zoya's creams are so thick and a hair hard to control.  However, I was able to achieve nice, thin, even coats of Natty.  This was perfectly opaque in 2 coats, and it is shown topped with Poshe.