40 Great Nail Art Ideas-Teal + Fan Brush

Hi everyone!  I'm starting a new nail art challenge that will last a whole year!  I'm only "officially" committing to every other week, which uses a color plus a pattern/nail art technique, but I might also post on the alternating weeks, which uses themes for prompts (e.g. last week was "hobbies", but I didn't get a mani done).  Anyway...this first week's color is Teal and my pattern is Fan Brush.  I've never done a fan brush mani, so this was a fun new technique to try!

I started with ONE creamy coat of KBShimmer Teal It to My Heart, a perfect fall teal.

 Then I used my fan brush and KBShimmer Sarong Place, Sarong Time, KBShimmer Breaking Blues, and Finger Paints Papier Mache.

I liked the way this turned out for my first try with a fan brush!  I'll definitely be using it again!

Check out everyone else's manis below!

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piCture pOlish "Aurora"

Hey everyone!  I'm just going to gloss over the fact that I've been off for two whole days and haven't posted yet...I've been swatching, so there are posts to come!  Today I have the first polish that I put on after a week of nudes and nearly-nudes; piCture pOlish "Aurora":

"Aurora" lives up to its name!  It's an intense blue to purple to green duochrome with some holo shimmer thrown in for good measure.  This is two coats over a black base.  These first two pictures are in the sun.

And these next two pictures are in the shade.  Yes that's the same polish!

This is definitely one of the most intense duochromes in my collection!  I'll have to get the rest of this collection from piCture pOlish!

Thanks for reading!

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NPC: Texture

Whew!  I'm getting caught up!  Mondays NPC called for texture, so I decided to use some new "Liquid Sugar" polishes I got from Icing.  I ended up with a pretty pastel rainbow!

From cuticle to tip, these are "Dreamsicle",  "Peppermint", "Lollipop", and "Pixie Stick".  I love the sugary names!

Thanks for reading!

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NPC: Glow In The Dark

Hi everyone!  Sorry for the absence.  My finals are over now!  Now I have a few days off, then clinical rotations start Monday!  I'm excited, but I do kind of wish I had a little more time in between to relax.  Oh, well, I guess I'll never get a break in the "real world"!

Here is my NPC from last Friday, "Glow In The Dark":

I started with a base of Elevation's "El Cap" and covered a couple accent nails with Ozotic 902.

 "El Cap" is a beautiful bluish purple with pinky-purple shimmer.  Unfortunately, the original formula is not available anymore.  There are two versions of "El Cap II", each more blue than the last.  They are great too, of course, but I loooove the original.  Ozotic 902 is a purple shimmer with a bit of blue duochrome effect.  This is part of the "Sugar" collection, and I love them all.  They look great no matter what you put them over.

For the glow in the dark effect I added Contrary Polish "West Bottoms".  This adds just the smallest amount of green with some glass fleck shimmer.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get it to show up in the dark!  I don't know if I needed more coats or what, but here is the best I could do.  You can see the bottle glowing at least!

This next picture is in the dark with flash, which okay, doesn't show off the GITD effect, but I really liked the way it turned out!

Thanks for reading!

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NPC: Holo

Hi guys!  Not much to chit chat about tonight, I'm still in finals mode and I just wanted to get this up on time for once!  Today's NPC prompt it "Holo".  Holographic is pretty much my favorite finish.  They just glow!  In the sunlight, and some even in dark light!  So today I have for you KBShimmer "Pretty in Punk":

 "Pretty in Punk" is actually a duochrome holo.  It's light green with a purple shift, but these pictures are in dark light, so the color shift doesn't really show up.  But look at those rainbows!

KBShimmer's duochrome holos are AMAZING!!!  I wish I had gotten some sunlight pictures, but I stamped over this right after painting.  I didn't end up liking the stamping though, so you don't get to see it!

Okay, I haven't linked to any brands/stockists while doing this challenge, but I have to give a shoutout to KBShimmer.  I love all the polishes I've gotten from her, and they're such a great price for indies.  AND she has great bath and body products too!  I've gotten samples of her scrubs and soaps which were great, and I always add on a bath bomb to my polish orders!  KBShimmer is a great place to start if you're just getting into indies!

Thanks for reading!

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NPC Day 11: Least Expensive

Hi everyone!  So I'm a day behind again, but only because I posted my Mean Girls mani yesterday instead of this one!  Yesterday's nail polish challenge prompt was "Least Expensive".  Well I definitely have a few that were gifts or gifts with purchase, but I thought I'd do one of the cheapest that I actually paid for.  Sinful Colors, Wet n Wild, and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear are all great brands that can be found for about $0.99, so I went with a couple unused Sinful Colors.

"Song of Summer" is an avocado creme.  This was such a great formula for 99 cents!  This is one coat here.  I've been really into greens lately, which is odd for me.  Green and yellow are usually my two least favorite nail colors.  But I feel like this is actually neutral enough that you could wear it to work. 

My ring finger and thumb have a coat of Sinful Colors "Rain Song", a pale purple to green duochrome.  I thought this would turn out more purple, like it is in the bottle, but I guess since I layered it over green, it pulled more green.  Next time I'll have to try it over purple!

Sinful Colors can be found at Walgreens, Walmart, and other pharmacies I think.  It's usually $1.99, but Walgreens often has sales for 99 cents.  What are some of your favorite "cheap" brands?

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NPC Day 10: Most Expensive

Hi girls!  Okay, I kind of love and hate this prompt.  Love it because otherwise I probably wouldn't have dared to use this precious, but hate it because I don't want to admit how much I paid for it!

Here is Enchanted Polish "Ciao Milano":

Unfortunately it was rainy and overcast when I took these pictures, so the true beauty doesn't really come out.  "Ciao Milano" is a blue-teal-purple duochrome glitter.  This is two coats over a black base.  I have a bracelet from Gosia with this polish on it and I've had people ask if it was a mood bracelet because it kept changing colors!  That's what actually started my lemming for this polish, and like other Enchanteds, it's super hard to get.  It was restocked a couple weeks ago, but I missed out on it and no one knows when the next restock will be, if there even is one!  So I bought this unopened bottle from someone in a Facebook group...for $35! :x   Worth it though!  This color is so much prettier in person!

This next picture is a little blurry, but it shows off the color-changing glitter a little more!

What's your most expensive polish?

Thanks for reading!

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NPC Day 8: Boutique

Hi everyone!  I'm behind on my Never-ending Pile Challenge!  I don't even have a good excuse, I've just been really tired this week.  So this post should have gone up Wednesday, and I'm hoping to get another post up tonight.  Two posts in one day for you!

Today's (or Wednesday's) Challenge called for a boutique polish brand.  The definition of a boutique brand changes a bit depending on who you talk to, but to me it means a brand that is not a large wholesaler (so not OPI, Essie, etc), but is larger than an in-house hand-poured indie brand.  So some examples are I Love Nail Polish, piCture pOlish, and Rescue Beauty Lounge, which is what I used!

Here is RBL "Abi":

 "Abi" is a chartreuse creme with a hint of silver shimmer, which did not come across in my pictures.  I was surprised by how much I liked this on me.  I could not get a color-accurate picture of this.  It's much lighter and more yellow-toned than it looks in my pictures.

I decided to add some stamping with MoYou Landscape Collection plate 06 since I haven't done any in awhile.  I used Butter London "Lillibet's Jubilee", a lilac foil.  "Abi" is a bit closer to real-life color in this next photo:

Thanks for reading!  I'll try to get my next post up later tonight!

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It's My Birthday!!!

Hey guys! I wanted to post my birthday Mani, because I decided to wear a special polish today.  Here is Enchanted Polish "Magical Mystery Tour":

This post is quite picture heavy, so I'll explain why this is special after the jump!

NPC Day 6: Indie

Hi everyone!  Today's NPC prompt was an easy one: Indie.  I have TONS of untried indies, so I reached into my way-way-back pile and came up with Darling Diva "Space Beetle" and Colors by Llarowe "Black Gold, Texas Tea".

"Black Gold, Texas Tea" is a rich black holo.  The formula was great.  Could have been a one-coater, but I added an extra for more depth.

I don't even know where to start with "Space Beetle"; there's so much going on in this polish!  At it's base it's a silver holographic, but then there's added duochrome microshimmer, so in different lights it looks silver, brownish red, lavender, or green.

Two more polishes I'm glad I finally got around to trying!  Hope everyone out there has a good weekend!
Thanks for reading!

An InLinkz Link-up

NPC Day 5: Jelly

Hi Girls! Hope you're having a good week!

Today's NPC prompt calls for a jelly. I originally had a totally different manicure ready to show you, but I didn't really like how it photographed. When I put this on, I realized it counted as a jelly too! Here is Contrary Polish "Make Believe Reality":

"Make Believe Reality" is a minty translucent jelly with lilac microshimmer.  Unfortunately, the shimmer didn't come out to play in my pictures, but it's beautiful in person!

"Make Believe Reality" is from the new Love Lyrics Redux collection, and can be found at llarowe.com.

Check out the other bloggers in this challenge below!

An InLinkz Link-up

NPC Challenge Day 1: Glitter

Hi everyone!  I'm in a Facbook called The Glittah Pirates, and today is the first day of our Never-ending Pile Challenge!

The point of the Challenge is to try some of your untried polishes that have been sitting around since the beginning of time!  Today's theme is "Glitter".  Well that's easy enough.  I just reached into my big box of untrieds and the first one I grabbed was a glitter.  Here is piCture pOlish "Mardi Gras"

"Mardi Gras" is a mix of teal, magenta, and silver glitters in a clear base.  Here I've layered one coat over Julep "Charlotte".  I could have done another coat to get more glitter coverage, but I kind of liked how it looked at one coat :)

I'm loving this glitter, but I think it would have *popped* more over a different base.  Oh well, now I know that for next time!

Thanks for reading, and I'll see you Wednesday for "Pastel"!

Checkout the other girls in this challenge below!

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piCture pOlish "Wisteria"

Hi ladies!  How has your weekend been?  I'm off work today and tomorrow, so I have some time to relax!  I do have a test on Monday that I should be studying for though...Shhhh!

Today I have for you a truly beautiful purple cream, piCture pOlish "Wisteria":

This post is a little picture heavy since I love this mani so much, so I'm going to put the rest under the jump!

Superficially Colorful "Turbulence"

Hi ladies!  No tricks today, just a beautiful polish from a new-comer to the indie market.  Jin Jit of SuperficiallyColorful.com has been blogging for awhile, but she just recently released her first two nail polish collections, Remnants of Winter and Mood Swings.  "Turbulence" is part of the Remnants of Winter collection.

"Turbulence" is a reddish maroon with a strong purple and blue duochrome flash and some scattered holographic shimmer.  I was surprised by how much I liked this one!  The duochrome gives it so much depth!

I took photos at multiple angles so you could see the different colors that come out!

The formula on this was great.  It was a little thick, but I had no problems with application.  I borrowed this one from Gosia to try, and I'm definitely going to have to get some of these for myself!

Jin's new polishes can be found at SuperficiallyColorful.com!

Thanks for reading!

OPI "Peace, Love, & OPI"

Hi girls!  How was your weekend?  It finally started to feel like spring here, but I don't know how long it's going to last...We're supposed to have storms the next few days, and then I think it's supposed to get a bit cooler again.

Today I have for you "Peace, Love & OPI" from the fall 2013 San Francisco collection.

"Peace, Love, & OPI" is a silver duochrome with a purple and green shift.  This is two nice and easy coats.

My ring finger looks kind of brush stroke-y here, but you can't see that in real life.

I think this photo really shows off the pinky-purple duochrome.

So, what do you guys think?  I love colors like this, and I have everything that's even sort of similar.  If I get a chance, I'll do a comparison post!

Thanks for reading!

a england "Dancing with Nureyev"

Hi everyone!  I meant to get this post up last night, but I spent forever refreshing Llarowe.com trying to get a couple of her charity polishes.  I managed to get three of the four I wanted, so I did okay!  Anyway, after that I was so tired I didn't feel like typing up a post!  Sorry!

Today I have for you a england's "Dancing with Nureyev" from the new-ish Ballerina collection.  I had to google to see who Nureyev was.  He was a Soviet-born ballet dancer, and one of the most celebrated ballerinos of the 20th century.  He defected to France in the early 1960s, and sadly died due to complications of AIDS in 1993.

"Dancing with Nureyev" is a pale lavender holo.

I had a problem with my editing software, so I couldn't get my watermark to show up on the rest of these :/  Oh, well!

 I decided to add some little flower stickers to my accent nail.  I thought this went together really well!

The formula of "Nureyev", like all a england's formulas, was nice and creamy.  I used two coats here. 

a england can be found at llarowe.com.  What do you ladies think of this color?  I am definitely ready for springy pastels!

Thanks for reading!