Moo Moo's Signatures Molly Moo and Snow Bunny Swatches

A few days ago I did this nail art mani and promised some swatches of the beautiful gray polish. And look at me! I'm actually fulfilling that promise. I also have a bonus swatch of another gorgeous Moo Moo polish. Lucky you!

Molly Moo is a gray holo with sterling silver flakies, gun metal flakies, silver ultra holo glitters, and subtle pink flakies. I am such a sucker for gray polishes, especially ones like these that are slightly more complex. Don't the flakies make it look like some sort of holographic granite? The formula was really great too. I used two coats, no top coat.

 

Cubbiful Inspired Polar Bear

Hello there! Today I have cute and wintry mani for you. If you don't recognize it already, this is recreation of Cubbiful's adorable Polar Bear Nails. When I saw her mani I fell in love with it with many audible "awww"s from me. I decided to be brave and try it myself. And while I still enjoy Mina's version better, I think my effort is commendable.

A England Gradient Snowflakes

My first nail art of the new year! Well actually I did this mani about three weeks ago but haven't had any time to edit photos and write a post. I thought I was mostly prepared for the holidays but as usual I was wrong. Now that things have chilled out a little I am hoping to be more active on my blog!

This was the first time using my new A England Wuthering Heights and Cathy. I had swooned over photos of these polishes for months. Then I finally bought them and it still took a few weeks to try them out. Let me tell you, they did not disappoint! I'm still so, so in love. I had two different ideas for this mani, so I decided to try them both. 

Far From The Winter Blahs

Now that it's January and the holiday season is over, it's time for the mundane. Weeks and weeks of endless ennui. That's a typical winter for me anyway. But this mani with its gorgeous gray polish and detailed pattern suddenly brightens my days and lifts my spirits. Gray skies may depress me, but this Dance Legend Grey Britain does anything but. 

ALIQUID Lacquer Make A Wish

Hello lovelies! Today I have for you the delightful ALIQUID Lacquer Make A Wish which I wore (can you guess?) for my family birthday celebration! I know, I know, that was like, two weeks ago. I don't have any real legit excuses for my lack of posts, except maybe that I've come down with a bad case of the winter blues. Can someone please tell me why humans don't hibernate?

Ruffian With A England Ascalon and Barielle Soho at Night

I have a quick and dirty post for all you lovelies today. My "schedule"(I say that to give you the impression that I'm actually organized) has been a little off lately, so I grabbed some photos that have been hanging out in my draft folder. Enjoy!

What I used:
Barielle Soho at Night- deep plum creme
a england Ascalon- holographic steel gray and lavendar duochrome
Sally Hansen Dries Instantly top coat

I hope you're all having a fabulous Friday! Have a great weekend. :)

Ulta Professional Nail Lacquer Twilight

Today's mani features Ulta Professional Nail Lacquer Twilight. I had a request to swatch Twilight after using it in my Nude Nail With Two Toned Tips post. I love the color of this polish, which is a mix of pewter and gunmetal with silver shimmer. This is a great Winter shade!

The formula is good and application was smooth. I used two coats, plus top coat. The one complaint about the Ulta Professional polishes is that the square caps are big and bulky. It's annoying trying to find a good way to hold the cap while applying the polish. The polish itself though didn't give me any issues.

Ulta Professional Nail Lacquer retails for $7.50 at Ulta stores or Ulta.com.

33 Day Challenge Day 22: Three Color Gradient + Pattern

I had taken a little break from the 33DC, so I have some catching up to do. I'm not sure what my method will be in making up for all the late posts. Today I decided to do Day 22, and we'll see where it goes from there! 

This is a three color gradient, it's just a little hard to tell, I know. I have a thing for very subtle gradients ;).  

This gray/silver gradient reminds me of something by H.R. Giger. Maybe I should have done some kind of alien pattern with it.

I started with a dark gray base color. Then I made the gradient with three colors of loose pigment eye shadows. I used the same brand of eye shadows and method as this post and this other post.

What I used:
Sephora by OPI Break a Leg-Warmer- dark gray base color
OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls- white
DRK-A Large Stamping plate 
NS Minerals Eyeshadow

33 Day Challenge Day 11: 3D

Today was another fun opportunity for me to try something new.  A few days ago I was browsing Nailscope and knew I had found what I wanted to do for today's prompt. I took my inspiration from Elina's 3D nails post. And by inspiration I mean I did pretty much exactly what she did. Why mess with it if it works? Okay, I didn't want it to look exactly the same, so I did a gray-scale interpretation.

Elina's was smoother along the curves, and I would like to know how she achieved that. Mine looks a little more rugged. I think it still works either way.

I started with my darkest gray and applied one thick coat all over the nail. I tried as best as I could to keep it slightly thinner in the middle though. I knew it would be covered up and didn't want the layers so thick that it would never dry. I continued with the next lighter gray and so on until I painted the white on. I tried to keep the white at one thick coat, but had to go over and touch up a couple nails with another thin coat.

Then a finished with some sparkle, my favorite part of this look. I added something a little different with the holo hex glitter polish on my accent nail. I tried to load up the brush with glitter, with as little of the clear part of the polish as possible, with both of these glitter polishes. Some of the big glitters I had to apply with a small nail art brush because I couldn't get them to spread on the nail with the bottle brush. It was slightly frustrating, but I made it work in the end!

Do these nails remind you of anything? I kept having this feeling that they looked familiar. It took quite some time, but I think I figured out what it is. There is a life size Lego sculpture of a polar bear at our zoo. Naturally, it's white. But there are gray tones too where the shadows are. The polar bear doesn't have any glitter though.

What I used:
(from dark to light)
Sephora by OPI Break a Leg Warmer
Sephora by OPI Frankly I Don't Give A-dam
China Glaze Pelican Gray
Sephora by OPI White Hot
Sephora by OPI Meet Me at the Disco- small holo glitter
Sephora by OPI Beam Me Up Hottie!- big hexagonal holo glitter
Seche Vite top coat

photo source: http://www.hoglezoo.org/coh

On a final note, this mani dried just fine with the Seche Vite. Yay!

31DC2013 Day 13: Animal Print

I really considered doing something unique and unexpected for today's challenge. That didn't happen for a couple of reasons. First, it would have been harder to come up with something different and to execute it awesomely. Second, I've been waiting for a chance to do this mani for a while now. After I did my first leopard print, I noticed a pair of my daughter's pajamas and knew I had to try it in this color scheme.

I even bought China Glaze Pelican Gray specifically for this leopard print. I love that it is the dove gray creme that I was searching for, and has an added bonus of a slight micro shimmer in it.

With the fleece pajamas. Too bad I don't have one in my size.

What I used:
China Glaze Pelican Gray- light gray
Sephora by OPI Break a Legwarmer- dark gray
Jenna Hipp Damage Control- pastel pink
Seche Vite top coat