Plaid nails! for #NAILLINKUP

Did you know that today (Jan 25) is an unofficial holiday??  Happy Opposite Day everyone!  You can read more about the holiday here on this Daily Grid article.  Our monthly nail challenge called NAIL ART IDEAS LINKUP has the perfect theme to commemorate this funky holiday!  Ready to see my nails for our ‘OPPOSITE DAY’ theme??

I’ve never done PLAID nails before so I thought this is the perfect time to tackle them!  In fact, when I did Short & Sweet’s 30 day nail challenge last year I did my nails EVERY day except one of the days: PLAID DAY!  It seemed hard at the time, I was drawing a blank, and I decided to skip it.  Well, it still urks me that I never did the plaid prompt!  I’m ending all that madness today!

In true Opposite-Day-spirit, I also used a color that I rarely wear: RED.  Here’s how I did this plaid mani:

♥ I did two coats of Zoya Seraphina (silver) as a base color.

♥ Then I hand-painted 4 red stripes on each nail using a mini bottle of sephora by OPI called Sample Sale.  Because it’s a ‘mini’ the brush is really tiny so it was perfect for making the red stripes! Minis are very handy for nail art!

♥ Then I used an L.A. Colors black striper to paint a skinny black line in the middle of each red stripe.

♥  Lastly, I used my Essence tip painter (which is kinda like a striper) to paint 6 white stripes in between the red.

♥  Of course, I used my trusty seche vite topcoat to finish it off.

This mani took a while, but it wasn’t too challenging.  Just time-consuming.  To do both hands I had to hand-paint 140 stripes for goodness sakes!!  I’d also like to mention that I used Seize the Nails purple plaid nails as a reference while I was doing my nail art.  Bella’s purple nails are gorgeous and almost make me wanna try this look one more time with prettier colors just like hers:  PURPLE PLAID NAILS

That’s all for today!  View the other ‘opposite’ designs right here:

20 – 26 January – Opposite Day :

My Stripes for Golden Oldies Thursdays

This is my first entry in one of The Crumpet‘s nail challenges! This one’s called Golden Oldies Thursdays and the theme for this week is STRIPES. For my manicure I used some very old polishes to stick true to the rules. In fact, I really went for the gusto and used one verrrrry old polish!

My white tips were painted with Sally Hansen Teflon Tuff polish called French White Tips.  I don’t know how old it is, but I would guess about 20 yrs old? Wow, right? My magenta stripes were made with a Stripe Rite striper that I bought at Sally’s when I first started dabbling in nail art.  So I’d say that it’s probably 4 yrs old. Funny thing…. I never use my stripers anymore! Why, I have no idea! Then I outlined the stripes with a black nail art pen and stamped a little floral konad design on my accent nails.  This M4 KONAD plate was the verrrry first stamping plate that I bought a few yrs ago, so it’s perfect to use for this Golden Oldies challenge! 🙂

I’m not excited about my nail art pen lines looking so sloppy though!  I think the pen sticks and drags on the surface of my polish and it always looks funny- like a kindergartener did them.  Oh well!  It is what it is.  The sloppiness gives it some panache, right?

If you’re wondering why my nailbeds look so pink, so am I!  I started using Duri Rejuvacote and I am halfway through my ten day trial!  Not sure why my nails are turning pink with it!  I will post all the results when my ten days is up.  I love before and after pics!!!

view the other girls’ GOT Stripes here:

Day 11 of OMD Challenge- Striped Nails

I don’t know about you but I’ve been having a blast doing the Oh Mon Dieu Challenge!  I’m so happy to see so many fresh designs each day and that they span across different platforms like wordpress, blogger, IG and FB!  It’s so fun doing this challenge with all you girls!  Just had to say that!

Moving on to the theme for day 11- STRIPES.  I’ve never really done a straight up striped mani before so I went with a simple design.  I started with 2 coats of mint green polish and then painted on some beige and purple stripes using the bottle brushes right from the nail polish bottles.  Then I made some thin stripes using gold nail polish and a skinny striper brush.  This mani was relatively quick to put together.  And I like the soft vintage neutral tones… it’s almost like a palette cleanser since I’ve been using a lot of crazy bright colors during the challenge!  Here’s the polishes I used….

Mint Green ♥ Orly Jealous, Much?

Purple ♥ Butter London Scoundrel

Neutral Beige ♥ Butter London Yummy Mummy

Gold ♥ Sally Hansen Golden-I

Check out the other striped manis here↓ and I’ll see you tomorrow for dots, dots, and more dots!

11. Stripes :