Newsprint

I'm so pleased with how this manicure turned out, I didn't expect this technique to work very well. I transfered clips of the newspaper onto my nails using rubbing alcohol. The base color is Xtreme Wear Wet Cement. The writing will smudge off easily, so its best to apply a topcoat as quickly as possible. The top coat will also rub off the design so use very few brush strokes.

Left hand:

Right Hand:

                                                      Xtreme Wear Wet Cement by itself

To do this you will need:
             - Rubbing Alcohol
             - Q-Tips, or cottonballs
             - Newspaper clippings
             - Top Coat

The Process:
            1. Secure a piece of newspaper to your nail, with the ink side facing down.        
            2. With the other hand, dip your Q-Tip or cottonball into the rubbing alcohol.
            3. Press the saturated Q-Tip against the newspaper for about 30 seconds, make
                sure not to move the clipping around the nail too much while doing this.
            4. Carefully remove the newspaper.
            5. Wait a little for the rubbing alcohol to dry.
            6. Apply top coat! Use as few strokes as possible so you don't smudge the design                      
      

Cosmic Blue

Cosmic Blue is part of the Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Xtreme Wear collection. On the nails it just looks like a chunky version of Blue It, but with closer inspection you'll realize that those "chunks" are actually rectangular and circular holo glitters. This color is GORGEOUS in the bottle, but unfortunately the color doesn't translate onto the nail that well. The base color of this polish is so dark that it kind of covers the glitters, making them very difficult to notice. You can see the holo glitters when light hits them, but they are sparse. Two coats of this is opaque but can tend to be a bit uneven. I would also recommend two coats of topcoat if you prefer the nail to be smooth.

                                                             Just look at this bottle!

Half Moon

My first half moon manicure! I wasn't a big fan of that particular design to begin with, but I thought I would give it a shot, and now I'm in love! I went ahead and made a actual half moon. The blue as the night sky, and the gold as the cresting moon.

For the gold I used China Glaze Midnight Kiss,  and the blue Xtreme Wear Blue It.

Candy Stripe

I was really in the mood for something fun and colorful, and what's more colorful than a rainbow! I kinda channeled my Phillies manicure with this one; I really liked the look of the stripes on that one. So I altered that to be more, well, exciting!

The base color is Extreme Wear White On. (Left to right, thumb) Extreme Wear Real Teal, Going Green, China Glaze Four Leaf Clover, Extreme Wear Mint Sorbet, Green With Envy, Mellow Yellow, Sunkissed, Essie Haute As Hello, Extreme Wear Caribbean Coral, Sally Hansen Maximum Growth Perfect Cherry, Extreme Wear Fuchsia Power, Bubblegum Pink, Lacey Lilac, Zoya Mira. On the thumb is Extreme Wear Blue! Me Away, Pacific Blue, Zoya Mira, Extreme Wear Lacey Lilac.

What a mouthful.

Abomination

This may have been the biggest nail mishap I've ever had. I thought it would be neat to try to layer crackle colors on top of each other. But boy was I wrong!

(Pre-disaster) left to right, thumb: China Glaze Techno Teal, China Glaze 108 Degrees, China Glaze Flying Dragon, Zoya Charla, Zoya Apple.

I then added (from let to right, thumb) China Glaze Crackle Black Mesh, China Glaze Crackle Lightning Bolt, China Glaze Crackle Crushed Candy, China Glaze Crackle Cracked Concrete, China Glaze Crackle Broken Hearted.

On top of all that I added (left to right, thumb) China Glaze Crackle Broken Hearted, China Glaze Crackle Black Mesh, China Glaze Crackle Lightning Bolt, China Glaze Crackle Fault Line, China Glaze Crackle Crushed Candy.

Oh god. I can hardly look at this. The first layer of crackle went pretty smoothly, but the second is where everything went off the deep end! The top layer didn't crack at all! It just left an almost see-through film on top. I didn't put a top coat on, and I didn't even bother to clean this up. Needless to say I took it off immediately after taking these pictures.

Flying Dragon

China Glaze Flying Dragon had been on my wish list for far too long! So I finally bought it! It's from the China Glaze Ink Collection which was released in 2008. Flying Dragon is a purple neon, but what really separates it from other neons are the flecks of glitter in it. I normally would not be attracted to a polish like this, but when I noticed the gorgeous pink and blue glitters in it I couldn't resist. The glitters were fairly impossible to capture on my nails in pictures, but you can see them fairly well in the bottle (Enlarge for greater detail). They're subtle, but really beautiful. This color dried very quickly, with a matte finish. It was also very opaque in 2 coats, but still a little uneven, so I would recommend three.

With top coat

Philadelphia Phillies

The Philadelphia Phillies are a major league baseball team, and also my favorite sports team. I recently went to one of their games, and of course I had to do my nails for the occasion.

I only used Sally Hansen colors in Xtreme Wear White On, Xtreme Wear Blue It, and Maximum Growth Perfect Cherry. The stripes on my pinky finger represent the pinstripe uniform that the team wears at home games. The P is their logo, and the stars are the two stars that usually dot the "I"'.