Inspired by a Pattern for the #31DC2016Weekly

Hello!

Purchased by Me

For this week's prompt for the #31DC2016Weekly, we are all doing manicures inspired by a pattern.  There are an infinite number of patterns to chose from.  Classic prints, fabric patterns, patterns used in art, patterns seen in nature, modern and ancient architecture...the sources are endless!  I was inspired by Damask patterns.  These are intricate prints that usually have some floral elements to it.  It looks classic and expensive.  I chose a bold Damask inspired image from the UberChic 7-03 plate to create this look.  I started with an alternating base of silver and black the stamped over that base with the opposing color.

The black polish I used was Cult Nails Nevermore and the silver metallic was Sally Hansen Silver Sweep.  Both of these were once coaters and stamped beautifully.  I think I like the silver stamp over black the best but they are both give a nice effect.  I did top this with a glossy top coat.  It would have looked amazing with a matte top coat as well.  Unfortunately, the matte top coat I used absolutely trashed this mani.  So mad.  I should do a matte top coat comparison for you all.  Would you be interested in something like that?

I hope you liked this manicure as much as I did!  It's simple but very pretty.  Be sure to check out the other participants doing the weekly challenge using the #31DC2016Weekly tag on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.  Next week, the traditional daily version of this challenge begins.  See Sarah's post about the daily challenge here.  So you will be seeing tons of people posting about these same nail art themes all month long.  My challenge will end on the same day at the daily challenge so we can all celebrate completion together!  Yay!


Thanks for stopping by!
 - Amy McG (McPolish)

*products purchased by me*

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31 Day Nail Art Challenge: Week 1 Roundup

Hey lovelies!

So the yearly nail art challenge is upon us.  If you are not familiar with the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge, stop by Chalkboard Nails for more info.  But basically, you push yourself to create new nail art to share every day for 31 day based on a list of prompts.   I have been posting my creations daily on my Instagram account but decided to do weekly recap blog posts.  So here are my manicure for the first week of the challenge!

Click through for all the nail arts!

Cult Nails must haves!

If you know me well enough, then you would know that I adore Cult Nails polish. My first Cult Nails was 'My kind of Kool aid', I had bought from a blog sale about a year ago. And I am happy to say I now own every single polish they have ever sold. Their formulas are fantastic and most polishes are a one coater.

These two polishes should be staples in anyone's helmer! Today I have Cult Nails Nevermore, accented with Tempest. 

Cult Nail polishes are super creamy and opaque. Seen here is two coats with top coat. 

I added some stars to my mani. These two polishes are perfect for stamping. I think the stars are a great  pairing with black and white nails. 

I used MoYou pro plate 06 for the stamping. If you have not used their plates yet, give them a go. They are fantastic quality and unique. 

What are you favorite black and white polishes?

-Gari margarita_onthe_rocks

The Color Purple

Come for the Alice Walker reference, stay for the manis. That's how I roll. Sorry for being AWOL, new blog friends! I've been in a bit of a mani slump. Don't you just hate it when that happens? But now it's lazy Sunday and I finally have a mani to share! So let's hop back on the polish pony.

I don't know if any of you shopped the recent Cult Crypt sale, but I sure did. To the detriment of my wallet and the delight of my inner Cultie, I shopped that sale and then shopped it again (true story, bros). The first of my orders arrived Friday and I rescued it from the office yesterday. Fast forward to today and it was finally time to play with my new purple polish babies. I couldn't decide if I wanted to do an ombre mani or a gradient mani, so I took the easy way out and did both.  Here's the base:

I used Charming on the thumb, Flushed on the index finger and Vicious on the pinky. Double accent nails are gradiented with all three. 

The gradient was fairly subtle and I wasn't totally in love with it. So I went back to the very first rule in the nail girl handbook: when in doubt, ADD GLITTER. 

That magic in a bottle is Pipe Dream Polish All These Diamonds. And it. is. stunning. The cardinal rule of nail girls has never steered me wrong. And this time was no exception.

Here's my favorite shot of this mani. 

And, because I still feel slightly remorseful about slacking on my collaborative blogging responsibilities (though I did leave you in the excellent and perfectly polished hands of Bec, Gari and McAmy!), I have a parting macro shot. 

Flushed. Wowza!

And that'll do it for me for today. Hope y'all have a fabulous three-day weekend and get lots of polish playtime in!

-IndieAmy

Margarita on the Rocks Here!

Hi ALL!

I am very excited to be here with my very first blog post! A Year ago when I started collecting nail polish, I never thought I would be here. I signed up for a nail polish sub box in December of 2012 and it was all downhill from there. I joined Instagram later on in March and posted my first water marble on St. Patrick’s day. The past year I have met several fabulous ladies on IG who have encouraged and supported my nail polish addiction! I am really into nail art and love trying new interesting techniques. I love stamping, glitter gradients and different polish combinations. Here are several pics of mine from Instagram so you can get to know a little bit of what I will be posting.

I think Winter may be my favorite season for nail art. I did these last month. 

Morgan Taylor Gotta have hue

                                                               OPI Elaphantastic Pink

                                                        Colors by Llarowe Coconut Water

Colors by Llarowe Twinkle, Twinkle little star

                                                                OPI Skittlette mani

                                            OPI My Santa suit stamped w/Cult Nails Tempest

                                 Girly Bits January Morning w/ Enchanted Polish To Die For glitter gradient

                             Cult Nails Tempest and Riot gradient w/ Ethereal Lacquer Spotted Snow

                  OPI Black Onyx and I Snow You Love me stamped w/ Enchanted Polish Dime Piece

This was probably my favorite combo of the year. It was my last mani of 2013 and I was pretty proud of it. It's combinations like this that I love doing.

Here are a few of my favorite OPI mani's from the last couple months.

 OPI with advanced stamping

 OPI Suzi's Hungary again

 OPI Pamplona Purple

 OPI Water marble

As you can see OPI is one of my favorite brands!

I really appreciate the opportunity to be here and share my nail story with everyone. I hope you enjoy it! Don't forget to follow me on Instagram. -Gari

Halloween Stamping Mixed Mani!

Halloween is definitely one of my favorite holidays. I'm not sure why, but there's definitely something fun about costumes and spooky stories. I've been so busy that I almost missed doing some Halloween nail art, luckily I managed to fit it in after all.

Here's my mixed media Halloween mani! I used both stamping and some free hand, and mixed finishes for a fun mani.

Index: Cult Nails Fetish stamped with Zoya Purity and MASH plate #29.
Middle: OPI Deutsch You Want Me Baby stamped with CN Fetish and Bundle Monster plate #305.
Ring: OPI Deutsch You Want Me Baby with Make It Stick bat vinyl nail decal.
Pinky: CN Fetish and OPI Deutsch You Want Me Baby freehand with Butter London Matte Topcoat.

I loved wearing this mani and I got a lot of fun comments from friends! What's on your nails for Halloween tomorrow?

Cult Nails Evil Queen

I'm sure many of you know by now that I'm a huge fan of red nail polish. There's nothing as bold and beautiful as shiny red nails. I'm such a huge fan of red polish that most of my vast polish collection is some shade of red. I love red shimmers and holographic polishes, but there's nothing as comforting to wear when my nails are at their shortest as the perfect glossy red creme.

This perfect red creme is Cult Nails Evil Queen. Evil Queen is a true red, but with a slight pink undertone in some lights (due to its very creamy base). This one is a true creme and it's ever so gorgeous. It's bright, but still one of the most balanced reds I own.

The formula for Evil Queen was Cult Nails perfection. The consistency wasn't too thick or thin, but applied like butter in two perfect coats. Dry time was great as well as wear time. I had no noticeable staining with Evil Queen either, which is always a bonus (however, take this recommendation with a grain of salt, all reds will stain your nails if you don't use a proper base coat).  Photos below are two coats with SV top coat.

Have you tried Evil Queen? What is your favorite red nail polish?

Cult Nails Spontaneous Swatches

Well hello there! I seem to have found some old photos of a gorgeous polish (I'm scouring my files trying to find something to keep y'all entertained). This is Cult Nails Spontaneous.

Spontaneous was released ages ago as part of the Cult Nails Coco's Untamed Collection (which is still arguably my favorite Cult Nails Collection of all time). Spontaneous is a gorgeous dark dusty purple creme with subtle violet purple glitter. The glitter isn't overpowering, but is always visible, it's quite small, and just adds a bit of dimension and sparkle to the polish (it's more obvious in person). In some lights Spontaneous looks like more of a medium purple, but it wore very dark on me.

The formula on this polish was good, a bit thicker than my other Cult Nails polishes but it applied easily in two coats. Because of the glitter, Spontaneous dries to a bit of a rough finish and requires one or more thick coats of top coat for a shiny finish.

Spontaneous is a very flattering mature purple. It's also a great glitter polish because it's subtle yet gorgeous. What do you think of Spontaneous?

Cult Nails Let's Get Dirty Swatches

I love the names of Cult Nails polishes. They're always just a bit naughty. ;) Today I have Cult Nails Let's Get Dirty...

Let's Get Dirty is a nice neutral shimmer with a wax finish. The shimmer is very subtle without top coat since the Cult Nails wax finish polishes are semi-matte, with just a touch of shine. The color of Let's Get Dirty is fascinating, it's taupe with a hint of lavender, and looks very different depending on the lighting. On me it unfortunately pulls a bit grey rather than the lavender that I was hoping for.

Let's Get Dirty has a good formula, better than the other wax finishes in this collection (Morning Glory and Kiss My Rose Bush). It's perfectly thin and beautifully opaque, this was two flawless coats. Like Morning Glory, Let's Get Dirty dries very quickly and you have to be very quick about application to avoid clumping.

Sorry for the horrible state of my cuticles! My cuticles always go in cycles where they look awful and I have to work hard to keep them hydrated.

Here it is with topcoat, the shimmer is really obvious with that shiny finish!

Some days there's nothing like a good neutral polish to cleanse the palate! Wouldn't you agree?

Cult Nails Time Traveler Swatches and Review

Has anyone noticed that my last three posts are red, white, and blue? It happened accidentally, but what a funny way to say Happy 4th of July week to all of my American followers (and I hope all of my Canadian followers had a wonderful Canada Day!).

Today I have Cult Nails Time Traveler. This is a polish I purchased long ago and only got around to swatching recently. At the time I was in the search of the perfect navy blue, but after becoming a massive Doctor Who fan in the last year I just love that it's an homage to TARDIS blue. :)

Anyway, on with the polish. Time Traveler is a slightly dusty navy blue crelly (it's a bit too opaque to be a jelly in my book). This one is incredibly dark and opaque, and I used two smooth coats for the photos below. Like many dark blues, this one will stain if you get it on your cuticles, so careful application is crucial! It dries to an incredibly shiny dark blue, and the photos below are without top coat.

Removal wasn't as bad as I expected with such a dark blue, I was very careful to apply acetone to the nail and wipe straight downwards away from my cuticle, and didn't end up with much staining. With a dark blue like this I highly suggest applying lotion or cuticle oil right before polish removal, and using as many cotton balls/removal pads as possible. Moisturized hands will resist staining more than dry hands, and new cotton balls because the more you smear that dark blue cotton ball on your fingers, the more that blue is going to stain!

Overall, this is simply a beautiful blue! It's a bit darker than I expected (and I think just a bit darker than the TARDIS) but that dusty shade is absolutely perfect. :)

Cult Nails Morning Glory and a Comparison

This spring, Cult Nails (one of my favorite nail polish brands) released their In The Garden Collection, which included one creme, one shimmer, and three wax finish polishes. The wax finish polishes are a satin matte, so they have just a touch more shine than a typical matte polish. Morning Glory is a beautiful magenta pink wax finish polish. I absolutely adore polishes in this color family, and the wax finish is just so interesting and sophisticated.

Morning Glory is very opaque, I could almost get away with a single coat. The formula was a bit thicker than usual for Cult Nails, but a good thick, not difficult to apply. Morning Glory is also very fast drying, so you have to work quickly to avoid getting any bumps or ridges in your polish. If you do end up with a bump it's easily leveled out by an additional coat.

Cult Nails Morning Glory Comparison

Then I decided to compare Morning Glory to another bright pink matte finish polish in my collection: ManGlaze Lesbi-Honest (two coats of each). While Lesbi-Honest is a suede finish (matte with shimmer) it is similar in color to Morning Glory. 

Have you tried Morning Glory? Are matte finish polishes your thing?

Cult Nails Polishes retail for $12 and are available from Cult Nails Online Store

Cult Nails Hypnotize Me Swatches

I hope you are all having a wonderful day!

Today I have the gorgeous glitter from Cult Nails called Hypnotize Me. This is a mix of blue and green microglitters in a teal jelly base. The base is pretty sheer, so I decided to layer it over Catrice Virgin Forrest, a blue-toned green shimmer. The glitter in Hypnotize me catches the light at every angle and it is incredibly sparkly. It's absolutely gorgeous and I can't get enough of fine glitter like this, I can't stop staring.

The formula was different for a glitter, it was very thick in consistency but had incredible glitter pay-off, this is two coats over the base color. It dries pretty smooth so I just used one thick coat of top coat. The teal base definitely brought out the blue side in Virgin Forrest, and I love how much this combination looks like Hypnotize Me in the bottle.

Blurry to show the incredible sparkle:

I seriously love this glitter and I can't believe I waited so long to try it! Micro-glitters are definitely my favorite super-sparkly finish.