Kell's DIY Nails

The Polish Swap Society Facebook Group is having an 8-week Nail Art Challenge and I decided to join in. Week 1 is Party Animal Theme. Basically you choose an animal of your choice. I decided to do my 2 Dogs and my Cat!  I used 2 different tutorials and adapted them to fit my vision: Cat: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QsRnVDhY5bo Dogs: http://www.nuthinbutanailthing.com/2013/08/dog-nail-art-tutorial.html I practiced fine tuning my idea on some swatch sticks. Translating the colors of my dogs was the hardest part. My tuxedo cat was easy-peasy. I started with a base color of  Essence Nail Art Twins in Bella . These are HTF and I recently got lucky and got them from a stash sale. My main reason for choosing this color is that it is easily a one coater and it would dry quickly so I could start the nail art. I also knew I would be using the glitter in Edward on a few of my nails. (No, I am not a Twilight fan; I just love the color of this set) Thumb: My cat...

Essence, Walk on the Wild Side is a dark muted green with emerald green shimmer. I picked this up from Ulta quite a while ago and it's been sitting in my Untrieds rack with a few of its siblings. It's a really nice color; it's dark but not so dark that it looks black. I also like that it leans towards more of an army green and the sparkle & shimmer is noticeable on the nail. Outdoors at Sunset. No top coat. Indoor LED Lighting. The formula was nice and easy to work with, not too thin and not too thick. These newer bottles do have really wide brushes and it's a pain to use on my pinky nails, but otherwise they fan out over the nail pretty well. I used 2 coats of color to get it nice and opaque. Dry time was average and as you can see it dried to a nice & shiny finish. No top coat because I plan on adding something on top. I love how inexpensive these little Colour & Go polishes are; they are smaller than typical bottles at...

2 coats with Seche Vite. I'm sorry to have to do this but I'm showing you a HTF polish today. This is Gold Old Buffy by Essence ; part of the 1st release of the Vampire's Love LE Series. Since I am a hard-core Buffy The Vampire Slayer (both the movie and TV series) fan I just had to have this. I have been lemming it since it was first released. I finally snagged it from a private seller a few months back. It's an opaque black jelly base filled with gold micro flakes. So awesome! Formula was on the thick side but not difficult to apply. Dry time did take a little longer and I experienced bubbling but a coat of Seche Vite smoothed things out. It's a little on the sheer side but 2 coats got me to an opacity I was happy with. I plan on amping this mani up a bit as well so stay tuned.