My week in nails

Hi all,

so I was thinking about maybe doing this once a week...posting all my nail manicures that I wore during a week. All these picture can be also found on my Instagram account where you can find me under my username nailsby_judinka123 (http://instagram.com/nailsby_judinka123). Just a quick FYI, because my main focus is on my Instagram account, you may see me mention it in every or at least most of my articles.

As mentioned in my Halloween manicures article, I usually try to look up different nail art challenges to find some inspiration for my manicures. Especially, when you consider the fact that I post a new mani on my Instagram account every day.

The plan with these type of articles is to not only show you what I came up with, but also to give you a guidance how I created them, what nail polishes I used, what tools I utilized or where I got them from if they are still available. I have started collecting nail polish about 2 years ago and currently I do have more than 600 bottles. Did not count them in a while so I might be of 100+ polishes at this point. I feel blessed that I am in a situation where I am able to pursue my hobby and I am not trying to brag. Hope my creation will serve as an inspiration to you. If you re-create any of the manicures you see here or on my Instagram account, make sure to tag me using #nailsby_judinka123.

Sunday - Inspired by outfit

I knew right away when I saw this topic what piece of my outfit/closet I wanted to re-create. My inspiration came from such a simple design as the flowers on my socks. Finding the right color nail polish was not a problem at all because China Glaze has the color I needed as a base for this fun manicure. This is 2 coats of this pretty polishes. In the bottle it looks a little bit lighter than on the nail but it is still a great shade of almost neon blue. This is a creamy polish that was a bit streaky but nothing that the second layer could not cover up.

Inspired by Outfit - absolutely love this mani

For the flowers I only used a white, yellow and orange nail polish using my dotting tool I got of Amazon as a set of 5. I placed one flower on each finger and then placed 3 flowers as you can see them in the picture below on my middle finger. The nail polished used is from the limited edition The Giver. This collection is still available at www.8ty8beauty.com for a price you really can't beat. In general, this collection is soooo pretty and you will see more manicures from me using the polishes from The Giver collection (lol; how many times can I repeat the word collection in this article?).

China Glaze -Capacity To See Below; and the sock the mani was inspired by

Let me know if you already have this nail polish and how you like it.

Monday - Inspired by Favorite Season

I know that I will probably get a lots of disagreement on this, but I really dislike winter. I am always in a strange mood and do not feel inspired at all. Thus I decided to change up this challenge from Inspired by a Favorite Holiday to Favorite Season. And that has to be summer!!! This mani was created using Sinful Colors nail polish and a white base for the ring finger to create a sunset gradient. For stamping I used different stamping plates (including Bundle Monster) and black Konad polish.

Inspired by Favorite Season - summer it is!!!

What you see is 2 coats of Sugar Crush from Sinful Colors. I don't remember what polishes I used for the gradient but it is technically blue, yellow and orange. The suns are not too sharp and crisp (except the middle finger) because I was not patient enough (again :() to get the image on my stamper with a sharp image. I find in general with Bundle Monster stamping plates it takes me several times to get the entire image on the stamper and from the stamper in my nails. Usually I use stamping polish but even with those I am having difficulties.

Sinful Colors - Sugar Rush

Let me know if you are running into a similar problem with any brands of stamping plates you are using and how you solved your problem.

Tuesday - Inspired by Favorite Character

My favorite character of all times is Sailor Moon. But because I posted a manicure featuring Sailor Moon only few days before this challenge; this was out. My second favorite character has to be Snoopy, but with Snoopy I ran into a slight problem. I do not have stamping image or stickers/water decals and I am really bad in hand painting, so he was also out. So I ended up with Hello Kitty :)

Favorite character - 3rd one but still a favorite, Hello Kitty!!!

With this manicure I went with stamping again. I love stamping in general; as you may know, this was my inspiration to quit biting my nails. So whenever you see my manicures, you will usually see a stamped image somewhere on my nails. As a base I used 2 different polishes from China Glaze and then my well loved White On from Sally Hansen and black Konad polish for stamping. I don't exactly remember what stamping plates I used; if I have time I will look it up for you and note it underneath the picture.

China Glaze - upper polish (Lug Your Designer Luggage) and lower polish (I Herd That)

Who is your favorite character? I had so much fun creating this manicure.

Wednesday - Veterans Day mani (inspired by Essie nail polish)

This theme was chosen due to the Veterans Day "holiday" in USA. For my manicure I was inspired by the name of the nail polish...so nothing fancy was happening here. This is 2 coats of Essie nail polish in Armed and Ready.

Two coats of Essie nail polish Armed and Ready for the Veterans Day manicure. This color is so pretty in real life.

Later I used this as a base for other manicures but because I did not have any other idea as what to do for this theme, I kept it this simple. The sheen running through this polish is extremely beautiful and the manicure on its own was so pretty in real life. Once I stamped over it, the sheen kind of disappeared (as you will see in the next pictures).

Thursday - Inspired by Fox

What does the fox say? That's how I could name this manicure as well...lol. First I tried to stamp the image with reddish polish but as you can see the image was not showing due to the background of the base polish. So I tried stamping with a white nail polish and the result was much better. If I remember right I used again Bundle Monster stamping plate.

Inspired by Fox - for stamping I used White On from Sally Hansen; don't remember the reddish color but I think it was an OPI nail polish

There is really not much to say about this manicure. The base for this manicure was Essie Armed and Ready from the previous post. I had no chipping the next day when I applied the image; the only negative was the sheen is not visible anymore.

Essie - Armed and Ready; a must have polish in your collection.

Friday - inspired by Bronze and Mustache

For this mani I combined 2 themes for the week; Bronze and Mustache. I found this gorgeous fall color from Revlon on sale at Big Lots! and I could not pass on it. This is one coat and there were no streaks or bald spots. I am not sure if this was a limited edition nail polish and that is why I found it on sale or if they discontinued it but this is again one of the polishes you should have in your collection if you are crazy about nail polish like I am.

Stamping - Konad black polish and stamping plates

The color of this polish comes up as a bronze fall color perfect for autumn manicures. It is shiny and applies easily. If you are able to find this nail polish, you will not be disappointed. You can find Revlon polishes at your local drug store, grocery store or sales places. Also, they are so affordable and you can't go wrong with them.

Revlon - Fall Mood; perfect for bronze based manicures

Do you have a favorite Revlon nail polish that you could recommend? I only have few of their colors and I feel this brand is being neglected.

Saturday - was all about being Bold :)

Not sure if this manicure is the boldest I could come up with but it is definitely something I would probably not wear every day. I was mostly playing with the nail art strips I got from Born Pretty Store and this was the idea I came up. This is a "french tip manicure" with added vertical stripes on my ring finger.

Stripes were purchased at Born Pretty Store (sorry, I do not have a discount code for you this time).

As a base I used a nail polish from OPI and the gold polish I love to use for stamping from Wet'n'Wild. Both these are 2 coats on my nails. The blue is a little bit darker then it is in the bottle but it is a stunning blue color. Have to warn you though!!! Even though I used a base coat before applying the blue polish and wore this manicure only for the picture, my nails were stained. I can still see the stain on my nails so if you do not like it, stay away from this polish. For me, the color itself is worth the staining because this is an awesome royal blue.

2 coats of OPI I saw You saw Warsaw and Wet'n'Wild Gold Pot

Do you have tricks how to take off the staining of a blue polish on your nails?

Hope this short description of the manicures and nail polishes was helpful to you guys. Let me know if you have any ideas for manicures you would like to see. Also, make sure you post your re-creation on Instagram with #nailsby_judinka123.