Late night post!! I'm sorry for the lack of actual nail posts lately. I just really haven't been feeling very inspired. It might have something to do with this. I had absolutely no idea what to do for Ancient Mayan in the Time Periods Challenge. I'm not a history buff. I have a few eras I like, but I mostly look to the future. I know nothing about the Mayan culture. If there wasn't the recent hubbub about the end of the world thanks to the Mayan Calender I likely wouldn't know anything about Maya at all. I searched and searched all week and finally found something last night. It feels a bit like a cop out but ...
Mayans worshiped many jaguar gods, demi-gods, and protectors. As I said, I know nothing about Mayan culture, but I found this really interesting. Why? Because I love big cats!! They should totally be worshiped! I actually looked into colleges with programs that would let me work with these beauties, but found nothing that would let me do exactly what I wanted. I even looked into volunteering at big cat rescues, but there were sadly none near enough.
So, if you haven't figured it out yet, my nails are jaguar print. I really try to stay away from most animal prints. They've been done a hundred thousand times before by nearly every blogger under the sun. There's really nothing new that can be done with these prints. But I really did enjoy doing these nails ... twice since the first attempt was a messy disaster!
Hello (and goodbye) girlies. I leave early tomorrow morning for a lovely week-long beach vacation, so this is my last blog post until I get back. I'm hoping to stay in contact through my Facebook page though so check there if you need me or just want to see beach pictures. :)
First off, painting your nails outside? Not as great as it sounds. Even less so on a hot day. The heat of the day and the cool breeze I enjoyed so much played havoc with this polish. It started drying on the brush after just one swipe onto my nail and bubbled like crazy! I was so disappointed because this is such an amazing color. I wanted to keep it on for at least another day or two, but I just couldn't stand the bubbles.
But enough ranting! This is the last polish I own (besides the glitter and I have something special planned for that) from the China Glaze On Safari collection. It's probably my second favorite color, after Exotic Encounters. It looks fairly plain at first being a soft grey creme with a very light silver shimmer. However, upon closer inspection it has a slight leaning towards green in certain lights. As for the shimmer ... well, have a closer look.
These are an up close look at this silver shimmer in direct sunlight. In shade it's a fairly nondescript silver shimmer, but it comes alive in sunlight.
This isn't my best tribal design. I ran out of original ideas after the first two or three polishes of this collection, but I do love how the red of Adventure Red-y looks against the soft shimmery grey of Elephant Walk. It's a striking combination.
Hello girlies! Another post, another day closer to my vacation. This just leaves one more post (Friday's post which will be set for auto-post) until I get back. I may post a few beach pictures to my Facebook page if anyone is interested.
This is Jungle Queen from the China Glaze On Safari collection. I love purple nail polish so it really goes without saying that I love this color. It looks stunning in the sun, doesn't it?
It left me a bit wanting indoors. The color is still pretty, a greyish purple, but it lost all it's brightness and shimmer. It was ... dull. With this in mind, I just had to do something to brighten it up.
After painting my fingernails, I moved onto painting my toenails with the standard summer neon - Sun Worshiper. Well, some of that awesome neon orange speckled onto Jungle Queen. It was certainly eye-catching and just wouldn't come off. I had an idea. I thought was barmy at first and tried to resist the urge.
However, the urge to do Jungle Queen's tribal design in Sun Worshiper proved to be too strong. There was no resisting, and I'm really glad I didn't because this looks amazing in my opinion. It adds just the right touch of summer to this fall color.
Wow! This is my 100th post according to Blogger ... and it is so late! I'm really sorry about that but vacation is coming at a fast clip and I spent all weekend doing some last minute shopping. More on that later. For now, onto the post!
This is Kalahari Kiss, another from China Glaze's On Safari collection. I really didn't expect to like this as much as I did. I really didn't expect to like this collection as much as I do! When I first picked up Kalahari Kiss I thought it might pass as a twin of Revlon's Bare Bones but it is far from the shade of Bare Bones.
Kalahari Kiss goes on a khaki color. It's a really weird shade that I thought would completely clash with my skin tone but was actually really complimentary.
Kalahari Kiss makes a great leopard base, especially when using Desert Sun from the same collection and an unnamed black.
I'm disappointed that I didn't do all the nails leopard print. After having to carefully use a Q-Tip and some nail polish remover to take off the first (really horrible) design there was no removing this one unless I wanted to start all over. The last thing I wanted to do was start all over.
For those wondering about my vacation, I'll be leaving early Saturday morning and won't get back until Sunday the following week. What that means is that this week's posts will likely be my last for a few weeks. I was horrified last year to come back with my nails a ragged mess. I'm honestly expecting no less this year. Nails just don't take well to hours and days submerged in sea water ... any water really. If anyone knows of things I can do (besides staying away from the water) that will keep my nails from being completely destroyed I would love to hear them before I leave!!
Hello again girlies and welcome to my new followers. This is another On Safari swatch. We're coming to the end of the polishes I own from this collection. I'm sad to see them go, but I'm also looking forward to doing some nail art that isn't tribal. I'm running out of unique tribal designs. :)
This is Adventure Red-y. I'm not usually one for red, but I love this color! I don't know what it is about Adventure Red-y that is so different from all the other reds I've tried but there's just something so unique that makes it amazingly eye-catching.
I had no problems getting full coverage with just two coats. It also went on smoothly with no bubbles or pulling up. I did have problems with drying time but I give credit for that to the heat and humidity around here.
I love this design and it looks so great in these pictures. However, in person it was impossible to see unless you were nose to my fingers.
The black design darkened this pretty red to something that I just couldn't be happy with ... no matter how much I loved the design.
Still, this is one of the only reds I will use on my nails so that has to say something. If you haven't picked it up yet I definitely recommend doing so. :)
Hello lovelies! I bring good news, great news even! The prizes for my upcoming giveaway have arrived and I will be spending tomorrow setting up the post and Rafflecopter so be on the lookout August 1st.
With that awesome news, I bring you today's post. I know it can't really compare, but I hope you enjoy another On Safari swatch.
This is Purr-fect Plum. I thought it really was going to be the most perfect of plums but it went on so much darker than I was expecting. The color was much lighter in the bottle but went on the deep, dark color of an actual plum fruit.
On Safari is a China Glaze fall collection however, so this color will be perfect for Autumn. I actually have the perfect matching outfit already and can think of another handful of ways to use this color.
Here is a look at Purr-fect Plum in direct sunset lighting. Is this not a really gorgeous color? I can just imagine how wonderful this will look surrounded by brightly colored leaves or even against the brightness of snow.
The only thing besides Fall that could make it better is nail art! As I said in my previous post, I'm hoping to continue with a tribal theme. This isn't the design I had sketched out, but I think it works somehow.
It's a bit of an odd design, isn't it? Maybe not fully tribal ... it actually kind of reminds me of a door. A heavy wooden door? A castle door? I don't know but whatever it is, I like it.
Hello again lovelies! Another day, another On Safari polish swatch.
This one is Desert Sun. I am amazed at the pictures I managed to get with my new camera. I'm sure my old camera would have turned this lovely shade some vastly different color, but I am beyond happy to say that my new camera managed to capture the shade nearly perfectly.
The color of Desert Sun is hard to categorize. It's a very muddy orange color, not unlike sun-baked clay. I think the closest shade I've found through Wikipedia is one of the many tawny shades. 
I decided to keep with the tribal theme. I'm thinking of carrying this theme through almost the entire collection seeing as these colors are just so perfect for tribal art. The exceptions would of course be those colors I don't have (yet) and the glitters.
Desert Sun was so much better than I expected and it looked wonderful with this tribal design; I didn't want to take it off! When I first showed interest in this color it was simply as a base for the glitters of this collection, but I see now that it can be so much more!
