Animal Crossing Grass Pattern Nail Art

Green day of the 31 Day Challenge is here! I decided to try a pattern that pays tribute to one of my favorite video games: Animal Crossing!

This pattern is inspired by the grass pattern that is displayed in summer. I chose colors a little darker than the daytime palette, so let's just say that this is an evening look!

I used the following polishes for this nail art:
LVX Viridis (base)
Essie Mojito Madness (lime green)
LVX Paraiso (blue mixer)
LVX Truffle (brown mixer)

I freehanded the squares with the short end of my Edinburgh Realism 3/4 brush. After they were all on there, I went back with Viridis to clean up the edges of the squares. It's a small step that really made a big difference in the finished look!

Here are my green manicures from the past four years of the challenge.

• China Glaze Ghoulish Glow
• Bulbasaur Nail Art
• Green Jade Nail Art
• Blocked green plant tendrils

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31DC2015 - Day 4; green - Green drip drop nails

Here's my green nails for the 31 day challenge. As a base I used an El Corazon Polish (swatch here) and matched it up with some green dripping. I really like this nail art type, and a funny thing is that I had such problems with it 2 years ago, but now it's feels simple, even on both hands (even if cindy always will be less good). Hope you like it too. :)

Polishes used:
El Corazon - Bloggers - BL-5, Alla, Alla nails (swatch here)
Essence -
R de L young - Black

Also I'd like to make a shout out to some of my blogger friends joining; Traces Of Polish and My Nail Polish Online. Also you'll find them and more people in the inlinkz below. Also a big thank you to Chalkboardsnails for hosting this challenge. <3

An InLinkz Link-up

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El Corazon - Bloggers - BL-5, Alla, Alla nails; swatch

Today I have a LE collection polish from El Corazon, which is a bloggers collection and each polish is named after a blogger. Mine is from a blogger called Alla, Alla nails, a blogger I haven't heard about before, but that doesn't matter. :) This is a light green crelly with small matte green hexes, small white hexes and square glitters and black matte chredded glitter. There's still some slight VNL after 3 coats but not annoyingly much. This is REALLY my type of polish, just LOVE it!
This is also my contribution to Green Wednesday.

From a mani swap with lakobotan, she nailed this one! ;)

Also, hope you haven't missed my post about the 31DC which I'll jump in and join the 1st of September. :)

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Dance Legend - Kiwano, swatch

Kiwano is a neon green jelly with black shredded glitter in it. And when I say neon I mean VERY neon, it looks like it is glowing, yet it isn't. And my camera freaks out in the process. Anyhow since I knew it was sheer (as jellies are) I decided to layer it over Kleancolor - Bikini Green. I used 3 coats to get the jelly sandwich effect for the shredded glitter. I'm not only liking this, I just LOVE it and wish I had all the colors in this collection. First I have some photos taken in direct sun light and after a few in natural light.
For more green shades, visit Green Wednesday.

Below are photos taken in natural light. As you can see the camera has problem with the neon and in effort to capture the color my hands looks slightly darker.

Polishes used:
Kleancolor - Bikini Green
Dance Legend - Kiwano

Kiwano I got from a nail polish swap with Lakobotan. :)




Oh, and also. This was my Mid summer manicure from this year! ^^

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Essence - Mint-Blowing, swatch

Mint-Blowing is part of the LE Fun Fair. It claims to be satin matt and candy scented. The color is the palest of pastel green, it could definitely be mistaken for off white, especially in sun light. So brace your self Karin, it is green, I promise! ;) For more green mani's you can check out Green Wednesday.
In the mint pastel green shade there is also some sparse shimmer, but that only shows in the bottle. On the nail it looks like a pastel creme.

The result looks more chalky matte than satin matte, but it looks nice still. But sure, I prefer matte top coats over matte polishes for a much more even surface. Without tc if feels a bit unforgiving if you know what I mean. Mint-Blowing had the scent of mint, the scent was strong but not bothersome (unless you're eating a sandwich xD) when freshly painted and is almost gone the day after. The formula was butter like and easy to control, almost reminded me of acrylic paint and I needed 2 simple coats. Drying time was on the slower side since I didn't use tc, obviously. I'm surprisingly happy with this polish even though it feels like a spring polish more than a summer polish, think I'm more into brighter shades during August.

Price: 10ml/1,79€ which I bought at Rossman.

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Dance Legend - 21 Saint-Tropez, swatch

Saint-Tropez is from the "Effect Sahara Crystal" collection, from what I read of the cap. The color is neon cold toned pastel green, a color which is too bright for my camera to handle so my skin looks super tanned.. The formula was a bit thick and yoghurt like (this is the second time this happened to me, the other was this HM polish (Norwegian Sky), however with 2 coats it covered. The finish is what some other brands call leather, and I must say I like that texture kind of look. The down side is that despite of 2 coats it's VERY slow drying, I could dent it 2 hours after applying the second coat. Next time I'll try using those fast drying drops. Anyhow, I like the color a lot and this is also my contribution to Green Wednesday! :)

This was from a nail polish swap/gift.

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Kawaii Watermelons, or How to Make Your Fruit Cute

I love watermelon, but I don't know that I would necessarily think of it as cute. UNTIL today. I've done some summery watermelon nail art before, but I wanted to take it in a different direction this time. In a cute direction. In a SUPER cute direction! And now I want to kawaii-fy ALL the things! All you gotta do is add faces!

I used two of the new KBShimmer summer shades for the classic watermelon pink/green! I did this as a ruffian with the pink over the green, but I think it probably would have been easier to just paint a green band on top of the pink.

KBShimmer Lei It Again
KBShimmer For Sail By Owner

Both polishes were opaque in two smooth, easy coats. I really enjoyed working with them.

I also used black and white polishes for the faces and other detailing.

Formula X Dark Matter
Essie Blanc

I dunno what else to say! I just love their little faces so much! KAWAII FOREVER

Disclosure: This post contains press samples.

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What's green, glittered, and glowing all over?

I had a lot of fun with this manicure. I was heading off to Las Vegas the next day and needed to do a new and fun gel manicure. I kept adding elements and piecing together and making up patterns and eventually I ended up with this glowing, patterned, glittered combo.

AND! I successfully replicated the pattern on my other hand, so hooray!



As I said, these are gel nails, but they could easily be done with regular nail polish too! I'll list the products I used below but also recommend some close RNP equivalents.

GEL NAIL POLISH // REGULAR NAIL POLISH
Gelish Mini - Do You Harajuku? // OPI - That's Hula-rious!
Akzentz - Lights Out Glow in the Dark Gel Topcoat // China Glaze - Ghoulish Glow
Akzentz - Gel Play in black // Formula X - Dark Matter
Rockstar glitter nail with Artiglio Odessa // Zoya - Storm

Working with the glow in the dark gel topcoat was really cool, because the glow got supercharged in the gel lamp as I cured it.

Unfortunately, it wasn't quite as heavy-hitting in the glow department during my regular life. I would catch it glowing sometimes at night, but it wasn't super remarkable unless I charged it.

Still, it's neat to have the option for glowing gels, and I was really happy with this manicure overall. The light green Gelish Mini shade is super delicate and youthful, and the Gel Play paint is awesome for handpainted nail art.

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