Pinterest

Hello everyone! Hope your Mondays are going well.

Just letting you know that I'm now on Pinterest! I'll mostly be using it to pin ideas for nail art and whatnot, so if you're interested in following, I can be found:

HERE!

Thanks for reading :)

Feathers and Skittles

Nails Inc. recently came out with some new, limited edition Feather Effects polishes. The polishes are filled with teeny tiny bar glitters suspended in a clear base that mimic the appearance of feathers. I saw the polishes on display recently, but since they're kinda expensive, I decided to just buy my favorite one: Chester.

Like I said, Chester is a bunch of tiny bar glitters in a clear base. It has turquoise, orange, and yellow glitters, so I decided to use Chester for accent nails and add some nail art to my other nails using those same colors. Chester was easy to apply, but I wish it was a little bit more glitter dense.

I never did any proper Easter nails since I was travelling over the holidays, so I did something a little Easter-y! I used Barry M Gelly Hi Shine in Greenberry and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Sun Kissed and Mellow Yellow to do the nail art. I used a dotting tool for the dots, and I freehanded the rest with a medium length striping nail art brush.

I believe I used 3 coats of Chester over one coat of Greenberry, and as you can see, it's still just shy of being entirely full coverage.

I think they came out super cute and appropriate for spring!

Throwback Thursday: Neon Tape Decals

Happy Throwback Thursday! Today I have a really cool mani I did a looong time ago. It took a lot of time and patience, but I really like how it came out. It involves tape decals.

Tape decals are created by painting nail polish onto a piece of clear tape, letting it dry, and then cutting the tape into shapes or stripes. Then you just stick them on your nail! You have to add topcoat to seal them on, but honestly it's really pretty easy, just a little time consuming.

For a base color I used my favorite silver, Sephora by OPI in Queen of Everything. I can't remember what colors I used for the decals - a bunch of China Glaze and Sinful Color neons, I believe.

I should try another tape decal mani sometime soon!

Teal and Periwinkle Gradient

I've been pretty into gradients lately, and the two new Barry M colors I picked up were just begging to be used together in a gradient. So obviously that's just what I did.

I started with a base of Barry M Gelly Hi Shine in Greenberry, a lovely seafoam green that covers in one coat. Then I painted Greenberry and another Barry M Gelly Hi Shine polish, Blueberry, onto a makeup sponge and dabbed that onto the nail to create the gradient.

But of course, I can't leave my manicures alone, so I added some glitter: one coat of China Glaze Snow Globe. The polish looks so pretty in theory, but I always find that it makes my manicures look pitted. I think it's just how the light hits the iridescent sparkles. Sigh.

I wore these nails for spring break. They lasted the typical three days, then I had naked nails for a whole two weeks! That was crazy. But then again, so was my spring break :)

Ladybug Dots

Today's nail art didn't start out with any particular inspiration in mind, but it turned out to remind me of a ladybug. I just like the red and black color combination! It's so classic, and it's also the colors of my favorite team (the New Jersey Devils). So I started with those colors and just went with it.

I saw this fun pattern on Tumblr. I started with one coat of China Glaze Hey Sailor, a red creme (and a one coater). Then I painted half of my nail diagonally with China Glaze Liquid Leather. I used a dotting tool to make red dots onto the black, then black dots onto the red. The key to this is the interlocking dots where the two colors meet! It's hard to explain, but it's easy to execute.

I've been reaching for my China Glaze polishes a lot lately. I guess it's because my collection is so limited here.

I really like this pattern - it's a fun and easy way to do something new with your dotting tool.

Throwback Thursday: Blue and Silver

Welcome to another Throwback Thursday! Today, I have a mani featuring a really lovely blue polish: China Glaze Frostbite. I started with two coats of that, then used a makeup sponge to add a gradient of Happy Anniversary! by OPI.

I think my gradient skills have improved since this mani, don't you?

Black, White, and Neon Stripes

Do you ever just love your manicure so much that you can't stop staring at it? (No? Just me? Okay...) Well this was one of those manicures.

I got the idea from a post from Kayla Shevonne. I loved it so much I decided to recreate it. I used similar colors, except instead of neon coral, I went for something even more obnoxious.

I started these nails with a base of China Glaze White on White. Then I painted half of each nail with ORLY Melt Your Popsicle, freehand. I used a medium striper nail art brush to freehand the black stripes, using the same brush to touch up mistakes where needed. And it's all sealed up with a coat of Seche Vite.

I'm pretty much in love with these nails, and I got a surprising 4 days' wear out of them before they chipped. I got a lot of compliments on them too! I really like the whole black-and-white-and-neon combo, so I'll have to do that again.

Throwback Thursday: Neon and Glitter Polka Dots

Throwback Thursday strikes again! Today, I combine two of my favorite things: neon and glitter.

I love neon and glitter, so what better way to show the love than combining them? Polka dots are a fun way to spice up an ordinary manicure, so I added some glittery ones over this great neon. I used Flip Flop Fantasy by China Glaze over a white base coat (those neons can be finicky without a white base coat) and used Milani One Coat Glitter in Silver Dazzle with a dotting tool for the polka dots.

Lynnderella: One Nutty Fruitcake

Hey everyone! I'm back from spring break :) I had such an unforgettable time - I went to France (Nice, Marseille, Paris, and Annecy), Italy (Rome and Florence), and Switzerland (Geneva). It was really awesome but also really exhausting. I wasn't able to paint my nails the entire time which drove me crazy, haha! But now I'm back in England, and back to my polish :)

I really cannot resist Lynnderella's rainbow glitters. It's bad for my wallet, but they're so pretty and versatile! Today I have one called One Nutty Fruitcake, and it's the revamped version.

One Nutty Fruitcake is a mix of all sizes and colors of square glitter with some tiny shimmery and black glitter thrown in for effect.

I layered Fruitcake over China Glaze Running In Circles, a gorgeous green glass fleck polish that I only just tried. Fruitcake went on as expected: completely glitter dense and with just a bit of dabbing. This is just one coat of Fruitcake.

As usual, I'm in love with this glitter. I just wish they weren't so darn expensive!

Mentality Holo Nail Art

This post is pretty old (from like November or something), but for some reason it sat it my drafts for a long while. It was way back when I cut my finger open! Weird. Anyway, it's worth sharing, so on we go.

I was really excited to try Holo by Mentality Polish, which is a holo topcoat. I was a little bit underwhelmed, sadly.

I decided to try layering Holo over some neons. I started with a base of China Glaze White on White so the neons would pop. I layered two coats of China Glaze Sun Worshipper over that, then I used a dotting tool to make the dotted lines with China Glaze Turned Up Turquoise. After all that was done, I layered a coat of Holo over it.

Holo mostly wound up dulling the neon colors, which was sad. It looks so nice in the bottle! I couldn't really get the holo effect to show up. It may look better in the sun, but these photos were taken in the ever-cloudy Pittsburgh. I'll have to give Holo another shot and try layering it over a different color.

Oh well; at least the nail art is cool! They can't all be winners.

Throwback Thursday: Explosion Accent Nail

Welcome back to Throwback Thursday! Today I have a really cool accent nail that I really need to try again: the explosion.

I think this manicure is really fun! I always get really frustrated when I used tape though...I'm always messing up the base color because I'm too impatient to let it dry all the way. Oh well. For the accent, I cut out triangles of tape and carefully layered them over the base color. I painted the black and let that dry, and then I inched those same tape triangles up a bit and painted over the black with the silver. Seal with a top coat and voila!

I used China Glaze in Turned Up Turquoise for most of my nails. The accent nail is China Glaze in Purple Panic, black is Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Black Out and Milani 3D Holographic in HD for the silver.

Freaking Out in the Indian Ocean

I have some more English polish for you today (and some more sad iPhone pics)! I bought two polishes by Models Own from Boots: Indian Ocean and Freak Out! So I decided to combine them in a mani.

I started with a base of China Glaze Sea Spray since Indian Ocean looked sheer. Then I added a coat of Indian Ocean, a very pretty light blue with gold and lavender shimmer. It's so lovely! The shimmer translates wonderfully onto the nail, even in low lighting.

Then because I can never have any plain manicures, I used a sponge to add a gradient of Freak Out! to the top of my nails. Freak Out! is a mix of glitter suspended in a clear base: light blue shards, light blue bars, tiny magenta hexes, and medium blue hexes. I think it's a really cool combo of glitters.

Maybe I'll have to pick up some more Models Own polishes now that I've seen how lovely they are!