Pastel Skittle Stripes

If you don't have the Lime Crime Les Desserts d'Antoinette collection, you're missing out. They're just perfect bright pastels, and they go together so well for nail art!

See more after the jump!

Matte/Glossy Skittles

I've been wanting to try a matte/glossy look for a while, but I never seem to have the patience. Since I usually use a fast-drying top coat, waiting for my polish to dry on its own just seems so long! But I finally decided to give it a go.

I started with a base of Essie Stylenomics, which is a dark, almost black green. It looks especially black when mattified, but I swear it's green! It's a great polish and covered in one coat.

I then mattified all of my nails using Essie's Matte About You. I used a nail art brush and Seche Vite to add the glossy details.

Matte/glossy nail art is super easy and looks super cool! I'll definitely by trying this again.

Black and Yellow Skittles

As you may or may not know, I go to college in the great steel town of Pittsburgh, PA. It's definitely an interesting place to live, and I have to say, I did miss it while I was abroad. And today's nails are unintentionally Pittsburgh colored skittles!

I started by painting all of my nails (except my ring fingers) with a base of Sun Kissed by China Glaze, a neon yellow. I used Liquid Leather by China Glaze for my ring fingers, then topped that with two coats of Humblebee by Ninja Polish. 

I used a makeup sponge for the gradient, a dotting tool on my pinky, and freehanded the stripes and flower.

Pittsburgh's sports culture is borderline obsessive - everyone here really loves their Steelers, Penguins, and Pirates (I personally am not a fan of their teams, but I digress). All of the teams share the same color scheme of black and yellow. Although I originally based my color scheme on the colors in Humblebee, my friends all commented about the Pittsburgh colors!

I have to say, I'm gonna miss this city when I graduate. And I do love the contrast of black and yellow.

Nautical Skittles + Anchor Tutorial

I've been such a bad blogger lately! Sorry about that - I've been really busy with friends and my internship. I have a tutorial to make up for it :)

Nautical skittles! I really wanted to try out vertical lines, and it made me think of a nautical theme so I did an anchor accent as well. Here's the tutorial for how to freehand an anchor:

It's pretty straightforward, really.

For my thumb and middle finger, I used a base of China Glaze Sea Spray then topped it with two coats of Candeo Colors Divebomb. For my index finger and pink, I started with a base of OPI Goldeneye. I let that dry completely, then I used striping tape and China Glaze First Mate to create the vertical stripes.

For the anchor nail, I started with a base of China Glaze Turned Up Turquoise and used a makeup sponge to add a gradient of Goldeneye. I freehanded the anchor using First Mate and a striping brush. All of my nails are sealed with Seche Vite for smoothness and shininess :)

I really love how these turned out! Vertical stripes really appeal to me, and I think my accent nail is especially cute.

Snow Globe Skittles

Welcome to another Throwback Thursday! These nails are a little messy, but that just shows how far I've come since then. But I love how the glitter looks here anyway.

Starting with my thumb, the green is OPI in Gargantuan Green Grape, glue is Essie is Coat Azure, Purple is ORLY in Frolic, yellow is Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Mellow Yellow, and lilac is Essie in Lapiz of Luxury. They're all topped with a coat of China Glaze Snow Globe.

Thanks for reading :)

Red, Black, and Gold Skittles

Sometimes I just don't know what I want to do with my nails, so I do something different on each one. I think it's a pretty good compromise :)

I was really feeling the combination of red, black, and gold, so I picked a bunch of polishes that fit the color scheme.

On my thumb, I started with a base of Deborah Milano 103, a pretty red with gold shimmer that I picked up in Italy. Then I sponged on a gradient of OPI Goldeneye, a polish I've been reaching for a lot lately. On my index finger, I used two coats of Barry M Gold Mine Glitter. On my middle finger, I started with a base of China Glaze Hey Sailor, then freehand a triangle of Goldeneye, then another of China Glaze Liquid Leather. On my ring finger, I layered HARE Polish Holiday Hoopla over Liquid Leather. Finally, I used three coats of Goldeneye on my pinky. Phew!

I really like how the colors work together.

Skittles are a really fun way to do your nails when you can't decide on one design. And they look so unique, too :)

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!