Fourth of July: Dotted American Flag

Welcome back!

Today I finally have some Fourth of July nails for you! These are inspired by the flag, but I did dots instead of stars!

Red: Sally Hansen Patent Gloss Moto

White: Pop•arazzi Icing on the Cake

Blue: Sinful Colors Blue Persuassion

Silver Glitter: Sephora by OPI Flurry Up!

The blue polish was textured, and I used Nail Vinyls to make the stripes. The silver was done using the glitter sponging method.

Thanks for reading <3

Pete The Cat Nails

Welcome back!

Another summer rec class meant another set of nails for it! This class was based on Pete the Cat, which is a children's book series.

White: OPI Alpine Snow

Yellow: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Sizzlin' Saffron

Blue: OPI My Car Has Navy-gation

Red: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Rapid Red

Light Blue: Salon Perfect Cold As Ice

Green: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri I-Rush Luck

Black: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Night Fright

The ring finger shows Pete the Cat himself, and the pinky is just his color. The other nails represent some of the books! The thumb is I Love My White Shoes, the pointer finger is Four Groovy Buttons, and the middle is Rocking in My School Shoes.

Thanks for reading <3

Dr. Seuss Nails

Welcome back!

Today I have some fun Dr. Seuss nails to share! I teach summer recreation classes in my community, and today we did a Dr. Seuss themed class. It was so much fun, and always is, so I painted my nails for the occasion! I was inspired by five of his books for this.

Thumb: Oh, The Places You'll Go

Pink: Salon Perfect Put A Ring On It

Purple: Salon Perfect Lilacking Control

Blue: Salon Perfect Cold As Ice

Green: Salon Perfect Mint Julep

Yellow: Salon Perfect Mellow Yellow

White: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri OMGhost

For these, I started with a white base, because I wanted the pastels to be more vibrant. On top of the white, I painted three stripes, one each of green, purple and pink. I added top coat, then placed on some french tip Nail Vinyls on top of the larger stripes. Between the vinyls, I painted yellow and blue, creating more stripes like the front of the book.

Pointer: One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

Yellow: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Sizzlin' Saffron

White: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri OMGhost

Green: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri I-rush Luck

Red: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Rapid Red

Blue: Sally Hansen I Heart Nail Art Pen Blue

These nails were very simple. All I did was paint the nail yellow, add top coat to make the nail smoother for my drawings, and then draw on the fish on the front of the book.

Middle: The Lorax

Orange: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Pumpkin Queen

Yellow: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Sizzlin' Saffron

White: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri OMGhost

Blue: Sally Hansen I Heart Nail Art Pen Blue

After painting an orange base, I used dotting tools to freehand the mustache and eyebrows on The Lorax. The center of the eyes were done with the pen, which was great because it was easy to make it a fine point.

Ring: The Cat In The Hat

White: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri OMGhost

Red: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Rapid Red

Another easy nail here. All it required was white base with the quick dry top coat on. Once it was dry, I placed straight Nail Vinyls on, and painted the red on top.

Pinky: Green Eggs and Ham

Orange: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Pumpkin Queen

White: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri OMGhost

Green: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri I-rush Luck

To freehand the eggs and ham, I used a couple of different sized dotting tools. This was one of the easiest nails.

Thanks for reading <3

Cashmere Matte Nails

Welcome back!

Today I needed some super quick and simple nails. Thankfully, these Essie Cashmere Mattes are the perfect solution! They dry super quick, but they go on so well, too. I wish I would have done the opposite color combination, but I like this one, too.

Nude: Essie All Eyes on Nudes
Black: Essie Spun in Luxe

Ta da! That's all I did. Literally. Painted all nails but my ring finger with the nude, and then the ring finger was my accent that I did in black. I was able to do these right before bed, but there was no worry about dry time, then top coat, then more dry time!

Thanks for reading <3

China Glaze Spring Mix & Match

Welcome back!

I still have some of the China glaze Road Trip collection questions to try out, so I decided to do a mix-and-match with them! I love mixing and matching my nail vinyls with dots and different simple designs. I also like trying to find polishes from the same collection that go really well together. I think these worked great!

White: China Glaze White On White

Pink: China Glaze More To Explore

Blue: China Glaze My Way or the Highway

For the half moon and chevron nails, I used Nail Vinyls. For the dots, I just used my dotting tools in two different sizes.

Thanks for reading <3

Baseball Nails 2015 #4: OPI Right Off the Bat

Welcome back!

I went to another baseball game yesterday, so I of course did more baseball nails! I can't help myself when it comes to having a reason to paint my nails, and baseballs are so much fun!

I got a little more creative this time, adding in some chevrons, too! For the blue, I used OPI Right Off the Bat, also from their Fashion Plate collection from last summer. I really liked this polish! It only took two coats, went on smooth, and looks good! It is the tiniest bit streaky, but you can't see that on the chevron nail, which is good. It is sort of a metallic polish. It isn't a pure cream, but it's not really very shimmery, either. It does give off that metallic feel because of the streaks, though.

I felt like this was pretty similar to OPI Feeling Treemendous, but it was a little bit darker than that, and maybe not quite as shimmery. I really liked this color though, and the formula was good overall!

For the white, I used OPI Alpine Snow and and the red stitches were done using the Sally Hansen I Heart Nail Art Pen in Red. I used mini chevron Nail Vinyls.

Thanks for reading <3

Spring Dry Brush

Welcome back!

I tried the dry brush method for the first time! I'm so excited for it, and I absolutely loved the result! I have a feeling I'll be turning to this a lot because it is so easy, but looks awesome!

Blue: Essie Garden Variety

White: Essie Blanc

Black: Essie Licorice

This was so easy to do, and I loved it. I can't wait to try it again!

Thanks for reading <3

Pink Mix & Match

Welcome back!

I finally painted my nails again! I took my nail polish off Friday night, and I finally painted these on Tuesday. I went four days without anything on my nails! I was feeling uninspired, but I've started to get some good ideas flowing again, so I'm really excited to try a few things now. I've found that after doing a bunch of challenges, I have trouble coming up with nail art ideas, because I get used to being prompted, so I rely on that to help me.

What I finally settled for was a mix and match in all pink and white. I love the way this turned out. Absolutely love it.

White: Essence Wild White Ways
Pink: Essie Just Stitched
Glitter: Nails, Inc. Westbourne Gardens

It was super easy to do. I used Nail Vinyls to make the chevrons (the regular/medium size), a dotting tool to make the dots on my pointer finger and thumb and then I sponged on the glitter for my ring finger.

Thanks for reading <3

Minimal Stripe & Glitter

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The other day I had a meeting for work, and I didn't want to have any crazy graduation nail art. I can't have just a solid color, so I wanted some simple nail art that would look good still! This is what I came up with.

Pink: Morgan Taylor Ella of a Girl
White: OPI Alpine Snow
Glitter: Essie Rock at the Top

To make the stripes, I painted my nail pink first, and then I used some straight Nail Vinyls and painted white on top of that. I sponged the glitter on, because that was the easiest way to get it on that heavy.

Thanks for reading <3

Graduation Nails

Welcome back!

I graduated from Community College a couple of weeks ago and I wanted to do some graduation nails, but I never got around to it. Well...I finally did!

Red: OPI What's Your Point-setta?
White: OPI Alpine Snow
Blue: L'Oreal Fluo Azur
Silver: OPI Unfrost My Heart
Black: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Night Fright
Yellow: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Sizzlin' Saffron

I tried something new this time when I was drawing my designs. I don't have a lot of nail art brushes, so I don't have a small detail bush. The cap and diploma were small, and I wanted to make them look good, so I used a toothpick to draw them!

I'm really happy with how these turned out! I based the idea off of what I did back when I graduated high school, but those looked awful! I've learned so much since then!

Thanks for reading <3

May Weekly Nail Art Challenge Roundup

Welcome back!

Today I just wanted to post a roundup of my nail art from the weekly nail art challenge!

My favorite of all of them was the gradient for sure. I really liked this challenge, because I was forced to do some nail art that I wouldn't typically do. I don't do watermarble very often, and I have never done a fishtail before. I also liked how it was all neon, so I was forced to use colors that I don't usually, which of course also gave me the excuse to buy the entire China Glaze Electric Nights collection... :)

Week 1: Half Moon

Week 2: Tribal

Week 3: Fishtail

Week 4: Gradient

Week 5: Watermarble

Thanks for reading <3

May Favorites

Welcome back!

Today I wanted to share my mani and nail polish favorites from the month of May! I didn't get a chance to do a lot of nail art this month, unfortunately. May is always extremely busy for me. School ends, so there are finals, and then graduation for not only me, but other friends and family, as well as an anniversary for me and work getting busier in the spring and summer. BUT I still got to do several manicures, and I picked my favorites.

Cinco De Mayo Nails: My anniversary is on the fifth, so I wanted something simple and pretty, but still festive! I combined a french manicure with an accent of a beautiful Sinful Colors nail polish.

Spring Mix and Match: I needed to do something on my own without a prompt, holiday or anything like that. I usually fall back on something like this when that is the case of what I want to make!

Neon Gradient: This was one of the prompts for my weekly nail art challenge that I did this month! I usually don't do manicures with neon colors, because I don't care for the brightness. This turned out great, and I loved how it wasn't too blinding like some neon polishes.

Chevron Flag: I love red, white and blue together, and patriotic nails, so this was perfect for me! I really liked how it was a fun twist on the typical flag manicure.


Other

• I fell in love with the China Glaze Electric Nights collection. Since I did the weekly nail art challenge, I needed a lot of neons because the theme for the whole month was neon. I don't buy a lot of actual neon polishes, so I bought this collection to give me a lot of options!
• Chevrons are a big part of my life anyway, because I just love them. But this month, I just loved chevron manicures. I only did two on myself, but I did my sister's nails, too, and gave her some chevrons. I would have done more if I had time to paint my nails more, but I didn't unfortunately.

Thanks for reading <3