They Both Believed It Was True

I was surprised at how few nail designs I'd done lately-then I realized my phone didn't sync them all.  Oh well, life goes on!

 Abstract floral nails, inspired by my new Toms! I used a bunch of polishes to do a kind of abstract floral thing like I did in this post.

I can't EVEN deal with how gorgeous Color Club Revvvolution is. Beautiful.

New OPIs! Goldeneye and Stranger Tides in a tape mani.

And THEN a real feather mani on my cinderella hand (over Goldeneye).

Polka dot mani! China Glaze Frostbite on Essence L.O.L.

Title: Neil Gaiman, Neverwhere

Hex Nail Jewelry/Abstract Floral Mani

Hi y'all! I'm so excited about this mani I could explode:

How gorgeous is this?? That pretty lil' bee is Hex Nail Jewelry's Bee No. 1 and I'm obsessed. I got my order in last week and I cannot wait to try out the other ones...but I love this one so much it might take me a bit to get to the others! The floral is Monet inspired and was SO easy. From the bottom up I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Black Out, Julep Popova, NYC High Line Green, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Lacey Lilac, Breezy Blue, Coral Reef, and White On. I got the brushstroke-y look by dragging my topcoat instead of floating it (INM Out The Door) while it was kind of wet.

It's Passion, It's Not Love

I found my camera! With dead batteries, of course. Oh well, I still have two finals and the first part of an online course to finish up before I can take a little time off, so I probably wouldn't be using it anyways. It's Instagram again, sorry y'all!

Julep Alice (gorgeous), with OPI My Vampire Is Buff and Golden-I flowers.

MVIB base with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Lacey Lilac, Zoya Daul, Sinful Colors Enchanted, and Julep Popova flowers, ring finger accent with Essie Ballet Slippers and Born Pretty studs, pinky uses Zoya Daul again! I'd forgotten what a pretty color it is!

My actual current mani! Julep Zelda with loose holographic glitter, from Born Pretty Store.  It's so pretty in real life, like tiny disco balls or fish scales. It's pretty chipped now, though-we got a hail storm with baseball-sized hail last night and I spent a lot of today helping clean up.

Title: City and Colour, Confessions (LOVE LOVE LOVE)

Slow It Down

It has been a rough week, to say the least.  Just one of those where you want to scream and cry and then adopt a million Scottish Folds and snuggle them all.  As of right now though, I only have six pages of writing and three finals between me and the end of the semester AND my baby cat is sleeping on my legs so...not too bad. Once again, it's going to be a bunch of Instagram pictures. I swear I'll find my camera!

This was a pretty popular post for me and I got a lot of compliments IRL! I used OPI My Vampire Is Buff for the base, as well as China Glaze First Mate, Maybelline Fierce N' Tangy, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Coral Reef, and Julep Annie.

OH LOOK, it's more Vampire and First Mate, but also China Glaze Angel Wings! Also the same flowers...

Zoya Ivanka with a little Vampire on top...

Pretty purple flowers sure make the Vampire look nice, don't they? I used Julep Popva, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Lacey Lilac, Wet N' Wild On A Trip, and Sinful Colors Enchanted.

I had to cut my nails to nubs because they were getting too long for me to be super comfortable handling my contacts, so I did some lil' galaxies using the same method/polishes as in this post. 

See y'all soon!

Title: Slow It Down, The Lumineers

Dots on Dots on Dots

So lately I've apparently been on a polka dot kick AND I've decided that not blogging is not an option because it's something I like to do and Instagram just isn't cutting it.

Nautical colors are my favorite! The blue is China Glaze First Mate and I LOVE IT. I've been searching for a navy blue creme for what seems like forever, because every time I found one that seemed ideal, it always ended up having a shimmer to it I didn't like. The ivory is OPI My Vampire Is Buff and the gold is Julep Sienna.

Another mani I absolutely loved. I used Julep Rebel as the base (unfortunately, it was cloudy the day I wore this and it wasn't as gorgeous as it is here). The neon coral is China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy; the purple, mint, and blue are all Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Lacey Lilac, Mint Sorbet, and Breezy Blue.

I did a Purple Nails for Boston Mani as well, using Lacey Lilac as the base, Sinful Colors Enchanted as the first, bigger dot, and Julep Rebel as the smaller dots. I was actually asked if these were nail wraps a few times! Extremely flattering, in my opinion.

I'm The Worst

So life has been hectic and I've been lazy...and here is a bunch of Instagram pictures of everything I've done for like, the last TWO WEEKS. Three? I dunno, but I'll be back to blogging this week!

Glitter Gradient with Zoya Song and Ivanka

Glitter Gradient (Sinful Colors All About You and China Glaze Angel Wings) with Sally Hansen Lacey Lilac, Coral Reef, and Mint Sorbet. Studs from Born Pretty.

Julep Lynn with Born Pretty studs again.

Sally Hansen Coin Flip (LOVE THIS) with white detail (Color Club striping polish) and Born Pretty rhinestones-I have a wheel of these bad boys, so I should probably use them more.

Lacey Lilac again, this time with China Glaze Scattered & Tattered-seriously love this glitter too, part of their Glitz Bitz N' Pieces collection.

St. Patty's water marble with Sally Hansen Mint Sorbet, White On, and Coin Flip, featuring my wallet (from Urban Outfitters).

Current (until later) mani! Julep Popova with All About You and individually placed glitter for the rainbow and pot o' gold.

A couple of my pics didn't show up in my downloads and I'm too lazy to manually download them (sorry guyz), but they are totally on my Instagram!

Valentine's Day Ruffle Manicure

When I saw this tutorial for a ruffle manicure over at Chalkboard Nails, I knew I would have to do my own one day, and that day was today!

Unfortunately, today will also be the day I take it off, due to sloppy floating and a VERY runny red. I'm thinking water marble next? It's so easy to do different things when I only have x amounts of colors to choose from!

From top to bottom I used: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Sonic Bloom, Sephora by OPI And a Cherry on Top, Julep Eileen, Julep Maya, Julep Delaunay, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Coral Reef, Julep Mischa, Xtreme Wear Golden-I, and Julep Georgia. Some nails I did repeat colors on since my nails are long and I underestimated how many "ruffles" I would need.

Glitter Chevron V-Day Mani

Real quick post-I have to go get an outfit for mah Valentine's date thingy? But I did this yesterday!

I don't know why, but this was stupid hard to photograph. Base is Julep Georgia and chevrons/heart (done with a dotting tool) are a gold glitter Color Club striping polish.

Experiment: "Tribal" Nails

I picked up a set of 7 Color Club nail art polishes with striping brushes for $10 at Marshall's the other day, and I've been itching to try them out, so here you are:

They were pretty easy to use, although I had a few problems keeping my lines as neat on my right hand! I did bring out my dotting tool to do the dots, since I wasn't really able to get dots where I wanted them with the brushes. The white polish was also a little prone to smearing when I did a top coat of Seche Vite, but that was easily avoided by "floating" the top coat so you don't actually touch the nail art with the brush. The base coat is China Glaze "Escaping Reality" from their Cirque du Soleil Worlds Away Collection.

Playoffs Nails, Texans Style

I guess my luck reversed itself for playoffs, because the Texans won today! I ultimately want the Broncos to win it all, but I'll cheer for Houston until they potentially face off. I will admit, I did just switch up a color from the Broncos mani I did waaay at the beginning of the season.

Colors Used: Julep/Eileen and Gunta, Sephora by OPI/And A Cherry On Top

Festive Garland Mani

When my Christmas tree mani chipped off, I decided to keep going with the Christmas thing and used my dotting tool to try and make little garlands on my nails, with some success! I did underestimate how much space I would need/how big the dots would be (still not a dotting tool pro), but the overall effect was fun.

Colors Used: Julep Popova, Mischa, and Isla, Sally Hansen Golden-I

Teeny Tiny Christmas Tree Mani

Mine isn't as cool as my inspiration over at Pshiiit, but I still think it's pretty snazzy. I'm not sure how I feel about the base color-it's a little more olive than gold in some light. Maybe another coat of Seche Vite will make them a little shinier?

Sorry it's Instagram-ed!

Colors Used: China Glaze Angel Wings, Julep Popova, Julep Mischa

Rhinestone from: Born Pretty Store

Trampy, Vampy, Leopard Print Nails

I love these. Like, truly, madly, deeply, kind of love.

And I want my nails to look like this forever. 

Colors Used: Julep Delaunay, Sally Hansen Golden-I, Sinful Colors Black on Black

I Do Believe I'm Bad Luck...

...so no more team-inspired manis from now on. This week, I did Broncos nails and WE LOST. JUST LIKE THE SAINTS LOST LAST WEEK. Maybe I'll start doing the opposing teams colors instead?

But anyways, here it is:

From the base up: Julep in Eileen, Julep in Gunta, and Sinful Colors in Cloud 9. I'm still trying to get the hang of my dotting tool-my right hand is nowhere near as neat as the left, and this one isn't exactly perfect. Whatever, I kind of loved the eventual effect, and that's what counts, right?

Kiwis Make Me Cheerful

So this morning I was eating kiwis for breakfast, because I love them, and when I looked at them they made me want to redo my nails, which have been suffering with a failed nail art experiment. A few coats later and an awkward attempt with a dotting tool, ta-da!

Now I have cheerful little kiwis on my nails, and every time I look at them it makes me happy. I really like kiwis. 

Colors used: New York Colors in High Line Green, Sinful Colors Call You Later (glitter!), Julep in Annette, and Sinful Colors in Black on Black

A Fading Pink, the Color of Wild Roses

A Stephen King quote might be a little dark for this light of a mani, but I just reread Hearts in Atlantis and the line kinda stuck with me. I used this tutorial from Beautylish, substituting my dotting tools for a brush.

I really, really like this. Sure, my roses turned out a little more...abstract than I maybe would have liked, but it worked! I used (from the base coat up): Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Lovely Lilac, Julep in Georgia, Julep in Mischa, and NYC Colors in High Line Green. 

How the Leopard Got His Spots

So my last mani chipped after two days...and I wasn't really that upset because I got to use my (drumroll please) Essie Matte About You AS WELL AS my brand-spankin'-new MASH dotting tools. The excitement was overwhelming, so I went with a "simple" leopard print.  The tutorial I used is super easy, and you can find it on Beautylish.

That awesome bracelet I'm wearing is from Apricot Lane Boutique-I think they're fairly new since they don't even have an online store, but I think they have a fair number of locations and are totally worth checking out. For the steps,etc., look after the jump: