Fall Leaves nail art.

Fall is one of my favorite seasons–I love everything about it. Not too warm, not too cold. Plus the leaves changing color and falling brings me back to being a kid, and raking the leaves just to jump in them. A few weeks back, I did these fall leaves inspired nails in honor of my favorite season.

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The polishes I used for this manicure were:

  • Zoya Piaf — Yellow base color.
  • Nicole by OPI Emerald Empowered — sponging.
  • Claire’s Poison Apple –sponging.
  • Revlon Spidey Sense — sponging.
  • ACO by Ardene Golden Luxury — sponging.
  • Essence Color and Go Mister Rusty — sponging.
  • LA Colors Art Deco Nail Art Striper — leaves outline and dots.
  • Essie Good to Go Top Coat.

I absolutely love the outcome of these nails. I think they perfectly speak Fall to me. I started these without a clear idea of what I was going to do, and they ended up looking beautiful. Don’t you just love when that happens?! =)

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So what do you think of this fall leaves manicure?

Check out my next post–I’m going to have a fun Fall/Halloween manicure to share with you. =)

SWATCH POST — Mirage by ACO by Ardene

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Today, I’m sharing with you a gorgeous polish I’m absolutely in love with. This is ACO by Ardene’s Mirage which is an absolutely stunning multi-crome polish which–depending on the light–flashes anywhere from purple, to gold, to green, to blue, to pink. You’ll remember before I mentioned that Ardene has been stepping up their nail polish game, and Mirage is a perfect example of that. For my swatches, I applied the polish over black undies, as it brings out the multi-crome aspect of the polish best. (I also applied Nutra-nail Quick Dry Top Coat for extra shine.)

 

 

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I really, really tried my best to try and capture all the different flashes of color this polish has to offer. It was not easy. I did my best, and the different colors definitely come through well. Even still, I kept looking at my nails all day, moving them around and staring in awe of them.

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See the flashes of gold and green? So, so, so pretty.

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Mirage is from ACO by Ardene’s fall 2013 collection of nail polish, although depending on the store you may still be able to find old bottles (mine doesn’t have any, but we do have other fall 2013 polishes remaining). ACO by Ardene polishes retail for $3.50 on their own, but can usually be combined in some kind of promotion that will save you a little bit overall. I think my next polish I’ll be picking up from work will be Mirage’s multi-crome sister, named Twilight Zone, so keep an eye out for that beauty coming up soon. =)

Pacific Blue (the original!) and a little subtle shimmer.

So as most people have probably heard, Sally Hansen decided a little while ago to change Pacific Blue, taking it from a beautiful creamy blue to a less appealing darker shimmery blue. I was not very impressed when I heard the news (as most people weren’t) because Pacific Blue is one of my all time favorite blue polishes! I’ve been on the look out to see if I could find any of the old bottles, but wasn’t having the best luck. However, I got lucky the other day when I visited my local Shoppers–they had a whole display with the old formula of Pacific Blue, so naturally I had to stock up on this beauty!

In honor of finding my beloved Pacific Blue, I decided to do a manicure featuring it. Originally I wanted to use striping tape to create triangle accent nails, but after getting way to frustrated I gave up on the striping tape and decided to create freehand mosaic accent nails. Someday I’ll manage to get the hand of striping tape, I just guess that today is not going to be that day.

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The polishes I used for this manicure were:

  • Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Pacific Blue — blue.
  • Essence Beach Cruisers Girls Just Wanna Have Sun! — Coral.
  • Essence Beach Cruisers Keep Calm and Go to the Beach! — Teal.
  • ACO by Ardene Kiss From a Rose — Pink.
  • Vernis Classique by Cherimoya Black — black outline.
  • Quo by ORLY Glitter Pink Matte Top Coat.
  • Essie Go to Go Top Coat.

God, I really love this blue. As soon as I came home, I put it on my toes. My old bottle was beginning to get goopy from over use, so I was really sad thinking I’d never get to wear this polish again. I also added some shimmer to my manicure in the form of Quo’s Matte Pink Glitter Top Coat so it would qualify for the OMD Nail Art challenge. I ended up adding top coat over the sparkle, just to bring it out a little more. Maybe it’s not as BAM! IN YOUR FACE! as some shimmery manicures, but I like the subtle quality of it. Plus it looks amazing over Pacific Blue so it’s a definite win for me.

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Outline Gradient Nails.

I’m kind of a little obsessed with gradients lately.

It’s only been the last little while that I’ve actually been able to get them right–after many fail nail manicures. After the gradients I did for my Bestie Twin Tropical Nails turned out so well, I really wanted to give a full gradient manicure another try.

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The polishes I used for this manicure were:

  • OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls — white base color.
  • Sinful Colors Island Coral.
  • ACO by Ardene Forever Young.
  • LA Colors In A Flash.
  • Cherimoya Black.
  • Essie Go to Go Top Coat.

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This manicure reminds me of something, but I can’t quite figure it out. I ended up creating a black outline around the nails as I didn’t quite get my sponging of the different colors to the ends of the nails, so there was some white edges. This seemed like the perfect solution for hiding that. =)

Bestie Twin Summer Nails.

I’ve always wanted the chance to do Best Twin Nails with someone before, so I was excited that my coworker and favorite nail art buddy agreed to do twin nails with me, especially since she’s leaving us later this week.

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Since it’s finally officially Summer, I suggested something tropical. We decided to go with a gradient on the accent fingers, with palm trees. I really wanted to get a picture of our nails together, but we totally forgot to!  Thankfully though, she sent me this picture with the caption “for your blog!” so I could share with everyone our cute bestie nails.

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For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • ACO by Ardene Purple Rain — thumb & gradient (purple) .
  • Essie We’re in this Together — pointer (pink).
  • ACO by Ardene Lights, Camera, Action — pointer (glitter).
  • ACO by Ardene Sea of Beauty — gradient (blue).
  • LA Colors Color Craze Palm Tree — gradient (green)
  • China Glaze Metro Pollen-tin — gradient (yellow)
  • Sinful Colors Island Coral — pinky & gradient (coral).
  • Cherimoya Black — palm tree.
  • Sally Hansen Diamond Flash top coat.

I thought this was a super cute design for the second day of Summer. It was really fun to have matching nails with my favorite nail art buddy. I’m really going to miss her when she leaves us, and I hope she’ll still have nail art chats with me, and we can do bestie twin nails again.  =)

 

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So what do you think of these summery nails?

Have you ever done Bestie Twin nails with anyone?