Category: Nude

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In love with Spring, Coral and Floral.

Happy first day of June!

Oh how happy am I that Spring is in full bloom. Summer has always been my favorite season–I love the heat. So in honor of Summer being all that much closer, I did a pretty floral manicure. There are so many floral/rose and polka dot manis floating around I felt inspired. I’ve been working on perfecting my roses and with my new tiny nail art brushes I got not that long ago, I feel like my technique has definitely improved.

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The polishes I used to create this floral manicure was:

  • Sinful Colors in Island Coral –pinky coral on my nail art free nails.
  • ACO by Ardene in Bridezilla — off white/nude background color of my nail art.
  • Claire’s Neon Purple –roses
  • Unnamed Claire’s Pink shimmer polish –roses
  • Bourjois Paris in 1938 Mais Oui —roses
  • Boujois Paris in 2002 Effect 3D Lip Gloss — roses.
  • ACO by Ardene in Green Peace — darker green of leaves.
  • And another brighter lime green I can’t remember the name of.
  • Nutra Nail Top Speed Top Coat (with green tea.)

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As you can see from the close up of my flowers, they actually (kind of?) resemble roses–or at least I think so. Thanks to my new, and much smaller, nail art brushes creating the swoops of different colors really makes a big difference in how these flowers turned out. I also really like the color combination of the pinks and purples and this Sinful Colors coral. It all makes for a wonderful Spring-soon-to-be-Summer manicure.

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My nails are so happy to soak up the sunshine and increasingly warm weather. I have a feeling that I’ll be creating a lot of floral manicures. Now I just have to find the perfect complimentary spring dress to match, and I’ll be all set for the day.

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Pretty in Pink gradient.

Sometimes I like my manicures complicated, and sometimes I just want something simple on my nails. These would definitely fall on the more simple end of the spectrum. After a couple days of super bright and colorful nails, I really wanted to rock a somewhat softer manicure. After browsing pinterest for an hour or so, I decided on a gradient as I haven’t done a (successful) one in a while. With my nails so short right now, I find it a lot harder to create gradient, if only because I don’t have the room to move around on my nails. But even though these are a very, very subtle gradient, I do love how they turned out. With my best friend’s wedding come up shortly, I’m going to need to figure out something to do–as I’m guessing super bright and colorful neon nails won’t work with her wedding plans haha.

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For this manicure the polishes I used were:

  • ACO by Ardene in Bridezilla — pale ivorny//off white base color.
  • Essence Love Letters Collection Rosy in Love — pales pink of the gradient.
  • ACO by Ardene in Kiss by a Rose — darkest pink of the gradient.
  • QUO by Orly in Sugar Cookie — pale glitter on each nail.
  • Sally Hansen Diamond Flash top coat.

Oh man, I wish you could see the beauty that is Sugar Cookie, but sadly my camera just didn’t want to capture it. It was part of the Quo by Orly holiday mini-collection that my boyfriend got me for Christmas, and I’ve yet to find a manicure to pair it with. It’s really sheer, so it’s unfortunately impossible to wear on it’s own (it would take about 15 coats to get it opaque), but I love the look of it. So pretty!

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Knock-out Nails.

I went clearance shopping at my local Shoppers and Lawton’s on pay day, and found myself some fun goodies.

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Oh goodness, I love polish shopping. I especially love finding some amazing deals. I got all of these polishes for under $20. You can’t go wrong with that! Especially when you find polishes you apparently missed on the first go around (I’m looking at you Essence Metal Glam.)

For my first NOTD from the group, I went with a combination of the Del Sol polish I picked up, and the Essence Metal Glam gold topper.

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I’ve bought a Del Sol polish before, and was less than thrilled with it. While it did change color in the sun, I wasn’t a fan of the color or application–it was way too streaky. When I found this one though–named Knock Out–I was happy to see it wasn’t a metallic polish. It’s a off white, almost nude, creme base. The polish itself is very thin, and it took me 4 coats to get it almost opaque (with still slight visible nail line) but it’s very nice on the nail.

With that, I applied a layer of Essence’s Metal Glam gold topper, named Steel-ing the Scene. Apparently I missed when this collection first appeared at my local Shoppers, because I do not remember seeing it! I’ve been coveting a Gold Leaf top coat since they first appeared on the scene, but couldn’t justify spending a small fortune on it. (I don’t think my boyfriend would appreciate me buying top coat over, you know, groceries.) Now this isn’t exactly like the other Gold Leaf Top coats that are floating around–it’s not real gold, so the flakes are much stiffer than its inspiration. However, for the $2 I scored it for, it gives me the look I was hoping for.

The best part of this NOTD comes, though, when you step into the sunshine.

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Pink!

Now the color isn’t as dark as what they show on the bottle, but it could be something to do with not enough sunshine, and my layers of top coat. Either way, I love the color changing effect. It makes me so happy. And the soft pink color goes so well with the gold top coat. It may come across as a simple manicure, but step into the sunshine, and *BAM!* it proves how awesome it is. Plus–Sunshine! Oh it is so nice to see the sun! It is finally starting to feel like spring here on the East coast, and my dress wearing self couldn’t be happier.

I don’t know what it is, but I LOVE color changing nail polish. When Claire’s first came out with their Mood nail polish line about 4 years ago, I owned every color and wore them constantly. Unfortunately, those polishes have been lost in the stash that disappeared from my parents house, and I haven’t been able to find any thermal polishes in a long while, even though I covet them madly. Thankfully, Del Sol’s polishes are a good replacement for now. =)

So what do you think of this NOTD?

Also, I must wish my Mom a Happy Mother’s Day, as she told me she was now following my blog. =)