Nail tragedy. =(

With the sun shining, I decided to pull out one of my OPI beach sandies–I’m Brazil Nuts Over You–which is a super gorgeous almost neon pink textured polish that was released as part of the OPI Brazil Collection. I really wanted to wear something that would pop on my nails, and I’m Brazil Nuts Over You was the perfect choice! Since I hadn’t done outline nails in a while, and decided to pull out my Black Stripe Rite Striping polish, went to work. The finished product turned out exactly how I hoped, and it was the perfect contrast to my green and blue dress I decided to wear to work.

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Aren’t they pretty? Oh man, I couldn’t stop looking at how they turned out. Unfortunately,  it appears as though I’m not having a very good-luck nail week. When I got to work I was busying organizing some stuff, and accidentally hit my hand off a table, hard. And the end result almost made me cry.

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break

I was so happy, because my nails were finally growing out after a horrible break a couple months ago–on the same hand! Now I’ll be growing this break out again. =( Even worse, I had to file all my nails down short so my nails don’t look ridiculous. Short nails just make me so sad–some people can rock them, but for me I like my nails long, and always have.  I was doing so well avoiding any breaks, and now this. So freaking frustrating! At this rate, I’m never going to have the long beautiful nails I covet so much.

Mother’s Day Mani.

Yesterday, as I said in my previous post, was Mother’s Day. I worked all day, but afterwards we headed to my parent’s house for a Mother’s Day barbecue, so I wanted to paint my nails for the occasion.

I haven’t been doing a lot of nail art lately–a combination of being busy with work, and tired, and also wanting to re-wear old polishes I haven’t worn in a while. But I couldn’t pass up a chance to do something fun for Mother’s Day–that’s my favorite part of holidays… all the nail art possibilities.

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For this manicure I used:

  • Sally Hansen X-treme Wear in Coral Reef — my base color.
  • Stripe Rite Striping Brush in White — my lettering.
  • OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls — polka dots.
  • Sally Hansen X-treme Wear in Mellow Yellow — polka dots.
  • Kozmic Colors nameless blue — polka dots.
  • Sally Hansen Diamond Flash Top Coat!

I hope all the Mom’s out there had a wonderful day! I made sure to spoil my Mom as much as possible. ❤

MeMomedit

(This is a super old picture–taken on my 25th birthday, but it’s okay because we both look fabulous!)

#HePicksMyPolish — Floral edition.

I’m lucky, as I have a boyfriend who can put up with the fact I own so much polish,–a collection that just keeps on growing! I’m also lucky because every so often I give him the responsibility of picking my polishes when I can’t, or don’t, feel like doing it myself, and he’s always a good sport about it. A couple months ago, I read about the #hepicksmypolish challenge, and thought it was an awesome idea. So I sat him down, made him pick three colors, and created a manicure from them. I hadn’t done that in a while, so I figured another round of #hepicksmypolish was in order.

hepicksfloral

For this manicure, the boyfriend picked the following polishes:

  • Maripose Nail Polish with no name — the teal base color.
  • Essie in The Lace is On — purple pedals of my flowers.
  • OPI in You’re So Flippy Floppy (from the OPI Brazil collection mini sandies) –Yellow middles of my flowers.

He didn’t really go through all of my polishes to find these–he chose them all from my mini’s drawer. I don’t know what it is, but he always picks a purple and yellow combination for me. The second I saw these three colors, I knew I was doing a floral! Haha. And I do love how they turned it–they kind of remind me of the 60ies, and Andy Warhol.

I ended up adding my Icing It’s a Matte World top coat, which I feel just upped this floral to a whole other level.

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Have you ever let your significant other chose your nail polish/or what you should paint on your nails? I keep trying to convince him he should actually paint my nails, but he hasn’t agreed to it… yet. Maybe someday haha.

 

31 Day Nail Art Challenge — Day 20: Water Marble.

Okay, so I can’t water marble.

I can’t do it. I don’t know how people can create such beautiful water marble manicures, but I am not one of them. However, I didn’t want to not have anything to show for day 20–except a whole bunch of failure–so I looked up “water marble without water” in google, and what did it lead me to? A dry “water marble” technique. Score! So it’s not your typical water marbled nails, but it was something I could actually accomplish so I figured that was better than nothing!

(If you’re interested, I used this youtube tutorial by cutepolish.)

drywatermarble

The polishes I used for this manicure were:

  • Revlon polish in Minted–mint green polish.
  • China Glaze in What a Pansy!–purple polish.
  • OPI in My Boyfriend Scales Walls–white polish.
  • ACO by Ardene in Sea of Beauty–baby blue polish.
  • ACO by Ardene in Kiss from a Rose–pink polish.
  • Sally Hansen Diamond Flash Top Coat.

Even though I couldn’t do a proper water marble, I LOVE these. They spring color combination pops on the nail, and I just love the swirls. Even though I only did it on two accent nails for this manicure, I think it would love amazing all on my nails, and I will definitely be trying it again so I can play with it more (and with more color combinations).

 

 

 

Also, I’ve been thinking about this challenge, and I have to admit I’ve started to feel a little confined by it. I started it so I would have inspiration, but lately I feel like it’s restricting the manicures I want to do. There is SO much inspiration out there, and so many manicures I really want to try! I still want to finish the challenge, and not be a quitter, but I think I will be spreading it out with some other manicure ideas. Especially as my brand new dotting tool set just arrived, and I’ve yet to be able to really play with it, and it’s begging me to do some awesome floral nail art!

 

31 Day Nail Art Challenge — Day 14: Floral.

floralnailart

A few weeks ago, I picked up the new OPI sheer tints minis that have been floating around on nail art blogs. I was super excited when I found them, and so there was no question I needed them. The only thing I wasn’t sure was what I should use them for! After some serious consideration I realized they would be perfect for a water-color floral print for day 14 of the challenge.

floral

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For this manicure, the polishes that I used were:

  • Revlon Nail Polish in Minted — the mint green polish on my thumb, pointed and middle finger.
  • China Glaze’s White on White — white base color on my ring and pinky finger, and dots on my mint base color on other fingers.
  • OPI Sheer Tints in Be Magentale With Me — pink-ish colored flowers.
  • OPI Sheer Tints in I Can Teal you Like Me — blue-ish colored flowers.
  • OPI Sheer Tints in Don’t Violet Me Down — Purple-ish colored flowers.
  • Sally Hansen Diamond Flash Top Coat.

These turned out so perfect. The OPI sheer tints are a little weird to work with, because they dry quickly on the nail art brush. I also found myself having to grab more polish more often than when drawing with regular polish. However the outcome is gorgeous. I’m such a fan of floral print in general, and this manicure just screams spring to me. It makes me want to wear pretty floral dresses, and flats, and not have to worry about freezing to death. Hopefully the weather starts to agree soon. Summer is my favorite season, and I’ve been longing to break out my maxi dresses again. Every time I walk past my closet I see them hanging there… and I just want to wear them SO bad.

So what’s your favorite go-to nail art for Spring?