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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Color block — take two.

As you’ve kind of noticed, I’ve been killing color block manicures lately. Sometimes I have a hard time deciding on just one bright color, so I have to used them all. (Haha, maybe not all. I own 300 polishes so that would be quite a time consuming manicure.)

Today’s bright and colorful manicure is a combination of some fun Summer colors. It took me a little while to get done, but I love the finished product. I painted everything completely free hand, so my lines are not perfectly straight–but I find that adds to the charm.

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The polishes I used for this manicure were:

  • Sinful Colors in Be Happy.
  • Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Coral Reef.
  • Art Club Striping Polish in Paisley Paradise.
  • Essence Color & Go  in Let’s Get Lost!
  • Art Club Nail Art Duo in Baby Blue.
  • Stripe Rite Striping Polish in white.
  • Stripe Rite Striping Polish in orange.
  • Stripe Rite Striping Polish in black.
  • Sally Hansen Diamond Flash top coat.

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I really, really love the look of these. They’re just really fun! And the best part about a manicure with this many colors is that I can pretty much match it to any outfit. =) We’ve still got some serious grey skies happening right now, so at least my nails are spring-like.

Crayon Nails.

Just a quick manicure post today.

I did these nails last night, as I was trying to come up with something pretty to put on my nails. My original inspiration came from pinterest,  although I used a different color scheme and used striping polish instead of tape. I was going off what I had remembered seeing, so it didn’t turn out exactly how I was hoping. In all honesty, these nails really remind me of crayons haha.

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The polishes I used for this manicure were:

  • Sinful Colors in Be Happy — base color.
  • Stripe Rite striping polish in black.
  • Art Club striping polish in Paisley Paradise.
  • Sally Hansen Diamond Flash top coat.

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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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.

Perfect Polka Dots.

After yesterday’s nail art fail, I wanted to do something I couldn’t screw up. Last week, I bought quite a few new polishes including a Zoya polish I found at my local shoppers on clearance at Lawton’s (my favorite place to get polish–the selection is unbelievable, and they always have amazing deals!) So I decided to grab that gorgeous Zoya and my dotting tool set, and play around a little bit.

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The polishes I used for this manicure are:

  • Zoya Piaf — my soft and sparkly yellow base color.
  • Unnamed Mariposa purple polish.
  • Unnamed Maripose pink polish.
  • Sally Hansen Diamond Flash top coat.
  • Icing It’s a Matte World matte top coat.

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I really like how these turned out. I’m really, really loving my dotting tools right now, and doing all the dots on my nails. I’ve been practicing really hard to get my polka dots perfect, and I definitely think I’ve improved a lot since my first attempts at polka dots. It was quick to do, but made my nails feel pretty instantly. The only thing I would change is using a bigger size of dotting tool–I feel like there is a lot of space between my dots.