Polka dots and studs. 

What’s your favourite go-to mani?! Mine is polka dots. Not only are they always stylish but I super quick and easy too! 

    

For this mani I started with a base colour of China Glaze Secret Peri-wink-le. All it took was an itty bitty dotting tool and OPI Angel With A Lead Foot to create my polka dot pattern. After I had dotted the whole pattern in white, I went back using China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy and my Sally Hansen I Love Nail Art pen in Black to colour in some of the white dots in random places. Then I sealed the whole look in with quick dry top coat (I’ve been on a Seche Vite kick lately because it dries SO quick!) 

After I finished, I kind of felt like the mani was lacking a little, so I grabbed some of my gold studs purchased from Born Pretty Store (item number #8644). I applied them by dabbing dots of Seche Vite onto the base of my nail then used a damp nail art brush to pick up the studs and apply. Finished off everything with another coat of Seche Vite and done! I really feel like the studs gave my mani a little extra something so it wasn’t just another polka dot manicure. 

 

So tell me–what’s your favourite go to mani for when you need something quick and easy? 

Pineapple nail art inspired by Kayleehazacupcake 

So I don’t have any idea what it’s about, but I’m totally obsessed with pineapples lately. I just bought a new crazy pineapple phone case for my iPhone and I had to have OPI Pineapples have Peelings Too! from the Spring Hawaii collection in part cause it mentions pineapples in the name! (And I’m actually such a dork!) 

Today’s nail art is the personification of my Pineapple obsession in manicure form. A few weeks ago I saw Kayleehazacupcake did an adorable pineapple manicure, so I knew I had to attempt a recreation. 

   

The polishes I used for this manicure were: 

  • OPI Angel with a Leadfoot (white base colour) 
  • China Glaze Metro Pollen-tin (yellow pineapples)
  • OPI How Great is your Dane? (Brown cross hatch)
  • Sally Hansen I Love Nail Art pen in green (leaves)
  • Sally Hansen I Love Nail Art pen in black (polka)
  • Seche Vite quick dry top coat. 

   

So what do you think of my little pineapples? I seriously love them! I’m excited to give my nail art limits a little push past floral and polka dots. 

Any suggestions on nail art you would like to see? Please leave some in the comments below! 💗💗💗

Purple floral featuring China Glaze Flying Dragon. 

If there are two things you can count on me to obsess over when it comes to my nails, it is purple polish (bonus points if there is glitter involved!) and floral.   

One of my favourite purples now and always is China Glaze Flying Dragon–a neon purple polish scattered with beautiful micro glitters. I was going through old mani pictures recently and realized it had been way too long since I had brought it out. I decided to recreate the first mani I ever did with this polish from way back in 2013. 

 

First off, sorry for the shoddy Blackberry shot. I went for almost an exact recreation of my original floral. My hand has definitely gotten steadier. But Flying Dragon remains as gorgeous as always. Damn I love this polish SO much! 

    

The polishes I used for this mani were: 

  • China Glaze Flying Dragon (purple)
  • OPI Angel With A Lead Foot (white flowers)
  • Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Lacy Lilac (light purple) 
  • Sinful Colors Bianca (pink middle) 
  • Sally Hansen I Love Nail Art pens in Black and White. 
  • Seche Vite quick dry top coat. 

 

  

Do you ever go back and recreate old manis? Let me know in the comments below! 😊

Spring floral.

First, I have to apologize for my lack of posts recently. After getting promoted at work, my ability to sit down and write a blog post took a bit of a hit. But I’m back, and I plan on finding the right rhythm so I can start posting a couple times a week again.

Is anyone else seriously craving Spring?

I don’t know where you live, but we’ve had a seriously messy and frigid Winter. Too much snow! Too much ice! So I’m all about Spring right now. Even if it seems a million miles away, I can still embrace Spring on my fingertips!

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The polishes used for this pretty floral are:

  • Essie Strut Your Stuff (Bright Blue)
  • OPI Angel With A lead foot (White)
  • Icing Cupcakes and Caviar (Darker Pink)
  • OPI Suzy shops and Island Hops (Light Pink)
  • Essie Parka Perfect (Light Blue)
  • Sally Hansen Golden-I (Gold)
  • Sally Hansen I Love Nail Art pen in green
  • Sally Hansen Nail Art pen in navy
  • Seche Vite top coat.
  • L’Oreal The Matte Velvet top coat.

I’m so seriously in love with this mani. My only complaint is that I only did my floral as accent nails instead of a whole mani. Also I’ve found the best matte top coat in the whole wide world! Look at this beautiful matte goodness. If you are looking for an amazing Matte top coat, you simply must search it out!

I have ideas about doing a whole blog post dedicated to the perfect colours for Spring so I must ask–what is your go-to Spring polish? I’m still on the look out to add to my collection so let me know in the comments below!

 

Out of this world Galaxy Nails–with a bonus tutorial!

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After being inspired by two of my fellow nail art girlies on Instagram (mymintnails and banulovesnailpolish) the other day, I was in the mood for Galaxy nails. The last time I did them was in April during the early weeks of this blog, and I hadn’t tried them since so it felt like a good time.

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The polishes I used for this manicure were:

  • OPI Who Are You Calling Bossy?!?
  • Unnamed Blue Joe Fresh Metallic Polish I got as part of their holiday collection this season.
  • LA Splash Heiress.
  • LA Splash Glitz & Berry.
  • LA Splash Maroon.
  • Quo by ORLY Trashy Glam.
  • ACO by Ardene Showtime.
  • China Glaze Fairy Dust.
  • Sally Hansen Diamond Flash Top Coat.

I’m seriously so happy with how my galaxies turned out. I’ve done galaxy nails a couple of times now, and always get frustrated by the fact I don’t find they look very Space-y. However thanks to using ACO by Ardene’s Showtime for glitter placement (the stars) and China Glaze’s Fairy Dust I managed to create my very own galaxies on my nails.

And I thought since I’m trying to create more tutorials I would share my steps for creating this manicure. I know everyone has their own way of creating galaxy nails, these are just the steps I took for the above manicure.

 

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  1. Paint all nails black (OPI Who Are You Calling Bossy?!?) and apply quick dry top coat.
  2. While that is drying, applying OPI Glitter Off Base Coat around cuticle area. I do this to keep the sponging I do when creating gradients and other like manicures off my fingers and minimize clean up.
  3. Sponge on first colour (the unnamed Blue Joe Fresh polish with shimmer.) Depending on how sheer the polish is, you may have to sponge a couple times to be able to see the polish.
  4. Continue sponging using a variety of other colours. I try to keep my sponging in a line so you get that galaxy look. I also will apply some polishes thicker than others, or just sponge small spots so that it’s not too heavy handed.
  5. Using a dotting tool, place stars in random places on nail. (ACO by Ardene Showtime.) I also used some of the bigger glitters in Showtime for along the sponging.
  6. Apply a coat (or two) of Fairy Dust over everything. Then, after a couple minutes apply your top coat to seal everything in. Once that’s dry, you’ll be able to peel off your protective layer around your cuticles, and clean up what you might have missed around your cuticles.

And tada! You now possess galaxies on your finger tips. Galaxies are one of the easiest nail art designs you can probably do because they can be done with pretty much any polish, at any level, in whatever style you want! And the plus side is–it’s almost impossible to screw them up.

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In case you’re interested, my ring is courtesy of Kristalized_Designs on Instagram (who also happens to be my sister!) She designed two gorgeous midi-rings for me, and is going to be designing a little something special for an upcoming giveaway I’m going to be holding. She’s in the process of getting her Etsy page up and going, but you should definitely check out her page for a sneak peak at her designs. Everything is hand made and one of a kind (there is even a picture of her making the above ring.)

 

So what do you think of these galaxy nails?