Stripes make your nails look longer, right?

With my new short stubs, I wasn’t feeling very inspired for nail art. =( But I wanted to do something, as I just can’t deal with naked nails. They make me even sadder than short nails. I tried doing a bright gradient but it just didn’t work the way I wanted. I haven’t played much with my striping polishes lately, excluding my unlucky outline nails, so I decided to pull a bunch of them out and do some stripes. (Truthfully I was hoping maybe the stripes would give me the optical illusion of longer nails.)

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stripes

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The polishes I used for this manicure were:

  • ACO by Ardene in Sugar Champagne.
  • Art Club striping polish in Paisley Paradise.
  • Art Club Nail Art Duo in Baby Blue.
  • Stripe Rite striping polish in black.
  • Sally Hansen Diamond Flash top coat.

I always rely on my striping polish for creating lines. I’m not very good when it comes to striping tape… I’ve used it a couple times but I much prefer drawing the lines myself. I find that with most manicures it’s much easier, and saves on time because I don’t have to wait for my base color to dry completely before creating my stripes.

Also I must share my excitement over how my lines are becoming much smoother and steadier. When I got my first striping polishes a couple years ago, my freehand lines definitely did not look like that! Now if only I could find a way for my nails to never break. =(

Oh, I created a little before-and-after comparison just to show the difference. =( Stupid table.

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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. ❤

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

31 Day Nail Art Challenge — Day 16: Tribal Print.

Aztec and Tribal prints were a big trend last summer in nail art. I seriously dig anything Tribal print. I bought the sweetest aztec print pants that I have a feeling I will be wearing A LOT this summer. So when it came to Day 16, I was super excited to come up with something tribal on my nails. There was no reason to this manicure–I really just started drawing lines and outlines and dots, and came up with this:

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tribalprint

The polishes I used for this manicure were:

  • Sinful Colors in Be Happy
  • Essence Color & GO in Let’s get Lost
  • Color Club Art Club in Paisley Paradise.
  • Stripe Rite Striping polish in Black.
  • Stripe Rite Striping Polish in White.
  • Sally Hansen Diamond Flash top coat.

God I love tribal print. I also love the blues and purples used in this manicure. I really like how it turned out, even though I had no plan going into this. Sometimes the most random manicures turn out to be my favorite!

Also check out this adorable mug that the boyfriend gave me for Easter. My first thought? I totally have to do this as nail art!

31 Day Nail Art Challenge — Day 15: Delicate Print

Easter kind of slowed me down on the nail art challenge. But I’m back at it and making sure I keep going, and don’t give up even though I’m finding my nail art skills being a little more tested with each new design.

For Day 15, the prompt was a delicate print. I had to kind of rack my brain on what I was going to do. In the end, I decided on a lace-like print. When I started, I wasn’t sure what to do but I just kept going until my nails resembled something of a lace print, even though I’ve never tried to do a lace print before.

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The polishes I used for this manicure were:

  • Bourjois Paris Nail Polish in 1995 Grains de beauté –pale pink base of my nails.
  • Stripe Rite Striping Brush in white — The design near my nail tips, and the polka dot design.
  • Sally Hansen Diamond Flash top coat.

I really like how these turned out. They are very girlie. Also the pale pink color is perfect for spring! My mother gave me a collection of these Bourjois polishes for my birthday, all in pink, and the colors are so beautiful.

31 Day Nail Art Challenge — Day 14: Floral.

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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.

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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?