40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Mint Green & The Lacquer Ring - Seafoam

Good morning! I am combining prompts today, you guys because I just can't seem to find enough time to blog lately. And I lucked out because the prompts matched enough. Yay! So, seafoam and mint. I feel like they are practically the same color. They are, right??? Anyway, here is what I came up with.

This mint/seafoam camo manicure is all freehand. And...I don't know why the pictures came out so bad, but they did. By the time I had uploaded them to add my watermarks, it was already chipping, so it was too late to retake photos. Hey, sometimes that happens. But seriously, you can tell what's going on here. And it doesn't look bad in the smaller photos. :P I used Hello Kitty Minty, Wet n Wild Tree Hugger, and NYC Tudor City Teal for this. I just drew various blobby shapes. Hey, turns out camo is pretty easy!

Thank you so much for stopping by. Please make sure you check out what my fellow bloggers did for these prompts!

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40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Music

Good afternoon! I am a little behind with this post because I was struggling for inspiration. I ended up just going through my nail polish rack of untried colors, trying to find my inspiration there, when I came across this beauty and was immediately inspired.

This is Bear Pawlish Poor Unfortunate Souls. Now you all know I love The Little Mermaid. As soon as I picked up this bottle and saw the title, I started singing the song to myself and realized it was perfect. I decided to paint some poor unfortunate souls on my nails! I used only 4 additional colors for this: Pure Ice Black Rage and Superstar!, Zoya Wednesday, and Sephora by OPI Caught With My Khakis Down.

I'm going to let you in on a little secret that only my hubby and a few of my closest friends know: I have a Disney playlist on Spotify and I blast that thing while I'm sitting in my nail nook painting my nails and sing along loudly. I even listen to it (with headphones) while I am working. It always cheers me up. :P

So there you have it, my music inspired nails. Make sure you check out what everyone else did for this prompt!

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40 Great Nailart Ideas - Neon

Good evening! This week, our theme is neon, so I have a bright neon mani for you today! I started off with a white base for this ones, to make the colors brighter, and used a few colors from the China Glaze neon collection from last year.

I did an axtec pattern over top of stripes of neon using my striping polish from Orly called Jet Black, and my Sally Hansen nailart pen in Black. The colors I used for the background are China Glaze Glow With The Flow, DJ Blue My Mind, Red-y To Rave, and Violet-Vibes. I used Pure Ice SuperStar! underneath to make the colors pop.

Please make sure you visit the other people who posted their neon manis for this week's prompt! There are bound to be tons of ideas in there for some great summer nailart. :) Thanks for stopping by!

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40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Spring

Hello! So I feel like every idea ever in the history of time when it comes to Sprig manicures has been done. So, of course, I was over here struggling to think up something new. Well, I don't have anything new. Everyone knows what Spring entails. Every Spring-like mani has been done. So, I'm just doing what I like, and what reminds me most of Spring. And guess what? It's baby ducks. I literally just got a little shiver of excitement typing that. You guys, I love baby ducks so much I can hardly stand it!!! They are so cute, in their cute little line behind their mama. So, I decided to paint that on my nails.

I started off with OPI My Pal Joey from the Hello Kitty Collection. After that, I hand painted the mama duck and the little babies using Pure Ice SuperStar! and Black Rage, Essie Meet Me at Sunset, and Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow.

Here is what My Pal Joey looks like on its own. It is a thin polish, but surprisingly this is only two coats. I was skeptical after the first thin and streaky coat, but it looked fine on the second. I love how bright it is, too. It's a perfect nail color for Spring!

There you have it. Baby ducks = Spring. And I loooooove baby ducks! My husband will take me out to the park where there is a big pond to take pictures of baby ducks. That is the tradition. I will take like a hundred pictures. It will be great. So, I guess that is all I have for you today. Please make sure you check out what everyone else did for their spring manicures!

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40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Films

Hello and happy Friday! Today's theme is Films, and I was inspired by a polish that I had made for my friend at Christmas. You see, she is a big Disney fan, and a bigger fan of the movie Frozen, and and even bigger fan of a specific character in the movie: Kristoff. Yep, our fun-loving, unassuming hero is her favorite Disney character, and she collects all sorts of Kristoff items. She has loads of figurines and other toys, and I wanted to get her something one of a kind, so I had the lovely Kayla of Creative Cuticles Nail Polish make me a Kristoff nail polish for her.

Look at all the sparkle! Like Kristoff's beloved ice, this shines with it's multitude of tiny silver glitters, and also has glitters inspired by his clothing colors: red shards, teal squares, dark grey hexes, and small white hexes and sqaures. There are also a bunch of holographic hexes that shift from silver to a beautiful iridescent blue. So many glitters! :) This polish turned out so beautiful, and I couldn't be happier. Oh and guess what we named it?! Just Guess!!!

We named it "A Bit Of A Fixer Upper"! Squeeeeeee! Ahhhh so anyway, I decided to show off this lovely polish with my films prompt and do a Kristoff manicure. I drew his face on my middle nail using my new tiny paintbrushes from Winstonia (LOVE!).

Here are the polishes I used for him:

• Pure Ice Kiss Me Here, Black Rage, & SuperStar!
• Julep Nellie, Clara, & Alicia
• China Glaze Kalahari Kiss & Adventure Red-y
• Essie Where's My Chauffeur?
• Sinful Colors Nirvana

Thank you so much for stopping by to look at my blog today! Make sure you check out what everyone else did for their "films" manicures!

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40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Christmas

Hi lovelies! I have a busy day today, so I'll be keeping this short and sweet. ;) I did a little tree pattern across my nails using a pretty new red I received from Kayla at Creative Cuticles for my base.

The trees and stars were painted using Revlon Posh and Sinful Colors Chalk It Up. I used one of my new tiny paintbrushes from Lady Queen, which I will talk about more in my next post. They are great so far.

This is what Creative Cuticles A Great Red looks like on it's own. It's a red jelly filled with red metallic hex glitters. I used two coats here, and may have needed one more coat for true opacity, but I knew I was painting over about it, so I didn't bother. ;)

Thank you so much for stopping by! I'm off to run a million errands, bake cookies, meet my FIRST nephew, and then celebrate my friends, Josh and Michael's wedding! Make sure you take a look at all the other fabulous Christmas manis!

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40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Cartoons & Comics

Happy Friday everyone! Today, the Nail Tarts are all sharing cartoon/comic themed nailart. I decided to go the cartoon route, and specifically decided to choose an anime tv show. My husband and I have been really into anime lately, and have watched a lot of shows. Our recent favorites are InuYasha and Seven Deadly Sins. After considering carefully, I opted to do some InuYasha nailart for this week's prompt. Any fellow InuYasha fans out there? Let me know what you think! :)
 

I had to include InuYasha's favorite move "Iron Reaver Souls Stealer". It was a little hard to fit it all on the nail...whoopsie. Also, Kagome is shouting "Sit Boy!" at him because that is my favorite thing in the show haha. I used a lot of different polishes for this. I'm just going to list them out, but just ask if you have any questions about any of the colors!

• Revlon Posh & First Class (Kagome's shirt, and highlight in her hair)
• Pure Ice Black Rage, SuperStar!, and Kiss Me Here (black, white, grey)
• Zoya Pippa (yellow)
• Essie Apertif (red)
• Julep Ciara (skin color)
• China Glaze Desert Sun (InuYasha's eyes)
• NYC Fuchsia Shock Creme (Kagome's mouth)

The base for this manicure is Pretty & Polished Aquaholic. This polish is crazy-pretty. It's a creamy bright aqua -leaning more blue, with a very subtle scattered holographic shimmer. I did three very thin coats here (I had issues with dragging due to my own impatience, and should have only had to do two). It dries to a satiny finish.

Thank you so much for stopping by to read my blog today! Make sure you check out what everyone else did for this week's prompt!

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40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Your Job

Oh my job...I don't have a job that felt easy to translate to nail art, like a nurse/doctor, or a veterinarian, or a teacher, or a firefighter. In fact, I think I will have to take on the difficult task of explaining what I do in order for my nails to make any sense...and even then I'm not sure it will. :P So, I work in what is known in the industry as workforce management. Specifically I am responsible for real-time operations for my division. Basically, I am the person that makes sure that we have enough people staffed in our call center in every 30 minute interval of every day to answer a certain percentage of the calls that come in. Yay! Fun times! So, needless to say, my life at work revolves around spreadsheets, watching call routing statistics and trends, contingency planning, and getting angry at people for not following their schedules haha. They really just have no clue how much they mess me up every day with their random smoke breaks and unplanned meetings. I need to CONTROL them hahaha. Ok anyway, since none of you know what I am blabbering about (or if somebody does, PLEASE come commiserate with me!), I will get on to an explanation of the nailart. Since my day revolves around my constant use of Excel, trends, charts, and lots of math, I decided to try to put some of what I do in Excel onto my nails. I decided the easiest (I know, cop-out) thing to do would be a chart. Charts and trends are like my whole existence. If my forecast about the number of calls that are going to come in each interval is wrong, the whole day is wrong, and I will not be able to meet my goal for our abandon rates. The one that I decided to use for my nail art is a control chart. If you have taken statistics 101, you know what this thing is, but you may not want to remember lol. Basically, this is where all the data is represented with each number as a point in the chart. The center line and the lines above and below it, represent the area where you were "in control". These are the days that we met our goal or were within an acceptable range of our goal. The points outside the lines (above the upper control limit, or below the lower control limit) are bad days. The latest examples I have of bad days are: a call center shutting down due to a tornado, a system issue where our call center representatives could not help customers until systems came back up, or just being over the forecasted amount of calls and therefore, understaffed. Don't ask me how I wound up doing this job haha. I just need money to pay for all the things that I want! Anyway, on to the nail art!

When I make charts and graphs for myself, I make them colorful. So this is not a representation of what I would share with my coworkers in a meeting, but something I would create strictly for my own use. :)

The white base I used for this manicure is Confetti Wedding White. Each data point, and the line connecting them were drawn using Zoya Isa, and the Upper and Lower Control Limits (dotted line) were done using Zoya Lola.I'll be swatching them at some point in the future. It is so cool to learn about what every one in our group does for a living. Check out all of our jobs and related nail art below!

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40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Black & White

Lord have mercy, I am having a heck of a time lately. BUT I will persevere, darn it! So, in the spirit of persevering in the face of so much disappointment in the world...I bring you my black and white for this week. Yeah, it was supposed to post yesterday. But yesterday was the first day in 3 days I didn't wake up feeling like absolute trash, and I had to go to work haha. So, after work, I did this mani. I was too tired to blog about it, so I'm doing it today. I may have slept until noon, but I'm still fighting off whatever illness I had, and I'm up now! The theme this week is black and white, and most of my favorite black and white art is from my dad's favorite artist, M.C. Escher. Now, let me tell you about how hard it is to recreate a pencil drawing with a paintbrush and nailpolish. It's hard. So I went for one of his most simplistic designs - cubes!

I used three basic colors from Pure Ice, SuperStar! (white), Black Rage, and Kiss Me Here (grey). The cubes were not to bad to paint. You just start with a hexagon pattern (like honeycombs), then paint in the rectangles of black and grey. It came out looking pretty cool, although a bit on the sloppy side. I have to start on next week's manicure now so that I can take my time with it!

It looks less sloppy from a distance! haha

Thank you so much for checking out my nailart. Make sure you look at everyone else's black and white nails!

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40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Geeks

Happy Friday! Today is the 3rd day of the 40 Great Nail Art Ideas Challenge. The theme is geeks, and I am so super thrilled with how my mani came out for this one. As most of you probably already know, I am a giant video game nerd. :D I decided to do a mani for a game that I spent the better part of the year playing in my free time - Dragon Age Inquisition. I decided to use the cover image for my inspiration.

For this mani, I used Sally Hansen Mint Sorbet for my base, then used the follow colors for all of the detail work:

• Sephora by OPI Caught With My Khakis Down
• Julep Francis, Roc Solid, and Shelly
•  Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow
• Pure Ice SuperStar!

I played through this game twice, once in normal mode, then again on hard. Then, my husband bought me the expansion, so I played even more! Haha. Currently, I am playing Elder Scrolls Online, so if any of my fellow nail nerds is also a video game geek who plays too, we should totally play together! ;)

Anyway, even if you don't give a hoot about video games, this is still a pretty sweet dragon, so I'm sure we can all appreciate that! I'm so excited to see what everyone else does for this challenge. Make sure you all check out what they do. There are bound to be a ton of really great manis out there!

An InLinkz Link-up

Unicorns & Glitter! Progressive Nail Art

I did some nail art inspired by Progressive Insurance and Flo again! This was for an event at work, and I'm so much more stoked on this one than I was on my first Progressive nail art attempt. I have definitely improved since then. :)

I used my limited edition Zoya polish - Progressive Blue for the base. I was so excited when I got this polish. I actually bought two of these with the intention of giving one away to one of my lovely readers...but unfortunately, when I opened up the bottle to start painting this mani, I discovered this.

The other bottle is, thankfully, intact, but I used it, and can't bring myself to part with it. :( So...a giveaway will not be happening at this point unless I can get my hands on another bottle. We shall see. Anyway, on to the nail art! After painting my base, I stamped on a few images. The unicorn image is from Mash-39, and the dots and chevrons are from BM-423. I used Konad Special White for all of the stamping and freehand images. I freehanded Flo's silhouette and the P. I really wanted to include the unicorns and glitter because it is one of my favorite flo-isms. So, you know I had to add some glitter. I used Butter London Chuffed and Zoya Snowsicle to add a little sparkle. The orange dots on my little finger are Zoya Arizona. I added a little gem at the cuticle on the nail with the unicorn because I thought that Flo would probably do the same thing, lol.

Here is what Progressive Blue looks like on it's own. It's super pretty and bright. Oh, and the formula is fantastic too. It's super opaque - a one coater! I haven't tried yet, but I'm thinking this will be great for stamping!

This one was super fun to do. I loved that I finally got to use the LE polish I bought. If I end up being able to get another bottle, that giveaway I hinted at on instagram will happen. I'll let you all know! Thank you so much for looking. I'll have some sweet new nail art for you guys in a couple days! ;)

Fall Leaves Mani + Tutorial Featuring Barielle Hot Chic Collection

Good morning! It's another Tuesday and I'm telling you, I am already ready for Friday! Today, I have a fall-inspired mani using a few of the Barielle polishes I showed off two weeks ago. This mani uses Barielle Secret Desire for the base. The leaves are hand painted with Barielle Orange U Jealous, and the outline/detail is done with Barielle Harley D.

Now, on to the tutorial!

Step 1: Paint your nails a solid color. In this case, I used Barielle Secret Desire.

Step 2: Draw a pointed oval shape (like a football) using the color you choose for your leaves - I used Barielle Orange U Jealous? here.

Step 3: Paint additional leaf shapes on the nail using the same color. I start with a line, then add the edge shapes to ensure it comes out relatively symmetrical.

Step 4: Carefully outline your leaves using a fine detail brush and your darker color. I used Barielle Harley D here. This is your opportunity to fix any mistakes made in steps 2-3. :)

Step 5: Draw a fine line down the center of each leaf using your detail brush in the same dark color.

Step 6: Add the "veins" for the leaves using the detail brush. I use a very light touch for this to make them lighter than the center vein. It's ok to go so light that you have uneven strokes. It actual makes it look more natural.

Step 7: Add your topcoat and admire your handiwork. ;)

Hooray! I'm starting to enjoy these tutorials! Hopefully I will get better at it over time. I struggle with the whole having to stop and take pictures of every step thing. It's hard to stop and start once the creative juices get flowing! lol

Thank you so much for looking. If you guys are appreciating these tutorials, please let me know. And let me know if there is a particular mani I have done in the past, or any other style you would like me to do a tutorial for! I need the practice, so I will be happy to oblige. :) Have a great week! I'll have another mani for you Friday!

Kawaii Kitty Nailart Tutorial

Hello! I received a lot of love for my kawaii kitty nailart I entered into the Barielle nail art contest. I totally got runner up which is HUGE for me, so thanks to everyone who voted. You are all awesome and I love your faces! :) Anyway, I had received a few requests for a tutorial and I actually photographed the whole process intending to share a tutorial, but these photos took forever for me to edit into a collage. I kept having to put it off in favor of more new nail art posts. But finally, the time has come, and it is here. Take a look.

Ok, so step 1 is easy: paint a big circle toward the tip of your nail on your middle finger (if your nails are shorter, it will be almost centered, but be sure to leave room for those cute giant ears!

Step 2: Add two triangles for the ears - I try to make them "rounded" triangles to look more like cat ears

Step 3: paint a small rectangle below for the kitty's neck

Step 4: Add small rectangles on the index and ring fingers on the edges closest to the kitty's face

Step 5: With a dotting tool, place two dots next to eachother, directly opposite the edge of your rectangle. Then, place a dot on either side, connecting to the kitty's arms...or technically legs.

Step 6: Fill in the empty space between the toes with the same colored polish

Step 7: With black polish and a detail brush, paint a U shape, then draw a line across the top of the U to form the mouth

Step 8: To draw the eyes, draw two Vs, with their opening facing away from the mouth. Then add two straight lines directly between the mouth and sides of the face on both sides. These are the kitty's whiskers.

Step 9: Grab a pale pink polish, and using your smallest dotting tool, make a dot within each "toe" on both of the kitty's paws. Using a larger dotting tool, place one pink dot in the center of each paw to create the pad. Then, use a brush to to paint two pink lines under the eyes, and add a small dab of pink withing the mouth for the tongue.

Step 10: I left this out, but with the polish used for the main parts of the kitty, add a squiggly line to your nail on your little finger for his tail. You will also need to use your black polish to fill in the kitty's mouth. Topcoat those nails, and you are done!

Here is what the final product will look like. Play with color, and please share your manis with me on social media if you try out this tutorial!