40 Great Nail Art Ideas - 3 Shades of Purple

Hi guys! This week we are showing off various ways to wear three shades of purple at once. I'm actually pretty displeased with this one, but ah well. I should have tested it out on paper first and I didn't! You would think I would have learned my lesson by now, but apparently, I have not. :D Anyway, I used three purple polishes I had not yet used, including a new glitter from Different Dimension that I bought myself at Christmas.

Unfortunately, I made a bad choice about one of the polishes and it didn't layer well at all. Sally Hansen Purple Craze looked like a bright purple cream, but went on over the glitter a dark terrible mess. :( Oh why didn't I test it out first??? Well, anyway, I painted my nails using Different Dimension Wars Would Never Start first, then I taped off sections and painted over top using Milani Ultra Violet and Sally Hansen Purple Craze. Even though it didn't quite go as planned, there is a lot of purple-y goodness happening here, so I can't complain too much.

Here is what Wars Would Never Start looks like on it's own. It's a gorgeous dark purple-black jelly packed with tiny metallic purple glitters, tiny silver squares, and various purple hex glitters. It's a great mix of lots of different purple sparkles, so I love it of course. I did two coats here to reach opacity.

Thank you as always for taking the time to read my blog. Make sure you take a look at what everyone else did with their three purples! this one is bound to be full of beautiful manis!

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52 Week Pick n Mix Challenge - Tape Mani + Green

Happy Monday! Well, it is for me anyway, I'm on my last day of a four day weekend, so I have to make this day count. My husband and I celebrated our 13 year wedding anniversary yesterday (can you believe it?! I feel soooo old!), and we are making today count too! We're off to brunch in a little bit, and then we are going to cuddle and watch movies the rest of the day, oh and then we are going to the beach for a walk at sunset - that is one of my favorite things to do. I needed the relaxation - I was getting very stressed out at work. Anyway, I have a new mani for you today that I am pretty stoked on. It is one of my better tape manis, in my opinion - ha!

I used all Rainbow Honey polishes for this one (mostly because I was swatching them, and decided this was the perfect green for my base. I'll have the swatches for you by the end of this week. Anyway, the base is Calama, the paler green is Stolen Dance, and the gold is Cuprum Veritas. I used striping tape to make my initial 'V' using Stolen Dance, then once it was dry, I used striping tape to make my thin gold outline as well.

Thank you so much for checking out my post today! I appreciate it very much and love all of you to bits for every view and comment! Please make sure you share the love with my fellow bloggers and take a peek at what they did for this week's challenge, too!

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52 Week Pick n Mix Challenge - Skittles + Red and Pink

Happy Friday everyone! I am so ready for the weekend, oh my goodness. For this week's challenge, I combined the prompts again. As much as I would love to post every day, it is just not happening for me, so here I am only posting 2-3 times a week. Oh well, it could be worse I suppose. Since I didn't want my mani to look to Valentine's Day-esque, I decided to throw some black in there too. It gave me a reason to play with a glitter I haven't used yet, too!

I started off with Nicole by OPI Be Ama-Zing! for my base. On my pinky, I added two coats of Maybelline Color Show At Heart. It is various sizes and shapes of red and black glitters. The red polish I used, is from the same set: Nicole by OPI Challenge Red-y. I used striping tape for the designs on my middle and ring fingers and the stamp I used on my thumb is from Bundle Monster plate BM-412. I stamped in red, then used Pure Ice Black Rage to dot on little accents. I feel like I haven't quite mastered the skittle. I always feel like mine look awkward...haha.

Here is what Nicole by OPI Be Ama-Zing! looks like on it's own. It's a lovely pink cream with blue undertones, and is very opaque. This is two coats, plus a coat of Seche Vite.

Thank you so much for looking, and have a safe and happy 4th of July! I'll be back Sunday with something new to show off. :)

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52 Week Pick n Mix Challenge - Negative Space + 3 Pastels

Ok, so here I am posting my mani at the last minute again haha. I was going to do a cute manicure with little cupcakes for my birthday, but I had too many challenges happening, so I am skipping that little plan. :P Today, I have for you instead, my negative space mani including 3 pastels to complete both prompts for the week. Some of you may have seen on instagram that I nabbed the entire Wet n Wild Silver Lake collection of polishes. I used three of them here so I could show them off right away.

This is Wet n Wild Warm Filter, Reject The Mainstream, and Tree Hugger. I used striping tape to create the negative spaces, and ended up having to do this twice on each nail because the polishes needed two coats.

I am not a fan of the negative space just because I am paranoid that my nails are stained. They actually really aren't stained too badly at the moment, so this doesn't look too bad. I actually got a lot of compliments on these. I think people were just interested because it's different and not something you see every day.

Thanks so much for looking. Make sure you check out what everyone else did for this week's prompts!

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52 Week Pick n Mix - Fishbraid + Non-Glitter Topper

You all know I am too lazy (busy???) to do more than one mani for the 52 Week Pick n Mix lately, so I combined the prompts yet again. I have been so slammed with work lately, I have had very little time to think about my blog. Hopefully I can figure out how to get that under control. Anyway, I decided I wanted to use a combination of old and new non-glitter toppers of the iridecent variety over top of solid black in my mani this week.

I accomplished this look by painting my nails with 2 coats of Wet n Wild Black Creme, and then used striping tape to mask out my fishbraid design. I painted in each section with the three colors I picked, alternating them as I went.

Here are what the three polishes look like in the bottles. It's crazy how much some of them change once painted over black. Butter London Petrol is the blue, Pro Strong Enchanted is the pink, and green is Loreal The Temptress' Power (I know, right!?). That last one is the most shocking transformation out of them all.

I hope you like my mani this week! Make sure you check out what everyone else did for this challenge. :)

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52 Week Pick n Mix - Crinkly Tape Manicure with a Glitter Topper

Hi everyone! I am getting so caught up in all of the holidays things there are to do, I am having a hard time keeping up with my blogging, so I may *gasp* go with plain nails through the holiday, just because there is so much other stuff to do right now. If I do go missing for a while, never fear...I'll be back after the holiday madness has ended. :) Anyway, I have some purple nails for you today! You all know I love purple, so I'm super excited about these nails.

I used NYC Nolita's Lavender for my base, then I cut some tape with scrapbooking scissors to make a scalloped edge. I masked half the nail, and painted on a no name glitter topper my husband got me from a company called Black Poppy. I totally love the tiny turquoise and magenta glitters in here and they look SO good with purple!

Sorry the picture above is so blurry. I was in too much of a rush and then I broke a nail, so I couldn't retake the pictures. Here is what Nolita's Lavender looks like by itself. I adore every shade of purple, but I'm really fond of this one. It is slightly dusty and a great opaque color. It went on in two smooth coats. I really want to try it for stamping to see if it will work.

Make sure you take a look at what everyone else did for this week's challenge. I may forgo next week's challenge in favor of all of the Christmas festivities that will be happening. Yay for family, food, fun, and presents!

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52 Week Pick n Mix Challenge - Red and Gold Chevrons

Good evening! I'm getting my red and gold chevrons in at the last possible second over here...as usual. :) I totally love how Christmas-y these look. I used some more of the vinyls I received from Loki's Nail Vinyls for this, and man am I in love with these. They make everything so easy.

So, I started off with two coats of Estee Lauder Le Smoking, which is an awesome bright red cream. I added my chevrons using China Glaze I Herd That. I love how sparkly this is.

Here is what Le Smoking looks like by itself. It is a perfect classic red. My dear friend Anna gave this to me last year for Christmas and I love it. ;)

Thank you so much for looking - make sure you check out what everyone else did for this challenge.

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Loki's Nail Vinyls Review

Hi everyone! I am so so so excited to finally have gotten my hands on some nail vinyls. I have seen them all over the place and wanted to try some out so bad. I was contacted by Tara from Loki's Nail Vinyls to try out her new vinyls, and all of my vinyls dreams have come true! Haha - I love these!

I received a variety of vinyls and have a couple different examples using them both as stencils and as stickers. They went on sale 12/1 in her online shop, and are available for you to buy now if you want to get your hands on some of these vinyls, too.


So first up, I have to show you my new favorite things: nail aprons. Oh my god. These are going to change my life. I usually use tape to mask around my nails if I'm going to be doing some messy sponging, but these are so much neater. My nails are on the smaller side, so I used the small ones, but she sent larger ones too, which would fit my thumb nails.

No more having to clean up the little triangles in the corners from using straight tape!!! Ahhhhh! I also received some chevron, lightning bolt, and fancy french tip stencils, which are going to totally change my tape mani game, people. Just watch this:

Yay! Now these came to me "unweeded", so it is hard to see in the first picture I took (it just looks like a purple sheet), but you can see here where I weeded it so that I could use them. You just use fine tip tweezers to peel these up, and the tweezers are great for placing the vinyls on your nails, too.

Here is the mani I made with these. I just love them and can't wait to bust out those chevons - I will post a mani tomorrow with some of those for this week's 52 Week Pick n Mix Challenge.

Now, I also wanted to show off what these vinyls would do if you use them as stickers. I am recycling a mani from earlier this week here, so that you can see. ;) Remember my Christmas trees? Well I thought they needed a little something for a topper, so I went with bows. They are pink, but it's dark, so close enough to red in my book (well maybe not, but you need a little pink in your Christmas!).

Thank you so much as always for stopping by to read my blog and look at my nails. Also, a great big thank you to Tara - you have been great to work with. Thank you for being understanding about my being sick. :)

52 Week Pick n Mix Challenge - Dark Green Christmas Nail Art

Hi - I am incredibly late with this, but determined to get all of this nail art posted! I've been sick for a few weeks, but I'm finally better so now it is time to catch up. Today, I have some Christmas tree inspired nail art to share and I'll be showing off a new dark green polish that is great for the holiday, too!

The base for this is The New Black Parrot Green. It is a nice opaque, dark green cream. I used regular clear tape for to mask the trees, then painted in the triangle with one coat of Julep Dahlia, then one coat of Sassy Lacquer Nutty As A... to add some Christmas sparkle.

Here is what Parrot Green looks like by itself. This is two coats, plus one coat of Seche Vite. Try to ignore the dents...the laundry wasn't going to do itself. :)

Hooray for Christmas! I cannot wait! Now, since I am so super behind, I will probably post several days in a row to get back on track with this challenge. Wish me luck! ;)

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Golden Oldie Thursday - Lilac

Today's post is a simple tape manicure, but its a pattern I haven't tried before AND two polishes I have had for at least a year that I have never worn. This is Julep Elisa with Funky Fingers Sand & Stilettos.

Here is Julep Elisa on it's own. It is a good polish although a bit on the thin side. I had to do three coats to get to opacity for this one.

Short and sweet today - I have to get to bed. Have a great weekend everyone!

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