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 Nail Art Ideas - Floral

Hi everyone! Today, I have some floral nailart for you as part of this week's nail art challenge. I decided to go with some stamping and dotting since I am struggling with time management lately. :P

I used Heather's Hues It's Witchcraft for my base. It's a really pretty purple with blue shimmer. I stamped using Mundo de Unas Yellow and Cici&Sisi plate 19, then added dots in the center of each flower using Zoya Kimber, and Pretty & Polished Aquaholic and Appletini.

Here is what It's Witchcraft looks like on it's own. It is quite thin and sheer, so I ended up doing 4 coats for this. I probably could have stopped at 3, but added another coat after I accidentally smushed a nail. :)

Thank you so much for looking at my blog today. Please make sure you check out what all the other ladies did for this week's prompt!

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40 Great Nail Art Ideas - 3 Shades of Red/Orange

Hi everyone. I have a challenge post for you all today. This week's theme required three shades of red or orange, so I picked three polishes and just did a little bit of stamping, then made a decal for one nail, adding in a bit of glitter.

I started off with Zoya Paz for my base. It is a bright orange, leaning neon, and my camera kind of couldn't capture the true color, so just imagine this shade with neon glow! :P I added stamping using Mundo de Unas Red and It Girl plate IG 103. After that, I made myself a quick decal using the same things, but painted in alternating bits using Bear Pawlish Light My Fire.

Here is what Paz looks like by herself. This polish actually dries to a matte finish, but I was in a hurry getting out the door, so I had to use fast dry topcoat on them.

Ok, that is all I have for you today! Thank you so much for visiting, and please make sure you check all the other red and/or orange manis below!

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Zoya Petals Giveaway!

I've got a quick giveaway happening over on instagram today through May 2nd! Spring is here, and my ladies from the bloggersquad are hosting a giveaway. THREE lucky winners will win the entire, full-sized Petals collection, plus full-sized bottles of Raine and Charisma, so head over to my instagram page to enter! GOOD LUCK!   

This giveaway ends May 2nd, 2016 at 3 pm EST. The winners will be chosen at random, announced on the original posts and contacted via private DM message. OPEN TO THE US ONLY!! Please NOTE this giveaway is in no way sponsored or endorsed by Instagram or Zoya. By entering this giveaway entrants are confirming that they are at least 13+ years of age or older, that you release Instagram and Zoya from any and ALL responsibility and that you are following Instagram’s terms of service. If you are a private account, we ask for it to be made public for the duration of the giveaway.

40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Love

Hey everyone. Today's mani is a bit of a fail in my opinion, but I'm showing it anyway because it's all I've got. I wanted to make some decals, so started looking for lovey sort of images to stamp with. I loved this image of an elderly couple walking together from one of my CICI&SISI plates, and then found a cute heart pattern to go with it.

I really struggled with the colors, and found myself wishing I had not gone for pink and purple afterward, but ah well. They do look pretty together. I used Zoya Lola and Isa. The next bad choice I made, was when I added the hearts on the nail with the elderly couple. They came from CICI&SISI plate 05, and the heart design is from PUEEN43. I should have just put them on there and nothing else. They kind of get lost in the background. I was basically just a mess when I did these haha.

Here is what Zoya Lola looks like on it's own. It's a lovely hot pink with blue shimmer. I did two coats here and one coat of Seche Vite.

Thank you so much for looking. Make sure you take a peek at the nails every one else did. There is bound to be a ton of Valentine's Day inspiration! I'll be back next Friday with a proper Valentine's Day mani.

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40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Things That Fly

Good morning! This week's theme for the Nail Tarts' challenge is Things That Fly. I thought for a while on this one, but it didn't take long for me to decide that I needed spaceships!

I used my new Nerd Lacquer, I Think You Call Me...Sexy for my base. It looks like space with stars and has tons of sparkle. I wanted a variety and had several stamping plates featuring spaceships, so I just used them all! I made these decals using mostly images from BM-XL134 and the image on my thumb is from JR-31. I got this Nerd Lacquer and the JR plate (My Online Shop) from my secret agent in a Christmas exchange, and I thought I was going to DIE. I cried opening everything, but there will be a separate post for that!

  

The decals were done using Mundo de Unas Light Gray and Blue.  I used Sally Hansen Graphite Gravity, a silver OPI that has no name, a silver polish from The New Black that is also nameless, and some of the Mundo de Unas blue to color in the decals.

Here is what Nerd Lacquer I Think You Call Me...Sexy looks like on it's own. It's a fantastic blue jelly packed with holographic shimmer, tiny blue and silver metallic hexes, medium sized blue and silver metallic hexes, and larger pale blue metallic hexes. It's gorgeous. And also, it's a Dr. Who polish, so I love it even more just for that.

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog today! Make sure you check out what everyone else did for this week's prompt. I know there is at least one other TARDIS out there. ;)

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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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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! ;)

Last Summer Manicure of the Year with Zoya and Ellagee

Good morning and happy Friday! I wanted to share this awesome glitter polish I picked up from Ellagee a while back and the pretty polish from Zoya I wore with it. When I was on vacation, I got the itch about halfway through to do my nails, so I removed my purple smoosh manicure and replaced it with this.

The base is Zoya Oceane (very appropriate for a beach vacation), and the lovely glitter polish I painted over it is Ellagee Rainbow Reef. Rainbow Reef is a gorgeous mix of pastel blue, pink, teal, and purple stars, pastel yellow circle glitters, tiny white circles, small white, orange, and blue hex glitters, and holographic dolphin-shaped glitters. So many glitters! It was jam packed and only required one coat.

I had no lightbox or fancy equipment with me, so I used the sun and of course picked the only overcast day for the photography, but the pictures are color accurate, just not bright.

This is what Zoya Oceane looked like on her own.  I did 2 coats here, and the formula was just perfect.

I took these earlier in the day when the sun was still out haha.
 

Thank you so much for looking! I have a fall mani for you next AND another tutorial!

52 Week Pick n Mix - Waterfall + Violet

Good morning! I did my first waterfall manicure this week and learned pretty quickly that this mani is not for me. My tremors made it pretty much impossible to make a straight, tapered line. :/ That being said, it didn't come out completely awful and I love purple, so I still adored this mani anyway.

I used CoverGirl Glowing Nights Midnight Glow for my base, then added my "waterfall" strokes using Essie Play Date, Zoya Lola, Julep Elisa, and Girly Bits Bird Is The Word. I used a small striping brush, although I found myself wishing I had an even tinier brush.

Here is a quick swatch of Midnight Glow. It is a pretty, deep, shimmery purple. The formula was really nice and went on in two smooth, opaque coats.

Thank you so much for checking out my attempt at a waterfall mani. Make sure you check out what everyone else did for their violet and waterfall manicures!

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Purple Smoosh Mani + Stamping

Hi everyone and happy Saturday! I have just arrived at the beautiful east coast! You won't be hearing anything from me on social media for a week (except MAYBE on ig, maybe), but I have lots of posts scheduled, so make sure you check back here once in a while to see what's new! Today, I am fulfilling the prompt for the second half of August from my stamping group on facebook. I was super excited about this one because it involves purple (YAY!), and a new to me process called "smoosh". Ooh I'm so excited. Check it out!

For this mani, I used OPI Do You Have This Color In Stock-holm?, Butter London Stroppy, Zoya Dannii, and Sally Hansen Purple Craze and then smooshed them all together using this method.


The stamping plate I used for this was CICI&SISI 24. I am actually wearing this one as my vacation mani so I have it on BOTH hands! Chances are it won't make it all the way through vacation, so I'm bringing some polishes with me in case of a nail emergency (or you know...just because I like change!).

Thank you so much for checking out today's post. Have a great day!

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Zoya Stamping over Matte

Woo it's Wednesday! That means that I only have two more days of work and then glorious vacation for 11 whole days. Oh I cannot WAIT! So, I'm keeping this short and sweet because I have a lot to do before vacation starts and only two days to do it. This is my weekly mani that features CICI&SISI plate 23.

I started off with Zoya Charisma for my base, as the prompt this week is stamping over a matte base. I stamped using Zoya Isa. These two are so pretty together!

This is what Charisma looks like on it's own. It's a lovely bright purple matte polish that went on in three thin coats. I may have been able to get away with two, but my second coat had some dragging because I was too impatient with my polishing. Whoopsie.

Thank you so much for looking today! I have my nailart done for the 52 Week Pick n Mix, so I'll try to have that up by Friday. Then, I have lots of swatches for you for the weekend. I won't be posting while I'm on vacation, but I'll try to schedule at least one or two things to keep things active around here. Bye for now!

52 Week Pick n Mix - Pale Pink + Tweed

Gah! I'm a day late on this one. I have a vacation coming up in a week (starts Friday and I can't WAIT!). Anyway, I have so much to do in preparation for that, I have not had much time for nailart. I also had the worst time trying to figure out how to do tweed, and was looking through my stamps for a different prompt, and found this one which I thought would work. It's not my best nailart ever, but I'll take it for this prompt!

For my base, I used Crabtree & Evelyn Peony. I stamped using Konad Special White with Bundle Monster BM-706, then went back over top of it with the same stamp using Zoya Lo. It came out sort of like tweed. :P

Here is what Peony looks like on its own. It's actually a really nice and smooth cream polish. I did two coats here and topcoated with Out The Door. I got this polish from my husband's step mom (thanks Karen!).

Thank you so much for looking, as always make sure you check out what the other ladies did for this week's prompt!

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