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 - Aqua or Turquoise

Happy Friday! I have a new post today for our Nail Tarts weekly challenge. The prompt this week is aqua or turquoise. I have been getting really into yoga lately, so I thought it would be cute to do a yoga manicure for this one! I bought some Bundle Monster plates a while back with a bunch of yoga images, so I decided to bust them out and play around.

The polishes I used for this manicure were Essie Where's My Chauffeur?, Julep Lissa, and Salon Perfect Blue Raspberry. I started off with the lightest polish for my base, and then painted a stripe in each color down either side. After that, I used a dotting tool to drag the polishes together and create this effect.

The stamping plates used were BM-XL174, and BM-XL175. I used Konad Special White for the stamping.

Thank you so much for looking! Make sure you check out all the other pretty aqua and turquoise manis!

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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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52 Week Pick n Mix - Waterspotting/Marbling + Purple, Red, & Aqua

Saturday, and by now, I'm a little sad because it is the last day of vacation. We leave to go back home Sunday (tomorrow). For this mani, I made another attempt at water marbling. It did not come out so great. I can't seem to do a water marble manicure without any bubbles. It kind of drives me bonkers. If any of you know how to avoid the bubbles, please tell me the secret! :D

So, for this marble, I held myself to the prompt so that I could get away with just one manicure this week. Since I had to schedule all of these posts this week, it means that last week, I crammed 5 or 6 manicures into just 2 days. I'll admit I didn't regret having to remove this one immediately. :P I used Essie Apertif and Where's My Chauffeur?, and OPI Do You Have This Color In Stock-holm?.

Thank you so much for looking today! I'll be home late tomorrow and back to normal posting-wise in no time (I hope)! Make sure you take a look at what everyone else for this week's prompt!

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My First Polishes From NailNation 3000!

Guys! I am seriously so stoked that I FINALLY own some polishes from NailNation 3000. I recently joined a facebook group for indie nailpolish fans, and Maria was kind enough to offer some of her older/discontinued polishes before she put them up for sale on her site. I decided it was my time to snag a couple, as I have admired them from afar for YEARS. Imagine my excitement when I actually got two polishes that were on my wishlist from years ago - Quitting Is Not An Option and Twinkle Twinkle. Hooray for holos and flakies! Check these babies out!

This is Twinkle Twinkle. It looks just like it sounds: beautiful iridescent flakies and holo goodness in one bottle. The flakies shift from green to blue, and the blue is just so bright and deep. I painted it over a navy polish, but for the life of me, I can't remember which one. I painted essie matte about you to see what it would look like mattified. I was hoping to be able to capture the flakie color shift a bit better while these were matte. You can see it a little better.

Here is what Quitting Is Not An Option looks like. It is a beautiful teal, linear holographic polish and only took two coats to become opaque. I pretty much LOVE it. The formula on both of these was perfect. No dragging, no clumping, just right. :) These first pics were taken in indirect lighting, so you can't see the holo as well, but I also took pics with flash and in the sun (below) so you can see it in all different types of lighting.

Here is what it looked like with the camera flash. Still beautiful haha. Look at those rainbows popping!

Here are the pics I took the next day in full sun! So pretty!

So, my thought on NailNation 3000 polish: um, yes please. I will take them all. :P Thank you so much for reading! I appreciate so much more than you know! <3

52 Week Pick n Pix Challenge - Lilac and Pink Rose Nail Art

Wooooooo! First of all, yay it's FRIDAY! I'm telling you what: I need this weekend sooo bad. So bad. I'm back at it today with the 52 Week Pick n Mix. This week is Roses + Pink and Lilac, so I threw a little white in there too and rocked out the dots as well! I busted out my newest lilac polish from Wet n Wild's Silver Lake Collection for my base.

I added my roses freehand using Nicole by OPI Ama-Zing! and did the detail using essie marshmallow (because it's sheer, so it turned light pink), and used Pure Ice SuperStar! for the white detail in the roses and the dots on my accent nails.

Here is what Wet n Wild Reject the Mainstream looks like all by itself. It's a really pretty dusty lavender cream. It was nice and opaque too, this is two coats.

Thank you so much for stopping by. Have a great weekend everyone!

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Abstract Sun Nailart

This week's prompt was "abstract" and I found myself digging through all of my plates and finding absolutely nothing that I wanted to use. Not about to buy new plates just for this one prompt, I went back through each plate objectively to pick out the ones that actually had an image that could be deemed "abstract" and that I had not already used in some previous nail art post. That is how I came across this image that looks like a sun with rays. I'm not really sure why I went with a white background...I am wishing I went with a yellow/orange gradient. That would have looked way cooler. Oh well.

I used essie marshmallow for my base and then stamped the sun image using Nicole by OPI Challenge Red-y. I contemplated making it matte after that, but honestly I hated this mani so much, I didn't bother. The image is from Bundle Monster plate BM-402. I'm definitely going to try out this mani again with a different background. This image is cool, and I totally ruined it haha! Here is what essie marshmallow looks like by itself. It's a nice white, but it is a sheer crelly type polish, so it took a good 3 coats to be completely opaque. I like how shiny it is.

Thank you so much for looking. Make sure you take a look at everyone else's abstract manicures!

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#HePicksMyPolish - Nails Brought To You By My Husband

So, when I heard about this challenge group on Facebook, I thought it would be super fun to bring my husband in on the blog. He is always giving me ideas, so I thought it would be fun to let him pick my polish.

I recently separated out all of my untried (or at least unswatched) polishes and put them in their own drawer, so I handed that drawer to my husband and asked him to pick the colors for my next manicure. After quite some time, he announced he was done and handed me FIVE bottles of polish.

Left to right: essie meet me at sunset, Zoya Zuza, Julep Ciara, Julep Leah, and Julep Missy

I was a bit worried because all of these colors work well together except for essie meet me at sunset. It is the only cream out of them all and the only warm-toned color, so I was at a loss for quite a while. But, I finally figured something out, and I'm quite pleased with how this came out.

I started off with Julep Missy, then added a gradient to three of my nails using Julep Ciara, Zoya Zuza, and Julep Leah. I stamped the peacock feathers onto my nails with Julep Leah using a new plate my mom gifted to me from MoYou London. This image is from The Pro XL plate 05. After that, I added the detail to the feathers using essie meet me at sunset, Zoya Zuza, and Julep Ciara.

Here is Julep Missy by herself. This is a chrome silver and went on in two easy coats. Please pardon the "dents" on my pinkie nail. I was multitasking today and thought they were dry enough for folding laundry. I was wrong. :P

Thank you so much for looking - I'm looking forward to letting my hubby pick colors for next month!

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52 Week Pick n Mix Challenge - 1960s + Matte

This week's prompt for the 52 Week Pick n Mix challenge is 1960s + matte or texture. I decided to go with a matte 1960s look for this one. I might show off some previously unswatched textured polish later in the week, too, if I have time. For this manicure, I used a fabric pattern I found online while looking for some 1960s inspiration. I didn't recreate it exactly, but I did try to use the same colors at least.

My base for this manicure is Spoiled I Only Eat Salads. The flowers and leaves were done using Nicole by O.P.I. Pros And Confidence, NYC High Line Green, Pure Ice Vintage Glam, and Konad Special White. After I finished my nails, I added Essie Matte About You. This is a closeup of my favorite nail - my index finger. :)

Here is what this manicure looked like before I mattified it.

Here is what Spoiled I Only Eat Salads looks like on it's own. This is two coats.

Thank you so much for looking, and make sure you check out what everyone else did for their 1960s manicures!

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Tri Polish Tuesday - Lilac, Teal, & Grey + 52 Week Pick n Mix Challenge

Alright, so this is the last manicure you will ever see again featuring these colors. I'll tell you what, 5 Tuesdays in a month is way too many! BUT, I will say that this mani turned out pretty good, too. I am actually completing both my requirement for Tri Polish Tuesday and the very first prompt for the newest challenge I joined with The Crumpet's Nail Tarts: The 52 Week Pick n Mix Challenge. Fifty. Two. Weeks. The prompt is a two-color gradient and teal. So, I opted to do it all in one. I'll explain what this challenge is at the end of the post. Anyway, I had asked for ideas for this one in my last post, and my mom suggested leopard or tiger. So, this is what I came up with.

After I created my gradient, I stamped over it using 2 plates: Konad m57 and Mash-41. Here is what my two-color gradient looked like before I added the stamping.

So there you have it, the last Tri Polish post for this month. I don't think I'm going to participate in it for October, because I want to spend more time on the 52 Week Pick n Mix Challenge, and maybe bring some of the ideas I've been hoarding into reality. Here is some info about the challenge, so you can understand what on earth I'm doing over the next year.

THE RULES:
Each week, there are 2 prompts.  It is our choice whether to do 1, both, or combine them. They have been set up as an extension of our Golden Oldie Thursdays, so the idea is to use an old polish, or an untried. Also, once a month, one of the color prompts will coincide with a Tri Polish Tuesday, in case I decide I want to do that again. For now, I just want to stick with one challenge and get all of my ideas out before I join another. Here is an example of what the challenge is set up like:

For this week (starting September 29th), the prompts are a 2 colour gradient and teal.
My options were:
1 - post a mani of any 2 colours in a gradient and later in the week post an oldie / untried teal
2 - only do one of the prompts
3 - post a mani of a 2 colour gradient where one of the colours is a teal (combining the prompts)

So there you have it. I've gotten myself into a fun one this time! If you are interested in joining us in the 52 Week Challenge, head over to Crumpet' Nail Tarts to join in.

Thanks so much for looking, and be sure to check out what the others did for this last day of September's Tri Polish Tuesdays!

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And look here to see what everyone did for the first day of the 52 Week Pick n Mix Challenge.

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