Nail Art – Dark Gradient with Metallic Greek Key Pattern

Hi everyone! Sorry about my absence in the past two weeks; I’ve been feeling some “burnout” and felt too exhausted to do nail art/write posts. Anyhow, I’m back with some nail art that I was originally going to post after the second part of my blogiversary thing, but  I’ve been procrastinating on getting that post done so I figured I might as well put this up first.  I’ve been in a rather glum mood recently and the weather’s been nasty, so I’ve been drawn to a lot of dark, moody colors (Julep Elise is my <3) and ultimately decided to try one of the dark-colored nail art ideas that I hadn’t gotten around to. I was inspired by Julep’s metamorphic topcoats to create this (undesirably) subtle dark blue-to-green gradient that I accented with a bit of shiny gold polish in a Greek key pattern. While it didn’t turn out like how I originally intended, I’m still drawn to its dark glamor.

SquareHue April 2015 Swatches, Comparisons, and Nail Art

Hi everyone! Today I (finally) have my SquareHue April 2015 box to show off on the blog! Things on my blog have been a bit backlogged for me these past few months, but this month I’m hoping to cram both subscription box posts in like I want to, rather than dropping the ball like last month…eventually I’ll get back on track with my blog posts…eventually…

Anyways, back to SquareHue! This April box full of bright, happy colors is supposed to represent the next installment in the Decades Collection: the 1930s. Never in my mind would I have associated the era of the Great Depression with bright, happy colors, but I don’t mind whatsoever because I love this box! These are my kind of colors for sure – I love brights!

St. Patrick’s Day Nail Art – Green Gradient with Gold Shamrocks

Hi everyone! Although it’s several days after the fact, I have my mani for St. Patrick’s Day on the blog! While I am in no way Irish, it’s always a good chance to wear green (my favorite color!) and put on some green nail polish. Plus, I had such a good idea for St. Patrick’s Day nail art that I really wanted to do it. My idea didn’t turn out quite as well as I hoped, but it was still pretty great. Since I did this manicure with the #fourleafjulep Instagram contest in mind (so many Julep contests!), I used all Julep colors for this manicure. Read on!

Julep Blues Mod Ombre

Hi everyone! First, I’m very sorry about my delays in posting; I didn’t mean to leave my blog without new posts for this long. Due to lots of stuff going on, it’s just been a little crazy these past two weeks. Thanks so much for being patient with me.

Today I have some fun, geometric-ish ombre nail art using some blue polishes from Julep, which was prompted by the Instagram #JulepRainbow contest! The gist of the contest was that Julep picks a different color every day for 10 days, and other people tagged Instagram pics that were predominantly that color with #JulepRainbow for a chance to win some Julep goodies. Doing a special mani for one of the rainbow days sounded fun to me, so I came up with this mod design for the blue day! Just like the polishes that inspired it, this design is quite gorgeous.

SquareHue February 2015 Swatches, Comparisons, and Nail Art

Hi everyone! I know it’s the end of the month, but it’s still February so here today I have my February 2015 SquareHue box to show you all! As the second installment in the decades collection, this month’s box represents the 1910s. While I really loved last month’s box, this one was kind of a let down for me in a few ways. I definitely wasn’t as excited about it as the other boxes I’ve gotten, but I suppose they can’t all be winners. At least the colors made for some pretty great nail art! I used all the polishes to make this gradient French tip with roses design, which is super adorable and feminine. I loved it so much that I did a mini-tutorial at the end!

Dark Red Reverse Gradient Hearts

Hi everyone! First, a reminder: please vote in my blog poll if you haven’t already! I’m halfway through cataloging my stash, and I already have an inkling about which color I have the most of, but I’d love to see which one you all think is the winner! Expect to see a blog post coming in a few weeks with the results!

Today I’ve got some simple gradient nail art that, as you can probably guess, I was originally planning for Valentine’s Day, but didn’t get around to until now. It kind of turned out to be a #nailfail because the topcoat bubbled like crazy around the hearts, but I suppose it looks tolerable. At least I got to use a bunch of my all-time favorite red polishes, and it wasn’t all that difficult!

Valentine’s Day Mani Swap with @fishnails on Instagram – My Design!

Hi everyone! I’ve got something special today – a mani swap! The super awesome @fishnails on Instagram and I decided to do a Valentine’s Day-themed mani swap (each person comes up with a nail art design and then copies the other person’s design) and it was so fun! I had never done a mani swap before, and now I’m absolutely stoked to do more in the future!

Since this is really two nail art designs, I’m going to divide the mani swap up into two posts! This one will be about my design for the swap, which features a glittery, electrocardiogram-like heart rhythm on top of a subtle gradient French tip. While it may not be the most original design (there are a lot of heartbeat nail designs on the internet), I really like the heartbeat pattern for Valentine’s Day because it’s a bit offbeat and nerdy, but still relevant. Of course, I couldn’t waste an opportunity to talk about science on my blog, so I have a small bit at the end about the parts of a “heartbeat” on an electrocardiogram (also known as an EKG or ECG). Before I move on to technique, here’s the pic of the mani swap! AAHHH SO CUTE!!!

Blue Glitter Gradient with Darling Diva Beautiful and Julep Eliana

Hi everyone! I’m still having some pretty terrible computer problems that have been draining away my patience for nail art, but I still wanted to post something so here goes! Today I have a simple gradient using a glitter polish named Beautiful by Darling Diva over a moody blue base (Julep Eliana). I chose the Darling Diva polish out of a selection on Llarowe because I liked the mix of turquoise, copper, and white glitter a lot (also it was on sale). Since my nail polish collection is not big on glitters, let alone indie glitters, I think it makes a good addition to my stash. Putting it over Julep Eliana – a medium-dark denim blue crème – suited it quite nicely; I find the result quite appealing.

Blue Morpho Butterfly Nail Art for Thyroid Disease Awareness Month

Hi everyone! I’M BACK! With new content 🙂 The end of my vacation means that I got back to my polish stash and tools, and now can get around to all the nail art I’ve been dreaming about! I decided to begin with this manicure, which was inspired by a very deserving cause.

During my vacation, fellow Instagrammer @citruseyes sent out an invitation to do a nail art collaboration in honor of Thyroid Disease Awarness Month, which is January, and I couldn’t have been more thrilled to participate! Thyroid disease is very pervasive in my family, and so this is a cause that is especially important to me personally and that I feel deserves more awareness. My manicure was inspired by some symbols used to represent Thyroid Disease Awareness (TDA) – butterflies and the blue awareness ribbon – and is dedicated to my mom, who is affected by thyroid disease (and also loves butterflies!).

Glitter Gradient with Julep Sugar Plum Duo – Ruth and Padma

Hi everyone! I’m back with some nail art! But first I have a short announcement: I’m going on vacation! For the winter holidays, I’m going to be visiting my darling boyfriend’s family in “Sin City” and, since I will be busy during that time, I will not be doing any nail art for a few weeks. So as not to neglect all of you readers, I’m going to write some posts in advance and schedule them to be published during my vacation. Hopefully about three or so posts will come out during that time. Also, any holiday-/event-themed nail art will be done in advance of the actual dates to accommodate some circumstances that have come up. I just thought I’d inform you of the upcoming scheduled posts, for the sake of honesty.

Anyways, I finally received the Sugar Plum duo from Julep’s holiday collection in the mail, and I couldn’t wait to use it! One of the polishes inside – Ruth (the glittery one!) – sold me on the duo. It was too good to pass up! I mean, come on, purple flake glitter in a jelly base? Of course! As for nail art, I decided to showcase Ruth and its companion Padma in this glitter gradient manicure. While this manicure isn’t one of my best works, I still like it a lot because it’s very wearable and pretty. And the glitter is mesmerizing!