Hi everyone! These past few weeks have been a little busy for me, so I haven’t had much time for nail art. Instead, I thought I’d show you all some swatches of the three random OPI polishes I wore!
Tag: OPI
Swatch – OPI Under the Mistletoe
Hi everyone! Sorry about not posting for over a week – things have been rather stressful for me. I have a TON of stuff to do in the next two weeks! Well, even though it’s a week later, I hope all my U.S. readers had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I certainly did, excepting my major screw-up in which I accidentally left my laptop at the airport security scanner. YIKES! Since it’s my only computer, you can imagine how much my life, including this blog, would be set back if I had really lost it forever! When I realized it was gone, I felt like I’d lost a piece of my soul! You know, as if my laptop was a horcrux and someone had just destroyed it? Luckily, the TSA security line was probably the best place I could have lost my laptop because it was (obviously) found by security guards who cataloged and stored it until I was able to recover it. Crisis averted! While I did get my laptop (and sanity) back in the end, I highly encourage all my readers to BACK UP YOUR COMPUTERS!!! I kept putting it off, and therefore would have lost all my data if I couldn’t get my laptop/horcrux back. So don’t put it off until it’s too late!
Anyways, in other news, today I’ve got a swatch today of OPI Under the Mistletoe, which is the polish I wore for Thanksgiving. Because I spent the holiday with my boyfriend’s family, Thanksgiving-themed nail art didn’t happen. Things got busy right before I left and, besides, I wanted to be more conservative with my manicures while visiting them. So I chose this darling sparkly red! It’s a fairly traditional hue, but it’s got enough sparkle to make it interesting while not being overly showy. Overall, I think it worked well for the festivities. While the name of the polish implies a different occasion, red nail polish like this is always in style.
OPI Nordic Collection Nail Art – Fall Foliage
Hi everyone! It’s autumn! Yay! I think this is the first time I’ve ever been excited about summer transitioning into fall; I have always associated autumn with the start of school, making me dislike the season as a consequence, but I think I’ve finally gotten rid of that feeling since I no longer have a summer break that I have to drag my feet from. Fall actually seems appealing now: brightly colored leaves, the upcoming gingerbread lattes, Halloween, Thanksgiving, apple season…fun stuff! Summer was pretty saturated with things to do, and, even though I had a blast, I think I’m ready to move on. Even though autumn is shaping up to be a pretty busy time of year for me work-wise, I think I’ll have enough delicious gingerbread lattes to savor while powering through (and enjoying myself along the way)!
So today I have some seasonal nail art to show my excitement for the beginning of fall! In my last post, I mentioned having a “Star Trek Manicure Party” with my sister, where I brought the entire OPI Nordic Fall/Winter 2014 collection along so that we could both paint our nails. My manicure used a whopping seven colors – mostly browns and pinks – to create a design of a tree with golden leaves and clusters of pink berries (like the tree in my family’s front yard). Check it out:
My Favorite Things Series – Red and Gray Poppy Bedding
Hi everyone! I have a new post in the “My Favorite Things” series today (nail art inspired by my stuff). Design #1 was based off of a starry scarf and Design #2 was meant to look like a pair of dichroic glass earrings. This time, I’m showing off some nail art that looks like my bedding! A little over a year ago, I bought an awesome duvet cover from Bed Bath & Beyond by a brand named notNeutral that has some bright red poppy-like flowers and light gray leaves on top of a darker gray background. I really love home decor like this because it has everything I like: florals, bright colors, and graphic print. Also, the family dog’s name is Poppy, and so – not gonna lie – I was partly drawn to it because it has poppies on it. The bedding is actually still available to look at on the Bed Bath & Beyond website, but it is no longer for sale online. You can find it on Wayfair, if you’re interested in buying it (it’s $80 I think).
My Favorite Things Series – Dichroic Glass Earrings with Rainbow Foil
Hi everyone! I’m continuing my series of nail art designs inspired by patterns on my favorite things today, which began with the minty star scarf a bit over a week ago. This manicure was inspired by a FABULOUS pair of dichroic glass earrings that I bought at a craft fair two years ago. As best as I can tell (I’m no expert), these stud earrings are made of an ultramarine blue glass base layered with some rainbow film, and then coated with clear glass. I bought them for $10 or less, so they were quite inexpensive. Unfortunately, I can’t credit the artist because I can’t find her info 😦
According to Wikipedia, dichroic glass is made by layering glass and micro-layers of metals or oxides to yield a piece of glass with color-shifting properties. The dichroic appearance of the glass is due to thin-film optics effects, which you can also see at play with rainbow soap bubbles and oil slicks. Since I don’t have micro-layers of metals/oxides to use on my nails, I created the dichroic effect using some shiny rainbow transfer foil. It looks AMAZING!!! The finished look is really close to how the glass looks in real life…almost better than how it looks in real life. Plus, the technique I used wasn’t too difficult, so I made a tutorial! Check it out:
Orange and Cream Vertical Stripes
Hi everyone! I have some pretty basic nail art today: vertical stripes in different shades of orange on a cream-colored background. This idea has been sitting on my nail art to-do list for quite some time, so I’m glad I finally got around to it. It’s pretty fun and summery, and the brightness of the orange makes me happy 🙂
Disney Series – Prince John’s Crown Inspired Tips + Disneyland! (Long Post)
Hi everyone! Once again, I would like to introduce you to my brand-new Instagram account (@emismanis) that shows my manicures going out and about in the world. I hope you readers appreciate it as a supplement to my blog 🙂
So I didn’t end up posting last week like I said I would because the planning for my Disneyland trip got a bit too hectic, but I am back this week with some more Disney-inspired designs! In my blog post for the first design in this Disney manicure series (this chic Minnie Mouse design), I wrote that my friends and I had been planning a trip to Disneyland for ages that FINALLY happened last week. The lead-up to this trip included me painting my friends’ nails with Disney related designs of their choosing, which was super fun. I only ended up painting two of my friends’ nails plus my own for a total of three designs, but I will feature the other two designs on myself sometime later. The trip was amazing!!! At the end of the post, I’ll post a few vacation photos for you all to look at.
The idea for my Disneyland nails comes from Disney’s 1973 film Robin Hood (yes, the one where the characters are anthropomorphic animals), which my friend Kimi and I were watching when we first hatched the Disney manicure idea. Kimi can correct me on this, but I think I said something like, “So…what Disney character should I paint on my nails?” and Kimi pointed at the screen and said something like, “Dude, Prince John.” Once we bounced around ideas for how a Prince John manicure would look, I really loved the design and went with it. We came up with a manicure based on the Disney villain’s bejeweled crown, into which I incorporated real rhinestones for extra bling and regality. Take a look:
Emi's Manis 