Nail Art – Muted Pink Florals

Hi everyone! I’m back with some new nail art that fits into the summer-to-fall transitional category, since it’s almost autumn. While I’m not ready to let go of summer (I never am, really), I know that I have to move on into the new season eventually – why not with nail art? Fall is definitely the best season for nail art anyways. So I did these elegant, muted pink florals with the beginning of autumn in mind.

Julep July 2015 Swatches, Comparisons, and Nail Art

Hi everyone! I’ve (finally) got another post out for you, which I really should have done a looonnnnngggg time ago. I apologize to all my readers for not posting as much as I wanted to in July (seriously, I only wrote like 3 posts last month…). Last month I was just all over the place physically and mentally because of my move, and I was in a pretty bad funk for the remainder of the month. Acclimating to a new way of living takes me an extremely long time; this time is especially difficult now that I have to adjust to having a much longer commute than before. It got to the point where doing anything felt like a chore – even things I wanted to do – so I postponed nail art for longer than I should have. I’m trying to force myself out of my “funk” by pushing myself to do more, and I think it’s working. It’ll just take some time, and then I’ll be back to normal. Anyways, again, I’m sorry. I didn’t want to leave my blog for this long, but I ended up feeling semi-crazed for pretty much the whole month.

This post is all about my Julep July 2015 Maven box (Drenched Collection), which I really should have gotten around to before it became over a week into August. The Drenched Collection was rather interesting because it had a huge variety of polish finishes – Julep said that this collection had the most different finishes out of all collections ever – and the colors were all quite lovely. I settled on four polishes from the collection, including two special finish polishes, which I used to create some super fun butterfly wing nail art. Read on!

SquareHue June 2015 Swatches, Comparisons, and Nail Art

Hi everyone! I’m back with the new SquareHue box for June 2015, which was inspired by the 1950s! This is most definitely the nail polish box that is getting me 100% geared up for summer – you really can’t go wrong with fun, bright cremes like this. Just looking at these colors makes me want to sit down in the backyard and drink some ice cold, homemade lemonade (one of my favorite summer activities 😀 ). I got such an upbeat and fun vibe that I ended up using the three polishes to do some awesome tropical nail art, complete with palm fronds and flowers. A little Elvis in Hawaii, maybe?

With this latest installment of the Decades Collection, SquareHue has now reached the midway point of the year, so I thought it’d be fun to take a look back at my blog posts about the first half of the collection. At the end of this post, I have links to each of the posts, and a bunch of photo grids!

Julep May 2015 Swatches, Comparisons, and Nail Art

Hi everyone! It’s past the end of the month, but I still have my monthly Julep Maven box post for you! Today I have my picks from the Julep May 2015 collection (Set Sail) and some really adorable chintzy nail art that I made using the polishes. This month’s collection was very creme-heavy, but I did find that I liked a number of the polishes and, luckily, was able to fill some gaps in my collection. While the collection overall seemed to have a nautical theme, I instead used the polishes I got to make some nail art that had been on my to-do list for a long time: floral china patterned nails! You know, like fine china that people serve afternoon tea in. Kinda kitschy, kinda girly, very cute.

By the way, if you haven’t yet entered my 1 year blogiversary giveaway, it’ll be open until the 21st of this month! Follow the link!

Nail Art – Pink and Rose Gold French Tips

Hi everyone! I’ve got another nail art post for you before I move onto the big stuff coming up soon! I know I haven’t gotten around to doing the second part of my blogiversary posts yet, and also my Julep box post from this month (most likely that won’t make it in by the end of the month unfortunately). But at least I’ve got something going in the meantime!

This weekend I went to an AMAAAAZING gem and jewelry show that had so many fascinating sparkly and shiny objects that the whole experience bordered on sensory overload – it’s THAT glittery. Of course, when you attend a jewelry show, it’s best to keep your outfit as plain and simple as possible in order to make the jewelry stand out more, and so I made a conscious effort to keep my nails on the toned-down side for the show. I’ve been feeling the muted pastel peach/pink colors in the past few days (my taste in nail polish really changes with my mood), and so I ended up doing very dainty French tips in a super feminine pink/rose gold color combo, which was absolutely perfect for the show: simple with just a little shine.

Little Glitter Hearts Nail Art

Hi everyone! I’ve been under the weather recently, so I have just a short post for now. Today I have a quick bit of nail art that I was inspired to do by someone close to me who could use some extra love right now ❤ Why not show it with lots of hearts?

Julep March 2015 Swatches, Comparisons, and Nail Art

Hi everyone! Today I have my Julep Maven March 2015 collection (POP!) picks on the blog! I know I’ve been a little behind this month with my blogging, but it’s still March and most definitely not too late for a Maven box post! Although pastels are usually not my area, I did find a number of colors in this month’s collection to be quite appealing and chose three of them to put in my Maven box. Now that I’ve been in the customized Maven box program for two months, I’m definitely liking it better than the old system. Since I mostly subscribe to Julep for nail polish, I can make a box of polishes that has exactly the colors I want out of the collection, and I don’t have to include beauty products that I most likely won’t use.

I was inspired by the colors I selected to create some partly cloudy skies on my nails with a little bird as a subtle accent nail. The clouds were really easy to do and quite fun; someday, when I have the time, I definitely want to do a tutorial on how to make clouds.

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!

Swatch – Zoya Arabella

Hi everyone! I have more nail art coming up soon, but until then, I have a short post about Zoya Arabella! This polish is from Zoya’s recently discontinued Pixiedust line of textured polishes, so as you can see, it dries with kind of a bumpy matte finish. I picked this particular polish because I really liked the dark pink/berry color, and the fact that it’s got some little pieces of glitter for some sparkle.

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!!!