Disney Princess Tiana Waterfall Nail Art

Hi everyone! I’ve got some simple nail art today inspired by Disney’s Princess Tiana! I originally got the idea to do this when I was trying to pick a color to wear, and found myself drawn to light greens. Eventually, when I had settled on using Zoya Tiana to wear, I figured: why not just do some nail art with it? To emulate the dreamy, magical vibe of the swamp that the movie is set in, I decided to do a “waterfall” manicure with a few complimentary shades of green polish, plus some gold to set off the green.

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.

Purple Textured Half Moon Manicure

Hi everyone! I have a quick two-color nail art design of textured half moons to show you all today while I’m prepping a large post set to come out soon! In a spur-of-the-moment burst of creativity, I combined two Julep purples – Joanne and Glam Roc – to get this textured half moon design. Considering that not much planning went into this, I think it worked pretty well! The two purples are great together, and a half moon design is a nice way to incorporate textured polishes into nail art.

SquareHue November 2014 Swatches, Comparisons, and Nail Art

Hi everyone! Sorry for not posting for over a week – I’ve been really preoccupied with work, and will continue to be until mid-December. Consequently, I don’t have much time for nail art and may post infrequently until January. I do have some more posts in the works, though, so I’ll still have stuff going on, no worries!

Today I have the November 2014 collection from SquareHue to show off! SquareHue is a monthly nail polish subscription box service that I enrolled in to see if I would like it, since I’ve had a lot of luck with the Julep Maven program. While the service differs from Julep in several ways, what intrigued me the most about it – and led me to enroll – was that the stated intent of SquareHue is to guide you towards colors you may not pick yourself. They do this by not allowing you to choose the three colors in the monthly box, and you just have to hope that you’ll like what’s inside. Based on my assessment of the website, I assumed this would mean really unconventional, but tasteful, colors with a variety of finishes. Since I am not picky in terms of colors I like, I thought it might be worth a shot for at least one month. I was curious to see if the monthly box did indeed contain unconventional colors that I would not pick myself, and having no choice over the colors would mean a bunch of dupes for me.

I took the plunge, and just received my first box through SquareHue containing the November 2014 collection, inspired by Prague. They went with a very muted, medium-dark color palette that gives an overall “urban” look to me. The three colors are very fall- and winter-appropriate, and I’m sure that they’ll go great with a lot of the cold weather accessories that people are starting to pull out of their closets. Plus, each polish has a different finish to make things interesting. I’ve got swatches and nail art to show you all, so let’s go!

Julep InstaGrim Part III: Chevron Candy Corn

Hi everyone! I’ve got the third installment of my Julep InstaGrim series, which completes my Halloween manicures! As I’ve described before, I created a series of Halloween nail art designs for Julep in order to help them promote their contest on Instagram, and am dedicating a blog post to each one; you can read more about it in my first post of the series. This latest one is about my version of candy corn nail art, which is to make a “Chevron Candy Corn” manicure. In total, the designs are:

1. Haunted Hollow
2. Ghastly Gradient
3. Chevron Candy Corn

The chevron candy corn design was inspired by some chevron decals that Julep sold in the October Maven window, which I picked up. When I was thinking of nail art to do for the InstaGrim contest, I thought of candy corn nail art because I love candy corn, but then I thought – nah, that’s been done to death. But then I thought: well, what about candy corn with a twist? And then these chevron decals came to mind, and I was sold on the idea! Chevrons are a great graphic pattern (quite suitable for bright colors) and they’re very of-the-moment. Plus decals/stencils are so easy to use to create clean lines. I didn’t end up using the Julep decals because I thought my friend Kimi might like them, so I came up with a DIY alternative for those of you who are not in possession of chevron decals. They work, but you can probably get better results with the professional ones. Read on to learn how to do them and see the tutorial!

Julep October 2014 Maven Swatches, Comparisons, and Nail Art

Hi everyone! I hope you’re ready for this because I have my biggest post EVER! My biggest work task got postponed to November/December so I had more free time to make this post amazing. Today I have a huge review post about my picks from the Julep October 2014 Maven collection (Black Magic). Like I have done in previous months (July, August, and September), I swatched all the colors, did some comparisons, and then combined all my picks into nail art. This month, I have a tutorial for my nail art as well! Julep’s October polishes were mostly dark colors with a mix of different finishes. I was most interested in the Classic with a Twist (CwT) box, but added on two polishes from the It Girl box (Shailene and Dana) because they looked intriguing. Funny enough, CwT is my default style profile, but I never picked that box for any of the months I’ve been in the Maven program…until now.

I was much more intrigued by the color choices for October than for September. If you recall, I tend to prefer other finishes than cremes because I think they allow for more diversity and originality compared to solid colors, especially when I’m buying expensive nail polish. Given the abundance of non-cremes in this collection, I was hopeful that I’d get something I was really happy with. From the online swatches Julep provided, though, I had some reservations about what some of the polishes would look like in real life. The shimmers looked a little, well, “un-shimmery” in the photos. Since I’m not interested in shimmers that basically look like cremes, I was apprehensive I wouldn’t like my choices. Thankfully, I am quite happy with most of the colors I chose, so, without further rambling, I present: my Julep October 2014 swatches!

Subtle Glitter Sandwich Gradient French Tips

Hi everyone! I have a new manicure today that features gradient French tips done using the “glitter sandwich” technique, which is an incredibly simple and easy process. It’s so simple and easy, in fact, that I can make glitter sandwich nails even when my life gets crazy, as it will be for this entire month! Like I said in my last post, don’t expect elaborate or frequent nail art from me until November because I have a TON of things to do until then, and nail art is simply not high on my priority list. Nail art for me is a fun hobby – and a welcome respite from work-related stress – but I know my limits, and will have to cut back a bit temporarily.

I removed my previous manicure a little sooner than I may have liked because I had to go to an event this weekend with a conservative dress code, and I just didn’t feel comfortable going in gray and red nails. This glitter sandwich manicure is a relatively subdued and demure way to wear nail art, while still being fun and sparkly. And, of course, the fact that it is soooo easy to do is quite appealing. I’d highly recommend trying to do a glitter sandwich manicure if you’re a nail art beginner, and/or you want your nails to look subdued while still trying out glitter in nail art. The glitter sandwich was actually one of the techniques I learned in the very beginning of my nail art hobby, and the very first photo I ever took of my nails uses this technique. I’ve included the photo in this post as a throwback, just so you can see how far I’ve come. I’m almost too embarrassed to post it, but I’m gonna do it!

Modern Shiny/Matte French Manicure with Wet n Wild Roadwork

Hi everyone! I have some simple nail art today because this month is CRAAAAZY for me…and we’re only two days in! For work, I have a whole bunch of projects to finish, or significantly work on, by the end of the month and I’m quite anxious about getting everything done. And these are not small projects – these are really big and REALLY IMPORTANT. Therefore, I’m going to warn all of you readers in advance that my nail art this month may be a little underwhelming, and will be on the simpler/easier side. Most likely, I will also be posting less frequently (the last time I posted was over a week ago), so don’t expect too much from me this month. I was really looking forward to doing some really fabulous landscapes soon, but now I may have to postpone that until the somewhat less busy months of November and December.

Anyways, my manicure today is a modern French manicure that uses a brand new color from the Wet n Wild Megalast line called “Roadwork”. By “modern”, I mean that the colors I chose are not sheer pink or white, and that I played with shiny and matte topcoats on the different regions of my manicure. My idea for this manicure actually came from a set of fake nails at a drugstore that I saw and loved, so I decided it would be fun to do something similar on my real nails. Once I saw Roadwork from the new Wet n Wild Halloween collection, I knew I wanted it to be the base color and everything fell into place.

Rose-Colored Subtle Gradient French Tips with Zoya and Wet n Wild

Hi everyone! I have some really simple nail art for today: gradient French tips with rosy colors. The past week has been really hectic for me due to two unexpected family emergencies, and me trying to catch up on work. This means I haven’t had as much time for nail art as I would have liked, which is why I left my previous manicure on for 6 days instead of the 3-4 I usually do. With simple nail art, though, I can still do something slightly more than a solid color. Hence this stuff with muted, rosy colors Zoya Rue and Wet n Wild Sophisticated Lady. At the end of this post, I’ve got a short review of the Urban Outfitters White Rose perfumed topcoat, which I put over this manicure. Check it out:

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: