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!

Julep February 2015 Swatches, Comparisons, and Nail Art

Hi everyone! I know it’s kind of late in the month (the March reveal is, like, today) but I of course need to do my monthly Julep Maven box post! Today I have a post about my picks from the Julep Maven February 2015 collection (Afterglow), which is the first box I’ve customized. That’s right – I reluctantly switched to My Maven so that I can get what I want out of each collection, and avoid things I don’t. It makes sense at this point, since I usually never want the beauty products and Julep has been putting more and more of them into the Style Profile boxes. Now it’s just polish for me! Yay!

This month, I chose my three favorite polishes from the February collection, plus I got another one (Hartleigh) as a freebie, for a total of four polishes. I used them all to create a nail art design that somewhat echoes the dark, rich florals that were part of the collection artwork.

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

Hi everyone! I’ve got the second part of my Valentine’s Day mani swap with @fishnails on Instagram, and, this time, it’s me recreating her design! As I wrote in my previous post about my own design for the swap, a mani swap is a shared exchange of nail art designs between two people, after which each person recreates the other’s design. Her design for the swap was a kind of mix-and-match manicure inspired by those heart-shaped chocolate boxes you see around Valentine’s Day, and here I have my interpretation of it for you all to see! This is actually my first manicure that incorporates negative space elements – yay for new things!

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!!!