Icicles on Mauve

I feel like people do drip manicures all the time but I do not often see icicle manicures! So I made one :-D. I also really love the base color that I used here, then again I am currently obsessed with super shimmers so that isn’t overly surprising. 

Colors:
~ Grey/pink glitter: Quixotic Polish – It Rubbed Off From Friction
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Stamp: L008

I think I will try something like this again this year. It was easy to make and is pretty! Hopefully we start getting some snow soon! I want to play outside in what little free time I have. Hope you enjoyed! 

Nude and Grey Randomness

This manicure does not look good. Mostly because I don’t think the base polish pairs well with the stamping color! I like the idea of the randomness on my nails and it is a cool mix of patterns. I particularly like the pattern on my pinky, I will have to use that some more! 

Colors:
~ Nude with black/red glitter: Cadillacquer – Darling, Red Isn’t Your Color
~ Grey: Zoya – Evvie
~ Stamps: Whats Up Nails – A007

That’s about all I have to say today! The rest of the week is (predictably) more snowflakes. I have saved up all these manicures from last winter and wow did I apparently do a LOT of snowflakes!

Neutral Snowflakes

Winter time manis! I painted SO MANY snowflake manicures last year that it is going to be a struggle to not lump them one after the other after the other. So, I will try to space them out. At least they aren’t all silver and blue, some, like this, are nude and grey! I have to say this is likely the oddest one I made, but I kinda like it anyway. It busy without being ugly.

Colors:
~ Nude glitter: Cadillacquer – Darling Red Isn’t Your Color
~ Grey holo: Darling Diva – Black Diamond
~ Black holo: A England – Fated Prince
~ Stamp: JQ – L20 

I remember hating the black thin holo tip when I painted these, but now looking at the nail art I actually rather like it. You can see more of the holo rainbow goodness due to the thicker heavier line. Anyway, hope you enjoyed! 

Grey Fade Flower

I was too lazy to actually sponge on a gradient, so I somewhat freehanded the gradient? It was much less messy to clean up but also a lot less smooth. I added some glitter over the top to hide just how step-wise the gradient was! Oops. That said I still like the design a lot 🙂 it helps that it is one of my favorite stamps!

Colors:
~ Light grey: Formula X – Delightful
~ Grey: Zoya – Dove
~ Dark grey: WOW – #333
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Glitter: Different Dimension – Intergalactic Dolphin
~ Stamp: Whats up Nails – B005

I am finishing up posting a combination of cold-feeling and fall-feeling manicures (in preparation for Thanksgiving) before moving into winter. I have SO MANY backlogged snowflake manicures. Be prepared! 

Bird Shadows

These nails are intended to honor the adorable doves that built a nest on the windowsill in my bedroom and had to baby birds! It was great, as the babies learned to fly they stuck around the house for almost a week. They finally flew away near the beginning of fall but I will not forget them 😀

Colors:
~ Grey speckled: Cirque – Hatch
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Stamps: Whats up Nails – B017

The nails also ended up being almost-spooky, so I figured they were appropriate for immediately after Halloween! Even if the inspiration was sweet instead. Hope you enjoyed! 

Glacier Cove

Well guys, I forgot to post yesterday like I meant to, but this post fits better with “inspired by nails you love” rather than “tutorial”, also it is the last day of the 31 day challenge. Also it is apparently my 8-year blogaversary (wow). Anyway, on to nails. I adore this manicure. This was fully inspired (read: copied) from Ruth’s Nail Art, only I managed the whole darn thing with polish and she used acrylics. This took hours to create but I do love the end result! It reminds me of the last time I went on an actual vacation (left the country) to visit Iceland almost a year and a half ago. 

Colors:
~ Pastel purple: Zoya – Abby
~ Purple: L’oreal – Royalty Reinvented
~ Dark purple: Zoya – Danielle
~ Pastel blue: Zoya – Blu
~ Blue: Zoya – Yummy
~ Dark blue: Zoya – Ling
~ Pink: Love & Beauty – Pink
~ Grey: Zoya – Evvie
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black

The only thing not free-handed was the circle of the moon, which was ultimately painted over in a mixture of white and pale purple polish. Voila! Happy end of the 31 day challenge, and I hope you all enjoyed! Since this blog is probably only read by nail artists, I hope some of you participated as well! Some of my favorite nail art of the year pops up from other artists during this month :-D.

Crinkled Porcelain

This mani was easy in the sense that it is entirely stamped patterns. But coloring them in? Obsessing over my 45 shades of blue? That was more challenging! I am so happy with how it came out 🙂 Although this isn’t really “fashion” the way I think the 31 day challenge intended, porcelain things are certainly fashionable so I am counting it!

Colors:
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Grey: Zoya – Dove
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Pastel blue: Zoya – Blu
~ Light blue: Zoya – Yummy
~ Blue: Zoya – Ling
~ Dark blue: Zoya – Sia
~ Darkest blue: Zoya – Ryan
~ Stamps: MoYou – Porcelain 01 

We are almost at the end of the 31 day challenge…and I have to say I have NO IDEA how I used to post daily! I know I had more time when I was in medical school and graduate school than I do as an actual doctor, but still! Wow. Daily would be really tiring. Anyway, hope you enjoyed! 

Dark Roses on Grey

While I actually rather love how this mani came out, I like the inspiration better and am likely to try again in the future with a different color palette! I saw these nails at @billythebrime_nails and fell in love. Grey. Swirls. Roses. Moody yet awesome. How could I resist? And they fit so well for flower day in the 31 Day Challenge!

If I’m being honest, I liked my own mani better before I added the roses. The variegated grey background with darker grey swirls was elegant and very pretty. However, when I added the roses I realized I had made three mistakes: I used pink-based-reds for the roses (so when I mixed white with red I got pink rather than a deep orange-red…next time I need to aim for orange/red not pink/red), the roses are too small, and my swirls aren’t dark enough! They looked great on their own, but with the roses they just looked a little flat. 

Colors:
~ Light grey: Zoya – Dove
~ Grey: WOW – #333
~ Dark grey: Zoya – Evvie
~ White: LA Girl – White On
~ Light red: Pure Ice – Siren
~ Red: OPI – All I Want for Christmas (is OPI)
~ Dark red: OPI – Visions of Love
~ Stamp: Moyra – 50 Ornaments 3

I ended up going over by hand on some of the swirls nearest the roses, to make them appear bolder. It ended up giving my swirls an almost gradient appearance, which I quite like, but again I like Billy’s version better! Surprisingly, these nails took under an hour to do, so I’ll probably try them again sometime, with a few modifications! Hope you enjoyed! 

6 Shades of Grey

I hate how long striping tape takes but I do adore the end result. To be honest this manicure was almost shades of gold/green/teal, but in an odd move I decide to start with a black base instead and the rest was history. Does make it perfect for the black and white day of the 31 day challenge though!

What you see here are two coats of Naughty Newton by Formula X over one coat of a black creme (as always, Sinful Colors Black on Black). I imagine this will be a pain in the butt to remove because the glitter sin Newton are the thicker grittier type. As a result, however, they are unbelievably sparkly! If I didn’t already own both Zoya Storm and Stella Chroma Karavaki I think I would be more excited about this. It is an undeniably pretty polish, and is somewhat interesting. It is a black very sheer jelly with copious silver holo glitters and small black glitters. Obviously you can’t see the black glitters over black, but it does make me wonder how this would look over just about any other color!

Colors:
~ Black glitter: Forumla X – Naughty Newton
~ Pastel grey: Forumla X – Delightful
~ Light grey: Zoya – Dove
~ Grey: WOW – #333
~ Dark grey: Zoya – Evvie
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black

The medium-dark grey shade is a 50/50 mix of 333 and Evvie, I just don’t have a good medium-dark grey that doesn’t have shimmers in it. Also, Evvie is green-tinged and I wanted to make sure that didn’t stand out. The end result is boring in terms of colors but quite pretty in terms of presentation! Hope you enjoyed! 

Purple and Grey Tips

Very simple, very easy, and surprisingly pretty! Life hardly ever works out like that :-p This is also the last post before the overwhelming wonder that is *dun dun dunnnnnn* the 31 day challenge!

Colors:
~ Purple shimmer: Painted Polish – Just One Look
~ Light grey: Formula X – Delightful
~ Dark grey: WOW – #333

I should probably try and do more nail art that is as simple as this. It works, it takes very little time, and because the nail tips are somewhat thicker, it lasts for a while without chipping off or cracking. Voila, happy purple and grey day 😀

White Petals

I don’t know what the aim was with this one? I wanted to do sort of a purple-and-white wallpaper look with leaves? But they ended up looking more like flower petals? and I decided it was too one-dimensional so I added some shimmery purple-grey dots in the smaller leaf buds? Again, I made this up as I went and the end result is a bit odd. If I am being truly honest on review of this: I hate the design and this may be my least favorite nail art I’ve done in the last year. Yuck. So you only get one (ugly) picture today).

Colors:
~ Light purple: Zoya – Abby
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Dark grey: Sinful Colors – Muse
~ Grey-purple shimmer: Essie – For the Twill of it
~ Stamp: Lina – @urbannailart collab

Sorry it was awful! Friday’s is also bad although at least I tried? This ended up being rather a fail week…in preparation to start the 31 day challenge and all the upcoming pretties associated with that next week!

Crop Circles

I bought this particular stamping plate from a sale because I wanted to play with this one particular stamp. I know it was intended to be crop circles but to me it looked so wonderfully digital, almost like a circular circuit board. So of course I had to use it! I am not sure why I went with grey? But it does look pretty nifty.

Colors:
~ Grey holo with glitter: Cadillacquer – Odette
~ Dark grey: Zoya – Evvie
~ Silver: Nails Inc – South Kensington
~ Stamp: Whats Up Nails – A007

Not much else happening today (I have a grant to finish, whoops) so sit back and enjoy!

Lace Tips on Purple

This is a fun color and a fun stamp, so I just went for it. It looked a little bland with just white and purple shimmery, so I added some grey glitter (because those colors go together). I honestly, in retrospect, can’t tell if making silver glittery tips at the end was a good idea or a bad one? Maybe a bad one. I should have gone with a slightly less complicated grey!

Colors:
~ Purple glitter: Emily de Molly – Traverse the Skies
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Grey holo: Emily de Molly – Shadow on the Moon
~ Stamp: MoYou – French 14

So thats it for today! Straight forward and somewhat pretty. Happy wednesday (maybe) and hope you enjoyed!

Softly Grey

I love the muted tones of this manicure. Don’t get me wrong, jewel tones are my favorite type of polish and will always be, but something about a soft grey holo with some matched glitters just makes me happy. Geometric stamping? Little bit of accent? I am sold 😀

Colors:
~ Grey with white glitter: Cadillacquer – Odette
~ Grey holo: ILNP – Timeless Vow
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Stamp: Moyra – 54 Matrix

I will try to bring back some of the brighter colors for later this week (summer is, afterall, neon-appropriate). I just wanted something softer today! Hope you enjoyed 😀

Moonlight Lattice

Very simple but quite pretty! Primarily because both this polish and this stamp are stunning. I think I have used this stamp at least 5 times, which is impressive seeing as how I have literally hundreds of stamps :-p. Can’t help picking favorites!

Colors:
~ Grey glitter: Emily de Molly – Shadow on the Moon
~ Purple: Sinful Colors – Muse
~ Stamp: MoYou – Porcelain 01

Anyway, hope you all enjoyed! I didn’t mean to do two purples in a row, but to be fair Monday’s post was supposed to go up on friday (oops)!

Cyanotype Leaves

I got this idea into my head and I just could not get it out until I tried it! I love the concept, but I don’t adore the execution. I wanted to do a grey creme on a grey glittery base for subtle contrast, and then white leaves in a cyanotype-print style. It kinda worked? In retrospect, I think I needed better leave stamps! **which I now have so oh well, I guess I’ll just have to repeat this mani from last winter all over again, poor me**

Colors:
~ Grey flakie glitter: Polished for Days – Grey Opal
~ Grey: WOW – #333
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Stamps: BM – 208, XL472, UC – Lovely Leaves 2

I have so many stamping plates, but I never seem to have quite enough of exactly what I want! So once I complete a manicure missing the correct and perfect designs, I go out and buy a plate that would have made the manicure excellent. Only, I’ve already done the manicure, so what do I do with the plate at this point? I should likely start repeating manicures using proper plates that I have selected, but there is always more completely novel nail art to do instead!

Swirl Veins

I have no idea what to name this. I started by making squish-veins (I have done this before) using black and light grey, put them over the white grey, and then just stamped a whole bunch of black swirls. I have no idea what I was thinking, but the end result is at least interesting to look at?

The base here is another new-to-me-but-discontinued Forumla X polish called Delightful. It is a very pale grey creme, and covers well in two thin coats. I had been looking for something to replace my utterly exhausted Bare Escape by Maybelline, and I think I found it!

Colors:
~ Grey: Forumla X – Delightful
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Stamps: Floral BP – X43

Overall I think I am happy with this? I need to trial the squish-veins method more, I am still not great at getting a consistent squish pattern and that is important to me. Anyway, hope you enjoyed!

Spiky Floral Tips

The idea here was good. The execution was good. The colors? Not a great combo. Oops! I wanted some sunrise/flowers in a french tip design with neutral colors all around. I ended up with a bit of a color mess! I don’t know why I keep matching mint with nude, the colors just never come out as sharply as I want them to. This is maybe the 4th manicure with a similar color combination in the span of two months! Yikes.

Colors:
~ Pale mint holo: Cadillacquer – Memory Palace
~ Gold: Essie – Good as Gold
~ Nude: CND – Cashmere Wrap
~ Gold glitter: ILNP – Fame
~ Grey: Formula X – Delightful
~ Stamp: BM – 616

Anyway, hope you enjoyed! Its June, so honestly I should start posting my backlog of neon manicures, but I just haven’t had time to give them the editing they so sorely need! Hopefully next week?

Angled Hatches

This ended up a bit more dramatic than I intended, and I love it. On the examples page for this stamping plate, they show someone using gold, black, and a blue textured polish over this particular design. I didn’t love the way they used it, but it directly inspired what I went for with this! And this was a lot of fun, making it up as I went 🙂

The base here is a polish I have been lemming after for years: Cirque Hatch. This polish has been out for a while, and if I am honest it hardly counts as a lemming because it is still in stock all over the place. I just hadn’t wanted to pay the full price for it. So, when I found it on sale…voila! This is three thin coats (I was done in two coats but I wanted a third to try and keep my nails from breaking. For what its worth I wore this for and entire week without even tip wear, I am very impressed). Hatch is a very pale grey with tiny darker grey glitters and very small black shards. The overall appearance is a subtle birds egg shell. I adore it.

Colors:
~ Grey: Cirque – Hatch
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Silver: A England – Excalibur (Renaissance)
~ Teal textured: Julie G – Rock Candy
~ Stamp: Moyra – 54 Matrix

That’s it for today, other than to apologize that this was supposed to go up yesterday! I ended up liking this manicure enough that I did a bunch more geometric manicures shortly thereafter, you will likely see them in the next few weeks :-p. Hope you enjoyed!

Failed Quartz

I was trying to make a pseudo-marble manicure (since everyone else seems to e making marble nails) and I wanted something pretty and subtle…so I went with a light grey and pale pink. And then I added another shade of pink. And a blush. And then it was too pink and the grey looked blue so I added white. And then some rose gold glitter…and the whole thing just took a life of its own!

Colors:
~ Grey: Formula X – Delightful
~ Pink: Zoya – Jordan
~ Nude: CND – Cashmere Wrap
~ Blush: KBShimmer – Caught on Tape
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Rose gold: ILNP – Juliette

In the end although I do think these nails look cool, they look nothing like I intended. I will have to re-try the marble theme at some point! And maybe they will actually end up marble-like by the time I am done :-p. Hope you enjoyed!