Hop On!

It’s the friday before easter! This only matters because it means I have to take a plane tonight :-p. Somehow, I’ve been wearing these nails all week and none of the fellows, residents, attendings, or patients noticed! My fellow med student did, at least!

The art was inspired by this pin. I just really like the periwinkle color coupled with the egg pattern! Of course, I had to add an easter bunny. The nails on my other hand don’t quite match (and don’t look very easter-y so they’ll be posted at a later point).

My ACTUAL easter nails are red, like the eggs used to crack each other at a greek easter party. It’s an odd tradition, since there are easily twice as many eggs as people at a given party and no one wants to eat them after they are all smashed up!

Colors:
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Purple: Nails Inc – Regents Place
~ Teal: L’oreal – Not a Cloud in Sight
~ Pink: Revlon – Bubbly
~ Light pink: Wet n’ Wild – Tickled Pink
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black

Anyway, happy friday and happy easter if you celebrate! I’ll be busy trying to avoid chametz (bread things) since it is still passover, but hopefully there will be chocolate mousse or truffles for me to eat for dessert and not just cake!

Valentines Dotticure

I wasn’t sure if I was going to use this as my day-before-Valentine’s Day mani or not…because there are no hearts! But really, I didn’t paint any hearts this year, so have some pink and red and gold dots 😀

This mani was inspired by @badgirlnails…which really just seems to be a trend for me right now. I think I accidentally browsed her last approximately three years worth of manis and pinned them all to my to-try folder on pinterest. And they are all somewhat simple (like, 1-1.5 hours of work, rather than 3 hours of work) so when I don’t want to stamp I just keep turing to them! I would say whoops, but I honestly like her nail art a bunch so I don’t feel too bad about continually turned to it for inspiration.

Sadly, I haven’t actually edited the mani that includes the swatch of the base color I’ve used here, Cherish by Picture Polish. I’ll see if I can’t get posted next week or something! The nail art that went with it is a bit boring, but it is a pretty polish. So, stay tuned for that!

Colors
~ Nude: Picture Polish – Cherish
~ Hot pink: WOW – #371
~ Bright pink: Revlon – Bubbly
~ Light pink: Wet n’ Wild – Tickled Pink
~ White: Wet n’ Wild – French White Creme
~ Gold: OPI – All Sparkly and Gold

Regardless, happy almost Valentine’s Day! I hope you eat a lot of chocolates and your lives are filled with flowers. Personally, I love going to the grocery store the day AFTER Valentine’s and grabbing all the half-price chocolate :-D. There is one more pink mani coming on Wednesday (just because), and then on to less girly pastures!

I am a little curious myself…this is my first Valentine’s day since I got married. I don’t think my husband and I are doing anything we don’t usually do (small gifts, fancy dinner, and not-flowers), but will it feel different? I highly doubt it :-p. Hope you enjoyed the nail art!

Fade to Pink Floral

There are basically two versions of this mani…which I wore on opposing hands. I’ll be posting one today (clearly) and the other next week. They are, in fact, different manis…it just turns out when you try to gradient with white and red, it looks like a lot like using different shades of pink!

This is a triple-pink gradient, with a pink holo stamped on top. I honestly thought that Ciara (the darkest pink in the gradient) would not end up being so dark, so the pattern would show more at the tips. Clearly, I was wrong! It still looks cool. I was aiming for a Valentine’s Day color palette…so yah.

The design is from a stamping plate that I was sent to review from the Born Pretty Store…and I have to say I love it. Some of their plates can be hit-or-miss, either in terms of design or etching. This one is perfectly etched, and the designs are all really pretty! everything on this plate is vaguely stylized floral patterns, but they are all large enough that you can fit them in different orientations (see, for example, my pointer vs. middle fingers…same stamp just rotated and it still covers my whole nail). I have to say I’m impressed!

Colors
~ Light pink: ULTA – Baby Doll
~ Pink: Revlon – Bubbly
~ Dark pink: Zoya – Ciara
~ Dark pink holo: A England – Rosebower
~ Stamp: BP – L052

If you want to pick up this stamping plate for yourself, head over to the Born Pretty Store, where you can find it for $2.59. Don’t forget about my discount code, LY5X31! Enjoy!

Angled Echos

Every year, around Valentine’s Day, I reach for The Unloved by Emily de Molly. I don’t quite know why, but its become ingrained! I also DO NOT understand the name of this polish, given how striking it is. But I digress.

This year, I felt like starting of the pink/red/HEARTS manicures that tend to spew out around Valentines Day with something sharp and geometric. So, ta-da! I double stamped over The Unloved with the same stamp twice…first in black and then in gold. The idea was to make it looks like an echo or shadow of the original design. I like it!

I also wanted to use another new stamping plate I was sent from the Born Pretty Store. This plate is the best. I love love LOVE geometric designs, but freehanding them never works out well (too many straight lines) and using striping tape takes literally hours. The best solution seems to be plates, and this one is chalk-full of awesome geometric designs! I ended up using different ones on each nail (well, same pattern on my ring finger and thumb because I made this decision after I already did those two). I love them all.

Colors
~ Red glitter: Emily de Molly – The Unloved
~ Black: Mentality – Black Opaque
~ Gold: Essie – Good as Gold
~ Stamp: BP – L054

In warning: the next few posts are going be either heart-themed or red/pink themed. They are still pretty (in terms of the art) but it might be overwhelming (especially since I usually post rather varied colors in a given week). Anyway.

If you want to pick up this awesome geometric stamping plate (and I do recommend it, the designs are really awesome and well-etched), head over to the Born Pretty Store where you can get it for $2.59. Don’t forget my 10% off code, LY5X31! Enjoy!

Pink Explosions

Happy (belated) new years! This was not my actual new years mani, but I haven’t actually had any time to edit nail art over break! So much for relaxing and free time. Yikes.

So, the last of my Christmas and my New Years mani will just have to wait till next year? I can probably post the new years one as just a random glittery thing, but i don’t think that santa and elves are anything but christmas!

Regardless, for this mani I was going to stamp…and then I just did dots instead?? It isn’t the best, but it is certainly glittery! And maybe a bit like fireworks if you squint.

Colors
~ Black holo: Zoya – Storm
~ Black creme: Wet n’ Wild – Black Creme
~ Pink: Zoya – Alegra
~ White: Wet n’ Wild – French White Creme

I was thinking of doing top-10 posts sometime soon (my favorite nail art and polishes of 2016) but I realized I haven’t posted what is probably my favorite polish of this year! Oops. So maybe I should put that post together first :-p

Falling Flakes

Happy after-Christmas and third day of Hanukkah! I need to get a move on making some menorah nails if I want them edited within the next 5 days :-p.

These were inspired by @simplenailartdesigns, although its a bit hard to say anything with a blue gradient and snowflakes was inspired by any particular person, its such a common design!

Regardless, I like how these came out. I added little silver glitters to the center of the snowflakes a few hours later, so the sunlight photos have glittery bits too 🙂

Colors
~ Dark blue: Maybelline – Midnight Swim
~ Blue: Zoya – Ling
~ Light blue: Zoya – Blu
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Stamps: BM – 323, Born Pretty Plate – L008

Hope you enjoyed!

Holly and Branches

This is by far not the end of my winter and christmas manis…this is just the last one I got done ahead of time to be able to post 😀

These were also the nails I submitted to the Nail Art Canada holiday nail art challenge, but I lost the link somehow so I didn’t get them posted until one day before the contest closed. As a result, I didn’t win, but I did somehow make top 5 for the people-who-submitted-to-vote (let’s see how that one goes!), but thanks to all of you who voted anyway!

I put these together using stamping decals for the holly and simple stamps with dots added for the branches nails. Overall quite easy!

Colors
~ Bright green: Darling Diva – Green Diamond
~ Dark green: Sinful Colors – Last Chance
~ Dark green glitter: Butter London – Jack the Lad
~ Red: Zoya – Isla
~ Stamps: BM – 302, BP – 43

Hope you enjoyed, and merry almost-Christmas!