Rowdy Roses

Technically, I painted these around Valentine’s day. However, roses are good any time, so they are being posted now! In retrospect, I wish I had not made the backgrounds holographic, I think the art would have popped more against a creme background. Live and learn! Besides, I like making my backgrounds more sparkly than would otherwise be indicated :-p

Colors:
~ White holo: Emily de Molly – Crystal Crown
~ Red creme: Pure Ice – Siren
~ Red holo: A England – Rosebower
~ Green: Zoya – Josie
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Stamps: BP – L067, UC – Lovely Leaves 2

On a separate topic: things are going sideways in the US. At the moment, the city that I live in has a curfew, and honestly all but one of the 4 cities I have lived in at any point in my life are doing the same. The systemic racism and violence is (finally) being called out, which is (sadly) provoking violence. To all my readers in the USA: stay safe, stay strong, and do what you can to support your community. To my international readers: yes, all of this is exactly as terrible as it looks. If you feel so motivated, please encourage your leadership to sanction the USA; sadly I don’t think Trump listens to anything except his pride and his wallet, so if his income can be hurt we might actually see some change.

Petrified Leaves

If I am honest, I do not like this manicure at all. I like the new polish I was trying, and the stamp itself isn’t half bad…but why in gods name did I add those red-orange glitter shards? What was past Eva thinking? Bleugh! So, you only get one photo of the art. If it helps, the sun was not cooperating so it would have just been two indoor photos anyway…and the polish alone is wayyyy prettier than the design I chose to put over it. Take it or leave it!

Colors:
~ Green shimmer: Pahlish – Petrichor
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Red glitter: Born Pretty – Raging Fire
~ Stamp: UC – Lovely Leaves 2

The polish here is two coats of Petrichor by Pahlish, a polish pickup shade. It is a lovely dark green-leaning teal jelly base simply full of pink-gold-green shimmer and silver holo flakie shards. It is a busy polishes but quite pretty, goes on smoothly, and removes easily (despite the glitter load). This is probably the third almost identical shade that I own (clearly I have a type) but it still makes me happy! So, look at the pretty polish and not the ugly nail art :-p

Pressed Leaves on Papaya

This manicure is a combination of many pretty things, that when put together, makes a surprisingly ugly end result. A nice gradient, some pretty glitter, a fun leaf stamp…and it did not work! Anyway, here are the individual pieces.

The base color is a new-to-me polish, three thin coats of Papaya Don’t Preach by KBShimmer. I wanted a pastel neon orange, and what I ended up with was a light neon orange…which is very pretty, I will absolutely use, and is not what I was going for! Oops. Darn comparison photos, it looked lighter in swatches (lets be honest, that is true of most neons, cameras just cannot handle them). As neons do, this dried semi-gloss, photos here are with top coat. It has a nice even glide to it and is quite a fun color! It is just too dark for what I had in mind.

Colors:
~ Orange: KBShimmer – Papaya Don’t Preach
~ Pink: Zoya – Ciara
~ Purple: Zoya – Landon
~ Glitter: China Glaze – Fairy Dust
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Stamps: BP – Texture L002

I am also, FINALLY, the proud owner of Fairy Floss by China Glaze. I have wanted this scattered holo top coat for years but never wanted to pay full price for it. Well, I found it on sale for $5 and decided it was coming home with me this time. It makes gradients better, and I needed it! Ahhh, wonderful glitter :-). So, different pieces…odd end result. Hope you can enjoy somewhat!

Sunset Skittle

This was just me testing out stamping plate designs for nails to wear to a wedding! You will see what I picked (spoiler: I picked the wrong design) in a while :-p Looking back I honestly enjoy what was on my thumb the most, both because the design is elegant and because I really liked the underlying gradient. I picked something more…floral…and regretted it!

Colors:
~ Orange: OPI – Freedom of Peach
~ Dark orange: ULTA – Sun of a Gun
~ Red: OPI – All I Want for Christmas (is OPI)
~ Purple: Zoya – Landon
~ Dark purple: Zoya – Lael
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Stamps Moyra – 45 I Fill You, BM – S10, Whats Up Nails – B005, B025, UC – Lovely Leaves 2

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed! If any of you are looking for some television to watch I strongly recommend the series Firefly! I don’t know why I decided I have the right to give out television recommendations but there you go.

Frozen Leaves

The last of my Hanukkah-not-Christmas nails! Aka lots of blue :-). Really, the theme of this particular manicure was icy leaves and I think I hit it on the nose! Also, it was fun to do some intentional double stamping. Even if I didn’t line things up perfectly.

Colors:
~ Blue shimmer: KBShimmer – I’d Rather be with Blue
~ Blue: Zoya – Ling
~ Dark blue: Zoya – Ryan
~ Stamp: UC – Lovely Leaves 2

Happy Friday! You guys, I get my first vacation of this year’s residency starting on Sunday. I am SO EXCITED. Today is also the last day of the Mandalorian and I am excited to see what baby Yoda does…

Beglittered Swirl Vines

I really like how this one came out! It helps that I used a very pretty polish as the base, but somehow the red/gold with the blue and gold metallic just work! I also love vines (I am wearing this particular stamp right now, with a different manicure).

Colors:
~ Red/Gold multichrome holo: Enchanted – I am the Walrus
~ Blue: Zoya – Blake
~ Gold: Salon Perfect – Gold Leaf
~ Stamp: BPX Floral – L018

I have a whole bunch of actual holiday nail art…lets hope I get a chance to transfer them onto my computer and get them edited up by next week! Honestly I have my doubts, I have to many outside obligations at the moment. :-p Hope you all enjoyed!

Shimmer Leaves

Happy almost Thanksgiving! You guys almost didn’t get a post today because I almost ran out out of to edit my nails! As it stands this is going to be a bit less polished than usual (hah, nail polish puns) because there just wasn’t time! It’s pretty anyway, and hopefully you will all be too distracted by the epic color shift to notice anything else :-p

Colors:
~ Red/gold multichrome: ILNP – Greatness
~ Red/orange/green glitter: POP Polish – Slick Days of Summer
~ Blue: Zoya – Blake
~ Stamp: BM – XL209

The colors for this were just perfect for fall! I don’t know why I never thought to stamp in dark blue over red/orange before, but it is one of my new favorite color combinations. Somehow it just contrasts a bit better than black! Anyway. By the time I get out of the hospital it will be tomorrow, and then there will be Friendsgiving time! My husband is abandoning me this year (he gets time off to go home) so I get to eat with all the other wonderful people in my life who want to potluck with me! Hope you guys enjoyed the nails, and have great meals wherever you are!

Windblown Leaves

Yet another fall manicure! Maybe I should start interspersing some random non-fall themed ones at some point. I am still enjoying this, so you all must be too! Of course, it helps that yesterday was the nicest day we have had in weeks. That said, it is forecasted to snow today. The weather is very confused!

Colors:
~ Brown: Zoya – Louise
~ Shimmer: ILNP – The Magician
~ Gold: Essie – Good as Gold
~ Stamp: BP – Halloween L004

I was a bit sad after I bought The Magician because I had been hoping for a topper with a little more kick. All the photos that I had seen of this polish online made it look like wonderful shifty magic, yet all it ever did for me was add a subtle red scattered shimmer. I have since learned to enjoy the subtleness if i want something slightly more than a cream polish but less than a glitter overload! Anyway, thats all for today. Hope you enjoyed!

Red Forest Leaves

Halloween is over…so it is back to standard fall manis! This is one of my recent favorites. I honestly don’t even remember if I showed you guys this polish yet (I don’t think I have…) but I used this crazy glittery multichrome over a dark green and voila, magic! I really should post my nail art in order at some point. Basically it is a green/gold mutlichrome on its own, but over a dark polish it turns into red/gold/green and its fall magic in a bottle 😀

Colors:
~ Dark green: ILNP – Ski Lodge
~ Red/gold/green shimmer: Ethereal – Rainforest
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Stamp: UC – Lovely Leaves 2

I am not usually brave enough to stamp negative space designs, because I don’t have true stamping polish (i just use mostly dried up bottles of black and white standard polish)…but uber chic plates are just so perfectly etched that they work anyway. That’s it for today, hope you enjoyed!!

Fanned Leaves

his came out pretty cool in the end? Although my gold glitter on gold multichrome was maybe a miss, you can hardly see the glitter! I just really wanted to use this Catrice polish, and for some reason figured a tone-matched gold glitters was the best way to jazz up the stamps. Clearly it didn’t need much jazzing since it still looks reasonably good even without being able to see the glitter!

Colors:
~ Gold multichrome: Catrice – Genius in the Bottle
~ Gold glitter: ILNP – Sparks May Fly
~ Stamp: Nicole Diary – 090

The stamp itself is a pretty cool one from the Born Pretty Store. It is full of space, celestial, and nature themes, many of them with dots! I think I have used over half the stamps from the plate since I got it for review, but I can’t remember if I posted the link yet. So, you can get this stamping plate here for $2.99. Hope you enjoyed!

Leaf Mesh

Simple but pretty! Although I do wish I had a black that was able to stamp in True Black rather than sometimes-grey! The end result was pretty but I don’t love that the leaf stamp on my ring finger looks more grey than black! Although, I am happy that I managed to make a quasi-fall themed manicure in some color combination that does not involve yellow, orange, or red in any fashion!

Colors:
~ Black with holo: Zoya – Storm
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Cream with black glitter: Cadillacquer – Darling, Red Isn’t Your Colors
~ Stamp: UC – Lovely Leaves 02

Hope you all enjoyed! Be prepared to see more fall nail art next week. This might (read: total is) my favorite time of year for nail art!

Autumn Canopy

More fall! This was one basically just an excuse to make a whole bunch of dots. And we all know how much I love dots! The design was inspired by Snacks on Rotation although mine are much darker since I don’t have a gradient leaf stamp!

Colors:
~ Brown holo: Darling Diva – Brown Diamond
~ Brown: Zoya – Louise
~ Dark red: OPI – Visions of Love
~ Red: OPI – All I Want for Christmas (is OPI)
~ Dark orange: Essie – Playing Koi
~ Orange: ULTA – Sun of a Gun
~ Red shimmer: ILNP – The Magician
~ Stamp: EdM – 07

Hope you enjoyed! Happy fall weather, and pumpkin spice everything if you are into that!

Shining Leaves

It’s fall! The 31 Day Challenge has ended, so it is certainly October. More than that, the weather in St Louis just went from the 90s (it was TERRIBLE) to daily highs in the 70s! Hurray!

In honor of the newfound cold and frosty world (ok, there has not yet even been close to a frost, but still, not sweating in tank tops because it is chilly out makes me very happy), I am going to finally start posting Fall manicures! Beginning with this one. Basically, I just double stamped silver, then a smooth of red and orange polishes. Voila!

Colors:
~ Grey flakie: Polished for Days – Grey Opal
~ Dark red: OPI – Visions of Love
~ Red: OPI – All I Want for Christmas (is OPI)
~ Dark orange: Essie – Playing Koi
~ Orange: ULTA – Sun of a Gun
~ Silver: Nails Inc – South Kensington
~ Stamp: BP – 19

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed! And I hope this weather lasts, because it is the only time of the year that anyone will voluntarily find me outside!

Dots and Roses on Teal

This caused me soooo many headaches. You can’t tell, but I repainted my pinky 4 times. I started with it teal (because I wasn’t paying attention and I usually start with all my nails the same color). I dinged that, so I painted over it in white. That took 20 minutes to dry so I seriously dinged it and removed the whole mess. Then I just painted it white…and while finishing my other hand accidentally hit the drying white polish against TAPE so it was all over. I finally cleaned it fully (instead of just wiping off the polish), added base coat and painted it white, carefully. And then moved very very slowly for about 20 minutes until it was dry.

Other than my pinky, this was not a very difficulty manicure! The lines are a stamp, and everything else, while freehanded, was pretty easy. The hardest part was keeping the dots straight on my ring finger and thumb. I do wish I had made the roses larger on my middle finger, but I was having fun with tiny roses! And I am proud of my ring finger. The roses almost look respectable 😀

The design is lifted directly from Paulina’s Passions. It turns out this is from 2014, which tells you a bit about how long it was sitting in my untried ideas! Yikes

Colors:
~ Teal holo: Powder Perfect – There be Mermaids
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Light pink: Zoya – Jordan
~ Pink: Love & Beauty – Pink
~ Dark pink: Zoya – Ciara
~ Light green: Zoya – Josie
~ Dark green: Zoya – Shawn
~ Stamp: Born Pretty – Halloween L004

I realize that Monday’s post was also a bunch of circles and dots, but this one had MORE dots, so I am posting it for Dot Day! Hope you enjoyed!

Glimmering Leaves

Simple but so good! This, despite being a manicure that took maybe 30 minutes (color nails green, stamp with black, color in with shimmer multichrome) is one of my favorite looks in the near past. I don’t usually like things that are so minimal, but the colors work, the stamping was perfect, and it just came together really well!

It helps that I have a new pretty green creme to work with, Josie by Zoya. I have been using Josie a lot (partially because the polish has been sitting in my two-swatch section on my desk, and partially because it is a very pretty green). It is a true medium-tone green, just a hair brighter than neutral, and honestly doesn’t seem to lean blue or yellow. This is two coats. I love it 😀

I do a little regret adding the glittery polish over the top of the stamp rather than under. It means that in indirect light you can’t see the veins in the leaves, all you see are the glitters! But the glitters are so pretty that I mostly don’t care.

Colors:
~ Green creme: Zoya – Josie
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Pink shimmer: POP Polish – Watermelon Bubbleslick
~ Stamp: UC – Lovely Leaves 02

That’s all for today! Hope you all enjoyed :-D. Friday’s is slightly more involved but less elegant, if you can call something green elegant!

Forest Floor

Greeeen! I finally transferred a bunch of photos from my camera to my computer, so I can go back to posting seasonally-appropriate nail art! This one is just bright pretty green leaves, but they were fun to make!

The inspiration for this was a layered stamping plate sent to me from the Born Pretty Store to review. It has lots of deconstructed leaves, and a few deconstructed flowers. It is overall pretty great! The lines were crisp and picked up well, and the overlapping patterns fit nicely with each other. Since I really only used green (and gold) it is a bit harder to see some of the details of the layered design, but I promise its well done! I should be using this plate again come fall for some fun red/orange leaves 🙂

Colors:
~ Magentic green: Masura – Emerald Cat
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Dark green: Sinful Colors – Last Chance
~ Green: Zoya – Josie
~ Rose gold: Essie – Penny Talk
~ Stamps: BP – Overprint L002

If you are interested in some pretty layering leaves for yourself, head over to the Born Pretty Store. This plate is available for $2.99!

Falling Rosy Leaves

Well, this is absolutely a fall manicure…that I am posting in the summer! Oops. I need to put the rest of my nail art (basically everything since Feburary or so) on my computer and I just haven’t gotten around to it yet! Hopefully the importing of more seasonally-appropriate nail art will happen tomorrow, but I didn’t want to leave you all without ANY designs today!

This was a very straight forward manicure, but it uses one of my favorite polishes (I do feel like I say this about every third mani…) so I like it regardless of its simplicity! It was also a fun color combo, deep murky red-blue and rose gold.

Colors:
~ Teal multichrome: Illyrian Polish – Narrow Sea
~ Rose gold: Essie – Penny Talk
~ Stamp: Floral BPX – L018

Sorry for the late post, and I hope you enjoyed! I’ll try to get back to pastels, neons, and florals by Wednesday :-p

Neon Fronds

This mani was fun to wear and a pain in the butt to photograph! Also a pain to edit. That bright orange-red is really messing with my color correction!

The base polish here is a new-to-me beauty called End of Silence by Cadillaquer. This polish covered perfectly in three thin coats, and dried quickly (although if my memory serves me right it dried semi-matte due to the neon component). Regardless, the application was smooth despite the glitters. Honestly, my only complaint is that the color is SO BRIGHT that it is spazzing out my camera! And let’s be honest, that is hardly a complaint.

I ended up stamping some negative space leaves, just because. Obviously my black polish is not intended as a stamping polish, but the end result was a red-grey that I didn’t mind. I did end up adding pale peach highlights to the long stems of the leaves, because why not? They picked up the color of the glitters. This whole mani took maybe 45 minutes.

Colors:
~ Neon coral: Cadillacquer: End of Silence
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Pink: L’oreal – Orange you Jealous?
~ Stamp: UC – Lovely Leaves 2

That’s it for today! Hope you enjoyed. Friday’s post is…remarkably colorful :-p

Rose Golden Vines

I love this manicure. It is incredibly simple (its just a stamp) but the COLORS. Also, the base is seriously one of my favorite polishes. I almost never reach for it, but whenever I wear it I have to question my sanity about wearing anything else!

There isn’t much to say about this. I actually wore it back in late Fall (hence the darker colors) but I don’t care. It is stunning. I want a dress that looks like Marrow Sea. To be fair, I remain obsessed with shimmery polishes, and this one has it in spades!

Unfortunately, I still haven’t replaced my gold stamping polish, so all of my more recent manicures that involve metallic stamps have featured the same rose gold that you can see here. I really need to buy a new gold! I suppose it makes sense, but the only colors I ever run out of are my basic stamping polishes (black, white, gold, silver) and nude cremes. I want to buy more crazy glitters, but I never use them up! Too bad 🙂

Colors:
~ Teal multichrome: Illyrian Polish – Narrow Sea
~ Rose gold: Essie – Penny Talk
~ Stamp: BP – 19

That’s all for today! Hope you enjoyed 😀

Flowering in Gold

So this mani came out better than expected! I wanted a copperish-green and I almost missed entirely! I started of with a coat of Dragon, which is of course totally opaque in a single coat…and then decided it was too dark! So I topped it with a thin coat of a different green and then STAMPED with Dragon (and some gold). Voila!

I did have to scour a bunch of plates for actual designs though! And with the combo of green and reddish-gold I think it totally works for a quasi-thanksgiving manicure 😀

Colors:
~ Dark green holo: A England – Dragon
~ Lighter green with copper: Blush Lacquers – Nerida Singer
~ Gold: Essie – Good as Gold
~ Stamps: Whats Up Nails – B005, BPX – L018, BP – L067, BM – XL472

Luckily, I have part of tomorrow off, so I can at least join my husband and some of our residency friends for dinner, although I am on and overnight call on Friday into Saturday, so I have to hope that whatever awesome nail polish sales happen Friday will be ongoing until Sunday! I also need to apologize for some of the atrocious spelling and grammar at the end of Monday’s post, I should not write blog posts while exhausted. Oops! Hope you enjoyed!