Pineapple Nails

I love pineapples.  I love how sweet they are.  I love the crowns they have on their tops.  I love their shape.  Painting pineapples on my nails have been a nail art bucket list item for me for over two years and when I was invited to a Hawaiian-themed birthday party I knew they'd be perfect.  For this design, I was inspired by the pineapple nails that Elle & Ish did a couple of years ago.

On my nails I'm wearing OPI I Just Can't Cope-acabana, Zoya Talia, and Zoya Purity for my bases.  To create the pineapple I used my dotting tools, OPI I Just Can't Cope-acabana, China Glaze Desert Sun, and Kiko 391.  The chevrons were done using nail vinyls and Zoya Talia over Zoya Purity.  A few gold stars and some top coat later and this manicure was ready to party.

Bonus?  I matched my nails to the pineapple shirt I was wearing.  #AllPineappleEverything

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Neon Leopard Nails

I've been wanting to do neon leopard nails for ages, and today's the day.  I love how bright these turned out!

I used Zoya Purity for my base and Sally Hansen Black Out as the accents around the leopard colors, plus my trusty dotting tools to make the leopard prints themselves.  For the rest of the colors I used China Glaze neons: China Glaze Splish Splash, China Glaze I'm With the Lifeguard, China Glaze Sun-Kissed, China Glaze Love's a Beach, and China Glaze Hang-Ten Toes (on my thumb).

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Holly

I like how reverse stamping looks, but I don't always like how long it takes to create the images.

For this manicure I used I Love Nail Polish Juliette as my base.  I created the holly decals using the holly and ivy image from MoYou London's Festive Collection plate 03 using Mundo de Unas 1 White, Zoya Hunter, and China Glaze Ruby Pumps.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, had a very shiny nose!  It's all holiday nails all the time now and this week's flashback Friday is no exception.

For this manicure I used OPI My Vampire is Buff as my base, then used Zoya Sookie and Orly Lucky Duck to create the red and green chevrons.  My reindeer was created using Zoya Chanelle, Sally Hansen Black Out, Zoya White Out, and China Glaze Ruby Slippers.

Graveyard Nails

I did my friend's nails for Halloween and this is the design I did.  A lovely gradient with China Glaze Sweet Hook, China Glaze Gothic Lolita, and China Glaze Crimson, topped with a vinyl from What's Up Nails and Sally Hansen Black Out.

Fall Colors

There is something about shades of purple and gold that say Fall colors to me.  I found some nail vinyls in my polish drawer and wanted to use them today.  For my polishes I used OPI Love.Angel.Music.Baby, OPI Anti-Bleak, and China Glaze Crimson.

Scarecrow Nails

I'm definitely in a fall mood these days.  Please enjoy these scarecrow nails; design from My Polished Wonderland.

Polishes used: OPI My Vampire is Buff, Zoya Emilia, Zoya Hunter, OPI The "It" Color, China Glaze Lemon Fizz, and Sally Hansen Black Out.

China Glaze Trendsetter

Do you ever have one of those colors you just don't know how to wear?  I've had Trendsetter since 2011 but it has stayed in my untrieds this whole time.  Finally, I came across this cardigan and my whole word changed.  Suddenly I had something that would match Trendsetter!  I put together an outfit, did up my nails, and wore it all together.  

I'm wearing on my nails two coats on China Glaze Trendsetter.  It's sort of an ugly mustard yellow-green with a slight hint of shimmer.  

Happy Birthday

Happy birthday to me!  For my birthday manicure, I copied this manicure from Paulina's Passion.

I started with a three-coat base of Bourjois Bleu Model.  Across the lower third of my nail I painted two coats of Zoya Sweet, a bubble-gum pink.  The pink accent stripes were added using Orly Flirty and a dotting tool.  For the white frosting I used Wet n Wild Wild Shine French White Crème and the cherry was made with China Glaze Salsa.  To create the sprinkles I used OPI What's With the Cattitude?, China Glaze Sweet Hook, Ruby Wing Gypsy, and Essie Tart Deco.

Moar Leopard

A different type of accent to share this morning.  I usually do a leopard accent but surprise!  It's a solid color accent nail.

For my leopard nails I used three coats of OPI My Vampire is Buff, then added the spots using China Glaze Call of the Wild and Sally Hansen Black Out.  For my red accent nail I used two coats of Zoya Sooki.

Leopard Accent

I was feeling frisky and decided that the perfect way to display that would be for a bright blue leopard accent.  I color coordinate almost all my manicures, so the perfect outfit accompaniment for me was was bright blue top paired with a black cardigan.

For my blue I used two coats of China Glaze Blue Year's Eve.  For my accent nail I used three coats of OPI My Vampire is Buff, then used a dotting tool to create the leopard print using Blue Year's Eve and Sally Hansen Black Out.

Let's Go Brewers

Today I'm off to a Milwaukee Brewer's game at Miller Park.  I can't go to a baseball game without doing my nails in the color of the team I'm supporting so luckily BadAss Polish made it really easy for me to have Brewers nails anytime I want with her Brew Crew glitter topping polish.  If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen this picture I posted when I was going to a game earlier in the year.

On my nails today is two coats of China Glaze Pelican Gray on my main fingers and three coats of Zoya Snow White on my accent nail.  If I wasn't using a glitter topper I'd have used three coats of Pelican Gray for complete coverage.  On my main fingers I dabbed two coats of BadAss Polish Brew Crew.  Brew Crew is made up of large gold hexagonal glitter pieces, large blue square glitter, medium white hexagonal glitter, small blue hexagonal glitter, and then tiny specks of gold glitter.  On my accent nail I stamped baseballs using Color Club Cold Metal and Konad plate m52 and the word baseball using Konad Special Polish in Black and Konad plate m52.

Go Brewers!

Dotted Accent

Another dotted accent nail.  I like doing dots on my accent nails.  It's a really fast, really simple to add a bit of flair to an otherwise simple manicure.

I'm wearing two coats of Catrice Dirty Berry on the majority of my fingers with OPI Fly on my accent nail.  Under Fly I'm using a coat of Seche Vite on top of my base coat to prevent the almost instantaneous staining that comes with wearing Fly.  For the dots I used China Glaze Platinum Silver.

Cherry Blossom Trees

Hi everyone!  As you read this I'm currently in Washington D.C. for a National Sustainability Design Expo sponsored by the EPA.  And I couldn't go to Washington D.C. in the Spring without doing cherry blossom nails even though I'm here a week after the peak bloom and the conclusion of the National Cherry Blossom Festival.  I was really hoping the cold weather could push back the peak bloom for one more week till I arrived.  Maybe next time!  The trees are nice, just no longer in full bloom.  I've done a cherry blossom manicure once before but that was back when I first started blogging so it's a view at your own risk manicure (view able here).

I haven't been able to do much nail art this year, especially free hand, so this was a fun change.  I started off with two coats of China Glaze for Audrey, a full coverage robin egg blue.  It's also my current pedicure color (don't worry, no feet pictures).  I then drew on the tree branches using So Easy Stripe Rite Black.  I don't have much practice with striping brushes but I felt as though going very slowly and carefully was key to being in control of how the final image turned out.

I used two colors for my flowers.  The first was OPI I Think in Pink, a light pink from OPI's 2012 Breast Cancer Awareness Duo.  The second was OPI My Vampire is Buff, a yellow tinted nude from OPI's Spring 2013 Euro Central Collection.  In the center of each flower I placed a small dot using Zoya Dana, a rose pink.  I finished everything off with a healthy coat of Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat.  

What do you think?  Have you done a cherry blossom design before?  

China Glaze Ombre: Grape Expectations

I've been terrible at doing gradients but have always desired to do them.  Gradients look so pretty!  So when China Glaze released their ombre set (or gradient set as I like to call it) I knew I needed to get one.  If I couldn't create a gradient with the help of a kit, there was no saving me.  I bought the purple set: Grape Expectations.

I used two coats of China Glaze Sweet Hook as my base, then arranged the color from lightest to darkest (Sweet Hook, China Glaze Spontaneous, China Glaze Grape Pop, and China Glaze Crimson) on the supplied sponge to create the gradient effect.  Three dabs with the sponge on each nail produced the effect you see here.

Success!  I'm so happy.  :)

Atelopus varius

Atelopus varius

That's the binomial name of the Costa Rican Variable Harlequin Toad and the inspiration for today's manicure.  It's quite the colorful frog, and its easy to see why it is also known as the clown frog.  Sadly, this frog is now critically endangered thanks to temperature fluctuation, changes in precipitation, stream flow patterns, and the transfer of different pathogenic fungus.  Basically, the climate is changing too fast for these little guys to adapt.

I've based my manicure off of the Costa Rican Variable Harlequin Toad shown on the right.  I liked how the bright purple/pink designs stood out against the rest of the frog's body but thought that might be hard to duplicate on the nails.  If I was going to paint over a black base I would need to lay down something like a white so that the brighter color would starkly contrast.

At first I tried a white onto black splatter but the spray pattern was too varied and clumpy to look anything like the frog's.  The next method I tried was stamping a white pattern down and tracing over it.  This method proved to be the most feasible and reproducible in the long run.

One coat of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Black Out then stamped with Konad plate m70 and Konad Special Polish in White.  Traced over using a small dotting tool and China Glaze Beach Cruise-R.  It was a lot more work than I was hoping for but I believe the results were worth it.

Super Bowl XLVII Manicure

I had grand, grand plans for my super bowl manicure this year.  Unfortunately, my plans didn't quite work out.  I'm sort of stuck in my graduate research lab all weekend trying to get more data for a grant update but I brought a bunch of polishes along to do my nails with.  One of the polishes turned out to be an absolute nightmare to work with.  I wanted to create water marbles for each team playing today, but I was trying to use Zoya Ziv.  Ziv is a gorgeous warm gold flake glitter polish but absolutely not pleasant to work with because of the larger particle size that is inherent with flakie glitter.  Despite my problems I managed to get something resembling a water marble on all my fingers.

I used two coats of Zoya Snow White for a base polish, then added one coat of Zoya Ziv on top before beginning the marble.

My left, San Francisco 49ers hand:

Here I used China Glaze Salsa and Zoya Ziv.

My right, Baltimore Ravens hand:

Water marbling here used Zoya Mira, Sally Hansen Black Out, Zoya Snow White, and Zoya Ziv.

My hands together are locked in  eternal struggle...until the game concludes and a winner emerges tonight.

Happy Super Bowl XLVII! What are you wearing today?

A Little Dotting

Just a nice simple dotting manicure.  I picked up the blue last summer and I hadn't worn it till now.  It's actually a rather nice color.  A good, deep blue color.  Navy I would call it.  I haven't done much other than wear plain colors, that stamping manicure from last week was the first nail art I'd done in a month.

For my base I used two coats of China Glaze First Mate.  It's almost a one-coater but I went with two out of habit.  I then added dots of Zoya Ziv in a very simple pattern.  I'm not usually one for gold but I bought Ziv on a whim during their recent promotion.  I'm glad I did, navy and gold go very well together.

Psst - the winner of my Darling Nails Thank You giveaway was announced this morning here.

Houndstooth Design

I was inspired for this manicure by the coat of one of my coworkers (similar to this one but no fur).  It's nice khaki colored coat covered in a houndstooth design so I've adapted it for my nails.  My quite nubby nails.

I used two coats of China Glaze Kalahari Kiss for my base than stamped the houndstooth image from Bundle Monster plate BM-322 using Konad Special Polish in White.  I have two houndstooth image plates, one is MASH plate 63 and this one; they're two different sizes.  I think the MASH plate is more like a puppystooth than a houndstooth since it's so little compared to the Bundle Monster one.  I'm much more a fan of the larger Bundle Monster plate.  Which size do you prefer?

Where's My Chauffer

To me, nothing says winter more than a blue and silver polish combination.  I've been stalking Target looking for the new Essie winter collection which contains a gorgeous opulent turquoise: Where's My Chauffeur. Finally I found it at a Target 90 miles from my apartment; it was mine!

To spice this manicure up a little I used two coats of a silver top coat from Avon Markwins on my accent nail over one coat of Where's My Chauffeur.  I don't know the name of the polish but it's basically just silver microglitter.

On the rest of my nails I'm sporting three coats of Essie Where's My Chauffeur.   I found the formula on Where's My Chauffeur to be rather disappointing.  It was streaky like I've found in a lot of other Essie polishes but the beautiful color helps make up for it.  The formula wasn't so terrible that I've considered getting rid of it already so that's a plus.