Nail Design: Christmas Skittle

The first day of winter has come and gone and now Christmas is less than 24 hours away! I sketched out a lot of ideas for Christmas nails, but I couldn't decided which to choose. So I decided to combine them into a skittle mani! Aside from a simple Santa suit on my toes last year, this is my first real Christmas design. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I especially love my peppermint nails, which I wasn't sure about right away. Please excuse some of my mess-ups... I need a thinner, smaller brush for detailing.

I'm also not a big fan of the color gold, but I am loving my Zoya polish in "Ziv." It's a gorgeous warm golden color with specks of deeper hues of gold/bronze. I might have to do something on all my nails with it here soon. 

Nail Design: Holiday Waterfall

The magic of Christmas is lingering in the air yet again, which means it's time to try my hand at Christmas/winter themed designs. I've been wanting to pair gold and red for months now, so my color combo birthed from that. I got the idea from the beautiful waterfall designs I always see on The Nailasaurus. I used the tutorial that she has posted. My thinnest brush was still a little too thick, but the idea is the same. At first I didn't like it, but it's grown on me now.

Ignore the tip wear you see below. I wore the red/gold mani for a few days before deciding to do a design over it. I recently switched my top coat from Out the Door to HK Girl, which I am loving! I go days without a single chip, just tip wear.

Anyway, enjoy my first holiday design!

Nail Design: Frankenstein and the Bride

First off, Happy Halloween!

I finally spared some time to whip up a fun design! Aside from simple spider webs on my toes, I've never done a Halloween themed design. I had quite a bit of fun doing these and I love the end result. My Cinderella hand has a few mishaps, but nothing big enough to keep me from loving this design. 

I present Frankenstein and the bride!

Nail Design: Green Reverse-Gradient Leopard

A little over a week ago I saw a mani on Instagram by ModNails and knew immediately I had to recreate it. The mani that inspired me can be found here. I'm loving gradients right now and leopard print is always fun...and easy. So when I saw this reverse-gradient look, it was love at first sight! The hardest part was deciding on what colors to use. I changed my mind quite a few times, but eventually settled on a subtle green gradient. I definitely think I'll be giving this another go in the near future. Perhaps next time I'll pick two colors with more contrast.

I love everything about this mani, but I think I may have blended the two shades together too much. It can a little difficult to see the two colors. I was afraid I would get a harsh line, but I think after I completed the leopard print it would have appeared less harsh. I still love it, though! 

Photographing this mani was difficult! I couldn't, for the life of me, get the true colors to show through. The first picture is the closest to their true color, compared to the other photos taken with my camera. The second photo was taken with my iPhone, which shows off the gradient effect better than the rest.

Nail Design: Neon Gradient Stripes

Man was this a tedious mani! This one involved a few "first" for me. My first time doing stripes with tape, using my new sponges, and doing a neutral/neon combo! I've been wanting to use this color combination for quite some time, but couldn't decide how I wanted to execute it. 

I cut up some painters tape to make my stripes, which took more time than I expected. Aside from that though, it wasn't too difficult. In fact this mani was pretty simple, it just took a lot of time and patience. I also bought new sponges awhile back to use for gradients and they work much better than my old ones. 

I didn't want all the stripes to go in the same direction, so I did a mix of horizontal and vertical stripes. In the end I loved the vertical ones, but not so much the horizontal. Guess I'll know for next time!

Immediately after I applied my top coat, I bumped my left hand, which is my best hand, and it smudged the design in a few spots. However, I was able to pose my hands just right so the glare helped hide the smudge. ;)

Nail Design: Ikat Pattern

I've been seeing so many great ikat nail designs lately so I decided to give it a shot myself. The process was actually a lot more simple than I expected. I made a few mistakes that I'll keep in mind if I ever re-do this mani, but that won't be any time soon. I'm just not in love with my nails this go-around. I always find myself looking down at my nails when I paint them, however with this mani I never looked at them. There were countless times when I forgot they were even painted.

I also used a sharpie to draw the black lines. I've been wanting to test out a sharpie for awhile now and this was a great opportunity to do so. While I liked the ease of using a marker rather than polish, I won't be making it a regular habit any time soon. I just don't like the way it turned out.

I debated whether or not I would do a blog post for this design simply because of my lack of interest. However, it's been awhile since I've posted anything new so I went ahead and put together this blog post.

Nail Design: Fourth of July

America's birthday is right around the corner and you know what that means! A red, white, and blue design! Fourth of July actually happens to be my favorite holiday, too. I decided to stray away from anything star related. I instead went with the idea of stripes, but in dot form. This was my end result, which I love.

Nail Design: Purple Flowers

I've never used acrylic paint on my nails before, but it's something I've been wanting to try out. I thought a floral design would be a great design to test out some acrylics. It was easier to blend the colors with paint, than with polish. However, it seemed to dull the shine of my top coat. Either way, I will definitely be using acrylic paint more often. At first I wasn't that thrilled with the color combination, but it grew on me quickly. I could not stop staring at my nails!

Fortunately, I was able to snap some photos before two of my nails broke. It wasn't long before they became little nubs again.

Nail Design: Chevron Half Moon

I'm a couple days late posting this, but here is my current mani. This is probably my favorite to date. I tried to do this same design a couple weeks ago with red and black, but I messed it up. So, I decided to give it another go and boy am I glad! I used painters tape for the gold area, followed by a small brush for the white outline. Last time when I attempted this I removed the tape too soon which smudged the triangle. This time around I waited a little longer for the polish to get tacky before I removed the tape. I'm in love with this color combination!

The first few pictures were taken outside, without use of flash.

Nail Design: Purple Marble

I've been wanting to do a marble/swirl effect for awhile now, but I never quite mastered the water marble technique. However, I came across a different and much easier way to achieve the same sort of look. I used a tutorial by MissJenFABULOUS on YouTube, which can be found here. For the most part it was very easy, but clean up was a bitch! 

The first few pictures were taken indoors, with flash.

Nail Design: Simple Blue Leopard Accent

Man oh man has it been a crazy two weeks. Last week I was overwhelmed with studying for finals and packing, and this week I've been cleaning and unpacking. Not to mention my nails got destroyed during everything, so they're back down to nubs. I made an attempt to do something more complicated but it turned out terrible and I wound up taking it off before I even finished it. So instead I decided to do a simple two-toned leopard print on my thumb and ring finger. 

I took the photos after a day of wear and tear on them, so please ignore the scuffs! I also just started a nail only Instagram account! Feel free to follow me, it's @nailentine. 

I used China Glaze "First Mate" and Sally Hansen "Breezy Blue"

Nail Design: Pink & White Snakeskin

I decided to do another stamping plate design. I've been wanting to give this snakeskin design a try and I actually love the way it turned out! Although a few of them are off centered or slanted, I'm pleased with how it turned out. .The color looks a bit purple-pink in the photos, but in reality it's a vibrate, neon pink. It's lighter than the photos as well. I just had a difficult time capturing the correct color, despite my numerous lighting options. All of the photos were taken under florescent lighting, without flash. 

Nail Design: Spring Flowers

Now that spring has finally decided to arrive, I felt like doing a flower design on my toes. It's a simple one I learned how to do years ago with a toothpick. I chose a coral/salmon color that actually happens to be my favorite polish I current own. It appears more orange in the photos than it does in real life, but the color is so beautiful! Not to mention perfect for spring weather.

Nail Design: Autism Awareness Blue Gradient

You've probably heard that April is Autism Awareness month. Last year 1 in 88 children were diagnosed with Autism and it continues to rise. That's more than children diagnosed with aids, diabetes, and cancer combined. In order to help shine some light of awareness on this disability, people have been painting their nails blue. If you're interested here's a video that really helps put all of this into prospective.

As my way of spreading awareness about Autism I decided to do a blue gradient. This is the second time I've attempted a gradient. The first time was awful and I wound up taking it off the next day. While this attempt turned out much better than the first, I still made several mistakes. I don't like the makeup sponge I was using, so I might look into getting something different.

The first two photos below are in indirect, natural sunlight.

Nail Design: Mixed Zebra Stamp

The weather has been so nice lately, that I felt like doing a spring-y design. Originally I had planned on doing a freehand floral design, but I wound up going with this black and white zebra pattern instead. I used the BM 223 stamping plate. You might notice that there are a few flaws because this is the first time I've done a full nail stamp.

It didn't turn out how I had hoped. The second I applied the top coat, the white faded into the green. So rather than standing out as white, it turned into a lighter green. Unless you look up-close, it just looks like black patches of zebra pattern. I'm just glad I took picture as soon as I did, because they started chipping a few hours later!

Nail Design: Gold & Orange Blend

If you don't like toes or seeing nail designs on toes, then turn away now! I do most of my designs on my toe nails, rather than my finger nails. Not only is it a lot more simple, but it always last longer than it would on my nails. I hate nothing more than taking the time to do a design, then watch it chip away within a few days.

Unfortunately, I cannot give credit to anyone for this design. However, I certainly did not come up with it on my own. I first saw it on Pinterest, but it didn't have a watermark and the post didn't lead to anyone's blog.

For both the dots and stripes, I used a tooth pick.

Swatch & Review: Julep Nail Color

I recently signed up to be a Julep Maven and received my first box about a week ago. I'm signed up for the It-Girl Maven box simply because you get three polishes, unlike the other boxes. I used a coupon which allowed me to received my first box for only $4, rather than the usual $20.

The first color I tried out was "Oscar"

Swatch & Review: Essie "Mint Candy Apple"

I've been on the search for a perfect mint green and decided to give this a try. It appears more blue than green, which is a shame. However, I absolutely fell in love with the color once I applied it. It compliments my skin tone perfectly, which is a sure way to my heart. Out of all the polishes I've worn, I've gotten more compliments on this one by far. I mean just look at it, it's perfect!

While my search for the perfect mint green continues, I'm quite happy with this turnout.

Nail Design: Pink & Purple Hearts

I'm a little late on posting this... Okay, maybe more than a little! This is the design I did about a month ago for Valentine's Day. This is the first successful manicure I've done using stamping plates.

I used the BM-202 plate for the hearts. You'll also notice I had freshly trimmed nubbins when I did this. 

Nail Design: Neutral Polka-Dot

My first nail post!

This is a simple nail design I did not too long ago. I don't currently own any nail dotting tools so I simply used a tooth pick for the dots.