Mad and Crazy Plaid

I am so excited to show you this nail art! It's a bright and colorful plaid that's perfect for warm weather. The best part is that it looks complicated, but is super easy to do!

Here are the polishes I used: I started with a base of OPI Alpine Snow. It usually takes about one and a half coats, but you'll be covering most of it up anyway. Then I used a new Kiss Nail Artist pack I got waaaay back in winter but have never used. It has blue, purple, and pink. Then I finished it off with some Seche Vite.

So here's how you make the pattern (which I do completely on one hand and then do the other). Paint on you base color and allow it to completely dry. Then choose your first color, which will be under all of the others. I chose the purple because it was the lightest. Then take the brush and paint two vertical lines with plenty of space in between. I also made slightly off-center and then close to the side. Do this on all of your nails on one hand.

Wait a little bit for the color to dry (it won't take long), and paint two horizontal lines with the same color. Basically, you make a tic-tac-toe box. Once it is completely dry, you do the same thing with your next color (I chose blue).

This last part was where I deviated. For the final color, which is usually the most eye-catching (the hot pink in this case), I normally do a big cross, with the vertical line near the side of the nail and the horizontal across the middle. But this pink was too good to waste! I added another vertical line and got an amazingly busy nail art.

If you want to do this mani yourself, I highly recommend the Kiss Nail Artist sets, or something like them. If you don't want to buy those or don't have a striping brush (a really super thin brush), then I suggest using a dotting tool. Remember, you can make your own with sewing and bobby pins!

Manicure Blues (Or Should I Say Purples?)

This manicure is one that turned out much different than I expected. I had a lot of plans for it when I started, but my polishes had a mind of their own.

I originally wanted to do a reverse glitter gradient on my middle and ring fingers. But as you can see, that didn't happen. The glitter was harder to manage than I expected because the clear base is so thick. I had a lot of trouble moving the pieces around. They somehow formed into a point / diamond shape that I really liked.

 

I thought about doing the ring finger with this same design, but decided against it. I wasn't sure I would be able to replicate the shape, and it looked really awesome on the one finger.

My base color is Essie Play Date. I had been wanting another purple for a while, and this one caught my eye. I used A Cut Above from the Essie Luxe Effects top coat collection as a accent on my middle finger. It has metallic pink hex glitter, as well as some small dots of the same color. Finally, I finished with a top coat of SV.

After a few days, I really wasn't happy with this mani. I didn't like how the purple looked (it was much darker than I expected) and it just seemed wrong. At one point I looked at the color and thought, "It's not Easter. I can't wear this now." I took it off after only three days despite minimal chipping.

I decided that A Cut Above is great if you want to cover your whole nail, but if you want to manipulate it you're out of luck. As for Play Date, I think we need some space. Looking back, I think I was just in a bad mood. I felt extremely stressed while I was wearing and may have taken it out on nail polish. Healthy, right?

Striped Chic

Last week I received a very special academic award. It's called the Outstanding Undergraduate Scholar Award, and it's a pretty big deal. You have to have at least a 3.85 to even be considered, then faculty recommendations and personal qualities determine whether you get the award. This year, only seventy-five students (my university has just under 15,000 undergraduates) were honored.

Anyway, I was one of those students and I thought that deserved some special nails. I decided to go with a look I've been wanting to do for a while: stripes.

To create this mani all you need is scotch tape. First you paint your base color, which should be the lightest. I used OPI Tutti Fruti Tonga. Let it dry, add a top coat, apply the tape, and paint on another color. My second color was Essie Master Plan, a gray I absolutely adore (thumbs up if you heard that in an Olsen twin's voice).

I am very excited to tell you about the top coat I used. It's called Seche Vite and I've been trying to get my hands on it for months. You know that I've been searching for a good top coat and this is the one that a lot of nail bloggers flock to, and I can see why. I bought two tiny bottles because they were only $2 and the big bottle was $10.

I really like how this mani turned out. It feels young, but sophisticated. I also can't help but think of elephants when I see the pink and gray. I just love elephants (along with cats, of course).

The striping wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. You just have to make sure that you're precise with your tape. Cutting out all of your tape strips ahead of time helps, too. If you want to try this technique, try this tutorial that I used.

The Girl on Fire

I haven't posted my nail pictures in a while, and this one is especially late. I went to see The Hunger Games (oh my goodness, so many emotions!) and of course I had to do my nails especially for the occasion.

My polish of choice was China Glaze Electrify, which is from the Capitol Colors collection (yes, the highly controversial HG polishes). This gold and red glitter is so amazing. This one is supposed to represent District 5, the power district. I layered it over OPI Thank You Very Muchness and finished with a top coat.

The result was a mani I could not keep my eyes off of. I was constantly checking out my nails because they switched between looking like molten gold and actual fire.

This polish sparkles like no tomorrow. This is a picture of the glitter blurred so you can get more of an idea of how much bling is in it.

It's been a while, but I remember it applying fairly well. I was afraid that the glitter would be very sparse, hence the base color, but it turned out to be quite generous. The polish lasted quite a while, but taking it off was a pain. I found it was better to peel and chip it off myself rather than use nail polish remover. I'm still looking for ways to remove glitter easily.

And in case you didn't realize how much I love The Hunger Games, let me show you what else I wore to the premiere: It's a necklace I got from Etsy and I absolutely love it.

It's a old-fashioned pocket watch with a different HG-related charms. It has the mockingjay with the arrow, Peeta's pearl, and a tree. The finished package is more related to Catching Fire, but definitely still appropriate. I also like that because there are different parts, you wouldn't know it's based on the series at a glance.

Do you like The Hunger Games nail polish? Have you seen the movie? Have you ever bought book/movie inspired jewelry?

"Vintage Minnie Mouse" Combines My Obsessions

Yesterday I gushed to my sister about how much I love nail polish as I bought a new pink (OPI Tutti Frutti Tonga). Now I'll have a few more pinks to buy because OPI has made a line inspired by Minnie Mouse!

 

The limited edition collection, which hits stores in June, features four adorable and sassy shades of pink:
Nothin' Mousie About It - Don’t squeak it – SHOUT IT! This confetti light pink is tops!
If You Moust You Moust - You gotta pink what you gotta pink.
I'm All Ears - Tell me how much you love this magenta shimmer.
The Color of Minnie - You had this little mouse at “red.”

I already know that I want to buy the entire collection, especially Nothin' Mousie About It. That one takes the cake. Hopefully if the collection does well, there will be even more Disney collaborated nail polishes with OPI. Afterall, the success of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and The Muppets probably led to this.

What do you think of Vintage Minnie Mouse?

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A Scandalous Matte Manicure

Today's mani may not be seasonally appropriate (I was watching Harry Potter at the time), but it is very cool. It was also one of the simplest ones I've done in a long time. It took me less than an hour to do my nails!

For my base color I chose Sally Hansen's Xtreme Wear in Black Out. This polish is super cheap, but amazingly pigmented. I only needed one coat. Then I layered on one coat (yes, one!) of Revlon's Scandalous. Then to finish the look, I added a coat of Essie's Matte About You. That's it! Just three easy coats!

Scandalous is an amazing little jelly. It contains magenta micro glitter and hex glitter. I felt like the formula was much better than Whimsical, even though they're essentially the same. I also wasn't worried about getting as much glitter on my nails as possible, although the glitter did come out easier this time.

My nails looked cool with pink-purple glitter over black, but it felt a bit ordinary. I added the matte top coat and oh my goodness, instant love. It made the black look like a chalkboard or tar, and then the glitter took on a whole new look. It gave them a bit of a galaxy feel, which I've been wanting to try.

Would you wear this polish? What other colors should I layer Scandalous over?

Metallic Dots

I did my very first manicure using a dotting tool, and I have to say, I'm pretty happy. I am also proud that I came up with this idea on my own, instead of looking at other manis for inspiration.

The base color is OPI's I Have a Herring Problem, from their Holland collection. Let me tell you, it is so gorgeous! It's a lovely blue-gray with little, itty-bitty shimmers in it. For the dots I used Sally Hansen's Time to Shine, a bronzey-gold, which I also adore.

To make the dots I actually used a sewing pin! I mean, why buy a professional dotting tool when you have things around your house that do the same thing? I just rubbed the rounded end of the pin on the brush, tapped the excess polish onto a piece of paper, and then pressed the polished pin to my nail.

For the design I did four dots in a vertical line on each nail, with five dots on the thumbs. Since I'm new at dotting, they're not all equal, but I still like it. They ended up reminding of jeans because the blue looked like denim with brass buttons. Talk about a fashion mani!

Yay! Essie's Spring Collection

 

Spring is my favorite season. Essie is my favorite brand of nail polish. Therefore, it was pretty much a given that I would love their Spring Collection which is inspired by the "self-made woman." I do.

Are you ready for the colors? Here they are from left to right:

Navigate Her - a light, bright green
A Crewed Interest - a luminous peach shade
To Buy Or Not To Buy -a lavender with shimmer
Tour de Finance - a fuchsia with shimmer
Ole Caliente - a red-orange with pink undertone
Orange, It's Obvious! -a bright orange

I saw these shades in the store, and trust me, they are gorgeous. My favorites are Navigate Her (this green is going to be so popular!), Ole Caliente, and A Crewed Interest is really growing on me. Which shades do you like?

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Essie's Buy Me a Cameo

I bought this polish the other day, and despite having about seven polishes in line ahead of it, I decided to try it out. I absolutely love it!

Buy Me a Cameo is "a frosted satin mocha," but when on it has a champagne feel. It's soft and elegant, and so pretty. I keep looking at my nails and thinking "I could wear this to a wedding."

Consider me on board with the nude nails trend. There's nothing better than buying a new polish and having it instantly become a favorite.

New Polishes!

I stopped by Rite Aid today to pick up a prescription and hair spray. They were out of hair spray, so I got nail polish instead!

The first is Buy Me a Cameo by Essie. It's a "frosted satin mocha" that is very beautiful and sophisticated. It has little tiny multicolored shimmers throughout. I really cannot stop looking at it. It has a hint of champagne and nude, which keeps it away from old lady territory (not that I would have a problem with that). I think what I love the most is that it really does look like satin.

I was going to be good and stop there, but then I noticed that Revlon polishes were 75% off! Naturally, I couldn't resist when I saw Scandalous. It's a black jelly with purple hex glitter pieces and tiny glitters. Unfortunately, it's another Deborah Lippmann dupe (Facets of Fuchsia), so I have buyer's guilt again. However, this polish is so gorgeous it's having trouble sticking to my conscious.

I'll try to wear these as soon as possible!

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Revlon's Whimsical Lives Up to Its Name

A couple of weeks ago I was walking through Wal-Mart's beauty aisle when this polish jumped out at me. So naturally I went, "Ooh!" and bought it.

Whimsical is a light blue with little circles of silver glitter and big blue and pink hex glitter pieces. What was unexpected is that it's a jelly, which means it's meant for layering. I decided to put a thin coat of OPI's Alpine Snow on as a base color and layered four, yes FOUR coats of Whimsical over that.

At the time, I didn't know that Revlon's Whimsical was a straight up copy of Deborah Lippmann's $18 Glitter In The Air. I was just aware of how pretty the polish was. Now that I do know, I feel a little bad.  Anyways, back to my nails. You'd think I would have super thick nails with five coats of polish on, but it's no different than my usual two.

Okay, so what did I think. I love it! The light blue is so cute and while it was a little difficult at first to get the glitter pieces it was totally worth it. I like that you can see some of it buried in the other layers.

This mani feels really fun. As strange as it sounds, it reminds me of eggs. Like, I look at my nails and I think of Easter eggs, robin's eggs, and even dinosaur eggs (I don't quite understand that one myself).

I'll be wearing it a lot in the Spring. And because it's a thin jelly, you can change up the look by simply swapping the base color. I can't wait to try putting different blues and purples underneath. What do you think of Whimsical?

Nail Polish Shopping Spree!

What started out as a quick trip to Ulta for a new top coat turned into a polish extravaganza. Upon realizing that said top coat was out of stock, I proceeded to buy five nail polishes.

The first thing I grabbed was Essie's Matte About You. I've been lusting over this top coat that has the ability to turn glossy nails matte with a single coat.

Next, I looked through the whites. My Sally Hansen Insti-Dri White separated beyond repair, so I needed a new one. I chose OPI's Alpine Snow, which is a straight up pure white.

I Have a Herring Problem is my favorite of the polishes I got. This dusty blue with gold and silver shimmer is from OPI's Holland Collection. It's so pretty!

I wanted a nude color (to hop on the Spring trend), but all of the true nudes looked weird against my fair skin. I ended up going with OPI's Bubble Bath. It has just enough pink to compliment my skin tone.

Finally, I grabbed my first Zoya in years. Edyta is a sparkly, shimmery olive green with a metallic finish. It has itsy bitsy flecks of gold, orange, yellow, and blue. I'll probably break it out during March.

Which one should I try first?!