Leopard Print Valentine's Day Nail Art

Happy Valentine's Day!!! Are you doing anything special? We're not. It's a weeknight, and my husband works until late like usual. Oh well!

I did do some fun nails for today inpsired by @mayasnailart.

For my base, I went old school with OPI Canberra'T Without You, but any nude polish would work. I really like this one because of the super subtle gold shimmer (check on the last macro shot).

natural lighting

Valentine's Day Hearts | Zoya Everly

Valentine's Day is fast approaching. Do you celebrate? My husband and I like to have a nice dinner out, but we usually try for sometime during February. The date isn't super important :)

Today, I have a quick and sweet Valentine's Day theme manicure that I did.

I used Zoya Everly from the new Winter Holos collection for my base. After applying top coat and letting it fully dry, I used heart decals and Zoya Isla to complete my accent nail.

Everly has that formula that Zoya has in all their holographics. It went on easily in two coats and was easy to remove.

Valentine's Day: Pink and Grey

Just a quick post today. I have company coming over today, tomorrow, and Monday plus we're going out tomorrow and Sunday! Hence the crappy cuticles because I've been cleaning, though my husband did do quite a bit last night while I was sleeping as a Valentine's Day gift.

Rimmel Grey Matter

Zoya Shelby

Wet n Wild French White Creme

Valentine's Day: Skittle mani

I'm not a huge fan of how this turned out, but I'll share it anyway.

I did a base of Wet N Wild French White Creme. On my thumb and pinkie, I added a coat of Wet n Wild Sparked, a pink glitter. It's pretty, but I wish it was more dense.

On the other fingers, I added two coats of Lynderella Mon Petit Chou Chou. It's soooo sheer! This is layered over white, and you can see how sheer it still looks. Not a fan.

I used Migi Nail Art Pens to do the details on my ring finger.

This mani came off the next day. It just didn't work for me.

Valentine's Day: Cupid

I plan on trying to do as many Valentine's Day manis as I can before the day! I might post a few after because I have soooo many ideas!

This is the mani I'm currently wearing, but I have another that I did earlier this week that I'll post over the weekend. Then I'm hoping to fit in two more: one for next week and one for the actual day of (or rather the day after since my husband works on Valentine's Day and we're gonna go out the next day while my amazing mom watches our wee one).

Anyway, onto this mani! I've mentioned the Baby Center group before, and our threadly challenge was to do nail transfers. They could be simple store bought stickers/decals or you could make your own using the freezer bag/parchment paper/page protector method. I chose to make my own using the advanced stamping method.

I used all Zoya polishes for this other than my stamping polish. I started with a base of Zoya Dove and added the hearts/dots using Zoya Sooki (red), Zoya Shelby (pink), and Zoya Kieko (purple).

To do the stamp, I started the process like normal using Konad Black and Cheeky Jumbo 3 (European Romance). I left the stamp on my stamper and let it dry for a bit. Then I carefully filled in the hearts and let that dry. Next I added a thick layer of top coat and let it dry for probably about 2 hours. After applying my base coat on my nails and letting it dry a bit, I gently peeled my stamp off the stamper, trimmed it, added top coat to my nail, applied the decal and gently pushed it down! Whew! I cleaned up the edges (very easy with acetone and a small brush since it's all nail polish), and added more top coat. It sounds hard, but it was pretty easy!

With having a baby, this was easy to do since the process could be easily spread out. I definitely plan on using this technique more!

Valentine's Day: Leopard Skittle

I've been really wanting to do a Valentine's Day leopard print, more specifically a heart shaped one. I decided to skittle it up on this mani.

A friend of mine lent me her gel system to use as well so I did a gel sandwich (gel bad coat and cure, regular polish and top coat, dry overnight, gel top coat and cute). I'll post pictures later to show you a wear test :)

I used two coats each of Zoya Keiko (purple) and Zoya Shelby. For my ring finger, I used three coats of Glam Polish Unicorn Sparkles! The black accents were added using Wet n Wild Black Creme.

The 31 Day Challenge is over!! Can you tell I'm excited? I'm so happy that I managed to complete it for a second time, and this time with a new baby!

However, the challenge really wore me out. I have other hobbies (reading, crochet, cooking/baking) that I've neglected a bit during the last month and a half. So I'll be taking a bit of a break from blogging. I guessing it'll be 1-2 weeks total, probably closer to 2.

I'll still be doing my nails during the time, of course! Can't have naked nails! In the meantime, I have shortened up my poor nails a bit and added on Sally Hansen nail strips in Love Letter. The strips were a good easy choice (though I did some some problems around my cuticles) and perfect for Valentine's Day!

I'll still be around to read blogs and any comments posted here. See you back here in about 2 weeks!

31 Day Challenge, Part 2!: Day 31, Recreate a Manicure

For the final mani of this challenge, I decided to recreate Geeky Owl's Inspired by Fashion mani. I did change things up a bit and still tried to fit in with the Valentine's Day theme I've been rolling with.

My base coat is 2 coats of O.P.I. DS Opulence. It's a very pretty mauve-ish color with some holographic glitter. The color is sort of a neutral color.

I got my glequins from the dollar store. They came in these cute little glass jars and had 8 different colors in a pack. Not bad for a $1! They are pretty tiny though, but I think I like them at this size.

I did different designs on each nail including a cute little heart on the pinkie for Valentine's Day. I think I like how the middle and pinkie fingers turned out best. 

Check out some other recreated manis for the final day of the challenge!

31 Day Challenge, Part 2!: Day 29, Inspired by the Supernatural

For today's mani, I was originally just going to go with an alien and a spaceship. But since I did a few manis this week with a Valentine's Day theme, I decided to go with alien love for today's mani

I love how super cute this turned out!

I used two coats of Sinful Colors Neptune for the base. The shimmery blue was a perfect not-too-dark space background. The spaceship was done with Barry M Emerald Green. The first alien was created using Sinful Colors Dream On, and I used Sinful Colors Rise and Shine for the other alien. The hearts are Pure Ice Peony. I added in the black and and white details using Rimmel Black Satin and Rimmel French White Nail Tip Liner.

Check out some other far out manis inspired by the supernatural below.

31 Day Challenge, Part 2!: Day 27, Inspired by Artwork

I decided to continue the Valentine's Day theme and was excited when I found this piece of art by Robert Indiana called "Classic Sky Love." I've seen this artwork before and thought it would fun to do as a mani!

Source: Art.com

I started with a base of Essie Mojito Madness.

The rest of the mani was done with acrylic paint. I should have done a second coat on the red, but I really do love the way this turned out!! I stayed turn to the artwork, and I love the pop effect.

Check out other manis inspired by artwork below.

31 Day Challenge, Part 2!: Day 26, Inspired by a Pattern

For today's challenge, I really wanted to do something with heart since Valentine's Day is coming up soon. So off to Google Images I went!  I found this pattern with pink hearts on a grey back ground and loved it!

Source: Dreamstime

I started with a base coat of Rimmel Grey Matter. I really like this polish because I love the color, the Rimmel brush, and its fast dry time.  I added the hearts using acrylic paint.

Check out other manis inspired by patterns below.

Monday Mani: Love me, love me not

At Polish-aholics Anonymous this week's Monday Mani theme is Love me, love me not.

I used 2 coats of Savvy Ruby Slippers for the base coat.  The Xs and Os were Rimmel White Nail Tip Liner and the hearts were Pure Ice Peony.

Stamping Sunday: Valentine's Day

Over at Adventures in Stamping, we chose Valentine's Day as our theme for Stamping Sunday.

The base coat is 2 coats China Glaze Light as Air followed by 1 thick coat Kleancolor Midnight Seduction.

I stamped using BM 202 and Rimmel Wild Orchid (the big heart) and Mash 17 and Sinful Colors Amethyst (the heart trio).

This mani didn't really dry despite using Seche Vite plus I didn't like it too much so I just wiped it off after I took pictures. Looking at these pictures though, I like it a lot better.

ELF Metal Madness and neon pink hearts

My husband and I are headed out tonight for an early Valentine's dinner so of course I had to do my nails!

I've been trying to use my untried polish first so I choose 2 colors I haven't used yet.

For the base coat, I used ELF Metal Madness.

This picture was taken at night using flash. It's a dark grey color with this beautiful, almost holographic glitter, spread throughout. The polish went on wonderfully. I had almost no cleanup to do.

For the hearts, I used Cosmo Wild Thing. It is a neon pink polish that was offered as a summer giveaway through Cosmopolitan magazine.  The color is more of a true neon pink in the bottle, but layered it over the grey lends this sort of reddish-orange quality to it.

Well, I've gotta run! Have to get ready for our date!