Green March Mani: Day 10

Today is my last day of green manis for March. I had one mani that nevTer was posted and an idea for another that was never made, but overall I think it was a good return to blogging! I plan to continue blogging as I enjoy it. A new computer that cooperates certainly makes it easier :) I do need to make an effort to interact with other blogs though.

Anyway, onto the mani!

The base for this mani is Painted Polish Moss Meditation. She makes gorgeous polishes, especially one coat cremes that also stamp! Moss Meditation is an army green ultra holographic with flakes. Because of this, you will get some golden effect in the polish that is simply stunning. It applies really nicely in 2 coats.

Green March Mani: Day 9

This is a simple mani, but I really love how it turned out!

I started with a base with ManGlaze Nawsome Sauce. Then I stamped on a floral design from Born Pretty Store plate BPL-024. I didn't add top coat to keep the design matte.

Despite no top coat, it lasted surprisingly long!

Green March Mani: Day 8

I meant to have this post up earlier this week, but I've been suuuupper sick. According to the urgent care doctor today, I had the flu last week which then improved Friday/Saturday and then turned into a sinus infection. Yuck! The sinus pressure is insane right now and making me a bit dizzy so I'll keep this short :)

For this mani, I used Zoya Chita and KBShimmer How You Dune?

Since Chita is a textured polish and does not require top coat, for the accent fingers I did a complete mani with How You Dune? (base coat, polish, and top coat). Once that was I dry, I freehanded the v-shape on top with Chita.

Green March Mani: Day 7

Hello! I had planned to post over this weekend, but this weekend was pretty rough for me emotionally so I was basically in survial mode. But I'm feeling tons better today, and I'm here with a new green mani for March.

Today's mani is my St. Patrick's Day mani. I went all out with the green polishes here.

I started with a base of Zoya Jace.

On my index and pinkie nails, I did a gradient using NYX Girls Emerald Forest.

On my ring finger, I used a black and a gold polish to freehand a belt design for a leprechaun costume. 

On my middle finger, I stamped some shamrocks using Zoya Wyatt and Bundle Monster plate BM-XL27.

Green March Mani: Day 6

For today's green March Mani, I just went with a simple swatch. The color is gorgeous though so it's totally great on its own!

This polish is Zoya Yara. It's from the Fall 2011 collection, but it is still available on Zoya's website so no worries!

The formula is wonderful. It goes on in 2 smooth, easy coats. It's an army/olive green with fine gold glitter throughout. The glitter is very fine so no need for a super thick top coat.

Green March Mani: Day 5

For today's mani, I was inspired by @kimiko7878 on Instagram. She's pretty amazing, and you should definitely follow her if you don't already!

I am nowhere as talented as she is, but I did try my best with this mani. For some reason, my long 5 petaled flowers always turn out a bit goofy.

For this mani, I used two different green polishes: Zoya Cece and Nfu-Oh 66.

I used Zoya Cece on my index and pinkie nails as well as for the floral accents on my ring nail. I used Nfu-Oh 66 on my thumb and ring nails. It's super holographic, but it's one of those old school holos so it can pull the color when you're applying it. Still gorgeous!

Green Mani March: Day 4

For today's green March mani, I am just featuring one polish, and I didn't even add nail art to it!

Zoya Merida is a gorgeous scattered holographic polish. It went on beautifully in two coats. The formula is really nice too so it goes on super smoothly. I had minimal cleanup to do.

Green Mani March: Day 3

Happy Friday!!!! How did your week go?
Mine was not the greatest. I am not going to get into it here, but this weekend promises to be better!

Anyway, this post is a bit later than I wanted it to be because of the previously mentioned bad week.

Today's green mani for March features just one green polish, Glam Polish Evanora.

Since Evanora isn't super opaque, I couldn't just sponge it on. Instead, I painted about 2/3rd of my nail black. Then I painted the upper third using Evanora and dragged some of the polish down to create a gradient effect.

I really like how this mani turned out, and it was easy too!

Green Mani March: Day 2

Welcome to day 2 of my green mani theme for March.

I love doing skittles style manis. I tend to stick to simpler skittles designs which means they are usually pretty fast to do. They also use quite a few polishes which is great because I don't like having untrieds (it spikes my anxiety!) plus I can feature a couple at a time which is especially great for larger collections!

Today's mani features 3 green polishes (and 1 non-green polish).

For this mani, I used Barry M Black Pistachio, China Glaze Re-fresh Mint, and Dollish Polish 1-Up.

Barry M Black Pistachio is a very dark green polish. It looks almost black, especially in my photos since I took them on a cloudy day.

China Glaze Re-fresh Mint is a super light, dusty mint green. I was expecting 3 coats, but it went on in just 2!

Dollish Polish 1-Up is, I believe, discontinued. It's most green hex glitters with some white matte hex glitters and white matte bar glitter. Any other glitter polish would work with this look as well. This mani is a great way to feature any glitter polish you have.

Green Mani March: Day 1

So it's been over 3 years since I have posted to this blog. But I've decided to return! I enjoy sharing my nail art and have enjoyed posting to my blog in the past. I'm really hoping to make this a regular thing again.

For my first post back, I'm starting a new series! I'm not sure if I've talked about it here in the past, but I absolutely love green nail polish. It's one of my favorite colors to wear, and I own quite a few shades in various finishes. Not as many as some though :) I tend toward minimalism a bit so I try to keep my collection down.

Since I love green polish and March makes me think of green with St. Patrick's day and spring, I'll be focusing on my love of green polishes this month.

This first mani uses OPI Don't Mess with OPI and Cupcake Polish Delishiously Jaded.

OPI Don't Mess with OPI is a pretty old polish and is from the 2011 Texas Collection. You could use another green creme polish if you wanted.

Cupcake Polish Delishiously Jaded is a gorgeous holographic green polish. It almost covered in one coat too! It also apparently has a blue shift, but I was blinded by the holo.

I used both of these to create this simple mani. The half moon element was freehanded.

If you're reading this, I welcome you back to my blog! I've still been lurking around Facebook and Instagram. I'd also love links to new blogs you think I should follow!

Halloween Nail Art: Leopard Print and Stripes

I love leopard print nail art! It's such an easy go to design for me and you can really have fun. I did some for 4th of July this year so decided to do a Halloween version! 

I used almost all OPI polishes for this mani: My Boyfriend Scales Walls, Chop-sticking to My Story, and Don't Mess With OPI. The black is my standard Wet n Wild Black Creme. I used nail vinyls from Nailvinyls.com for the striped nail. Everything is topped with Essie Matte About You

Fresh and Funky

Just a quick post today! I've got a little back log of manis and this is one of them.

This is Fresh Paint Square Candy (3 coats) which is a bright green jelly polish topped with a Funky Fingers Teen Spirit.

Both polishes are from 5 Below.

Zoya Bevin Roses

My tea bag patch just wasn't working. The corner of my nail was super weak and it just wasn't holding so I'm down to nubs. I still have a tear low on the side that I'm trying to keep patched, but that's not working well.

I love flower manis. I don't know what it is about them, but they are just so beautiful!

I decided to use Zoya Bevin for the base of this in order to continue my quest of reusing polishes.

The roses are mostly Zoya Sooki though I mixed it with white and black to add details.

I'm playing around with lighting. These photos were taken at night using direct and diffused artificial light. I gotta play more, but I still think I'm a fan of natural light.

And bonus! Here's a pedi I did. The purple and blue are Zoya Kieko and Zoya Breezi respectively.

Monday Mani: Different Color on Each Nail

In the past, I've mentioned Monday Manis at Polish-Aholics Anonymous on Facebook. Well, they've been coming back!

This week, the voted in theme is to have every nail be a different color. We agreed that it only needed to be each nail on one hand, not all ten digits.

I had a few ideas in mind and had a hard time narrowing it down.

I ended up going with a mani using only (well, mostly) ManGlaze polishes. Starting at the thumb, the colors are Santorum, Fuggen Ugly, Fatty's Got More Blood, Nawsome Sauce, and ILF. The dots are Barry M Gold Foil. 

When I did this mani, I used the matte sandwich technique to help it last longer.

I applied two coats of each matte polish, then one coat of Rica Glossy Glam. Let dry. Then apply one more coat of your matte polish. I wore this mani for only two days, but I only had a tiny chip. That's good wear time for a matte mani and for me as well! I'm super hard on my nails.

And here's a bonus pedi I did.

Lime Crime neon polka dot skittles

My titles feel boring to me. How does everyone else come up with titles for their blog posts?

The inspiration for tons mani comes from the photo below. The watermark says linda165, but upon searching Instagram I find the proper name is @linda165_yt

I didn't have the exact colors she used. I've got a couple untrieds, and I hate having polishes go used so I decided to combine my new Lime Crime Pastelchio along with old love Lime Crime Peaches <3 Cream.

For my index finger, I used two coats of OPI Push and Shove followed by OPI Crown Me Already. The white base is my go-to white, Wet n Wild French White Creme.

I topped it all off with Rica Glossy Glam. After it dried, I added a coat of Essie Matte About You.

I had less issues with Glossy Glam this time. No smearing nail art (I floated the top coat better). I did have a TON of shrinkage on my nails with French White Creme as the base. But the Lime Crime hands were fine. It just must not like Wet n Wild.

Anyone try Glossy Glam? What are your thoughts?

June Nail Art Challenge, Day 22: Tropical

How was everyone's weekend? We went to Greek Festival yesterday and ate some yummy food. Also picked up some delicious frozen custard at a place we don't get to very often since it's far away.

Today my husband and I got some time away while my parents watched T. We hit up some sushi :) It was very yum!!

Today's theme is tropical, and I tried to not be super traditional (sunset with palm tree which I've done anyway).

For this mani, I first painted one coat of Wet n Wild French White Creme. You need 2 for it to be opaque, but I just needed a base for my gradient to pop.

Then I sponged on Sinful Colors Dream On and Rise and Shine. Next I added a thin layer of China Glaze Fairy Dust.

Then I stamped a flower from Bundle Monster BM318 using Konad White.

China Glaze floral skittle mani

Hello! Anyone have any fun plans for the weekend? Tomorrow we're heading to our state capitol in Madison. They do a wonderful farmer's market right around the Capitol Square. Then we'll hit up the free zoo there. The weather is looking to be nice so I can't wait to go! Sunday we're going to do lunch somewhere and then maybe a little shopping at a children's resale shop. Our little guy could use some more summery clothes.

I did this mani as part of a hashtag on Instagram called mani swap. The premise is that you and another Instagram-er pick a mani of the other person's and recreate it. Then you post a collage of all 4 manis. Be sure to check out my Instagram for my inspiration as well as the recreated mani.

I used all China Glaze polishes to create this look. The colors are For Audrey, Exotic Encounters, and White on White. The roses themselves are acrylic paint while the leaves are polish. 

Royal Madness Flowers

Normally I don't stick to seasonality in regards to polish colors. However, for me flowers really are a spring/summer MAYBE even fall thing. I love doing simple dotted flower manis too, and they've become a sort of go-to for me.

For this flower mani, I first used a base of Revlon Royal. Then I dotted on flowers (I tried to do some different sizes) with Essie Mojito Madness (that's where I tried to get creative with the title of today's post....not quite sure it worked). The white is my go-to, Wet N Wild French White Creme.

Sally Girl Brainy

When I went to Sally Beauty a bit ago, I browsed their Sally Girl mini polishes. They have some neat colors sometimes, and they're only like $1 or so.

When I saw Sally Girl Brainy, I KNEW I needed it because it looks just like Deborah Lippmann Mermaid Dream.

I used two coats for this mani, I think (it's been awhile). I also used Barry M Gold Foil and nail vinyls for the details. I loved how it turned out, and the wear time was pretty good too!

St Patrick's Day: water marble and holo goodness

Here's another St. Patrick's Day mani that I did. It's also my last one so it's fitting that I'm showing you today.

I continued with my "theme" of not doing traditional designs but rather just sticking with green polish (which I LOVE!).

I've got Nfu-Oh 66 on my thumb, index, and pinkie fingers.

On my middle and ring fingers, I did a base of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls. I water marbled on top of that using OPI Don't Mess With OPI, SpaRitual Eye of the Beholder, and a tiny bit of Zoya Bevin.