Blogging break

Hey all! I'm gonna be taking a break from blogging for a bit. I love sharing my manis, but just feel like a disappointment when I don't actually write anything here.

Click the link on the right to follow me on Facebook or I'm @rubytadpole on Instagram.

Gelish Cashmere Kind of Gal

Blah blah blah excuse why I haven't posted blah blah blah.

Sorry everyone, but life gets in the way.

Anyway I did these gel nails last Friday and they lasted well for me with no chipping. When I gave my son a bath tonight though, they all started peeling off. No idea why :/

Base: Gelish Cashmere Kind of Gal (I need three coats and it was sorta runny so I had a hard time keeping it from flooding).

Details were done using white acrylic paint.

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!

NOTD: Octopus

Quickie post today. I used China Glaze Sea Spray, Konad Sky Pearl, and Bundle Monster BM-401.

LynBDesigns TARDIS matte

Hey everyone! Super quick post here today. I've shown LynBDesigns TARDIS here before, but it's still one of my favorite colors. I wanted to wear it again, but in a fresh way for the blog.

So I just slapped some on and added Essie matte top coat. I love it!!! The mani lasted surprisingly well for how hard I am on my hands too.

Illamasqua Grab Negative Space Mani

I've been seeing negative space manis all over Instagram lately. I wanted to try out my own design and went with something simpler.

First I painted a base coat. Then I taped off the space I wanted naked or negative. I painted the remaining space with Illamasqua Grab. I'd recommend using a one coater for this part.

After I peeled up the tape, I used a small brush and Barry M Silver Foil to freehand the lines. Other than messing up my pinkie a bit, it turned about really well! It was surprisingly easy to do too! 

Safari Leopard Nails

When I do my nails, I don't often like to do the same on all of them. I LOVE accent nails, but I like to switch up my normal (ring and thumb accents) sometimes. I did that today!

I've already been really wanting to do a leopard print on top of a super glittery polish. I decided on China Glaze I Herd That and used two coats.

When I was grabbing out polishes and holding them up to see what I should use an accent, I ended up with China Glaze Exotic Encounters and decided it was perfect since they are both from the On Safari collection.

I finished this up with dots of I Herd That on the index and middle fingers. The black for my leopard print is my standard Wet n Wild Black Creme.

Springy yellow gradient

I've had the idea for this mani floating around for a while. I just haven't gotten around to it, but since it's finally spring (even though we got snow overnight....) I thought I'd finally do it!

I did a base of Illamasqua Load on all my nails. On the ring and thumb, I added one good coat of Dollish Polish Hylian Princess. I REALLY loved the mani at this point. Not that I don't love the outcome, but I just loved that so much more. I may end up sporting that some time soon.

Anyways, then I did a gradient of Zoya Pippa over that and stamped using a Bundle Monster plate (bad blogger! I'll put the name later) and Konad White. The flowers are super subtle and honestly the gradient looked better with out them.

Midwestern Beauty Bloggers Roundup! 3/22/14

Manifest Destany: Check out this Mortal Instruments nail art by Manifest Destany!

Life In Color!: Skittles ... taste the rainbow!!!

Darling Nails: Darling Nails shares nail art based on a geometric throw pillow.

Ruby's Nails: Ruby's Nails has recreated one of her first manicures: a cherry blossom manicure that is perfect for spring!