NOTD: Negative Space and Silver Flakes!

I went to a wedding yesterday! I wore black and silver, so I did a mani to match.

I freehanded the negative space, and filled everything else in with Zoya Willa, two coats. Then I used a clear polish and silver leaf on the Vs, and topped with Essie Good To Go. Since the leaf tends to get all over the nail, once the top coat was dry, I covered any leaf that strayed from the V and did another coat of G2G.

Very simple, not super summery or wedding-y, but I like it . I was planning on doing white, but I had an unfortunate thumb break at the gym and didn’t want to emphasize the shortness.

What do you think?

NOTD: Grey Watercolor!

This is my first watercolor mani (as far as I remember)… GASP! Well, here goes!

My thumb, pointer and pinky are two coats of Brucci Alexandra’s “Hot” Gray. For my middle and ring, I did two coats of Zoya Purity, then topped everything with a coat of Essie Good To Go.

For the watercolor, I used Zoya Willa, Dove and Jin Soon Heirloom. What you do is either is mix a drop of polish with either acetone or nail polish thinner and then dab it on with a nail art brush so it looks similar to watercolor.

I was thinking about adding stud or something, but I actually liked it the way it was. What do you think?

NOTD: Matte Marble

I’m liking making everything matte lately!

My thumb, pointer and pinky are two coats of Zoya Caitlin. My middle and ring fingers have a base of two coats of Zoya Purity. Then I watered down some Zoya Dove with some nail polish thinner and applied it with a nail art brush, just randomly, to get that marbled look. Then I tinned down some Zoya Willa and used a thin nail art brush to create the black lines, then added Essie Leggy Legend for a gold accent. And to jazz up my other nails, I added the snazzy cut out triangle studs. Finally topped everything off with NYC Matte Me Crazy.

I like how this came out! I was envisioning it for a couple days now. I like it matte, but I also might like it glossy. What do you think? Should I add a glossy top coat?

NOTD: Blue Plaid!

I saw this amazing blue plaid nail art on instagram by @noco_nail and I had to try and recreate it!

The base on my thumb, pointer and pinky is two coats of Zoya Chantal (my new favorite), and on my middle and ring I have two coats of China Glaze Aquadelic.

For the plaid, I used Zoya Neve and Zoya Ziv and just freehanded the lines. Then I added studs to the nude nails and topped everything off with Essie Good To Go.

If you’re curious, I changed it up a little on my other hand and made my thumb and ring finger plaid, and everything else nude.

I love how this came out! It’s perfect timing too, as the weather is starting to get pretty chilly here. Think I’m ready for more plaid manis! What do you think?

My Winstonia Haul!

Woo! I’ve been dying to try reverse stamping for a while now, but problem! I’m thoroughly over the two lame stamping plates that I own. So it was time to invest in some new ones!

The first thing I grabbed was the  3rd Generation stamping plate set, you get 20 round plates, each with 3-4 designs (see them all here). I also got the Moroccan Mosaic plate.

After the plates, I still needed some other things to get me to free shipping, so I got some mermaid vinyls and a super tiny brush!

Here is a close up of the brush so you can see how small it is. It’s the Kolinsky Sable Nail-Art Detail Brush #0000. It even has an aluminum cap, which I love.

And that’s it! I’m really excited to start using some of these things! I’m pretty overwhelmed with my choices right now lol

NOTD: Nautical Inspired Stripes and Studs!

I was on the hunt for Orly Key Lime Twist last weekend, but no one had it! Instead I picked up China Glaze Sun Worshiper and it inspired this mani!

So, I used three colors here: China Glaze Man Hunt, China Glaze Sun Worshiper and Zoya Purity. My thumb and pointer have two coats of Man Hunt. My pinky has a coat of Purity topped with two coats of Sun Worshiper, my middle and ring fingers have a base of two coats of Purity. On my middle and ring fingers, I used striping tape for the stripes. I didn’t want them all uniform so I spaced them all differently and made them all different thicknesses. I actually created my stripe pattern with tape first, then filled in the colors with striping brushes. I also added studs to the sold colored nails. Topped everything off with Essie Good To Go.

I wasn’t thinking of doing stripes at all until I got Sun Worshiper. I just though it looked cool and almost nautical with Man Hunt. I love how this came out! I love how bright and fun it is. I can’t stop staring at them! What do you guys think?

NOTD: White, Gold and Negative Half Moons!

I was in a bit of a nail slump after getting back from Disney, but I also had something flowing around in my head. I finally decided to just do it!

So what we have here are some negative half moons! The white I used is Zoya Purity. What I did was, first, use a striping brush and Purity to create the outline of the half moon, then I filled in the white with the nail polish brush. Once I had two coats and the half moon the way I liked it, I let it dry. When that was all set, I went back in with my striping brush and OPI Live.Angel.Music.Baby and did the outline of the moon, then went back over that with Essie As Gold As It Gets, to add a little more sparkle. Then I added studs and my favorite shell stud! Topped everything off with Essie Good To Go.

I think I was slightly inspired by Japanese nail art? It kind of reminds me of it. I like the way Japanese nail art is so delicate and pretty! I definitely want to try more things like that! Anyway, what do you guys think of this?

NOTD: Pineapples!

It’s starting to feel like summer! And that means that I just want to do fun things to my nails! Which just so happened to result in pineapples!

Woohoo! The base on my middle and ring fingers is two coats of Zoya Purity, then I used Trind Mellow Yellow for the actual pineapples, OPI You Don’t Know Jacques for the lines and OPI Amazon Amazoff for the leaves. I used a smaller striping brush for this.

For my pointer and pinky (and thumb) I have a base of two coats of China Glaze At Vase Value then used a dotting tool and Zoya Purity for the dots.

Topped everything off with Essie Good To Go.

I thought these were so cute! They were nice to have when it actually hit 85 degrees here lol. What do you guys think?

NOTD: Negative Space with A England Saint George!

I’ve been dying to do a mani like this forever! The first time I tried, I failed and hated it.. glad to say that this time was different.

Indirect light/no flashIndirect light/ flash

To do this I started with just a base coat on my nails. The one I use is Duri Rejuvacote. Then I took a small detail brush and freehanded the tips and half moons with A England Saint George.

I did the tips first by first outlining with smile line, then filling it in. I went back over each tip with the nail polish brush later on, just for opacity. The half moons were a bit harder to freehand, but I used the same small detail brush and tried to match up the curve to the curve of the tip. Once I got the shape I wanted, I filled it in with the detail brush until it was opaque. I also used that same brush with acetone to clean up the cuticle area and fix and messy lines.

I topped everything off with two coats of Essie Good To Go. I did have some minor smudging after the first coat, which I fixed and then added the second coat.

So I’m loving this! What do you guys think?

NOTD: Tropical Florals!

More inspiration! I’m so tired of this not warm weather that I thought I’d take my nails right into summer… I’m about ready to skip spring altogether!

My base is two coats of Zoya Sailor. For the flowers, I used some new nail art brushes and Zoya Purity, Zoya Arizona and Essie Snap Happy. For the leaves, I used the nail art brushes again and Essie The More The Merrier and OPI Amazon Amazoff. Then I used a dotting tool and Zoya Raven for the black dots in the middle of the flowers. I felt that my pointer and pinky were unfinished, so I added gold studs! Topped everything off with a nice coat of Essie Good To Go.

I’m seriously obsessed with these. I can’t stop looking at them and they make me feel like it’s not 30 degrees in the morning haha what do you guys think?