Decorated french manicure

Back in December my mom gave me some nail stickers as a gift. I've been waiting for a good reason to use them as they're a little bit too fancy for everyday wear, and I figured the wedding I'm going to this weekend is the perfect excuse. One of the nail stickers I got was clusters of jewels and pearls and I thought it would look great with a french manicure. The jewels stick out quite a bit so I'm a bit worried that they won't make it through the night. I've got some serious nail bling going on though!

I used the Kiss french manicure guides to do the tips, and I'm a bit iffy about them. On some nails, my pinky especially, it ends up being pretty much straight across rather than a nice curve. I guess I'll just have to get better at free-handing it. Also, what looks like bubbles around the jewels is actually glitter! I took a picture with natural light to try and show the decorations a little bit better.

For these nails I did a base coat of Rimmel's "French Lingerie", then did the tips with Sally Hansen's "White On". The stickers are from Daiso, a fantastic $2 store that has anything and everything in it. I've already gotten some compliments on these nails, and I only left the house for about 30 minutes. I love them, let's just keep our fingers crossed that they'll last!

Sugar spun nails

I've been seeing sugar spun nails around a lot, so I decided to try them out. I'm still job hunting (yay...) so my nails need to be subtle and professional so I can be ready for a job interview any time, just in case. I stuck to more neutral colours and I liked how it turned out!

Painting these nails was a bit of a nightmare though. Not because it was hard, this actually was super easy and quick to do. The issue was I was impatient and didn't wait for my polish to totally dry before I added more layers. I went to cook dinner and ruined three nails in the process. When I went to fix them I realized that on two other nails the polish had either come off the tip or pulled away from it. I was just about ready to give up and take them all off, but thankfully another layer of top coat managed to hid the missing tips and painting the other three took no time at all.

I took a picture with the flash on to try and show the colours a little bit better, it's not the picture but hopefully it'll do.

The colours I used were Sally Hansen's "Gray-T Escape" and "White-On", L'Oreal's "Eiffel For You", and Sephora's "Queen Of Everything".

Solid glitter half moons

I love solid glitter. It is one of my favourite looks to put on my nails, just sparkly and fun. Of course, my love quickly turns to hate when it comes time to take it off, but it's definitely worth it. I'm going to a Jack and Jill party this weekend and couldn't think of anything more appropriate than glittering nails. I wanted to do something a little different though, so I decided to try half moon nails using solid glitter for the half moon. It turned out even better than I expected. Can someone remind me how much I love these when I have to take them off?

Trying to get a good picture of these nails was a nightmare. This is the only picture that really shows all the colours in the glitter. Two of the nails are out of focus, but.....well, the colours show. I've got a few more pictures below, they don't show the colours as well but they're a little better quality.

The base colour is "Morrocan" by LA Colors, and the glitter is "Gemstones" by Jordana which I actually got from a dollar store! It reminds me of birthday confetti. I have a few other glitters I got from the same dollar store, I'm looking forward to trying them out. Maybe when I get over taking this off.

Classy copper

The job hunt is still on, so my nails need to stay appropriate for all potential work places. I originally tried a few hand-done designs, but my ideas weren't working out and my base colour took 4 new coats every time I started over. After a few attempts I gave up and did some stamping instead. I knew the colour combination I wanted and let my boyfriend pick out the design. I think he made a good choice!

The base colour is Rimmel's "French Lingerie" and the stamping was done using Covergirl's "Perfect Penny" and Bundle Monster plate 201. I hadn't use the copper polish before and it was a bit thinner than I anticipated. I was expecting the design to stand out a little more than it does but I think the look is still fantastic! 

Please excuse the flashlight I'm holding, I put my nail polish away before I took pictures and was too lazy to bring it back out. It kind of blends with the background so it works, right? Right?

Professional leopard print

I'm currently on the market for a job, so I've been avoiding painting my nails in case an interview comes up. As much as I love bright, colourful nails, not all companies are polish-friendly so I'm trying to play it safe. I've been dying to do something with them though, and after a week of having them pretty much completely bare I've caved in and settled for a really subtle leopard print.

The base coat is "Bares Bones" by Revlon Colorstay, and has turned out to be an interesting colour. In most lights it's this wonderful sandy beige, which I love, but in some lights it gets a really yellow tinge to it that looks terrible with my skin tone. Overall I like it though. The design is done with NYC in "Park Ave" and the white is done with Kiss Nail Art Polish in white. I topped it all off with a matte top coat to help keep it subtle and professional. I think this turned out just right, I feel like I've done my nails but no one's going to notice them unless I point it out. That should be okay, right?

Colour blocks and basket weave

I've been lacking inspiration lately, and after my last manicure chipped off so quickly I hadn't really had time to think of something new. I've seen a lot of basket weave nails around and thought they would be fun to try. I looked around a bit and ended up stumbling across this design by Exhale Hate Nail Design. Looks interesting and all I have to do is a bunch of straight lines, so I figure I can manage that. These nails are really eye-catching, I've gotten lots of compliments on them already!

Have you ever gotten halfway through painting your nails and then had a sense of dread come over you when you remember you still have to do your dominant hand? I wasn't really having a hard time, but everything was so intricate and delicate and I suddenly realized that there was no way my other hand was going to look good. Thankfully it actually turned out okay, but I definitely make sure to show people my left hand when they want to see my nails.

The yellow is "Mellow Yellow" and the blue is "Blue Me Away!", both by Sally Hansen, and the black is by Konad Special Nail Polish.

Green leopard print.

I did this manicure on a friend once and absolutely loved it! The combination of the bright green with the black and white leopard print is bold and fun. Unfortunately this manicure is already gone. For whatever reason I had serious problems with them chipping and peeling. I did my nails two days ago, and between then and now I had 5 nails get large, irreparable chips in them. I repainted the first three, but when two more nails chipped I gave up and just took them all off. At least I enjoyed them while I had them!

The base colour is two coats of Sally Hansen's "Mint Sprint", and the design is done with Kiss Nail Art polish in white and Konad Special Nail Polish in black.