Green to blue gradient

I've been seeing lots of gradients around on other nail blogs and it's made me want to try one on my own nails again. The first tutorial I saw (which I now can not find for the life of me) used a small piece of sponge to dab two different colours up and down the nail. It worked, but it was generally really difficult to make a smooth transition from one colour to another. For today's gradient I tried out swirling the nail polish together on some plastic wrap and then stamping the whole thing on my nail. I decided to try a green to blue gradient so that I could do an accent nail using a blue and green glitter polish that I haven't tried out yet. Overall I'm pretty happy with how it turned out!

The gradient ended up being a little more subtle than I originally intended, but I still like the colour combination. The only downside is that it took a LOT of polish to get the blue to show up. I must of used about half a bottle of each colour. Thankfully I used cheaper polish, which is probably why I had to use so much of it, so if (when) I do this again I'm going to try a polish that I know is a bit thicker.

The colours I used for the gradient are LA Colors "Palm Tree" and "Splash", and the glitter is "Cosmic" by Jordana. I love this glitter, I'm definitely going to have to use it again!

Bumblebee from Transformers!

I love doing my nails, but it can be really hard to come up with ideas for what to do time and time again. A few days ago I mentioned my lack of inspiration to my boyfriend, and his response was "You know what would be cool? Black and yellow stripes. Like a bumblebee. Oh, like the transformer!" So, these nails come to you courtesy of inspiration from my boyfriend. 

This was my first time trying to use striping tape where it wasn't just a straight line across the nail. I'm always in awe of The Nailasaurus and her ability to make impressive designs using striping tape. I did my best to follow her tutorial, and as you can see I haven't quite mastered it yet. I think it was a good first attempt though! I'm also disappointed that the autobot logo smeared a bit when I put the top coat on, but thankfully you can't really see it from a distance.

For the striped nails I did two coats of Joe Fresh's Onyx, laid down the striping tape, and painted a thick coat of Sally Hansen's "Lightening" on top. For the accent nail I did two coats of Sally Hansen's Lightening and then used Konad Special Nail Polish in black to paint the autobot logo.

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?