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.

Fancy French Manicure

I bought a new dress last weekend, and as we finally have some nice sunny weather I'm determined to wear it! So of course I had to do my nails to match. It took three failed attempts at painting my nails before I finally settled on a design I like: a french manicure with blue and green accents. This was my first time in a long time that I free-handed the tips rather than just using tape, and it went surprising well. The rest of my lines are a bit clunky, but practice will make perfect on those. 

For good measure, here's a picture of my nails with the dress itself:

The white is Kiss Nail Art polish and the blue and green are Tivoli Art Deco polishes. The green's a little bit thin for my liking, but I couldn't be bothered to pull out my nail art brushes and make a mess I'd have to clean up. I may be getting some pictures take with the dress, so if I do I'll post them so you can see what it actually looks like. 

Made of marble

After seeing a few water-spotted nails that looked like turquoise, I decided that I could use the same technique to make my nails look like marble! Thankfully, unlike previous inspired adventures, I actually like the way these turned out. I was worried they might be a bit too stark, but the grey breaks the white up nicely. These nails go with everything too, so I feel like they're an accessory to all of my outfits.

I used Sally Hansen's "White On", Joe Fresh's "Fog", and a matte top coat by Sephora.

Black and Gold

I've seen a lot of realistic-looking gold polishes around the internet, but every time I've seen one in stores they've been a little outside of my price range. Finally I found Maybelline Color Show Nail Lacquer in Bold Gold, which was under $5 even without being on sale. Decided to try it out with some black stamping over top, because you can't go wrong with that colour combo!

I used Konad Special Nail Polish in black and Bundle Monster plate 207 for the design. Not my cleanest stamping ever, but I still love the results!

Cracked ice

It's always hard when you have an idea for a manicure, but it doesn't work out at all. I had a stamp I wanted to use, but it just....didn't look good. At all. So I found a different stamp. I'm not sure if I like it. I've had a few people compliment me on them, but I'm not sold. I do like the colour combo though!

The base coat is "Black Pearl" by LA Colors, the design is done with "Queen of Everything" by Sephora by OPI, and the stamps I used were from the BM-208 image plate. They remind me of cracks in ice, or stained glass, or even spiderwebs. Still think they could have been better somehow though.

Beaches and bubbles

Some days, I go to paint my nails and I know exactly what I'm going to to. Other days, I just pick a colour and run with it. This day was a "run with it" kind of day. I started off thinking maybe I'd do some kind of french manicure. Then I thought that maybe I'd do a gradient french manicure, just to mix things up a little bit. I pulled out some white, a light sparkly blue I thought would look good as part of the gradient, a neutral base, and started painting. As I was waiting for my base coat to dry though I looked at the sparkly blue and decided it would look really good with a dark bluey-green I knew I had in my collection, so I swapped that with the white. And once I had the gradient finished, I ended up bringing the white back out and throwing some dots on there, just because.

The colours remind me of the beach or the ocean, and because of that the dots look like bubbles to me. I really like this manicure, it's got a bit of colour to it, a bit of shine, and some fun designs without being over the top. The base coat is "Sheer Me Now" by Sally Hansen, the light blue is "Ocean Mist" and the dark bluey-green is "Sea Siren", both by LA Colors, and the white is by Konad Special Nail Polish.