Fourth of July Mani!

Hi, everyone! I’m popping in really quick to show off my July 4th mani this year!

Tried to capture the holo of Indie Go and Very Ornamental, but no dice…they have a pretty decent holo flare in person, promise!

I almost used my fave polish, Mirrorball, to keep all the polishes holo, but at the last minute decided to use My Boyfriend Scales Walls. MBSW is a really great polish – it’s white with a drop of gray and is opaque and non-streaky in two easy coats, which is amazing for a white polish!

For my ring finger I used some star nail decals from What’s Up Nails over Indie Go, and on my middle I (painstakingly) placed stripe decals over MBSW then painted Very Ornamental over top to get the ‘Merica stripes. I like this mani way better than my one from last year, although that one was super last-minute. I’m well-documented as not being a fan of red, but I actually like this mostly-red mani because I think it’s so freaking cute!

The star decals weren’t totally stuck down in a few places so they didn’t come out perfect, but I kinda like how they look a little haphazard, almost like they were handprinted on.

Thanks for reading, and a happy Independence Day to all my fellow Americans! I hope you have a fun and safe holiday – A x

June Nail Art Challenge #6: Zigzag!

Hello, friends! This is gonna be a short post, so let’s get to it!

Left to right: Zoya Shelby, China Glaze Hang Ten Toes, CG Sweet Hook, CG That’s Shore Bright, CG Kinetic Candy, CG Electric Beat, Color Club Blue-Ming, CG Too Yacht To Handle, Color Club Twiggie, Sally Hansen Mint Sorbet

I used this exact color combination two years ago in this mani, and I still love it! There’s nothing more fun than having a candy-coated rainbow on your tips.

This took a little bit of time – a few of the colors required three coats (Blue-Ming, Sweet Hook), then I had to wait for top coat to dry, as well, and then it took some time to get all the zigzag/chevron decals to evenly spaced – but the end result is so worth it. I think this is cute without being too cutesy, you know what I mean?

Here’s a better pic of the thumb.

My mom and sister said this looks like Easter eggs, which I didn’t notice but they totally do! I kinda don’t want to take this off, I love it so much! 😍

Thanks for reading, everyone! See ya next time – A x

May Nail Art Challenge #7: Pastel

Hi everyone! I hope you’re having a lovely weekend. It’s absolutely gorgeous here today, the pool at my apartment complex was crazy busy ha. I originally wasn’t excited about this prompt – usually the only pastels I like are neon – but I actually love the way it came out, which is really nice after a few “meh” manis.

From left: China Glaze Pelican Gray, CG Sweet Hook, CG Diva Bride, OPI Gelato On My Mind, CG Re-fresh Mint

I was already wearing China Glaze’s Pelican Gray, so I decided to top that with some pastel colors and thought pastel mermaid scales might be pretty. I think the decals I used were from What’s Up Nails – they were pretty good! I still had to manually pop out some of the inside of the scales, but they stayed on the vinyl for the most part, and they gave me really nice, crisp lines except for one or two places where I didn’t press down hard enough.

My cuticles look fine in person, but they look really bad here, stupid camera magnification!

Once my decals were in place, I wet a makeup sponge, wrung it out so it was only a little damp, then placed random dots of my four pastel colors and sponged it on. The pink and mint are some of the colors I won from China Glaze – I only kept them because I didn’t have a pale pink or mint and thought I should probably have them for nail art purposes, which is a good thing because I already used it for this mani! Despite being pastels, the colors only took two or three light sponging passes to be nice and opaque.

I love how this turned out! The only thing I wish I could’ve changed it noticing the decal on my pinkie wasn’t down all the way – you can see the middle scale is kind of messed up – but I think this is a really pretty, springy mani! I kind of want to do everything mermaid scales now that I know how good the decals are.

Thanks for reading! See you soon with the second-to-last nail art challenge for May – A x

May Nail Art Challenge #5: Halloween in May!

Guys, I just realized my post titles for nail art challenges are like Kimmy Schmidt episode titles, and I kind of love it. Anyway, this challenge is totally up my alley, because I am the Halloween Queen, and as far as I’m concerned, it’s ALWAYS Halloween! (Also, this was supposed to go up two days ago, whoops, sorry about that!)

Maybelline Lust For Lilac, Palish Man’s Red Flower, Zoya Stevie

I wanted to use traditional Halloween colors but in more spring-y hues since it’s May, and I chose a lilac and peach combo. (I want to note, however, that the polishes I chose did not play nice with my camera, so the photos are not the greatest quality, but I tried to show the colors most true to life.) I used Zoya’s Stevie, a lavender PixieDust, on my thumb, pointer, and pinkie, then a base of Maybelline’s Lust for Lilac (LFL) on my middle and rings fingers with Pahlish’s Man’s Red Flower (MRF) over bat decals.

I had a hard time getting the lighting right on these photos – I couldn’t capture the holo of MRF, the top coat I used for the bat nails was too glossy so it kept showing a bad glare from the light, trying to avoid that glare meant that I couldn’t capture the sparkle and texture of Stevie…let’s just say, I was frustrated as balls trying to get some decent photos of this mani!

I don’t totally love the way this came out – I accidentally put thick coats of MRF over the decals, which meant the edges of the bats weren’t super crisp when I peeled them off, and LFL is slightly too pink-toned to match Stevie, which I was going for… Eh, you win some, you lose some.

This did get me really excited for Halloween, though (jk, when am I ever not excited for Halloween?). The other day I came across my Halloween decorations in the closet and was like “I’m coming for y’all soooooooon!” which led to my sister looking at me like I was crazy and reminding me that it’s only May. “But it’s basically summer, and summer always goes quick, then it’s fall, which is HALLOWEEN” was my response. But seriously…I can’t wait. I might even start planning some more Halloween manis now, yassssss. Thanks for reading, see you next time – A x

May Nail Art Challenge #3: Sunset!

Hello, friends! I hope your weekend is going wonderfully. Today was really warm but breezy and gorgeous so I’ve been outdoors almost all day, and I have a friend in town, so it’ll be fun to show her the honky tonks on Lower Broadway tonight! Before that, though, I wanted to get this post up!

From bottom: China Glaze Son Of A Peach, Neon & On & On, You Drive Me Coconuts, Morgan Taylor Anime-zing Color

I was a little lazy with this prompt – I was going to do something more interesting than “tropical sunset,” which basically everyone does, but…I wasn’t feeling doing anything too involved, and gradients are already a decent amount of cleanup, so here we are. I almost used all China Glaze polishes, but at the last minute I remembered the faboosh almost-neon purple of my Morgan Taylor Anime-Zing color, so I threw that guy into the mix!

I did something I almost never do and did a white base before sponging on my gradients. I don’t generally like doing a white base – it’s too easy for the white to peek out along your cuticle, which bothers me to no end, so I usually just do a base coat of the lightest color – but I couldn’t tell which color would be lightest so I decided white would be easiest. I wish I had managed to blend the purple in a bit better, but I think this is a super fun combo, and it was BRIGHT. It’s difficult to capture neons on camera – and every time I managed to brighten the other neons to their full brightness, Son Of A Peach came out too yellow, which is why these photos are a bit dark – but if you’re looking for a fun not-highlighter-yellow neon, any of these will do (although be warned: they chip quickly, sometimes within 24 hours :/).

Doesn’t this make you want to have a fruity drink on the beach? Mm I might go make one right now! Thanks for reading! See you in a few days for my next challenge – A x