Refined Turquoise

  The other day as I was admiring my latest nail polish color and ogling over my color collecting addiction, I told my boyfriend I had enough nail polishes to paint my nails a different color every week for an entire year. To which he responded, "You should do that! And make a blog about it!"

WEEK 19: Refined Turquoise

In this week's post I will be doing a piece on nail marbling. Now, before you get a bad case of deja vu, yes, I have used this technique before in my post entitled Marbled Earth. I felt, however, that it was about time I revisited this style for two main reasons. One, Marbled Earth was one of my very first posts, back before I began doing tutorials, and I have had multiple people asking about how I did this design. The second reason is because it is an awesome technique with infinite possibilities and variations. So I thought this a great opportunity to hone my marbling skills.

Cathedral Vogue

  The other day as I was admiring my latest nail polish color and ogling over my color collecting addiction, I told my boyfriend I had enough nail polishes to paint my nails a different color every week for an entire year. To which he responded, "You should do that! And make a blog about it!"

WEEK 18: Cathedral Vogue

I'll be honest, I'm a terrible procrastinator, I always have been, but some day I hope to change that... if I can ever get around to it. So when I found myself starting on my nails almost a week in advance it was a huge deal. I decided I wanted to try something a little more intricate and elaborate to take full advantage of my lack of a time crunch. I skimmed through my list of design ideas and found one I've been meaning to try out for quite a while now. Next I scoured through my ever increasing collection to find the perfect pallet of colors that would accurately reflect the ornate beauty of stained glass.

The Detour

  The other day as I was admiring my latest nail polish color and ogling over my color collecting addiction, I told my boyfriend I had enough nail polishes to paint my nails a different color every week for an entire year. To which he responded, "You should do that! And make a blog about it!"

WEEK 17: The Detour

While sorting through my polishes last week I came across an old one I haven't used in forever, a crackle nail polish. You might remember this craze from a few years back, but for those of you who missed it, and aren't willing to use like 2 seconds to Google it, allow me to explain. Crackle nail polish is a colored polish used over another color that cracks as it dries, revealing little shards of the base underneath. It results in an almost shattered look. So this week I had planned to do a design with this polish, but spoilers... I didn't.

Elegantly Edgy

  The other day as I was admiring my latest nail polish color and ogling over my color collecting addiction, I told my boyfriend I had enough nail polishes to paint my nails a different color every week for an entire year. To which he responded, "You should do that! And make a blog about it!"

WEEK 16: Elegantly Edgy

Starting this week's design was rather challenging due to all the incredible people in my life who gifted me with nail polishes and nail art tools for Christmas. As if I didn't already have a hard enough time picking between all my old polishes for blog designs. First world problems, right? So after much thought and consideration, and possibly casting some lots, I decided on a few of my brand new colors to work with!

Neige à Paris

  The other day as I was admiring my latest nail polish color and ogling over my color collecting addiction, I told my boyfriend I had enough nail polishes to paint my nails a different color every week for an entire year. To which he responded, "You should do that! And make a blog about it!"

WEEK 14: Neige à Paris

A few weeks back in my Mixed Media post I briefly introduced one of my oldest nail hacks: Ring Reinforcers. Now these little stickers have many different styles and names, and quite honestly I had no idea what they were called before I decided to put them in my blog. Thank goodness for Google. And you've probably stumbled across some of these yourself in the deep dark corners of your father's desk drawer or in that odd aisle of office supplies with all that stuff no one actually uses.... or even knows what it is for that matter. Well, allow me to enlighten you.

The original intent of their inventor was that they be placed over the three-ring binder hole of a piece of paper to keep it from ripping out. Reinforcing the ring's hole. Thus, their name. Personally, I find them a rather fascinating invention, seeing as I will always choose good old fashioned files in a binder over files on a computer. But to the rest of the world, these poor little guys are basically useless and on the verge of extinction. But I say, NO. Let us bring back the ring reinforcers with new life and vitality. And let us give them a new name. A French name. For a French Tip.

Black Out

  The other day as I was admiring my latest nail polish color and ogling over my color collecting addiction, I told my boyfriend I had enough nail polishes to paint my nails a different color every week for an entire year. To which he responded, "You should do that! And make a blog about it!"

WEEK 13: Black Out

It all began one stormy night in November... the skies roared, the earth quaked in fear, and towering cedars buckled before the might of a wind just shy of hurricane proportion. Thousands left without power, families huddled for warmth, and me discovering doing my nails by candlelight sucks big time.

After 5 days without power, I turned to my oh so hospitable boyfriend, and having already imposed myself upon his home for warm showers and laundry capabilities, I had one more question:
How much will you hate me if your house smells like nail polish for a day?

Mixed Media

  The other day as I was admiring my latest nail polish color and ogling over my color collecting addiction, I told my boyfriend I had enough nail polishes to paint my nails a different color every week for an entire year. To which he responded, "You should do that! And make a blog about it!"

WEEK 11: Mixed Media

Being the Pinterest roamer that I am, I'm all about those DIYs! But like most people I find myself living in the much overrated 'someday' mindset. So this week I decided to actually try one those brilliant ideas I so often ooh and aww over but never seem to do. Maybe you've seen this idea floating around, or maybe it will blow your mind as it did mine when I first came across it, but apparently you can make your own nail polish color using eye shadow and a clear top coat. Sounds simple enough, right? Well, I guess I'll find out.

My adventure began with a trip to the store where I picked up a beautiful teal CoverGirl eye shadow  and a cheap top coat. Just to add a little design to the idea I grabbed my used and abused silver as well as some ring reinforcers I stole from my father's office ages ago. He never missed them, and I like to believe I gave them a greater purpose in life.

All That Glitters

  The other day as I was admiring my latest nail polish color and ogling over my color collecting addiction, I told my boyfriend I had enough nail polishes to paint my nails a different color every week for an entire year. To which he responded, "You should do that! And make a blog about it!"

WEEK 10: All That Glitters

Considering the fact that this whole blog began with the idea that I have enough polishes to use different ones every week and still have enough variety for an entire year, I decided to go through my polishes and see how I've been doing. To my surprise I have used 22 of the 61 colors I currently own in a mere 9 weeks of my 52 week 'challenge'. If you do the math, this is a problem. Why? Allow me to explain.

Based off these numbers, I've used 36% of my polish collection in 17% of the time frame. It does not take a mathematician to realize that this means I will run out of polishes before my year is up. Now, before you jump to the conclusion that my initial statement about being able to do this for a year was a lie, you have to realize that my claim was based off the idea of using only one color per week, but being the artistic person that I am, I cannot limit myself to such constraints. It's just too boring to use one color when I can use an array of colors to make a more intricate design. And even though roughly 2 out of every 10 polishes I use have been used in a post before, I am still burning through my unused color selection far too quickly.

Okay, I did lie, but not about that. I lied when I said this is a problem. Actually this only means I need to keep buying new polishes, which, honestly, how is that a bad thing? So rather than stretching out how many unused colors I introduce each week, let's just bust out three more of those bad boys.

Autumn Aumbré

  The other day as I was admiring my latest nail polish color and ogling over my color collecting addiction, I told my boyfriend I had enough nail polishes to paint my nails a different color every week for an entire year. To which he responded, "You should do that! And make a blog about it!"

WEEK 8: Autumn Aumbré

Now before you get your panties all in a bunch, yes, I did just use that phrase, I am indeed aware how to actually spell the word Ombré, but for the sake of visual alliterations, I made do. And if you don't like it... I really couldn't care less.

In an attempt to feed my addiction while convincing myself I'm actually just cultured, it has become a tradition of mine to buy myself a new nail polish, or two, whenever I go traveling somewhere new and extraordinary. And by tradition I mean I've done it twice now.. But just give me time.

Anyways, while I was in Ireland last month I picked up a lovely copper colored polish at a tiny side shop I came across while roaming the streets of Killarney, and ever since that moment I have been absolutely ecstatic about it! Not only do I love all things shiny and metallic, but it is the perfect shade for all the fall color sets I have been planning to do. I really can't even begin to explain how difficult it was to finally settle on which polishes to pair with it for this weeks set. But after much blood, sweat, and tears...

Subtle Chevron

  The other day as I was admiring my latest nail polish color and ogling over my color collecting addiction, I told my boyfriend I had enough nail polishes to paint my nails a different color every week for an entire year. To which he responded, "You should do that! And make a blog about it!"

WEEK 5: Subtle Chevron

I started out my day with a burning desire to do something completely different and out of the ordinary with my nails for this week's design. And I mean a real, out of my comfort zone, all or nothing, bright and bold beauty! This would be unlike any other nail set I had done before, something truly daring... I pulled out the flashiest color I could think of:
Bright Neon Yellow

...Obviously that was an utter disaster. So once I had gotten that foolish idea completely out of my system I floundered for as many nudes and neutrals as I could find in order to counter my terribly traumatizing previous endeavor...

Being back in my right mind at last I wanted something subtle and almost invisible, but elegant and intricate upon closer inspection, so I grabbed a basic nude base, a metallic bronze for some design, and a lovely yet simple gold glitter I picked up in a South American grocery store a few years back(when I realized I could not finish my month long vacation without painting my nails).