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!

The Jamberry Experience

  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 15: The Jamberry Experience

Now there's something you should know about me, and I'm not exactly proud of this, but I am a terrible trend hater. If it's popular and the 'in thing', chances are I'm going to avoid it at all costs, even if I may have liked it if I had discovered it myself. I can't help it, it's basically programmed into me. So when I saw this weird new craze of Jamberry Wraps blowing up every one of my social media accounts, the mere utterance of the words put a bad taste in my mouth. I mocked and judged from the lofty seat of my self placed nail art connoisseur pedestal. Until one day when I was forced to dip my toes, or fingers more accurately, into the waters of the bandwagon culture that is our world today. An old friend of mine had invited me into one of those online Facebook parties, you know, the ones we use to escape the awkwardness of actual social interactions and having to put on pants. And being the supportive person I am, I decided to participate, throw out a few likes, even some comments, and wouldn't you know it, irony kicked me in the butt. I actually won some free Jamberry Wraps.

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?

Royal Zebra

  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 9: Royal Zebra

Last week I mentioned picking up some nail polish in Ireland, but what I didn't mention was the other nail related purchase I made. This particular item was something I have always seen around, but never actually thought to get for myself. But now, here they were, staring me in the face, priced too cheaply to resist at least trying them out... I was in Ireland for goodness sake. I was ready for adventure. Maybe it was the variety that caught my eye, or maybe it was the beauty of the different shapes, sizes, and colors, sorted into perfectly separate compartments that tugged on the heartstrings of my OCD. Whatever it was, it worked. I caved. I am now the proud owner of metal nail studs.

 As much as I loved the crazy assortment, I decided for my first 'adventure' I would stick to something basic and easy to work with. Small silver circles. In order to perfectly contrast these simple studs I wanted to pick some bold colors and patterns for the underlying polish.

Marbled Earth

     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 4: Marbled Earth

For this week's post I wanted to try something that I haven't done for quite some time. Nail Marbling. Not only is this technique extremely easy for how awesome it looks, but it is truly an almost spiritual creative experience! No two results look the same, both from manicure to manicure, and from nail to nail. One is conceiving a brand new and unique masterpiece that can never be perfectly duplicated again... plus it's a delightfully messy process!

Considering the fact that I would be creating said brand new pattern, it seemed only fitting to grab a few brand new colors as well. Since I normally tend to go for more gray-scale color schemes I've had a few more earthy toned polishes sitting unused in my marvelous ever-growing nail polish collection. The two that had been particularly calling to me lately were a dark olive green I got for a great discount and an extremely light pastel green given to me as a gift.

I gathered together some toothpicks, scotch tape, lot's of paper towels, a cup of room temperature water and let the sloppy fun begin!

Will It Glow?

     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 3: Will It Glow?

Not long ago I was meandering around Forever21 when I saw one of my old friends working behind the counter. While I wanted to say hello, I didn't want to distract them from their job, seeing as the store was really buzzing that day. Being the problem-solver he is, my boyfriend offered to buy me a nail polish I had been looking at so that we would have an excuse to talk to them at the counter. A man after my own heart. Obviously I agreed.

Here's the best part. The nail polish...
Glow In The Dark, Light Blue
Now, I know what you're thinking, because I thought the same thing. I doubt it actually works. But, 1) worst case scenario it's just a glittery light blue polish, and 2) it's free, so why not give it a shot?

In case the whole 'glowing' thing was indeed a flop I decided to paint a fun design on top, so I grabbed my handy dandy basics, black and white, as well as my fine tip nail art brushes and got to work!

And So It Begins...

     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 1: The Peacock
I decided for my first 'test run' I wanted to bring back an old favorite design of mine, but using one of my latest nail polish ventures:
Forever21 Nail Color
 
Now, you have to understand, I'm not very picky when it comes to my polish brands, I'd much rather buy countless assorted cheap nail polishes than splurge on one fancy bottle. I'm always on the search for new bargain polishes that I like, so I wasn't about to pass up on .5 FL OZ of colorful, gooey goodness for only $2.90! And with a name like Jelly Bean, who could blame me?

Just to be on the safe side I grabbed a few tried and true neutral polishes to complete my color scheme along with my brand new dotting pens*, which were another beautiful bargain I snatched up from Amazon!