Glequin Polka Dots

Hello everyone! I hope you're having a great day. Today I have an exciting manicure to show you, simple, but exciting. I can't quite put my finger on it but I love this look even though it was so easy to create.

Instead of doing a normal polka dot manicure using my dotting tools, I opted for placing some pink glequins in a polka dot pattern to get a similar effect. The base colour is Zoya Jacqueline, a gorgeous subdued yellow-beige colour.

I really love the combination of pink and yellow in this manicure, and the glequins dress up the look to make it more elegant than a normal polka dot look. I think this is definitely something I'll try again and again.

What is your favourite look to create with glequins? 

Paintings Nail Art Series - "The Happy Family"

Hello everyone! Today is officially the first day of exam period for me and I'll be facing my first final exam this evening for Personality Psychology. Instead of having to stress about my blog during finals I have queued up a fun little nail art series based around some awesome paintings that I've found on Etsy!

The painting that inspired this was called "The Happy Family," but unfortunately it already sold and I can't find a photo of it - but here's a very similar one from the same seller.

The colours I used were OPI The Thrill of Brazil and China Glaze Happy Go Lucky for the gradient background. I love this look, it's so sweet!

Sheer Water Marble

Hello everyone! I'm not really sure what to call this post, it's a technique that I've shown you before on the blog where you watermarble with an opaque colour and a sheer one to make sort of a peek-a-boo over a pattern. I've been envisioning this manicure for ages but unfortunately the black polish that I used didn't spread in the water as much as I would have liked.

Gorgeous, right? 

So to get this look I first did gradients on each of my nails. If I remember correctly, the colours I used were OPI The Thrill of Brazil, Zoya Arizona, China Glaze Happy Go Lucky, OPI Green-wich Place, OPI Fly, and OPI Do You Lilac It? For the water marble I used Quo by ORLY Little Black Dress and OPI Don't Touch My Tutu!

I think I need to find a black polish that would spread better in water, if there was just a little less black here I think I would be much happier.

Have you ever tried this technique? What colour combinations would you like to see?

Pastel Stripes

Hola a todos! Today I have a pretty simple design to show you all, it's just some simple colourblock-esque stripes on a pretty neutral base. Mixing nude colours with neons has been in style lately, but I'm predicting that neutrals and pastels will be big soon because they make a lovely combination.

I suppose if I had used tape this manicure would have sharper lines, but that takes forever and I was lazy when I set out to do this. I think this is probably a look that I'll try again with different colours, maybe add some jazzing up to the stripes too.

The base was OPI Did You 'Ear About Van Gogh, and the stripes were OPI Thanks a Windmillion, OPI Pink Friday, OPI A Grape Fit!, China Glaze Secret Periwinkle, and Illamasqua Load.

What do you think about this colour scheme?

Leopard Print Gradient

Hi everyone! Today I have a leopard print gradient on the blog for you to enjoy. I wish I had practiced my freehand leopard spots a little more before embarking on this manicure! A couple of them turned out looking like hearts, which I guess is pretty cute.

I did a gradient with China Glaze Happy Go Lucky and Zoya Arizona, then finished off the look with Quo by ORLY Little Black Dress.

I can't get enough of gradients lately, I'm just having trouble thinking of what to put over top of them.

One day, with any luck, I will master freehand leopard prints.

Zoya Lovely - Swatches & Review

Hi everyone! Today I have an exciting collection to show you that most of you have already seen, haha. To be fair, I just got these in the mail on Thursday so there IS a reason to why I'm so late in posting these. I love the Zoya Lovely collection so much that I could sit around looking at swatches of it all day, so I hope you don't mind some repetition.

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So here I've shown you the bottle pictures both with my blinding flash, and then in natural light in my apartment. I honestly think that every single colour in this collection is perfect for spring. Let's get started with the review and swatches!

First up is Zoya Blu, a gorgeous, clean baby blue shade. The formula on this colour was okay. I used two coats for opacity, but it seemed a little chalky and it wasn't good at self-leveling so I added top coat and it was perfection!

I really like this colour and I think it translates extremely well into spring. This will be a really nice creme to have around to use in nail art!

Next up is Zoya Neely which is my absolute favourite from the collection. Seriously people, you NEED this colour in your life. Neely is a perfect light mint green creme.

The formula on Neely was better than the one on Blu, it was a little more watery but there was no problem with getting ugly ridges. I will be using this polish over and over and over again.

This stunner is called Zoya Jacqueline and she is a lovely off-white colour. At first glace she seems similar to OPI's My Vampire is Buff but I will get into that in a comparison post soon. Jacqueline had a similar formula to Blu, two coats for opacity but a bit of a chalky feel to it. A coat of topcoat smooths everything out deliciously.

I am in love with neutral shades like this. You can be sure that I will be wearing Jacqueline all spring for a clean, fresh manicure, and after spring is over I'll be using her in a lot of nail art.

Next I would like to introduce you to Zoya Piaf. I guess I'm thrown off a little by the name, I thought that Piaf would be a pink colour (La Vie en Rose anyone?). This shade was surprisingly flattering on my skin tone which is something that yellows don't usually accomplish for me.

I love the silver shimmer in this polish, it really brings it to life. This polish and the two other shimmers in the collection have very similar formulas and take three thin coats for opacity. They were all very easy to work with!

This pretty pink is Zoya GeiGei (spelled GieGie on my label..hmm). GeiGei has the same silver shimmer running through her as Piaf and I think this is a really great colour for spring. I'm not sure how original it is but I can get behind it because it's unique to my collection.

You guys know how I am, I just can't get enough pink polishes!

The last lacquer from the Lovely collection is Zoya Julie. Apart from loving the name Julie, I cannot get enough of this pretty purple shimmer. 

I'm not sure why I love Julie so much more than GeiGei and Piaf, but I think the silver shimmer really goes well with this light purple. 

I don't have anything bad to say about this collection, I really enjoyed all six of the colours and I think that they're both great for wearing this spring and incorporating into nail art for the future. You know what the colour scheme reminds me of? Easter eggs!

Will you be picking up any of the Zoya Lovely collection? You can check these beauties out by following this link. If you click on that link and create an account, a coupon for a free bottle of Zoya nail polish will be placed in your account, and by adding two more polishes to your cart you can get free shipping!

The products in this post were kindly provided for review. The above link is my personal referral link for Zoya's "Share the Love" program.

Polka Dot Nails

Evening, everyone! Sorry I couldn't think of a more original title for today's post. I really like using unusual colour combinations and I wasn't too sure about how this would turn out, but I love it! I think dotting tools are a necessity to anyone who does nail art, whether you're an expert or just starting out.

 I used a base of OPI You Don't Know Jacques! and then a medium sized dotting tool to make this polka dot design in Zoya Caitlin, Quo by ORLY Tease, and OPI Banana Bandanna. These remind me of a banana split, but I'm not sure how the purple fits into that.

Polka dots are a classic look and there are literally endless possibilities for different colour combinations. I also am a big fan of the double accent nail.

What do you think of double accent nails? Do you like the manicure like this, or should I have done my entire hand with the polka dots?

Matte Splatter Mani

Morning everyone! As I mentioned before, I'm getting ready to pack up everything and move across the country to start the new semester. I have mixed feelings about it, but there's not much I can do now! I'm trying to get ahead with my nails so that I'm able to better adjust to being away when I've been home for six months. Today I have a splatter mani to show you all, which I then took to the next level and mattified!

I'm getting kind of bored of winter, so I decided to use some spring or summer colours and maybe summon some sunshine and warm weather! For a base, I used Quo by ORLY Little Black dress, then did the splattering with Zoya Arizona, Zoya Zuza, and China Glaze Happy Go Lucky. 

I'm not sure how I feel about those bubbles and all those smears. I guess a splatter mani isn't supposed to be perfect, right?

In case you're all intimidated by the clean up of a splatter mani, this is how I do it! Lots of scotch tape to cover the places that I don't really want to bathe in acetone.

What do you think about this colour combination?

Fall Braided Mani

Good morning everyone! How has your weekend been? Mine has been totally hectic, balancing work and three midterms in the upcoming week is stressful. Today I have a manicure that I was really excited about, I wore this for half of last week, which is a pretty long time for me. I know some people are tired of seeing indie brands that aren't always easy to get your hands on so I wanted to do some nail art for you, because I know a lot of you follow my blog for that reason!

I chose some colours that don't traditionally go together, but still give off a nice fall vibe. I used OPI Don't Talk Bach to Me from the recent Germany collection, as well as OPI Diva of Geneva from the Switzerland collection from a couple years back. The grurple (gray/purple of course!) colour is Zoya Caitlin. I swear in person it looked more purple, but these photos make it look like a true gray.

I love the way these colours go together, I think braided manis are a really fun way to see how a colour scheme works.

Here we are in the shade, a little less exciting and more subdued but still pretty.

What do you think of this colour combination? Have you tried the braided mani technique yet?

CrowsToes Gomez

Hi everyone! Sorry for my little absence, school started this week and things have been surprisingly hectic! Today I have one of the polishes that came in my Llarowe order to show you all, the beautiful and complex CrowsToes Gomez! This polish is jam packed full of glitter, and is the first indie polish that I have had the privilege of trying (apart from Lynnderellas, but are those indies? Let's not get into that). I didn't have to place any of the glitter, and there was a tonne on the brush every time I dipped it into the bottle. I layered this beauty over top of Illamasqua Load.

I love this polish. Period. I love it I love it I love it.

Are you seeing all these types of glitters? Different sizes, different colours, different shapes, this is how you make a captivating indie polish.

I know some people don't like bar glitter because they think it looks hairy, but the bar glitter in this is so sparse that it really only adds dimension and not any type of hairy feeling at all!

I love how this looks in the shade because you can see all the colours of glitter so brightly, the different blues, the purple, the yellow, the black, it all works together so perfectly.

Here's a little bonus photo infront of one of the roses that my boyfriend gave me. What a perfect, perfect man, he brought me a dozen red roses and took me out for dinner!

Here are the two colours that I used!

Day 20 - Water Marble

Hi everyone! Today is a day I've been looking forward to throughout the entire challenge, because I loooove doing water marbles. Yes, they don't always turn out, but when they do - WOW!

I chose an odd colour palate for this, but I'm loving it. I used Zoya Caitlin, Zoya Reagan, China Glaze Custom Kicks, and OPI Don't Talk Bach to Me. Not all of these wanted to cooperate with me in the water, but I think I pulled it off.

Do you guys have any tips or tricks you do for water marbles? I'm so lazy with cleanup that I did this yesterday and then just waited for the shower to take all the extra polish off from my fingertips.

I would love it if you could take the time to check out the water marbles that everyone else came up with today! Thanks for reading!

Day 16 - Tribal Print

Good morning! To be honest, I was dreading doing tribal nails. They've always seemed so difficult and the one time I attempted to do a tribal design it turned out awfully. Thankfully, I've come a long way with both my nail art skill level, and my patience. I'm pretty excited about today's manicure, I put quite a bit of time into it and I think it's super cute!

The colours I used for this tribal nail art are OPI Don't Talk Bach to Me, OPI A Grape Fit!, OPI Alpine Snow, China Glaze Four Leaf Clover, China Glaze Liquid Leather, Zoya Wednesday, Barry M Cobalt Blue,  and two LA Colors Art Deco stripers in black and white. I love these colours together, they're not something I usually would have paired up but I'm in love!

I took some inspiration from The Nailasaurus' tribal print mani from back when she took on this very same 31 Day Challenge. 

I actually really enjoyed doing tribal nails, and playing around with different colour combinations would be a lot of fun. I love that this challenge is forcing me to try things outside of my usual element, and I'm finding that I love doing them!

I wonder what everyone else created for today's theme, there's really no limits to the possibilities for tribal nails! Take a look!

Polka Dots Fail

Hey everyone! So I mentioned in my earlier post that I had done up a mani for today and then scrapped it, but I figured that since I wasted the polish and time on it I may as well post about it quickly. I'd be lying to say I got inspiration from this picture, in fact, I copied it completely. If anyone knows the owner of this picture please contact me because I'd love to give proper credit, this person is obviously very talented!

So, until my ring finger, this was going perfectly! What exactly happened with my ring finger - why am I so inept with evenly spaced dots? This had the potential to be so cute, alas, it wasn't meant to be I suppose. So here you have it, my polka dotted nail fail. 

To create this look I used OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, OPI Pink Friday, OPI Russian Navy, OPI Strawberry Margarita, China Glaze For Audrey, and China Glaze Happy Go Lucky.

What do you guys think of this. Should I have just redone my ring finger instead of changing the manicure completely? Probably, but I was too upset to think of that logic.

Day 11 - Polka Dots

Hi everyone! I hope you're all having a weekend half as fun as the one I'm having, I'm at my cabin with my boyfriend, do you have any exciting plans? I actually ended up coming up with two polka dot manis after the first one was a miserable fail, I'll post more on that one later. This design that I ended up settling for is a little too simple for my liking, though it is very cute.

I used China Glaze Happy Go Lucky, China Glaze For Audrey, OPI Do You Lilac It?, OPI Gargantuan Green Grape, OPI Pink Friday, and OPI Alpine Snow to make the dots.

I kind of wish I had been able to do some more exciting nail art with this, but as this was already my second attempt I was a little burnt out. Polka Dots is supposed to be one of the easier themes - why was this so difficult for me?

What is your favourite way to wear a polka dot manicure?

I wonder if the other ladies had an easier time with today's challenge than I did, let's have a look!