Red & Silver Dotticure

My roommate's mom visited us a couple weeks ago, and in the one week she was here she bought three bottles of nail polish. She's a woman after my own heart, apparently! When she went back home, she left them here for me.

I can't remember the last time I wore a Sally Hansen polish, but here I am! I figured they were free and already in my home, so I might as well give one of them a shot. I was actually really pleasantly surprised! This is Sally Hansen Nailgrowth Miracle in Stunning Scarlet. It didn't make me feel like my nails were any stronger, but it was opaque in one coat, with zero application problems. It was actually a really lovely polish that I expect to reach for again in the future.
Over it, I dotted patterns vaguely reminiscent of octopi (octopuses?) in Zoya's Trixie.

Here we have the elusive right hand! I actually preferred this hand. Instead of trying to fit one and a half of the designs per nail, I only did one, and it looked a lot cleaner. If I use this pattern again before my nails grow out again, I'll definitely do both hands like this.

This isn't a manicure that really screams "Christmas!!" but I do think it's definitely holiday appropriate. It's only the beginning of December, but I'm already longing for more red and sparkly nail polishes!

Thanksgiving mani!

We have a Fakesgiving earlier this week while my roommate's mom was here. My husband has to work today, so we'll probably have a Friendsgiving on Saturday. But my nails are rocking and ready to celebrate!

I'm normally not a skittle-y person, but lately I've been feeling it. One color can be so boring, but a color scheme is so much more interesting!

Index and ring fingers are both China Glaze Riveting with a dotty gradient (OPI San-Tantonio, OPI Suzi Loves Cowboys, and China Glaze Harvest Moon). Middle finger is China Glaze Harvest Moon. Ring finger is OPI San-Tantonio plus a layer of China Glaze Electrify.

Since Catching Fire just came out this weekend, it felt appropriate that I used so many polishes from last year's Capitol Colours collection. And by the way, I saw the movie last weekend and it was phenomenal. See it!

You can't see it in any of these photos, but my thumb matches my ring finger. My right hand matches my left hand, and I think I wish I had mixed them up. Using the same patterns, but in a different order. Next time I'll know!

I'm excited that it's finally the holiday season. I love having excuses to be with my favorite people, even though this year it'll be more friends than family. I'm looking forward to many more holiday manis in the next month. Do you match your nails to the season?

Hard Out Here

This is inspired by Lily Allen's manicure in her newest video, "Hard Out Here." Watch it here!

In the VIB sale I bought the Twenty-Two so I could try out the new Formula X polishes, so I figured I'd use a couple of them to recreate it!
Unfortunately, as soon as I finished this mani I hated it so much I had to take it off. Let's see why!

I started with Radioactive. It's a great color; it's neon, though it doesn't indicate that anywhere. It took three coats to get rid of VNL and it did not dry well. Since it's neon, it dried sort of matte; not completely matte, but sort of waxy. Next time I use it, I'll try to layer it over a white and hope that helps with some of its issues. I will also double up on my base coat, because even taking it off after just a few minutes it was starting to stain.

Over Radioactive I used Need For Speed. This is where it all went from questionable to horrible. As you can see from the bottle I'm holding, it's SILVER... but on the nail, over a green, it's ...bad. Not silver. Sort of gold-y but not really. Really brush stroke-y. Mostly just horribly ugly. Bad. Ew.

I'll try Need For Speed again sometime on its own, but right now I must say that I am not impressed.

Embellished Naughty Nautical

Essie's Naughty Nautical has quickly become one of my favorite polishes ever. It's a perfect color with an amazing subtle shimmer that keeps it interesting without being over the top. I've worn it several times in the last few months, so I thought I'd spice it up this time!

I used China Glaze Galactic Gray and Cosmic Dust as well as Zoya's Zuza. Zuza and Naughty Nautical are pretty much exactly the same color but with different finishes.

My husband said he definitely preferred the dots to the strips, and I think I agree with him. More dotty gradients are in my future, I think!

Smooth Sailing Away

I'm usually much too lazy for nail art, but I've had a lot of free time lately so I'm trying to get better at it. So when my Portland bestie came over for Thursday morning mimosas & manis, I decided I'd be a little adventurous (possibly helped by the champagne!) and do a gradient. I've always done it the lazy way of only sponging on the second color, but it doesn't turn out as smoothly that way, so this time I actually dotted both colors and swirled them together to sponge. It turned out pretty fantastically if I do say so.

I started with one coat of Essie Smooth Sailing, then sponged a gradient of Smooth Sailing and Milani Sailing Away.

Over the gradient, I put a thin layer of Hard Candy's Black Tie Optional.

I ended up really loving this look! The gradient was subtle and that kept it feeling classy, but the glitter made it interesting. And it was so easy to do, I don't know why I'd been half-assing it this whole time. Never again!

Welcome back!

OH MY GOSH.
HI.
HELLO.
I am still alive!

A billion million apologies for being gone for so so so so so so long!
I temporarily moved back to live with my parents in May so I could do a piano gig at the theatre there. I spent 5 weeks away from my husband & my students, which was not fun at all. I also spent 5 weeks playing piano, which is always really cool (I love that I am making a living using my music degree!!) but it was HELL on my nails. And my laptop died for a few days, and I misplaced my camera's battery charger, and etc etc etc.
Long story short, I was gone, and I would like to be back.

To be totally honest, I'm still not making any promises, though. I've spent the last month or two feeling not totally enthusiastic about my nails. It doesn't help that they're in terrible condition, but I've just been feeling bored. I think we've all been there, though, haven't we? Lately I've been trying to do a little more nail art as a way to get back into it and it has been so much fun! I keep it really simple, and it doesn't look great on my misshapen little nubs, but oh well! They'll grow out and I'll have been practicing.

PLUS, I just ordered Konad supplies this afternoon, so by next week I'll get to play with that! Super looking forward to it!

So as a hello again, here are some iPhone pictures from the last month. And yes, I've been so unenthused about my nails that these are most of the manicures I've taken pictures of in that whole time!

This is at the end of the second week. We had just gotten through rehearsals & opening weekend. My nails were so strong and healthy that they lasted that long! Then we started doing shows, and they all just fell to pieces...
This nail art is based on a dress I got that weekend. I'm not good at nail art, though.

 They're broken way past the quick. Not to mention how yellow they are... yuck.

The good thing about short nails: not having to worry about VNL! Elodie is a lovely jelly from Zoya, and I adore it, but on my longer nails I just couldn't handle the VNL. It looks lovely on my little nubs, though.

This was my birthday mani! A gradient with Zoya Wednesday & Zuza. It was pretty much awesome.

Here's my favorite! This gradient is using Orly Pure Porcelain as a base & China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy on top. It was so lovely! We stopped in at the jewelry store to get my ring cleaned & our favorite person there told me it looked like a professional did it. It lasted 5 days, and it had practically no tip wear and looked lovely, but then it just peeled off. :( I haven't had that happen since my nails used to be weak and peel-y and awful, so I think that's what causes it for me.

Now I'm rocking some blue & pink flowers that I'll hopefully show you in the next few days! I've been trying to be more active on twitter again, and it feels good to be here! I've missed you!

Easter Roses!

I wanted to do an Easter mani, but I didn't want to go all out with bunnies & eggs & the lot. So I went with something still season-appropriate but less holiday-themed: roses!

The base is China Glaze Refresh-mint. I hadn't used in in a long time, and I think I'd forgotten just how pretty it is! It's not the easiest in terms of application, but worth it. The roses are a generic white (Confetti brand, I think?) and Essie Your Hut or Mine. I just put two little dots right next to each other and swirled them together using a bobby pin (as I don't have a dotting tool). Then the leaves are acrylic paint, done with a tiny striper brush.

One of my uncles-in-law actually pointed them out and said they looked lovely! Then he said, "My daughter had to have the Hunger Games polishes... I ended up buying her two of them!" I laughed and said, "Yeah, my mom bought me all 12..." Now his daughter hates me forever, I think, but I don't care because someone noticed my nails! That's all I ever want from life, really. :)

Final Four!!

My 'Hawks are in the Final Four! We play late this evening and I'm already so beyond nervous. Tonight is going to be a tough game, but I believe in them.
We're all a superstitious bunch: we're watching the game at the same place we've watched all of the tourney games, we'll sit in the correct seats once there, and I, of course, had to paint my nails. I've done it every weekend since round 1! Hopefully I get to leave these on until forever (or, you know, Tuesday) and don't have to take it off tomorrow.... wish us luck!

I bought a couple striper brushes & some acrylics yesterday to do these. I am really bad at this stuff, so forgive me! But it was fun and I'm excited for people to notice them.
Base colors are SC Ruby Ruby, Nina Ultra Pro Like Butta, and Essie Mesmerize. I have my go-tos when it comes to KU colors. :) Yellow stripes & the Jayhawk are acrylic paint; the blue stripes/dots are Zoya Tallulah; the red stripes/dots are Zoya Kimmy.

I painted the base last night, and then my husband got sleepy early, so there are some sheet marks... Oops.

And another Jayhawk on my thumb!

I'm so excited, and so nervous, and so excited!!!
And don't forget: I'm having a giveaway in celebration!

Sweet 16!

Yet another weekend of the NCAA tourney is upon us! KU plays in the Sweet 16 tonight, so hopefully I'm in for another weekend of red & blue nails!

I started by painting all of my nails solid colors.
Essie Russian Roulette
Nina Ultra Pro Like Butta
Zoya Tallulah

My thumb I painted like a ref's shirt.

 The red is more jelly than cream, so it took a couple coats. I used a really thick coat of Like Butta, and it evened itself out surprisingly well. And Tallulah is absolutely gorgeous in one perfect coat.
No clean up or top coat to be found anywhere here.

But of course I couldn't leave them that plain.

Rock Chalk, Jayhawk!

Game Day nails!

Today's the big day: The Final Border War!
I graduated from The University of Kansas last spring. Our rivalry with Missouri goes back to the Civil War. Kansas wanted to be a Free State, but people from Missouri kept coming over the border and voting for Kansas to be a slave state. They burned Lawrence (where KU is located) to the ground on more than one occasion. Quantrell's raid was an ugly thing.  So when we say we hate Missouri, we don't mean in a "Their jerseys are ugly and they're geographically close to us so they're a reasonable team to choose for a rival." We hate them in a, "You wanted to be slave owners, you burned our town, and you raped our women," sort of way.
They're moving to the SEC next year, so this is the end of the Border War. If we win this game, then we are the Big 12 regular season champs, and our dominance over MU is assured for the rest of time.

It's sort of a big game.

So I went way out of my comfort zone and did some red & blue nail art for game day!!

This red is Essie Russian Roulette, & the blue is Essie Mesmerize. They're my go-to primary red & blue. 2 coats of RR, just 1 of Mesmerize!!

The stripes on index & pinky were done using a Kiss nail art striper.

I finally attempted a cloud! I mixed up the finishes: glossy red, matte black (Orly Matte Vinyl), and foil (Zoya Trixie). I think it turned out really nicely!

The middle finger, I painted the entire nail red, then half of it blue. I used the black Kiss striper down the middle & the lines coming out, and the gold lines are a gold Kiss striper that came in the same set.

My thumb is another cloud, blue-black-silver, and my left hand is a perfect mirror.

Over all, I am incredibly proud of hour this turned out! I am pretty awful when it comes to nail art, but I think this looks pretty good!

Now to get ready for the game. Rock Chalk!!