Simple mani with a dotted accent nail

Hello sweeties! It’s Friday, woo hoo! I just got back from my vacation to SC yesterday, and I totally wish I was still there. It was so gorgeous down there, we got to see friends and family, AND we found a place to live! So it was a win all around! And now I only have to work one day, and then it’s the weekend.

Anyways, I wanted to show you the manicure I wore while on vacation! I wanted something bright and cheerful, yet still tame enough to ease my future coworkers into my nail obsession. So here’s what I chose:

Simple dotted manicure

I really liked this one! It’s simple but with a little extra.

Blue dotticure

It’s bright and cheery, but I think the monochrome dots in a lighter shade keeps it simple. My gut said “Make it holo or neon or multiple different colors!” But like I said earlier, I was going to meet up with my future coworkers. So I wanted to ease them into the nail art lifestyle I lead! 😉

Polishes used:

• Base color: China Glaze UV Meant To Be… Another one of the amazing Electric Nights! This one had a perfect formula (that slight uneven texture you see is actually from the top coat I used – Seche Vite). And the color is great!
• Dots: Essie Mint Candy Apple… Such a gorgeous light blue with some aqua tones!

What do you think? What’s your go-to simple nail art look?

Here’s your daily David Tennant: (ps – I’m running out of David Tennant memes, I might have to go to Doctor Who or Matt Smith memes next!)

Elie Saab inspired manicure: March’s NCC #4

Hello sweeties! I hope everyone had a good weekend. I didn’t do anything too exciting – there was some overtime at work, bingewatching The Killing (anyone else watch that?!), and some sleep. But hey, you can’t go wrong with a relaxing weekend! Anyways, today I have the last fashion-inspired manicure for March’s Nail Challenge Collaborative theme!

I browsed pictures from the recent New York Fashion Week, and I came across some beautiful dresses in the Elie Saab Spring 2015 Ready-to-Wear collection. It was full with aqua, teal, pops of bright orange in a cool tie-dyed/ marbled pattern.

Dress from the Spring 2015 Elie Saab collection

How gorgeous is that?! I just knew I wanted that on my nails! I had also recently watched a video from Young, Wild, And Polished on YouTube where she did a manicure that ended up with a very similar effect. Despite using saran wrap before, I had never done a mani like that! The way that I usually use saran wrap is by wadding up a little ball and dabbing on the extra colors.

My Elie Saab inspired manicure

I think it came out pretty darn similar to the actual dress! I really loved this manicure! It’s not really a day-to-day wearable manicure with the middle finger accent, but I definitely love the marbled/ tie-dye effect!

Marbled/ tie-dye manicure inspired by an Elie Saab dress

Polishes used/ how I did this:

• Base color: Essie Mint Candy Apple… a beautiful bright minty baby blue
• I blobbed on a few dots of 3 polishes and then took a small piece of saran wrap. I pressed the saran wrap to the nail and rubbed it in a small circular motion to create the marbled/ tie-dye effect.
  • Color blobs:
    • Essie Mint Candy Apple
    • Barry M Watermelon… my favorite deep teal polish!
    • Formula X Uber… a gorgeous bright red-leaning orange creme.
• Middle finger:
  • I freehanded stripes of Rica Whiteout and Rica Blackout in the same pattern of the dress’ neckline.
  • I took a small brush with acetone and removed the polish between the stripes to emulate the skin peeking from the neckline.

I really want to use this technique again – for a full mani or even as an accent nail or two. Maybe you’ll be seeing that on me again soon 🙂

What do you think? Have you used saran wrap or a plastic bag this way? Did you have a more interesting weekend than I did? And do you watch The Killing?! Talk to me if you do 🙂

And here’s your daily dose of David Tennant/ Doctor Who:

Love that grin!

Check out more fashion-inspired manicures from the NCC ladies:

Nail Inspiration from an Odd Place

My dog’s collar! That’s right, this manicure you’re about to behold got its inspiration from a dog collar. I picked it up recently from Target and loved the design. I then went out for some drinks with friends, got home, and decided to do what any sane nail polish addict/ dog lover would do – paint my nails to match my dog!

Here’s my dog, Kaiser (whose attention is currently directed at the mailman hopefully dropping off some nail goodies for me!), and his beautiful new collar:

And here’s my semi-tipsy recreation dotticure based on the design:

Colors Used:

• Base: Rica Whiteout
• Yellow: Sally Hansen Lightening
• Dark Teal: Color Club Baldwin Blues
• Light Blue: Essie Mint Candy Apple

And here’s a close-up of the nail that came out the best:

 

I like how it came out! Maybe it doesn’t match Kaiser’s collar exactly, and the diamonds ended up more circular… but hey, I was a bit tipsy and I still like the end product 🙂 They kind of look like mosaic tiles. What do you think?

Pastel Leadlighting Skittlette: May NCC #4

Leadlighting: if you haven’t heard of it, it’s a great technique to make beautiful multicolored nail designs with stamping as an alternative to the time-intensive stamping decal. As far as I know, the ladies at Messy Mansion were the first to do this (or name it leadlighting). You stamp over a light polish base, then use jelly polish to color in the negative space.

I actually only have one jelly polish, so I made my own! The lovely Jacqui at CraftyNail suggested this to me after I envied her leadlighting mani using OPI Sheer Tints. I basically mixed my existing creme polishes with a little bit of top coat to make the pastel jelly. I think I probably should’ve added more of the top coat since mine is still fairly opaque, but I think it came out alright!