Monthly Mani Favs

The One With the November Monthly Mani Favs

9:00:00 AM

Good morning polished world! How are you all doing today?  It's the end of the month, therefore it's time for me to share my Monthly Mani Favs!  I skipped out last month because I was really tired of Halloween manicures and wasn't in the mood to share them again.

Can you believe though that it is the end of November?  I feel like it just started.  I am not going to lie though, I am excited for December and to start some Christmas nail art.  There are so many cute ideas out there that I'm dying to try and make my own!

Until then though, let's take a look at November's favs.



  • The One With the Abstract Looking Flowers - Loving this cute manicure using some of my favorite ORLY polishes.  The manicure was inspired by Nicole over at Young, Wild, and Polished.  I'm sad that Sally Beauty doesn't stock ORLY's limited edition collections anymore.  Thank God for HB Beauty Bar!
  • The One With Round 30 of Bestie Twin Nails With Fashion Footing - I feel like every monthly mani fav features my BTN with Amanda.  I absolutely loved this Fall floral manicure using Morgan Taylor Looking for a Wingman.  I love how the colors blended together and were perfectly accented with ORLY Bling.
  • The One With the Splash Flower and Jessica Cosmetics - Mysterious Echoes by Jessica Cosmetics has quickly become one of my favorite Fall colors.  This polish is from the Into the Wild collection.  I just love how it looks sponged onto the white.
  • The One With the Blue Smoosh Manicure - Love, love, love this manicure.  This blue is one of my all time favorite colors!!  The smoosh is one of my new favorite techniques also.  Just look how neat it is!
What's your favorite?  Did you like some of my other manicures instead?

Until next time, <3.

Dot Mani

The One With the Splash Flower and Jessica Cosmetics

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!  How are you all doing today?  I hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving!!  Hard to believe that Thanksgiving is over and that Christmas is right around the corner.  That means I need to start my Christmas and Winter manicures.

Until then, I still have a few more fall-ish designs to share with you all.  Today's design is loosely inspired by this manicure by just.mynails on Instagram.  While I liked her design, I wanted to switch it up a little bit and make it my own.

Let's take a look!




Colors Used:
  • Jessica Cosmetics - Mysterious Echoes
  • Serendipity Polish - Sunshine Rainbow
  • ORLY - White Tips
I love the final design of my manicure.  The splash flower is something I always credit Casual Contrast for coming up with.  Even when I see other bloggers do the design, I automatically think of Emily.  So, even though I re-created a design by just.mynails, I never would have known to do a splash flower ever if it weren't for Emily.  I love the design.  It's simple, quick, and super eye catching.



Mysterious Echoes is a beauty from the Into the Wild Collection.  I used it in a manicure a week or so ago, and loved it so much that I had to use it again.  I love how it looks sponged on the white, and next to the gold.

What do you think?  Fan of the look?  Have you ever created a splash flower design?

Until next time, <3.

FingerPaints

The One With the Thanksgiving Mani and INM Polishes

9:00:00 AM


Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends!  How are you all doing today?  I love Thanksgiving because let's face it, out of all the holidays the food is the best.  Especially come Friday when you have all the Thanksgiving leftovers.

This year, I didn't do a turkey manicure, instead I did a floral/Fall manicure inspired by Sensationails4U on Instagram.  As I mentioned the other day, I received a packaged from INM containing some of their new OTD nail polishes.  Two of them were perfect for this manicure.

Let's take a look!




Colors Used:
  • INM OTD Lacquer - Acai
  • INM OTD Lacquer - Flapper
  • FingerPaints - Wrapped in Ribbon
  • Acrylics
Guys, I mastered the glitter gradient!  I am so proud of myself!  I have always shied away from doing glitter gradients because I've never been able to figure them out.  It's always too concentrated and it makes it look like half my nail is glitter and there is no smooth transition.  Maybe it's the wonderful FingerPaints Wrapped in Ribbon which made this possible, but it's just perfect.  I painted a little onto a make up sponge, dabbed it on a paper plate, then onto the nail.  It applied perfectly the first time and didn't even have to add extra!



I used Flapper in my leopard manicure I posted a few days ago.  Loved it as a nail art polish, and love it even more as a base.  Two coats and I had full coverage.  Just like my OTD top coat, this polish dried super fast.  No need to wait a long time before starting my nail art!


Acai is a gorgeous polish.  While it looks black, it is not.  It is a deep, gorgeous, red brown polish.  I'm assuming it's the color of an acai berry, but I've never had one so I can't really be 100% sure.  Two coats on this beauty as well.  I found this one to have more of a crelly formula instead of the cream like Flapper.  I absolutely adored this polish.  I just realized you can see the reflection of my tshirt in the bottle.  Oops, bad photo taking on my part!

What do you think?  Fan of this look?  Something you would try?

I hope that all my followers who celebrate Thanksgiving have an AMAZING day with family and friends.  Eat lots of turkey and prepare yourselves for Black Friday!!!

Until next time, <3.

Swatches

The Simple Mani with Zoya Nyx and Stevie

9:00:00 AM



Happy Tuesday polished world!!  How are you all doing today?  I have a quick swatch-ish post for you all.  I meant to have a post up yesterday, then got sidetracked.  Then I wanted to have an art post up today as a pre-Thanksgiving manicure, but in the end I'm going to share that one as my Thanksgiving one.

So today I'm sharing with you a skittle manicure I did using two of the Zoya Pixie Dusts.  As you know, I love the original micro formula of the Pixies and am so happy that Zoya started coming out with new colors.  I don't care what anyone says, the textured look is still in.

Let's take a look!

Colors Used:

  • Zoya - Nyx
  • Zoya - Stevie
Love, love, love Nyx.  I purchased this polish a year or so ago during a Zoya promo.  I didn't have any colors like it in my collection so of course I needed to get it.  Three coats for this one.  I found it to be a little sheer.  It did build up, but it needed the three.  If you did two thicker coats, you can get away with two, but I find that the Pixie's dry funky if you do thick coats.



My beloved Stevie.  My all time favorite Pixie dust.  Two coats.  So happy I have a back up bottle of this beauty, and beyond happy that they didn't change the formula over the years.  I'm sure you all have had a company change a formula of your beloved polish and when you go to re-stock you're highly disappointed.  Thankfully, this Pixie is still the same.

Fan of the skittles?  Do you still use and love the Pixie Dust polishes?

Promise to be back to the nail art in a few days!

Until next time, <3.

Bestie Twin Nails

The One With Round 30 of Bestie Twin Nails With Fashion Footing

9:00:00 AM


Happy Saturday polished world!  How are you all doing today?  I have a busy day ahead of me.  Finishing my Pinterest project (stay tuned to Instagram), getting some stuff for my office, and hanging out with my friend.

Today is Round 30 of Bestie Twin Nails with Fashion Footing.  This month we are creating a Fall floral design inspired by College Cuticles.  So weird to think that Fall is about over, and Christmas will be here any day.  Not going to lie, I'm kind of excited to start winter/Christmas designs.

Let's take a look at today's design!




Colors Used:
How did I forget about ORLY Bling?!  This polish is beyond beautiful.  I've owned it what, for a year now, and totally forgot it existed.  I'm keeping this out on my shelf now so I can remember it during the Christmas season.  Two coats, full holographic glittery coverage.



Morgan Taylor Looking for a Wingman is a gorgeous light burgundy cream.  Two coats and full coverage.  It's quite beautiful.  I wasn't sure I was going to like this one on, but it was quite nice.  Not your typical burgundy polish.

What do you think?  Fan of this look?  Perfect for Fall??

Until next time, <3.

Animal Print

The One With the Leopard Manicure and OTD Nail Lacquer

9:00:00 AM



Good morning polished world!  How are you on this fine Thursday??  Guys, tomorrow it's going to be 70 degrees and then Sunday we are supposed to get snow.  The weather is going crazy!!  I'm okay though with it snowing, I kind of like that first snow.  Sort of like how Lorelai Gilmore walks around town on the night of the first snow all happy as can be.  Talk to me again in February, I learn to hate the snow.

A few weeks ago, INM, the wonderful company behind my beloved Out the Door Top coat, sent me a package which contained 18, yes you read that right, 18 polishes.  They came right before Halloween so I decided to finish up my Halloween manicures before playing around with them.  I really wish I hadn't waited because the polishes are quite lovely.  I should probably swatch some of them, but I don't know if I have the patience to swatch 18 polishes.  Well, it's down to 14 now, I might have dropped some....oops.

Anyways, today I decided to do a leopard manicure using one of the OTD polish's I already owned alongside a new one.  Let's take a look!




Colors Used:
  • INM - Exposed
  • INM - Flapper
  • OPI - Champagne For Breakfast
  • ORLY - Liquid Vinyl
Before I talk about the INM beauties, I need to take a moment to talk about OPI's Champagne for Breakfast.  This is a textured, you read that right, textured holo graphic glitter polish.  Beyond gorgeous!  It's truly like having a diamond on your nail!  It was such a pleasant surprise when I put it on!  I thought I was buying just another holo glitter topper (which you can never have too many of).

Exposed is one of my favorite nudes.  I received it a few years ago and didn't use it for a bottle shot because it separated a little bit.  Nothing that didn't come together when you shook it, but it left little visible swirls in the bottle.  It didn't affect the formula one bit.  Two coats and perfect coverage.  What I love about the INM polishes is how smoothly they apply.  



INM Flapper is such a gorgeous grey-brown polish.  I really need to use this one for a base of a manicure soon.  I did swatch on one nail before I decided upon doing the leopard manicure and it was almost a one coater.  I used two because it was slighty patchy.  Smooth application.

Awesome thing to know about the OTD Polishes is that they are five free!  My friend asked the other day and I contacted them because I wasn't 100% positive and they answered right away.

What do you think of the manicure?  Fan of the color combination?  Ever used INM polishes??

You can purchase INM polishes direct from their site or Nail Emporium.  They cost $3.00 which is a great price.

Thank you so much INM for sending me the surprise package.  You really made my day!!! <3 <3

Until next time, <3

Color Club

The One With the Raining Dots

9:00:00 AM


Happy Monday polished world!!!  How are you all doing today?  The weekend has come and gone so fast, as usual.  I did get a good chunk of my Pinterest project done and it's turning out a lot better than expected!  I cannot wait until it's done so I can show you!!

Today I'm sharing with you a dot manicure which really I don't have a name for,  Maybe a raining dot manicure?  Since my nails are raining dots from my cuticles??  Yeah I have no clue.  I think I call this design a dot gradient when I start from the base of my nail.  I wanted something a little different so I decided to switch it up and go from the cuticle.  Kind of a pain to do, but worth it.

Let's take a look.




Colors Used:
  • Color Club - Diggin' the Dancing Queen
  • Jessica Cosmetics - Black Lustre
  • ORLY - White Tips
  • OPI - This Crown Needs a Gown
Kind of a neat look, right?  I love the purple base with the black, white, and silver dots.  I feel like the dots raining from my cuticle make my nails look longer than they would have if I started from the base.  The reason why I said they were a pain was because I was scared to flood my cuticle with a dot.  Placement was really important also for my OCD.



Diggin' the Dancing Queen is a gorgeous bright pastel purple polish from the Color Club Pastel Neon Pop collection.  I wanted this collection forever and finally purchased them last year from HB Beauty Bar.  Best decision of my life.  This polish covers completely in two coats.  I was nervous because some reviews said that this polish was super patchy, but I didn't find it to be that way at all.


I'm starting to fall more and more in love with Black Lustre.  This polish worked great with making the dots.  Some polishes get goopy fast and lead to those strings whenever you try to do a dot, but this doesn't at all.

What do you think?  Like this look?  Something you think you would try??

Until next time, <3.

Dot Mani

The One With the Abstract Looking Flowers

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!  How are you all doing today?  It's Saturday so you know that I'm going to be sleeping in and doing absolutely nothing today.  Okay, that's a lie, I actually have some things I need to do this afternoon.  Oh well.

Today I'm sharing with you a manicure inspired by Young, Wild and Polished using my beloved ORLY polishes.  I just want to take a second to talk about how upset I am that Sally Beauty has cut their ORLY collection down to half and no longer carries any of the Limited Edition collections.  Due to this, my ORLY collection isn't expanding.  Thank God I discovered that HBBeauty Bar now has all the LE collections and I can stock up again.  

Lets take a look at my manicure! 




Colors Used:
  • ORLY - Liquid Vinyl
  • ORLY - Whtite Tips
  • ORLY - Risky Behavior
I absolutely love this manicure.  I love the fun abstract floral design!  I wish I could remember which other colors I splashed in there along side Risky Business but for the life of me I cannot remember.  This is a prime reason why I need to write down what polishes I use when I use them.  Oh well, looks like I used an orange and a perwinkle.

Design is super easy to do.  First you paint on your base coat of white polish.  When that's dry, you go through with a medium dotting tool and add the pink flowers.  Once those are on, just fill in the empty spaces with the random splotches of color using a small dotting tool.  Then I went through with a toothpick and added the centers of the flowers.


I love my ORLY's.  Liquid Vinyl is by far one of my favorite black polishes.  Two coats and you have full shiny coverage.  The best part, the bottle doesn't get goopy until the very bottom of the bottle, which is a huge plus for me since I use black polish like it's going out of style.

What do you think of the look?  A manicure you would attempt?  Fan of ORLY?  Upset that Sally Beauty isn't carrying as many anymore??

Until next time, <3.

Sally Hansen

The One With the Blue Smoosh Manicure

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!  Happy Wednesday to you all!  My whole body is in pain because I thought it would be a good idea to rake the front yard.  You know, the front yard that is massive and has a gigantic maple tree which dropped majority of it's leaves in one day.  Oh well, it was a good exercise....maybe?  I'll make my final decision when I'm not in so much pain.

Today I'm bringing you a simple blue smoosh manicure.  After my successful Halloween smoosh manicure, I couldn't wait to attempt the design again.  Since I love blue, it was obvious an obvious color scheme.

Let's take a look!




Colors Used:
  • Sally Hansen - Byte Blue
  • OPI - Love.Angel.Music.Baby
  • Serendipity Polish - Sunshine Rainbow
  • Mixture of Blues from Sally Hansen
Guys, I fail, I forgot to write down what blue polishes I used to create my smoosh manicure.  I did use a base of blue, then had four blues ranging from navy to sky blue along with a white.  To get the look, I dripped a few drops of each polish onto a stamper, stamped it on a paper plate, then onto my nail.  Cleaned up the little that bled on the edge despite the fact I taped everything up, added a top coat, and enjoyed.  



Byte Blue is one of my all time favorite blue polishes.  Two  coats and you have the most gorgeous cobalt blue polish.  Since it's a Miracle Gel, the wear time is amazing.  Love, love, love.  I need about ten bottles of this polish.


Sunshine Rainbow by Serendipity Polish really accented this manicure well.  One coat over OPI Love Angel Music Baby.   I love one coat glitters which apply evenly and don't require any dabbing or glitter placing.

Overall, I think this manicure has a summer feel, which was just what I needed after Halloween and all those dark manicures.

What do you think?  Fan of the smoosh?  Like the color combo??

Until next time, <3.

Dot Mani

The One With Chevrons and Jessica Cosmetics Mysterious Echoes

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!!!  How are you all doing today?  It's Monday which means it's the beginning of another fun filled week.  It's supposed to be warm here today, then plummet into true winter weather by Friday.  I believe we even have a snowflake in the forecast on Saturday.  Hopefully all the leaves will fall off the trees before the snow comes, otherwise it will be a true mess.

Today I'm sharing with you a Fall kind of vampy mish mosh manicure I came up with.  I have owned chevron nail vinyls for quite some time, but never really use them as much as I should.  Probably because whenever I do use them, my base rips right off no matter how long I wait for the polish to dry.  After getting the vinyls to work a month or so ago, I thought I would give them another go.  Who would have thought that I would have two manicures in a row work out using my vinyls.

Let's take a look!





Colors Used:
  • Jessica Cosmetics - Mysterious Echoes
  • FingerPaints - Golden Glaze
Okay, ignore my photos above, they really aren't true to color.  I don't know why but Mysterious Echoes photographed way darker in my lightbox than what it is in person.  The photo below shows it more true to color.  

Regardless, the manicure was absolutely gorgeous.  I never was one to like manicures using dark shades or gold, but for some reason this year, I can't get enough.  Maybe it's because the vampy polishes I own are all beautiful on.  And maybe because I got over my stubborn streak of only using bright polishes and ignoring all the others in my collection. 



I love Mysterious Echoes.  Two coats for this beautiful beauty.  I really love how it looks against the wonderful FingerPaints Golden Glaze.  Notice how perfect my chevrons are.  I think that has to do with the fact that Golden Glaze is one of the FingerPaints Fast Dry polishes which dry so super fast.  Also, it's one coat, so that helps too when you don't have two to three coats waiting to dry.

What do you think?  Like this look?  Something you would try?

Until next time, <3.

FingerPaints

The One With the Skittle Swatches

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!  How are you all doing today??  It's Saturday, so I'm super thrilled to be sleeping in and spending my day doing absolutely nothing.  Well that's a lie, I have a lot of errands to run and a Pinterest project I want to complete.  I also want to sleep until about 1pm, but I don't see that happening.

So as we all know, I'm taking a tad of a break from the intricate nail art after all the Halloween manicures.  I did do some nail art last night, but unfortunately I'm having an awful time photographing them.  I did get some photographs, but they're going to need some editing for you to be able to see the design.  Sigh.  I hate when that happens.  Maybe I'll just take some cell phone shots outside and call it a day.  

Anyways, today's manicure is a simple swatch skittle which I actually did last month.  I attempted to do a Halloween manicure but couldn't get the nail art to work right, so I just made it a swatch mani.  I ended up wearing it for a few days because I really liked the color combination and how it turned out.

Let's take a look!


Colors Used:

  • Zoya - Rooney
  • Zoya - Dahlia
  • FingerPaints - Sterling Sculpture
  • ORLY - Liquid Vinyl
Isn't it pretty?  You guys might be seeing more skittles from me in the future.  I feel like my nails are still fancy even without nail art when I do these manicures.  Plain swatches of one color just bore me and I remove them right away.  When it's a bunch of swatches though, I love it.

Rooney is a gorgeous pink polish.  It sits in the back of my Melmer and never gets used.  Two coats of this beauty.  If you like pinks, then I suggest you purchase it.  I'm happy I purchased Dahlia awhile ago during a Zoya promo.  This polish is absolutely gorgeous and one of my favorite Pixie Dusts.  Two coats and full coverage.  I thought it was going to need three the first time I swatched it when I bought it, but it builds up wonderfully in two coats.

You already all know how much I love FingerPaints Sterling Sculpture and ORLY Liquid Vinyl.  My favorite go to polishes.

What do you think?  Like the skittles?  Think I could get away with doing more??

Until next time, <3.

Dot Mani

The One With ILNP Music Box and Mega X

9:00:00 AM

Nothing to Disclose

Happy Thursday polished world!  I apologize for not posting yesterday, I needed a little posting break after all that Halloween!  I was going to do a October Monthly Mani Favorites, but since everything was Halloween and I was tired of posting black and orange manicures, I didn't really want to re-visit them.  I know, I'm a party pooper, but oh well.

After all those Halloween manicures, I really need to refresh.  That means a good trim, something simple, and something bright.  Doing something holo always is a good option as well.  Let's take a look at my simple dot manicure.




Colors Used:
  • ILNP - Music Box
  • ILNP - Mega X
  • ORLY - White Tips
You know how much I love dots, so you could have guessed that my refresher manicure was going into involve dots in one way shape or form.  I should probably tally up how many designs I've done that included polka dots.  If you're sick of them, let me know and I'll force myself to accent my manicures in a different way. 



I love the color combination of this manicure.  Music Box by ILNP is one of my favorite holographic polishes.  Such a gorgeous mint polish.  It applies perfectly in two coats and has a perfect holo effect.  I'm happy it's more subtle because I think if it was an ultra holo, then the color would be lost.  


Mega X is a GORGEOUS silver holographic polish.  Two coats for this beauty as well.  I have dozens of silver holographic polishes, and I have to say this one is one of my favorites.  If you love anything holo, you need to have this in your collection.

 What do you think?  Nice simple refresher manicure?  Anyone else do simple manicures after doing crazy ones for so long??

Until next time, <3.