Monthly Mani Favs

The One With the June Monthy Mani Favs

9:00:00 AM

Happy Wednesday everyone!  How are you all doing??  It's the end of June already so that means that it is time for another Round Up Post, or what most people call Monthly Mani Fav.  That's actually what I call it on Instagram, but meh whatever.  I started calling them Round Up posts here on the blog so I'll keep it at that.

Can we take a second and just talk about how it's actually the end of June?  I don't know where this month went.  This past weekend too was a complete blur.  It all caught up to me yesterday because I came home from work, sat down and slept a few hours.  Now let's see if I'm able to function today.

Okay, June Round Up.  I apologize because this month I will not be sharing my favorites by other bloggers.  I was going to do so but I haven't had much time to put this post together.  Between the blur of a weekend, then the other night my cute little nephew had quite the injury and needed some stitches, all my blogging had to go on the back burner.  Next month I'll bring back the other blogger feature.

So let's take a look at my monthly mani favorites!


Shocker, all of them used Serendipity Polish.  This is one of my new favorite brands so it is no surprise that all my favorite manicures this month were done with them.


  1. The One With the Mani Swap with 25 Sweet Peas - My first ever manicure swap post!  Sarah and I re-created each other's manicures!  She did my hibiscus design and I did this cute vintage rose look.  Such a dainty design on a gorgeous base of Serendipity Polish Mint Martini.  Love this color so much.
  2. The One With Round 25 of Bestie Twin Nails with Fashion Footing - Pretty sure every month my BTN design ends up on this list.  This month Amanda and I re-created this tape and dot design by Young Wild and Polished.  I used Serendipity Polish Mint Martini and Vacation Vibes.  Awesome colors on their own and together.  I just loved how this one turned out so much.
  3. The One With Daisies and Serendipity Polish Vitamin Sea - Another lovely manicure using another lovely Serendipity Polish.  This bright blue baby is Vitamin Sea and I think I can say it is my favorite from the Beach, Please collection.  I love the layout of this manicure with the silver, flowers, dots, and the yellow accent nail.  Something fun and different.
  4. The One With Serendipity Polish Holo-Day Lights - Last but not least we have this lovely mish mosh manicure I did which is accented with the gorgeous Holo-Day Lights.  If you like holo anything, then you need to get this polish.  I love the overall color combination I used in this manicure.  The grey with the neon on top just really popped.  It's something I never would have done normally but I think I might be doing more manicures with neons and greys.  Maybe even a neon and beige base....hmmm
What do you think?  Any of these manicures your favorite??  Anything you think you might try to re-create?

I'll be back in a few days with a Fourth of July manicure.  Cannot believe it's already time for the 4th.  Before I know it I'll be writing up my July Round Up.  Slow down 2016, I still have a lot of fun summer things to do before it gets cold and snowy again.

Until next time, <3.

China Glaze

The One With the Blue Galaxy Mani

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!  How are you all doing today?  I have had one of the greatest weekends ever.  It all kicked off with an AMAZING concert, then Painting with a Twist with some of my best friends.  After years of people telling me I should paint on a larger canvas, I actually tried it and I actually did it!  Head on over to my Instagram to see my painting.  I love how it turned out!!!!

Today I'm sharing with you a fun galaxy manicure I did a few weeks ago.  I love galaxy nail art so much.  After seeing a blue one on a few lovely bloggers Instagram pages, I thought I would give it a try.  I think this has to be hands down my favorite galaxy design ever.

Let's take a look!




Colors Used:
  • Zoya - Sailor
  • China Glaze - DJ Blue My Mind
  • China Glaze - UV Meant to Be
  • INM Northern Lights
  • Black and White Acrylic
To start off, I did a deep navy base and used Zoya Sailor.  One of my favorite Zoya polishes.  If only it had a larger brush I would use it more often.  Those small brushes annoy the heck out of me.  OPI and Sally Hansen spoil me with the wide brush.  After I did this manicure, I forgot that I owned ILNP Missed Calls and Honor Roll which either or would have been a perfect base.  Oh well, maybe next time.

After my blue base was dry, I used a make up sponge and dabbed white acrylic down the middle of each nail.  I made the centers more intense white and the outer edge more faded.  I then took black acrylic and sponged it one the very edge of the nails, so there was a black, to blue, to white transition.

When that was dried, I sponged on the different China Glaze blues, and then went back through with a little more white in the center.



Then comes the pretty sparkly part.  I shook up my bottle of INM Northern Lights, one of my favorite top coats, and added one coat.  It blended the gradients together and added a real galaxy look.  Since this top coat is super fast drying, I didn't have to wait too long before adding my white stars with a dotting tool.  I then finished it all off with a clear top coat.  If you want to avoid doing a clear top coat, you can do your white stars before Northern Lights and then call it a day.

What do you think?  Fan of the blue galaxy?  Do you have INM Northern Lights?

I've said it before and I'll say it again, if you love China Glaze Fairy Dust, then you will love Northern Lights even more.  Fairy Dust takes forever to dry on me and has an awful smell, and Fairy Dust is night and day from that.  Super fast dry, low odor, with the same beautiful effect.

Now looking at that last photo, I'm kind of glad I used a cream base and not one of the two holo polishes I mentioned earlier.  I think it might have taken away from the galaxy.  Maybe not.  I won't know unless I try.

Until next time, <3.

Bestie Twin Nails

The One with Round 25 of Bestie Twin Nails with Fashion Footing

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!  How are you all doing today?  It's been such a good, busy week and it's not going to slow down any time soon!  Don't you just love summer?

Today is Round 25 of Bestie Twin Nails with Fashion Footing!  I still can't believe that last month was our two year anniversary of this feature.  Crazy how fast time flies.  The three year anniversary will be here in a blink of an eye!

Today we are re-creating a fun tape, dot, mish mosh manicure originally done by Young, Wild and Polished.  I absolutely love how it turned out!

Let's take a look!




Colors Used:
  • Orly - White Tips
  • Serendipity Polish - Mint Martini
  • Serendipity Polish - Vacation Vibes


I had to take a shot of this manicure before I added the art because I loved the plain swatches.  As you've seen in my last few blog posts, I am in LOVE with these Serendipity polishes.  I've used Mint Martini a few times but this was my first time using Vacation Vibes.  Such a gorgeous, vibrant purple which is perfect for summer.  The bottle looked a little dustier so I didn't think it was going to be as vibrant on the nail, but I was wrong.



Since these polishes are lovely quick drying one coaters, doing this tape manicure was beyond simple!  Put my first coat down, let it dry for a few minutes, added tape, then added the other color!  It was so opaque it covered right over the color underneath.  Usually when I do these tape manicures I have to do two coats of the top polish to make sure the bottom is completely covered.

What do you think?  Have you purchased any Serendipity Polishes yet?  You won't be sorry!!

Make sure to check out Amanda's version!

Until next time, <3.

Dot Mani

The One With the Daisies and Serendipity Polish Vitamin Sea

9:00:00 AM


Happy Monday polished world!  How are you all doing today?  After typing Happy Monday, I just realized that I never did a Twinsie Tuesday manicure, so I guess I won't be posting tomorrow alongside the Twinie's.  Oops.  I'll be back in two weeks!

Since it is supposed to be 93 degrees today, I have decided to post a fun, bright, daisy manicure I did using some Serendipity Polishes.  As you may know, I recently purchased the Beach, Please collection along with Holo-Day Lights, and I have quickly fallen in love.  These polishes are MAGNIFICENT.  Everyone needs to have them in their polish arsenal.

Let's take a look at my manicure!!




Colors Used:
  • Serendipity Polish - Vitamin Sea
  • Serendipity Polish - Holo-Day Lights
  • OPI - My Twin Mimmy
Isn't this manicure fabulous!?  Let's talk about how gorgeous Vitamin Sea is.  This beautiful blue is from the Beach, Please collection and is a one coater!  Yup, you read that right, this polish has perfect opaque coverage in one coat!  The polish also dried super fast so I didn't have to wait forever or apply a top coat before drawing my art.



I love the combination of colors with this manicure.  The bright blue, the yellow, the silver holo, the white daisies.  Everything about this manicure was perfection.  I was very sad when I took it off.  I probably could have kept in on longer since after 3 days there weren't any chips, but alas I have a blog to keep updated!

What do you think?  Used the Serendipity Polishes before?  Love this look??

Until next time, <3.

Color Club

The One with Serendipity Polish Holo-Day Lights

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!  How are you all doing today?  It's Friday - the end of the LONGEST week ever.  I take that back, next week might be the longest week ever.  We shall see though, I think it's going to be busy but what it won't be.

Today I have a mish mosh manicure using one of my new favorite polishes, Serendipity Polish Holo-Day Lights.  I purchased this beauty along with the Beach, Please collection a few weeks ago.  Ever since the order came I couldn't wait to use it.  Now I'm addicted.

Let's take a look!




Colors Used:
  • Color Club - Blue Ming
  • Sally Hansen - In My Suitcase
  • Orly - White Tips
  • Serendipity Polish - Holo-Day Lights
Let's talk about the design first.  I saw something with a similar color scheme by Young, Wild, and Polished.  I loved the bright mint color over the top of a light grey.  One of the new Sally Hansen Miracle Gels I received was the perfect grey.  So I grabbed all the colors and came up with a mish mosh manicure with some dots and a dry brush.  I think I need to do more neon/grey manicures.



Holo-Day Lights by Serendipity Polish is a must have!  I have not seen a more fabulous holo glitter in my life.  With one coat you have a gorgeous topper, and with two coats you have full coverage like in my swatch above.  The holo effect was just as strong inside as it was outside.  I need to buy a back up of this right away.


In my Suitcase by Sally Hansen is such a beautiful grey polish.  Light grey's like this can be tricky and end up needing at least three coats, but this gorgeous beauty only required two coats.  Just like the other Miracle Gels I own, it didn't chip right away.  I ended up getting four days out of this manicure, and would have gone longer but Blue-Ming chipped on the fourth day.  I need to start giving myself Miracle Gel pedicures so my toes stop chipping.

What do you think?  Fan of this manicure?  Love the color combination?

Until next time, <3.

Dot Mani

The One With the OPI Roses

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!  I apologize for not posting the last few days, but I've been quite under the weather.  I had some sort of sinus infection/cold thing which now has turned into some sort of cough.  Not fun, but what can you do?  At least I'm finally on the tail end of it and am feeling better.  I wanted to post but I just have been having zero energy to do anything beyond working.

Today I have a cute rose manicure I did last week.  I bought OPI Spoken From the Heart from the Hello Kitty collection what feels like forever ago and have yet to use it.  The other night I grabbed it for some quick roses with a little dot accent.  I really love how they turned out!

Let's take a look!




Colors Used:
  • Orly - Liquid Vinyl
  • Orly - White Tips
  • OPI - Spoken From the Heart
This OPI polish is gorgeous!  I'm kind of kicking myself that I haven't used it until now.  I see this being a total go-to pedicure color for the summer.  Not too red, not too pink.  Perfect in between shade.  I thought that it was going to be a three coater when I applied the first coat but was pleasantly surprised when I discovered it was a perfect two coater.  Very glossy too!  I just love it so much.



The polish worked great for nail art.  It's a perfect color for roses!  Just noticing now that I got some white polish on my bottle...must have nicked one of my nails on it while painting?  Who knows.  All my bottles seem to have polish on them or the caps.

What do you think?  Fan of this look?  Lover of the floral prints??

Until next time, <3.

Animal Print

The One With the Leopard Accent

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!  Happy Friday!  I'm so beyond thrilled that it is Friday because this has been the longest week ever.  It all started when I came down ith an awful cold.  At first I thought it was allergies, then a sinus infection, but now I'm pretty sure it's a cold.  It has knocked me down to the point where I have felt too sick to even paint my nails.  I had the same manicure on for five days.  That's how you for sure know that I'm sick.  I'm hoping today that I feel a bit better but so far it's not looking like it will be that way.  Ugh.

So, I have this back log of posts just in case I do get sick and can't keep up on blogging.  I think right now I'm up to five posts and honestly I couldn't be happier because I didn't feel like I had to push myself to paint to keep up with blogging.  I've ignored my social networks but what can you do.

Anyways, today I'm sharing with you a manicure I did about two weeks ago.  I wanted to do something simple because it was late at night.  What's simpler than a leopard accent with some glitter and creams?

Let's take a look!




Colors Used:
  • China Glaze - Let's Jam
  • FingerPaints - Paper Mache
  • FingerPaints - Umber-ella
I love China Glaze Let's Jam.  At first I wasn't going to get this polish because I figured I had similar purple polishes in my collection.  I'm so happy that I decided to get it because it is so unique!  It's a pretty purple with a shimmer of blue which picks up in the picture below.  In the sunlight it is gorgeous.  I need to use this for pedicures!



FingerPaints Umber-ella is such a unique polish.  It is part of the new core line for 2016 and I've had this beauty since February and totally forgot about it.  I really can't think of a way to describe this polish other than calling it sparkly sand.  Two coats were used for this manicure and I had full coverage.  I really didn't think that was going to happen since it was rather sheer on the first and I thought it would be better as a topper.  It built up though quite nicely and had such a pretty sparkle to it.  I can't wait to use this again!

What do you think?  Like this look?  Something simpler....

Here's to hoping I feel better!!

Until next time, <3.

Dot Mani

The One with the Negative Space Manicure for Twinsie Tuesday

9:00:00 AM


Hey all!  How are you all doing today??  Allergy season is in full swing over here so I've become a mouth breather.  I just want to drive around with my windows open but can't because the cotton wood trees are killing me.  Hopefully in a few weeks the pollen and all the other nasty stuff will calm down and I can utilize my sun roof.

Today is Tuesday which means it is time for another Twinsie Tuesday!  This week we are all creating negative space manicures!  When this technique first started to appear in the blog-o-sphere, I really wasn't a huge fan.  I didn't understand why anyone would want to have naked nails.  The point of painting them is to have the nail covered.  After trying a few different negative space designs, I fell in love.  Especially with the negative space florals.

For today's post, I created a gold negative space floral design using one of my new FingerPaints polishes.  Let's take a look!




Colors Used:
  • FingerPaints - Paper Mache
  • FingerPaints - Beverly's Touch
  • FingerPaints - Ridge Filler
Yes, you read that right, I used a Ridge Filler for this manicure.  My index finger tends to peel on both hands.  Peeling is actually ten times worse on my right hand and that's probably because that's my dominant hand and I end up always chipping my nails on that hand before the left.  When I do negative space manicures, I put down a coat of base coat and let it dry.  Since I have these peels, the base coat doesn't really make for an even surface to work with.  Enter in my Ridge Filler.  One coat and my nail is in perfect condition and peels disappear!



Beverly's Touch is a gorgeous gold polish from the Ashley Nell Tipton Collection available now at Sally Beauty Supply Stores.  I used two coats for this manicure, and I think I actually added a little bit of a sparkle glitter over the top.  The only gold micro I own is FingerPaints Wrapped in Ribbon so that's probably what I did.  Anyways, it was perfect with one coat but I did two.  You can see how sparkly the polish on it's own in the centers of the flowers and in the dots on the pinkie.  I really am loving this yellow gold shade.  Nothing like it in my collection and am so glad to have it.  Odd name, but oh well.

What do you think?  Fan of this negative space look?

Don't forget to check out the other Twinsie's posts!


Sharon at Behind Green Eyes
Savannah at Addicted to Polish
Marisa at Polish Obsession
Claire at Kerruticles
Amber at NailsLikeLace
Amanda at Fashion Footing

Dot Mani

The One With the Mani Swap With 25 Sweet Peas

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!  How are you all doing on this fine Sunday?  It's supposed to storm here all day so I'm going to be a bum.  Actually I hope to get around to cleaning my room and building my other Melmer.  I'm overflowing out of two and am running out of room on my polish shelf.  It's kind of a problem, but it's a good problem to have!

I'm very excited about today's post!  It is my first ever Mani Swap!!  I see other bloggers do this all the time and for some reason I never have done one.  The other day I asked Sarah from 25 Sweet Peas if she wanted to, and of course she said yes!


For today's mani swap, Sarah recreated my hibiscus flowers, and I recreated her vintage floral look!  I think Sarah's looks are better than mine and she thinks mine are better than hers!

Let's take a look!




Colors Used:
  • Serendipity Polish - Mint Martini
  • Acrylics
Really loving this look.  The mint, the dots, the flowers - just everything is so pretty.  I started off with my base coat of Serendipity Polish in Mint Martini.  I'll talk about this polish below because I have a photo of a swatch of it.  Anyways, when my base was dried, I went through and added all the dots on my nails.  Ten nails, give or take 19 dots on each equals a whole heck of a lot of dots.  

When those were dried, I went through and added the white blobs which would be the base for the flowers.  I kind of think they look like little doilies.  I then went through and added the roses which were kind of a pain.


For my roses, I started with a light pink acrylic paint.  I then mixed together a red and a pink to make a darker pink.  While my light pink dots were still wet, I went through with a toothpick and swirled the darker pink to make the rose/marble look.  The details are so tiny that I thought this was the easiest way to make them look like roses.  I then went through and added the little leaves.  Top coat and done.


Now, let's take a minute to talk about this gorgeous polish by Serendipity Polish.  This beauty is Mint Martini from the Beach, Please collection.  I ordered this collection about two weeks ago during a promo.  Sarah kept telling me how awesome they were so I decided I needed to try them out.  I am so so happy that I did.  I kid you not, this polish could have been one coat.  I did two for the swatch above because one of my nails was a bit patchy.  By far one of the best formulas I have used in a long long time.  I cannot wait to use this one and the others for more nail art.  I can see myself ordering back-ups.  Especially since the customer service is beyond excellent with this company.  Long story short, my first package came with a damaged bottle. I contacted them and literally 2 minutes later they answered saying they were going to replace.  Three days later, replacement plus a free top coat showed up in my mail box!

What do you think?  Like the mani swap?  Have you used Serendipity Polish??

Cannot wait to do more mani swaps in the future!  Hope you guys enjoyed this post as much as I did!  Don't forget to check out Sarah's page!

Until next time, <3.

China Glaze

The One with the Purple Dry Brush

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!  How are you all doing on this fine Thursday?  Since Monday was a holiday, this whole week is throwing me off.  I am a day off with everything I do.  Seriously, I thought it was Tuesday yesterday all day.  Oh well, at least I had a three day weekend!

Today I am sharing with you a purple dry brush manicure inspired by @kellimarissa.  I love doing dry brush manicures because they are such a simple way to get unique looking nails.  When I saw Kelli's dry brush I knew I had to re-create it right away!  It's so unique and different!

Let's take a look!




Colors Used:
  • China Glaze - Lotus Begin
  • China Glaze - That's Shore Bright
  • China Glaze - Let's Jam
  • China Glaze - Looking Bootiful
  • Orly - White Tips
Isn't it neat?!  To get the look I started off with a base coat of white polish.  I used my favorite, Orly White Tips.  Love this polish so much, almost a one coater.  I used two coats since I was going to be dry brushing and I wanted to make sure everything was opaque.  When my base was dry, I started off with my lightest color of purple, Lotus Begin, and dry brushed from the center to the edges.  I tried to keep the center clean but add just a few streaks.  I did the same thing with each darker color purple.  By the time I got to Looking Bootiful, I just was dry brushing the edges.



Above I'm holding a bottle of Looking Bootiful which was from last years Halloween Collection.  I wasn't going to get any of these polishes but ended up purchasing all of them because you can never have too many China Glaze neons.  They're perfect for any nail art.  Such a pretty rich purple shade and a perfect way to end this manicure.

What do you think?  Fan of this dry brush look?  Think I should do it again with other colors?

Until next time, <3.