Bow Mani

The One With the Bows

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!  How are you all doing today?  Wednesday is here and we are midway through our week.  Well, I'm not since I have to work Saturday.  It's going to be a fun day though so I'm not dreading it.  Hopefully the weather is going to be nice.  Never know anymore what the weather is going to do around here.

Anyways, today's manicure is a cute bow design that I've done a couple times in the past.  A few weeks ago it was my niece's birthday and she absolutely loves purple and Minnie Mouse.  So I decided to do a cute Minnie bow in purple for her birthday party.

Let's take a look!


Colors Used:
  • China Glaze - Let's Jam
  • ORLY - White Tips
  • OPI - Champagne For Breakfast
Cute isn't it?  My niece loved them.  She kept staring at them yelling out "they're purple! I love purple!"  She's too damn cute.  Let's Jam is a gorgeous purple polish with a subtle blue shimmer in it.  I'm so happy I purchased this last year and really wish I had a back up bottle because it's such a unique color.  Two coats and full coverage.

Champagne for Breakfast was a polish I was going to pass on but was so happy I didn't.  I thought that it was your run of the mill holo glitter, but it's actually a textured polish!  They should have marketed it under the Liquid Sand line.  Absolutely gorgeous and so happy to have it.

What do you think?  Like this bow manicure?  Fan of these polishes??

Until next time, <3.


Bow Mani

Bow Manicure with NYC New York Color NY Princess

9:00:00 AM


Happy Sunday everyone!  How are you??  My weekend is going by way to fast, as usual.  Yesterday I went out with some friends and watched Big Hero 6, which if you haven't seen it yet, you must!  Then I came home, ate some dinner, and attempted to paint my nails and had a disasticure.  That just means I can watch some Revenge and have a late night paint session tonight.

Today I am sharing a manicure I did last Sunday while watching Revenge.  It's a totally adorable cutesy bow manicure which is a re-creation of a design I did earlier in the year.  Totally weird that I decided to do this manicure while watching that show, but hey it works.

Let's take a look!




Colors Used
  • OPI - You're Such a Budapest
  • OPI - My Boyfriend Scales Walls
  • NYC New York Color - NY Princess
  • Black Acrylic
I really need to make a tutorial for this bow design.  It looks so difficult, but yet is rather easy to do!  You start off with a base coat of whatever color your heart desires.  I picked white for this manicure.  When my base was dry, I used a dotting tool and created a dot close to the center of my nail.  Then with the dotting tool, I created two larger oval shapes, then two lines which drag down from the center dot.  It honestly looks awful when it's at this point, it's when the details are added that it actually looks like a bow.  Using a small nail art brush and black polish, out line the bow, and add the details.  Since my other nails were accented with polka dots, I decided to make my bow polka dotted as well.


My favorite part of this manicure was the accented middle finger.  I used NYC New York Color polish in NY Princess.  This polish is a gorgeous deep purple jelly with purple and blue glitters through out.  I used 3 thin coats on my nail, but you really could have gotten away with two.  The glitter placement was perfect on it's own.  It didn't clump or pool in any weird areas, which I was kind of expecting it to do when I noticed that it was suspended in a jelly.  Seriously love it, it's a jelly sandwich in a bottle!

What do you think?  Liking this manicure?

You can currently purchase these NYC polishes at your local drug stores for $1.99.  There are 5 others in the collection which I'm planing on using closer to Christmas.  I highly suggest that you run out and grab as many as you can because I swatched them all on a plate (I need to find my extra wheels), and holy gorgeousness.  When I find my wheels, I'll take a photo of all them!

Until next time, <3.


Bow Mani

Twinsie Tuesday: Nails Inspired by Wallet

9:00:00 AM

Good morning polished world!  How are you all today?  It's Tuesday, so that means it is yet another Twinsie Tuesday post!  This week had me stumped.  Today we are all to be inspired by a wallet, purse, or backpack.  Well, my wallet is ugly, I have a black clutch, and a black purse.  All rather boring.  Since I am Alaina, I couldn't do a swatch of a black polish, I needed to do some art.

So I asked the lovely Beauty Buffs for some help, and all started posting amazing photos of their wallets and purses.  Shira, from A Sequin Love Affair, posted so many amazing purses.  I wish I could own her closet, she has amazing fashion sense.  She posted some photos with fun colored bags, then there was a photo with a tan colored bag, but she had a mint colored dress on and it hit me.  I've been obsessed lately with a mint wallet at Target with blue polka dots.  I thought I shall do that!

When I went to Google and typed "Mint Wallet with Dots" instead of finding the beloved Target wallet I want, I found this wallet, a mint pretty with white polka dots and a cute bow!  I took inspiration from this and got to work!

Let's take a look!




Colors Used:
  • Orly - Gumdrop
  • Zoya - Cosmo
  • Orly Instant Artist - Jet Black
  • Orly Instant Artist - White
Adorable, right??  I went with a silver accent nail because I thought the wallet would look even more amazing if it had a silver clasp or zipper.  For that silver nail I used Zoya Cosmo from their Magical Pixie collection.  Goodness, is this a gorgeous polish or what?  It reminds me of a silver Tomoko with chunkier glitter pieces.  I can't stop looking at it!

For my mint color, I used Orly Gumdrop which is more like a Tiffany Blue.  I love the color of this polish, but not the formula.  The first coat goes on perfectly normal, a tad streaky like most first coats are.  Then it was time for the second coat...it still was kind of streaky!  I had to use a third to fill in the bald spots, and it seemed to get a tad thick looking.  Honestly though, the color made up for my frustrations with applying, and for the bow and as a nail art polish, it worked perfectly fine.


To do the bow, I dripped some Gumdrop out on a paper plate.  With a medium sized dotting tool, I first added the center of the bow on my nail.  I didn't do this directly in the center because I wanted to have the little ribbon pieces hanging and I knew if I put it in the center, then I wouldn't have room.  When I liked the size and placement of the middle, I took my nail art brush and made two big ovals for the body of the bow, and added the hanging ribbons.  After it was dry, with my Orly Instant Artist polish in black, I added the bow details.  Then I went through and added the dots.

Speaking of dots....look at my pointer and pinkie fingers!  I mastered the polka dot finally!!!!  Before, I would start by going down the middle of my nail and then I would have weird uneven spots on the side.  So this time around, I started with the second column first, then went to the middle then so on and so forth.  They're so much more uniform all around!  I can't explain it well, so maybe I'll do a tutorial.

What do you think?  Loving this manicure?  Aren't the bows adorable?

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


Amanda at Amandalandish
Amber at Nails Like Lace
Chelsea at Nailed Blog
Elizabeth at Did My Nails
Kelly at Tuxarina
Lakeisha at Refined and Polished
Marisa at Polish Obsession
Rachel at Top Coat It
Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les
Stephanie at A Little Polish
Traci at DrinkCitra

Until next time, <3.

**Some of the polishes used in this post were provided for review.  Please see my disclosure policy**

Bow Mani

Bow Manicure - Inspired by CaseyLane Loves Polish

9:00:00 AM


Hi polished world!  How are you on this fine Saturday morning?  I'm doing well, especially since I'm now able to share some of the manicures that I have been dying to share for so long now.  It's kind of bittersweet though since the manicures are awesome but the pictures aren't as great as I remember.  Maybe that's because my pictures are changing now that I'm in the lightbox and these are outdoor photos?  Who knows.  Just know I'm not 100% happy with the photos.

This manicure was inspired by one that my dear friend Casey from CaseyLane Loves Polish did before she started blogging.  I fell in love with the bow dotticure and HAD to copy.  The dots and bows went together so well with the amazing teal color.  I put it on a list of must do manicures then never got around to it.  After being out of ideas one night, I remembered this amazing manicure and decided it was the perfect time do try it!

Let's take a look.



Colors Used:
  • OPI - My Boyfriend Scales Walls
  • OPI - Can't Find My Czechbook
  • Orly - Liquid Vinyl
Adorable right?  The best part, the manicure looks extremely time consuming, but it really wasn't!!  To get the bows, I started off with a base coat of OPI - Cant Find My Czechbook, the most gorgeous dusty teal ever.  I'm so happy I purchased this polish despite having two colors which are practical dupes of it.  In my opinion, you can never have too many teal polishes.  When the base was dry, I create a large circle in the center of the nail with a dotting tool.  With a nail art brush, I drew the rest of the bow coming off the side of the circle.  After the bow was dried, I used my nail art brush and added the detail to the bow with black polish.

During the bow dry time, I dotted all my other nails using the random sizes of dotters.  Since I stink at the normal polka dot, and loved how Casey's nails looked, I did the many random sized dots all mixed together on the nail.

What do you think?  Liking the bows and dots?  Loving the color choice?

So happy I finally got to share this cute manicure with you all today!!!  Hope you have a great one!

Until next time, <3.