Dot Mani

The One With The Blue ORLY Dry Brush Mani

9:00:00 AM

Nothing to Disclose


Well Good morning!  Here we are on another bright, sunny Monday!  I don't know what it's like in your neck of the woods, but it's going to be a hot one here this week.  Also, if you're home town is anything like mine, your city is overrun with mosquitos and you can't even go outside without getting ten bites.  It's awful.  My poor garden needs some TLC but everytime I go out there, it's like I'm dinner for those dang bugs!

Being inside more means I've had more time to do my nails, and my nails are longer because I'm not digging around in the dirt and breaking them every five seconds.  Longer nails means more abstract designs since I feel like abstract nails on little nub nails don't look as good.  And that's just what I have for you today, a little abstract design using one of my favorite blue polishes.

Let's take a look!


Colors Used:
  • ORLY - Skinny Dip
  • ORLY - White Tips
  • ORLY - Liquid Vinyl
I absolutely adore Skinny Dip by ORLY.  It was my first ever "funky" colored polish back when I started this blog.  Funny enough, this bottle is the original one I purchased way back in the day, and it still applies as if it were brand new.  What I love about Skinny Dip is the subtle shimmer the polish has.  It adds a different dimension versus a flat polish in this same color. Two coats and you have the most amazing blue nails in the whole world. 


I love the little abstract design.  I saw something similar on Pinterest using a pink polish, but I really wasn't feeling the pink the other night.  I cannot begin to tell you how many people complimented me on these easy nails.  To get the look, after the white polish was dried, I quickly did a dry brush with Skinny Dip across the nail.  Then, I went through with my dotting tool and added the black dots.  Literally five seconds and I was done.

What do you think?  Love this look? Love the blue?

Until next time, <3



Dry Brush Mani

The One With Another Dry Brush Mani - and a Story!

9:00:00 AM

Nothing to Disclose


Good morning Polished World. How are you all doing on this wonderful Saturday?  I apologize for my lack of posting this week.  I have the posts all ready to go, my issue is my drive to actually write a post.  Actually, it's not even that.  This week was soooooo busy with work that by the time I got home and sat down, I just wanted to watch some tv and relax.  For anyone who is curious, my current show that I'm binging is Modern Family.  I had to take a break from watching everything and anything MCU related.  Don't worry, once Season 11 is over, this girl is going back to watching the MCU movies in order....it's a problem.

Anyways, today's manicure is a simple dry brush manicure.  Needed a little bit of a break from the crazy nails after Easter was over.  It's been so long since I've done actual nail art like those bunnies that my mind can't process having intricate nails too many times in a row.  Is that weird?  Maybe.  I guess you can say that I need a bit of a palette refresh here and there, and this dry brush is just that.

Let's take a look at the photos that I thought looked good until I took the manicure off...


Colors Used:
  • Jessica Cosmetics - Oasis
  • ORLY - White Tips
  • ORLY - Liquid Vinyl
I don't know about all of you, but blue is literally my favorite color when it comes to nail polish.  I feel the most content and normal with blue nails.  I remember when I was working my high school job, long before my nail polish addiction, this one customer made the RUDEST comment to me about just wearing a swatch of a blue polish.  To keep this content family friendly, this woman said that blue polish meant something horrible about my character as a person.  I remember being offended by it, then brushing it off and just not giving a crap what that lady thought.  My blue nails made me happy.  I wasn't going to let some middle age woman ruin that for me, a teenager.  

Sometimes when I'm painting my nails with blue, I will randomly think about that woman's comment.  How awful it was for her to say this to a young girl.  I then start to wonder what she'd think about my nail art and it makes me want to do something crazy or SUPER blue.  While this nail art isn't the craziest or overwhelmingly blue, it made me think of this story and want to share it with you.  Truly, this wasn't the direction I even imagined going with this post tonight, but hey, everything happens for a reason, right?


Who knows why she said what she did, what her motives were, or if she's ever done anything like that since; in the end I'm happy, I let my blue nail polish loving, nail art flag fly high and enjoy the hell out of myself.  So, long story short, don't ever let a bully pull you away from something you love.  Let their hate, comments, or whatever push you to be even better and inspire you to do something even more amazing.

Hope you all have an amazing day, remember how awesome you are, and do whatever it is that makes you happy!

Until next time, <3.

Dry Brush Mani

The One With the Sally Hansen Black and White Dry Brush Mani

9:00:00 AM

Nothing to Disclose 


Well Good Morning, Polished World!  How are you all doing on this fun Sunday?  Are Sunday's even considered fun?  For me they're a day of "ugh I'm going back to work tomorrow" mixed with errands that I didn't do throughout the week because I was so busy with work.  Did anyone else have a super busy week last week?  I felt like everything and anything that could happen did.  It was one of those weeks where I had plain nails and avoided all forms of social media.

Now I'm back though and life is calming down.  I decided to go into the drafts for today's post since obviously last week I had zero time to do any nail art.  I have so many ideas and designs that I want to re-create too, so I'm hopeful that tonight I'll have some time to sit down and begin creating again.  Until then, today's design is a black and white dry brush design I did last month.  I had no idea where I was going with this one, I just kind of let the paints flow.

Let's take a look.


Colors Used:
  • Sally Hansen - Blacky O
  • ORLY - White Tips
  • Some Gold polish I can't remember the name of....it was an ORLY though!
You think by now I'd write the names of the polishes used in the drafts of these posts so when I come back to them a month or two later I know what colors I used.  It's only been 9 years of blogging and I've yet to learn that lesson.  Seriously though - I started this blog in 2012, can you believe I've been doing this for 9 years?!  I think if I make it to 2022, I'm going to re-create every single manicure that I did during my first year.


Sorry, got off track from today's manicure.  I actually am obsessed with how this design turned out.  I love the swooped drybrush.  I always go side to side or upside down, but instead I went a little abstract.  When the dry brush was done, I debated on stopping there but it seemed like it needed something more.  Enter in the gold dots.  I wish I had gold flake or something because that would have looked really awesome on this design.  Oh darn, I should have dry brushed the gold!  Regardless, I think the dots added to the abstract look.  

What do you think? Fun manicure? Something you'd try?

Until next time, <3.


Dry Brush Mani

The One With the Blue Gradient Dry Brush Manicure

9:00:00 AM

Nothing to Disclose 


Hello Polished World, and welcome to a post that was in my drafts prior to COVID!  The date on this was January 28th, 2020.  I seriously feel like that was AGES ago.  After going through my drafts I realized I have about 10 or so posts I need to share.  They're a mixture of pre-COVID posts and then random nail art I did during the COVID crisis when I wanted to get my mind off of work.  COVID be damned, I'm not giving up on my nail art again. Truly it's been something that I've missed and I know it sounds weird, but I feel more like myself when my nails are all fancy.

Today's manicure is a gradient dry brush manicure which I am beyond obsessed with.  I've done gradient designs before where I then add a black and white splatter over the top and loved the end result.  I clearly remember when I did this manicure I debated on doing the splatter, but I wanted something different.  Thus, the idea of the dry brush came to my mind.

Let's take a look!


Colors Used:
  • OPI - Gelato On My Mind
  • OPI - Can't Find My Czechbook
  • OPI - My Pal Joey
  • OPI - Alpine Snow
  • OPI - Black Onyx
Can we take a minute to appreciate how lovely that blue gradient is.  I started off with a base coat of OPI Gelato On My Mind, which is the light baby blue.  Perfect two coat polish.  Once that was dried, I took a make up sponge and applied the three blues and dabbed it on each of my nails.  As many of us nail artists known, the gradient is the most tedious part of any manicure.  Multiple dabs to get the color just right, a top coat to ensure that the colors blend properly, and then of course, the cuticle clean up.


After the gradient was just how I wanted it, I started with the dry brush.  I first added the swipes of Alpine Snow, then went through with Black Onxy.  Added another layer of top coat and called it a day.  Overall the whole thing took probably an hour and a half since I'm crazy and have to have all 10 of my nails matching.

What do you think?  Like the gradient and dry brush look?

Until next time, <3.

Dry Brush Mani

The One With the ILNP Paige Dry Brush Manicure

9:00:00 AM


Good morning Polished World!  Happy Super Monday, aka the day after the Super Bowl where everyone calls into work.  Except for me, I have an early day ahead of me.  Of course, I write my posts the night before so it's always weird for me to write about the day I'm going to have the night before.  All I know is that my Mondays are always busy.  Then that rolls into Tuesday and so on and so forth!

Since it's February, it's time for me to start some pink nail designs.  You know me and how much I love pink.  Not.  It's weird though, a huge part of my collection consists of pink polishes.  I'm a conundrum, what can I say?

Let's take a look!


Colors Used:
  • ILNP - Paige
  • ORLY - Liquid Vinyl
  • ORLY - White Tips
Despite not being a fan of pink, ILNP Paige is one of my all time favorite pink polishes.  Back when I was on my hiatus, I used this polish every other week as my plain swatch color.  It's eye catching with that perfect holographic shimmer.  Two coats, full coverage.



Added a quick dry brush to the top of it to add a little bit of dimension.  At first I wasn't sure if I was going to like it but once I added the top coat it all came together.  Page would probably be a gorgeous base for a black and white splatter manicure.......

What do you think? Fan of this look?

Until next time, <3

Color Club

The One With the Color Club Dry Brush Manicure

9:00:00 AM

Nothing to Disclose 

Good morning polished world!  How are you on this wonderful Sunday? I apologize for not blogging this week, but I'm not going to lie, Daylight Savings really messed me up last week and I haven't been able to get used to this whole time change.  Earlier nights equals less blogging time.  Although I've still been creating nail art, therefore I'm going to have a lot of content coming up!

On top of Daylight Savings, tomorrow we are supposed to get our first real accumulation of snow.  While we had our first snowfall last week, this one will probably last a tad longer seeing as they're predicting about 4-8 inches.  Since the snow is coming, I thought it was appropriate to post this light blue dry brush manicure.  The blue polish reminds me of cold and snow....kind of.

Let's take a look!


Colors Used:
  • Color Club - Meet Me at the Rink
  • Color Club - Pucci-Licious 
  • Cannot remember the name of the silver because it was awhile ago.....
Meet me at the Rink was part of the Poptastic Pastel neon collection that came out years ago.  I purchased it yeaaaars ago and the beauties just sit in my collection rarely touched.  I forget how much I love them.  Sure, the formula isn't 100% wonderful, but if you have some patience you can get complete coverage in two coats.



The dry brush nail is one of my favorites.  The purple, the blue, the silver, then the little abstract design....all perfect.  I wish I did all 10 of my nails with this design.  Maybe next time.

What do you think of this manicure?

Until next time, <3.

China Glaze

The One With the China Glaze Dry Brush Manicure

9:00:00 AM


Oh hey, remember me?!  The blogger who has the busiest schedule and isn't ever able to remember to blog.  My busy life isn't even filled with fun things, it's just work.  For example, I wanted with everything in me to go see Avengers: Endgame opening weekend, and well, that didn't happen.  Here I am trying my best to avoid spoilers and wait until later this week.  Do you know how tempting it is to just Google "What happens in Endgame?"  Until I see the movie, I will just watch every other Marvel movie to the point where I forget that Endgame is even a thing.  I keep telling myself that will work, but it probably won't.

Today's manicure is one I created before I started doing all my Easter manicures.  I loved it so much that it stayed on much longer than expected, but how could I bring myself to remove it when the colors were so dang amazing.  Seriously, one of my all time favorite color combinations to date.

Let's take a look!


Colors Used:
  • China Glaze - I Got a Blue Attitude
  • China Glaze - Disco Ball Drop
  • China Glaze - OMG
  • China Glaze - Too Yacht to Handle
  • China Glaze - yeahhhhhh I don't remember the name of the pink......
I really need to write down the names of the polishes I use when I use them.  I tell myself this each post yet I never do it.  Maybe one day I will learn.  Maybe.  Regardless, I Got a Blue Attitude is one of my all time favorite polishes.  It's a fun blurple's....you know, blue mixed with purple.  It's so bright, fun, and perfect Spring/Summer polish.  Who am I kidding, it's a good all year round polish.



Putting on two coats of China Glaze OMG underneath Disco Ball Drop was beyond amazing!  The holographic silver, mixed with the holographic flecks.  I was in love.  You know how much I love mixing holo silver with holo silver.  I really think it was the perfect accent for this manicure.

What do you think?  Fan of this dry brush look?

Until next time, <3.

China Glaze

The One With the Abstract China Glaze Manicure

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!  How are you all doing today?  I apologize for being a little MIA the past few days.  I have been in hard core work mode because I'll be at a conference the next two days.  I kind of dislike conferences because I'm used to running around all day, so sitting for 8 hours straight never bodes well.

Yesterday was the official first day of Spring, and boy was it gorgeous outside.  Beautiful, sunny, in the 50s, tulips popping up.  Just wonderful.  We will ignore the fact that we are supposed to get snow this weekend.  I logged onto Facebook to see that we may get 2-4 inches....third Winter, here we come.

Despite it being third winter, I still can paint my nails something fun and semi bright.  I decided to do a neon abstract design which I saw on Pinterest.  This is such a versatile fun manicure which could be worn year round.  Some neons, some black and white, mixed with gold....perfect.

Let's take a look!


Colors Used:
  • China Glaze - I'll Pink to That
  • China Glaze - That's Shore Bright
  • China Glaze - I Got a Blue Attitude
  • China Glaze - Big Hair and Bubbly
  • ORLY - White Tips
  • ORLY - Liquid Vinyl
Isn't it pretty?  I was very upset when this one chipped because I loved it so much.  What I especially loved was how it all went together.  I decided to accent the whole design with I'll Pink to That, but really I could have even accented it with That's Shore Bright or I Got a Blue Attitude.  I'm actually shocked I didn't accent it with That's Shore Bright seeing as I usually gravitate towards mint polishes.  Maybe next time.



I loved the cluster of dots on the ring finger.  So different than just my normal polka dots.  I actually used a toothpick to get them to be so small.  Wish they were a little straighter, but it added to the whole abstract look.

What do you think?  Fan of this look?  Think it's a good manicure for this time of year?

Until next time, <3.

Dry Brush Mani

The One With A Pink Dry Brush Manicure

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world, and Happy Friday!  This week has draaaaaaaged and I am so happy that Friday is finally here.  Sleep in Saturday is so close, yet so far.  And who really knows if I will be able to sleep in, there's always the risk of something happening which disrupts my slumber.  Hopefully though, that doesn't happen.

Since Valentine's Day is a week away, I figured I should get a little festive with my manicures.  You all know that I dislike the holiday because it's a Hallmark up holiday and believe we should show our love to each other everyday.  I'm also not a huge pink/red person, so painting my nails for this "holiday" really isn't something I look forward to.  But, I do it for the blog.

Let's take a look at my semi Valentine's Day design.


Colors Used:
  • Finger Paints - Hue Left a Message
  • Serendipity Polish - Summer Sunnies
  • Serendipity Polish - Building My Empire
A lovely black and pink dry brush manicure.  Kind of nice intro into the pink nails with a little splash of black.  I actually enjoyed this manicure and could maybe see myself wearing pink more often because of it.  It's kind of surprising to me how many pink polishes I own despite not being a huge fan of pink.  Most of them though are coral/dark pinks, not these light pastel pinks.



For someone not liking pink, Hue Left a Message by FingerPaints was one of the first glitter polishes I purchased when I started blogging.  Which, mind you, was six years ago.  That's right, coming up on Valentine's Day, we will be celebrating six years of The Little Canvas.  Crazy to me that it's been that long.  I'm kind of shocked this polish is still perfect after six years.  I put on two coats over one coat of Serendipity Polish Summer Sunnies.

What do you think?  Like this manicure? Fan of Valentine's Day?

Until next time, <3.

China Glaze

The One With the Watermelon Dry Brush Manicure

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!  How are you all doing today?  I am so sorry I haven't posted more this week, but honestly this week really got away from me.  Before I knew it, Friday was here, then Saturday was over, and I just don't know where the time went.  Looking back at my week though, it's so unbelievable the stuff that has occured.  Seriously thinking about selling my life rights to Lifetime for a movie.  It would be quite a movie.

Today's nail design was supposed to be posted on Friday when it was 92 degrees.  Now it's back down into the 60s where it should be for this time of year.  It is a re-creation of a dry brush watermelon manicure I did a few years ago.  I actually wore this design in August for the family picnic at work, then just never got around to posting it.  Such is life lately, right?

Let's take a look!


Colors Used:
  • China Glaze - I'll Pink to That
  • China Glaze - Lime After Lime
  • ORLY - White Tips
  • ORLY - Liquid Vinyl
Cool right?  A little abstract watermelon design.  I don't remember if I was originally inspired by someone else for this design or just came up with it on my own.  To be honest, I don't think I'm this creative....maybe I was.  I should probably scroll back through and check, but that involves effort and currently as I type this post, I'm watching blondies baking in the oven and sauce cooking on the stove.  Queen of multi-tasking at this moment.



It's a super easy design to do.  First, start off with a base of white.  When that's dried, take your green polish and dry brush 1/3 of your nail.  Then go through with a pink polish and dry brush the rest of the nail.  When that's all dried, take a black polish and dot your seeds on.  Finish with a top coat and bam, done.

What do you think?  Like these watermelons?  Something you'd do?

Until next time, <3.

China Glaze

The One With the China Glaze Palm Trees

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!  How are you all doing today?  It's Sunday and the weekend is almost over.  We are also entering my birthday week!!  I'm going to be 30....ahhhh.  Cannot believe that I'm this old.  Some days I feel it, other days I don't.  It's weird to me that I'm working an adult job, living an adult life.  Other days I feel like I'm still a kid and just got out of high school.  Being this age is....odd.

Well it's supposed to be in the 90s today, with of course high humidity.  Forever and always my favorite weather.  Can you sense the sarcasm in that?  I'm happy when it's warm out, but not happy when it's humid.  It's hard to breath, I feel like I can never cool down, and I'm just all around miserable.

So since it's warm and humid like it is in the tropics, it only makes sense that I share a tropical palm tree manicure using some of my bright China Glaze neons.  Let's take a look!


Colors Used:
  • ORLY - White Tips
  • China Glaze - Bite Me
  • China Glaze - What I Like About Blue
  • Serendipity Polish - Holoday Lights
  • INM - Northern Lights
Kind of fabulous, isn't it?  I am in LOVE with the the dry brush background underneath the palm trees.  I cannot remember who originally created this look, but I know I was inspired by someone.  I kind of hate that I didn't write it down.  Regardless, I started off with a base of white polish, then went through with Bite Me and What I like About Blue and did a quick dry brush design.  I then added a quick top coat of INM Northern Lights to blend the dry brush and tie in the sparkle of the pinkie accent nail.  Plus, Bite Me has a weird formula, so I needed to put a top coat of Northern Lights over that because it looked kind of bubbly.  Who knows, that might have been due to the humidity also.



Super happy with how my palm trees turned out.  Sometimes when I paint them they do not look at all like a palm tree.  These turned out perfectly.  You can see the little palm leaves, they fit perfectly on the nail.  Happy nail artist here.

What do you think?  Like this fun summer look?  Something a little different?

Until next time, <3.

Dry Brush Mani

The One With the Dry Brush Manicure

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!  How are you all doing today?  The weekend is almost here.  Are you as happy as I am?  I'm debating on taking a half day from work tomorrow.  Sleeping in then going to a conference.  That means I'd have two sleep in days this week if I do so.  That sounds so wonderful, doesn't it?

Today's design is a simple dry brush manicure using some of my favorite polishes from Serendipity Polish.  Oh how I miss this brand so much.  Sure, there's All Heart Lacquer but I do miss the collection of 5 beautiful one coat creams.  I have to say they really still are my favorite independent brand.  I have yet to find anything to compare.

Let's take a look!


Colors Used:
  • Serendipity Polish - Vitamin Sea
  • Serendipity Polish - Building My Empire
  • Serendipity Polish - Vacation Vibes
  • Serendipity Polish - #GoalDigger
  • ORLY - Mirrorball
Okay, probably should have accented this manicure with Holoday Lights, the silver holo microglitter, instead of using ORLY Mirrorball.  Then that way I would have had a manicure using all the same brand.  Of course though, I clearly wasn't thinking.  It still looks wonderful with Mirrorball.  Ahhhh look at that beautiful holo.

Speaking of holos, who is excited for the China Glaze release of the OMG Holos!?  Ignore the fact that I just ordered myself a bunch of ILNP holos, I need to get these China Glaze ones.  You can never have too many, right?

What do you think of this manicure?  Love it, hate it?

Until next time, <3.