Dot Mani

The One With the Easter Bunny

9:00:00 AM

Hey there!!!  Happy Easter to all my Polished Peeps!  He is Risen!  What a wonderful day it is today.  As a Christian, today is the most important day for us.  If it weren't for Easter Sunday and the sacrifice that our Lord made, then, well, I shudder to think what the world would be like. 


Now while today isn't all about the bunny, I did paint little bunnies on my nails.  There are things I do for my residents at work, and doing cutesie nails like these is one of those things.  I went into this Easter season with good intentions of painting my nails with a plethora of designs, including one with Calvary hill, but alas, I got sick and I've yet to recover from that.  I'm just grateful I was able to get the two designs that I did!

Let's take a look!


Who wants to teach me how to take proper photos of my nails when I'm wearing pastel polishes?  They always look blown out or just too dark.  They're never what my nails actually look like.  I probably should have used a black back drop, but eh I'll never learn.  I sat for awhile trying to color correct them but gave up.  It is what it is, right?


Despite the fact that I can't properly photograph pastels, you can still see how cute this manicure was.  A nice little skittle using some of polishes from the Zoya Awaken collection that is literally 6 years old now.  Even though the polishes are old, they still apply like a dream.  By far some of my favorite pastels that I own.  Only complaint, they're kind of a pain to remove!

What do you think?  Fan of this design?

I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter!

See you soon! :) 


Easter

The One With the Easter Bunny Re-Creation Manicure

9:00:00 AM

Nothing to Disclose


Happy Easter/Resurrection Day, Everyone!  Hope you all are having an amazing Sunday with your loved ones!  I'm not going to lie I am a little disappointed that I didn't create more Easter designs this year, but we will blame that massive nail break that I got right after St. Patrick's Day.  Also, this whole Easter being a few weeks after St. Patrick's Day is a little flustering sometimes.  The worst was that one year where it literally fell a week after.  I can't be the only one who likes when Easter is towards the middle or end of April.

Regardless, today is an awesome day and I'm grateful to be here bringing you some Easter content.  Today's design is yet again another re-creation of a manicure that I feel I have been doing for years on this blog.  I've done it with a mint base and then a purple base.  For today's post, I decided to go for the classic mint.

Let's take a look!


Colors Used:
  • Zoya - Dillon
  • Acrylics
Yes, I cheated and used acrylics for the little dots and bunnies, but it was 10pm when I sat down and started this manicure, so it was justified.  To get the look, I started off with two coats of Dillon by Zoya.  This polish is for sure an oldie but goodie.  I've had this polish since 2014 when it was originally released and it still applies as if it were brand new.  It's got a gorgeous gold shimmer to it which is really unique for pastel polishes.  Does anyone else remember the Awaken collection?  By far one of my all time favorite Spring releases.  Dillon's sisters, Rebel and Hudson are just as gorgeous too.


When the base was dry, I went through with the black acrylic and added the dots.  Since that was an acrylic paint, those dots dried in two seconds and it was onto the little bunny heads.  Usually I take over more of the nail with the bunnies, but this year I decided to make them literally just peaking out form the corners.  I prefer this look to be honest.

What do you think?  Love this look?

I hope that everyone has a Blessed and Happy Easter!!!

Now, it's time for some floral nail art....maybe.

Until next time! 

Color Club

The One With the Floppy Ear Easter Bunny Manicure

9:00:00 AM

Nothing to Disclose 


Happy April 1st everyone!  Can you believe it, here we are at another April Fools Day.  Now, I was going to take today off of work for the Easter weekend, but alas, I'm off to work this morning.  Not a day of rest when you work in healthcare.  I do love my job, I'm just a tad bit tired heading into this weekend.  I feel like last week it was really slow, and this week is draaagggging and jam packed.

Despite the crazy work week, I have made sure to find time to paint my nails for Easter.  Nothing super creative this year as I'm feeling rather nostalgic and re-visiting some of my favorite designs.  One of those being the floppy eared Easter bunny using two of my favorite colors from Color Club.  I switched up the layout of the design compared to past years, but the main accent is still the same.

Let's take a look!


Colors Used:
  • Color Club - Pucci-licious
  • Color Club - Blue-Ming
  • Some random silver polish with a silver glitter topper
See, told you I'd last one post with writing down the polish names before I'd forget to do it again.  I think the silver is an old Serendipity Polish and the glitter is by FingerPaints.  Honestly, I'm too lazy to go into my drawers which are about five feet away from me and look.  That's what happens when you schedule your posts ahead of time and write them all at midnight.


Regardless of the fact that I'm super lazy and horrible at remember polish colors, this manicure is beyond adorable.  I think it's one of the best floppy ear guys I've ever painted.  I like the layout of this polish too where I used more Blue-Ming.  Previously I've done it with all Pucci-licious or had only one Blue-Ming accent.

Both of these polishes I've owned since I started blogging and both apply as if they were brand new.  Color Club's formula is amazing and I really need to start looking into adding more of their polishes into my collection.

What do you think?  Fan of this cute Easter look?

Until next time, <3.


Easter

The One With the Good Old Fashioned Skittle Manicure

9:00:00 AM

Nothing to Disclose


Good morning Polished World! Welcome to yet another Monday.  Not only is it the beginning of a new week, it's also the start of Holy Week which means Easter is right around the corner.  And I have been seriously slacking when it comes to Easter nail art.  I can't say it's all 100% my fault.  I had so many cute ideas, and then on the day before St. Patrick's Day, I had a major break and spent all last week with plain swatches on my nails.

Then it hit me, I could still do an Easter design utilizing a swatch.  Remember those pastel skittle manicures using the black and white glitter that looked like those robin egg candies?  You know, something that was popular when I started blogging an eternity ago?  Well that idea popped in my head randomly and I went searching for my black and white glitter.  Luckily for me, they hadn't dried up yet.

Let's take a look!


Colors Used:
  • ORLY - Cool in California (peachy pink)
  • ORLY - Big City Dreams (mint not pictured)
  • ORLY - As Seen on TV (Purple)
  • ORLY - Forget Me Not (blue)
  • Color Club - Disco's Not Dead
  • FingerPaints - Th-Ink Outside the Box
Look at me remembering the name of the polishes I used!!!  I actually wrote them when I painted the design.  Let's see how long this lasts. I'm betting the next post I'll forget the colors.  

Regardless, can we take a minute and look at how awesome this manicure is??  All those pastels just went flawlessly together.  I'm kind of disappointed that I couldn't find a pastel yellow by ORLY in my collection.  My polish drawers need some serious reorganization so I'm sure I'll find one when I get around to that.


This manicure gave me all the retro vibes.  You know, retro like 2013.  I seriously cannot believe I've been blogging for that long.  FingerPaints Th-Ink Outside the Box is an amazing black and white glitter polish, which now that I remember I have it, I will be using more often.  The wonderful thing about this glitter is that it removes super easily.

What do you think? Fan of this manicure?  Think it's Easter-y enough?

Until next time, <3.

Easter

The One With the Easter Manicure!

9:00:00 AM


Good morning and Happy Easter, polished world!!  Today is the most important holiday if you are a Christian.  It is the day that our Savior rose from the dead, fulfilling the scripture, and promising us eternal life.  Quite a wonderful day...He is risen!  Usually I create a manicure symbolizing this, but I ran out of time this year.  Despite having some time off of work, I found myself just as busy, if not more busy, than when I'm working.

Today's manicure is yet another bunny manicure....yet again inspired by SRG.Nails on Instagram.  I might as well just become a re-creation blog of all her designs because they're simply amazing.  Now, I didn't re-create her manicure this time, instead I put my own little twist onto it.  I was going to re-create it piece by piece, but then I broke my middle finger nail and had to chop it way, way down.  Therefore, glitter silver accent nail it had to become!

Regardless, I love how it turned out.  Let's take a look!


Colors Used:
  • Serendipity Polish - Vitamin Sea
  • Serendipity Polish - Holoday Lights
  • Serendipity Polish - Call Me Boss Lady
  • Serendipity Polish - #GoalDigger
  • INM - Northern Lights
Isn't this adorable?  I have tried for years to do the cute little bunny but manicure but have failed miserably.  My little bunnies never look like bunnies, but instead like messed up snowmen.  I really didn't think I was going to be able to accomplish this look seeing as I cut my nails super short to match my broken nail.  But, here we are!  Successful manicure!



Vitamin Sea is the perfect Spring-y blue for this manicure.  I believe it was part of a Summer collection, but it works for this time of year.  Ohhhh how I miss Serendipity Polish.  Those one coat wonders which dried so fast and had the BEST colors.

What do you think?  Like this manicure?  Think the bunny booties are adorable?

Happy Easter everyone!!

Until next time, <3.

Animal Mani

The One With Another Bunny Manicure

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!  How are you all doing today?  My injury is healing up quite nicely.  It's weird painting only 9 nails.  I figured why paint my right thumb nail if it's going to be covered by bandages.  Still hurts, but again I'm very blessed that it wasn't worse than what it is.  And I'm able to still paint my fingernails for Easter!

Today's manicure is a re-creation of one I did years ago which was inspired by Pshiiiit polish.  At least, I think that's what her blog name is.  I think she kind of disappeared off the face of the earth, just as many other amazing bloggers.  It's weird to me to think that I'm still at this when so many moved on.  I love it and don't see myself moving on anytime soon.  I hate to think of this blog as being a thing of the past.

Anyways, this manicure is adorable and my photos do not do it justice.  I hate how my camera hates pastels.  Literally I have zero luck photographing them.  Maybe if I used a black background.  Now as I'm typing this I wish I photographed them using a black background and am debating on taking other photographs.  Eh, maybe next time.  I'm kind of lazy.

Let's take a look!


Colors Used:
  • Sally Hansen - Smartease
  • Sally Hansen - Sweet Tea
  • Sally Hansen - Pardon My Garden
  • Sally Hansen - Blacky-O

Now again I sit here wishing I re-took the photos but there is no guarantee that they would turn out well.  Then I would have to re-edit photos.  Ahhh why is it so much work?  I think I'm starting to see why the other bloggers gave it up.  Just kidding!  Okay, maybe not, this blog is a lot of work but for me it's worth it.  Such a huge stress reliever, you know, when I'm not stressing that my photos are horrible and I should retake them.


I love how the pastels all went together with the black.  I think that if these were white dots it would have totally disappeared.  I love pastels so much, I just never will understand why they hate me and don't like to photograph clear.

What do you think?  Fan of the manicure?  Any tips for photographing pastels?

Until next time, <3.

Color Club

The One With the Floppy Eared Easter Bunny

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!!  How are you doing tonight?  I'm babying yet another injury to my right hand.  You might remember that a few weeks ago I ripped my middle finger nail half off in the freezer.  Yes, that's right, I somehow jammed my finger and half my fingernail ripped right off.  That grew back, and of course broke yesterday but that's not the injury I'm talking about. 

Friday night I was making a pot of sauce and was opening a can of crushed tomatoes.  The can opener was being a little testy and the can didn't open right away.  My smart self decided to push on the lid to hopefully loosen it.  Well, it loosened, and my finger went right into the can....and you can just imagine how my thumb looks right now.  Thankfully I didn't need any stitches, but it's still not pretty.  Thanks to some clever bandaging, I'm able to use my thumb and can paint my nails.  It just is awkward holding things a little differently than normal.  I'm so blessed that the injury isn't worse because let me tell you, it really could have been.

Long story short, in my last post I talked about delaying my Easter manicures because I was nervous that I wouldn't be able to paint.  I should have never said it, because look at me now, injured.  At least I did delay the post because that means I will have enough to share up until Easter.  Including today's manicure!

Let's take a look!

Colors Used:
  • Color Club - Pucci-Licious
  • ORLY - Mirrorball
  • Acrylics
Now, you might be saying "Alaina, this is a twist on the floppy ear design you have done year after year." And you're correct, to an extent.  I didn't come up with this cute nail art; 100% credit goes to SRG.Nails on Instagram.  I'm in love with her manicures and I feel I'm just re-creating all of her designs over and over again.



I was so happy to see her design because I was sitting down to re-create my manicure that I've done year after year, but I was getting kind of bored of it.  While it's one of my favorites, I just wasn't really feeling it.  I needed a switch up, and this manicure was that.  Same concept, same color scheme, just a different, adorable layout.  And adding that outline to the bunny was pure genius on her part.  Pain in the butt to do because the area is so small, but look at how cute it is!!!  I'm so proud of my little bow.

What do you think? Are you even reading anymore since this post is sooooo long??

 Until next time, <3.

China Glaze

The One With the Jelly Bean Nail Art

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!  How are you all doing today?  I've been better.  As you've seen, I've been MIA from the blog the last few days.  That's because the other night I sliced half of my middle finger nail off and now am in a healing phase.  Therefore, I'm sparingly posting so I can still bring content while my nail grows out and repairs itself.  Ugh it just stinks.  I had so many Easter designs I wanted to do, but unfortunately I can't.  Why it couldn't be a nail on my other hand, we will never know.

Today's design is a re-creation of my jelly bean nail art that I do pretty much every Easter.  This was going to be my second to last design before tomorrow's big day, but alas....here I am with just only two Easter manicures this year.  Truly I'm in mourning over here with this injury.  Ugh.

Let's take a look.


Colors Used:

  • OPI - My Boyfriend Scales Walls
  • China Glaze - Plur-ple, DJ Blue My Mind, Red-Y to Rave, Treble Maker, Glow With the Flow, Home Sweet House Music
Adorable, right?  At least it's a cute design for my last Easter design.  Simple one to create.  Start off with a base coat of white or in this case off white polish.  When it's dry, you go through with a dotting tool and just add little semi-circle dots.  Then you take a small nail art brush with a white acrylic and make the little "shine" lines.  Top coat, and enjoy.

What do you think?  Like this design?  Something you've done before?

Until next time, <3.

Easter

The One With the Easter Bunnies

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!  How are you all doing this fine Sunday morning?  The work week is almost here.  Where did the weekend go?  Okay well, my weekend was literally spent in bed because I got sick the middle of last week, and it kind of snowballed Friday and Saturday.  I probably would have been a lot better if I didn't go to work and rested on Friday, but you know, there's no rest for the boss lady.

Despite being sick, I'm still painting my nails!  Even more shocking, I'm editing my photos.  Crazy, right?  Today's design is a re-creation of one that I did a few years ago.  Instead of doing a purple base, I went for a mint green one because Sarah from 25 Sweet Peas did it with this color a few years back and I really loved it.

Let's take a look!


Colors Used:
  • Zoya - Dillon
  • Acrylics
Ahhhh how I love Zoya Dillon.  I got this polish yeaaaaars ago now, and it still is like it's brand new.  Two coats and full coverage.  Shiny, beautiful, minty coverage.  Perfect base for this design.  When the base was dried, i went through and added the polka dots, then painted on the bunnies.

What do you think?  Like the little Easter Bunnies?  Are you ready for Easter?

Until next time, <3.


Animal Mani

Happy Easter!!!!

9:00:00 AM


Happy Easter Polished World!!!!!  What a glorious day, He is Risen!!!  How are you all doing on this wonderful Easter Sunday?  Despite being under the weather, I am wonderful.  Yeah, that's right, it's a holiday and I'm sick...shocker.  Hopefully I'm feeling better so I can return to work tomorrow.  I hate missing work due to sickness.

Easter kind of snuck up on me, so I wasn't able to do as many Easter designs as I wanted to.  Every year I usually do a design that represents the true meaning of the holiday, and of course I didn't this year.  I'm kind of kicking myself for that now.

Today's design is inspired by the lovely Sarah from 25 Sweet Peas.  She did a cute Easter bunny design which she snapped me and I think filmed a tutorial for that I just had to re-create.

Let's take a look!


Colors Used:
  • China Glaze - Lotus Begin
  • China Glaze - Highlight of My Summer
  • China Glaze - Pinking Out the Window
  • ORLY - White Tips
I am absolutely in love with this manicure.  Everyone really is loving the polka dot middle finger I did as an accent.  I'm not going to lie, I do love that one also.  It looks like a cute little Easter Egg.  Which honestly I wasn't going for that look.



I don't think I've used Highlight of My Summer yet.  Maybe for a gradient or something, but I cannot remember if I ever used it as a base color.  I am in LOVE with this bright mint polish.  It's a perfect neon pastel shade.  Covered completely in two coats.  A little streaky, so be patient with it.

What do you think?  Like this cute Easter bunny??

I hope everyone has a Happy and Blessed Easter!!!

Color Club

The One With the Re-Creation of an Easter Bunny Manicure

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!  How are you all doing today?  It was super warm two days ago, and now it's super cold again.  Okay, maybe I'm being dramatic, it's Spring time cold.  You know, 50s and rainy.  Those April showers better bring the May flowers.

Easter is right around the corner and I am here with some Easter nail art!  I'm on this kick of re-doing manicures that I've done in the past.  It's been fun for me to see how I've grown when it comes to nail art.  Heck, it's even impressive to me to see how I've grown when it comes to painting my actual nail, my nail shape, etc.

The design I'm re-creating today is a floppy eared bunny which I originally did as part of a Bestie Twin Nail feature with 25 Sweet Peas.  I absolutely loved this design two years ago, and I love it again now.

Let's take a look!


Colors Used:
  • Color Club - Pucci-licious
  • ORLY - Vintage
  • FingerPaints - Sterling Sculpture
I can't believe that I purchased Pucci-licious two years ago around the time I originally did this manicure.  Shows me how little I use this polish because the bottle itself really looks like it's never been used.  I should look at see how many manicures I have used it for.  Regardless, it's a gorgeous shade which covers completely in two coats.



I was going to use Color Club Blue-Ming like I did last time, but I just recently got my hands on ORLY Vintage and it's been screaming to be used.  Two coats, pure mint gorgeous perfection.  I'm so happy that Sally Beauty added this beauty to the ORLY core collection along with some other neons.

What do you think?  Fan of this cute bunny manicure?  Something you'd try?

Until next time, <3.

Color Club

The One With the Easter Collaboration With The Nail Art Squad

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world, and Happy Easter!  I can't believe Easter is already here.  Where is the year going!?  Although, Easter is usually in April so I guess in my mind we are further a long in the year than we really are.  Oh well.

Today I am part of an Easter collaboration with The Nail Art Squad!  We all decided to do white nails decorated like Easter Eggs.  I'm not a fan of Easter egg nail art on my own nails because I think my nails are too squatty for it, so I tried to think of something a little outside of the box for today.

I've been dying to use my Color Club Poptastic Pastel Neons since I purchased them a few weeks ago, and I figured today would be a great day for this...especially for Easter Egg art.  I decided to go with a splatter design, which looked awesome but WOULD NOT PHOTOGRAPH.  Sigh.  I seriously only got one workable photo of this manicure.  Someone needs to give me lessons on photographing pastels because I stink at it.

Oh well, let's take a look at my manicure....my one photo of my manicure.


Colors Used:
  • Color Club Neon Pastel Poptastic
You can see how awesome the splatter looked, just not clearly.  Ugh.  So upsetting when something doesn't photograph right.  I think the reason for this was because of the white background.  I probably should have used My Boyfriend Scales Walls which is a not-so-bright white and maybe it would have shown up better.  Oh well....too late now.  Regardless, I love these pastel neons and can't wait to use them more!

Here's the photo of all the lovely ladies who collaborated this time around!



Now all of The Nail Art Squad didn't post this time around, but if you are interested to see who is in our little group, take a look at the list below!  We will be doing monthly, or maybe even bi-monthly depending on what's going on, collaborations!

I hope everyone has an AMAZING Easter with their family and friends.  Let's not forget the real reason for today.  I am beyond thankful and blessed that Christ died for my sins and I am able to celebrate this day.

Until next time, <3.

Animal Mani

The One With the Floppy Bunny Ears and Dots

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!  How are you all doing today?  I'm doing quite well!  Easter is right around the corner so my nails are all painted and ready to go!  Sadly my last Easter design is not photographing well at all, so I'm probably just going to upload one photo on Sunday and call it a day.  I have the WORST trouble photographing pastels.  Ugh, I'm kind of sad that I can't show you guys four photos...but oh well!

Let's talk about my awesome manicure for today which did photograph!  Today's manicure is a semi re-creation of last year's Bestie Twin Nails with 25-SweetPeas.  I loved the floppy bunny ears so much that I knew at the beginning of this season I was going to try them again.

I received some of the new Sally Hansen Miracle Gels and two of them were standing out and I thought would be perfect for this design.  Let's take a look!




Colors Used:
  • Sally Hansen - Electric Pop
  • Sally Hansen - Digi-Teal
  • Acrylics
Let me first start out by telling you that this design did not chip for four days on my nails.  I honestly would have kept it on longer if it weren't for the blog and having to continue to paint.  The only thing that started to chip was the acrylic design, but the polish underneath was still intact.  Kind of amazing, these Miracle Gels really do work.



Electric Pop is a fun dark bubblegum pink polish which is perfect for Spring/Summer.  Two coats and I had full coverage.  Digi-Teal is more of a blue polish, not a teal one in my opinion.  Pretty, pretty color.  Two coats for this one as well!  Kind of stained my nails though which annoys me, but Since I paint my nails all the time it doesn't really bother me.  If you want to have naked nails in between manicures, then I would just be cautious with this one.

What do you think?  Fan of this manicure?  Do you like the Miracle Gels?

Until next time, <3.

China Glaze

The One Inspired by Jewelry for Twinsie Tuesday

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!  It's Tuesday which means it is time for another Twinsie Tuesday!  I'm sad to say that after this post I'm going to be taking a brief break from the Twinsie Tuesday group.  I've been a bit busier with things and I can't seem to keep up on the blogging schedule.  So in order to get my head above the water, taking a break seems to be the best solution.  I should be back though in a month or so if all goes well!!

This week we are sharing manicures that are inspired by jewelry.  My goal for this week was to bring you an Easter manicure each time I posted so I wanted to think of something Easter-y for this theme.  I thought out of the box and remembered my variety of cross necklaces.  What's more perfect for an Easter manicure than being inspired by the cross?!

So I decided to take inspiration from my nail art wheel, and recreated a little shadow scene of Calvary.  Let's take a look!




Colors Used:
  • OPI - Rich Girls and Po Boys
  • Orly - Frolic
  • China Glaze - Flip Flop Fantasy
  • INM - Northern Lights
I love how the sunset gradient turned out.  It really looks like the early Spring sunsets that I've been seeing the last few weeks.  The gradient was very bright at first, but I learned a little trick from The Nail Trail.  After I sponged the gradient on my nails, I added some white polish to the sponge and dabbed it over the gradient.  It made the bright colors turn to a beautiful pastel shade.



So since I was trying to make my nails look like a dusky sunset, I decided to add a top coat of my favorite holo glitter, INM Northern Lights.  When that was dry, I went through with my nail art brush and acrylic paint and drew my little scene.  Such a simple manicure...liking it a lot!

What do you think?  Fan of the gradient?

Don't forget to check out the other Twinsies!


Amanda at Amandalandish
Amanda at Fashion Footing
Amber at Nails Like Lace
Chelsea at Nailed Blog
Claire at Kerruticles
Marisa at Polish Obsession
Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les
Savannah at Addicted to Polish

Until next time, <3.

Easter

The One With the Easter Nail Art Wheel

9:00:00 AM

Good morning polished world!  How are you all doing today?  Can you believe in just one week it will be Easter?  I kind of dislike when Easter and St. Patrick's Day fall so close to one another because everything seems so rushed.  Especially when you decide to do an Easter Nail Art wheel and have about two days to plan out, draw a rough draft, and create 18 different designs.

That's right, I decided to do a nail art wheel!  When I posted my St. Patrick's Day wheel on Instagram a few weeks ago, I realized how much I missed doing them.  So since my followers said they liked my past wheels and wanted to see another, I decided to take a jump and create one for Easter!

Let's take a look!


Designs either are my own, re-creations of things I've done on my own nails in the past, or were inspired by pins from my Easter Nail Art Idea Pinterest board.  Head on over to Pinterest if you want to see, because I'm not linking them all here.

Of course I have some favorites.  I really am liking the yellow Easter Peep candy!  After drawing out the peep using acrylic paints, I went over him using Sally Hansen Disco Ball.  The sparkle gave it the look of the sugar that is on the real peeps.  Without it, I really don't think he, or the purple Peep bunny, would look like peeps.

I absolutely love the crosses on Calvary nail which is to the left of the yellow peep.  It's always been important to me to represent the true meaning of the holidays in my nail art.  Easter is the most important holiday in the Christian faith, and if I didn't create a few designs representing Jesus and that He is risen, I wouldn't have been happy with myself.  I think I might do the cross manicure on my own nails.

Another nail on the wheel which I think some people might be confused by is the one to the left of the hatched chick and the right of the peeking bunny on the peach base.  This nail is the tomb of Christ with the stone rolled away.  I'm rather proud of how it turned out.  Sometimes you think of a nail design in your mind, then when you go to re-create it, it looks awful.  This was not the case.  If I were to re-create this design on my nail, I think I will try to create some light streaks coming out of the tomb....maybe?

To the right of the yellow Easter Peep, I'm super proud I was able to re-create this bunny butt design.  I tried it last year on my own nails and it didn't work whatsoever.  I was upset because I really liked this design but couldn't for the life of me figure it out.  Sarah from 25_SweetPea created a YouTube tutorial this year for this design, and after following it, I was able to re-create the design!  Now the question is, can I do it on my own nail?

And of course, another favorite is the jelly bean nail.  Just look how bright and cute it is!

What do you think?  Like this wheel?  Any designs inspiring you?

 If you re-create any of these designs, tag #TLCInspiredMani on Instagram so I can see!!!

Until next time, <3.

Easter

Happy Easter!!

9:00:00 AM

Happy Easter everyone!  Let me begin by apologizing that I do not have a new manicure to share with you all!  The manicure I had planned turned into a disasticure, and then the weekend got away from me, so there really was no time to re-create it.

I didn't want to leave all my lovelies hanging on Easter though.  After much thought, I decided it would be fun to post my old manicures and take a little walk down memory lane!

Let's take a look!


While I started the blog in 2012, we are going to start our walk down memory lane in 2013.  That year I created an adorable hatching chick design, an Easter design with a cross to represent the true meaning of the day, and a peeking bunny rabbit inspired by Pshiiit Polish.  The polka dot bunny design was one of my most popular creations, and I often stumble upon it while surfing Pinterest.  Pshiit's design was much better and cleaner, so it really surprises me how many times my own design was shared.  I remember just purchasing the Sinful Colors Sugar Crush polishes and was beyond excited to use them all for these designs.  To this day I still own those polishes, and really wish they would come out with another awesome pastel collection like those.


In 2014, I created four designs as well as two tutorials!  I really need to start making more tutorials.  It's been ages since I made one and I truly miss doing so.  As you can see, I created my first jelly bean design, a peeking bunny look, a re-creation of my cross design from 2013, and another hatching chick design.  I remember when I created the jelly bean manicure, I really, really, really hated it.  I was convinced that the little jelly beans did not look like them, but instead random blobs.  They ended up being one of my most complimented designs and in turn inspired me to re-create them this year, except with a lot more jelly beans!  The tutorials I created were for the hatching chick and the Easter bunnies.  If anyone has re-created them or been inspired by those designs, please share your manicures with me!!!


We come to a close with this year's designs!  I have to say, I think these are my favorite!!  In comparison to how I painted in 2013, I can see cleaner edges, more consistent nail shape, and neater designs.  Proof that practice really does make perfect!  The designs I did this year were the Easter bunnies inspired by Just1Nail, the Easter bunny ears, and my neon jelly beans!  I cannot pick a favorite of the three!  I do wish that I was able to create a design like the past two years which incorporated the cross.  Maybe next year....

What do you think?  Fan of any specific design?  Is it fun seeing all my designs over the years?

 I hope that all my readers who celebrate Easter have an awesome holiday with their family and friends.  We must not forget the true reason for the day!  Rejoice in the fact that the Lord has Risen!!!

Until next time, <3.

Animal Mani

Easter Bunny Nail Art!

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!  How are you all doing today?  I'm doing fabulously since it is supposed to be 60 degrees today!  Spring is here, for at least a day!  This weekend there is a possibility for snow in the forecast.  I need Spring, neeeeeed it!

Today I am sharing another Easter manicure with you all!  Today's design is a cute Easter bunny design inspired by this cute manicure by Just1Nail on Instagram.  Purple + polka dots + animals = the cutest most Alaina manicure in the whole wide world.

Let's take a look!




Colors Used:
  • Zoya - Hudson
  • Zoya - Kitridge
  • Black and white acrylic
Hudson is one of the prettiest polishes I own!  It's one of my favorite purples which I forgot I owned until a few weeks ago.  I also forgot I owned Dillon as well and I really need to get around to using Hudson's beautiful mint sister.  I was almost going to use that for this manicure, but the purple seemed more Easter to me!



I'm really loving how this manicure turned out.  I'm a huge fan of doing a polka dot base and then putting a design over it.  I've done this before with roses and absolutely loved it....now with the little bunnies over polka dots it's amazing.

What do you think?  Fan of this look?  Liking the little bunnies?

Until next time, <3.

China Glaze

Twinsie Tuesday: Favorite Discontinued Polish

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!  How are you all today?  It's warming up here slowly but surely.  I'm going to ignore the fact that the weather man said "scattered snow flurries" and "temperatures in the mid thirties", and look forward to Thursday when it is supposed to be 60!

Today is Tuesday, which means it is time for yet another Twinsie Tuesday!  This week we are sharing manicures using our favorite discontinued polishes.  My favorite discontinued polish is OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls from The Amazing Spiderman Collection.  When this collection first was released, I ignored this gorgeous off-white polish because I thought it was stupid to pay OPI prices for a white polish.  Boy, was I wrong.  I grabbed a bottle on sale, used it, got hooked, and now every time I see a bottle, I have to buy it.

The reason being, this polish is the PERFECT base for any nail art.  It's white, but it's not so bright that it takes away from the actual design.  I think I portrayed that well in today's jelly bean manicure where I used the new China Glaze Electric Nights polishes.

Let's take a look!




Colors Used:
  • OPI - My Boyfriend Scales Walls
  • China Glaze - Plur-ple, DJ Blue My Mind, Red-Y to Rave, Treble Maker, Glow With the Flow, Home Sweet House Music

I think that if I used a regular white base like Snow Me White by Sinful Colors, the jelly beans would have been washed out or not as vibrant.  And with these new Electric Nights polishes by China Glaze, you don't want them to be lost.  But we're talking about the discontinued polish, not the brand new beautiful collection that everyone should go get.  I'll have zillions of other posts talking about how amazing these babies are.


In this photo you can see the grey tone in My Boyfriend Scales Walls.  I cannot tell you how upset I am that I only have 1 backup bottle left of this beauty, and that OPI has not re-released it as part of a core collection.  I think I should start a petition.

What do you think?  Are you a fan of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls? 

Don't forget to check out the other Twinsie's posts!  I wonder if anyone else did Easter nail art with their favorite discontinued polishes!


Amanda at Amandalandish
Amanda at Fashion Footing
Amber at Nails Like Lace
Bridget at A Painted Nail
Chelsea at Nailed Blog
Jessica at Blue Velvet Lacquer
Lakeisha at Refined and Polished
Marisa at Polish Obsession
Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les
Savannah at Addicted to Polish
Tiffany at Polished To Precision

Two more Easter designs to go!

Until next time, <3.

Bestie Twin Nails

Easter Bestie Twin Nails with 25 Sweet Peas!

9:00:00 AM


Happy Sunday polished world!  Hope you all are doing well today!  It is officially one week until Easter, which means I'm going to try to squeeze in as many Easter manicures as I can this week!  I'm off to a great start today with one, and already have one scheduled for Twinsie Tuesday!!!

Today I am doing some Bestie Twin Nails with Sarah from 25 SweetPeas!  I bet you all were expecting me to say that I'm doing them with Amanda from Fashion Footing, but not today.  In a few weeks we are going to be having our monthly collaboration.  We already picked out our design, and it's going to be awesome!

After I featured Sarah on the blog as the March Nail Artist of the Month, I suggested that we do a Bestie Twin Nails post together, and she agreed!  Since Easter is right around the corner, it was only fitting to do an Easter design!  We recreated this design which I found on Pinterest.

Let's take a look!




Colors Used:
  • NYC New York Color - Jacaranda Flower
  • Funky Fingers - Mrs. Mint
  • FingerPaints - Silver Bells
  • FingerPaints - Sterling Sculpture
  • White acrylic
I cheated, I used white acrylic paint for my bunny and dots.  It was late, I was sleepy, and it was the easiest away to create a design that was somewhat perfect.  I love using acrylics, but when I've found when they are at the base of the nail and if you do not wrap the end enough with top coat, it will chip off very quickly.  I probably could have gotten a full three days out of this manicure if it weren't for the chipping white and the chipping Mrs. Mint.  Love that polish, but hate how fast it starts to wear!

My silver nail wore like steel.  FingerPaints has hit a home run with their glitters.  Silver Bells was part of their winter collection and is a fine micro glitter.  In two coats, I have full coverage which does not want to come off.  I added a top coat of Sterling Sculpture which added the larger flecks to the nail.  Loved the combo and will have to do it again soon!



Jacaranda Flower is one of my favorite purples.  I used it for the daisy manicure I currently have as my default photo on Facebook and Twitter.  It's a perfect purple which applies evenly in two coats.  I'm sad that it was part of a limited edition collection so I cannot snag another bottle.  Hopefully I will find a dupe of it soon.  I'll probably head on over to Sarah's blog to see what she used for her purple because it looks pretty close!


Side by side shot courtesy of Sarah!

What do you think?  Fan of this design?  Something you think you would try for Easter?

Make sure to head on over to 25 SweetPeas and see her post!  You can also see her design on Instagram and Twitter!

Until next time, <3.



Easter

Happy Easter!

9:00:00 AM

Happy Easter polished world!  For those of you who celebrate, are your nails Easter ready?  I hope to have given some of you inspiration over the past week with my designs/tutorials!  Of course, you know my nails are all decked out!

Last year my final Easter manicure incorporated the true meaning of the holiday, and I wanted this year to be no different.  If it weren't for Christ dying for our sins and rising with the promise to come again, there would be no reason to celebrate this holiday.  I am a Christian who is truly grateful for what Jesus did for us.

Let's take a look at my manicure, which is a tad similar to last years!  Of course, I incorporated some modern Easter-y things as well!  I need to figure out why my camera hates me lately.




I'm kind of lazy and don't feel like writing out all the colors that I used for this manicure.  If you want to know, please comment and I shall tell you!  I started off though with a base of white and sponged on blue to green gradient.  It was rather gorgeous and I may have to use the color combo again in the near future.  Once my gradient was dried, I began creating the different designs.

For my cross nail, I created the design using a nail art brush and Zoya Louise.  Once it was dried, I used a white polish to create the draping cloth.  The eggs and flowers were done using dotting tools and striper brushes.  When all the designs were dried, I used a green polish with barely any paint on the brush and painted the tips to look like grass.  Sadly it covered my light green gradient, but I love the grassy look.


I'm somewhat happy with how they turned out.  My floral nails didn't turn out exactly how I wanted them to.  I really like my egg and cross nails though.  I like how this year's cross is thicker than last years.

What do you think?

To all those who celebrate, I hope you have a Blessed and Happy Easter!  Enjoy your day with family and friends and try to not forget the true meaning of the holiday!!!!

<3 <3 Until next time, <3.