The Little Canvas: Jessica Cosmetics

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.

Gradient Mani

The One With the Pink Snowflake Manicure - Take Two

9:00:00 AM

Good morning Polished World! How are you all doing on this fine Tuesday? It's the dreaded Valentine's week where I am going to attempt to be festive, but will fail miserably at it. Honestly, I don't think I'm going to do any pink heart nails this year. Sorry to disappoint, but I'm truly not feeling it. If you've been reading this blog for awhile, you know that I'm not a fan of Valentine's Day, so this shouldn't come as a huge shock. Maybe next year, or randomly in the middle of the summer when I'm feeling like doing heart nails for no reason whatsoever.

Today's design is one I created about a year ago now. It's probably the most festive you'll get out of me for Valentine's as it has the perfect pink gradient. And you guessed it, it's a snowflake design. I don't remember where I got the inspiration from for this design, but it's one of my all time favorite snowflake manicures.

Let's take a look!

Colors Used:

Jessica Cosmetics - Mojave Desert
Jessica Cosmetics - Festival Fuchsia
Serendipity Polish - Holoday Lights
Sally Hansen - Blacky-O

Isn't this manicure perfect? I kind of want to re-create it with a blue gradient. Although I'm burning out on the whole snowflake thing, and I'm sure you all are tired of seeing them as well! Maybe next year. Anyways, these two pink polishes work wonderfully to create a gradient. I started off with a base coat of Mojave Desert, the most perfect baby pink polish ever. Two coats and you have complete coverage. When it was dried, I took a make up sponge and dabbed on the Festival Fuchsia.

When the gradient was dry, I went through and added the snowflake with acrylics. Yes, I cheated a bit but when creating a snowflake, I'm a tad OCD and want the art to look as perfect as possible. As you can guess, this flake took about 5 tries to get it how it is here, and I'm still finding issues with it.

What do you think? Fan of this look?

Okay, I think I'll move on from snowflakes. Maybe I'll enter a flower phase again.

Until next time, <3.

Dot Mani

The One With the Holographic Gradient Accent Nail

9:00:00 AM

Good morning Polished World, and welcome to 2021! I'm happy to see 2020 leave, but let's face it the years are only what you make of them. I look back on 2020 and despite all the hardships, I'm very grateful for the year. Sure, with my line of work I could look and be all woe is me and hate on 2020, but I'm not going to. That's not going to get me or any of us anywhere if we choose to look at the negative. So let's all go into 2021 looking at only the positives and how the negatives were just there to help us grow.

Today's post is a draft from before Christmas. I did it shortly after Halloween as a palate cleanser from all the orange, greens, and purples. You can never go wrong with mint and silver holographics. Plus a glitter gradient? This manicure is simple and perfect.

Let's take a look!

Colors Used:

Jessica Cosmetics - Flower Crown
ORLY - White Tips
ILNP - Mega X

Isn't this gorgeous? I love how Mega X looks over White Tips. In my last post, I used ILNP Versailles for a glitter gradient and it worked just as wonderfully. I'm on a gradient kick because the design I painted last night has the Mega X gradient again. You'll see that post in a few days. I just think it's the perfect accent to any manicure.

Flower Crown is one of my favorite polishes. It applies perfectly in two coats. You technically could get away with one coat of this beauty, but you know me, I have to have at least two. I've tried going the one coat route, but it feels like my nails are still naked. Is that weird? I feel that's weird.

What do you think? Fan of this look?

Until next time, <3.

Nothing to Disclose Press Sample Affiliate Link

The One That I Meant to Post on Thanksgiving but Forgot

9:00:00 AM

Good morning Polished World! How are you all doing today? I cannot believe that I didn't post today's manicure on Thanksgiving like originally planned. Reason being - I got caught up in the holiday prep and the holiday itself that I didn't have time to edit the photos. And you'd think that since I took time off of work I would have time, but nope. I actually have used most of that free time to catch up on some much needed sleep!

Anyways, today's manicure is a fall-themed pumpkin manicure perfect for Thanksgiving. The manicure itself didn't last until Turkey day because due to the food prep, I chipped half the nails off. Figures, right? At least I just spent the day with my immediate family who don't look forward to seeing my nails.

Let's take a look!

Colors Used:

Jessica Cosmetics - Mysterious Echoes
OPI - My Vampire Is Buff
NYC New York Color - Fashion Queen

Holy crap is Mysterious Echoes a gorgeous polish. I used three coats because I really wanted the dark, fall, vampy look. Depending on the lighting this polish can go from a deep plum with purple tones to dark red tones. It truly is gorgeous. Reminds me to use some of my vampy, darker colors more often. You can use two coats but again, I wanted three.

Fashion Queen is the perfect coppery glitter which really accented this manicure well. It was perfect for my little pumpkin. It layered nicely with two coats on the middle finger, and then just one coat for the pumpkin. The best part, it removed like a dream. Love when you don't have to fight with a glitter polish! I was surprised too because it had larger and smaller flecks in it. Usually those are a pain to remove.

What do you think? Fan of this manicure?

Hope Everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Until next time, <3.

The One With the Pink Snowflake Manicure

9:00:00 AM

Good morning, Polished World! How are you doing this Wednesday morning? It's cold and snowy yet again. Well, it was snowy yesterday morning with that horrible "heart attack" snow that is so wet and heavy that it causes heart attacks when people try to shovel it. Of course, I went out there and shoveled it and I swear I pulled a muscle in my back. Hey, it's my only exercise in the winter time. Hopefully Spring is around the corner.

Since it's snowy-ish, today I'm sharing a manicure I painted before Valentine's Day and was planning on posting it before the holiday, but of course, I didn't get around to doing so. To be honest, I thought I had edited the post, but instead I editted some other manicure which wasn't pink and had nothing to do with winter. Not sure what I was thinking, but oh well. At least now I can share this cute snowflake manicure with you!

Let's take a look!

Colors Used:

Jessica Cosmetics - Mojave Desert
Jessica Cosmetics - Festival Fuschia
Serendipity Polish - Holoday Lights
ORLY - Liquid Vinyl

Isn't this manicure fabulous? It has to be one of my all time favorites. My gradient turned out wonderfully, the snowflake is so straight and perfect, then the accented dots? Ahhh, I just love it all!!! Then that silver holographic nail adds a little flare and pizazz that I feel really pulled it all together!

Jessica Cosmetics Mojave Desert was the base coat for this pink ombre look. It's a perfect light pink polish which applies evenly in two coats. When that base dried, I took a make up brush and added some Mojave Desert and Festival Fuchsia and dabbed it on the nail. Sometimes two color ombres can be tricky and be too dense and not have a smooth blend, but these worked wonderfully together. After I got the color how I wanted it, I added the snowflake design and added top coat.

What do you think? Fan of this snowflake manicure? Love it as much as I do?

Until next time, <3.

Flowers

The One With the Pink Floral Spring Time Manicure

9:00:00 AM

Oh hey there, remember me? Yes, it's been a week since I last posted. This week by far was one of the craziest that I've had in a long time. Tuesday I worked 16 hours, Wednesday 12 hours.....ahhh I can't even remember it all. All I know is that things come in threes, I'm behind on all my television shows, and my nails are in need of some serious TLC. I didn't paint them since last Sunday and they literally peeled off and are sooooo damaged due to it.

Good thing about not posting for a week, I have a backlog of posts so I can let my nails have the TLC they deserve. So here I am, back and ready to share some more manicures with you.

Today's manicure is a fun, pink, Spring-time floral manicure using some of my Jessica Cosmetics polishes that I got last year in a giveaway. Somehow, my unlucky self, won the Gypsy collection in an Instagram giveaway. Seriously, I never win anything, so you can guess how beyond shocked I was when I received the DM congratulating me. It only took me close to a year to start using them.

Let's take a look at the manicure!

Colors Used:

Jessica Cosmetics - Mojave Desert
Jessica Cosmetics - Flower Crown
Jessica Cosmetics - Festival Fuchsia
ORLY - White Tips
ORLY - Liquid Vinyl

Isn't this manicure beautiful!? Now, I'm not a huge pink person, but I am loving Mojave Desert! Beautiful pink polish which covers completely in two coats. Works amazingly for nail art, just like Flower Crown and Festival Fuchsia. They're so bright and concentrated that they really work well.

I love how the colors and design came together. It looked especially amazing on my thumb nail. A little larger of a canvas which makes the design look perfect. The ring finger is nice, but it's just never as nice as the thumb.

What do you think? Fan of this manicure?

Until next time, <3.

The One Inspired by JasmineNobleNails

9:00:00 AM

Good morning polished world! How are you all doing today? It's yet another Monday, where oh where did the weekend go? I actually feel like I was quite productive. Went on a bunch of errands, watched a bunch of tv, ate a bunch of food. All and all, a successful weekend. Now, let's hope my week is not busy.

Today I'm bringing you a manicure inspired by JasminNobleNails on Instagram. It's a fun, abstract design that she did ten times better than I did. I did it a few weeks ago, but am sharing it now because it's St. Patrick's week and, well, I need to start sharing some green manicures. Even if they are mint green and not at all St. Patrick's Day themed.

Let's take a look!

Colors Used:

Jessica Cosmetics - Flower Crown
ORLY - Mirrorball
Serendipity Polish - Holoday Lights
Acrylics

Even though I think Jasmine's are better, I really do like this manicure. It's so fun and abstract! It looks like a painting you would see in a gallery somewhere. I think what really makes this manicure is the stripe of holographic silver right down the center. After I put on two coats of that beautiful Flower Crown by Jessica Cosmetics, I swiped a coat of Mirrorball down the center of my nail. I didn't have to worry how neat it was because I knew there was going to be all that abstract design over the top.

Mirrorball didn't make it holographic enough, so I swiped a thin coat of Holoday Lights down the center. That gave it the holo look just like Jasmine had on her manicure. I then went through with my acrylics and started adding the detail. It was all just so fun to do!

What do you think? Are you a fan of the acrylic design?

Until next time, <3.

Color Block Mani

The One Inspired By SamRoseNails

9:00:00 AM

Good morning polished world! How are you all doing today? It's Tuesday but I wish it was already Friday. The weeks are just getting longer and longer, and my rest is getting less and less. I need a long vacation. Anyone have any suggestions?

Since I'm tired and running off to work, my post is going to be short and sweet. Today's manicure is inspired by SamRoseNails on Instagram. She had the cutest mosaic looking nail art which I fell in love with as soon as I saw it. The mint, the silver, then the nude. It just all went together so well! After I broke two of my nails, I thought that this design would look perfect on my shorties that I was rocking for a little bit.

Sadly, mine didn't turn out as good as hers, but I still do like them. Let's take a look!

Colors Used:

Jessica Cosmetics - Flower Crown
Sally Hansen - Champagne Supernova
Sally Hansen - Silver Stallion

My lines were so much thicker than hers which looked kind of messy and not so neat. I love the design, but I think I just was tired and ended up blobbing the lines on the nails instead of paying attention. It looked good on my thumb, but that's a larger canvas which helps things out a bit.

Flower Crown is a gorgeous mint polish which I received last year in a giveaway. I never win anything, so when Jessica Cosmetics contacted me saying that I won the Gypsy Collection, I was happy as could be! Then the collection got put on the back burner and I haven't used any of the polishes until now. I'm a slacker, I know.

This view of the manicure I like better than the other photo. Probably should just delete the other photo and pretend it didn't happen. I switched up the manicure a bit and instead of doing two of the mint/teal nails I did a silver accent to match the silver on the design nail. Not sure if I lied that silver nail, but after showing it to my friend she prefered it. Who knows, she might have just said it to be nice!

What do you think? Like this manicure?

So happy my nails are growing out again. You know, just in time for the dreaded Valentine's Day nails. Blah.

Until next time, <3.

The One With the First Snowflake Manicure of Winter

9:00:00 AM

Good morning polished world! How are you all doing today?? Guess what? It snowed here! Sure, it snowed a few weeks ago, but now it snowed on top of the Christmas lights on the bushes, so to me that's the first official snow. Plus all the leaves are cleaned up so it's actually pretty outside.

So since it's the first official snowfall in my book, I have decided it is time to start winter/snowflake manicures. Today's manicure is a re-creation of this manicure I did last year. It was one of my favorites, partially due to that gorgeous blue Madam Glam polish. This year though I decided to use some of the new OPI polishes from the Breakfast at Tiffany's collection!

Let's take a look!

Colors Used:

Jessica Cosmetics - Black Lustre
OPI - I Believe in Manicures
OPI - Champagne for Breakfast

Can we take a minute and talk about Champagne for Breakfast by OPI? I bought it because I thought it was a plain silver holo microglitter. Sure, I have dozens of those, but I have to have them all. I am SOOOOO happy I bought this one because it is a textured polish!!! That's right, it might as well be a OPI Liquid Sand. If you love texture and you love holo, you need to go find this polish. I need to find myself a back up, or three.

I Believe in Manicures is a gorgeous blue polish. I almost didn't buy it because I have zillions of blue polishes, but this one is a different shade than others I have. Two coats of that perfect OPI formula and I had full coverage. Super shiny, super pretty. I need about three back ups of this beauty as well.

Well I think my snowflake drawing technique has most certainly improved in a year. I cannot wait to do more. Seriously, I'm on a snowflake kick, so be expected to see at them throughout the winter season!

What do you think? Own any of these polishes? Is it too early for snowflake manicures??

Until next time, <3.

Dot Mani

The One With the Splash Flower and Jessica Cosmetics

9:00:00 AM

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

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

Let's take a look!

Colors Used:

Jessica Cosmetics - Mysterious Echoes
Serendipity Polish - Sunshine Rainbow
ORLY - White Tips

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

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

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

Until next time, <3.

Color Club

The One With the Raining Dots

9:00:00 AM

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

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

Let's take a look.

Colors Used:

Color Club - Diggin' the Dancing Queen
Jessica Cosmetics - Black Lustre
ORLY - White Tips
OPI - This Crown Needs a Gown

Kind of a neat look, right? I love the purple base with the black, white, and silver dots. I feel like the dots raining from my cuticle make my nails look longer than they would have if I started from the base. The reason why I said they were a pain was because I was scared to flood my cuticle with a dot. Placement was really important also for my OCD.

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

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

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

Until next time, <3.

Dot Mani

The One With Chevrons and Jessica Cosmetics Mysterious Echoes

9:00:00 AM

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

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

Let's take a look!

Colors Used:

Jessica Cosmetics - Mysterious Echoes
FingerPaints - Golden Glaze

Okay, ignore my photos above, they really aren't true to color. I don't know why but Mysterious Echoes photographed way darker in my lightbox than what it is in person. The photo below shows it more true to color.

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

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

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

Until next time, <3.

Dot Mani

The Nail Art Squad Does Halloween

9:00:00 AM

Good morning polished world! Happy Halloween!!!! I'm so excited to put away my black and orange polishes for awhile and go back to using all my other colors. I'm kind of upset that I didn't do any manicures using my neon purples or greens for Halloween. Oh well, there's always next year.

Today I'm posting alongside The Nail Art Squad for a Halloween Collaboration over on Instagram! I decided to do a jack o'lantern manicure for the collaboration to match my shirt I'm wearing today. I'll try to remember to post a photo of myself on Instagram or SnapChat so you all can see the shirt and how it does match my manicure!

Let's take a look!

Colors Used:

FingerPaints - Tie Dye Tangerine
Zoya - Storm
Serendipity Polish - Holo-Day Lights
Jessica Cosmetics - Black Lustre

Had to be one of the simplest designs that I did this year, but it took me forever to complete! That dang pumpkin on my ring finger kept smudging or bubbling. I literally did not finish this manicure until about 1am. I was so frustrated with them that I did not like them at all, but the next day they grew on me, and now that Halloween is here, I like them.

I've been rotating through all my black polishes this month. Serendipity, to Sally Hansen, back to Jessica Black Lustre. You think I would be able to pick a clear winner after using nothing but these black polishes all month, but I really can't. Each have their own positives and negatives.

What do you think of the manicure? Like the jack o'lantern?

Here's the collage of all the other ladies manicures! I'll tag the other girls on Instagram when I post the collage, so make sure to head on over to see their pages!

Have a happy and SAFE Halloween!!!!

Until next time, <3.

FingerPaints

The One With the Halloween Smoosh Manicure

9:00:00 AM

Good morning polished world! How are you all doing today? Monday is here and it's time to start another work week. We are also officially one week away from Halloween! Are your nails ready?? If you need inspiration, then check out my Halloween Nail Art Wheel and Tutorial Post!

This year, I have tried to stay away from re-creating designs on my nail art wheel, and try different things. Today's manicure is for sure different and something that I have never done before! Have you all heard of a smoosh manicure? I first started to see smoosh manicures pop up on Instagram a few months ago when some bloggers started collaborating for #smooshsunday. It's where you literally smoosh the colors on your nail and get a cool marbled look! Kind of similar to a saran wrap manicure.

After seeing Jessica's (Lalalovenailart) awesome Halloween smoosh manicure, I decided to give it a go! Let's take a look!

Colors Used:

Jessica Cosmetics - Black Lustre
FingerPaints - Paper Mache
FingerPaints - Tie Dye Tangerine

Isn't this the coolest looking thing ever? I have to say, this is hands down one of my favorite techniques and I really can see myself doing this a lot more now that I figured out how to do it! Dianna, also known as Dsetterfield74 on Instagram, told me that she achieved her smoosh manicures by dabbing the polish on a stamper then stamping it on her nail. I was very leery that this would work, but I gave it a shot anyways. I dabbed a few drips of each color on the stamper, stamped it first on a paper plate because I thought it was too much, then stamped it on my nail. I was amazed when I saw that this was the end result!!! So cool!!!

I love the color combination. So happy I saw Jessica's smoosh design, otherwise I wouldn't have ever thought of making one with these Halloween colors. Hmmm, I wonder if anyone has done one with the purple and green Halloween colors. Maybe using the China Glaze Halloween polishes from last year?? I wish I wasn't already planned out until the end of the month, otherwise I would have tried it! I bet you anything that Dianna has one already on her page using those colors. That lovely is the queen of smoosh manis!

My suggestion if you are going to do this, make sure you are using opaque, close to one coat polishes. The first orange I was using was too sheer and it did not blend at all with the other colors. It actually disappeared and looked more like just a black and white marble with a random orange huge in the white. I'd have to say that all the FingerPaints creams I've ever used would be perfect candidates for this design.

What do you think? Something you would try? Don't you love how every nail is different?!

I cannot wait to do more smoosh manicures now that I figured out how to do them! I think they look cooler than water marble, and honestly, it's easier than doing a marble. Clean up was not bad either. Make sure you tape or liquid latex your nails before doing it!

Until next time, <3.

Halloween

The One With the Vampy Spider Webs and Jessica Cosmetics Fruit of Temptation

9:00:00 AM