Halloween

The One With the Mani Swap With Coffee and Nail Polish - Graveyard Nails!

9:00:00 AM


Good morning, polished world!  How are you doing on this fine, fine Tuesday?  We are finally getting some Fall weather right in time for Halloween.  Life has slowed down for me during my favorite season and I actually am getting to enjoy the changing colors and crisp air.  I'm hoping the weather holds this weekend so I can carve my pumpkins.  I need ideas, so if you have any, let me know!

Today's post is a Mani Swap with Coffee and Nail Polish, you know, since two of my last three Halloween manicures have been inspired by her.  How could I not recreate her ghosts and candy corn dots??  When I saw her graveyard nails, I knew I had to re-create them as well.  After chatting about Halloween nail art, we decided to do today's swap!!

Let's take a look at my re-creation of her graveyard nails!


Colors Used:
  • OPI - I Can Never Hut Up
  • ORLY - Liquid Vinyl
  • ORLY - White Tips
  • Zoya - Troy
Aren't these graveyard nails neat?!  Just like her other designs, I never would have thought of this manicure.  Especially doing the little graves at the cuticle.  Why don't I think of doing more cuticle nail art?  It's so versatile and there are so many designs you can do from there.  I think I might do some Thanksgiving cuticle pumpkins.  That sounds weird, but trust me, I think it's going to be cute.



I really loved the base for this manicure.  To get the look, I started with a base coat of Zoya Troy.  It's a dark grey pewter polish from I believe the Urban Grunge collection.  During my blogging hiatus, it was a polish I discovered in my collection and wore a lot with a variety of holographic top coats.  You can get away with one coat of this beauty, but I typically use two.

When that was dried, I went through with ORLY White Tips and did a vertical dry brush unlike the normal random abstract dry brush that I typically do.  I then did a dry brush with I Can Not Hut Up by OPI.  One of my favorite light grey polishes with a subtle blue shimmer.  Then to make it a little more spooky, I added a bit of a dry brush using ORLY Liquid Vinyl.


Once my dry brush was completed, I added the cuticle nail art using acrylics.  Honestly, it was so much easier to create the nail art at the cuticle instead of at the tip of the nail.  Maybe because of the angle when painting.  Who knows.  Regardless, I really need to create more cuticle nail art.

I didn't plan the photo at the actual graveyard, it just was an interesting coincidence.  On a beautiful day this weekend, I went to visit some family plots before the winter to make sure they were in good condition when I realized I had the graveyards painted on my nails.  I had to take the opportunity for the photo.  I'm not going to lie, I find graveyards to be extremely peaceful and not so much haunting.  Just walking around and reading different graves you can learn so much.  At this particular graveyard, some of the graves are from the 1800s.  I just find it interesting.

What do you think?  Fan of this manicure? Do you get creeped out by graveyards?

Don't forget to check out Shannon's swap!!!

Until next time, <3.



Dot Mani

The One With the Mani Swap with @NailsbySammie_

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!  How are you all doing on this lovely, lovely, LOVELY Friday?  Yes, it's a lovely Friday because tomorrow is Saturday meaning I finally get a day off after what seems to be the longest week ever!  My to-do list at work is growing and growing and I feel like I'm never going to get caught up.  I felt like this a few months ago and it turned around, so I'm expecting it to again.  We shall see.

Today, I am super excited to be bringing you a Mani Swap!  It's been forever since I've done a collaboration with another blogger.  After seeing so many people doing them, I took to my Instagram story and asked who would be interested and I had some lovelies respond.  One of them being @NailsBySammie_.  I've been a fan of Sam's page for so long!  Her nail art is so neat, her swatches are amazing, and I love all of her rings.  Seriously, I really want to get me some rings for my manicure photos.

After looking through her page, I stumbled across a beautiful rose manicure with a dotted accent.  You know me and how I love roses and dots, so of course this would be the design I would create!

Let's take a look!



Colors Used:
  • OPI - Spare Me A French Quarter?
  • OPI - Alpine Snow

I forgot that I even owned "Spare Me A French Quarter?" by OPI.  I really am questioning if I've ever used it before because when I opened it up the inside was perfectly clean like a brand new bottle.  It's such a gorgeous shade that I would have completely forgotten about if it weren't for this mani swap!  Two coats and full coverage.  Honestly, you could get away with one coat of this beauty.


I love the design so much.  I rarely accent my manicures like this.  Usually I do the ring and index finger.  This is such a fun set up for a manicure that I will most certainly be using more often!


Sam re-created my gradient heart design I did last month!  Make sure to head over to her Instagram to take a look at her post!  I absolutely love her swap!  I think her manicures are so much better than mine!

What do you think?  Like the mani swap?  Which is your favorite??

Thank you so much Sam for doing this collaboration with me!!!  I hope to do it again soon!

Until next time, <3.


ILNP

The One With the Mani Swap With 25 Sweet Peas

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!  How are you all doing today? Cannot believe that January is halfway through.  Probably because of this cold weather, I'm really just enjoying the fact the days are going by quickly.  That means Spring is right around the corner, right?

Well since Winter is still in full swing, I thought it would be appropriate to share yet another snowflake manicure.  This design is inspired by Sarah from 25 Sweet Peas.  After showing her my design, we decided we should do a mani swap!

Let's take a look.


Colors Used:
  • ILNP - Honor Roll
  • Acrylics
Oh. my. goodness.  This has to be my all time favorite snowflake manicure.  Honor Roll by ILNP is beyond gorgeous.  It's a dark blue holo polish which has full coverage in two coats.  I wish I was able to get the full holo goodness on camera, but this was the best I could do.  It was just so lovely.  I love the white and light blue snow flakes on top of it too.  Ahhh, favorite design.

Sarah decided to re-create my night winter sky manicure I posted a few days ago!!!  Below is the little collage she made.  Seriously, she's amazing at putting these things together.

So much blue!  I love it!!!  I think this is my all time favorite mani swap!

What do you think?  Like these looks??

Until next time, <3.



Dot Mani

The One With the Mani Swap With 25 Sweet Peas

9:00:00 AM


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

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


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

Let's take a look!




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

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


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


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

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

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

Until next time, <3.