Dot Mani

The One With the Random Heart Manicure

9:00:00 AM

Nothing to Disclose


Good Morning, Polished World! How are you all doing today?  It's yet another Monday which means time for a whole new work week.  I apologize that I haven't been posting, but I was sick for the past two weeks, a long with half of my facility.  My priority became my health mixed with still trying to complete my job.  It was a tough two weeks, but each time I go through these things, I become stronger, so for that I'm grateful.

Now, here I am, the week of Easter, with no Easter nail art.  When I painted my nails last evening, I did a black and white floral design, then when I finished them, I realized I should have done something pastel.  Actually, I realize now as I type this, I have an Easter lily looking design.  I guess I'll post that later this week.

Until then, I'm bringing you a random nude heart design I painted a few weeks ago.  I needed something neutral as a palate cleanser.  Not sure if I 100% love this design, but I am happy with how it turned out.

Let's take a look!


We can all agree that Mirrorball by ORLY is just fabulous.  It's by far one of my all time favorite holographic silver polishes.  If you've been reading this blog for some time, then you know that this is my go to accent polish.  I think it accented this design rather well, don't you think?


You think after all these years I could successfully paint a heart.  Nope, they still look messy and not as neat as I would like.  For sure something I want to work on this year.  I think the one on the pinkie nail looks the best.

What do you think?  Like this look?

Okay, time to plan one or two Easter designs.

See you soon, <3.


Orly

The One With the First Snowflake Manicure of the Season

9:00:00 AM

Nothing to Disclose


Good Morning, Polished World!  How are you all doing on this cold, January morning?  Yesterday it was raining and in the 40s, and now today the high is 12 degrees and we are in a winter weather advisory.  I'm not complaining, this is typical weather for this time of year, and secretly I love the winter.  Something about the cold outdoors when it's super quiet.  It's just beautiful and peaceful.  Especially when it's snowing.  Maybe I'm the only one who feels this way.

Since I love the winter and snow so much, of course I try to paint my nails with snowflakes as much as possible this time of year.  I'm onto my third snowflake manicure, just rather delayed when it comes to posting.   Today's design is a re-creation of a simple black/silver/white snowflake design I did a few years ago.   I had quite the break on my middle finger, so I had to do something that would look good on short nails, and this was it.

Let's take a look!


Colors Used:
  • ORLY - White Tips, Liquid Vinyl, Mirrorball
Mirrorball is the best holographic polish.  I think I have about 5 bottles of this beauty in my collection because I don't want to ever run out.  Gorgeous holographic with little flecks of holo silver glitter throughout - and it created the most perfect glitter gradient on my index and pinkie finger.  Don't know why I never attempted a glitter gradient with this beauty, but now that I have, be prepared to see about 50 of them.


I love my snowflake design on my ring finger.  One of my favorite snowflakes I've ever painted.   Can I tell you that I absolutely love painting snowflakes because they don't have to be perfect?  The fact that no two snowflakes are the same really helps my OCD when it comes to painting them.

What do you think?  Fan of this manicure?

Until next time, <3.

Flowers

The One With the Sunflowers and ORLY Blue Tango

9:00:00 AM

Nothing to Disclose


Good Morning!!! Sorry I've gone MIA again, but yet again, work got a little crazy.  I'm still painting my nails, I'm just too exhausted to edit the photos or write the posts.  I still have a palm tree look that I need to post.  Maybe I'll post that when I'm tired of the 10th snowfall of the year.  We aren't here to talk about snow though, we are here to talk about my favorite season - Fall!  Sunflowers, pumpkins, crisp leaves, apples....ahhh it's all so wonderful.  I truly wish Fall was longer.

Today's design is always my Fall kick off design, the sunflowers!  I meant to post these a few weeks ago, so they're delayed on the blog, but I did have them on my nails in the height of sunflower season.   Now we are onto apple season...and to be honest, I don't think I've ever done apple nails. I should look into that.

Until then, let's take a look at the sunflowers!!


Colors Used:
  • ORLY - Blue Tango
  • Acrylics
Guys - Blue Tango from the Wild Natures collection is GORGEOUS.  By far one of my all time favorite blue polishes.  It applies perfectly in two coats and has such a shiny finish.  No patches, just a beautiful cream polish.  It is by far the best base for the bright yellow sunflowers.


After the sunflowers were painted, I decided to go through and outline them with the black polish to really make them pop.  They looked good without the outline but it truly did add another element to the design.  Then it needed something a little more, and that was the polka dots.  I'm not going to lie, I'm rather impressed with how well i fit the dots on the nails after the fact.  Usually when I do a dot base, I put it down first then paint the design over it.

What do you think?  Love Blue Tango? Love the sunflowers?

Until next time, <3.


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



Flowers

The One Inspired by PippyPolish

9:00:00 AM

Nothing to Disclose Press Sample Affiliate Link


Good Morning Polished World!  Welcome to another week!  This weekend was partially a bust for me.  Yesterday I spent most of the afternoon in bed with the worst migraine.  Woke up, felt fine, went outside and was hit by the humidity and it just did not play well with my head.  Came back inside, laid down, fell asleep, then woke up hours later not even sure what day it was.  Not going to lie, it was a great nap despite the confusion upon waking up. 

Today's design is one that is inspired by PippyPolish on Instagram.  Since my nails are finally healthy again after months of peeling and breaking, I'm able to go back to my favorite type of manicure, a negative space manicure!  You know, the one where you create the design on top of your naked nail, or leave some blank space.  I apologize in advance for the sheer amount that will be posted over the next few weeks. 

Let's take a look!


Colors Used:
  • ORLY - Liquid Vinyl
  • ORLY - White Tips
  • ORLY - some bright pink which the label fell off the bottom -_-
Negative space, daisies, and a neon?  Can't get much better than this!!  Now, PippyPolish used a yellow for the centers of her flowers, but since it's summertime, I decided to go for a neon pink.  I'm really happy with the decision.  It gave the manicure a retro feel.


In order to do a perfect negative space design, you cannot put the nail art direct on the nail.  You have to start off with a base coat.  For me, I use ORLY Top 2 Bottom.  I then add a layer of FingerPaints Smooth Over Ridge Filler.  This adds a little cloudy look to the nail, but still shows off the naked base.  Once it's dried, you have the perfect canvas for any nail art.  When you add your top coat, it all turns shiny and the design really holds onto the nail.  I've found when I don't use a base, it chips off super fast.

Until next time, <3.


Flowers

The One With Yet Another Floral Recreation

9:00:00 AM

Nothing to Disclose 


Good Morning, Polished World!  How are you all doing on this wonderful Wednesday?  I'm still slacking and have yet to transfer my blog over to another platform, but to be honest I'm debating on even doing that now because Google seems to have restored my posts which were removed.  I'm still iffy because I'm nervous I'm going to lose everything that I've done on this blog for so many years of my life.  When work slows down some, I'll get to moving it.

Today's manicure is yet another floral re-creation.  I'm not going to lie, I painted this design a few weeks ago and shared a sneak peek to Instagram, and never posted it.  Again, slacker.  When I was painting this design, I was looking through old floral posts and debating on what to do.  I had completely forgotten about these flowers and as soon as I saw them I had to try them again.  This has to be my favorite one out of all of them.

Let's take a look! 


Yeahhhhhhhhhhhh, we are going to skip right past the colors used on this post.  Not because I forgot the name of the polish.  No, we are skipping because this ORLY is one of my OG ORLY's from when I started blogging and the sticker has fallen off the bottom of the bottle.  I call it my highlighter pink pretty.  It's actually one of my go-to colors for pedicures in the summertime.  Super easy to apply and full coverage in two coats.  Shame I don't know the name so you all can go out and buy it.  I do know though that it was for the longest time part of their core collection.


The flowers are actually SUPER easy to paint.  I started out by outlining the design with an acrylic paint.  When I had the flower just how I wanted it, I went through with the polishes and filled in the color as if it were a coloring book.  Once that dried, I cleaned up the lines a bit again with the acrylic and added the little details.  Added a top coat and called it a night!

What do you think?  Fan of this floral?  Any clue what that ORLY is?

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.

Flowers

The One With the Spring Floral Manicure!

9:00:00 AM

Nothing to Disclose Press Sample Affiliate Link


Happy....ummm is it Wednesday?  Yes.  Happy Wednesday!!! Goodness this week is flying by and to be completely honest with you, it's just been a weird week.  Not because it's super busy, but because it's just....odd. I can't put my finger on it.  It's kind of slow, but I'm able to catch up on work.  I think I'm used to the go, go, go that when normal life hits I don't know how to handle it and automatically assume it's odd.  Regardless, the weather has been gorgeous so I've been enjoying every moment outside that I can.

Of course, with every moment outside working on my garden and cleaning my car, that has led to some massive breaks in my nails and I'm back to short little nubs.  Which means I'm only swatching again.  Therefore, today's post is from The Little Canvas vault.  Thank God for that vault so I can bring you content.  Today's design is a random floral one which just screams Spring.

Let's take a look!


Now to see if I remember what colors I used since I did this an eternity ago....

Colors Used:
  • ORLY - Pink Noise
  • ORLY - Mirrorball
  • ORLY - Vintage
  • ORLY - White Tips
Four out of five colors isn't bad.  I can't remember that dark pink polish I used for the flower.  Oh, and the dark green leaf.  That honestly might be an acrylic. Now, is it just me, or does this color combination make my hand look kind of yellow and jaundice?  Okay, I'm being dramatic, but it did wash me out a bit.  In person, this manicure was drop dead gorgeous and didn't give me that washed out look.


Now that I said it though, it can't be unseen.  Despite the yellow tinged hand, the color combination worked really well together.  I think if I were to create this manicure again, I might skip the silver accent nail and do another vintage nail or another polka dot nail.  You know me and my silver accents, I just have to throw one there.

What do you think?  Love this look? 

Until next time, <3.

Abstract

The One With the Random Abstract Design

11:39:00 PM

Nothing to Disclose 


Good Morning, Polished World, and Happy March!  Can you believe it? We are almost at the one year mark of all the crazy COVID lockdowns.  The world has changed so much in a year.  I can safely say that I have changed a lot too this past year.  While others have chosen to live in the "woe is me" of the past 2020, I've decided to look at all the positives, and in the end I feel I've grown a lot because of that.  Who knows, maybe it's a mind over matter thing, but regardless, I'm very grateful for the past year.

Today's manicure is the beginning of  me attempting to utilize green polish for the first half of March.  Unlike February and Valentine's Day, I do love March and St. Patrick's Day.  I'm a sucker for a good green polish, especially a mint.  Of course, mint really doesn't scream St. Patrick's Day, but who's really going to care.  I got the idea for today's manicure when I was scrolling Pinterest for a banana cake recipe.  It was abstract and I really adored the color palette.  Definitely something I never would have come up with on my own.

Let's take a look! 


Colors Used:
  • ORLY - Olive You Kelly
  • ORLY - Pink Noise
  • ORLY - White Tips
  • ORLY - Liquid Vinyl
Look at Pink Noise....look at Olive You Kelly!  Both polishes are GORGEOUS in their own right.  This year I'm going to make it a point to go through all my ORLY polishes that I haven't used from the last two years of my Color Pass subscription and really go to town and create manicures using colors I normally don't use.  That was a run on sentence, but you get the point.  I can't even recall what subscriptions these two polishes were from, but I think I've only used each of them once or twice.  Alone they're gorgeous, and together even more gorgeous.


I'm a fan of the abstract color blocking putting the two together.  Whoever it was that originally came up with this design, bravo.  I really am not that talented.

What do you think? Something you'd try? Fan of the colors?

Until next time, <3.


Orly

The One Where I Caved and Did a Valentine's Day Manicure

9:00:00 AM

Nothing to Disclose


Good Morning, Polished World!  And Happy Valentine's Day to all my lovely followers.  Yes, the past two posts I said I wasn't going to post today or have any themed nail art this year, but here I am.  You can thank my coworkers who peer pressured me into doing some festive nails.  I'm kind of glad I did because I really liked this design.

Earlier this week I was updating Instagram (shocking) when I stumbled across this design by Nail_Art_By_Tal.  As you know, a few posts back I shared a french tip snowflake design which I was completely in love with, so this was no shocker that I fell in love with this one as well.  I had to re-create it.  It's simple, festive, but not over the top for the day.

Let's take a look!


Colors Used:
  • ORLY - Mirrorball
  • Acrylics
ORLY Mirrorball, one of the best holographic polishes in my collection.  I have about 4 back up bottles of this beauty.  I haven't ever used it for a glitter gradient before, but now that I see how well it works, I'm going to!  I debated on using Mega X by ILNP for this manicure, but I wanted that extra glitter that Mirroball has with the little hex pieces.


When the gradient was dried,  I went through with a small dotting tool and added the hearts and the little dots.  I wanted to do the little stars that Tal had, but I never in all my years of blogging have figured out how to do those freehanded.  So, instead of the stars,  I decided to add the little line on the hearts to make them pop a little.  I love them, but think Tal did a better job.

What do you think?  Fan of the manicure?  Happy I did something for Valentine's Day?

Until next time, <3.



Jessica Cosmetics

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.

Orly

The One With the Watercolor Pineapple

9:00:00 AM


Happy Thursday polished world!!  Are you enjoying your week thus far?  I feel like it has been a blur, but to be honest I have been feeling not myself since Sunday.  I'm not sick, but I'm not 100% normal.  *Insert joke of when am I ever normal here.* Tomorrow is Friday which means that the weekend is almost here and before we know it we will be headed into the last week of January.  And I've done nearly not enough snowflake manicures for the year.  Maybe I'll get to another one in the next few days.

I haven't been feeling the snowflake nail art because we keep getting these weird little heat waves.  It goes from 19 degrees back up to 45.  No sooner than it drops about 6 inches of snow on the ground, it's melted the next day.  Listen, I'm never happy when it comes to the weather, but I would be a little happier if it stuck to being either cold or warm, not all over the place.  Since we are in another "heat wave" I decided to have a little fun on my nails and do a more summery look.

Let's take a look!


Colors Used:
  • ORLY - White Tips
  • ORLY - Liquid Vinyl
  • Acrylics
Cute, right?  Nothing says summer like a little pineapple.  I saw a watercolor pineapple on Pinterest, and you all know me and my love of pineapples, it went on the re-create board right away.  The look was a lot simpler to create than I thought it would be.

First I started off with a coat of my favorite black and white polishes.  I rave about ORLY White Tips and Liquid Vinyl pretty much in every post.  They are my go to black and white because they last a long time, apply evenly, and have such perfect shiny finish.


When my white polish was dried, I went through with a black acrylic and painted the outline of the pineapple.  I then took different acrylics and watered them down so they pretty much were just stained watered.  I then took that and added each watered down color individually to the nail.  I let it sit for a few seconds and soaked up the excess water.  I went through and did this with each color.  Once I got the colors I wanted, I went through and cleaned up the outline.

What do you think? Love the pineapple?  I have to say, this probably is my favorite pineapple manicure to date.

Until next time, <3.


Flowers

The One With the Random Floral Manicure

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!  Happy Sunday to you all!  I'm so excited that the holidays are over and the work week can go back to being just that; a work week.  Nothing was worse than the past two weeks working a Monday, being off on a Tuesday and Wednesday, then returning on Thursday to a day that feels like a Monday.  I miss the days of being a kid where I just had full weeks off of school and didn't have to worry about working.

But alas, I am an adult, who paints nail art on her nails.  Today's design is a simple floral manicure I did back in the Fall, but never got around to posting.  I tried my hardest this Fall to use some of my darker toned polishes.  My goal last year and this year was to stick with the whole color pallette of the season, but I'm going to tell you that I painted neons on my nails last night so it's safe to say I already failed.  Regardless, this manicure was perfect for Fall, and works for winter too.

Let's take a look!


Colors Used:
  • ORLY - Mystic Maven
I'm only putting the bottle color I used, because as usual I don't remember what the other polishes are and I didn't put them in the post when I created the draft.  You think after all these years of blogging, I would have learned by now.  Oh well.  Mystic Maven deserves her own post though because she truly is a gorgeous purple, mauve cream.  Truly unique to my collection and one I should wear more often.  Two coats and full, smooth coverage.  Not shocking since we all know ORLY is perfection.



I was rather proud of my floral design.  I'm getting better at creating leaves with some form of dimension to them with the random green shading.  I can tell you that I cheated and used acrylics for those little babies, but the flower itself was all polish.

What do you think?  Fan of this manicure?  Love the color combo?

Until next time, <3.

Animal Print

The One With the Random Leopard Print

9:00:00 AM


Hey happy Polished world!  How are you all doing on this wonderful Friday?  Sorry I haven't posted all week, but it's been quite busy.  As some of you may know, I started a new job a month ago and I really hit the ground running.  This week I had a few projects due and I'm happy to say I've successfully accomplished them all.  I've been painting my nails, but after working those 8 hour days, I really didn't feel like turning on the computer to blog.  Last night though, I took an opportunity to just edit a bunch of photos and blog again.

Welcome to my next five posts probably being all ORLY.  I didn't realize how much I use this brand until I was editing.  Hey, if you love a brand, why not constantly use it?  I really have to get to my pile of about 75 untried polishes which include more ORLY, ILNP, and OPI.  Alas, here I am using my oldies, but goodies.

One of my favorite oldies is ORLY Mirrorball.  I used it alongside my favorite black and white polish, also by ORLY, to create a simple leopard manicure.

Let's take a look!


Colors Used:
  • ORLY - Mirrorball
  • ORLY - Liquid Vinyl
  • ORLY - White Tips
I can't tell if my contacts are blurring my vision, or if that photo is blurry.  I swear my camera has been acting up hardcore lately.  I really need to invest in a new one.  Kind of ruins the whole blogging vibe when I edit the photos and they all look cruddy.  I probably should edit the photos right after I take the photos because that way I could just re-shoot if there are problems.



I really love the black, white, and holo silver together. It's always a classic look.  I actually just removed a tape manicure using the same color scheme.  I'm really loving the use of black polish.  This is probably why 90% of my posts are going to contain ORLY because Liquid Vinyl is my favorite black.

What do you think?  Fan of this manicure?  Think my photos are blurry?  Meh

Until next time, <3.

Flowers

The One With the Little Daisies

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!  It's Thursday and we have had our first snowfall, and it feels like mid January outside.  I'm telling you, this cold weather makes me lazy.  I need to start updating my Instagram again.  I'm over here blogging, but not sharing.  The sharing part is the easiest too, so that's why this is all a shock to me.  I need a personal assistant to share my posts for me!

Today's design is a cute little floral manicure I did using my favorite ORLY polish - Blue Suede.  I truly have zero idea where my inspiration came from for this manicure, but I'm not 100% fan of the manicure.  I love the blue, love the holographic accent, but the floral design....meh.  I think I could have done better.

Let's take a look!


Colors Used:
  • ORLY - Blue Suede
  • INM - Granite
  • ORLY - Mirrorball
  • Acrylics
I think it's the green leaves I don't like.  They're a tad messy for my liking.  I go from these highs when it comes to my details, to these lows where I just feel like I can't nail art anymore.  I realize I'm being hard on myself because yes, the manicure is cute, and really no one sees what I see when it comes to the "messiness".



I love ORLY Mirrorball, but I think it might have added too much to the manicure.  I think I should have gone with a plain grey nail, or maybe another Blue Suede nail.

What do you think?  Like this look?  Think I should have done it differently?

Until next time, <3.

China Glaze

The One With the Pink Floral Manicure

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world, and Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms out there!  Especially my momma!  I apologize for being MIA again, but this week really truly did get away from me.  When I did sit down on my computer, I had no urge to edit my nail photos or even blog.  Not going to lie, I've gotten a lot of television watching done.  Hulu Live is my friend.  One bone I have to pick with Hulu - their version of She's The Man is totally edited and missing huge sections.  Not cool.

Today's manicure is a cute pink floral manicure I did with a mish mosh of pinks from my collection.  I have about 70 new polishes to use but I have nowhere to store them until I build my new Melmers (maybe I'll do that today), so I'm going through all my old collection and using some oldies but goodies.  You know, all those polishes which I have forgotten about since I have overflowing drawers and shelves.  Maybe I'll get to building my drawers today so I can use my newbies.

Let's take a look at the pink floral design!


Colors Used: 

  • OPI - Suzi's Hungary Again
  • ORLY - Pink Noise
  • China Glaze - Merry Whatever.

ORLY Pink Noise - an oldie from the Spring 2018 Pastel City collection.  Literally have not used this one, so maybe it's a good thing that I haven't built my new drawers yet.  Two coats of this beauty and I had full coverage.  It is the PERFECT pink for an accent manicure to do some nail art over the top of.  I didn't expect myself to love this polish as much as I do.  I really need to use this one more often, or even for a summer pedicure color.  It's a pastel, but has a tinge of neon brightness.  It's just gorgeous.


Love the floral design that I did on top of it.  I've been on a floral kick, so the next few posts are all florals.  Hope you all don't mind.  I went through and edited all the photos yesterday and I was pleasantly surprised to see that all the florals that I've done do not look alike.  What I like about this one is the combination of the rose and daisy.  The overlapping of designs just makes it pop.

What do you think?  Fan of this manicure?  Love the pinks?

Until next time, <3.  (Which hopefully won't be another week)


Flowers

The One With the Rose Manicure for Valentine's Day! - and Blog-versary!

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world and Happy Valentine's Day!  Blah, hate this holiday, but guess what?  It's the 7th Anniversary of The Little Canvas.  Weird that it's the anniversary of my blog seeing as I hate this day so much.  I remember when I started this blog, I was homesick for a month with some ungodly illness.  Before getting sick, I was beginning to discover the world of nail polish blogs.  I so badly wanted to get my designs out there, and while lounging around the house attempting to get better, The Little Canvas was born!  Looking back at it now, while that sickness was horrible, I'm grateful it happened, because if it didn't I wouldn't have this blog, and I probably wouldn't still be painting my nails.

So while everyone is showing their love with their significant others, I'm going to show my love for all my lovely followers.  From those who have stuck from me since the very beginning, to all my new followers, I thank you all joining me on this journey!  I truly love you and couldn't imagine not having you all in my life!

I guess I should stop being so sappy and start talking about my manicure for today!  I love rose manicures, and this one is no exception.  The colors, the little roses....just everything is perfect!!

Let's take a look!


Colors Used:
  • ORLY - Mystic Maven
  • ORLY - Head in the Clouds
  • ORLY - Mirrorball
Look at this manicure!!!!!  How could you hate it?!  Mystic Maven is drop.dead.gorgeous!  Mystic Maven is a purple mauve cream from the Deep Wonder collection from Winter 2018.  I said this in my last ORLY post, but polishes like these are the reason that I still have a subscription to the ORLY Color Pass.  It's such a great deal and you get all four main ORLY collections.  Since Sally Beauty stopped carrying the Limited Edition collections, this was the way to go for me.  Especially because the Color Pass is much cheaper than what I could purchase them for in store.

Anyways, Mystic Maven covers completely in two coats.  Honestly, you could get away with one coat on this gorgeous polish.  I'm so happy to have this color in my collection.



Trying a little new background for my pose like this.  Not sure if I like it yet, but it does feature another shot of Mystic Maven, as well as the beautiful Head in the Clouds.  This polish is from the La La Land Spring Collection in 2017....another Color Pass purchase.  Two coats for that polish, but I used three because I felt like there was one patchy spot.  I think that was operator error though.

What do you think? Love this rose manicure? Love the ORLYs?

Again, I want to thank you all who have followed and supported me for the past 6 years!  You have no idea how much it means to me!  Here's to another year!

Until next time, <3.

Dot Mani

The One With the Heart Manicure

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!  Welcome to yet another Monday here in 2019.  We have entered into the week of the dreaded Valentine's Day.  At least I have a super busy week so I can ignore the fact that everyone is being super extra.  I'm a firm believer we should show our love for eachother every day, and not be forced to do it one day a year.  Now we all know that Valentine's Day didn't start out as a Hallmark Holiday, society commercialized it into what it is today.

Despite my hate for the holiday, for the blog (and my resident's), I festively paint my nails.  Today's manicure is for sure out of my comfort zone because of all the pink.  So.much.pink.  I wasn't sure of it at first, but then when I finished it off with the rose gold accent.....well, you'll see.

Let's take a look!


Colors Used:
  • INM - Celine's Jelly Bean
  • ORLY - White Tips
  • ORLY - Lucid Dream
Gorgeous, right? Celine's Jelly Bean is a perfect pastel pink polish.  Two coats and full coverage.  I was scared this would be a three coater because typically light pinks like this are more sheer and crelly like, but this one isn't.  Perfect cream polish which I think I might be using again around Easter time.



I can see myself wearing more pink manicures because of this design.  Lucid Dream by ORLY is a perfect accent to balance everything off.  It is a two coat, rose gold polish from the Deep Wonder winter collection.  Polishes like this are why I continue with the ORLY Color Pass each year.


What do you think of this manicure?  Think I should do more pink manicures?

Until next time, <3.


Orly

The One With the Abstract Color Block Manicure

9:00:00 AM

Nothing to Disclose

Hey polished world! How are you all doing today?  I apologize for my lack of posting, although I feel I'm doing better in 2019 versus 2018.  Last week was crazy, it started with a snow storm, blossomed into an illness at work, causing me to wash my hands a zillion times, still getting sick, leading to the driest of dry skin and dry brittle nails breaking every other second.  Everything that could go wrong, did, and it's kind of dragging into this week.  Hopefully it gets better....it has to, right?

Well, we will ignore the fact that tomorrow starts a cold streak for the next few days.  Wind chills are going to be in the -30s, the high temperatures of 3 degrees.  Not looking forward to it.  Therefore I'm trying to figure out ways to brighten my mood, which means bright nail art.  Now, I'm not ready for super neon nails, so today's nail art is a splash of color which I feel we really haven't seen in awhile here on The Little Canvas.

I'm in a blue, black, white, and silver mode.  Normal winter colors, right?  Today's manicure of course has some blue, but I mixed it with some pink and gold to make it a little different and a little bright.  I saw a similar manicure on Pinterest and I thought it was fun.

Let's take a look!


Colors Used:

  • ORLY - Cake Pop
  • ORLY - Frolic
  • ORLY - Under the Stars
  • Some random gold I cannot remember the name of......
Liking the manicure, hating the photos.  They really don't do it justice.  As you can see, my middle finger is a big broke and stubby compared to the rest.  Currently all my nails are chopped down to the nail line thanks to some major breaks, so I'm really feeling insecure about all my nail art on these little shorties.



Regardless of being so self conscience of my nail shape and size, I'm still liking the abstract design and feel of this manicure.  The colors went so well together.  Really loving Cake Pop by ORLY.  I forgot I owned this pale pink polish.  Covered completely in two coats, which I was surprised by because it was rather sheer on the first coat.  It built up quite nicely.  When it was dried, I went through and added all the random color block/dry brush swipes.

What do you think?  Fan of this manicure? Something you'd try?  Are your nails snapping and breaking too?

Until next time, <3.

Orly

The One With the First Snowflake Manicure of the Year

9:00:00 AM


Hey everyone!!!  How are you all doing today?  It's Thursday and boy is this week dragging!!  It was about 11am yesterday and I thought that it was 5pm.  Alas, it was 11am and I had a day full still of work, meetings, and more work.  I feel life gets like that right before the weather changes, and that's exactly what it's doing here!  The other day it was in the high 40s, now it's in the 20s and we have snow. 

I'm not going to lie, we haven't had a lot of snow yet this winter season and it's been kind of sad to me.  I love at least one good snow storm.  A foot or two of white, sparkly snow covering the ground, all the branches outlined in white.....it's just so gorgeous.

The other thing I love about snow is snowflake nail art!!  I feel weird painting snowflakes on my nails when it's gloomy with no snow.  So be prepared, I have a feeling that I'm going to be doing a few snowflake designs until this accumulation melts.  Now knowing where I live and how the weather goes, that will be by the weekend.  Sigh.

Until then, let's take a look at today's snowflake design!


Colors Used:
  • ORLY - White Tips
  • ORLY - Liquid Vinyl
  • ORLY - Mirrorball
Not going to lie, I'm kind of obsessing over black, white, and holographic silver nails lately.  Right before the New Year I posted a black, white, and silver holo heart design, then I ended up painting this one right after it, and then after this one I painted yet another silver, black, and white design which is probably my favorite manicure EVER.   But, you'll have to wait to see that one.....



I really loved this manicure, especially the dots on the index and pinkie finger.  I feel that it really felt like falling snow, and it tied in the white ring finger so well.  I also loved how the silver accent was just that, a silver accent.  It wasn't at all on the other nails, but tied the manicure together so well.

What do you think?  Fan of this look?  Anyone else like the black, white, and silver nails?

Until next time, <3.