China Glaze

The One With the St. Patrick's Day Glitter Gradient

9:00:00 AM

Nothing to Disclose


Happy St. Patrick's Day, Polished World!  Hope you all are wearing your green today!  I wanted to have more designs for you this year, but time got away from me.  The amazingly awesome news though, my nails are finally longer, just in time for some Easter and Spring nail art!  I couldn't be happier.  Also, it's gardening season.  Sure, it's still cold here and we probably will get one more snow storm, but this weekend and next, I'm going to start my seeds!  It feels like just yesterday I was planting my seedlings for the year.  Time really flies, doesn't it?

Today's design is VERY simple for me.  It's not that I was uninspired when it came to St. Patrick's Day this year, I just didn't want to go crazy.  Very weird for me, I know, but something was just pushing me towards the simple.  The simple that I went with was a wonderfully green glitter gradient that I absolutely adored.

Let's take a look!


Colors Used:
  • China Glaze - Grinchworthy
While this is a Christmas polish, it is BEYOND perfect for St. Patrick's Day.  I'm not going to lie, I have yet to use this polish for a Christmas themed manicure.  To me it's just more of a spring green, and obviously St. Patrick's Day.  I absolutely love how it looks over the black.  It transferred from the makeup sponge to the nail like a dream.  I didn't have to fill in any blank patches, the green was super pigmented and showed up on the black base, and it perfectly blended from opaque to barely there.  The perfect glitter gradient.


So now that I've done a glitter gradient with something other than silver or gold, I'm kind of hooked.  I want to do this with purple, and pink, and every single glitter I own.  I need to figure out if I have any more bright glitters like this to try the look with.

What do you think?  Fan of this design?

Hope everyone has a safe, and happy St. Patrick's Day! 

Until next time, <3.


Dot Mani

The One With the Random St. Patrick's Day Nail Art

9:00:00 AM

Nothing to Disclose


Good morning, Polished World!  How are you all doing?  I meant to have this posted yesterday, but Day Light Savings got the best of me and I just wanted to go to sleep instead of working on editing photos.  Now of course, while I'm writing this, I rather be sleeping because thanks to Day Light Savings, it's late again and I feel that I should be sleeping again.  Despite all that, it's St. Patrick's Day this week and I have to share with you the two designs I created.  Literally the most simple designs but still cute.

 Today's manicure is inspired by Ruth's Nail Art.  Hers was much better than mine.  I'm a little annoyed with how the clover turned out on my middle finger, but I think that's my own issue and no one else would notice it other than me.  Despite the imperfection that I only see, it's a wonderful manicure that I think is perfect way to kick off this St. Patrick's Day week.

Let's take a look!


Man, do I miss Serendipity Polish.  Sure this beauty is a little separated, but it still applies like a dream.  I wish I snagged more bottles of this beauty because the color is just perfect.  I pull it out for special occasions such as the holidays.  Also, out of sheer laziness when it comes to looking through all my new colors.  I really need to organize my collection this weekend.


Can you tell I broke my middle nail right before painting this design?  All my nails are nice and long and that little beauty is short and nubby.  Regardless, the design looks really god on the shorter nail.  Maybe it's the dots, but I feel that the nail looks longer than it really is!

What do you think? 

Until next time, <3.


Gradient Mani

The One With the Green Gradient for St. Patrick's Day

9:00:00 AM

Nothing to Disclose


Good Morning and Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!!  Hope everyone is decked out in green today!!  You'll find me in crazy leggings and plain green nails.  Sadly not the nails I'm sharing today because didn't I break one of them and the whole thing was just ruined.  Such is life.  If you follow me on Instagram, you know that I'm currently in the mood of blaming everything on Daylight Savings, so the nail break clearly is because of that also.  Seriously though, I cannot get into the groove of anything since Sunday!  I'm so thrown off.  I'm actually shocked I'm getting this post up, that's how thrown off I am.

Today's post is by far one of my favorite manicures to date.  I really wasn't feeling anything crazy for St. Patrick's Day this year.  Usually I do the pot of gold, shamrocks, and rainbows, but I don't know what it is.  My nail art self wasn't wanting to do all of that.  Then came the next best thing, a green gradient with a top coat of a gold flake.  I'm so glad I skipped the crazy nail art and went with this.

Let's take a look!


We will just pretend that I posted the colors I used here.  Literally painted this manicure the other day and cannot figure out for the life of me what polishes I used other than the Serendipity in the photo.  Which, I don't recall the name of it and I'm too lazy to go get the bottle and check.  Since this polish is discontinued, I don't think it's that big of a deal since you all won't be running to buy it and honestly it's a dupe for like ten other dark green polishes on the market.

I'm rambling.  Regardless, this manicure was created by painting my nails with a base of a light green polish.  That polish was one of my Sally Hansen Miracle Gels.  I was convinced that it was going to stain my nails since most light green polishes do that.  However, that beauty did not.  99.9% positive that the base was Sally Hansen Wet My Thistle.


When my base was dried, I used three shades of green to create that beautiful gradient.  I debated on rotating the gradient and having the dark at some of the cuticles, but my brain wanted to be OCD and keep everything uniform.  I'm actually happy I stayed uniform because I think the overall look was better in the end.

That glitter topper is Maria Luisa by Zoya.  My favorite gold flake which I will never forget the name of as long as I'm living.  I think it was that perfect little pot of gold look to add to it.

What do you think?  Perfect St Patrick's Day Manicure???

Everyone have a safe and happy day!

Until next time, <3.


China Glaze

The One Where I Started Off With One Idea and Ended Up With a Dotticure

9:00:00 AM

Nothing to Disclose


Good Morning Polished World, and welcome to another Monday!  I don't know about you, but Daylight Savings is kicking my ass. Yesterday I woke up late and felt like the day was dragging on and on.  Then, I decided to make some chili and bake some goodies.  In my mind I started at 5pm, really it was 6pm and I ended up baking way later than I wanted to, all because my body was programed to something else.  It's a good thing I have enough designs to publish that I didn't have to do any nail art because by the time I sat down to edit this post, it was 11pm.

Today's design is one where I started off with one idea and just ended up with a dot manicure.  Rather disappointed that my original plan failed because it was going to be super amazing, but alas, this dotticure isn't too bad.  The colors are beyond wonderful.

Let's take a look!


Colors Used:
  • China Glaze - Highlight of My Summer
  • China Glaze - Treble Maker
  • INM Northern Lights
Aren't these two colors together amazing?!!?  I was so upset that the manicure chipped so quickly because I would have kept this on for a solid week.  China Glaze doesn't like me for some reason.  No matter which shade I use, the formula chips super fast.  It must not like my nails or something.  That or Highlight of My Summer requires three coats and that's why it chipped so fast.  I don't recall this polish ever needing that many coats or being so patchy, but this time around I had a super difficult time working with it.


Regardless of the trouble that it gave me, the payoff was worth it.  Especially with the top coat of INM Northern Lights.  Treble Maker's formula is much better than Highlight.  Two coats for that beauty which dried rather quick.  Both worked wonderfully for the dots.  They weren't goopy and didn't drag.

What do you think?  Like this color combination?

One more green manicure coming up, then I'm taking a break from green for a solid month.   Unless it's mint! 

Until next time, <3.




Dot Mani

The One With the St. Patrick's Day Manicure

9:00:00 AM


Good morning and Happy St. Patrick's Day to you, polished world!  How are you all doing today?  Have you gone out and faked being Irish for the day?  Yesterday my city put on their big St. Patrick's Day parade and party downtown.  I didn't go because I'm not into the whole drunk people acting like jerks for a day thing that they all do.  Kind of ruins the holiday.  I instead went and saw Captain Marvel and now am fully ready for Avengers: Endgame.  That's for another post....

Today's design is just a simple green and gold heart manicure.  To be completely honest with you, I wasn't inspired this year to do many St. Patrick's Day designs.  I kept having to stop myself from doing purple or blue manicures, and had to remind myself to use the green.  When I sat down to do this manicure, I pulled out a few greens and my eye went immediately to Zoya Rikki.

Let's take a look!


Colors Used:
  • Zoya - Rikki
  • Zoya - Tomoko

 It's a cute, subtle St. Patrick's Day design.  I have to say, I think Zoya Rikki is the perfect green for today.  It's a gorgeous green foil with flecks of gold. It really has that leprechaun pot of gold feel.  Paired off with Tomoko, I really had that whole St. Patrick's Day vibe going.  Too bad I was uninspired and just went for some dots and a heart.  I probably really could have had an amazing design with these colors.


It still turned out okay.  I was happy with my heart, which nine times out of ten I am not.  I was going to do a shamrock, but I'm not the best at doing hearts, therefore I didn't think I would be able to get a cute little shamrock on my nail.  Then, I turned around and made a perfect little heart and wish I made it smaller so I could have done a shamrock.  Oh well, always next year.

What do you think? Fan of this manicure?

Have a safe, and Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Until next time, <3.

OPI

The One With the St. Patrick's Day Manicure Inspired by SRG.Nails

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!  How are you all doing on this fine Thursday?  It's going to be gorgeous out today.  Temperatures in the 60s, hopefully sunny, and just all around wonderful.  Maybe I'll be able to sneak out of work a little early to enjoy it before the next round of cold comes in.  Doubt it, but one can be hopeful, right?

Well, St. Patrick's Day is Sunday, so I thought I better get my booty in gear and do at least one, maybe two nail art designs for the holiday.  I feel like last year I did St. Patrick's day designs, or at least all green manicures, for most of the month.  I wasn't really feeling it this year.  Yes I love my green polishes but I just wasn't in the mood for them on my nails.  It's weird, has anyone else ever gone through that phase where they just hate a color they usually love?

Today's design is a recreation of one by SRG.Nails on Instagram.  I saw her design and loved it.

Let's take a look!


Colors Used:
  • OPI - I'm Sooo Swamped
  • China Glaze - Big Hair and Bubbly
  • China Glaze - Merry Whatever
  • Acrylics
Cute, right?  You have to check out SRG.Nails' post, because I loved hers much more than mine.  Still think mine is cute, but compared to hers, they're just okay.  I do love that rainbow accent nail.  Never would have thought to do a dry brush rainbow like that.



I liked putting a top coat of Merry Whatever on the rainbow.  It really made it a nice pot of gold look over the top of it.  Subtle sparkle, holo gold flecks.  Beautiful.

What do you think?  Like this design?

Should be able to get one more St. Patrick's Day design in before Sunday!

Until next time, <3.

NYC New York Color

The One With the St. Patrick's Day Manicure

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!  How are you all doing today??  It's Thursday, which means my work week is almost over, then the weekend will be here and gone before I know it.  Saturday is St. Patrick's Day, and I was hoping to be able to do one more manicure, but I don't think I will have the time.  Therefore, today's design is the one that I will hopefully still have on my nails Saturday.  You know, if it doesn't chip and get destroyed before then.

I wasn't really sure for what to do for my final design this year.  I always feel like I do the same thing over and over again, so I took to Pinterest.  Surfed around a while and found a few designs that I liked.  So I took inspiration from a bunch of them and re-created them!

Let's take a look!


Colors Used:
  • ORLY - Champagne Slushie
  • NYC New York Color - Queen's Jewels
  • Acrylics
Champagne Slushie is a gorgeous champagne gold polish which covered completely in two coats.  I didn't wait long enough to let the coats dry because I was kind of impatient, so I had a little bit of bubbling, but it was covered by the design mostly.

Queen's Jewels is beyond gorgeous!  Two coats of this crelly green glitter polish.  Truly does look like a jewel on my nail.  Kind of not looking forward to taking it off.  It's probably going to be a huge pain in the behind.

What do you think?  Fan of this manicure?  Sufficiently festive?

Until next time, <3,


Dot Mani

The One With the St. Patrick's Day Dot Manicure

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!  Happy Monday to you all.  Can you believe the weekend is already over?  Daylight savings time is really killing me this time around.  I never have an issue with the whole falling back, but this whole jumping ahead is really messing with me.  I already go to bed late, so last night I was up until 2am because my body was thinking it's 1am.  Ugh.  Good news, I have more "time" to edit nail photos and post to the blog since I'm wide awake.

Today's design is a simple dotticure using one of my favorite green polishes - ILNP 1Up.  I was going to do a shamrock design using this, but once I put the dots down I really didn't want to add anything else because I felt like it was going to take away from the holo.

Let's take a look.


Colors Used:
  • ILNP - 1Up
  • OLRY - White Tips
  • FingerPaints - Beverly's Touch
Isn't 1Up the most awesome green holographic polish ever?!  I absolutely love the ILNP holos.  I know a few weeks ago I said I needed to pre-order some of her Spring polishes, but I never got around to it.  I'm sure by now the pre-sale is over. Anyways, this polish covers completely in two coats.  Works great for dotting/nail art.

What do you think?  Fan of this look? Love the holo?

Until next time, <3.


St. Patrick's Day

The One With the Plaid St. Patrick's Day Design

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world! How are you all doing today?  I apologize for the later post today, but posting totally skipped my mind.  It was a crazy week at work which exhausted me.  I honestly could say that about any and all weeks.  Who knows, maybe one day being an adult won't be so tiring.

As promised I'm going to start my St. Patrick's Day manicures.  I wasn't 100% ready to go all out with the shamrocks quite yet, so I went for a simple plaid design.  I always tend to forget about my green polishes unless it's March or December, and I hate that I do that because I always come across such beauties that I need to use more.

Let's take a look!


Colors Used:
  • Zoya - Rikki
  • Zoya - Tomoko
  • ORLY - White Tips
Ahhhh Zoya Rikki, what a LOVELY polish!  Two coats and you have a beautiful green shimmer with gold flecks throughout.  This polish I believe is from the Irresistable Collection which came out yeaaaarss ago.  That tells you that Zoya's polishes hold up, because I really think this one is about four years old, if not five.

Really loving it paired with Tomoko.  The plaid design was super easy once I got the tape placed on my nail just how I wanted it.  That's always the hardest part.

What do you think?  Like this design??  Ready for St. Patrick's Day??

Until next time, <3.


Dot Mani

#TheNailArtSquad does St. Patrick's Day!

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!  How are you all doing today??  It's St. Patrick's Day!  That means it is time for everything green!  Except the weather....the weather here is very white thanks to that blizzard we got the other day.  Oh well, that just means that Spring is right around the corner!

Today I am happy to be collaborating again with the lovely ladies of The Nail Art Squad.  For our collaboration today, we decided to create shamrock manicures!  Now, if I had more time, I probably would have come up with something a little different, or done many more festive manicures, but alas that didn't happen.

Let's take a look at my random shamrock manicure!




Colors Used:
  • ORLY - Invite Only
  • FingerPaints - Golden Glaze
  • ORLY - White Tips
  • Zoya - Maria Luisa
Fun, right?  I wasn't sure where I was going with this manicure, but love the end result.  At first I wasn't going to use Maria Luisa by Zoya, but am happy that I did.  I think it blends really well together and adds a little umph to the manicure.  I always forget about how gorgeous this polish is.  I really need to use it more.



My shamrock is a little better than years past.  Usually it ends up looking like a blurred green splotch on my nail.  This year it actually resembles a little clover.  I was going to do a four leaf one, but I wasn't going to risk having it not work and then ruining my manicure.

What do you think?  Fan of this look?  Something you'd try for today??

Stay safe if you all are going out tonight!!!

Until next time, <3.

Dot Mani

The One With the Dot Manicure for St. Patrick's Day

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!  How are you all doing today?  We are smack dab in the middle of a lovely blizzard, so you know how I'm doing.  They're expecting us to have about 2 feet by the end of all this.  Oh well, we haven't had any snow this winter, and I did want one big storm before winter was over, so I guess that's what this is.

Since my power was out all last week, I wasn't able to do as many St. Patrick's Day manicures as I would have liked.  When the power did kick back on, I was kind of exhausted and just wanted to sit around and do nothing, but needed to do some sort of manicure.  Of course, I opted for something simple....dots.

Let's take a look!


Colors Used:
  • Sinful Colors - Pistache
  • INM - Emerald
  • FingerPaints - Golden Glaze
  • Sinful Colors - Snow Me White
Lovely, right?  I did a similar manicure last year for St. Patrick's Day but I didn't like the colors I used then.  They were similar, but not the same.  Sinful Colors Pistache is a gorgeous light green shade.  Stains awful, but it's beautiful.  Using it for nail art though, you don't get the stains as much as when you use it as a base.



Emerald is a gorgeous polish by the lovelies over at INM.  I love their polishes for bases and for nail art.  They are just perfect all around.  I've had this one for a few months and am kicking myself that I haven't used it sooner!

What do you think?  Like this design?

I'll have one more St. Patrick's Day manicure for you on Friday!  Then I need to start creating some Easter manicures!

Until next time, <3.

Holiday

The One With the St. Patrick's Day Collaboration

9:00:00 AM

Nothing to Disclose

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!  Hope you all are decked out in green and your nails are extremely festive!  You can guarantee mine are as are the ladies in The Nail Art Squad!  Every month (or maybe more) I am going to be posting along side a group of wonderful bloggers as part of an Instagram collaboration.  I posted with these ladies for New Years and Valentine's Day, and this past month we decided to become an official little group and give ourselves a name.  Now we are The Nail Art Squad.  Thanks to our fearless leader Sarah of 25_SweetPea for gathering us together for this!

Today I am re-creating a design I did on one of my resident's nails.  She wanted something green with a shamrock.  Easy peasy.  Her middle nail I did orange, and well on mine I did gold because I decided this year I wasn't going to do any rainbow/pot of gold manicures for St. Patrick's Day.  I went with a holo polish to incorporate a rainbow....which I think works....right??

Let's take a look!




Colors Used:
  • ILNP - 1 UP
  • ILNP - Clockwork
  • Orly - White Tips
  • Zoya - Maria Luisa
Oh my goodness gracious....1 Up is the most gorgeous green polish I have every laid my eyes on.  Barbara really hit a home run with this one!  Such a gorgeous concentrated peridot green polish with a strong holo effect.  Two coats and done.  Inside people are commenting on the sparkle and holo.  I have always wanted a birthstone shade polish, and this is perfect.  I'll be using it again in August!

Clockwork is just as gorgeous.  I actually bought this polish after seeing Sarah's manicure using it.  A gorgeous bronze gold flakie with holo throughout.  I honestly thought the holo was going to be hidden because of the metallic flakes, but it is just as amazing.  Two coats, pure perfection.



I always forget how gorgeous Zoya Maria Luisa is.  A small gold flaked flakie....just very dainty.  I used it one other time for a Bestie Twin Nail with Fashion Footing and vowed to use it more than never did.  It was super separated when I pulled it out of my Melmer, but it came together quickly.

I can't stop staring at the holo in that last photo.  I'm just amazed by it!!!  The color, the holo, just everything.  LOVE

What do you think?  Lover of ILNP holos?

Have a great St. Patrick's Day!! <3

Dot Mani

The One With My Favorite Color for Twinsie Tuesday

9:00:00 AM


Holy crow I forgot to write up my post for Twinsie Tuesday!  Reason this is coming to you late.  So hello guys, how are you all doing today?  I hope you are fabulous and not running totally behind like I am.  I got caught up last night creating a new nail art wheel for Easter and forgot about everything else that I had to do blog related.  Goodness.

Anyways, it is time for another Twinsie Tuesday.  This week we are posting all about our favorite color.  I love way too many colors, especially when it comes to nail polish so it took me awhile to determine what I wanted to do.  Since it is St. Patrick's Day this week, I went with a green design using a mint/teal base which is something I adore.  Sinful Colors Mint Apple was my first funky colored polish and I've been in love with colors in this family ever since.

Today I used a newbie from FingerPaints and it did not disappoint.  Let's take a look at my re-creation of a design by Ruth's Nail Art.




Colors Used:
  • FingerPaints - Party Teal Dawn
  • Zoya - Chita
  • White Acrylic
Gorgeous minty teal shade from the new Ashley Tipton collection which should be hitting Sally Beauty stores soon.  Two coats and I had full coverage.  I was a tad nervous after the first coat because of it's crelly consistency but it built up very nicely.



I then went through with a dotting tool and added the dots and shamrocks.  I kind of think I should have done the shamrocks first then filled the dots in around them because it seems a little busy to me.  Regardless, I do like the look.

What do you think?  Love this teal shade?  I think it's more mint.

Don't forget to check out the other Twinsie's posts!


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.

Dot Mani

The One With the Green Dot Manicure for St. Patrick's Day

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!  How are you all doing on this fine Thursday?  It was SUPER warm here yesterday and I'm hoping today is just the same.  Spring fever has hit me hard, and I'm stuck inside working.  Oh well!  Hopefully it stays warm and we don't get a surprise snow storm.

St. Patrick's Day is a week away, so that means it's time for me to do some St. Patrick's Day Manicures!  Today I just went with a simple gradient dot manicure.  I love this design so much, so I thought it would be awesome looking with the green polishes.

Let's take a look!




Colors Used:
  • Zoya - Tilda
  • Zoya - Hunter
  • Orly - White Tips
  • FingerPaints - Golden Glaze
Just as I thought, this design looks awesome with green polishes!  And with the added touch of gold and white it really pops!  Last time I did this design, I put a sheer nude on my nail first.  While I did like how that looked, this time around I decided to just do a regular base coat then add the dots over a naked nail.  I liked the look a lot better this way, so every time in the future, I think I'm going to be doing this design on a naked nail.  Unless it's neons with a black base.  That would look rather cool.



My pictures are kind of wonky this time around.  Not sure why, but I couldn't get anything to photograph for me that day, and then of course the design chipped the next day.  I think I did my best considering.  I do love this last photo though because you really can see the gold shimmer in Golden Glaze.  I think it was a perfect addition over the creams.

What do you think?  Something you might try for St. Patrick's Day?

Until next time, <3.

FingerPaints

Twinsie Tuesday: St. Patrick's Day!

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!!  Happy St. Patrick's Day!!  All of your nails better be green and festive today!  If not, I hope someone pinches you.  People still pinch those who are not wearing green on St. Patrick's Day, right??

Today is Tuesday, which means it is time for another Twinsie Tuesday!  Since it is St. Patrick's Day, we are all sharing festive manicures!!  I cannot wait to see what everyone has done!

For my manicure today, I just did a mixture of designs that I've done in the past.  Really nothing new as my creative juices weren't flowing too well.  Regardless, I really loved how they turned out!

Let's take a look!




Colors Used:
  • FingerPaints - Grassy Knoll
  • Orly - Bling
  • Sinful Colors - ShamRockin
  • INM - Northern Lights Gold
  • Rainbow - 6 different polishes
Grassy Knoll from the FingerPaints Picnic in the Park collection is the perfect St. Patrick's Day green!  I am loving this polish (and all the other polishes from this collection).  It applied perfectly in two coats, and with a top coat of INM Northern Lights in Gold, it just was stunning.  Can I wear green polish every day without getting weird looks?

The shamrocks are just adorable in my opinion.  I used green acrylic paint because it's easier to work with, and when I got around to putting the shamrocks on my nails, it was close to midnight.  What's great about acrylics, is that if you mess up, you can quickly "erase" your error with a damp washcloth/napkin and start all over.  I had to remove the shamrocks twice before getting them just how I liked them.  I think they turned out perfectly!



Orly Bling is the perfect St. Patrick's Day pot of gold color, don't you agree?  I added a top coat of ShamrRockin by Sinful Colors on top of it, because I felt like it tied the whole manicure together.  The light green, dark green, white, and gold.  It just all blended together.

My favorite nail though is the pot of gold.  I love doing the rainbow gradient and actually getting it to apply perfectly on the first try.  It's kind of a pain fitting all 6 colors on the make up sponge, then getting it to successfully transfer on the nail.  Then reapplying it to make it darker and lining up the sponge in the exact same spot.  It's a science, but I think I mastered it!

What do you think?  Fan of the manicure?

Don't forget to check out the other Twinsie's posts!!


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

I hope everyone has a safe and Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Until next time, <3.

Gradient Mani

St. Patrick's Day Manicure!

9:00:00 AM

Happy Sunday Polished World!  How are you today?  Are you, or should I say, are your nails ready for St. Patrick's Day?  As you can guess, mine are!  After creating my nail art wheel, I wasn't sure that I was actually going to paint my nails for the holiday itself.  

I decided to take some inspiration from my own wheel and last year's kitchen sink St. Patrick's Day manicure and create a look.  For three of my nails, I picked 2 designs which of course were the most time consuming to create.  Even though the manicure took me close to two hours to do all 10 nails, and I finished close to midnight, I'm super happy I created the look!

Let's take a look!




Colors Used:
  • Shamrock Nail
    • Sally Hansen - Mint Sorbet
    • Zoya Josie
    • INM - Northern Lights
  • Leprechaun
    • Zoya - Chantal, Josie
    • Maybelline - Sweet Clementine
    • Orly - Instant Artist - Black and White
    • China Glaze - I'm Not Lion
  • Pot of Gold
    • Ulta - Let the Flames Begin, Sun-Sational, Blue Streak
    • Maybelline - Sweet Clementine
    • Sinful Colors - Amethyst, Snow Me White
    •  Orly - Instant Artist - Black
    • OPI - Love.Angel.Music.Baby
    • China Glaze - I'm Not Lion
    • INM - Northern Lights
Well goodness, that's a lot of polish!  I'm actually quite surprised it was that many bottles because it honestly didn't feel that way!  Majority of them are used to create the pot of gold nails.  To get that design, I started with a base coat of white polish.  Once the white was dry, I took a make up sponge and painted thin stripes of color down it starting with red and ending in purple.  I then dabbed it on the nail until the colors popped to my liking.  Since I was creating a gradient using primary colors, I didn't have to keep applying polish to the make up sponge like I have to with my neon polishes.  Probably because they're more color concentrated?  Who knows.  Anyways, I then took a quick coat of INM Northern Lights over the top and began working on my pot of gold using my Orly Instant Artist Striper.  With my large dotting tool, I created the gold pieces using Love.Angel.Music.Baby and added a little sparkle to them using I'm Not Lion.  I found that I'm Not Lions glitter and holo pieces really brought out the sparkle in the INM Northern Lights.

The leprechaun was created by starting off with a base coat of Zoya Chantal from the Natural collection.  Gorgeous skin colored nude which works perfect for little faces.  When that was dry, I used my nail art brush to create the leprechaun hat with Zoya Josie.  I then took a medium dotting tool and added the hair and beard.  The rest of the details were later added with nail art brush or dotting tools. 

Last but not least, the shamrocks were created by starting off with a base coat of Orly Mint Sorbet.  Such a pretty and bright pastel mint green polish.  I then added a quick top coat of INM Northern Lights.  Once that was dry, I created the shamrocks using a medium sized dotting tool.  I pretty much tried to line four hearts up together.



I want to pick a favorite nail, but honestly I like them all.  The leprechaun, the pot of gold, the shamrocks, just all of them are so cute.  Okay, the leprechaun probably is the cutest of all, just look at him looking at the shamrock.  Hmm, I should have had him looking at his pot of gold.  We can say he's looking at the larger amount of gold on the thumb nail!

What do you think?  Do you have a favorite nail?

If you were inspired by my nail art wheel and shared any of your designs on Instagram, please make sure to tag #tlcinspiredmani so I can see!

To everyone reading this post today, please have a SAFE St. Patrick's Day.  I know that plenty of people "party" this weekend and drink more than normal.  If you are drinking, please do so responsibly!  You are not only putting your life in danger, but others around you, which is not fair.

Until next time, <3.


Nail Art Wheel

St. Patrick's Day Nail Art Wheel

9:00:00 AM

Happy Friday Polished World!  How are you today?  Have you entered my Incoco Nail Polish Applique giveaway yet?  If you haven't, after you read this post, make sure to!

Since St. Patrick's Day is less than two weeks away and the blog is all decked out for the day, it is only appropriate to share my nail art wheel for the holiday!  After I created one for Valentine's Day, I had told myself I wasn't going to do a St. Patrick's Day themed one and was going to move on to planning an Easter wheel.  Well one night on Twitter, Kristin from The Manicured Monkey sent me a tweet asking if I was going to do one.  After we talked for a bit, I was inspired to create one and got to work!

Let's take a look!

  

I'm super proud of this wheel!  Many of the designs are my own, and I think 3 or 4 of them are inspired by other bloggers.  Two of the nails were inspired by Sarah from Chalkboard Nails.  The first of those two nails is the black one with the green clover in the middle.  It was inspired by her watercolor clover mani she did last year that was beyond amazing.  Her nails look so much better than what I did on the wheel.  The second nail inspired by Sarah is the black grunge looking one next to it.  I followed her distressed tutorial using green polishes, and well I went a little too heavy on the black.  Then to the left of that we have the leopard clover print nail which was inspired by iDreamOfLacquer, but I'll talk about that nail more in the rest of this post!

Keep reading if you want to see which are my favorites from the wheel!

St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day! (a day early)

9:00:00 AM

Happy almost St. Patrick's Day!!!!  How are you going to spend your day?  Hopefully you all will be responsible and be safe!!!  This holiday makes me nervous since so many use the day as an all day drink fest.  I'm not, and never have been, one to drink.  For those of you who are going out, please, please, please, be responsible and be safe!!!!!

For the holiday though, I will to be as festive as possible.  This means a green filled manicure!  I thought of  these little guys from last year when I was a beginning nail artist, and I had to re-try them this year.  Let's take a look!!!

Please excuse the photos and the semi short post.  I'm completely exhausted today and well after taking about a two hours to get these cruddy pictures, I'm just not feeling my post.  Okay, okay, maybe the pictures aren't too awful.




Colors Used:
  • China Glaze - I'm With the Lifeguard
  • Orly - Liquid Vinyl
  • Zoya - Lianne
  • Sally Hansen - Golden I
  • Sinful Colors - Snow Me White
These guys are super simple!  For the leprechaun suits, you paint on a base coat of green of your choice.  I wanted my nails to scream green so I used I'm With the Lifeguard.  I believe I did three coats with no undies, but could have gotten away with two coats.  When it was dried, with my nail art brush, but could have been done with the main polish brush itself, I painted on the black belt using Liquid Vinyl.  I then added the buckle with Golden-I using a nail art brush.

For the leprechauns  I started with a clear base coat.  With my nail art brush, I painted on the little hats.  When dried, with a dotting tool, I added the orange beard and hair using Lianne.  When everything was dried, I added the details using a dotting tool and nail art brush.

What do you think?  Festive?  Love, hate?

Please show me your St. Patrick's Day manicures!!!! Tag #thelittlecanvas or #nails4yummies (as I now help Nails4Dummies with this account) for a chance to be featured on the Nails4Dummies Instagram!  Hit the hashtags to be connected to either mine or the Nails4Yummies IG accounts!  Also send me a Tweet or post them on my Facebook!!!!  

Please, everyone be safe and see you back here in a few days!!!

St. Patrick's Day

Rainbows and Pots of Gold

1:23:00 AM

Well happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!!!  How are you all planning on celebrating??  As I said in my other post, I don't really celebrate.  This year I'll be at the parade, followed by an afternoon home enjoying the weather.  Nice quiet day, who wouldn't enjoy that?

So as I sit here watching The Black Donnelly's (thank you Netflix), I remembered I didn't post my second St. Patrick's Day mani yet!  This show aired years ago on NBC for one season, and for some reason I liked it.  When I saw it was on there, I took a break from watching Gossip Girl and Psych and started watching.  Clearly, you can see I have the oddest taste in shows.  Current favorite, Revenge.  Anyone watched that???

I'm off on a tangent, nail time...(Dear Camera, thanks for making the coloring so different)



Colors Used (Get ready there's a ton):
  • Sinful Colors - HD Nails - green base
  • New York Color - White Lights Glitter - top coat
  • Pots of Gold
    • Sinful Colors - Black on Black - Pots of Gold
    • Sinful Colors - Snow Me White - base under gold
    • Milani - Good Morning Sunshine
  • Rainbow
    • Sinful Colors - Snow Me White - base under
    • Sinful Colors - Sugar, Sugar - red
    • Zoya - Lianne - Orange
    • Sinful Colors - Let's Meet - Yellow
    • Sinful Colors - HD Nails - green
    • Sinful Colors - Midnight Blue - blue
    • Sinful Colors - Verbena
Whew.  This mani was a pain in the behind, but I think it turned out cute.  I started with my green base coat.  I then did the pots of gold.  With a dotting tool and the black, i traced and filled in the little pot.  Once dried, I took the white polish and dotted the gold coins.  Once dried, I added the Milani gold, and bam they were done.  Next, I went to do the rainbows.  I started by putting the colors on with toothpicks.  I started with red, then the orange, then the yello....uh oh, yellow doesn't show up well on green.  Time to start over with the pointer finger.

I didn't  want to take off all the green on my other nails, or mess up my pots of gold with nail polish remover, so I took a white striper and outlined the rainbow on my nails.  Carefully, and painstakingly, I filled in the area with the Sinful Colors Snow Me White.  I then started stippling on the colors of the rainbow with a toothpick to each nail.  When the rainbows were done, I decided to add some gold coins to the rainbow fingers.  I took the white and dotted some on, then topped it with the Milani.

Finally, after an hour, it was all done.  I slapped on a top coat of New York Colors White Lights Glitter to add just a little more, and bam, they were done.

So, which St. Patrick's day mani did you like better, this one or my Leprechauns?

Have a safe St. Patrick's Day everyone!!!! :)

St. Patrick's Day

Top o' the Morning!

11:45:00 PM

St. Patrick's Day is Saturday.  Are you all ready??  I don't drink or celebrate in the typical way.  I think getting completely inebriated and not remembering your nights is a lame way to spend your time and money.  I prefer spending my money on nail polish :).  To each their own though.  If that's what you enjoy doing, I hope you have a SAFE day!!!

So to celebrate the holiday and my heritage, what better way than to design cute nail art?


Colors Used:
  • Funky Fingers - Sold Out Arena - Foil Green base coat
  • Zoya - Avery - Tan base for faces
  • Zoya - Lianne - Orange beards
  • Sinful Colors - Black on Black - details eyes/nose/mouth/belts
  • Sinful Colors - Snow me White - eyes/buckle base
  • Milani - Good Morning Sunshine - Gold buckles
Originally, I was going to do the buckle/hat thing on all my nails, but then I really really wanted to do leprechaun faces.  I started thinking how I could manage to do so, then I remembered the Santa nails I did around Christmas time (should i post these?).  They were little faces with beards and eyes.  I found myself looking at pictures of leprechauns and figured out a way to copy their faces.

For the faces, I painted a base coat of Zoya Avery.  This polish is a perfect skin toned polish.  I painted it on on all my nails one day and it kind of freaked me out it looked so similar!  I then took a piece of scotch tape and covered majority of my nail to add the green hat.  Then I took my dotting tool, and with Zoya Lianne dotted the beard and hair.  Next came the details of the eyes, nose, mouth, and buckles with some tooth picks.  The rest of the nails were simple.  A quick base coat of Sold Out Arena, then dotting of the black line, and tooth picked a buckle in white, then overlapped it with gold.  Slapped on a top coat and done!

Easy, simple, and ready for St. Patrick's Day!  Tomorrow the little guys will be coming off and another cute design will be coming!!!