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 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.




China Glaze

The Nail Art Squad Does Summer

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!  How are you all doing today?  It's the last day of July, so that means summer is in full swing.  So, because Summer is officially here, it's only fitting that The Nail Art Squad collaborates and brings you some summer manicures!!!


For my manicure, I wanted to do some sort of palm tree design.  What's more summery than palm trees?  I found this design by nails.by.teens on Pinterest which I fell in love with and had to re-create right away.

Let's take a look!!!




Colors Used:
  • China Glaze - I Got a Blue Attitude
  • Orly - White Tips
  • Black acrylic
I love this manicure so much!  It reminds me of a shirt my mom used to own which had palm trees on it with colored lines in the background.  That shirt had to have been from the 80s.  Maybe because I correlate that shirt with this manicure, I keep thinking that this manicure has a retro feel to it.



To get the look I started off with my white base.  When that was dried, I put on some nail art tape then filled in the white area with the blue polish.  Quickly removed the tape, and had my base all ready for my palm trees.  When the blue was dried, I took my nail art brush and painted on the palm trees using acrylic paint.  I think if I were to do this again, I would put down top coat first over the tape design because it would have had a smoother surface to add the art.


Now let's take a minute and talk about how BEAUTIFUL this China Glaze polish is.  I Got a Blue Attitude is from this years summer collection.  Sally Beauty only got a partial collection in and I thought that this gorgeous blue would never be mine.  Thankfully Beauty Plus Salon got the whole collection in, and I was able to snag the ones I wanted.  This polish is two coats of gorgeous blue shimmer.  I never wear the same polish twice in a row, but I had to with this one.  I need to go back and grab a back up before this store sells out.  Everyone, you must purchase this if you love blues!

What do you think?  Fan of this look?  Something you think you would try?  Love the blue?

 Until next time, <3.

Color Club

The One with the Puzzle Piece Manicure for The Nail Art Squad

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!  How are you all doing today??  It's cold here again.  It was in the 70s last week and now it's in the 50s.  The weather is just so odd right now.  I want it to be 70 all day every day.  Although as I write this post right now it's raining outside and it's cold and I'm super cozy so it's not all that bad.

Anyways, today I am posting alongside some girls from The Nail Art Squad.  This month we decided to do puzzle piece manicures since April is Autism Awareness Month.  While I know the official colors are blue, red, and yellow, I wanted to do something a little different.  So I went with my neon pastels.

Let's take a look!




Colors Used:
  • Orly - Mirror Ball
  • Orly - Liquid Vinyl
  • Color Club - Feathered Hair Out to There
  • Color Club - Diggin' the Dancing Queen
  • Color Club - Meet Me at the Rink
  • Color Club - Til the Record Stops
Can I tell you how I'm the happiest person since I purchased the Color Club Pastel Neon Poptastic Polishes?  They were on my wishlist FOREVER then I found them on HB Beauty Bar for what I considered a good price so I took the dive and bought them all.  One decision I do not regret.  Look how freaking pretty they for those puzzle pieces!!



I really have to think that Diggin' the Dancing Queen is one of my favorites.  This one is the pastel neon purple polish which I am holding in this previous picture.  I'm a sucker for a pretty purple polish, and this one is beautiful.  I haven't swatched it yet on my own nails, but when I did on my nail art wheel it took two coats.

What do you think?  Fan of this design?  Fan of these polishes?

Below are the other designs The Nail Art Squad members did for this collaboration!  Of course, mine are the only ones without the proper colors.  oh well!



Until next time, <3.

Color Club

The One With the Easter Collaboration With The Nail Art Squad

9:00:00 AM


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

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

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

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


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

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



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

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

Until next time, <3.

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