Dot Mani

The One With the Easter Bunny

9:00:00 AM

Hey there!!!  Happy Easter to all my Polished Peeps!  He is Risen!  What a wonderful day it is today.  As a Christian, today is the most important day for us.  If it weren't for Easter Sunday and the sacrifice that our Lord made, then, well, I shudder to think what the world would be like. 


Now while today isn't all about the bunny, I did paint little bunnies on my nails.  There are things I do for my residents at work, and doing cutesie nails like these is one of those things.  I went into this Easter season with good intentions of painting my nails with a plethora of designs, including one with Calvary hill, but alas, I got sick and I've yet to recover from that.  I'm just grateful I was able to get the two designs that I did!

Let's take a look!


Who wants to teach me how to take proper photos of my nails when I'm wearing pastel polishes?  They always look blown out or just too dark.  They're never what my nails actually look like.  I probably should have used a black back drop, but eh I'll never learn.  I sat for awhile trying to color correct them but gave up.  It is what it is, right?


Despite the fact that I can't properly photograph pastels, you can still see how cute this manicure was.  A nice little skittle using some of polishes from the Zoya Awaken collection that is literally 6 years old now.  Even though the polishes are old, they still apply like a dream.  By far some of my favorite pastels that I own.  Only complaint, they're kind of a pain to remove!

What do you think?  Fan of this design?

I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter!

See you soon! :) 


Valentine's Day

The One With the Valentine's Day Manicure

9:00:00 AM

Nothing to Disclose


Good Morning Polished World!!!  How are you all doing on this wonderful Monday?  It's Valentine's Day and well, if you've been following me for awhile, you know that I'm not a fan of today.  I am a firm believer that you should show your love every single day, not just because Hallmark said to today.  Despite that, I still wear reds, pinks, and make desserts for my family and friends.

Today's design is something simple.  I've been quite busy with work lately and had some massive breaks, so this was my first design in a few weeks.  Actually, as I type this, I have just a plain swatch on my nails because this pretty design chipped and I didn't feel like painting another design for just one day.  Regardless of it's simplicity, it's still a cute design perfect for today.

Let's take a look! 


I'm going to save you from the whole Colors Used section again, because even though I painted this design two days ago, I cannot remember the light pink.  I do know that the PixieDust is Miranda!  I think.......yes, it's Miranda.  This Pixie is pinker in person than what my camera was picking up, but trust me it looked gorgeous with this baby pink.  The baby pink is a Zoya as well, but again, don't know the name.


What I love about my PixieDust polishes is that they are so versatile.  You can use them for a swatch or for nail art.  They dry perfectly sparkly.  Leave it without a top coat and it's a gorgeous matte, add a shiny topper and they look like gems.

What do you think?  Fan of this Valentine's Day look?

I hope everyone has a wonderful day.  Just know, I love all you amazing followers so much! <3

Until next time, <3.




Halloween

The One With the Halloween Manicure I Did When I Should Have Gone to Bed

9:00:00 AM

Nothing to Disclose


Good Morning and Happy Halloween!!!!  Whew, I'm exhausted from this marathon of nail posts!!!  I think I might need to take a week break before I post again.  Maybe.  I actually realized I have to catch up on posting some manicures over on Instagram so I'll probably do that, edit some new photos, and then come back here.  I'm not going to lie, even though I'm posting more consistently, I'm a little disappointed that my engagement is down across all social media.  I need to rebuild myself it seems.  So that's why I'm going to keep posting so when it comes time for Christmas manicures, my engagement is back to where it should be!

Today's design is one I came up with last minute the other evening.  I was exhausted but needed to have festive nails for work.  Plus, I couldn't give up on Halloween posts literally right before Halloween.  Of course, I didn't plan this out right, because now I'm bringing you two spider web designs in a row, but oh well.  It was either that or bringing you two candy corn themed posts in a row.  The Smoosh needed to break that up.  Maybe?  Who knows.

Anyways, let's take a look!


Colors Used:
  • Jessica - Sahara Sun
  • Zoya - Dahlia
  • Acrylic black
Yup, cheated using acrylics, and I'm not going to lie, I'm a little mad at myself.  I feel I should have done the designs with the sparkly polish.  Zoya Dahlia, along with all the other Pixie Dust polishes, really are amazing when it comes to manipulating for nail art.  I kid you not though, I painted this at 11:30pm the other night and I just wanted to get them painted and done so I could go to sleep.


For being as exhausted as I was, overall, I did a pretty decent job.  Dahlia really was the perfect accent and I couldn't ignore that beauty during the Halloween season.  Zoya really needs to come out with more Pixies, don't you agree?

What do you think? Fan of this final Halloween manicure??

Now, it's time to think of some Fall/Thanksgiving designs, and then Christmas!!!!  The best nail art time of the year!!!

Have a Happy and Safe Halloween!


Halloween

The One With the Halloween Googly Eyes

9:00:00 AM

Nothing to Disclose


Good Morning and Happy Monday!!!  It's finally truly Fall here.  The cold, rainy weather is here in full force.  I'm not angry about it as we all know this is my favorite season.  Love the chilly weather, don't really love the rain though.  This week we are expected to have some sunny days so that means the leaves will turn more and it's going to be gorgeous outside.

And since it's mid-October, I am finally here with some Halloween designs!  The other night when I was painting a swatch on my nails because I was tired, I realized that I had yet to create any Halloween nails.  If you've been following my blog, you know that every year, even during my little breaks, I always came back around the holidays to post.  So, I grabbed my white polish, threw some googly eyes on the swatch, and started planning out other nails for the rest of the month.

Let's take a look!


Colors Used:
  • Zoya - Storm
  • ORLY - White Tips
Let's face it, Storm is the highlight of this manicure.  Two coats and you have a gorgeous scattered holographic black polish.  I need to purchase a back up bottle because mine is getting low.  I believe this is one of my very first holographic polishes.  I can't believe that it still applies like it were brand new all these years later.  I kid you not, this has to be at least 7 years old.


I debated on adding more eyes to the nails, but I'm happy I just went with the single set on each nail.  Less clutter, cuter, and just adorable.  I really love them on top of Storm.  It's like they're spying through a starry sky trying to figure out what's going on.

What do you think? Cute little Halloween design?

Until next time <3.


Dot Mani

The One With A Floral Manicure Inspired by SRG.Nails

9:00:00 AM

Nothing to Disclose 


Well, good morning and Happy Tuesday to you all!  How's the weather where you are?  Finally it's getting a tad warmer here, but it looks like it's going to drop down again later this week.  Kind of upsetting to me because my seedlings are doing really well and I'm getting impatient and I want to plant them into my garden.  You should see how much I've grown this year so far.  Tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, and a mixture of flowers.  Oh the flowers, I'm going to have a huge flower garden before I know it.

And since the flowers have sprouted, that means it's time for me to start floral manicures.  Today's design is yet again inspired by SRG.Nails.  I've done something similar to this in the past, but this time I switched up the color of the flowers.  I wasn't feeling the red like she did, I wanted that Spring umph.

Let's take a look! 


Colors Used:
  • Zoya - Dahlia
  • OPI - My Boyfriend Scales Walls
  • ORLY - Liquid Vinyl
  • Acrylics
Now, the pink and purple are nail polish, but you guessed it....I can't remember what colors!!!  In the end, I did remember that I'm holding Dahlia, one of my all time favorite Pixie Dust polishes from Zoya.  Who else thinks that Zoya needs to release a new collection of these beauties?!  Maybe a holographic PixieDust line?!  I'm just imagining how beautiful it would be.


I love how this manicure turned out.  I'm super impressed with my leaves this time around.  That's one thing I've struggled on in the past few years, the little finer details.  Finally, I think I'm starting to get it.  Stay tuned because you know me, I get obsessed with a look or a design and I re-create it a million times in a row.

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

Until next time, <3.


Easter

The One With the Easter Bunny Re-Creation Manicure

9:00:00 AM

Nothing to Disclose


Happy Easter/Resurrection Day, Everyone!  Hope you all are having an amazing Sunday with your loved ones!  I'm not going to lie I am a little disappointed that I didn't create more Easter designs this year, but we will blame that massive nail break that I got right after St. Patrick's Day.  Also, this whole Easter being a few weeks after St. Patrick's Day is a little flustering sometimes.  The worst was that one year where it literally fell a week after.  I can't be the only one who likes when Easter is towards the middle or end of April.

Regardless, today is an awesome day and I'm grateful to be here bringing you some Easter content.  Today's design is yet again another re-creation of a manicure that I feel I have been doing for years on this blog.  I've done it with a mint base and then a purple base.  For today's post, I decided to go for the classic mint.

Let's take a look!


Colors Used:
  • Zoya - Dillon
  • Acrylics
Yes, I cheated and used acrylics for the little dots and bunnies, but it was 10pm when I sat down and started this manicure, so it was justified.  To get the look, I started off with two coats of Dillon by Zoya.  This polish is for sure an oldie but goodie.  I've had this polish since 2014 when it was originally released and it still applies as if it were brand new.  It's got a gorgeous gold shimmer to it which is really unique for pastel polishes.  Does anyone else remember the Awaken collection?  By far one of my all time favorite Spring releases.  Dillon's sisters, Rebel and Hudson are just as gorgeous too.


When the base was dry, I went through with the black acrylic and added the dots.  Since that was an acrylic paint, those dots dried in two seconds and it was onto the little bunny heads.  Usually I take over more of the nail with the bunnies, but this year I decided to make them literally just peaking out form the corners.  I prefer this look to be honest.

What do you think?  Love this look?

I hope that everyone has a Blessed and Happy Easter!!!

Now, it's time for some floral nail art....maybe.

Until next time! 

Zoya

The One With Yet Another Manicure Inspired by SRG.Nails

9:00:00 AM

Nothing to Disclose


Good Morning Polished World, and Happy Friday! Hope you are all doing well!  We had some sunny, warm weather this week, so I'm in a good mood.  Minus the fact that it's going to get cold again and we had a thunderstorm last night which helped bring in that colder weather.  Oh well, that just means that Spring is around the corner!

Today's design is inspired by SRG.Nails on Instagram, again.  If you've been following me for awhile, you know that I copy Sammie's designs all the time.  Of course, her's look much better than mine.  This manicure is no different.

Let's take a look!


Colors Used: haha, good one.  I didn't write them down....AGAIN.

However, I do believe that polish I'm holding is Hunter by Zoya.  I am about 99.9% positive.  I need a personal assistant who literally reminds me to write the names down of the polishes as I paint.  Regardless, that green polish applies like a dream!  Two coats and gorgeous, shiny coverage.  It worked well for that line art as well!


I was so OCD when it came to the lines on my nails.  I had to redo the manicure at least three times because I was that bothered by my lines.  I settled with this but really do think I could have done better.  Maybe next time.

What do you think?  Like this look?  A good design for St. Patrick's Day?

A few more green manicures to edit and post before next Wednesday.  I think I have some time....

Until next time, <3.




Zoya

The One With the Simple Little Heart

9:00:00 AM

Nothing to Disclose


Hello there, and welcome to another Friday.  Can you believe this is the last Friday of February?  Honestly, this month seemed to drag on up until these last few days.  Maybe it's a mind over matter but I feel like something good is coming and that's why time is flying by.  Who knows, I could just be going crazy from this whole COVID world/life thing.  Regardless, it's a good thing to remain positive, right?

Today's manicure is one from the archives.  Remember when I disappeared last year and was still painting and never posting?  Well, that's where today's manicure comes from.  I did it so long ago that I literally cannot remember when I did it. I think it was at a time when I went from having crazy neon nails and needed something subtle as a transition.  Kind of like the manicure I did this evening. I had really funky colors on yesterday and now tonight I'm in a neutral mood as a "refresh."

Let's take a look at the design I did who knows when!


I'm going to skip right over the colors used thing because, you guessed it, when I edited the photos, I never wrote down what colors I used.  If I had to guess, I think that Zoya is Avery, and the black polish is most likley my beloved ORLY Liquid Vinyl.  As for the gold, well, that one will have me guessing for awhile.  I own too many gold glitters, which is weird for someone who dislikes gold as much as I do.  I swear, I could write a book about all my random idiosyncrasies. 


Despite the fact I forgot the colors, this manicure is still adorable.  I've painted this simple design numerous times over the years.  I'm actually impressed with my heart this time around.  The heart is one of the simplest thing to do, yet each time I paint one, I always mess it up.  Lord only knows how many times I painted this one before getting it just right.

What do you think? Fan of the look?

Until next time ,<3


Christmas

The One With the Christmas Holly Manicure

9:00:00 AM

Nothing to Disclose Press Sample Affiliate Link


Good Morning, Polished World!  How are you all doing on this wonderful Sunday?  Last night I did some crazy nail art which is something I haven't done in awhile and I'm so proud of it.  I cannot wait to share it with you hopefully later this week.  It felt so good to sit down and do something a little more intricate than the normal dots or flowers.  Of course it's Christmas themed, so it fits in perfectly for the month.

Anyways, enough about that manicure, onto today's design! Not going to lie, I'm super happy with how this design turned out.  Every year I do a holly design, but this year I wanted to add a little spice to it.  In my mind, spice was adding a little glitter gradient to index and pinkie finger.  I think it worked.

Let's take a look!


Colors Used:
  • Zoya - Hunter
  • Zoya - Tomoko
  • Morgan Taylor - All Tango-ed Up
  • ORLY - White Tips
It's nice doing nail art with all nail polish and no acrylics.  I think that my holly are a tad messy, but hey give a girl a break.  I've been on a hiatus for the past year almost and now am just slowly sliding back into this.  If I were to re-create this design, I would have probably made the holly a tad larger and put it on the bottom corner of the nail.  There's always next year!


Tomoko worked wonderfully for a glitter gradient.  If you have been following me awhile, then you know how much I love my OG Zoya Pixie Dust polishes.  Tomoko is by far my all time favorite.  In all the years that I've owned them, it's never crossed my mind to utilize one of them for a glitter gradient over a cream polish.  Let me tell you, it worked WONDERFULLY!  I was super impressed.  Literally one dab on the nail with the makeup sponge and it was perfect.  The photos don't do it justice.

What do you think?  Fan of the simple Christmas design?

Cannot wait to keep sharing more Christmas manicures!! 

Until next time, <3


Christmas

The One With the Christmas Dotticure

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!  How are you all today?  Snowy and cold here. Since the weather has been so weird, literally everyone I know has either a cold or upper respiratory infection.  I'm doing my best to keep hydrated, while I overdose myself with zinc and vitamin C.  If I get sick, I get sick, but I can't say that I didn't try to stay healthy!

As promised, here I am starting with Christmas nail art!!  The other evening I had zero inspiration and it was late, but I still wanted to start my Christmas nails.  I went onto Pinterest and searched "Simple Christmas Nails" and came across a Christmas Dotticure by my friend Sarah at 25 Sweet Peas.  It was the perfect, simple design and I had the perfect Zoya polishes to complete the manicure.

Let's take a look!


Colors Used:
  • Zoya - Tomoko
  • Zoya - Blaze
  • Zoya - Merida
Isn't it perfect?! I don't know what polish I love the most.  We all know that Tomoko is one of my favorites of the original Pixie Dust polishes.  I have two bottles, one which has seen a better day, and this new one.  I really think I need to get a third now that I've started using my back up.  It's truly my favorite for accent nails because of it's textured appearance and gold color.  Two coats and full coverage.  I tend to put a top coat over it to make it extra shiny, but even without a top coat it's amazing.



Blaze and Merida are beyond perfect for Christmas.  I love the Zoya scattered holographic polishes. I should probably check out their website to see if they've made anymore in the last year or so that I haven't seen.When I disappeared from blogging, I stopped paying attention to new polish collections.  Since I have the ORLY Color Pass, that's the only company I kept up on when it came to new releases.  And of course, I paid attention to ILNP because, well, they're gorgeous.

What do you think?  Fan of this dotticure?

Until next time, <3.


China Glaze

The One With the Pretty Blue Color Block

9:00:00 AM

Nothing to Disclose

Good Morning polished world!  How are you all doing on this cold, chilly Monday?  We are in the middle of a lovely snowstorm. Yesterday we had a good inch or so of icy sleet, and then now we are supposed to get snow on top of it.  I'm thanking the Lord for all wheel drive and heated seats! Makes for the longer commute to be manageable.

Since it's cold and chilly, I figured I would share my blue color block manicure I did when we had our first snowstorm in early November.  I wanted to wait to share it because I felt that it had a winter/Christmas feel because of the color pallette.  Honestly, I probably should have accented it with some snowflakes.

Let's take a look!


Colors Used:
  • OPI - Set Apart by Tile Art
  • China Glaze - Combat Blue-Ts
  • Zoya - Dream
  • Serendipity Polish - Holoday Lights

Set Apart by Tile Art is such a wonderfully gorgeous polish by OPI.  I bought this one because I thought it was a dupe of My Boyfriend Scales Walls, but it wasn't 100% identical. What I found was something even more wonderful than my beloved My Boyfriend Scales Walls.  This polish leans towards a light blue tint versus the grey tint of MBSW.  Two coats, full coverage, and just wonderful off white that adds something unique to the manicure.


I think that if I used a regular white instead of Set Apart by Tile Art, I wouldn't have liked this manicure as much.  It blended so well with the gorgeous blue of Combat Blue-Ts and Dream.  Anyone else find that Combat Blue-Ts can be a tad difficult to work with because it dries so fast?  It's well worth the pain that it is to apply.  It looks GORGEOUS without a top coat because it has the most perfect matte finish.

What do you think of this color block manicure?  Perfect for this time of year??

Might have a Christmas manicure to post next!  Stay tuned.

Until next time, <3.

Glitter Gradient

The One With My Fall-ish Thanksgiving Glitter Gradient

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world! How are you all doing on this Wednesday before Thanksgiving?  We are in a bit of a heat wave here, but we are expecting another wind storm which is going to bring us some frigid cold temperatures for Thanksgiving.  Saying a prayer and crossing my fingers that I do not end up with some weird illness due to this weather.  I really don't want to have a sinus infection anytime soon.

Today's manicure is my Thanksgiving manicure.  Rather simple for me, but I wasn't feeling like turkey's or any other random crazy nail art that I've done in the past. I was scrolling pinterest and was coming across dozens of glitter gradients.  It's been a hot minute since I've done a glitter gradient, so I gave it another go.  Happy that I did because I'm really loving it!

Let's take a look!


Colors Used:
  • Pure Ice - Studette
  • Zoya - Louise
  • Zoya - Taylor
  • Sinful Colors - Pandora
  • Some other gold and red glitter Sinful Colors.....the label fell off
As you know from my other posts over the years, this is not a color pallette I typically would wear, so this is EXTREMELY out of my comfort zone.  Can't say that I hate it.  It's actually kind of refreshing.  I like how all these colors go with my skin tone.  Maybe they're wrong, but I didn't think so in person.



I'm rather proud of my glitter gradient.  I'm hit or miss when I attempt this, and it's safe to say this is a home run.  They always look so ugly before you put the top coat on, and I think that's why I always think I fail at doing them.  The sponge leaves rough spots because you're transferring some of the glitter base when dabbing on the glitter.  I used to take this as a failed glitter gradient and would remove it.  Luckily I learned last year when I did one that this is what was occuring.

What do you think of this manicure?  Should I attempt more glitter gradients?  Am I going to remember what a pain glitter is to remove and totally give up on the idea come Christmas time?

Speaking of Christmas....time to get started on the red and green manicures!!!  In the meantime, I hope everyone has a Happy and Blessed Thanksgiving!!

Until next time, <3.

Halloween

The One With the Candy Corn Drip Nail Art

9:00:00 AM


Good morning, Polished World! How are you all doing on this fine, fine Sunday?  I meant to have this post up yesterday, but my days kind of blurred into one another and I thought yesterday was the 11th and not the 12th.  I literally am the worst person when it comes to remembering dates, or knowing what day of the week it is in general.  I can't tell you how many times I have to ask people what day it is.

Oh well, what I do know is that it's still October, and Halloween is right around the corner!  That means it's time for me to start creating some Halloween designs.  While on Pinterest, I came across a candy corn paint drip manicure originally created by Adventures in Acetone.  Her blog was one of the first that I followed, and I was so surprised that I had never seen this design until now.  Since I love the paint drip look, I decided to re-create it.  At 11pm the other night.  Not my wisest decision, but so worth it!

Let's take a look!


Colors Used:
  • Zoya - Storm
  • OPI - Alpine Snow
  • OPI - Exotic Birds Do Not Tweet
  • OPI - No Tan Lines
Isn't this awesome?  And yes, I used all nail polish to create the look.  I started off with two coats of my favorite Zoya polish - Storm.  I need to get another bottle of this black scattered holo beauty.  It's the perfect base coat for nail art like this.



Once dried, I added some very messy paint drips using Alpine Snow.  It was my first time making an all polish paint drip, but it was actually a tad easier than using the acrylics.  When that dried, I added the orange and yellow for the candy corn colors.  I then cleaned up any messy edges using Storm to make the paint drip more even.

What do you think? Fan of this look?

Until next time, <3.

Dot Mani

The One With the Yellow Flowers

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!  Happy Wednesday to you all!  Yesterday I painted my resident's nails and well, my heart was full.  It has been MONTHS since I spent that time with them chatting, painting, and laughing.  Sad to me that so many people just discard the elderly population; they have so much to share with the younger generation.  People are truly missing out!

Today's manicure is the one I wore to match my dress for an event for the Alzheimer's Association.  It was such a wonderful night which raised over $100,000.00 for Alzheimer's research.  This is a cause near and dear to my heart because in my professional career I have seen so many people destroyed by this disease.  Not only does it destroy the resident, but it destroys the families as well.  Words cannot describe how horribly sad this disease is.

It was a beautiful event though and so many came together for the wonderful cause. Families who've lost loved ones, caregivers, members of the Skilled Nursing World, and even seniors with Alzheimer's were in attendance.  While it is a horrible disease, it was a time to celebrate the progress made in battling it and raising more money to hopefully eradicate it.

Let's take a look at the manicure!


Colors Used:
  • Zoya - Dahlia
  • ORLY - Liquid Vinyl
  • ORLY - White Tips
  • Sally Hansen - yellows and greens
My dress was a gorgeous long white dress with black polka dots and yellow roses.  It wasn't a dress I'd typically go for because of the length and I feel that longer dresses typically make me look short and stumpy, but this one flowed so nicely.  I was so proud of the fact that my manicure matched the dress exactly.  I'm kicking myself that I didn't take a photo of the two of them together, but I was too busy eating all the good food that I forgot!



After doing this manicure, I want to do one with lemons soon.  I kept having a lemon vibe from my little flowers.  It is also a reminder for me to use more yellow!

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

Until next time, <3.

Animal Print

The One With the Zoya Leopard Manicure

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!  How are you all doing today?  I really wasn't in the mood to create a post today, but here I am!  I've been exhausted lately and this was the only manicure that I had edited and ready to go.  I feel like I never got over the whole exhaustion from last week.  This week already is off to the same exhausting start.  So much so that I don't have nail art on my nails and it's been five days without it.  I feel naked.

Today's design is one I did a week or so ago when I was feeling uninspired and just wanted a quick simple manicure.  It's been a long time since I've done a leopard design, and they are by far the easiest ones to do.  Also, you know I've been obsessing over my Zoya Pixie polishes, so it's no shocker that I used one for this design.

Let's take a look!


Colors Used:
  • Zoya - Stevie
  • ORLY - Liquid Vinyl
  • ORLY - White Tips
Pretty sure I use ORLY White Tips and Liquid Vinyl in all my manicures.  I've had to stop tagging ORLY in the posts that use these polishes because all 995 posts would be tagged.  Yeah, can you believe that?  I'm close to 1,000 posts on this little blog.  I'm sure that there are a lot of bloggers with triple the amount, but hey, I'm proud for making it this far on my blog.



Totally got off topic there for a second.  ORLY Liquid Vinyl and White Tips pair beautifully with Zoya Stevie.  This is one of my all time favorite polishes.  It's a light, lavender, sparkly Pixie which reminds me of my Great-Grandmother.  This lavender was her favorite shade of purple.  I don't use it nearly enough.

What do you think?  Fan of this manicure?  Loving the Pixie Dusts?

Until next time, <3.

Dot Mani

The One With a Floral Manicure Inspired by SRG.Nails

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!  Welcome to Sunday.  My weekend has been almost as crazy as my weekdays.  I also was without a phone for a good portion of the weekend because I updated my iPhone and, well, the one I of course got was defective.  Kept resetting itself and just being an all around nightmare.  I went back to Verizon yesterday, had them switch it out, and sat there for another 2 hours while things restored.  Both days though I met some really wonderful people while waiting which otherwise I wouldn't have.  So, just proof that everything happens for a reason!

I kind of am on a Zoya kick lately.  After my St. Patrick's Day manicure using Zoya Rikki, I re-discovered all my Zoya polishes and now am using them.  I feel I do this where I go through a phase where all I use is one brand.  There's a soft spot in my heart for the Pixie Dust polishes, and I always forget I own them until I go to use one for an accent, and then I have to re-visit them all.

Today's design is another manicure inspired by SRG.Nails on Instagram.  Absolutely loved her fun floral design accented with dots and black glitter.  Zoya Dahlia was the perfect accent for this beauty, and I just absolutely love how it all comes together.

Let's take a look!


Colors Used:
  • Zoya - Dahlia
  • Zoya - Dillon
  • Zoya - Hunter
  • Zoya - Kitridge
  • ORLY - White TIps
  • ORLY - Liquid Vinyl
I failed at making htis an all Zoya manicure, but I just can't get over my love for White Tips and Liquid Vinyl.  By far, ORLY has the best white and black polish.  I've used a lot of other brands, Zoya included, and I just don't like them as much.  Zoya though does beautiful colors and beautiful Pixies.  Seriously, look at that accent nail!



I'm impressed with myself over that nail art.  By far one of the neatest looking designs I've done with 100% paint and no acrylics.  I think I might shy away from the acrylics a little more in 2019 and try to test my skills with more polish art.

I love how the shimmer of Dillon looks for the flowers.  Then mixed in with the other details, it just looks so dainty.

What do you think of this design?  Loving that floral pattern as much as I am?

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.

Color Club

The One With the Smoosh Snowflake Manicure

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!!!  How are you all doing today??  It is bitterly cold here and we are preparing for Winter Storm Harper!  We are in a weird path right now where we aren't sure if we are going to get inches of snow, or feet.  You all are going to think I'm weird, but I'm low key hoping for a few feet of snow.  I love just one big snow fall and then I'm ready for Spring.  There's something about that large snowfall covering the world in sparkly white that is just so pretty.

Since we are heading into a snow storm filled weekend, of course I am sharing with you another snowflake manicure!  This for sure is one of my favorites.  I was on Instagram and saw a smoosh manicure done by NailsUponATime.  She was inspired by a tutorial by GrapeFizzNails.  Ladies and Gents, you need to go to her instagram and take a look at that tutorial!  I have been complicating the smoosh manicure!!!  Her way is so much easier and I received a perfect smoosh every.single.time.

Let's take a look!


Colors Used:
  • Color Club - Meet Me At the Rink
  • Zoya - Dream
  • INM - Northern Lightse
  • Acrylics

Obsessing over the color combination.  I searched "blue smoosh mani" on Pinterest and came across one by my friend Sarah over at 25 Sweet Peas which I had to re-create.  She used two Zoyas, whereas I don't have two Zoyas which would have worked, but I did have Dream which made life perfect.  After painting my nails with two coats of Meet Me at the Rink, I followed GrapeFizzNails tutorial using Meet Me at the Rink and Dream.


Once the nails were smooshed, I went over it with a light coat of INM Northern Lights which really made the base pop and added to the sparkle of Dream.  I then went through with acrylic and drew on the snowflakes, which took me forever.  My OCD was in overdrive with these because I wanted them to look perfect on top of this perfect, gorgeous smoosh base.

What do you think? Fan of this manicure?  Loving the smoosh?

See you soon with another snowflake manicure!!!  To all those going to be affected by Winter Storm Harper, stay safe!

Until next time, <3.

Christmas

The One With the Gingerbread Manicure I'm Blah About

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!  How are you all doing on this fine Wednesday?  Does anyone else feel like this week is dragging?  Yesterday really dragged on, and on, and on.  I swore at 4pm it was really 6pm.  Who knows, maybe today will go faster.  I really do hope that time kind of slows down because I only have purchased like two Christmas gifts.  Sigh.

Even though I'm behind on Christmas gifts, I'm right on schedule when it comes to Christmas manicures!  I always am proud of myself this time of year where I'm painting, editing, and posting in a timely manner.  All other times of the year, all bets are off.

Today's design is inspired by NailsUponATime on Instagram.  I was scrolling along and came across this cute little gingerbread manicure and I had to re-create it.  Of course, mine did not turn out as well as hers did.  Maybe I should have used a darker green, but Zoya CeCe was calling my name.

Let's take a look!


Colors Used:
  • Zoya - CeCe
  • ORLY - White Tips
  • Pure Ice - Poppin' Bottles
  • Acrylics
Zoya Cece is what I imagine it would be like if you crushed up dozens upon dozens of peridots and put them in a nail polish.  Absolute gorgeous green.  This Pixie is a little different than others that I own.  It has larger flecks of green glitter mixed in with the Pixie dust.  It's absolutely gorgeous.  Do I like it for this Christmas manicure?  Eh, it's okay.  Do I like it on it's own?  YESSS.



It does look really cute as holly leaves, but I feel like I should have stuck with the darker Christmas Green like NailsUponATime did.  I don't hate it, but I don't love it.  I also feel like my little gingerbread man drank a little too much eggnog.  His smile is messed up and it bothered me.  Can you tell my OCD really kicked in on this manicure?

What do you think?  Love? Hate?

Until next time, <3.

Orly

The One With the Pumpkin Mani I Meant to Post a Week Ago

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!  How are you all doing this week?  I did some MAJOR Christmas decorating this weekend.  Not only did I decorate four 7 foot trees at work, I came home and put a crud ton of lights on my house.  I'm not going to lie, I'm still quite exhausted from it.  Since I knew I was going to be doing all this decorating, I had swatch on my nails so I wouldn't be upset if they chipped.

With all this decorating, I literally forgot to post today's pumpkin manicure.  Yup, that's right, this post was supposed to go up around Thanksgiving and I completely forgot.  Of course I didn't realize this until I came to the blog last evening to post a different manicure and saw the pumpkin draft just sitting there.

Since November isn't over, then it's still perfect timing for me to post this!  Fall is just ending, and winter is coming.  That means Christmas and snow manicures are coming soon!!!

Let's take a look at the pumpkins first.


Colors Used:
  • Zoya - Alma
  • Sally Hansen - Champagne Supernova
  • ORLY - Liquid Vinyl
Isn't it cute?  I actually did this manicure to match a dress I wore to the Harvest Dinner at work.  I was so fall festive that evening.  The orange was a perfect Fall orange where I didn't feel like the manicure had a Halloween vibe.  Seriously, Zoya Alma is gorgeous.  Two coats and full coverage, and I was scared it was going to take more because of the jelly formula.  It built up quite nicely.



Really was thrilled with this design. First time I attempted this design of a pumpkin and was pleased with the final look.

What do you think?  Like this design?  Fan of Alma by Zoya?

Until next time, <3.