China Glaze

Random Dry Brush Manicure

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!  Happy Friday!!  My week is all thrown off right now since I had yesterday off and now today I'm working.  Seriously, yesterday felt like a Saturday so I'm convinced that I should be going to church today instead of work.  Oh well, at least tomorrow is Saturday and I'll get to sleep in again!  I guess it's a bonus?  Who knows.

Today I am sharing with you a random dry brush manicure I did after Halloween.  After doing all that orange, yellow, and black, I wanted to have something bright and funky.  The obvious choice was to grab some of my favorite neon polishes!

Let's take a look!




Colors Used:
  • China Glaze - Too Yacht to Handle
  • China Glaze - That's Shore Bright
  • Zoya - Aurora
  • Look Nail Color - White
I honestly forgot how gorgeous Zoya Aurora is.  Two coats of jelly holo perfection.  They need to make more polishes like this.  Preferably in red and green for Christmas.  Maybe in a teal too.  I stumbled across a gradient someone did using Aurora and Storm and I think I need to re-create it soon because it was beyond gorgeous.



I love how Aurora offsets the creams and the nail art on the pinkie and thumb.  It's a great contrast.  At first I was planning on putting INM Northern Lights on the cream nails, but I'm thrilled that I didn't.   I think it would have taken away from the simplicity of the design.

What do you think? Do you think extra sparkle would have ruined it?

Until next time, <3.

Dot Mani

Twinsie Tuesday: Inspired by Food....Kind of? Maybe?

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!  How are you all doing today?  It's Tuesday which means it is time for another Twinsie Tuesday!  This week we are sharing manicures which are inspired by our favorite food.  I had zero ideas for today and almost thought about skipping because when I can't think of something it stresses me out, I get angry, and the manicures never turn out.  Plus, we all know that I wear my manicures for a few days.  So if I didn't like wearing a manicure for a few days I was not 100% happy with.  It just all around would have been a bad situation.

Then I realized Thanksgiving is Thursday and I started to think of all the different foods that are served.  Stuffing, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, and most importantly turkey.  Everyone loves Thanksgiving turkeys!  So I decided to do a turkey themed manicure.

Let's take a look!




Colors Used:
  • Orly - White
  • Orly - Bling
  • Acrylics
I decided to re-create my pilgrim turkey from last year.  If you don't remember, click here to see my cute little turkeys from last year which were also for a Twinsie Tuesday post!  Literally it was a year ago.  Kind of funny how that happened.  Anyways, I only really wanted turkey accents instead of all 10 so I decided to figure something else out for the other nails.



Which of course I came up with using a very fun glitter, Orly Bling.  This polish came out as part of last years winter collection and I couldn't be happier that I own it.  It's so pretty and holo.  It needs to be released as part of their core collection like Mirrorball was.  Hmmm I wonder if they actually did.  I should take a look this weekend when I go to Sally.

What do you think?  Fan of this turkey?  Are you a fan of Thanksgiving turkey?

 Can't wait to see what the other Twinsie's did!


Amanda at Amandalandish
Amanda at Fashion Footing
Amber at Nails Like Lace
Bridget at A Painted Nail
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.

Bestie Twin Nails

Bestie Twin Nails with Fashion Footing: Round 18

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!  How are you all doing today??  Winter is actually here, kind of.  The temperature finally dropped and it's supposed to possibly snow today or tomorrow.  We have had such a mild Fall/Winter that it seems weird that it's going to snow.  Seriously, it was 65 degrees on Wednesday.  It's about time that winter got here.

Today is Round 18 of Bestie Twin Nails with Fashion Footing!  I honestly cannot believe we are almost at the two year mark of this feature.  Where did the time go??  This month Amanda and I re-created this tribal looking manicure by Alondra Loves Polish on Instagram.  It shocked me that Amanda chose this manicure to re-create because she hates tribal designs and this is what it reminded me of.  According to her though, it isn't tribal, it's stripe-y.

Let's take a look!




Colors Used:
  • OPI - Just Lanai-ing Around
  • OPI - Love, Angel, Music, Baby
  • Orly Instant Artist Stripers
OPI - Just Lanai-ing Around is such a pretty polish.  I wasn't sure if I should purchase it or not, but I'm happy I did.  It's a beautiful dark mauvey pink with a subtle shimmer.  Since I added a matte top coat, and there is art on top of it, you can't see the shimmer at all.  It applied perfectly in two coats.  It was a little thicker than other OPIs that I own, but it was very easy to work with.  I think it's an odd color for a Spring collection.  It's perfect for this time of year in my mind.

To get the look, after my base was dried, I went through with my gold polish and did a swipe down the middle of my nail.  Then with my striper, I outlined the gold stripe and did the zig zag pattern.  I then went through with my white and added the final details.



I'm still working on the new bottle shot photos.  Sorry that they are kind of odd looking.  I purchased an OttLite but I haven't gotten it out of the box yet.  You think I would have ran home as soon as I purchased it and tried it out, but nope.  I'm a lazy little nail blogger.  These photos though have turned out really well considering they are up against my bed, using a regular light, and my iPad.  Some turn out better than others.

What do you think?  Fan of the design?  Do you like these colors?  Do you think it's tribal?

Make sure to check out Amanda's design!

Until then, <3.

Nail Artist of the Month

November Nail Artist of the Month: Love Polish Them

9:00:00 AM

Good morning polished world!  How are you all doing today?  I'm super excited to finally be introducing you all to a new Nail Artist of the Month!  I usually do this post in the beginning of each month, but I slacked at the end of October and never contacted someone in time to get the post up by my own personal deadline.  So I settled for a mid month post!

I'm so pleased to introduce you all to the very talented Constanza from @lovepolishthem on Instagram!  She is beyond talented and I couldn't wait to feature her.  I'm so happy she agreed, and her manicure today does not disappoint!

Let's take a look!

__________________________________

Hi beautiful ladies!

 I was so happy that Alaina invited me to be the artist of the month! Wow, such an honor. I like your IG account very much and now that I discover your blog I´ll make sure not missing an entry!

 Let me introduce myself. I'm Constanza, @lovepolishthem on Instagram, and I'm from Chile, a small country in South America. Here is spring time (yay!).

 I started to become interested about nail art about a year and a half ago when I first met a very well known local nail artist. First, was all about the designs, after that I began to collect nail polishes and started to be interested in the different shades and textures. I have over 200 nail polishes by now and counting..... hahaha...

 Most of my designs are free hand and sometimes I use some vinyls. I don't consider myself an expert; I'm still learning. But I'm very happy with the improvements I've made, which make me say: never give up, practice is the key!

Today I bring you a peacock feather design in green tones.


 Colors used:
  • Pastel yellow: Models Own "lemon meringue"
  • Dark yellow: Opi "good grief!"
  • Green: Essie "ruffles & feathers" and "mojito madness"
  • Green glitter: Essence "party in a bottle"
  • Top Coat: Glisten & Glow HK Girl
First I applied pastel yellow and made the design with a super thin and long brush using the different nail polishes.

 On the index I applied glitter, the first coat with the brush and then with a sponge to get full coverage.

 At last, I applied glossy top coat.


 I hope you liked it! <3

 Thanks Alaina once again for the opportunity and thank you to all of you reading this entry right now ;)

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What a gorgeous manicure!  The color combo is absolutely to die for.  I really think I might have to re-create this.  It's just amazing.  I haven't done a peacock design, so it's perfect!

Connie, thank you so much for creating this post!  I truly hope that everyone heads on over to her Instagram and follows her!  You won't be sorry!

Until next time, <3