With and Without

Hey to everyone on this beautiful Friday! Next up in my journey to be up to date is this manicure from June 17, 2012. Despite this manicure being very old and my talents having grown since then, it is still one of my favorite manicures that I'm still very proud of.

I used Zoya Cho as a base, and Sally Hansen Cherry Red to freehand the French words for without (sans) and with (avec) in a medieval-type font and Sinful Colors All About Me for a splash of gold. I rather impressed myself with the dexterity I displayed on my right hand, having used my left hand of course.

There you have it, a mani that has stood the test of time for me (although I should have cleaned up my cuticles better!). 

Cheers!

xox

Pride nail art

Following the last post, I did another gradient nail but decided to go with a theme. Since this is Pride week here in Indy, it is fitting that this post lands in this week!
I did the same plastic-mix-sponge method that I used in my last post, except with five colors. I'll put the complete list down at the bottom.
Clean up was particularly nasty on this, so pardon the left over mess!

On a base of Wet n Wild French White Creme, Sinful Colors Be My Valentine, Orange Alert, Morning Breath and Revlon Emerald and Royal with Wet n Wild Black Creme for the letters

Thanks for reading!

Acid grunge wash- inspired by tutorial

My ruffian mani, while I liked it, quickly bored me and I really wanted to try out the acid grunge wash look I'd seen on Just Tis Ems blog here, so I did, I used some pretty bright colors (China Glaze Happy Go Lucky, Sinful Colors Innocent, Sinful Colors Hazard over Revlon Royal and Sinful Colors Dream On). Innocent (the green) didn't really show up as much and that kind of bummed me out, but I still was super pleased with the results.

What do you think? Have you tried this look?

Mermaidesque nail art

I'm at work with all my tasks completed... what to do, what to do? Blog about nails of course :P

Today's post is mermaid themed, loosely. Picture first, then I'll ramble on about it for a while...

Index/pinky: Two coats Wet n Wild Caribbean Frost, two coats Sinful Colors Nail Junkie
Thumb/middle/ring: Two coats Zoya Cho base
Rings/sponging thumb/middle/ring: Revlon Plum Night, Zoya Faye, China Glaze Aquadelic
China Glaze Flyin' High, Wet n Wild Caribbean Frost, Revlon Gold Coin, Zoya Bevin

I USED SO MANY POLISHES! Geez, I didn't realize I had until I had to type them all up... :O

I really like the way Faye sponged onto the nail. It turned out just a really faded purple with that green-y gold sheen. Super pretty. The circle pattern is just something I usually end up doodling on the margins of all my notes in class, so I did it in colors on my nails. It was pretty time consuming. I thought it would end up looking kind of mermaid-y so I used Nail Junkie for glittery fun. Merp.

Tell me what you think! Thanks for reading :3

Nail art with Zoya Rica!

I still consider myself fairly new to the polish world. I've been doing nail artsy type things for about a year and a half now, but I've only been collecting (hoarding? lol) polish for a few months. As such, I didn't own any Zoya polishes until their last buy three get three free. I would definitely own more, as they are such excellent quality and big 3 free, but I just don't have the money most of the time. One of the ones I picked up was Rica, and I am SO GLAD I did. I'm not a fan of orange-y polishes, but this tangerine-toned coral is to die for. Here it is on it's own, three coats, under artificial lighting.

GORGEOUS.

 I wanted to do something kind of funky and geometric, so I looked at this photo of some Keith Haring work for loose inspiration.

Here's how it turned out! I used Sinful Colors Black on Black and Snow Me White. I personally really like the thumb, index, and middle finger best. What do you think?

Thanks for reading!

Nail art with Spoiled Jewelry Heist

Hello everyone! Here's a mani with another Spoiled by Wet n Wild polish I picked up when it was two for $3, Jewelry Heist. I'm a sucker for glitter, and this one was DIVINE. I paired it with two colors that I thought went with the rosy pink hex glitters and the iridescent minty green square glitters, Sinful Colors Easy Going (two coats) and Sally Hansen Mint Sorbet (applied with a striping brush). I thought bringing a geometric pattern, pastel colors, and glitter all together was kind of funky. :3

Jewelry Heist applied like a dream. This is two coats over two coats of Sally Hansen Grey Area. See how glossy and shiny!? Not at alllll a hungry glitter. 

The only thing about it is I somehow managed to get a smush on my ring finger in between finishing top coating everything and taking pictures... Geeeeeez, Kalen. :P

Hope you enjoyed this mani as much as I did!

Tiger Pride!

So, as you may know, I'm currently a college student, and I study at DePauw. I don't get a lot of time to blog, but I do sure take a lot of time doing my nails! I see it as my own personal time to myself. It's a break from the stress of being a student. However, I really do love it here and I thought a cool way to show my DePauw pride was (of course ;] ) by doing a mani!
Since our mascot is a tiger, I did tiger print and a growling mouth on my pinky and thumb. For my index finger, I did a kind of university block letter D. I attempted to recreate the silhouette of a building on campus on the newer logo that they've been using on my middle finger. This took a really long time, and I know I could have perfected it even further, but I'm pretty pleased with the way it turned out. Finally, no mani is entirely complete without glitter, so I used a fine silver glitter polish underneath a chunky gold and  small/medium black glitter on my ring finger. And now on to the mani! :]

And for reference, here's a picture of the logo. 

Polishes used: Sinful Colors Snow Me White, Black on Black, Pull Over, Vacation Time, Pure Ice Beware, China Glaze Cross Iron 360, LA Girl Glitter Addict Uninhibited, and then a random chunky gold glitter from PacSun :P

Let me know what you guys think! :]