Tales From the Borderlands Nails, Part Two: Fiona

When I posted my first Tales from the Borderlands manicure a couple of months ago, I heard from a few folks that I should also do some nails for the game's other main character, Fiona. Well, I love Fiona a ton, and the only reason I shied away from doing a design for her the first time around was because I knew how much harder it would be, so... I really have no good reason for not doing it the first time around, is what I'm saying here.

It took me a little while to pull together my ideas—and supplies—to execute this look how I'd envisioned, but it turns out my timing is actually pretty good: the fifth and final episode of Tales from the Borderlands was released just a couple of weeks ago, making now a great time to get excited about the game and go check it out. I talked up TftB a bunch in my last post, so I won't repeat myself, but guys, seriously. Go play it. You won't regret it.

Anyway! On to the nails!

Golden Coral Gradient Nails

I don't really have any excuses about how long it's been since I've posted here. I'm not quite sure what happened! I've been distracted with other things for the last month, but I have still been doing nail art when I can; for some reason, sitting down to actually focus and write a blog post is the part of the process that's been eluding me. Can I blame it on the sunshine and my backlog of novels that I've been devouring?

Anyway! On to the nail art. Today I have some simple but very summery gradient nails to share. I ended up with this look recently when an initial nail art plan didn't pan out and I needed to come up with a plan B to cover the mistakes I'd already made. I never would have thought I'd end up liking a peachy-orange & gold design so much, since I usually don't like orange or gold, but I really fell in love with this as I wore it.

Guest Post at My Life in Turquoise

I'm so excited: my very first guest post is officially live! Please go check out today's post at My Life in Turquoise for my holiday take on turquoise stone nails.

And thank you again, Hetal, for inviting me—I had so much fun with it!

piCture pOlish Fool's Gold Swatches and Review

*press samples*

I don't do straight-up swatch posts too often, so when I do, you know they're going to be pretty special! Today's swatches feature a polish collaboratively designed by one of my favorite brands and one of my favorite nail bloggers—that's about as special as it gets, in my book.

Pixie Dust Gradient

My apologies for slacking off on my blogging so much lately! I had a lot going on to get 2013 wrapped up and 2014 under way, but I think things may settle down some now. Of course, there's still one more thing I need to do: share my Christmas Day manicure!

Thanks to some last-minute prep I had to tackle, I didn't have much time at all to put together a super fancy Christmas look for the big day. Gradients are still my absolute favorite thing right now, but since I'd already done a more typical gradient for the holidays, I decided to try my hand at a textured version.

I started with two coats of Zoya Tomoko and then sponged on both Tomoko and Zoya Chyna to create the gradient. So easy! The textured polishes blended really well—I love how the bumpiness accentuates the gradient even more. I have to confess that I'm actually not the biggest fan of wearing textured polishes (the rough surface brushing against things is like nails on a chalkboard for me!), so I ended up adding a couple layers of topcoat to this by midday on Christmas. I didn't get a photo with the topcoat on, but the overall effect was still very nice.

Thanks for looking, and happy new year!

Black & Gold New Year's Eve Nails

New Year's Eve is one of those holidays that really reveals my old lady tendencies: I'm just not that into it! If I can have some friends over and eat/drink/visit with them in the comfort of my own home, then it can be pretty great, but I've never been one to seek out a party to ring in the new year. Too much of a homebody, I suppose!

That said, I decided to get into the NYE spirit anyway and do some black and gold par-tay nails just for the fun of it. My husband & cat will be very impressed, I'm sure.

The black is Julep Cleopatra and the gold on my ring finger is Sephora + Pantone Universe Latte. The glitter topper is SUPER BLACK Dirty Money (one of my very favorite glitter toppers, though I think it's discontinued, sigh!). Finally, just to get the party vibe going a bit more, I added "VIP" charms by Hex Nail Jewelry to my thumbs—because of course I'm the VIP of my stay-at-home celebration.

Have a safe & happy new year, everyone!

A Taste of Gold

For the second day of my red-themed week, I'd like the show you the manicure I wore to my big office holiday party this year.

This is piCture pOlish Vampire with Julep Gianna applied on the tips. This manicure was SO simple, but amazingly well received! I had people commenting on it left and right. Someone even told me she was getting married on Christmas Day and wanted to recreate this look for her wedding, which is just about the best compliment ever, I think.

This is two coats of Vampire and I just dabbed/placed the gold with the brush from the bottle. A generous coat of topcoat helped smooth out everything.

I also have to add a note about Vampire here: what an amazing polish! It was incredibly easy to work with and really just went on perfectly. It also wore very well and looked beautiful for days. I really need to get more bottles of piCture pOlish in my collection!

Glitter Giveaway!

Today is a special day at Amateur Manicure: I'm sponsoring/hosting my first giveaway! I love entering all the amazing giveaways in the nail blogosphere and I've always thought it would be especially fun to run one, so after studying up a bit on how these things usually go, I think I'm finally ready to try it. What can I say: it seemed like the perfect way for me to celebrate my first year (well, partial year) of nail blogging—and also say thanks to all of you who've been following along with me so far. :)

Anyway, on to the the stuff!

I love going super glitzy with my nails this time of year, so that probably explains how I ended up with a bunchy of sliver and gold glitter in the lineup for this giveaway. I just have glitter on the brain! One winner will receive all of the following:

• The New Black Glimmer Twins 2-Piece Nail Polish Set in both Golden Ticket and Revolver 
• Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Midnight Glitz
• One $15 gift certificate to Llarowe

Please enter using the Rafflecopter widget below. You must be a follower of Amateur Manicure to win. Because there are so many restrictions on shipping nail polish and I'd like to stay compliant with all laws, this giveaway is only open to continental US residents. (I have plans for another, less region-restricted giveaway soon!) Contest ends January 3, 2013. Prizes are provided and shipped by Amateur Manicure. The winner will have 48 hours to claim their prize before a new winner is selected. More detailed terms and conditions are listed in the widget. Good luck!


a Rafflecopter giveaway