Misty Green-Grey Halloween Nails

Happy (early) Halloween, everyone! Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, so even though I've been super busy with work and vacation and then getting sick at the end of it all, I couldn't let the occasion pass without posting some seasonally appropriate nails here.

Green Thermal Clover Nail Art

I've been sick for more than a week now and am actually still trying to fight off whatever this plague is, but somewhere in the midst of my haze of cold meds & Parks and Rec binge-watching, I managed to do some simple St. Patrick's Day nails.

Seattle Seahawks Super Bowl XLIX Nails

I wasn't sure whether I'd have a chance to do a proper Seahawks manicure this year, but yesterday afternoon I finally had some free time and inspiration, so I decided to go for it. After all, it's not every year that your team makes it to the Super Bowl, right? (Ahem.)

Minty Fresh Nail Art

Now that Christmas is really closing in (I can't even think about how few days I have left to do All The Things), I'm finally getting the chance to post some of my holiday nail art here for you guys. I have a nice little cache saved up to post this week and next, so I hope you enjoy!

First up is this cute little peppermint manicure inspired partly by the holiday season, and partly by one of the new(ish) piCture pOlish collaboration shades, Minty.

 

The Lacquer Legion Crisp: Striking Striped Nails

After missing the last couple months of The Lacquer Legion, I'm back to join the fun for today's prompt, "crisp." I'm so glad to be getting back into the swing of things with my nail art—I really missed The Lacquer Legion in particular!

Happy as I am to be back at it, however, I'll admit that I had a bit of a hard time with this theme. For the longest time, I could really only think of crisp apples or fall leaves, and I wasn't feeling quite confident enough in my freehanding skills to go that route. In the end, I decided to embrace the idea of crisp, clean lines and just go nuts with some colors that inspired me.

Woodland Waterfall

Whenever I'm lacking inspiration, I find myself gravitating toward the waterfall technique invented by The Nailasaurus because it's so fun and easy. Just pick out a few colors that strike your fancy and grab your striping brush, and that's it! There's very little stress or planning involved, so I always feel like it's one of the more relaxing manicures I can do.

Soothing Springtime Waterfall

I was having a rough day recently, so I decided to do some nail art that I knew I'd enjoy creating and that would just make me happy whenever I looked at it.

Argyle in Green

I generally don't do much to celebrate St. Patrick's Day, but I do love green, so I couldn't resist adding a little St. Paddy's spirit to my nail art this weekend by using two of my favorite green polishes.

Muppets Most Wanted Nail Art

Like every true '80s child, I love the Muppets. I grew up watching reruns of The Muppet Show (I'm just a little too young to have seen the original airings, but not by much!), and even now, I always get excited when a new Muppet movie gets released. So when I started seeing trailers for the upcoming "Muppets Most Wanted" movie, I knew I had to do some nail art to celebrate the occasion.

At first glance, I know this may not seem like the most Muppet-y manicure ever, but bear with me! I'm not really enough of an artist yet to hand-paint cute little Muppet faces on my nails, so I decided to match the characters' outfits (and the movie's logo, in Kermit's case) in this image instead:

Wallpaper by stuartreeves.com and characters ©Disney

I really admire other nail artists' abilities to do super detailed, hand-painted nail art for movies and other events, but I know I'm just not quite there yet. So my goal with this design was to capture the fun, colorful look & feel of the movie using techniques that are generally pretty doable for someone without a lot of amazing art skills (like me!). I feel like I succeeded—at least, I hope I did!

Read on for more details and lots more pictures!

One More Seahawks Manicure

I'm running out the door to a Super Bowl party, but I couldn't leave without posting my final Seahawks manicure of the season. I told myself I wasn't going to do another one this year, because there's already been so much blue/green/grey on this blog and I don't want to turn off any non-football (or Seattle) fans, but I was just too excited about the game to resist. I hope you'll all indulge me one last time!

It's nothing too exciting, but I think it does capture the iconic Seahawks look. I used my usual OPI I Saw...You Saw...We Saw...Warsaw as the blue base, and then added a stripe of Nars Galathee down the middle, with a coat of Zoya Seraphina on top of it to give it some sparkle. Then I used a striping brush and Sephora by OPI It's Totally Karma to add the green accents. Finally, I added some studs from the Born Pretty Store using nail glue and sealed everything with topcoat.

However the game turns out, we're so proud of our team and we can't wait to cheer them on. GO HAWKS!

12th Man Waterfall

The whole city of Seattle is super excited about the Seahawks' playoff run right now—me included! So I decided to try out a waterfall mani (a technique invented and made famous by The Nailasaurus) in Seahawks colors to match my 12th Man jersey and help celebrate the playoff spirit.

This was my first time trying a waterfall look on top of a dark base color, so I had no idea what to expect or whether it would even work, but it turned out great! I think waterfalls are really perfect for showing off your team colors because they're genuinely fun and easy to do, and they look impressive paired with a matching jersey or other accessories.

I used OPI I Saw...You Saw...We Saw...Warsaw for my base color, and the stripes were created with four different polishes:

• Nars Galathee
• FNUG Bandana
• Sephora by OPI It's Totally Karma
• Zoya Rikki

Galathee, It's Totally Karma, and I Saw...You Saw...We Saw...Warsaw are pretty much my go-to polishes when I want to do something Seahawks-themed. Bandana and Rikki were new additions this time, but I love the extra depth and sparkle that they add to the group.

What do you think—do you like the idea of using team colors in waterfall manis? What team's colors would make the BEST waterfall?

Thanks for looking! GO HAWKS!

a-england Christmas Gradient

For my one truly Christmasy manicure this year, I went to some of my favorite polishes to create what I think is a really classy holiday gradient that I ended up loving a lot.

This is a-england Saint George and Rose Bower on the tips of my nails done in a gradient with Bridal Veil. I wore this to an evening holiday event so I wanted something festive but not too over the top, and I think this fit the bill perfectly. I'd wear a-england polishes in various gradients every single day if I could! They just blend so beautifully and create a flawless look every single time.

Because the darker color was at my cuticles for this manicure instead of on the tips, I tried a slightly different technique for the gradient. I started by just painting the tips of my nails with Saint George and Rose Bower (just freehanding it with the brush from the bottle, nothing fancy), and then doing the same with Bridal Veil, but starting at my cuticles and stopping about halfway up the nail. And then from that point, I used the usual makeup sponge method to dab more of the two colors onto each nail to cover up the harsh, unblended line and create the actual gradient. I had no idea whether this was going to work when I started, but I think it went really well and I'll definitely be doing it again! I love the look of the color emerging out of the black from the cuticle.

Since my Christmas tree was right there next to me as I worked on this manicure, I grabbed an ornament off a nearby branch and experimented with a more "artistic" shot for my last photo, just for fun. :)

Sadly, I chipped this manicure like nobody's business while I was cleaning house in preparation for holiday visitors; otherwise, I'd definitely still be wearing it! Next time I'll show you what I ended up wearing for actual holidays (Christmas Eve and Christmas Day) themselves.

Have a safe and happy holiday, everyone!

Teal & Turtle

I feel like I need to preface this post with a note about the colors in the photographs here: I'm really not happy with them! My camera seemed to hate this mani, no matter what I did to try to correct things. So, my apologies!

I ordered some Hex Nail Charms a while back but hadn't used them yet, so when I sat down recently to finally remedy that situation, I wanted to do something easy that also matched well with one of the charms. The turtle charm, in particular, was calling to me, so I decided to do a blue and teal saran wrap mani that reminded me of beautiful, clear waters where turtles might be found.

I started with a base of Zoya Zuza (love that name!) and let that dry, and then one nail at a time, I added a coat of Zoya Tart and dabbed the surface of each nail with a wadded up ball of saran wrap. Pretty easy! After adding some top coat and letting everything dry, I added the turtle charm with some nail glue. It stayed put perfectly until I was ready to remove it a few days later!

Swatch: A-England Saint George

Today I have swatches of what turned out to be probably my absolute favorite nail polish that I've tried to date. It's been in my collection for a while, but I (foolishly!) didn't get around trying it until recently, and I'm kicking myself for that now because it's just. so. GORGEOUS.

This is a-england Saint George, a deep, jewel-toned green, and I pretty much want to have it on my fingers all the time now. I know that most nail bloggers are very aware of a-england polishes, and a quick search reveals that this one has been swatched all over the place already, but I just couldn't resist posting my own pictures of it here.

The polish itself went on beautifully—two very easy coats, and it stayed right where I put it. (I could have easily gone with just one coat, but I like at least two coats on my nails because they're on the thin side.) The holographic elements are also beautiful: I couldn't stop staring at my own nails, especially in full-spectrum light.

The other cool thing about a-england polishes is that they're all inspired by amazing stories: check out Sam's amazing write-up over on Fashion Polish if you're interested in reading about what inspired Saint George and the other shades in this line. She did a much better job with it than I ever could!

Seattle Seahawks Nail Art

We're big Seattle Seahawks fans in my house, so when they played their big Monday night game recently, I decided to do some crazy Seahawks-themed nail art to celebrate (and to match my jersey!).

As you can see, I couldn't decide exactly what kind of look I really wanted, so I did a little bit of everything. I started with a base of Nars Galathee on my thumb, middle finger, and pinky, and then a base of Sephora by OPI It's Totally Karma on the other two fingers. Then I used striping tape on my middle and ring fingers before adding a coat of OPI I Saw...You Saw...We Saw...Warsaw and peeling the tape off. I applied the blue hex glitters (from the Born Pretty Store) to my pinky using a toothpick and clear nail polish, and a coat of ILNP Matthew Peri finished off my pointer finger. Finally, I applied the Seahawks helmet waterslide decal from Nail Country Decals to my thumb and finished everything off with a couple coats of topcoat.

After wearing this mani for a full week (butter LONDON P.D. Quick Topcoat does not mess around!), I decided that the design on my ring finger—the navy blue with the bright green stripes—is probably my favorite. The two colors together in a pinstripe just look really sharp, I think. What about you—which nail do you like best out of this random assortment?

Anyway, thanks for reading! Go Seahawks!!

31DC2013 Day 4: Green Nails

I'm not sure what happened—it feels like I just blinked, but more than two weeks have passed since my last post! I really want to avoid those kinds of breaks in the future, so I'm going to make more of an effort to space things out better from here on out. I still have so much to learn!

Anywho, I've been moving along with the 31 Day Challenge at my own leisurely pace over here, so let's get to the nails, shall we?

Day 4 called for green nails. I really love green, so even though I went with some simple half moons for this manicure, I'm super pleased with how this turned out. I started with a base of Zoya Rikki, and when that dried, I used hole reinforcers to mark off the half-moon shape before adding a coat of Zoya Hunter. Very easy, but the results are so satisfying!

As a side note, I think the photo above is one of the best pictures I've ever gotten with my current camera, so hooray for that, too! I guess green really agrees with my skin tone and lighting situation.

Thanks for reading!

Nail Art: The Joker at Mardi Gras?

People kept asking me if these were Mardi Gras or Joker nails, and although neither of those were my original intention, I think they're pretty apt descriptions of this look!

Nail Art: Blue-Teal Gradient

Gradients are one of my very favorite nail art looks: when done well, they're so impressive! I'm still trying to perfect my own technique (fully blending the colors is my biggest challenge), but I'm reasonably happy with how my first three-color gradient turned out.