Starbucks-Inspired Chalk Art Nails

I don't know about anyone else, but going to Starbucks is one of my favorite things about this time of year. I'm sure that probably sounds silly, but just I love the decorations, the festive treats, and of course the coffee—it's all so great for me.

I especially like that Starbucks picks a theme for their decor every holiday season and uses it all around their stores. I'm not even going to touch the cup controversy that happened this year, but the holiday chalk art that's on lots of the signs, pastry bags, and even the window art was particularly inspiring to me in its simplicity, so when it came time to do my first holiday nail design of the season, that's the look I decided to recreate.

(And, to be clear, this isn't a sponsored post or advertisement in in any way—I just really liked this design!)

Delightful Daisies Nail Art

*press samples*

It must really be spring for real, now: I'm fixated on floral patterns!

One More Valentine's Day Manicure

*press samples*

I'm not entirely sure how or when this change happened, but stamping has become my fall-back option for nail art these days when I'm short on time and/or inspiration. I can remember the not-so-distance past when stamping made me want to pull my hair out, so it's definitely a surprise to have it become my default!

Picture Polish Valentine Water Marble

Now that I've discovered liquid latex as a liquid tape option for messy manicures, I'm much more willing to play with nail art techniques that tend to be cleanup-instensive. That's how this Valentinesy water marble was born!

 

Red and White Holiday Sweater Nails

Happy holidays, everyone! I got busy with all my various shopping/wrapping/baking tasks and forgot to post these traditional red & white fair isle sweater nails I wore recently. But thankfully I found a few spare minutes and got them in under the wire!

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.

Patriotic Chevron

I said I wasn't going to do Fourth of July nails, and then I promptly changed my mind after seeing all the amazingly creative designs people were doing on Instagram. I just had to join in on the fun!

A Walk Around the Color Block

My husband and I were out doing some outlet mall shopping recently, and as we breezed through the Kenneth Cole outlet, this mixed-pattern blouse caught my eye. As you may have already guessed, I always love a good mix of color blocking and patterns—and this combo in particular was so striking to me that started recreating a version of it on my nails almost as soon as we walked in the door at home.

Dotted Birthday Daisies

I went out of town recently for a little birthday getaway, and before I left, I decided to try my hand at some quick floral nail art. I should probably know better than to try a new technique when I'm already in a rush, but... what can I say. I'm just stubborn like that! (Fitting for a Taurus, huh?)

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!

Michael Kors Resort 2014 Nails (Part 2)

Nail art inspired by fashion is one of my absolute favorite things—both to see others do, and to do myself. I did a fashion-inspired look once before, when my blog was still living exclusively on tumblr (and I was still learning how to take decent pictures, eep!), but as it turns out, I guess I wasn't quite finished exploring the possibilities of the Michael Kors Resort 2014 collection. I still might not be, to tell the truth!

All the color blocking, clean lines, and excellent use of patterns in this collection really inspire me and make me want to recreate every single look on my nails. I also adore the colors in this particular look: so smart and classic, but fresh and interesting at the same time. I thought about recreating the whole dress on each nail, but I ultimately decided things would look too cramped and cluttered that way—not at all in the spirit of the collection.

Creating this look was pretty straightforward: I started with a base of Zoya Purity on my pointer and middle fingers, and a base of FNUG Cashmere Sweater on the rest of my fingers. Then I used a dotting tool and Cashmere Sweater & Essie Licorice to add the leopard print pattern to the white nails, as demonstrated in this Chalkboard Nails tutorial. Finally, I taped off the remaining nails and added Licorice to the tips. Everything is finished with a couple coats of topcoat.

I wore these nails for several days, but I still wish I could have worn them longer. I guess that just means I really do need to do another manicure inspired by this collection in the future!

What do you think of nails inspired by fashion? Do you have a favorite designer whose looks you like to see recreated?

Thanks for looking!

Stars and Stripes for Sochi

I try not to post two days in a row—I only have time for a few posts per week and I like to spread them out a bit more—but this week is special! So I'm making an exception.

Anyone who's followed me for a while might know that I'm a big hockey fan. I generally follow NHL hockey, but right now there's Olympic hockey happening, too. The US women's team is playing Canada for the gold medal today (as I'm writing this, in fact), and the men's team plays Canada tomorrow morning for a chance to go to the final. So, needless to say, it's a big day for USA hockey, and I couldn't let the opportunity to do some USA hockey–themed nail art pass me by!

When I first started kicking around the idea of doing some USA hockey nail art, I knew from the beginning that more than just doing a red, white, and blue design, I really wanted to capture the three main elements of the jerseys Team USA is wearing in Sochi this year: the crest on the front, the thick red and white armbands, and the shiny stars across the shoulders.

Team USA hockey jersey

Conveniently, all these elements lend themselves really well to nail art!

I'm going to write out all the steps I used in a numbered list to help keep things organized. It may still be somewhat long-winded, though, so if you're not interested in the process, just hit the jump (link below the sharing buttons)/scroll down for more pictures!