Last night I picked up Orly Fresh at Sally and did some nail art with it. I don't know how but I didn't realize this polish existed. WTH? Anyway, it's a bright spring grass green. It's not neon, but it's bright and beautiful. I don't think I have anything like it at all, but I do recall having OPI Greenwich Green which I believe is similar though I apparently didn't like that one enough to keep it. I think perhaps it was sort of sheer? I don't remember, but Fresh is a creamy jelly with great coverage in two coats. For this manicure I kept it super simple. I used those little circle notebook paper hole reinforcement stickers cut in half to mask 1/3 of my nails, painted them Orly Fresh, then using Konad Special Polish in black and Konad plate m51 I stamped on this swirly pattern. After it dried, I removed the stickers and put on a coat of Seche Vite. This manicure isn't really a half-moon, and it's not exactly a french either. It's a French moon, if you will. I like the look of those obnoxiously prominent white tips you see on acrylics sometimes, and I like the half-moon thing, so I thought this was a pretty cool compromise. I like the look of the naked bottom 1/3 with really busy tips.
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I recently came across a photo of Rihanna's tiger print nails, and knew immediately I wanted to try to re-create it. I'm a big fan of Rihanna's nail choices; her nails are always rad. I think hers may be Minx or something because look at her left (your right) hand... The middle and ring fingers look identical. Either way, this is a super simple nail look to re-create. I used China Glaze Snow for the base, then I used China Glaze Classic Camel and Goin' My Way from last year's Vintage Vixens collection to sponge random spot on my nails. I did barely any on some, and lots on others to help with that random look Rihanna's nails have going on. Then I used a black nail art striper polish by Art Deco to make the stripes. I finished off with a layer of Seche Vite to seal it in.
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Another one of my favorite Vera Bradley patterns is Baroque. I bought a kisslock clutch last Fall when it first came out because the pattern, honestly, is just irresistable. I love the swirlies and the dark grey and citron, especially together. I've been meaning to do a Baroque inspired nail design for a long time, but I couldn't decide just what to do. I'm not good enough yet to re-create these types of swirlies and I didn't have the right sort of grey. I figured that OPI Who The Shrek Are You? would work for the citron, but then came China Glaze Electric Pineapple and the wheels started turning. It's a perfect match for the citron in this pattern. Then last week I got the Metro collection from China Glaze and Concrete Catwalk is a perfect match for the grey. So I set out to do a manicure that evoked the whimsical feeling of the pattern with these colors. Please realize that this is not meant to MATCH the pattern, it's inspired by it. I'm not 100% happy with it, but I do like it.
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I mixed up my last manicure with a little bit of leopard. On the blue nails remaining from the last mani, I used China Glaze Shower Together and an Art Deco striping polish for the zebra. On the other nails I used a base of Sephora by OPI Don't Feed the Hand Models. On the fingers with blue half-leopard, I used China Glaze Shower together and Migi Nail Art pen in black, and the full leopard nails are just the Migi Nail Art pen in black. I thought the nude and blue combination was super cute, and the leopard and zebra worked well together.
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China Glaze Shower Together has long been a favorite of mine, along with it's doppelganger predecessor ChG Aqua Baby. It's a saturated, yet subdued, turquoise-leaning blue creme with great coverage. To be honest, Shower Together is a bit more green than most of these photos show, which is a shame because it's that touch of green that really makes this polish. ST loves my skintone, which might be one reason I love it so much. Anyway, I chose it as the base for my first all-zebra manicure ever. I've attempted zebra a few times but usually without much success, but this time it turned out pretty well. I love Shower together with the simple black design over it. The design isn't original or fancy, but I was proud of the end result! I used an Art Deco striper polish from the Dollar Tree for the stripes, and Seche Vite, as usual, for my topcoat.
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Happy 4th of July, everyone!! Here's my Independence Day mani; a festive french with an accent nail of "stars" and stripes. I used China Glaze Snow for the tips and the base of the ring finger. The blue is China Glaze Bermuda Breakaway, and it's applied over the tips of all fingers. On the french fingers, I used China Glaze Phat Santa for the dots, and on the ring fingers i used a sparkly red Art Deco striper polish to do the stripes. I made thin silver lines to separate the "stars" and stripes with China Glaze SIlver Bells. Everything was topped off with a coat of Seche Vite!
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Tarte has come out with a True Blood themed collection, and it includes a pretty interesting palette. I loved the look of the packaging so I decided to give it a try on my nails. The design is simple to do and it looks pretty cool. It would look really good with another color in place of the red as well, especially a nude shade. I painted my nails with a base of China Glaze Phat Santa, and then using a black striper polish from Art Deco I made two diagonal lines from the cuticle to the corners of the free edge. Then I filled in the empty triangles on the outer portion of the nails with Wet n Wild Black Creme. Then I used China Glaze Millenium to make silver dots for the holes for the laces. I put a smaller black dot in the middle of the silver dots to make them look like little eyelets. With the Art Deco striper I made crisscrossing "laces."
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This is my current manicure and it's basically a complete ripoff of this manicure by Wah Nails. I loved it so much, and I knew as soon as I saw it, I had to try it. it's genius! The "cutout" of leopard is so awesome, and the contrast of light creamy blue with neon orange is amazing. I used Orly Snowcone and a Migi nail art pen for the leopard and the tips are Color Club Amp'd Up. I don't know what shades Wah used, but it looked pretty similar to me.
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I was just looking for another excuse to wear neons, and did this design which incorporates really simple elements like dots and stripes, along with just a touch of Konad stamping. I painted my nails white and then with the different China Glaze and Essie neons I painted strokes on different areas of each nail, then lined the edges of the color with a black striper polish. Within the remaining empty areas, I randomly added stripes going in different directions and dots, and on a couple I used a Konad stamper for the houndstooth. It's not perfect by any means when viewed close up, but I think it looks pretty cool at a normal distance. It wasn't too awfully time consuming and I think it's a great look for the horribly hot weather we've been having!
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Today's nails are based on the beautiful pattern Deco Daisy from Vera Bradley. It's my new favorite pattern, for now anyway, and I decided I'd try to do my own version of it on my nails. I started with a base of China Glaze Phat Santa and then Wet n Wild white on the ring fingers, and then I used a Migi Nail Art Pen to make the white quarter-circles on the red nails. Once that was all dry I used Konad plate m63 and Konad special black polish to stamp on the houndstooth on the ring fingers. For the rest of the fingers I used a BundleMonster plate and Konad plate m66 for the flowers. On top is a coat of Seche Vite fast-dry top coat.
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