China Glaze Christmas Polka Dots

I used China Glaze Cast A Spell & added polka dots of China Glaze Ruby Pumps & China Glaze Millennium. I love dotting tools!

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April

Abstract Christmas Nails With JENsations JEWEL Tones & LAQA & CO Chubs

Today we have a unique & lovely polish from indie brand JENsations. Here's what she has to say about her products.

★ All of my custom blended polishes are made with a special 3-free base [Toluene, Formaldehyde & Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP) Free] that will suspend glitter [glitter won't all fall to the bottom].

★ All glitters used are solvent resistant [glitter won't bleed into polish]. On rare occasion I use a bleeding glitter on purpose to get the perfect shade of base, but it will be noted.

★ All polishes come inside a unique star shaped bottle. 10 ml in size. Contrary to popular believe they are easy to store.

★ Each bottle contains two stainless steel ball bearings [they will not rust or affect your polish] for easy shaking. Pigments & glitters tend to settle over time so please shake gently =)

★ Each bottle is custom made with my very own two hands so there may be a slight variation in each bottle.

I've found all of these statements to be true! This is one easily applied coat of  JENsations Jewel Tones worn over LAQA & CO Chubs. Jewel Tones is large red hex glitter & medium green & purple hex glitter in a clear base with a truly outstanding formula. No need to fish for glitter in the bottle & brushes on in one nice thin coat. 

Thanks for reading!
April

This polish was sent to me for review. All opinions are my own & were not influenced by JENsations! For more information you can read my disclosure policy.

Sation Holiday Polka Dots

I always love polka dot manicures & this one is no exception. I used Sation Feliz Navi-Doll, Sation I Love Yule, & Sation Under The Miss-tletoe & my trusy dotting tools. So cute & easy!

 

 

 

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April

Abstract Modern Christmas Or Accidental Bloody Mary Nails?

I love this combination! Sation I Love Yule topped with Sation Ego Friendly. I thought it looked very holiday appropriate but Will says it looks like a bloody mary. Maybe that is holiday appropriate too! Either way, Ego Friendly is a truly incredible polish!

 

 

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April

Zoya Ornate Collection Christmas Nails

I've never tried this style of manicure before. It's super easy & pretty fun but still subtle. I used Zoya Blaze & Zoya Logan for the underside of my nails.

 

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April

EEK!

My new nail art pens again! This time I used a base of Julep Annie & Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen Purple. I was inspired by a Pumpkin Masters template. I added more more monster parts & I love it!

 

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April

Scary Monster Nails!

I wanted to try out my new Sally Hansen Crackle, Cherry Smash (love that name!) so I did a quick layer over the amazing Pomegranate Curator. Cherry Smash seems to be a crackle jelly. Is that a thing? Anyway it applied nicely & cracks best over dry nails.

I didn't really like the results at all so I had to come up with a way to save my manicure. I really loved the skull nails I did last month & they are very easy so I tried them again. So scary! They look like some sort of demon or burned, bloody monster. I love them!

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April

Jack-O-Lantern Nails

I can't stop using my nail art pen! They are just so easy to use & I love Halloween. The background is Sation It's All Navy Baby & I drew the jack-o-lanterns with my Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen Orange.

 

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April

Boo!

I can't believe I've gone so long without trying nail art pens! I would never have been able to do this manicure with a brush & I love it so much. I used the lovely Sation I Paint In Peace for the base & Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen Orange for the letters.

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April

Zoya Katherine Halloween Accent Nail

I recently purchased my first nail art pens & I love them so much! Here I used Zoya Katherine for the base & Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen Orange. It's like drawing with a marker & just so, so easy to use. The very best part? If you mess up, you can just wipe it off & start again like nothing happened!!! This does mean that you'll need to put a topcoat on your art when you're finished but I always do that anyway. I'll be buying more nail art pens soon because they allow me to do all sorts of things I don't have the patience for with a brush.

Thanks for reading!
April

Lime Crime Halloween Skull Nails Inspired By Frippery Digits

I've been wanting to try these nails for a long time & I love how they turned out! I got the idea from this post from Frippery Digits. I used Lime Crime Milky Ways & added the skulls using a dotting tool & Lime Crime Pastelchio. So fun!

Thanks for reading!
April

This polish was sent to me for review. All opinions are my own & were not influenced by Lime Crime! For more information you can read my disclosure policy.

Red, White, & Blue Nails

 Like many of you, the Olympics have captured my attention. Since I was already wearing Sation Holiday Spirit, I decided to add some more red & blue. I love how these turned out! I used China Glaze Ruby Pumps & Maybelline New Year's Blues.

 

 

Thanks for reading!
April

Chain Of Hearts Nail Art

Just a quick post with an old manicure that I didn't manage to get any great pictures of even though I really liked it! I used The drop dead gorgeous Zoya Keiko for the base & Zoya Chloe for the flakies inside the heart. Same chain & technique as these nails I did last Christmas.

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April

Ikat Chevron Tutorial

Finally the tutorial for my Ikat Chevron nails from last week. These look intricate, but they are really very easy just a bit time consuming.

What you'll need: 2 or 3 fairly opaque polishes (no thin formulas for this technique), a flat brush, & a good top coat (I like Essie Good To Go)

1. Paint all your nails with one coat of the lightest polish color (Mint). Don't worry if it's streaky.
2. Add chevrons in your second color (Green) to all nails. I just used the polish brushes. You can be very messy & imprecise. 
3. Add chevrons in the third color (Orange) to all nails. 
4. Remember your chevrons don't need to be straight and perfect!
5. Next put a drop or two of green polish on your palette (I just use the middle of a nail wheel).  Dip a flat brush in the polish & start creating your ikat lines. I recommend doing just two nails at a time at this point.
6. Repeat step 5 with the orange & mint polishes, 2 nails at a time.
7. It's going to look kind of terrible until you add the topcoat. Just go for it! Check the overall shape of your chevrons at this point. You can easily go back and add a few lines to straighten them up if needed. (You can see I added a line at the apex of my orange chevron
8. Add a coat of topcoat before until continuing on to the rest of your nails. Beautiful, easy & foolproof!

Thanks for reading & let me know if you try this out. I'd be happy to post them on my blog if a few of you lovely ladies give it a go.
April

Ikat Chevron In St. Patrick's Day Colors

I did some ikat hearts last month & figured out that it's very easy to make fun patterns in this style. This is my new favorite manicure that I've ever done! I'll be posting a tutorial very soon.

I used Essie Mint Candy Apple for the base. The other colors are Essie Brazilliant & Nina Ultra Pro Leaf Me Alone.

 

Here's a picture with a movie I watched every year as a kid, Darby O'Gill & the Little People. Excellent leprechaun effects, banshees, & a young Sean Connery singing!

Thanks for reading!
April

Flakie Crackle Heart Nails

I added some simple hearts in my favorite crackle polish La Rosa Maroon Red to my Zoya Chloe nails. I meant to post this before Valentine's Day but it got lost in the bustle of moving. Super easy & effective. I love the color combination.

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April

Mardi Gras Nails

These were mostly my boyfriend Will's idea. I love how they turned out! Not difficult exactly but rather time consuming and a bit frustrating to get the diamonds (mostly) even. This design would be easier to do on flatter nails than mine but I think they were worth the effort.

I used Barielle Soul-er Powered (fantastic polish!) for the base and then added corners of Zoya Holly & Sinful Let's Talk. Thanks for the great idea Will!

Thanks for reading!
April