My First Attempt at Waterspotting

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to try my hand at waterspotted nails. I've been seeing them for a while now, and I think they're so adorable!

The way mine turned out reminded me a bit of saran wrap nails. 

I started out this manicure with two coats of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Sea Breeze.

Then you get a cup of water and put in a couple drops of your second polish. I chose Essie Mint Candy Apple for my nails. It should spread out in the water.

To get the marbled effect you have to spray the polish with an alcohol based solution like hairspray or hand sanitizer. I spent a couple minutes trying to spray my polish with hairspray until I realized my hairspray was alcohol free...

So I ended up just spraying it with alcohol!

This technique reminded me a lot of water marbling. Except it was a lot easier for me to do!

I definitely want to try this technique again and see if I can get larger voids in my second polish.

Happy Birthday Caitlin!

Lots of celebratory happys lately. I can dig it!

Today's my good friend Caitlin's 22nd Birthday and she loves dolphins so as a birthday gift I got her a dolphin Hex Nail charm and gave her a mani.

She chose OPI Hot & Spicy as her base color. I love this color. It's a gorgeous bright orange-ish coral color.

I applied her dolphin with a bit of nail glue and put some top coat over him so he would stay put.

Caitlin was happy with her dolphin and I think she picked the perfect color to go along with him. This manicure's simple, but still adorable because of the dolphin charm :)

We're going out to sushi for Caitlin's birthday dinner.. let's hope dolphin isn't on the menu! 

Happy Game Day!

It's that time once again. You know, when the Noles win!

Even though I'm working today and can't make it to the game, you already know I'm rocking some Garnet & Gold Nails to support my team!

I used my favorite garnet as a base for these nails: Revlon Raven Red.

The gold in the cheetah print is Sinful Colors Flower Girl and the white is Finger Paints Hip Hip Hue-Ray!.

I did these nails at 2 in the morning last night, so it's definitely not the best cheetah print I've ever done but I'm pretty happy with how my FSU turned out, even though it's simple.

For my right hand I just went with all garnet and gold cheetah print. 

I hope everyone that's going to the game has a great time. >>---GO NOLES!--->

Anchors Aweigh

Oops I did it again! It's been almost a week since I've posted.

These days my clients' nails have been taking precedence over my own! I did do this super cute mani this week using an adorable anchor from Hex Nail Jewelry.

These nails were my pride and joy... seriously. I got so many compliments on these babies!

I started out this mani with Essie Mint Candy Apple. Then using a dotting tool I applied Finger Paints Hip Hip Hue-Ray!. And of course I added my anchor with a little bit of nail glue.

I think the anchor was what really made this mani. The great thing about Hex's nail charms is that you can soak them off and reuse them!

Unfortunately I lost mine at the gym (I'm too rough with my nails). :( But I definitely wouldn't hesitate to buy another one!

Sorry for being the worst blogger ever, lovelies. Thanks for sticking around <3

Rose Crazed

First off, I can't believe it's been over two weeks since I've posted!! I've been super busy with moving and starting school (my major classes are a handful!) aaaaandddd I got a job at a spa!

So I hope you lovely readers can forgive me for being M.I.A. and for doing the same design once again. Lovely roses.

If it helps any I've never done purple roses! 

I started this manicure with two coats of OPI Do You Lilac It? (I freakin' love it, by the way).

For the roses, I used Maybelline Color Show Amethyst Ablaze, Essie Under Where?, and Essie First Timer for the leaves.

I was a big fan of this manicure, I think I even wore it for the first day of class. 

I hope everyone's been doing well and has a swell weekend!

Roses Wrapped in a Bow

I'm finally back from Ohio and I have two days left before I go back up to school!

Naturally, instead of packing, I decided to give myself a fun, girly manicure. My favorite way to get some r&r.

I think I found my new favorite way to do bows! 

I started these nails out with three coats of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Petal Pusher.

This color is very, very sheer. Even 3 coats didn't give make it as opaque as I would have liked. I didn't want that gel look you start to get when you add too many coats so I decided to just leave it.

For the roses I used Sinful Colors Easy Going, Sephora by OPI Casanova Is So Into Me, and Essie First Timer (for the leaves). I also used Easy Going for the bow along with Milani Art of Gold and a little pink diamond.

I decided to start an Instagram strictly for nails so if anyone's on there and wants to keep up with all my nail designs, follow me! @exceptionailsbyrebecca

  (<- Or just click there to make it easy!)

Sensationail Pink Chiffon

I decided to give Sensationail by Nailene a second try. Now that I learned how to do gel nails in school I figured they would turn out better than last time.

I'm in Ohio visiting my best friend for a week so I decided to stick with a plain, neutral color I wouldn't get sick of.

This color is called Pink Chiffon. It's a soft, pretty pink that I love.

The only "problem" I had with it was that I had to put 3 coats of it on instead of 2 because it's pretty sheer. But that wasn't even that big of a deal.

So far I've been wearing this polish for 2 days without any problems so it looks like I'm set for my week in Ohio!

Happy Friday everyone :)

Glittery French Manicure

I've been missing using a lot of the polishes that I was able to use at school, so I decided I needed to go out and buy some new polishes the other day.

Among them were 2 OPI colors I used for this fresh, fun french manicure.

I started this manicure out with some french tips of OPI Do You Lilac It?. Such a gorgeous lavender color.

Since I was covering it up with glitter, I didn't by any means try to make the tips look perfect, I just threw the polish on there!

The glitter I used was OPI Dot.com, my favorite glitter, probably ever.

I didn't put much glitter on my right hand because I put quite a lot on my left and felt like it was a little too overwhelming!

See what I mean? Don't get me wrong, I love glitter, but it's definitely one of those things you can have too much of.

Blue Glitter Chevron Nails

I went to Sally's a couple weeks ago to get a white striper polish. Well, it ended up that the Finger Paints stripers were buy 2, get 1 free so of course I thought "hey I need a new black too" and then had to get the free one as well.

The free striper polish I got was a beautiful blue-ish green glitter. I haven't known what to use it for. Until now.

For this manicure, I started out with two coats of Essie In the Cab-Ana.

I totally adore this color. It's a gorgeous blue teal-ish type that brings a lot of compliments.

For the chevron, I used Finger Paints Art Hue Feeling Young?.

I think the Essie and the glitter striper compliment each other pretty well, but that's about all I can say about this mani. I'd rather have flowers or cheetah print nails over chevron nails any day!

But it's good to step outside of the box every once in a while and be a little adventurous! :)

Vertical Pink Gradient

Today I'm going to show you a super easy, and super adorable design that anyone can do!

I loooove how these look. Did I mention they're super easy?

You start out with a base coat of your darkest color. I chose OPI Grand Canyon Sunset.

Then you take your second color and paint over your first leaving small strips on each side. Do this with two more colors then take a white striper brush and make a white line in the center of your nail.

For my colors I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Twisted Pink, Wet n Wild Tickled Pink, Sinful Colors Easy Going and Finger Paints Hip Hip Hue-Ray!.

Because your putting a couple coats of polish over each other make sure you give these enough time to dry! Unfortunately I ruined mine pretty quickly :/

But at least I got pictures! Hope everyone's week is off to a good start.

Red Paisley Print

I've done Paisley print by pen, so now I wanted to try my hand at doing paisley print with a striping brush.

I chose Essie Come Here! as the base for my paisley.

I love this coral-y red, it's a great summer color! 

For the paisley I started out using a gloppy Sinful Colors Bad Chick, completely forgetting I had just bought a new white striper polish! It wasn't until I had done my pinky and ring finger that I remembered I had a practically brand new Finger Paints Hip Hip Hue-Ray.

Overall, I'm pretty satisfied with how these turned out! I personally like doing it with a pen better because you can add more details more easily, but these turned out cute too.

Happy Saturday to all!

My Water Marbling Progress

This is the 3rd time I've tried my hand (literally) at water marbling.

Let me say there's been some definite progress and although they're far from perfect, I'm making improvements!

My base for this mani was a single coat of OPI Dulce De Leche.

I used all OPI polishes for this water marble including: Cajun Shrimp, La-Paz-Itively Hot, Alpine Snow, Barefoot in Barcelona, and (on my left hand only) Be-Claus I said so.

My left hand turned out pretty awful, besides my thumb nail which is by far the best water marble I've ever done.

I'm mostly going to blame the glitter I used on my left hand, it makes my nails look dirty.

But about that thumb...

Minus the glitter, this is what I aspire for all of my nails to look like when I water marble.

If you're interested in tracking my progress here's the last water marble I attempted.

Dreamcatcher Nails

I've always had a fascination with Native American culture. I've also always loved dreamcatchers.

I keep one hanging from my bed frame at home to filter my dreams and thoughts and only let the good ones through. I'm not sure if it works the same when the dreamcatchers are painted on your nails, but hey it's worth a shot!

For this manicure, I started out with 2 coats of Essie Under Where?. Then I used Finger Paints Ch-Art-Coal Black to draw the frames of the dreamcatchers.

The feathers were drawn with Finger Paints Hip Hip Hue-Ray!. I also used Hip Hip Hue-Ray for the beads along with Essie Come Here!.

Unfortunately, my top coat smeared my index finger, but other than that I was intensely in love with these nails!

Now that I'm done with school I've got way too much free time, so expect lots of posts and nail designs from me!

Sunflowers and Bling-flowers

My teacher's been asking me to do sunflowers on her nails for the last few weeks. So as a graduation present (wait, aren't I supposed to be the one getting the presents?!) I did them for her.

She also had some rhinestones she gave me to play around with. So along with the sunflowers, I did some bling-flowers (yup, I'm calling them that).

In my opinion, the bling-flowers are a little too outrageous for me! Maybe as an accent nail, but with all of them.. too much!

I used OPI Alpine Snow for the base. The yellow for the sunflowers is Sinful Colors Morning Breath and the eye of the flower is Sinful Colors Flower Girl (what a coincidence!) with specks of Finger Paints Ch-Art-Coal Black.

Sunflowers are definitely my favorite flower. If anyone ever bought me a bouquet, they would win my heart over.

Hope all my lovely followers enjoyed their weekend!

Fancy Smancy Nails

My teacher recently showed me how to do acrylic overlay with diamonds underneath the acrylics and I fell in love.

I had my classmate Erika do it to my nails for my last week of school.

The best thing about these is that when you touch my nails, they feel completely smooth.

The diamonds are sealed between two layers of acrylic overlay so there's no way for them to fall off!

I added China Glaze Glistening Snow and Finger Paints Hip Hip Hue-Ray! to my other fingers and made it a classy and sparkly french/diamond combo.

Overlay is definitely going to be one of my top options for my nails once I start working because it won't get messed up every time I do a mani!

I finished all my hours for nail school this week so now I just have to complete a graduation packet then I can apply for my license!! Needless to say I'm beyond excited :)

Bow Nails

I wanted a simple delicate design the other day. While browsing nails on Instagram I saw a really cute bow that I just had to try out.

I started these nails out with 3 coats of OPI Coney Island Cotton Candy.

This polish is very sheer (hence me putting 3 coats on). Usually I use it for french manicures and it looks lovely!

For the bow, I used Finger Paints Hip Hip Hue-Ray! (cutest name) and added a diamond for that extra little sparkle.

Unfortunately, this design didn't last me long. With working on clients, my nails quickly got stained with other polishes. I enjoyed them while they lasted though!

Workin' On My Acrylics Part 2

First off, I can't believe it's been a week since I've posted! I've been so busy with school that I haven't had much time for anything else.

The good news is I'm graduating on Friday. And I finally got my acrylics down :)

Here are my beauts fully polished! These nails were done on the Admissions Officer at my school.

Here are the nakey acrylics. (Proof that I did them- kind of!)

I did these nails last Tuesday night and they're still holding strong. Needless to say I'm super proud of myself.

I wish I could remember the nail of the polish I used. I know it was OPI! For the accent nail, I used OPI Dot.com over the other polish.

Hope everyone's week is off to a good start!