Pink Gradient Dots

Manicures with dots are still one of my favorite things to do.

It's not that I don't love a good challenge, it's just so nice to pull out a dotting tool and go to town sometimes. You know what I mean?

Especially when I get results like this! When I started out I didn't really have a clue of what I was going to do, I just had on two coats of China Glaze Immortal.

Most of the time when I do nail art, I do it in steps. I'll paint on my base, let it completely dry, do a few non-related nail things then come back to do my designs.

So I pulled out my box of polish and started dotting on pinks. At first I was just going to do two rows, but then my (really cute) maintenance guy came to fix my clogged tub and we started talking so I just continued doing rows and rows.

I could've done a better job at the gradient part of this manicure but like I said it wasn't planned.

From top to bottom the polishes I used were: L'oreal Tangerine Crush, Stripe Rite Pink, Sephora by OPI Casanova Is So Into Me, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Twisted Pink, Wet n Wild Tickled Pink, Sinful Colors Easy Going, and Sally Hansen French Manicure Natural White.

Off to study for finals (or watch the Walking Dead?)! Hope everyone's had a lovely weekend :)

Autism Awareness

As I'm sure many of you know, April is Autism Awareness Month. I'm a little late doing these nails, but hey better late than never.

For more information about Autism or to find a way to give to those affected by Autism visit Autism Speaks.

For these puzzle piece nails I started out with two coats of NYC Lexington Yellow. Then I taped off rectangles and painted on Essie Coat Azure, Nina Ultra Pro Blu Blaze, and Rimmel London Stiletto Red.

To turn my squares into puzzle pieces I added some dots using a dotting tool.

I personally don't know anyone who has Autism, but I have volunteered with kids with Autism in the past.

I'm currently going to school to become a Speech Language Pathologist so I will probably be working with many kids with Autism in the future. I think this is a disorder that children in particular especially need to be informed about, so that those children with Autism will feel less isolated and be better understood by their peers.

If you don't know too much about Autism, take a few minutes and do some research, it will make you all the more wiser!

Thanks for stopping in and listening to me standing on my little soapbox. Happy Hump Day!

Starfish Nails 2.0

Today I got a package full of polishes from Peace, Love, and Polish's Blog Sale!

Amongst them were the ones that inspired the starfish nails I did today.

I started out this lovely manicure with two coats of Sinful Colors Nail Junkie.

I adore this polish. I think it's perfect for depicting a sea. I wish I would've had it when I did my jellyfish nails!

To make the adorable little starfish I used L'oreal Tangerine Crush. Then I added the white dots with Sally Hansen French Manicure Natural White (shocker, I use this polish in like every mani) with a dotting tool. 

I'm pretty much in love with these nails because I'm in love with everything that has to do with the sea. Can you tell I'm a Florida baby? :)

This wasn't my first time doing starfish nails. A million years ago, when I first started getting into doing nail art I attempted to do some.

I think I've just made some slight improvement since then.... :)

What do you guys think of my starfish nails? Too cliche or too cute?

Black Cats

I'm happy to report that I ran 27:49 at the 5K on Saturday! Not the 24 I was hoping for but to my defense there were hills and the course was a little over 3.1 miles.

I'm doing another 5K (The Color Run!) in 2 weeks so I'm hoping to shave off some time.

My roommate and I pre-run!

Anyways to the nails! Today I did cat nails because I love cats.

I started this catastic manicure out with two coats of Revlon Gray Suede. Then I painted on the cat heads with Pure Ice Black Out.

The eyes were done with Stripe Rite Green & a dot of Black Out. I used Stripe Rite Pink for the noses and ears. The whiskers were done with Sally Hansen French Manicure Natural White.

I got a lot of little bubbles in my topcoat, which I'm annoyed about, but what can ya do!

Here's a picture of my cat "getting his nails done":

I miss him!! Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend :)

Cancer Awareness

Tomorrow morning I'm running my first 5K! All the proceeds of it go to Camp Kesem FSU, which is a college student run summer camp for kids with a parent who has cancer.

I'm super excited for the 5K and to be doing it for such a great cause! I decided to rock nails with the Cancer Awareness ribbon for it.

I started these out with two coats of Pure Ice Black Out. Then using a striping brush I drew on the ribbons with Love & Beauty Lavender.

When I tried taking pictures, the ribbons looked white, so I decided to outline them with Sally Hansen French Manicure Natural White to show the true color.

I'm really pleased with how these turned out! I'm hoping that tomorrow I'll be able to run the 3 miles in 24-27 minutes. 

I've been feeling a little under the weather the last few days so I'm not going to push myself too hard, but I'm definitely going to try for 24! Either way I know it'll be a good time :)

Green Tree Nails

This week has been a little hectic (I say as I write this post at 1 a.m.). I've got exams and papers and heaps of work to do, but that will not keep me from blogging!

I did these nails over the weekend. It's another simple design, so forgive me, I need some simplicity in my life.

My sky nails from last Friday were supposed to be trees, but ended up not being, so I still had trees on the brain over the weekend.

I started this manicure out with Essie Coat Azure. This is the first Essie polish that I have ever owned.

If you're wondering why I've never had an Essie polish before this it's because I'm a poor college student. Like seriously poor. But I found this polish on the FSU Free & For Sale page for $2 and snatched it!

Anyways, I used Julep Boris & Nicole for the base of the tree and then with a dotting tool made the leaves with Revlon Posh and Stripe Rite Green.

Since it was such a simple, quick design I decided to do my right hand too which I usually never do!

Yes, my nails on my right hand are a lot shorter. I have to have full use one of my hands without worrying about breaking a nail!

These nails would be perfect for Earth day, too bad I'm a week early. Guess I'll have to come up with something else!

Basketcase Nails

Two postings in one day! This is a first but definitely not a last :)

Today I decided to try a yummy design that I always see on WAH Nails.

Apparently these babies are called basketcase nails, which I didn't know until I peeked on WAH Nails's Instagram 2 minutes ago.

My obsession with teal is still raging, so I started out this manicure with two coats of Julep Daphne (pretty sure I've posted enough swatches of Daphne on here for a lifetime).

I started with my thumb and used striping tape, but while I was painting on the lines I realized I didn't really need striping tape so I spared myself the tedious cutting and painstaking tape placing and freehanded the rest of my hand!

I used Sally Hansen French Manicure Natural White for the lines and they surprisingly turned out pretty even.

I have one compliant about this manicure and that is my topcoat made it smeary! I don't know if it's me and my impatience or if it's the topcoat but Sally Hansen Insta Dri and I have not been getting along. 

I think I'm going to have to convert back to Seche Vite. I'm really missing it!

The Sun is Up, The Sky is Blue

The beautiful warm weather we've been having lately put me in the mood to do some sky nails!

Originally I had planned to do blue sky nails with clouds and then trees over the sky. But I decided to just stick with the sky and add a sun instead.

This manicure is simpler than most I've done lately, but sometimes simple is good and refreshing!

For this manicure I started out with two layers of Nina Ulta Pro Blu Blaze. Then using a make-up sponge I dabbed on some Sally Hansen French Manicure Natural White. I felt like the clouds needed that extra pop so I added China Glaze Glistening Snow.

When I finished with the clouds I thought I really can't cover these up with trees, they're too cute.

So I decided to save the trees (how green of me!) for another day and another nail art adventure and drew on the sun with NYC Lexington Yellow. I felt like Mr. Sun needed some extra pizazz too so I went over it again with China Glaze Angel Wings.

Sunny days are happy days for sure.

Happy Friday everyone! And thank you to my new followers, it's good to have you all here :)

Indulge in Some Cupcakes

Feeling gluttonous? It's time for Polish Days once again and this time the theme was the Seven Deadly Sins!

I thought about this for days and days and finally my friend gave me the suggestion of doing some kind of sweets to represent gluttony. Genius!

This wasn't my first time doing cupcake nails. Last time I did them I used yellow and pink for the wrappers so I wanted to switch it up this time!

For the base of this manicure I used two coats of Julep Lynn.

Then I painted on Nina Ulta Pro Blu Blaze on the tips of my nails. I added the stripes with Stripe Rite Green.

The frosting was done with Stripe Rite Pink. The sprinkles were done with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Twisted Pink, Love & Beauty Light Blue, and NYC Lexington Yellow.  I added a dot of Milani Disco Lights for an extra little sparkle!

I can't decide whether I like these or my first cupcake nails more! I think I definitely got the technique down better this time around :)

Check out the rest of the Saints and Sinners who participated in Polish Days:

Don't Worry, Be Happy

Not that there's anything to worry about it, it's Friday! I'm going home this weekend to visit my best friend before she moves away to Ohio for grad school (Don't leave me Ana!!)

We've been friends since we were that big, and we're closer than sisters <3

I'm going to miss her, but I'm so happy for her and so proud of her! So Ana: "When you worry call me 

I make you happy". As happy as my nails are today!

Alright, so if you know me, then you know I'm just a tad bit weird. And if you don't know me, then I'm just going to tell you straight up, I like to put everything on my nails I possibly can..

I've been wearing two coats of Sephora by OPI's Casanova Is So Into Me for the last couple of days meaning to get around to doing some nail art.

Well I've been busy (busy and lazy can be used interchangeably, right?) and didn't get around to doing my nails.

Today I was looking through some old scrapbooking things and I found really cute smilie face stickers so I popped one on my thumb nail and it fit so perfectly and looked so cute. It all just kind of got out of control from there.

But really though, you can't tell me that these nails aren't adorable!! I love the way the yellow one looks. I think I'm definitely gonna have to do a manicure with just those and a black base coat.

I hope everyone has a great weekend, I know I will! :)

Spring is here!

Well I guess technically Spring started two weeks ago, but it's still been pretty chilly here. But now it's starting to warm up again!

To bring in the Spring I decided to do some fun, colorful Spring nails inspired by the Easter basket my mom gave me:

To start out I did two coats of Love & Beauty Light Blue (yes, I've decided to just name the polish myself, roll with it).

For the rest of the design, I used dotting tools and striper polishes. I used Nina Ultra Pro Blu Blaze, Stripe Rite Pink, Sally Hansen French Manicure Natural White, NYC Lexington Yellow, Maybelline Color Show Amethyst Ablaze, Revlon Posh, Stripe Rite Green, and Milani Awesome Orange.

I probably should've picked greens that weren't as similar for the green flower, but I promise they are two different colors!

I love how colorful these nails are, they really say Spring, in my opinion!

They took a bit of time to do it, but they were totally worth it, and really not that difficult, just time consuming.

Did anyone notice that my Easter basket is empty? I've been enjoying all my chocolate a little too much... :)

Remember, Friday is only 4 more days away!