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!)

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!

Baby You're a Firework

It's not quite Fourth of July yet so I feel a little silly adorning my nails with American flags and the like.

But it is almost Fourth of July so I wanted to do some somewhat patriotic nails without them being too much.

Red, white, blue and gold fireworks are my solution :) The base of this manicure is two coats of Pure Ice Black Out.

For the fireworks I used Sinful Colors Bad Chick, Milani Art of Gold, Maybelline Color Show Navy Narcissist, and Sinful Colors My Day.

The diamonds are from Michael's. You can find so many good nail supplies there for so much cheaper than Beauty Stores!

To apply the diamonds I put a dab of topcoat on my nails and used a tweezers to place them. I also applied topcoat over the diamonds to seal them on.

I really adore my ring finger and kind of wish I would've done all my nails with the white and gold, but the blue and red give it that little extra patriotism! 

Thanks for stopping in :)

Cina Nail Art Decals and Polish Days

If you've never heard of Polish Days and you're a nail blogger, go check it out here.

If you're just hear to check out the nails, then welcome! I'm participating in Polish Days for the first time and the theme for today is try something new. So I decided to try out Nail Art Decals.

I am in love. Have been hit with cupid's arrow. If I could marry these nails, I would.

Now, I wasn't expecting to like nail art decals. As a matter of fact, I've been avoiding them. I thought they would look tacky. But these, they're gold. (Not the price of gold though, they were only $5!)

For my base, I used two coats of Wet n Wild Tickled Pink. I, of course, had to pair my black & white decals with pink polish.

You have to then wait for your polish to completely dry, otherwise the decals won't stick.

Once it's dry, you grab a decal with a tweezer and place it on your nail. They almost absorb into your nail, it's pretty cool actually.

I put a vintage filter on this picture because I liked the look of it. Don't judge me.

To keep the decals firmly in place (and make them last longer), I sealed them in with a coat of Seche Vite.

And for once my right hand turned out just as good as my left! Two thumbs up for nail decals.

I might be M.I.A. for a few days because I love these way too much to take them off prematurely. Don't fret though. While I'm away you can check out my fellow bloggers that participated in Polish Days:

Shine Bright Like A Diamond

DISCLAIMER: I do not like Rihanna. Or not that song. It just happened to be the perfect title for this post.

So I went to Sally's on Friday and they had a bunch of Holiday polishes/nail wraps for sale. Naturally, I bought things I didn't really need. Gotta love after Christmas sales.

Example #1 of something I didn't really need. But I really wanted it, so it's kind of the same thing, right!?

I had to do a manicure that used these beautiful holo glitter polishes. I was especially feeling the silver, which is strange because normally I'm such a gold girl, but I ran with it.

This was the end result. Pink & silver diamonds, could there be anything greater in life? 

I started out with a base of China Glaze Immortal (also a sale item I picked up).

I've been desperately needing a gray polish. I really like this one because it has some shimmer too it, but it's still a nice, dark gray.

After Immortal, I laid on the China Glaze Glistening Snow.

I love holo glitter. Almost more than I love regular holo polishes. I could've easily left these and been a happy camper, but I wanted to give you all a little more to gaze at.

So I got out my Stripe Rite Pink (a favorite of mine if you haven't noticed). 

I thought diamonds were the perfect design for this sparkly gray polish. I originally did them in black, but I didn't like the way they turned out so I went back and did them in pink.

This picture is blurry, but it shows off how sparkly and pretty the holo glitter actually is!

My thumb is definitely my favorite nail! The diamond turned out the cleanest.

Wish me luck tomorrow on my first day back to classes this semester!