Easter Puppy Nails.

I've been wanting to use the puppy water decals that were part of the set I reviewed here for a while now and when I noticed there was an easter puppy decal I knew it was the perfect time!

The polish I used for this manicure was American Apparel Office.

Neon Distressed Nails.

For my last manicure of January I decided to re-use a technique that I tried for the first time in my January 1st post. 

This design actually incorporates a bunch of my favorite techniques and decorations; distressed streaks, water color, studs, glitter, etc. 

Here's the manicure before the streaks were added, I liked this tie-dye version too.

The polishes I used were Sally Hansen Hard To Get, China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy, China Glaze Shocking Pink, American Apparel Neon Yellow, Color Club Starry Temptress, and Sephora Formula X Dark Matter. And the studs are these ones from Born Pretty Store.

Hard to believe my month of nail art is over! But there will be more about that in a wrap-up post tomorrow!

Purple Border Nails.

Today's manicure is my first attempt at doing a border design. Freehanding clean lines isn't my favorite so I was a little apprehensive to try this out but they turned out better than expected! The polishes I used to create the design are OPI...Eurso, Euro and American Apparel Dynasty. 

I don't know if I'll be freehanding borders all the time in the future, but I do think it's a great way to refresh a solid color manicure that has started to wear at the tips.

Candy Cane Heart Nails.

I decided to do my first holiday manicure of the season for a Christmas party last week. I did a bunch of Christmas designs last year so I wasn't sure what to choose until I was inspired by this candy cane hearts manicure. 

I chose to skip the faded look of my inspiration mani and opt out of the typical bright Christmas colors and instead chose darker, winter appropriate shades. The polishes I used for this design were Zoya Gemma, American Apparel Port, and a LA Colors gold glitter striping polish. The white was done with acrylic paint.

I received a lot of compliments on these and I thought they were just festive enough without being too much!

Summer Splatter Nails.

I originally planned for this manicure to be a bit more complicated, but then I ended up liking the color combination so much that I left it alone when I finished doing the splatter (with a straw.)

The polishes I used were American Apparel Office, China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy, CG Secret Peri-winkle, Essie First Timer, and Essie Boom Boom Room.

Green Saran Wrap Nails.

I first saw the saran wrap technique months ago and I wasn't sure that I wanted to bother giving it a shot. But eventually it grew on me, and worked its way up on my list of manicures to do. 

I decided to try it out for the first time and do a tone on tone green design. The colors I used are American Apparel Office and Essie First Timer.

I certainly appreciated the simplicity of the technique. Do your base color, let it dry, paint a coat of your second color on top and immediately mess it up with some saran wrap. As for how it turned out, I think I like it. It reminds me of a bit of a cross between this tie-dye technique and the watercolor nails. I'd have to say I prefer both of those techniques though, I don't think I'll break this one out much in the future unless I'm very pressed for time!

Dotted V-Gap Nails.

For today's manicure I kept things pretty simple, using tape to create a triangle at the base of my nails and then of course adding some dots!

The polishes I used are American Apparel Mount Royal and OPI Don't Mess With OPI.

Melting Ice Cream Nails.

Ice cream is awesome, and it makes for awesome nail art too. 

As I mentioned it likely would be, today's manicure is inspired by one of my current obsessions! Not ice cream but the book I talked about in yesterday's post.

I wasn't confident that I could convey the actual sea of tranquility through nail art, so instead I went with ice cream. It's on the book's cover, it plays its role in the plot, and of course, it's awesome.

The polishes I used for this manicure were Orly Pixy Stix and Spark, OPI Done Out in Deco, Revlon Blue Lagoon, American Apparel Office, and Julep January.

Christmas Sweater Nails.

Ugly Christmas sweaters are so fun, and they happen to translate perfectly into totally cute nail art! 

 For this design I used China Glaze Below Deck, China Glaze Watermelon Rind, and American Apparel Port.

Watercolor Splatter Nails.

For today's manicure I decided to combine two of my favorite techniques, watercolor and splatter. 

First I used OPI Elephantastic Pink, OPI Lucky Lucky Lavender, China Glaze Secret Peri-winkle, and American Apparel Office to create the watercolor effect over top of Wet n Wild French White Creme. Then I splattered overtop with China Glaze First Mate.

I really loved how these turned out!

Purple Leopard Gradient Nails.

I always love doing freehand leopard nails, and I realized I had never combined the freehand leopard with a gradient (just stamped leopard prints over gradients.) So of course it had to be done!

The gradient was done with China Glaze Secret Peri-winkle and American Apparel Mount Royal. The leopard spots are done with China Glaze Purple Panic and CND Oil Slick.

These are very fun and I love how they turned out, and it's a nice bonus that my nails are finally getting to a length I like!

Grunge Rainbow Nails.

I combined a few different techniques to get today's manicure, I wasn't sure exactly how things would turn out as I was going, but I ended up pretty happy with the results. 

I started out doing diagonal stripes using the watercolor technique and then once I was done I used the saran wrap technique to grunge it up a little.

The polishes I used were Milani White on the Spot, Julep January, CND Electric Orange, CND Bicycle Yellow, OPI Don't Mess With OPI, OPI Ogre the Top Blue, American Apparel Mount Royal, and China Glaze Spontaneous.

Warhol Flower Nails.

I saw a manicure inspired by one of Andy Warhol's Flowers paintings over a year ago now, and I finally got around to creating my own version! 

I really love how it turned out. I used Wet n Wild Black Creme for the base color, and the green I created by mixing OPI Who the Shrek Are You? and Sinful Colors Envy. I mixed CND Bicycle Yellow and American Apparel Neon Yellow for the yellow flower. The other flowers are OPI Ate Berries in the Canaries, OPI A Good Mandarin if Hard to Find, and Sally Hansen Lively Lilac.

And here is the painting for comparison!

Tie Dye Paisley Nails.

I really love today's manicure! I used the same technique I used for this design, but this time with pastels. And I like the results even better than I did last time. The pastels create a really soft and pretty tie dye effect. 

I painted all of my nails with Milani White on the Spot as a base to create the tie dye over. Then the pastel polishes I used were Orly Pixy Stix, Orly Spark, American Apparel Office, OPI Lucky Lucky Lavender, and Revlon Blue Lagoon.

The perfect finishing touch to complement my tie dyed nails was stamping with the Born Pretty Store M64 plate (reviewed here.) I stamped with Konad Special black polish.

I'll have to come up with more designs I can use the watercolor technique for because I'm really loving it at the moment!

Born Pretty Golden Studs Review.

This Born Pretty review is one I'm really excited about. I've wanted to try these round studs for a while, and they didn't disappoint!

The studs were easy to apply, I used the same process I would use for rhinestones, pearls, etc. The studs are very flat which gives your nails a really cool embossed look.

I knew the first look I wanted to try with the studs would be a border design, and I loved how things turned out. I decided to try the studs on a darker polish, American Apparel Port, which I think really complimented them. I'm already brainstorming more ways I could utilize the studs for future manicures. 

You can get a bag of these studs from BPS for $5.68, and each bag holds enough studs for many uses. If you're interested in these studs or anything else from Born Pretty, you can use the coupon code BRJ61 to get 10% off!

Ying Yang Nails.

I've been meaning to do ying yang nails for a while now, and I finally got around to it. I thought about going with the traditional black and white, but instead decided to make things  a bit more fun.

I used American Apparel Office and Mount Royal, and finished things off with green rhinestones from a wheel off of Amazon.

Neon Drip Nails.

I've done a few drip manicures in the past, but today's manicure has a few difference.

I decided to combine a few of my favorite neons with a very neutral grey-toned polish. The colors I used are OPI Skull & Glossbones, China Glaze In the Lime Light, China Glaze Purple Panic, and American Apparel Neon Yellow. 

Shattered Glass Nails.

I'm really happy with how today's manicure turned out! I always like a good gradient and stamping combination. 

I chose three slightly grey-toned colors for the gradient: OPI Steady as she Rose, OPI Mermaid Tears, and American Apparel Factory Grey. The image I stamped with is from BM-208 and the polish I used for stamping is Sally Hansen Silver Sweep. I like how Silver Sweep looks like it has a tiny bit of texture!

Bubble Gradient Nails.

I love manicures with dots and I love gradients, so what is not to like about a manicure that includes both? The design was inspired by this one. 

The base color is a coat of Sally Hansen Silver Sweep with a coat of Wet n Wild Silvivor on top. The three dot colors are American Apparel Office, Factory Grey, and Mount Royal.

I really liked this manicure, maybe I'll try a neon version next!

Interlocking Dot Nails.

After seeing this design on tumblr, I knew I'd have to tackle something similar. I can't pass up a fun dot-centric manicure!

The polishes I used for this manicure are both from American Apparel; Mount Royal and Dynasty.