Subtle Circle Nails.

I realized it's been a while since I've done any subtle stamping, and thought I'd give it a shot. I broke out a stamp I don't think I've used before, the target-like circles from BM-19. 

I used a coat of Wet n Wild Gray's Anatomy over CND Asphalt as my base color and stamped in Color Club Foil Me Once.

The effect is a little more subtle in person, which I really like and I was happy to get to break out Gray's Anatomy which was a favorite 4-ish years ago.

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!

Winter Stone Nails.

It's finals week (or weeks as it happens to be at my school) and one of my final projects was all about nail art. Part of the project involved a how-to section, and the design I thought would be easy and fun to teach was water spotting. Instead of teaching off a water spotted manicure I've done on the past I decided to do a new one using nice icy winter colors.

The polishes I used were Wet n Wild French White Creme, CND Asphalt, and Color Club Lumin-icecent. The white was my base color and then I water spotted with the CND and Color Club polishes over top.

The project also involved doing nail art on a few other people. Here are the manicures I did for them that I instagrammed earlier in the week. I especially liked the one on top, I'll have to break out my striping tape again soon!

In other news, I can't promise too many more posts during the rest of December because of finals and holiday busyness. However, I've decided that since last year I enjoyed my attempt to post everyday in December, I'll do the same thing for January. So, come January 2014 I'm planning to post nail art everyday. Feel free to let me know if there are any manicures in particular you would like to see during that time! 

Metallic Stone Nails.

For today's manicure I played around with the water spotting technique and hoped for the best because I wasn't sure if it would turn out!

Before I explain what I did differently, here is a video on how you would typically do water spotting. This is still pretty accurate to what I did (although I started with a solid base color and used a body spray not hand sanitizer,) the only difference was I repeated the process multiple time. I did the technique with white polish first, and then again with a metallic color, and then again with black. 

Something else I did differently as opposed to the last time I tried this technique, was to create a thin veining look instead of more circurlar-ish shapes. I just sprayed a bit more body spray this time and was able to get the look I wanted.

The main polishes I used for this design were CND Oilslick and Color Club Lumin-Icent.

I ended up being super happy with these nails and kept them on a few days longer than I typically would have!

Christmas Lights Nails.

Christmas lights are perfect for a cute and colorful manicure!

The base color I used is Color Club Perfect Mol-ten, and the black is Wet n Wild Ebony Hates Chris. The red and green lights are acrylic paint, and the yellow and blue are BPS stamping polishes.

Chrome Striped Nails.

I came across a photo from my phone of a manicure I did a few months ago and decided I should share it. 

I believe what originally happened was I took this photo to send to a friend, and then before I could get around to taking all the high-quality blog-worthy photos, the design ended up getting messed up. 

You can certainly still get the idea from this photo though, so I figured it was worth sharing. The black is Wet n Wild Black Creme, and the colors underneath are all of the polishes from the Color Club Foiled collection.

Holiday Glitter Gradient Nails.

The holidays are the perfect time to break out lots of shiny polishes and chunky glitters and combine them into awesome manicures!

At first I was just imagining a manicure with a gradient using a gold and China Glaze Watermelon Rind, but quickly I realized a little glitter was necessary.

For the gradient I used Watermelon Rind, Color Club Antiquated, and Color Club Perfect Mol-ten. The glitter is Milani Gems.

Layered Chrome Dot Nails.

Even when you have a lot of nail polish, it's easy to end up using your same favorite ones all the time. So I was happy that this manicure gave me a chance to use one I've almost never used! THe base color is LA Girl Rockstar and then I added the dots with Color Club Hot Like Lava and Wet n Wild Ebony Hates Chris.

Winter Snowflake Nails.

December is just beginning and I've already seen more snow this year than I saw for the entirety of last winter. And of course the weather is always good nail inspiration!

I think these snowflake nails are very cute. I like how simple they are.

The base color is Color Club Cold Metal and I used the BM-14 plate for the snowflakes and stamped with Konad Special White polish. The rhinestones are from a wheel I bought on Amazon!

Green Leaf Nails.

I did this manicure a while ago and realized I've never shared it, and figured I should. It's definitely a good fall design, maybe I'll have to try it again before it really turns into Winter. 

The base color is OPI Stranger Tides, and the leaves are stamped from the BM-19 using Color Club Perfect Mol-ten. I always love subtle tone-on-tone stamping, especially this green on green combination!

Sugar Skull Nails.

I've seen so many cute sugar skull nail designs that I finally had to try it for myself.

I figured I couldn't go wrong with doing mine with neon polishes, so I used China Glaze Pink Voltage and In the Limelight, Claires Marine Blue, Color Club Wink Wink Twinkle and You Got Soul-ar. The white is Milani White on the Spot and the black is CND Oilslick.

Sweet Candy Nails.

Today's manicure has a theme I love, candy. The base color is one I don't think I've used for nail art before, Julep Maya. The design is done in acrylic paint and I added a bit of glitter with Color Club Starry Temptress. 

Metallic Geometric Nails.

For today's design I stamped and used a method which I explained in a tutorial here. The image I stamped with is from BM-203 and I stamped using three chrome colors, Color Club Foil me Once, Cold Metal and Perfect Mol-ten. The base color is CND Oil Slick. 

The more I look at this photo the more I realize the stamping shows up much better in person, but I'm sure this photo is enough to help you imagine how fun a metallic, chrome, geometric mani could be.

Red Apple Nails.

When I was deciding on a manicure on today's post, I came to the conclusion that apples would make for the perfect back-to-school design.

As far as freehand designs go, apples are nice and simple. The base color I used is Color Club Antiquated, and the rest of the design is done with acrylic paints.

Dotted Curve Nails.

Dotted manicures are always some of my favorites, and I love this color combination.

The polishes I used are OPI Mermaid Tears, OPI Don't Mess With OPI, China Glaze First Mate, and Color Club Antiquated.

Rose Ruffian Nails.

I'm back to short nails, and hopefully back to my regular posting since it's been a bit sporadic lately!

As for today's manicure, one of my most popular pre-blog designs was a manicure with roses for a french tip. I realized that I hadn't done a manicure with roses in quite a while and decided that similarly to the rose french tip, roses could make for a great twist on a ruffian design.

I used two of my favorite polishes in this manicure, OPI Done Out in Deco for the base color, and Color Club Starry Temptress to add a bit of glitter. The roses are done in acrylic pant. 

Chrome Leopard Nails.

I loved doing freehand leopard print back in June so much that I thought it was time to give it another shot. This time I chose all chrome polishes for my manicure, which aren't the easiest to photograph but definitely put a fun spin on the design.

I used three colors from the Color Club Foiled collection for this manicure: Lumin-icent, Perfect Mol-ten, and Cold Metal.

Peppermint Swirl Nails.

Today's manicure was done the same way as this one from a few weeks ago but with a different source of inspiration and fun twist!

I went to see Katy Perry's new movie recently (I really enjoyed it) and couldn't help but be inspired by her costumes. They were all great, and of course I loved the candy theme. One of my favorite's was this (spinning) peppermint dress, and that's what I decided to be inspired by!

Although this design would be really cute for Christmas, I think the glitter and the swirl of fuschia help keep it from looking like a winter-specific manicure.

I did this design with acrylic paints, and the glitter is Color Club Starry Temptress.

Sideways Gradient Tutorial.

I've been wanting to do another youtube tutorial for a while now, and I've finally gotten around to it! One of my posts that a lot of people expressed interest in was the lime sideways gradient I posted around a month ago. I've gotten a lot of questions about gradients in general, as well as that specific manicure, so it seemed like a good choice for a tutorial. Here is the video...

And here is a better look at the finished design...

 I used the same glitter from my last sideways gradient (Color Club Starry Temptress,) but chose different neons for the gradients. The ones I used this time were China Glaze Shocking Pink and Color Club Wink Wink Twinkle. The finishing touch was a magenta rhinestone!

I'm still working on the filming set-up and finding out how to make better videos, but hopefully this was helpful! I had a lot of suggestions for other tutorials people would like to see, so I'll be working on those soon.

Diagonal Gradient Nails.

I love gradient manicures, and I love finding different ways to use gradients. One of my favorites is this sideways gradient I did. Which is what inspired me to go for a gradient that goes diagonally across the nail. 

What I ended up with is this super glittery fuchsia to orange gradient.  

The colors I used were OPI Hot & Spicy, Wet n Wild 9.0.2.1.Orange, and Sally Hansen Wild Life. Then I used CND Raspberry Shimmer, and finished with a coat of Color Club Starry Temptress.