Textured Dot Nails.

I typically like my manicures to end up very smooth and always add a thick coat of Seche Vite when I'm finished. However, I decided to mix things up and do a more textured manicure. 

I used OPI Suzi and the 7 Dusseldorfs as the base color and then switched up the texture by adding the nail art with Milani Silver Dazzle and forgoing the topcoat for a change.

I think I still prefer a super smooth and shiny nail but this is a fun way to switch it up!

Christmas Tree Nails.

Today's manicure is probably my favorite out of all the Christmas designs I've done! 

I started with a base of Zoya Jules and then used striping tape and Wet n Wild Sagreena the Teenage Witch to add the tree.

The finishing touches were rhinestones for tree toppers, and a little bit of glitter (Milani Gems) for ornaments.

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.

Tie-Dye Present Nails.

One of my favorite ways to make stamping more fun is by throwing in a little tie-dye, which I posted a tutorial for here. 

For today's manicure I chose the present image from the BM-205 plate and stamped using Sally Hansen Lickety Split Lime and Brisk Blue, as well as the Born Pretty Store blue stamping polish. The white I used is Milani White on the Spot.

I hadn't used this technique in a while, and I'll have to keep it in mind because I really like it!

Sparkly Candy Cane Nails.

Candy canes are one of the best parts of the holidays and of course that means they deserve a little coordinating nail art. 

For this design I painted my nails with Milani White on the Spot and placed striping tape over my nails and then painted over it with an unnamed shimmery red polish. The finishing touch was a little bit of the silver glitter from Born Pretty Store that I reviewed here.

Red Puzzle Piece Nails.

I have a new obsession, and of course all good obsessions deserve a little coordinating nail art.

The thing I'm obsessing over are the Consequences books by Aleatha Romig. I read about the books online and heard you couldn't read them without obsessing, and boy is it true. They're psychological thrillers that are super intense. I read the first book, Consequences and am currently about 40% of the way through the second book, Truth. 

I decided to translate my obsession into nail art by taking inspiration from the book cover which features red puzzle pieces. The base color for my manicure is Mary Kay Coral Stone, and I did the lines with white acrylic paint.  I used Milani White on the Spot to add the grunginess to the puzzle pieces.

Let me know if you read or have read these books, we can obsess together over twitter.

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.

Barbie Shoe Nails.

I wanted to use the shoe image from the BM-213 plate, and since it reminded me of tiny Barbie shoes I decided to run with that idea and let it inspire my color choices. 

The pink I used is China Glaze Shocking Pink (over two coats of Milani White on the Spot) and I stamped with Konad Special White polish.

I love how cute this design and color combo is, plus it's definitely fitting for a fashion student!

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.

Panda Nails.

When I was transitioning from a nail polish obsession to a nail art obsession, one of the first designs I tried were pandas. I loved looking down to see cute pandas adorning my nails, and that was enough to get me hooked to nail art. 

It's been a long time since I first tried out that design, and I realized I had yet to revisit it, so that is what I had to do for today's manicure! 

I did a few things differently this time, and I think they ended up extra cute.

The base color is 2 coats of Essence Movie Star followed by two coats of Wet n Wild Gray's Anatomy. The pandas are done with Milani White on the Spot and CND Asphalt.

Holographic Burst Nails.

This manicure was inspired by one I came across on facebook and tracked back to this blog post. I loved the idea of having a little bit of awesome holographic shimmer peaking out from under a creme polish. 

For my design I used Milani Hi-Tech and Sally Hansen Lickety Split Lime.

Neutral Nails.

I mostly wear black clothing, so I wear a lot of bright polishes. But from time to time neutral nails are fun too, and you can never go wrong with black and grey combinations. 

For this design I used CND Oil Slick, CND Asphalt, and Milani White on the Spot.

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!

Funky Watercolor Nails.

For today's manicure I decided to try out  the watercolor technique. I could definitely see myself doing it more in the future, it's so easy to do and hard to mess up. I started with two coats of Milani White on the Spot and then used a bunch of my favorite neon polishes for the watercolors.

The watercolor design looks cool on it's own, but I decided to add a fun pattern on top. I used a Sally Hansen black nail art pen to add the same pattern I used on these nails.

Born Pretty Stamping Polishes Review.

I have another fun Born Pretty Store product to review for you today (and of course a manicure to go with!) This time I'm reviewing a set of stamping polishes. The set comes with five basic colors, white, red, yellow, blue, and black. 

I did a few test swatches and comparisons so you could get an idea for how each of the colors stamps. The yellow, red, and blue came out very opaque over white. The white and black stamped well, but I wasn't as impressed as I was with the primary color stamping polishes. I decided to compare the white and black to my Konad special white and black polishes. The Konad polishes were more opaque in both cases, however the difference between the blacks was not very significant.

The color I was eager to get on my nails first was the blue, so I based this manicure around that. I started with a base color of Milani White on the Spot, and then I stamped a chevron pattern on my nails using BM-204 with OPI Ate Berries in the Canaries. Then I used the blue stamping polish and BM-20 to add stars to my manicure.

I really liked this manicure (if you swapped the berry colored chevron out for red it could be a really fun updated American flag type manicure) and was very happy with the performance of the blue stamping polish.

I'll probably continue to use my Konad black and white stamping polishes, but I doubt I would be able to find a better yellow, red, or blue stamping polish, especially for a good price. They'll definitely become staples in my stamping nail art supplies.

If you want to order these polishes for yourself the set is $6.93, or you can purchase the polishes individually for $2.05 each. You can get 10% off any Born Pretty purchase using my coupon code, BRJ61.

Crayon Drip Nails.

I saw this dripping paint tutorial on youtube a few weeks ago and it immediately reminded me of the melted crayon art trend. So I decided to put the two together for my manicure. 

I used a bunch of polishes for this design: CND Flashpoint, CND Bicycle Yellow, CND Electric Orange, Sally Hansen Lickety Split Lime, OPI Ogre the Top Blue, China Glaze Spontaneous, Milani White on the Spot, and Wet n Wild Black Creme.

Layered Circle Nails.

For today's manicure I played around with a new technique. I think the results are pretty fun! The base color is Milani White on the Spot and the circles are done in OPI Ogre the Top Blue, China Glaze First Mate, and China Glaze Purple Panic.

In other news I chose the winner for my giveaway today! I emailed the winner and sent the prize, hopefully they'll find lots of stuff they enjoy from BPS. I'm looking forward to doing more giveaways or contests in the future!

Hello Kitty Nails.

I've been thinking about doing Hello Kitty nails for a while now, but the other day my friend gave me a Hello Kitty friendship bracelet and I was inspired!

This is the bracelet that was the main source of inspiration.

The pink is China Glaze Rich & Famous and the white is Milani White on the Spot. The yellow and black are acrylic paints. The bow is made up of a rhinestone and steel balls.

New York Nails.

When I was leaving New York for the summer I did a city skyline design inspired by NYC, and now that I'm going on a day trip to the city with some friends, I needed a different manicure that said how happy I was to be back. 

The base color is Milani White on the Spot and the lettering and heart are done in acrylic paint.

Cool Chevron Nails.

I always love a fun manicure involving chevron, so that is what I wanted to do today. I opted to use cool-toned acrylic paints for the design, on top of a base of Milani White on the Spot. 

I really liked how this design turned out, even though it wasn't exactly what I was going for when I started the manicure. However, I think this is the sort of manicure that reads better in real life.