Vertical Half-Moon Article and More.

This week I shared my favorite fall manicure, inspired by NYFW, on Beauty Blitz. You can read all about it, here. 

While you're over there you might enjoy my tutorial for acid wash nails or the scrunchie DIY I helped with!

Accent Nail Article and More.

My most recent article on Beauty Blitz tells you what your choice of accent nail says about you. It's an amusing read if I do say so myself. Check it out, here. 

While you're over there, you may enjoy my water marbling tutorial, my review of vegan nail polishes, or my confessions about lip balm addiction.

My internship with Beauty Blitz has ended now that school is back in session, but I'll continue to write for the site and be sure to share all of my latest articles with you.

Teardrop Stud Nails.

I tend to think the best way to take a mani from bland to cool is by adding a few studs. It's fast, easy, and eye-catching. I recently got a wheel of different shaped studs and was excited to try out something new.

I chose the teardrop studs to play with first and I wasn't disappointed. I used them over Morgan Taylor Going Native and was happy with the combination!

Office Dotticure Article.

This week on Beauty Blitz I talked about sneaking a little nail art into your work day! Check it out, here.

Nail Foil Article.

I've written my second nail article for Beauty Blitz, and am once again excited to share it with all of you! This time you can get my take and tips on nail foils. Read the article, here. 

               

Now that I've introduced the Beauty Blitz readers to foils and glitter sandwiches, what do you think should be next? 

Mexican Fiesta Nails.

I recently held a fiesta themed housewarming party in my first New York apartment, and I thought the occasion warranted a manicure. I didn't get a good shot of the nails due to party preparations, but after I deemed them Instagram-worthy I thought I'd share them here too.

I was short on time when working on this design so I decided to stamp something, and luckily found a few images that were perfect for the theme. I used the pepper image from BM-06 and the citrus images from BM-04 to create limes.

The polishes I used were Orly Spark, Sally Hansen Lickety Split Lime, and a red stamping polish from Born Pretty.

Dusty Negative Space Nails.

The negative space trend in nail art is one it took me a little while to warm up to. As someone who has nails that haven't been without nail polish for more than a few hours in years , I can't say they're perfectly white. 

But after seeing so many cute negative space designs, I realized there were plenty of options for me even if the tips of my nails are a little stained. 

For my first attempt I decided to do a negative space version of this manicure, I used OPI Steady as She Rose to create a half moon and french tip on each of my nails and left the center unpolished.

I ended up being very happy to have tried out this trend and definitely think you'll be seeing more negative space designs from me in the future!

Glitter Sandwich Article.

If you are keeping up with me on my choice social media platform (Instagram), than you probably know I'm currently interning for Beauty Blitz. I've been spending my summer playing with nail polish, helping with photo shoots, and even writing the occasional article. 

My first nail related article (all about the glitter sandwich) went up today, so of course I wanted to spread the word. You can read my story, here!

Neon Stud Nails.

Of course, I love studded manicures and I'm especially enjoying this neon version for summer.

I used a bunch of different colors of both round and square studs from Born Pretty over a base of Sally Hansen Hard to Get.

I'll have to think of more ways to use these neon studs before summer ends because it's the perfect easy but bright manicure.

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.

Summer Leopard Nails.

You really can't go wrong with a leopard + gradient combination, and when you throw in a few bright colors it's really the perfect design for summer. 

For this manicure I used  Sephora Formula X Dark Matter, China Glaze Spontaneous, OPI Ogre the Top Blue, and OPI Who The Shrek Are You.

Patriotic Skittle Nails.

I've tried a bunch of different designs for the 4th of July in the past, so deciding on something different to do this year took a little extra time. I ended up choosing a red, white, blue and silver holographic theme. Any excuse for a glitter and holographic-ness. 

The polishes I used were China Glaze First Mate, Mary Kay Radiant Red, Sally Hansen Hard to Get, and LA Colors Star Light.

The holographic flakes on the red nail were done with nail foils from Born Pretty and the hexagon glitter on my blue nail is my favorite Born Pretty glitter.

If you still need more ideas for your 4th of July mani, here are all my patriotic designs of the past! And hopefully I can manage to share another new red, white, and blue design before the week is over. 

Born Pretty Plate W-02 Review.

Today I have a review of another Born Pretty Store product, one of their plates. This one is basically the ultimate girly stamping plate. 

The W-02 plate has lots of bows, hearts, and even a moon. You can find this plate for $1.54 from BPS.

W-02 happens to have a lot of the same/similar images to another plate from Born Pretty that I own, m59. I didn't want to use an image I've done before, so for today's manicure I chose to use the image in the center of the plate. 

Since the image was very girly I decided I wanted to pair it with a girly glitter I've been waiting for the perfect opportunity to use, Nails Inc. Fulham Palace Gardens. 

The blue polish I used for this manicure is Wet n Wild Saved By The Blue, and I stamped with the Konad Special White polish.

I added some of the glitter to the nails with the stamped design to tie everything together, which I think worked out nicely. This feels like a perfect, feminine manicure for summer.

As always, if you're interested in getting this plate or anything else from Born Pretty, you can enjoy 10% off with the coupon code BRJ61.

Tiny Pineapple Nails.

It's been a while since my last post, but now that I have survived finals and moving into my first apartment, I want to get back to blogging regularly. 

My nails have certainly suffered during the rigors of moving and building Ikea furniture, but my cuticles are starting to recover, and hopefully my nails will only be painfully short for a little while longer. 

For today's manicure I decided to do something in accordance with one of this summer's biggest fashion trends, pineapples. 

The base color for the design is Wet n Wild French White Creme, and the pineapples were done with acrylic paints.

I think these are perfect for summer, and it's one design that I think looks just as good on short or long nails!

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.

Black French Tip Rose Nails.

I usually do a lot of colorful manicures, which I think are fun with my mostly black wardrobe, but sometimes a darker design is fun too. For today's manicure I chose to do black roses with a dark grey base. 

The base color is CND Asphalt and I added CND Gold Shimmer for a little sparkle after doing the roses with acrylic paints.

Veronica Mars Nails.

After seven years of waiting, the Veronica Mars movie is coming out this week! Veronica Mars is one of my favorite shows ever, and I couldn't be more excited to see the movie. And all that excitement translates to needing matching nail art, I couldn't let the opportunity for a VM manicure pass me by.

I decided to do a design based on the logo for a business within the show, Mars Investigations. The logo was just screaming "turn me into nail art." I used OPI Don't Pretzel My Buttons, Formula X Dark Matter, and white acrylic paint to create this design.

And here's the logo so you can compare!

Born Pretty Cat Water Decals Review.

This past October I shared my experience with using water decals for the first time. And I ended up loving the manicure I came up with so much that it was one of my favorites of 2013 and I knew I wanted to try more water decals in the future.

And that future is today! This time I went for something that was totally different from what I would normally freehand (as opposed to roses which I did last time), cats.

This is the manicure I came up with. I put the flower and cat decals over a base of OPI Sparrow Me The Drama.

I'll definitely be doing more manicures with these decals in the future, the sheet they came on also had lots of puppies and ducks, and I know I want a dog manicure soon. 

The sheet with all of the decals, which has enough for at least four manicures is $3.99 from Born Pretty Store. And as always, you can use the coupon code BRJ61 to receive 10% off any BPS order!

Mean Candy Heart Nails.

I've been enjoying my break from nail art lately but I couldn't let Valentine's Day pass without doing this manicure! It's a design I've been wanting to do since last year after being inspired by mean spirited candy hears on tumblr.

The polishes I used for this design are Essie First Timer, Orly Pixy Stix, Orly Spark, OPI Can't Find My Czechbook, OPI You're Such A Budapest, and Sephora Formula X Dark Matter.

I thought these turned out very cute and were something a little different from my other Valentine's Day designs!

January Wrap-Up.

January is officially over and I successfully posted 31 days worth of new nail art! And of course I wanted to share my thoughts after completing my little goal. 

Throughout the month I often wondered how when I started blogging back in 2012 I was able to post almost every single day, multiple months in a row. I don't remember it being quite so stressful and time consuming as it was this time around. I certainly don't see myself doing this month after month, but I think it's a great way to get out of a nail slump and force your creativity a little. 

I was proud of a bunch of manicures I created this month, and here are a few of my favorites...

Another thing that's cool about consistently doing new designs is getting to see the progress your nails make! Below are both my first and final manicures of January. My nails started out super short and grew to a much preferable length by the end of the month. They've also seemed much stronger and aren't breaking all the time anymore.

And now it's time for a little nail art break!

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!

Ikat Heart Nails.

Ikat hearts were one of multiple designs I posted in my very first blog post. I've always thought it was a design worthy of its very own post, so I decided to do a new version as one of my Valentine's day manicures this year.

I made a few changes for my updated design, this time I stuck with one heart per nail and went with a purple colors scheme. The polishes I used were OPI You're Such A Budapest, OPI Sparrow Me The Drama, OPI Pamplona Purple, and China Glaze VIII.

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.

Skittle Valentine's Day Nails.

I decided to start early on trying different Valentine's Day manicure ideas. For this design I brought out my stamping plates (something I haven't done in quite a while) and also added some freehanded dots. 

The plates I used were Bundle Monster BM02 (I heart U and the lips), BM03 (the group of 3 hearts), and Born Pretty Store m59 (the bows and the rest of the hearts.)

The polishes I used were Essie Boom Boom Room, China Glaze Rich & Famous, Sally Hansen Hard To Get, Mary Kay Radiant Red, Konad Special White Polish, and a Born Pretty Store red stamping polish.

I wasn't sure how I'd end up feeling about the manicure and combining a bunch of different images from different plates, but I think these turned out vey cute!