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.

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.

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!

Sparkly Bat Nails.

My nails have been breaking a lot lately, which has led to them being quite short. I don't find short nails as fun to work on, but thankfully I do find Halloween to be very inspiring for nail art. Which means I've actually been doing designs more lately. 

For today's manicure I broke out one of the glitter polishes I bought when I loved them. ( I mostly stick with cream finishes now.) In order to update it a bit I decided to stamp bats overtop for Halloween. 

For the base of the manicure I used Icing's Force of Love over a coat of Wet n Wild Black Creme for opacity. Force of Love is supposed to be a dupe of Deborah Lippmann's Across the Universe.

The stamp I used was Bundle Monster BM-213, and the polish I used is Sally Hansen Silversweep.

I was happy with how this design turned out, and I think the bats go great with Force of Love. Sadly I didn't get much use out of the manicure because it turns out Force of Love is just one of those glitters that goes on very thick and refuses to dry!

If you're still trying to decide on nails for Halloween, you still have a few days to think up something awesome! If you want any ideas, you can check out some of the designs I've posted in the past or keep waiting because I have a few other appropriate manicures that I'll be sharing soon!

Black Swan Nails.

There are a handful of manicures I did before I started this blog that I really liked the concept for and have wanted to share with my blog readers. One of those was a design I did inspired by the movie Black Swan, and even though it isn't the most summer-y design, I decided to recreate my old manicure today.

Black and white, feathers, and blood pretty much sum up the film, so I think these nails do a good job of capturing the movie. 

For this design I painted my nails black (CND Oilslick) and stamped white feathers on all of my nails using Bundle Monster BM15 and Konad Special White polish. Then I splattered a mixture of Mary Kay Radiant Red and an unnamed red shimmer polish (which I'm holding in the photos) to look like blood.

I've really enjoyed doing manicures inspired by books and movies, and I think this is another fun one. It would be great for Halloween.

Holly Nails.

Merry Christmas! Today I decided to share my final Christmas design, the one I chose to wear for the actual day of the holiday. 

The base color is Orly Rage, and then I stamped the holly design from the BM-14 plate. I didn't have a green in the right shade for my stamping so I mixed the blue and yellow Born Pretty Store stamping polishes. The red is acrylic paint.

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!

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!

Purple Spider Nails.

I loved this manicure when I saw it last year and I knew I'd have to do it for myself when Halloween finally came around again! 

The base color is Revlon Facets of Fuchsia, a polish I've been waiting to use for about as long as I've been waiting to try this design! The spiders are from the BM-13 plate and I stamped with Sally Hansen Silver Sweet. I finished things off with purple rhinestones from a wheel from Amazon.

The glitter and rhinestone combination make the spiders almost feminine! I love how it turned out.

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!

Girly Floral Nails.

Today's manicure is probably my favorite stamped design I've done in a while! I painted my nails with China Glaze Spontaneous and then I stamped a pattern from BM-221 with Sally Hansen Lively Lilac. To add more dimension to the design I added a floral print from BM-224 with Sally Hansen Fuchsia Chrome. 

Fall Aztec Nails.

I decided to do a little stamping today, and of course I had to combine that with a gradient. The stamping isn't my best, but I think the end results are still nice. The colors I chose ended up looking very fall appropriate, maybe I'll use this color combination again in a few months. 

The stamp I used is BM-204, and the polish I stamped with is Sally Hansen Gold Chrome. The colors for the gradient are Zoya Gemma, China Glaze Shower Together, and American Apparel Port.

Metallic Floral Nails.

I needed a fun manicure to go with a dress I'm wearing to a wedding, and so I decided to stamp a floral design on my nails. The plate I used for this design is BM-225. The base color is Wet n Wild Black Creme and the color I stamped with is Sally Hansen Silver Sweep. 

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!

Rainbow Target Nails.

When I started this design all I knew was I wanted something that screamed rainbow!

I think the manicure definitely hit that mark. I started by using a striping brush to make a bunch of stripes in rainbow colors. The polishes I used were OPI Elephantastic Pink, China Glaze Thataway, Orly Spark, China Glaze Treehugger, Revlon Blue Lagoon, and China Glaze Spontaneous.

I wasn't sure what the next strep should be, but I eventually decided that stamping a pattern over top would be fun and add a lot of visual intern. I used Konad Special White polish to stamp and the image is from BM-206.

Mermaid Tail Nails.

I started my attempt at mermaid nails yesterday but wasn't liking how things were going, so I decided to put it on hold. After looking at my half-finished manicure some more, I decided that I didn't want to just scrap things completely because I really liked the soft teal gradient (it ended up photographing a bit more blue, but the tealness is very evident in person.) So I stuck with that and decided to go in a different direction.

The design I stamped with is from the BM-209 plate, and I stamped with Sally Hansen Silver Sweep.

For the gradient I used OPI Mermaid Tears and China Glaze Shower Together, with Sinful Colors Hottie over top. And here is a picture of the gradient on it's own just because.

American Flag Nails.

I've seen a lot of great Memorial Day manicures, but I decided to keep things simple and classic for my design. Maybe I will do something crazier for the 4th of July.

I created stripes on my pointer and ring fingernails using striping tape, and stars on my middle and pinky fingernails. For the stars I used the BM-20 plate, but I ended up going over them with a small brush so the white would be more opaque. 

 The blue polish I used is Essence Just Rock It! and the red is Julep January. The white I used for the stripes is Wet n Wild French White Creme and the white for the stars is Konad Special White Polish.

Silver Flower Nails.

This is a pretty simple design. I used BM-224 to stamp the design, for whatever reason this design never stamps perfectly. The larger flowers always end up blurring a bit, but I still think it worked out okay. I stamped with Sally Hansen Silver Sweep. The base color on my nails is Wet n Wild Buffy the Violet Slayer with a coat of Sally Hansen Laser and then a coat of Sally Hansen Byte. My accent nail is LA Girl Overdose, which is also dotted in the centers of the flowers.

Dotted Butterfly Nails.

I was inspired for today's manicure after seeing this design. I switched things up a little, just taking inspiration from the dots around the simple stamped design.

I used BM-05 for the butterfly design, and stamped with Sally Hansen Presto Pink. The base color is OPI Steady As She Rose, and the dots are done with Orly Spark.