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!

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!

Chocolate Dipped Strawberry Nails.

I've mentioned before that I think fruit manicures are very cute and fun, so of course when I saw this tutorial for chocolate covered strawberry nails I had to do my own version! I've done strawberry nails before but these designs are quite different so I thought it would still be interesting. 

The polishes I used are Bellisimo Calgary Flame, OPI Don't Mess with OPI, Sephora Formula X Dark Matter, and Essie Very Structured,

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.

Watercolor Floral Nails.

For today's manicure I decided to use the acetone watercolor technique for a floral design. I used all neon polishes which balanced nicely with the subtle design.

The polishes I used are Essie Boom Boom Room  (a perfect Barbie pink,) China Glaze Pink Voltage, China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy, and China Glaze Purple Panic.

I don't think the design ended up being quite my style, but I was happy with the results!

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!

Studded Seam Nails.

Adding a few studs overtop of any manicure instantly makes a manicure a million times more fun!

For this design I used Essie It's Genius as my base color and the studs from BPS which I reviewed here.

Starfish Nails.

At the beginning of summer I was going one of my friend's nails and she requested a starfish design, and I decided I liked it enough that I wanted to test it out on my own nails! It's a simple design and great for summer.

The base color is two coats of China Glaze For Audrey with two coats of Essie Turquoise and Caicos on top. The starfish are OPI Hot  & Spicy with OPI Coney Island Cotton Candy for the dots.

Layered Dot Nails.

Today's manicure is another fun dot design! Placing lots and lots of dots can be a bit time consuming, but this is definitely very simple to do. 

I used three polishes for this design, OPI Ski Teal we Drop, Orly Pixy Stix, and Essie Mint Candy Apple.

Color Blocked Nails.

I had a different manicure in mind when I painted my nails with Essie Mint Candy Apple, but decided to save that one for another day and chose a striping tape mani instead. 

I used striping tape to create a simple color blocked design. I was inspired by this design. The other two polishes I used were CND Asphalt and CND Raspberry Plunge.

I didn't get very good photos of this manicure (at all,) I like it a lot better in person!

Rubber Duck Nails.

I saw a rubber duck design on youtube when I was looking for a fun freehand design to try out and knew this would be perfect.

I painted all of my nails Essie Sweet Talker. Then I made the rubber duck with CND Yellow Bicycle, and did the nose with CND Electric Orange. The eye is Wet n Wild Ebony Hates Chris and Wet n Wild French White Creme. Then to create the bubbles I mixed French White Creme, Sweet Talker, and Sally Hansen Brisk Blue. For a finishing touch I covered the bubbles in Wet n Wild Blue Wants to be a Millionaire, which has a sheer blue base and holographic shimmer. 

At first I tried adding bubbles to the rest of my nails, but I ended up deciding I liked the one accent nail on it's own and repainted the rest of my nails.

I think the duck turned out super cute!

I'm pretty sure this is the only way to end this post...

Easter Egg Hunt Nails.

Happy Easter! I hope everyone had a nice holiday.

Today I have my final Easter manicure to share. (See the previous ones here, here, and here.) This is the one I wore for Easter with my family.

The base color I used is Essie Sweet Talker and the grass is China Glaze Tree Hugger. The egg colors are China Glaze Secret Peri-winkle, Orly Spark, Sally Hansen Presto Pink, and American Apparel Office.

This manicure was inspired by one I saw online, but I'm not sure about the original source! Let me know where my inspiration came from.

Easter Water Marble Nails.

This is my third Easter manicure (see the previous ones here and here) but this water marble is also perfectly suited for spring in general.

I'm happy to say I've finally figured out all the components of a successful water marble mani. It definitely takes some practice and patience, but now that I've got it there are many more water marbles in my future.

I painted all of my nails with Essie Sweet Talker and used Wet n Wild Tickled Pink, LA Colors Blue Paradise and American Apparel Office to marble with.

Now I just need to choose what colors to marble with next!

Spring Bouquet Nails.

I had a request for floral nails on tumblr (you can make requests here) and wanted to do something different than my typical roses or something I've done before, and this is what I came up with.

I used OPI Ate Berries in the Canaries as the base and used OPI Done Out in Deco, Essie Turquoise and Caicos, and Sally Hansen Lively Lilac for the petals. the centers of the flowers are Wet n Wild Tickled Pink.

Pastel Flower Nails.

I've had this manicure in my inspiration folder forever, and so when my rhinestone wheel came in the mail I figured it was time to try it out.

I decided to go with a few of my favorite pastels instead of the bright polishes used in my inspiration. I used Essie Sweet Talker as my base and did the details with Wet n Wild Tickled Pink and OPI Done Out in Deco. The stamp is BM-12 and I used Konad Special White Polish.

The baby blue rhinestones from my new wheel were the perfect finishing touch. These are the rhinestones I ordered if you're interested. Hopefully I'll find more opportunities to use them.

Pastel Dot Nails.

I liked the color combination from my first tribal nails so much that I decided to use the same colors for a dot manicure. This is a great manicure for practicing your dotting tool skills because that is all it requires.

The base for this manicure was Wet n Wild Ebony Hates Chris and the dots are Orly Pixy Stix, Essie Sweet Talker, OPI Lucky Lucky Lavender, and American Apparel Office.

The only problem I ran into was that this black did smudge when I applied topcoat, even though I waited for everything to dry first. Thankfully it was only a little smudging so I was still happy with the outcome!

That's it for today, I hope your week is off to a great start!