Baby's Second Zebra Print

Sinful Colors Orange Cream, China Glaze Icicle, Kiss Striper Soft Blue

I don't know if I quite fulfilled my promise to do a zebra design with "all sorts of crazy colors," but I think I did an okay job!

I can't believe I've waited this long to try out a zebra print design, but I'm glad I did at all. It was super simple with a striper brush. All I had to do was begin the line from one side of my nail, then flick the brush toward the middle of my nail. Do this from both sides, and a couple of double stripes, and boom! Done.

This was also a good chance to practice my gradients, as they still need a bit of work. This is not a normal color combo for me, especially since the orange color made the silver glitter appear gold. But I'm not mad about it. It ended up warming and softening the mani!

Christmas Nails!

BREAKING NEWS: GLITTER IS DIFFICULT TO PHOTOGRAPH, ESPECIALLY IN HORRIBLE LIGHTING.

This seems intuitive, but I went ahead and wore these glitter bombs I call nails for Christmas. Don't get me wrong, I love this manicure so much (especially when compared to 2012's Christmas nails). I wish I could've captured their beauty more accurately for all of you.

I'm at home in Georgia for winter break (whoooo! the semester's finally over!), and the lighting at home is very dim and yellow (damn incandescents). I resorted to taking these photos in the bathroom, where I could find the brightest light, so please excuse my conditioner and soap in the background...

This mani combines my favorite things: glitter, gradients (done with a wedge makeup sponge), and dots (with inexpensive dotting tools)! I hope you love them as much as I do!

Leopards at Sunset

China Glaze Sun Worshipper, China Glaze Snap My Dragon, and Wet 'N Wild En Voyage with Love & Beauty Lavender

Just wanted to do a quick post showcasing these new nails! I wanted to do something special for myself because I've been so busy lately, I needed to de-stress. Also, I'm so in love with these nails! They're definitely bright and full of fun! I wish I'd gotten a swatch of Sun Worshipper (the orange)! I almost threw up it was so bright and fabulous and perfect.

I hope these nails last forever (come on, Seche Vite, work your magic)!

A+ for Effort

Love & Beauty Lavender with Revlon Empower and Wet 'N Wild En Voyage

So. Today was a rough day in the nail department. I got real inspired by this tutorial, and decided to attempt my first water marble since 2010. It was so bad, I wish I could have taken pictures, but everything was covered in nail polish-watery goop. I couldn't get the polish to spread for the life of me! I may or may not be traumatized. I'll just have to practice, and try out some tricks to get it to work. 

So after that was all cleaned up, I got to practice my gradients, which I suck at. And lo and behold, they didn't come out horribly! Even though I was going for a smoother gradient (like my pinkie nail), I really like the harsher transitions. It's nice. But cleanup was/is a mess. I still can't get all of the polish off of my cuticles. I'm not even mad, though. After spending hours on my nails, I just decided not to sweat it, and let them be.

Designs of Nails Past

I decided to showcase a few of my earlier designs (from last summer/semester) because I still like them a lot, even if the photo quality isn't that great. They also provide a good reference point to which I can compare all my future designs, especially since the fanciest tool used here was a dotting tool. You can find them here for about two dollars, which is an amazing deal!