Candy cane tips.

Still feeling in the Christmas spirit, I did these candy cane inspired tips for the weekend. They were cute and really easy to do free hand.

Glitter tips.

I had to run to Target for something the other day and I wanted to check out eye shadow while I was there. This Milani brand polish was on the bottom of the aisle but it truly spoke to me. Especially for $2.99! I've been looking for a true big glitter in gold and silver and this fit the bill nicely. I was disappointed to not be able to find silver.

I thought this manicure was awesome. I loved the uniqueness of the big gold glittery pieces as a French in lieu of polish. I didn't end up keeping this on as I was working on something specific but it will definitely be in the rotation in the future!

Starry nights.

I received an order of nail art - stars, words, butterflies... everything you can think of! - and wanted to use some of it. I decided on a black French manicure with stars.

Since I like an accent nail, I used some striping tape to add stripes to my ring fingers. The tape was pink and it bled through onto my nail after I used the black polish. I still liked the manicure, though.

I ♥ dogs!

I have several posts to do but I just did this manicure and I wanted to go ahead and share it. I really wanted to do a tribute to Zeus and Apollo but I didn't have the right polish. Of course, I could have just stuck with paw prints and their initials, but I really wanted to see if I could work out something that at least looked like a dog!


I started with a French manicure and added the paw prints with a toothpick. I really need to spend the $5.00 and get some dotting tools from eBay. I think they would be a lot easier to work with!

On my ring finger, I made a half oval of white, two coats. Then, using the toothpick, I made the ears and eyes and followed that up with a top coat.


Let me first say that I branched out from my love, Seche Vite, and tried Orly Sec'n Dry. So not impressed. You can see the drag lines on my nails. Especially on that right ring finger. I used the SV on the rest once I realized how the Orly was completely messing up the designs. That will be used only for single color polishes from now on.

I finished up the dog with a glimmer in his eyes, a nose, mouth and little pink tongue. Rather than trying to recreate this on my right hand, I just doubled up on the paw prints, as you can see from the picture before this one.

I love this manicure! It's fun and it's something close to my heart. If it wasn't for the Orly mishap, I would consider this an A+. But at least now I know for next time.

Fun with a black French.

Somehow I missed taking pictures of this manicure while I did it. That's what happens when I do my nails in front of the TV. I get distracted. I do love the outcome, though.

I have been using the Konad and Monsters more lately. I have a few upcoming manicures to post. I'm starting to like the idea more. I have found an awesome gold that is perfect for stamping. I need to find a good silver one next. If I can find a good silver one before the ball, I may stamp my nails for that night. Keep your fingers crossed!

Red and black French

Sorry for the lack of posts. I was out of town, having a girls' weekend in Houston with some friends I met while we were in Okinawa. Crazy weekend. Too much fun, definitely.

Before I left, I did a fun French. My friend, Courtney, said it reminded her of a ladybug. I like that comparison.


I used a clear base coat and did the tips with Revlon Valentino topped with Seche Vite. I'm not sure what kind of Revlon it is. That bottle is old but I still love the shade.

I highlighted the tip with Kiss black and I really like the end result. It's a fun French that I will definitely do again with some other color combos.

Also wanted to give a shout out to my second follower! Hi Doni!

Sometimes things truly are black and white.

I decided to do a manicure with contrasting colors and black and white seemed perfect. I grabbed my Orly Liquid Vinyl along with Sally Hansen White On and jumped in.

I knew I wanted to do both hands differently so I went black with white tips on the left and white with black tips on the right. It was good but I needed more oomph.

I grabbed a toothpick and decided to do polka dots once my top coat dried.

I really like the idea of this but, as it was my first polka dot attempt, my dots weren't very cohesive. Super cute mani if I can get that down for next time.

Not so formal French with a checkerboard.

I liked the Orly It's Up to Blue when I used it on the Liquid Vinyl for one of my previous manicures so I wanted to try it out full nail. I really love this teal and it's great coverage.

I started with a base coat, two coats of It's Up to Blue and a coat of Seche Vite. Since I didn't want to leave my manicure plain, I grabbed my OPI Honk If You Love OPI from the Roadies collection.

I wanted to test out the check pattern but didn't want to do all my nails so I opted just for an accent nail and tips on my other nails followed by a top coat.

I thought it turned out cute although I definitely need to work on taping straight. My squares are not even and that bothered me. I ended up taking the polish off and doing another manicure.

This definitely Blue My Mind!

For this manicure, I used the base color of OPI Blue My Mind and Orly Liquid Vinyl for the tips and V. I've really been drawn to blue lately which is completely out of the norm for me. Before the past few weeks you would have only found shades of reds, a few pinks and dark purples and white in my stash. But this blue was exactly what I hoped.

I started with a base coats, two coats of the OPI and then a coat of Seche Vite. I LOVE this blue. Love it. I can't say that enough. I'm definitely not into one color manicures right now but I would do one with this polish.

I taped off my tips and the V on my ring finger and painted a coat of the Orly on top. You can tell I didn't tape very well as I had some bleed through. I wasn't too concerned since I knew I was going to be highlighting with silver anyway.

I did like the finished manicure. I liked the colors together. I even kept this manicure on for a whole day. I would do it again and change up the colors a bit. It kind of reminds me of the Dallas Cowboys with the blue and silver. Some people may see that as a negative thing but I do not!

In the beginning...

These are some of my earlier manicures. I don't have the bottles to tell you the colors but the first is a deep maroon/red over silver and the second is a dark plum/purple over silver. I guess I can't really call them "French" since the French manicure is white with pink. They need a new name. Not so formal French? Formally French?


I'm not too excited about posting pictures of my toes because, well, they're toes.

This was my first try at a not so ordinary pedicure. I did it all by hand which would be why the halves aren't equal but I still liked it and was pretty proud. This is actually the same dark plum/purple from my fingers with the same silver and then the white highlight.