Gray and neon NOTD!

Happy Thursday, nail lovers! Today, a simple freehand manicure for you using Zoya Carey as my base color and China Glaze Flip Flop fantasy for accents.

Christmas Sweater Nails

When I saw this pin on Pinterest, I fell in love!  What an awesome Christmas look!  Extra bonus: it came with a tutorial!  I'll be honest, this look was a challenge!  Mine definitely doesn't look as good as Never Too Much Glitter's I'm going to blame it on using nail polish instead of acrylic paint.  Here's hoping Santa brings me some for Christmas!

My base color for this manicure is Rimmel Gray Matter.  I used a white striper for the white parts, and a konad red stamping color for the red parts.  The deer and the snowflakes were stamped, not hand-done because I wanted them to look nice and so I could save some time. 

I know I'm the most inconsistent blogger out there, but I"m hoping to make that up to you with a TON of Holiday looks this week!  I've got a huge backlog of manicures, so I may be posting multiple times a day to give you some last minute nail art ideas!

Gray Sparkly Matte Nails

What is it about Sparkly Matte nails that is just sooo hot? I pin looks like this all the time on Pinterest, so I thought it was about time that I tried it myself. I started with a base coat of Zoya Kelly. I LOVE THIS COLOR! It is srsly one of my favorite Zoyas.

On top of Kelly, I sponged this glitter from NYC called Starry Silver Glitter just on my tips to give it a bit of a gradient look.

And then of course, I took this look to the next level with a matte topcoat. Mine is by hard candy, but any of the others will do just as good.

Want to know why I haven't been posting as much lately?  Its because I fall in love with looks like this and wear them for days on end.  So stinking cute.

Zoya Petra with Tribal Tips

When I saw Zoya's fall collections, one of my must have colors was Petra. She is just GORGEOUS! Check this beauty out:

I decided to stamp Petra with BM219 in black on the tips.

The end result was a cute fall work-appropriate look.  What do you think?  Are you digging on any tribal nail looks lately?  If you've posted one lately, feel free to share the link in the comments! :)

NOTD: Make a Wish

Simple manicure for you today. I started with a base color of Sally Hansen Gray by Gray, and then stamped some cute little flowers that remind me of the ones that float away in a breeze that you can make a wish on.

I think this design is on one of the Big Fat Plates on eBay, I did this manicure with Bevy and used her stamps, so I can't remember which design it was. (bad blogger! :P) If you know where this design can be found, let me know in the comments, and I'll edit the post. Hope you like it!

Zoya Dove and Portia French Twist

The manicure I have for you today is just precious.  It is so cute and sophisticated.  I really love the color combination of a light pink and light gray, and I find that Zoya Dove and Zoya Portia fit the bill perfectly.

I was inspired for this manicure by this beauty on Pinterest.  I'm slowly working my way through my Nail Ideas board over there.  It is such a great place to store inspiration.  If you have a board where you collect nail inspiration, please link it up over here because I'm always looking for new ideas! 

The little heart stickers on this mani came from a bottle of Seche Vite I bought a while back.  Previously seen in this post. 

So, tell me what you think!  And feel free to share your Pinterest links!  I've already done two other Pinterest inspired manicures that I can't wait to show you!

Random NOTDs

Lately my manicures have kind of been duds! It's hard coming up with gorgeous post-worthy nails EVERY DAY!  Today I didn't have anything new to post, so I went through my images to see if there were any manicures I hadn't posted yet, and here's what I found:

Hand-painted chevron: Zoya Dove base, light pink is Zoya Flora, and dark pink tips is Zoya Areej, outlined with dollar store black. 

Revlon Sunshine Sparkle (a shimmery light yellow, which you can't really tell from this picture) I think the stamp is from konad M77 plate.

Hopefully I'll come up with some fantastic ideas this week, if not, I may have to skip a day until my stock of images builds back up!  If you have any ideas for what kind of posts you'd like to see when I hit an inspiration block, please let me know in comments!

NOTD: Playing with Bundle Monster

Simple little mani for you today. My bro was over on Sunday and he just has excellent taste in manicure ideas, so here is one that he picked for me. I started with a base coat of China Glaze Shower Together:

Then, I added a an image from a new Bundle Monster plate (223) using Rimmel Grey Matter

I really like how simple this manicure is and it's so great that the new Bundle Monster plates cover the whole nail!  It makes application so much easier.  I was also surprised how well Grey Matter stamped.  Add that to your list of regular polishes that stamp well.  Of course after I stamped it I thought about my Silver Sweep and how much more that would've stood out on this color, but that's okay, I'll just tuck it away for a future date ;)

Quick NOTD

Had to wear a very boring nude color to a business meeting last week.  I used my perfect nude Color Club's Nature's Way, which usually I love, but this time I started with a white as the base to save me some coats, but the white made my perfect nude super peachy, and peach is just not one of my favorite colors.  It was so ugly, I didn't even take a picture.  As soon as I got home from the meeting, I wanted to change that color as soon as possible, so I threw on my favorite crackle: China Glaze Cracked Concrete, and it turned my boring peach nails into a really cute manicure!  I think peach and gray are a super trendy combo.

What do you guys think?  While I was in the city for my meeting, I found this HUGE beauty store, and I just had to stop!  Turns out it was more a store for African American hair, but there was still a few nail displays to check out.

Here's what I came home with:

A Nail Repair kit, just in case of any breakies, some Acetone since it was a good price and I go through it so quick over here, some polish thinner because I didn't have any, OPI Stranger Tides (a huge lemming of mine ever since this collection came out), L.A. Colors Treasure Island, NYX Dreamy Glitter, and some loose glitter (I see this all the time in Robin Moses tutorials, and I can't wait to try it for myself)

So, that's a little adventure I went on this week.  I need a bumper sticker that says "Will Brake for Nail Polish" :D

Gloomy Nails

I know it's summer and I should be posting bright and cute nails, but lately I've been in a MOOD and I just felt like taking my nails into an unseasonably dark direction. One day I was in the mood for black, so I painted my nails this really hot sparkly black from Forever 21's Love and Polish brand.

Then I added a little funky french action to it with Zoya's uber sparkly silver, Luna. This would make such a great going out manicure, wouldn't it?

The next day I wasn't over my MOOD, so I painted my nails gray - Zoya Dove to be exact, and played with different images from the new Bundle Monster collection.

BM 216 as a half moon instead of a french.  This reminds me of Charlie Brown's famous t-shirt.

BM 218 as a cute scrolly french.

Hope you like these gloomy nails.  The good news is that I've got some fun manicures coming up soon, looks like like my gloomy mood has passed! :D

Cracked Concrete - First Crackle EVER!

So, today I have one last birthday present to share with you guys! My future sister in law Bev knows how much I love me some gray polish, so she got me my very first crackle polish for my birthday: China Glaze Cracked Concrete!

So, here's the deal. For the longest time I've kind of been anti-crackle polish. Maybe I just haven't seen enough color combinations that I've liked. Or maybe its just that crackle polishes remind me of chipped nails, which I really hate! But, my first crackle color combination has made me a believer.

Here is our starting line-up:

I used Zoya Dove as my base coat, and here is CG Cracked Concrete with it.

Here's my base coat.  Two coats of Zoya Dove.  Ok, omg, can we talk about how stunning Dove is?  I just love Zoya.  They just make the most beautiful polishes, and they always just look so good on. 

Here's Cracked Concrete over Dove.  The polish was pretty easy to work with.  In case you are a crackle n00b like me here's how it works:  you paint a single coat over your nail, and at first it looks like a regular thick layer of polish, but after a few seconds the magic happens!  You aren't limited to just using crackle over your whole nail.  I've seen people play with swirls, french tips, and even hearts!  I decided to play with it a bit and make hearts on a few nails because a lot of the manicures I've liked best with crackle polishes do hearts. 

Conclusion: I heart this crackle.  I got CG Black Crackle on its way to my house right now, and I can't wait to play more with these polishes.  I think the key to success is just pretty color combinations, and breaking out of the box and trying out different shapes and designs.

How do you feel about crackle polishes?  Any pretty color combinations I should try?  I know recently I LOVED Let Them Have Polish's blue crackle swatches, and Gotham Polish did OPI's silver shatter over Zoya Jules! 

P.S. I've been testing out taking pictures with a lamp at night.  Do you like how these turned out?  Any tips for nail pix when sunlight isn't always an option?

Chic City Nails

After that princess manicure earlier this week I was really craving a more grown up manicure.  I was going into DC for the night to have dinner with a friend, so I wanted a chic city feel to my nails.  I'm so glad I did!  I got so many compliments on this manicure!  I guess people aren't used to seeing the ruffian style.  I started out with dollar store black as a base and then I put french tip guides towards the base of my nail and painted on Revlon Top Speed's Stormy color.  This color is new to my collection, and I'm so glad I got it.  It is really cute and has great coverage.

Man, I wish this was a better picture.  Its not doing this manicure justice.  This is my first time doing the ruffian style manicure, and I just love it!  This color combo is great, but I think Stormy would also look great with a dark purple underneath too.  Ever get tired of all the nail art and want "grown-up" nails? 

Femme Fatale Nails

Confession Time: I'm a HUGE Britney Spears fan!  I love her!  So, last week when her new album, Femme Fatale, came out I just HAD to do a Britney inspired manicure!  So, I tweeted Zoya and asked them what color I should wear to celebrate Femme Fatale, and they suggested Zoya Freja.  Lucky for me, I already had this color in my collection!  Freja is a dark shimmery gray. 

I stamped the lace print from Konad M57 plate using Sally Hansen Silver Sweep and then stamped the black flowers from M57 on top.  It feels very hard core and FIERCE to me.  Just like Britney! 

Have you heard Femme Fatale yet?  What are you favorite songs?  I'm really digging How I Roll and He About to Lose Me.  *swoon*