China Glaze First Mate & Red Angel RA-110

Hi my polished pretties! Short post today. For this half-moonicure I used China Glaze First Mate and stamped using RA-110 in Essie Penny Talk. This is a really random mani for me because I'm doing this January nail art thing on Instagram and today's theme is navy blue. It's a color I have rarely wear and I had to think hard to come up with this one!

OPI My Very First Knockwurst & Konad M57

Hey lacquerheads! Today I have a mani from a week ago that I did as a palette cleanser for the new year. I used this combo once before in a rush and never took pics, so I tried it out again because I really enjoy how it looks. Here's OPI My Very First Knockwurst stamped using Konad M57 in Essie Good as Gold.

Essie Butler Please & NYX Spot Light Reverse Glitter Gradient

Happy Friday! Today I have my very first reverse glitter gradient to show you. I tried it once before and it didn't turn out too well, but I was feeling brave and gave it another shot. It looks so beautiful in person because the glitter is so sparkly, I wish it translated in the photos. I used Essie Butler Please & did the glitter gradient using NYX Spot Light. Butler Please is not color accurate in the photos, it's slightly darker in person.  I will definitely be trying out more manicures using this method!

Essie Where's My Chauffeur & gLORIous 22k Goldleaf Topcoat

Hey loves! Today I have a polish I have been lemming for about a month now--Essie Where's My Chauffeur. I finally made a trip to the nail store and got it along with a new collection I'll be showing you tomorrow. Here's Essie Where's My Chauffeur and gLORIous 22k Goldleaf Topcoat. I love love love this Essie color! The gold flakes are cool, but were a pain in the butt to work with. The bottle is packed with gold flakes, but they don't want to stay on the darn brush. It's the second time I tried using it. To get this amount of flakes I ended up having a thick coat of clear and it took such a long time to dry. I prefer to use OPI The Man With the Golden Gun over this one--it may be only 18k, but it's so much easier to get the flakes on my nails.

Black and Copper Tribal Print

Happy Sunday! Nursing school has been kicking my butt and I have been dying to paint my nails! This mani is the first full mani I wore in 3 weeks! I only got to wear it for a day, but at least I got a lot of compliments on it at work. I used OPI Black Onyx and stamped using MASH 41 (middle and ring) and MASH 43 (index and pinky) in Essie Penny Talk. I hated taking this off, I thought it looked pretty awesome.

Nude, Gold, and Black Clouds

Hey lacquerheads! Today I have some cloud nails I did a couple weeks back to go with a LBD I wore to my very first club... and I'm 23 lol!! It was fun and my nails went well with my outfit. I was going to do chevrons at first, but as others have said before, the formula of Essie's Mirror Metallics are a little difficult to work with so I had to start over and I did clouds instead. I used OPI Don't Pretzel My Buttons, Essie Good as Gold, and OPI Black Onyx for this. It's the second cloud mani I've ever done and it's still the quickest and easiest nail art I know how to do!

**Edit: A few of you have asked how to create this design, so here is the link to Nailside's tutorial that I used.

China Glaze Peachy Keen and Bundle Monster 305

Happy Saturday ladies! Do any of you ever have a lack of nail inspiration? I do sometimes, but no need to fear, Pinterest is here! I love getting ideas from the stuff I see on there. I saw a beautiful mani from Pshiiit and I immediately had to recreate it. She used tape to create this look, but lucky me, I found a stamp that reminded me of it. I used China Glaze Peachy Keen and stamped using BM 305 in Essie Good As Gold. I'm kind of loving these =]

Guest post for Nail Polish Creations

Hi beauties! I did a guest post for Lisa over at Nail Polish Creations. Check it out here!

31 Day Nail Challenge--Day 31: Re-create Your Favorite Challenge

The day has finally came--the last day of the challenge! I loved being able to try out so many different styles throughout the past 31 days that I would normally avoid or be to scared to try. Today's theme is pretty open ended: re-create your favorite challenge. I wanted to do a watermarble or do another one inspired by a tutorial, but being the super honest person I am, I wanted to actually do my personal favorite. I always love to stamp flowers and I enjoy how stamps look over gradients, so I just did both (gradient and flowers). I did a gradient using Essie Orange It's Obvious, Essie Ole Caliente, and China Glaze Fuchsia Fanatic. I stamped using BM 318 in Konad Yellow. I hope everyone enjoyed my nail art for this challenge and thanks for all of the lovely comments!

Essie Play Date and Konad M77

Hey lovelies! Quick post today. I did this a couple weeks ago when I was swatching Essie's Go Overboard Collection. I used Essie Play Date and stamped using Konad M77 in Konad White. I added some glitter to the center of the flowers using L.A. Colors Art Deco in Silver Glitter. I'm not crazy about purple, but I LOVE this purple!

Essie Go Overboard Collection Swatches

Hi everyone! I got Essie's Go Overboard Collection a couple months ago and I never got around to playing around with them until this week since I'm on Spring Break so here they are! This is one of Essie's Spring 2012 collections and it consists of 3 polishes. Swatches are shown with 2 coats and no topcoat.

L to R: Go Overboard, Play Date, & Armed and Ready

Go Overboard

Play Date. My favorite of the three!

Armed and Ready

Pink, Purple, and Blue Gradient and Konad M65

Hi everyone! March is here and I'm sure we will be seeing a lot of green manicures soon, so here is a non green manicure to start the month lol. I did a gradient using OPI Kiss Me On My Tulips, Sally Hansen Insta Dri Lively Lilac, and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Blue Me Away. I stamped using Konad M65 in Konad Black. I actually messed up my ring finger and I was in a rush to finish my nails before my husband came home, so I just added Essie Luxeffects in A Cut Above.

Essie Spring 2012 Navigate Her Collection

Hi everyone! I hope you all are enjoying your extra long weekend. I'm not because I'm working on lots of stuff for nursing school next week, but after this week I will be able to relax a bit. Today I have Essie's Spring 2012 Collection "Navigate Her." I actually don't have that much Essie in my collection because one time I used one and I hated the formula, but I have to say, after getting this collection I think I'm going to be getting a lot more! I probably used that other Essie when I still sucked at painting my nails lol. 

Tour De Finance. Fuchsia shimmer with a purple flash.

Ole Caliente. Red based coral creme.

Orange, It's Obvious. Dark orange creme.

A Crewed Interest. Peach creme.

Navigate Her. The namesake of the collection. Pistachio creme.

To Buy Or Not To Buy. Lilac "shimmer". It basically looks like a lilac creme since the shimmer is very hard to see.

Here's the purple and blue shimmer in To Buy Or Not To Buy in the bottle. This shimmer is pretty much non-existent on the nail.

Like I said, I don't have very many Essie in my collection, but I am glad I have added these to my collection. It would've been nice if the shimmer showed up in To Buy Or Not To Buy. I could live without that one. Ole Caliente and Orange, It's Obvious are a little too close in color for me for a 6 polish collection, but of course I will be wearing both of them! My favorites are Navigate Her, A Crewed Interest, and Tour de Finance. Formula and dry time was great on these. I used 2 coats on all except A Crewed Interest and Tour De Finance, I used 3. Pictures are shown without topcoat.

Valentine's Day Hearts

Ok so this one is a day late. I didn't know how many Vday nails I was doing and I guess I should've started posting them a day earlier. Oh well. For this I used O.P.I. Strawberry Margarita as a base and then added other pinks using a dotting tool. I added China Glaze Dance Baby, China Glaze Sugar High, China Glaze Fuchsia Fanatic, and Essie Tour De Finance. I stamped using Red Angel plate RA-114 in Konad White.

Valentine's Conversation Hearts

Hi everyone! I did these a a few weeks back because I knew when school came around I wouldn't have time to do that many different manis for Valentine's Day. I got this idea from Leslie at Polish Art Addiction. I'm pretty sure everyone has eaten this candy at least once for Valentine's Day. I can't remember what I used as a base color (oops!), but I stamped using Nail Art Diva plate From the Heart 1 in China Glaze Lemon Fizz, China Glaze Re-fresh Mint, China Glaze Something Sweet, China Glaze Peachy Keen, and Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Lively Lilac. I did use a dotting tool to go over the colors and make them more opaque. The red wording is stamped with the same plate using Nail Art Diva polish in Heartfelt Red. I got the Nail Art Diva plate and polish from Rebecca's 600 follower giveaway last year, but waited until the right occasion to use it =] I mattified them after with Essie Matte About You because the candies are actually matte and chalk like.

OPI Black Onyx and Nfu-Oh #49

Hi everyone! Short post today. I've been seeing so many flakies lately and I have yet to get my hands on some of the newer ones, so I decided to wear one I have already to satisfy my flakie craving! I used O.P.I. Black Onyx as a base and used one coat of Nfu-Oh #49. I also added one coat of Essie Matte About You to see what it looks like matte. Enjoy!

Matte Black Leopard Print

Hi lovelies! Today I have a pretty cool leopard design to show you. I don't know if anyone else uses Instagram (if anyone wants to follow me on there my username is heartnat24), but sometimes there are little nail contests and if I have time I like to enter them. I entered these nails for a copycat contest so hopefully I make it to the finalists. Anyways I used O.P.I. Black Onyx as a base and then used Essie's Matte About You topcoat. Lastly I used a small dotting tool dipped in topcoat to draw the leopard print. Pretty cool huh?

China Glaze Blue Year's Eve and Konad M59

Today I have a winter snowflake mani to show you. I've seen a lot of snowflake designs that look very similar, so I tried to make mine look a little different. I used a base of China Glaze Blue Year's Eve. Then I used some scotch tape to make the V-shape and painted the tips with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Silver Sweep. To make it look shimmery, I added Essie Luxeffects in Pure Pearlfection. Then I stamped with Konad M59 in Konad White. Lastly, I added some blue rhinestones. I was worried I was adding too much, but I ended up really liking the end result =]

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