Smooshed Leaves

This will be my last super fall manicure for the season and soon enough we'll be on to holiday nails! I can't wait; this is usually my favorite time of the year in general, but especially for nail art. For these leaves I did a smoosh marble over a nail vinyl and once they dried, I placed each leaf on my nail individually. I used China Glaze Foie Gras, Essie Miss Fancy Pants, Zoya Darcy, Zoya Cole, Zoya Arizona, Essie Navigate Her, Color Club Macaroon Swoon, and NOPI Challenge Red-Y.

A Quick Fall Floral

   I had much more elaborate ideas when I was planning out these nails, however I had a horrible headache when I went to paint them, so I threw together whatever this is very very quickly instead. I mainly used Xtreme Wear Cuteapillar, Xtreme Wear Tickled Pink, and Zoya Cole. I really didn't like these initially but they grew on me the tiniest bit after I made them matte.

Scalloped Chevron Floral

I don't know what it is about these nails, but for some reason they feel pretty old school nail art to me; like a type of design that would have been popular 5 years ago. I do really like these though, but then again I always love how white and black look together. For the pinks, I primarily used China Glaze Hang-Ten Toes and Color Club Raspberry Rave.

Geo-Matte-tric Triangles

Now that I work full time, I don't have as much time to spend on my nails anymore, so I've been creating more simple designs during the week and then going all out on the weekends; this was the first weekday manicure done with my new "schedule". The base is China Glaze Jagged Little Teal, and the details are done with Orly Rage. I created this design with the intention of making it matte, so it's no surprise to me that that ended up being my preferred finish to wear it with.

Triangle Tracker

 Here's a manicure that I did using some red polishes, which is pretty unusual because I'm not a fan of working with red. The gradient is China Glaze Purr-Fect Plum, China Glaze Seduce Me, and a white. I also freehand painted some random triangle designs on top; the finished look reminds me a bit of those facial trackers, like on Snapchat.

Anchors Away

 I did a manicure just like this last year, and I liked it, except I was really unhappy with the quality. I did basically the same thing again, but I added a few more elements to make is more interesting this time. I used Zoya Cole, OPI Can't Find My Czechbook, and China Glaze One Track Mind. I also matted this, which I actually didn't really like in person, but I think it looks much better on camera than the glossy did.

Matte Coral Floral

I did this design based off of a skirt that I own in order to try out some different floral patterns. It doesn't look as nice as I wanted, the flowers really just look like blobs, but as a whole I think it looks alright, especially with the matte finish.The base is China Glaze Man Hunt. For the flowers I used Xtreme Wear Caribbean Coral, Xtreme Wear Coral Reef, and Xtreme Wear Peach Beach. The leaves are Essie Navigate Her and Xtreme Wear Green Thumb.

Matte Black and Silver

Here's a simple striping tape design that I did because I really like the look of matte black.  Unfortunately my matte topcoat sometimes leaves behind weird white specs, which are especially obvious over black. I used Essie No Place Like Chrome for the silver.

Matte Blues and Green

For this one I used Xtreme Wear Royal Hue, Xtreme Wear Babe Blue, and Zoya Blu, the green is Essie Vibrant Vibes.

 

Matte Sharp Chevrons

Today I broke out some Zoya matte nail polishes. I used Zoya Aspen, Yves, and Honor. It does look a little rough though, because I didn't use any type of topcoat; I wanted this manicure to have the matte polishes' true finish, and this wouldn't have been possible even with a matte topcoat.

Valentine's Skittlette

Here's another Valentine's Day manicure! I suppose this could really be worn any time of the year though, as long as you love pink and hearts! I do skittlettes pretty often, so I really tried to avoid it this time, but it just turned into one, I couldn't help it. The pink is China Glaze Glow With The Flow. Of course I also had to make it matte, mostly because I used a lot of black and nothing is better than a matte black.

 

Light Blue Stripes and Gradient

It's a simple matte manicure for today. For my middle nails I played around with using some thick stripe nail vinyls. The blue is Color Club Meet Me In The Rink and the grey is Zoya Tove. I had to paint the silver star studs with white polish and I was surprised with how well it held up.

Christmas Sweater

Today's holiday nails are a Christmas sweater design. This is one of those designs that definitely looks better from a distance. It was actually quicker to do than I expected, but I was still too lazy to paint every nail, so I just added studs to the others. The red that I used is China Glaze Merry Berry.

Gothic Lace

Today I have some sort of lace design that I came up with it on the fly. This might be my favorite manicure that I've done this year.  The design was pretty much impossible to see glossy, so I had to matte it, but that's fine because pretty much every manicure is better matte. For the gradient I used  OPI Vant To Bite My Neck?, China Glaze Purrr-fect Plum, and China Glaze Seduce Me.

Matte Cheetah Print + Gradient

Hello! It's been a little while since I've really done any animal print. I was really in the mood for more neutral colors with this one, so I went for some taupes. The purple is Xtreme Wear Lacey Lilac and the taupe colors are Essie Miss Fancy Pants and China Glaze Foie Gras. I wore this glossy for about a day, but I just knew it would look much better matted.

Matte Blues Gradient

Today I have another manicure that kind of resulted from playing around with gradients and matte. The darkest blue is China Glaze One Track Mind, then China Glaze Boho Blues, and the lightest blue is Zoya Blu, which I also used for the hearts. The matte topcoat that I used is Essie Matte About You. The gradients are a bit rougher on some of the nails, but I still like the finished look.

Purple Blue and Green Matte Skittle

Today's manicure features pretty much everything that I'm loving right now, chevrons, gradients, studs, and a matte finish! The purple is Xtreme Wear Wing it, the green is Zoya Tiana, and I honestly can not remember what the blue is, but I think it's probably China Glaze Boho Blues. For the matte finish I used OPI Matte Topcoat.

Shades of Purple Skittlette

Hello! Here's yet another skittlette manicure that I did, this time matte! I'm not sure what that white line on my middle finger is, but I'm pretty sure it came from the matte topcoat that I used. Other than that line, I love this! I think that gradients look especially good when matte. The polishes that I used are OPI Vant To Bite My Neck?, Xtreme Wear Wing It, and Xtreme Wear Lacey Lilac.

31DC2015: Red Base

 Hello! I wasn't feeling very well yesterday, so I was unable to post this on time! Anyway, here's what I came up with for my red base nails. The red is Nicole by OPI Challenge Red-y.

Luxe and Stone

Today I have two colors to show from the China Glaze Hunger Games collection. First up is Stone Cold, inspired by District 2. It's grey with small silver glitters all throughout. It also dries matte! But that also means that it chips really easily and more prominently shows nail imperfections.

On top of that I added Luxe And Lush, inspired by District 1. It has glass shard like flakies suspended in a clear base. They were a little sparse so I recommend two coats at the least.