Dance Legend Sonya with Nail Vinyl Accents

Hello Everyone!

I hope you all have had a lovely weekend! Mine was half dreary and rainy and half sunny and gorgeous. There was no in between as though the weather just couldn't make up it's mind. I took the opportunity during the gloomy times to sneak away into my polish cave and cheer myself up by playing around with nail art. I changed my manicure, not once, but gasp twice in those two days. Lately as you know that's unheard of for me. In any case, one of the manicures was this attempt at playing around with nail vinyls...

Dance Legend Binary Marina and Olga with Nicole Diary Water Decals

Hi Everyone!

What do you do when you want some quick nail art, but don't have time for stamping, vinyls, freehand, etc? I have recently developed a rather unhealthy obsession with water decals because of how easy and convenient they are. They are great for everyday wear, but they are also awesome for travel. Just toss a few designs into your luggage along with the nail polish and you can sport some nail art on your trip without the hassle of dragging a lot of supplies. All you need is water and a bit of acetone for cleanup.

Every once in a while, my mom request that when I come to visit, I give her a manicure. I used to lug all my stamping plates and polishes to give her a choice of design, but for the last few manis, we've switched to water decals and LOVE it! Not only is it so much quicker now, but it is easier for her to pick out designs and I know they'll turn out great. That being said, when a new company, Nicole Diary, offered me a few of their water decals to try out, I gladly agreed. I'm going to show you two of them today...

Geometric Color Block

Hi Lovelies! I really debated long and hard whether to show you this manicure or not. I totally loved the idea and how it came together, but then I made the mistake of putting my topcoat over fresh, wet polish and everything shrank away from my cuticles, but worst of all from the tips. Ugh, it was so sad to actually watch it shrink right in front of my eyes as I was trying to take photos. I will definitely have to try this one again at some point...

Royal Tigress!

Hi! Well this Monday is off to a wild start. My night shift at work was crazy and this morning hasn't improved. As I sit here trying to write this post before heading to sleep, the thought "it must have been a full moon or something" crossed my mind. Of course I just had to look it up and surprise, surprise! It was a full moon last night! That really explains so much...

Anyway, since the night has been so wild, I thought it might be appropriate to show you an animal print manicure that has been hanging out in my "to blog" folder for way too long...

Glam Polish Mid-Winter's Dream Collection Swatches and Review

Hi Lovelies! I'm excited to share with you swatches of select shades from the Glam Polish Mid-Winter's Dream collection which will launch tomorrow. The collection consists of a total of nine icy winter inspired shades and I've got six of them to show you today...

OPI Mustang Collection Swatches and Review!

Hi Lovelies! Today I would love to show you my swatches of the OPI Mustang collection. This lacquer collection celebrates the 50th anniversary of Ford Mustang with 6 gorgeous shades...

piCture pOlish Blog Fest 2014 Featuring Nail Vinyls!

Hi Everyone! I am so excited today because once again I had the wonderful opportunity to participate in the annual piCture pOlish Blog Fest. For the first time this year the blog/insta fest features Nail Vinyls. piCture pOlish will be retailing a special exclusive 4 pack 'Nail Vinyls' containing Chevrons, Mini Chevrons, Straight & Right Angles.

My challenge for today was 2-fold, to swatch a gorgeous newly released lacquer named Eyre and to create nail art using Nail Vinyls and the creamy shades Marine and Mad Magenta. I had quite a bit of fun with this challenge so buckle up for a long post!

Glam Polish Divine Cosmos and Infinite Wisdom

Hi Everyone! Today I would love to share with you my review and swatches of a couple of Glam Polish shades that are part of the Exotic Illusions Series. These two are my first introduction to the Glam Polish indie brand and I'm rather smitten. Does anyone still say smitten these days? It is the perfect word to describe how I feel about these beauties...

Select Shades of Dance Legend Smoky Collection

Happy Friday everyone! I was recently given a wonderful opportunity to review some Dance Legend shades and I will be showing you my selections from a few of their different collections over the coming weeks. One of the collections that I'm head over heels in love with is the Smoky collection. Despite the fact that I would categorize these as Fall colors, I have been sporting them all week and still can't get enough of them...

Teal Swirls...

Hi everyone! Today's out of the archives manicure is one of my favorites that I didn't get a chance to share with you before. This was a look that I created while playing around with the Nicole by OPI 2014 shades. There are so many pretties in that release, but as usual, I gravitated toward the teal...

OPI Brazil Nail Art

Hi Everyone! Pardon me for the lack of an original title. This is nail art that I created while swatching the OPI Brazil collection. I really loved seeing the yellow and teal together and wanted to try something with the two of them. I must confess thought that this isn't the final look I was going for, but I had a gut feeling that I wouldn't like my final result and stopped to take photos along the way. I love the simplicity and clean lines of this look...

OPI Brazil Swatches and Review...

Hi Everyone! This post has been a long time in the making, but I finally got a chance to process all the photos and I'm excited to show you the beautiful OPI Brazil collection released for the Spring/Summer season. The collection includes both neutral and bright creams which are just perfect for the summer days ahead. The Brazil collection also includes a set of four bright and colorful mini liquid sand Beach Sandies shades. This post is long and photo heavy so consider yourselves warned :)...

Roughled Turquoise...

Hi Everyone! Today I would like to show you a manicure which I consider a bit of a happy accident. I had been wearing the Nicole by OPI On What Grounds? for a few days after swatching it and as I often do, I decided to play around with nail art before removing it. It always gives me the freedom to try various things without the fear that I need to make it perfect. Most often I end up with a different design on each nail. The ones that turn out well get stored somewhere in my brain to try out later and the whole mess usually gets promptly removed. This time however, I liked the idea enough to try it out  right away, despite the visible (at least to me) nail growth. I think this looks a bit like marble or turquoise...

Nicole by OPI Roughles Swatches and Review!

Every time I think that I've seen it all when it comes to texture, I'm happily surprised with new colors and effects. Such is the case with the Nicole by OPI Roughles (pronounced "ruffles") which I would like to show you today. These pastel matte textured shades are a refreshing change from the usual sparkle loaded or solid color textures lacquers. These are so sweet for spring. They make me think of yummy berry yogurt...

Nicole by OPI New Nail Lacquers for 2014 Swatches and Review

Today I have prepared for you swatches of the new 2014 Nicole by OPI nail lacquers! I'll leave my blabbing to a minimum because this post is very photo heavy. Consider yourself warned! Let me know what you think of these new shades!

My Favorite Ornament

December seems to be flying by at rocket speed and I'm realizing that I don't have much time to execute a lot of the ideas that have been floating in my head. This is one such idea that I'm happy to have found the time to create. It was in one way or another inspired by a number of talented ladies, so I thank Beaching Nails for the idea of using nail studs for ornaments, Drama Queen Nails for the idea that studs can be painted with polish and Eeek! Nail Polish! for the idea of stamping onto rhinestones. Sheesh! Feels like I'm making some sort of acceptance speech here, but truly I learn so much from seeing everyone's manicures that even though my manicure doesn't resemble theirs, I did get the idea from their beautiful art. And now without further adieu, my ornament manicure...

piCture pOlish Collab-Fest 2013

Hi Everyone! I have been getting some much needed R&R over the past week and I return today with a very special post for piCture pOlish Collab-Fest. This end of the year celebration aims to show off all the amazing shades created by piCture pOlish in collaboration with bloggers. Each blogger will create a manicure featuring their own shade to share with you. I'm super excited to get an excuse to show you my collaboration shade, Sea Jewel, again and bring to life the manicure which has been floating around in my head for a while now...

365 Days of Color Horcrux Collection

Today I would like to show you the new 365 Days of Color Horcrux Collection which goes on pre-sale today. I must confess that I have not read any of the Harry Potter books and have only seen the first movie, but that doesn't stop me from drooling over these beautiful polish creations. I had to get schooled in the ways of Harry Potter by my boyfriend and 7 year old nephew. The two of them had quite an intense debate and lost me somewhere along the way, but at least now I know what a Horcrux is and when it comes to polish, it is beautiful...

31DC2013 Day 22 - Inspired by a Song

Today I would like to show you my manicure for Day 22 of the 31 Day Nail Challenge. The challenge today is to be inspired by a song. I decided to go with one of my current favorites, Merry Go 'Round by Kacey Musgraves. If you have not heard this song before, you can listen to it on YouTube. The lyrics of the song really resonate with me. I was so excited that I got the chance to see her in concert this summer...

31DC2013 Day 17 - Glitter

For day 17 of the 31 Day Nail Challenge, a glitter manicure, I knew I wanted to play with some of my loose glitter. I got this hex glitter a while ago and thought it would be fun for nail art when I wanted something different from the standard hex glitter. For some reason it has stood unused... until now that is...