Nail polish swatch of Lime Crime – Crema de Limon

This is from Lime Crime’s Desserts d’Antoinette collection, which I bought the whole set of. I like all of the polishes in the collection because the colors are unique and they wear surprisingly well for being pastels. This is 3 coats with topcoat. And look, no streaks!

New Year’s Eve nails – navy and gold Ruffian

This is what I ended up wearing on my nails for New Year’s eve. The navy is Zoya Ibiza and the champagne is Zoya Jules, one coat each.  Jules is great, but I LOVE Ibiza. The color is almost black, but has such a beautiful flash of blue when it hits the light. They both have great coverage and apply smoothly. So the Ruffian is like a reverse half moon/French manicure that is easy to do quickly. The manicure was (at least reportedly) first done for fashion label Ruffian. All you do is first paint your full nails as you would normally with one color, then do the same thing with another color without going all the way down to the cuticle. I ended up making a last minute trip to New Orleans on New Year’s eve so time was of the essence with this manicure. This is also my excuse as to why it isn’t super neat. I took these photos a while after I did my mani, so I’m sorry for all of the wear and tear!

The skirt featured in the first photo, which was what I wore on NYE, is this skirt from Express. It’s a sequin Aztec/tribal print mini skirt. I fell in love with it the first time I saw it. I was lucky enough to get it when it was 40% off, s0 I got it in 2 colors! It was 50 degrees in NOLA, but I paired it with a leather jacket and managed to stay warm. Thanks for reading!

Pink ombre mermaid? nails

I was inspired by this tutorial at Little Nails that I read a couple months ago. However, I neglected to look at the tutorial again before doing it, and I just went at it. Needless to say, this really doesn’t look like a mermaid tail. Still, I think I like the final product. I used so many nail polishes that I don’t want to write it out, but I do know what I used. Ask away if you’re wondering what a color is.  I swatched it on paper and figured out what I was doing wrong. Next time they might actually turn out right!

Zoya Mieko swatch

Hey everyone! Nothing fancy today, just a swatch of Zoya Mieko. It’s a beautiful warm pink with gold shimmer, which adds so much depth. It’s one of my favorite nail polishes. It’s a unique, versatile color that applies beautifully. This is with two coats and topcoat. Happy holidays.

Merry Christmas kisses under the mistletoe

Merry Christmas y’all! I got over being grinchy and finally posted a festive manicure. I used Migi Nail Art pens for this. My mom is in town for the next week so you may see her (much healthier) nails featured at some point. Happy holidays to everyone

Dr. Mario nail art

Hope you all like the layout change. After getting 4 days a month off for the last 3 months, I now have weekends off AND 4 days off for the holidays so I don’t know what to do with myself! Since I haven’t had as much medicine in my daily life because I’ve had so much time off, I had to compensate by doing medicine related nails. I did Dr. Mario nails inspired by the old video game. On the pinky are two pills, ring and pointer have viruses, Dr. Mario himself is on the middle finger, and my thumb says “Dr. Mario.” I used A England Bridal Veil for the black background and Zoya Mimi for the purple. All of the designs were done using Migi Nail Art pens, though I mixed up some of the colors with different nail polishes. So, do you remember playing Dr. Mario?

 

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Venom Vixen

Sorry I haven’t updated in a while! Since my last post, I finished my shelf exam for internal medicine, started my neurology rotation, lost my phone, aaand it was my birthday. So I’d say I’ve stayed pretty busy. This manicure was done using those nail polish strips by Sally Hansen called Salon Effects in Venom Vixen, which is an intense red snakeskin. I messed up one of the tips, so instead of fixing it, I just covered it with gold glitter using Speciallita Hits MTV in Golden Disco. I’ll admit, I’m being lazy this week.

 

Zoya Alegra nail polish swatch

I’ve had a big problem with my nails peeling and breaking, so I’ve been using Dermanail for about one month. I haven’t broken a nail in at least 2 weeks, which I think is the longest I’ve gone. Now that my nails are approximately all the same length and shape, I feel like this is a good excuse to post a plain ol’ swatch.

This is Zoya Alegra, from the Sparkle collection. As I always am with Zoya nail polishes, I’m impressed by this formula. This was two coats with a top coat and was fully opaque. It applies so smoothly and the color is gorgeous!

Konad stamped glitter french manicure

Without a doubt, my favorite way to do a French manicure is with the Konad stamping plate that comes with the French manicure kit (set F, plate M19). It takes some getting use to, but once you do, you can do the tips in just minutes, and they end up a lot more even for me than doing them freehand. For these, I did the tips with the stamping plate, then put Essie Shine of the Times on top. After a while, I decided I didn’t like the glitter over the white tips so I just restamped them, so the tips are a bit thick. Has anyone tried using this plate? Have you had any trouble?

Bling-a-ling holiday nails with mini hexagon glitter

I like the idea of sequins and glitter for the holidays, especially for New Year’s, but I don’t think I could pull off something like a sequin dress. I think this is the next best thing for me. I used mini hexagon glitter that I found on ebay, and I just sprinkled on after applying a similarly colored nail polish. It ended up staying on my nails surprisingly well. I put a top coat on over, and I didn’t have much trouble with it. I’ll probably try to recreate something similar for New Years.

This manicure was inspired by Polish Days over at Polly Polish, with the theme “bling.” Check out some of the other wonderful manicures below.