Polish days: Something new – day of the dead water decals

Well, it’s kind of far from Dia de Los Muertos, but I found these water decals and I really wanted to try them. I had never used water decals before, so when I heard the next Polish Days event theme was “something new,” I knew what I was going to try out. The water decals are just the skulls, which you can find here on ebay. I painted my nails white first since the decals are clear and black so that the skulls would be white. Next, I just drew around the outline of the skull with as many bright colors I could find. I ended up essentially scribbling a lot, but I like how it came out!

You can find the Polish Days event page here. Be sure to check out the other Polish Days manicures using the link below and host of the event Polly Polish!

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!

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?

 

Pink and tan leopard print with China Glaze Kalahari Kiss

I’ve been wanting to try out the leopard print manicure I saw in this post at Swatch and Learn, but I thought it would be really time consuming. I just bought China Glaze Kalahari Kiss, and while I was swatching it, I got carried away and added the leopard spots with a dotting tool in pink using Zoya Gilda and black using A England Bridal Veil. It was so much easier than I had thought, and it was quicker than stamping in my opinion. So take a look at that post I was talking about and don’t be afraid to try it!

Rainbows + Hawaii

I’m in the airport about to go to Hawaii for a conference. I’m so excited. The high temperatures the whole weekend are in the 80s and the lows are in the 70s. I’m going to find time to hit the beach and maybe even come back with a tan (or a sunburn more likely).

This manicure was pretty simple and quick, but I liked how it turned out. The base is Lime Crime Lavendairy from the Desserts d’Antoinette collection. I love these colors and they are nice and opaque. They always end up looking kind of bad around my cuticles, but I think this is mostly operator error and because of how light the colors are. They dry fast and apply evenly, so I’m a fan. The rainbow is done with Migi nail art pens, which I love and have been raving about. These colors are from the neon collection.

At the hospital, I was in the middle of presenting my patient to my attending physician and he interrupted me and said “I love your nails!” It was hilarious because he’s a stoic guy. I’ll take that as a compliment.

Halloween costume party manicure – Red with military insignia

I ended up going to my costume party as a military officer. I really like this costume! I paid about $30 for it a while back, and though it’s still pretty flimsy like most Halloween costumes, I got a lot of comments on how high quality it looked. I figured the outfit looks vintage with the skirt, so I went with red shoes, red nails red lipstick. Any excuse is a good excuse for red lipstick, right?

For the manicure, I used Zoya Sooki, gold tape, and Migi nail art pens for the sergeant insignia. Gotta say, I ended up liking the ensemble 🙂

Happy Halloween! Nails for a Cleopatra costume

I got a Cleopatra costume for Halloween. I’m not sure if I want to wear it, but I still have this manicure if I decide to wear it. This is Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Golden-I and Migi pens. I just discovered these nail art pens and I’m a huge fan!

End of summer stripes

So maybe summer technically ended a while ago, it’s still pretty hot in most of Texas. However, we’ve had a couple of chilly days recently, so I’m finally thinking about fall. This was my attempt to transition between summer and fall. I used Julep Toni as the base color. This color has really grown on me. It’s a wearable grey/purple color. The stripes are with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Lightening and Julep Sasha.

I really love the colors of the Julep polishes I have, but I find them really difficult to wear. The first layer is really streaky and it takes a long time to dry. Maybe it’s just the colors that I own that are difficult. Anyone have any opinions about this brand?