Zebra Dress-inspired Mani

Hey all! Happy Manicure Monday!

I have another object-inspired mani for you! Today I started cleaning/unpacking things from this past school year (yes, I never got around to doing that all summer lol), and I started going through my closet. After cleaning things up off the floor of the closet (where I tend to stash stuff when I "clean my room") I found my old Christmas dress from two years ago, one with zebra print on top and a purple stripe in the middle. I didn't even think I still had it. Anyway, I thought it might be a cool thing to model my mani after!

Here it is (by the way, the L.A girl polish is Violet purple, not the indigo color it looks like in the picture):

Oh, and here is the dress it was modeled after. I'm sorry the picture is so awful (I had no good natural light since it has been cloudy out all day today), but just know that the stripe/ribbon right below the zebra print top part of the dress is a Violet color, not the indigo it looks like in the picture.

Overall, I think the mani turned out okay....I think next time if I were to ever repeat this mani, I would use a lighter color (maybe red or coral?) that wouldn't blend in with the black as much. Anyway, the polishes I used were Sinful Colors Black on Black, L.A. Girl Hustle (purple), and L.A. Girl Disco Ball (white).

Hope you like it! Have a great rest of the evening!

-Colleen

Purse-Inspired Mani

Hey everyone!

Today I have for you a mani inspired by one of my purses! It's a Betsy Johnson purse, with a mix of leopard print and roses. Here's a pic of the pattern:

I thought it was really cute when I got it, so I thought doing a manicure off of it would be pretty cool!

Here's my mani:

I thought it tuned out pretty cool! Actually, I think it's my best mani yet :)

For the gray base color, I used a sparkly gray from Sephora by OPI, which was from the 2012 Holiday Collection. For the light maroon color used for the leopard print, I used another Sephora by OPI polish, again from the 2012 Holiday Collection. For the black, I used Sinful Colors Black On Black. The two pink colors used in the roses were Sally Hansen Ruby Sequin and a hot pink by Delia's; and the green used was Essie The More The Merrier.

I hope you guys like the mani! If anyone would like a tutorial posted, please let me know via the comments or by email (see the contact me tab)!

Have a fabulous rest of the day,

-Colleen

Turtle Shell Nails

Well, Happy Saturday everyone!

It's finally a gorgeous day in the Chicagoland area today. 75 degrees and not a cloud in the sky :)

Anyway, today I have for you a design that has been at the top of my Nail Design Bucket List: Turtle Shell Nails! Overall, I think it turned out pretty good. Here it is:

I love the pear-green color with the coral!! For something a little different, here's a picture of it with a ring (which looks almost like a turtle shell to me):

 For this mani, I started out with 2 coats of Essie The More The Merrier (the pear-green color) on all fingers except my ring finger. For the coral base color on my ring finger, I used 2 coats of Delia's Coral Cascade. Then, to get the turtle shell pattern, I used a gray color with shiny silver undertones from Sephora by OPI Holiday 2012 Mini Collection (I threw out the box which had the names on it, sorry) for the turtle shell print on the nails that had green on them, and used another glittery gold polish from Sephora by OPI Holiday 2012 Collection (Which again I don't know the name for) for the turtle shell print on the coral-colored nail. To make the turtle shell print, all I did was take a tooth pick and draw a small hexagon on the nail, and continue drawing hexagons connecting to the first hexagon. For a better turtle shell print, make sure to draw that first hexagon in a different place on each of the nails. I hope that all made sense....

That's all for today....hope you have a great rest of the weekend!!

-Colleen

Attack of the Minions Nails

Hey all!

I have seen many, many, many minion-themed nails recently. In fact, I really liked the minion-themed nails on the blog Eeeek! Nail polish! which you can see here. But I have to say, mine definitely doesn't look as good as hers. My little sister was the one who really wanted to have Minion Nails, which made it hard because she has such tiny fingernails. So, I tried my best.

It didn't really turn out like I had hoped, but here it is:

I have to say though, the one minion on my sister's middle finger almost looks like it has fangs lol (it was supposed to be teeth, but her nail was so small)

Anyway, the yellow I used was Nicole by OPI Hit The Lights, the dark blue was from Charlotte Russe (it didn't have a name), the black was Sinful Colors Black On Black, and the white for the eyes was L.A. Girl Disco Ball. 

I hope you have a great rest of the day! Thanks for reading!

By the way, check out the blog Wishes of a Blue-Eyed Girl for an awesome giveaway celebrating her 1 year blogaversery!! You can check it out here.

-Colleen

ROY G BIV Polka Dot Mani

Hey all!

I hope you're all having a great week so far. Today I'm showing you a mani I did modeled off of Jen's Rainbow Polka Dot Nails on her blog Polish and Pearls. You can see hers here, where she also has a tutorial. I thought this mani was amazing for summer, and the bright colors really cheered me up since it the weather was so gloomy in Chicago for most of the day yesterday.

Anyway, here it is:

And then here is the line of rainbow colors I used (Sorry about the window being in the pic...I couldn't crop it very well and I wanted to be able to use the ledge):

For the white I used L.A. Girl Disco Ball, for the blue I used a pastel blue color from California Colors (it didn't have a name), for the green I used Essie The More The Merrier, for the yellow I used Nicole by OPI Hit The Lights  from the Selena Gomez Collection, the orange and pink were two neons from Delia's (they didn't have a name either), and for the purple I used Sinful Colors Tempest.

To do this design all I did was start out with 2 coats of white. Then on half of each of the nails I tried to do 3-4 big dots of the colors with the end of a bobby pin. Then, I used a small-pointed dotting tool to add smaller dots of the same colors. You can see a regular tutorial of this mani from Polish and Pearls linked above.

I hope you like this mani! The little kids I teach for swim lessons loved it lol.

Have a great rest of the day!

-Colleen