31 DAY NAIL ART CHALLENGE: RED NAILS

Hello everyone! :) I apologize that I have been M.I.A. lately...alot has happened, so I do apologize. But here I am! I'm back and I am excited to tell you guys that I am doing the 31 Day Nail Challenge again!!
I started it a little late last year...and because I was out of town I wasn't able to start it on the 1st of this month like everyone else, but that's not stopping me from doing it :)

So here is the list for the full 31 Days, and if you would like to try this out I highly recommend it! I honestly believe that doing my nails every day for 31 days last year is what really helped improve my nail art :) So I am excited to see what I come up with this year :)

As you can tell 'Red' is the theme for day one. I have been wanting to try out this nail technique for Roses for a few weeks, and I figured it would be perfect for today's theme.

I don't know if I love this with the all black nails or not, I think the black is really bold and takes away from the roses...but other than that I am satisfied with how these turned out :) The colors I used were China Glaze, Liquid Leather and Merry Berry, and I also used red and white acrylic paint.

If you guys have checked out my post for last year's Red nails, you might notice that the design is actually kind of similar...that was not on purpose :P I used pretty much the same colors and I did a french tip design both times haha. 

When I decided to do this design I hadn't even looked at the design I did last year until this one was finished. And I just laughed at myself for doing something similar...but I do have to say that my painting and my pictures have improved :) 

I got the idea for this look and technique from Robin Moses :) (If you would like to check out her design you can see it here). I did follow her video, but I added the white to make it stand out a little bit more and sparkles to make it more elegant.

I hope you guys enjoyed this design and look forward to 30 more :P Have a great night and I will see you guys again tomorrow!

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY!!

Good afternoon everyone! Do you guys know what happened yesterday!? ...My blog had its 1ST BIRTHDAY!! :D Hahaha.

It has been an entire year since I posted my very first blog post! And in that time I have learned alot! I know doing my nails AT LEAST once a week since then has Really helped improve my skills...if you don't believe me go back and look through some of my first designs :P lol j/k...I have always had a thing for nails and nail art. But one of the best things that I have enjoyed so much over this past year is finding more nail artists out there with social media and being able to follow so many of them! It has really helped keep me inspired. The talent that some of these women/girls (and even some men) have is absolutely amazing!

So now that it has been a year, and I have learned many new things, I do want to post on a more regular basis...I will maybe post once a week (for now). I know I have said that before but the thing I've realized is that keeping a blog takes dedication! Doing my nails each week, taking and editing photos, posting on Instagram and Facebook and then writing a blog post is like a full time job! :P I know that may sound silly, but it's true! And the past few months I have been extremely dedicated on working out and losing weight/toning my body (if you would like to follow my health and fitness journey you can follow my personal account on Instagram, tionna6 :) I would love it!), so my nails haven't been my first priority. So within the next few weeks I will figure out a day that works best for me and keep you guys updated! If you have a blog or you read lots of blogs and have any suggestions on ways that I can improve mine, please don't hesitate to share :) I would love some feedback! And just to leave you guys with some fun things to look forward to...here are some of the fun designs I have done recently! There will be blog posts for each one :)

I want to thank you guys for checking out my blog today! For those of you who read my blog on a regular basis I thank you so much for sticking with me! :) I appreciate all of your love and support!

Have an AMAZING day!!

JULEP MAVEN SWATCH & REVIEW

Hey guys! Here is my June Maven Box :) Swatches are all done and I'm excited to show you guys! :)

In this box I received Nan, Bess and Char, and I'm excited about these swatches because the colors are stunning!

I decided to opt out of my July Maven box because it's not prudent for me this month, but I still have some new polishes to swatch...Neons! :D And I also have more designs to post as well :)

Char - This is a beautiful midnight blue! I have alot of blue polishes, but this is the best dark blue I own (in my opinion). I only needed to apply 2 coats for the overall opaqueness, and once the top coat was dry I couldn't stop staring at this color! Sometimes I don't like doing swatches because I want to keep the colors on longer :P

Nan - This is a very unique color. I don't really know whether to consider it an orange or a red...I guess red-orange works :P But it's like a burnt red-orange. It's very pretty, just very different. 

The thing I really like most about all of the Julep polishes I've received is they are all pretty opaque, I could get away with one coat for most of the colors I have, but I use 2 just to make sure it's even all over, and the consistency is pretty much a perfect cream :P None of the polishes I've received are runny or thick (that would suck), and they all apply very smooth.

Bess - This is the color that I absolutely fell IN LOVE with!! I was immediately hypnotized by it the moment I saw it! A few months ago I hardly had any blue polishes, but now I think I have more blue polishes than any other color :P And this one is my new favorite! :P (I know I say that about every blue, but it's true!) Every blue is different so I love all of them! :P I really shouldn't compare them to each other.

The consistency of this blue is really what I loved most once I applied it. Like I mentioned a second ago the consistency of the Julep polishes is so smooth and creamy...I fell even more in love with it when I started painting it on my nails :P It was like a polish orgasm (HAHAHA sorry if that's inappropriate). If you happen to do your nails and swatch polishes I'm sure you may have had one of those moments.


Anywho, thank you for taking some time to check out my post :) I hope you found it helpful and maybe even entertaining! I know in previous posts I have stated that I want to post on a more regular basis but I don't think (at this moment in time) that I will be doing that. I don't like doing my nails on a timeline or schedule, I like to paint them and post photos when I feel up to it, and feel inspired to do so, so if that bothers you I apologize, but I want to like what I do and not feel like I'm forcing it...so my posts will be random but I will post my designs for you :)

4TH OF JULY NAIL ART

I know that it's past the 4th of July now, but I still wanted to show you guys my design! :) I really wanted to do something fun and unique this year and after googling, YouTube-ing, IG-ing and even looking all over Pinterest I couldn't think of anything!! So I got out my red polish and decided to paint my toes while (hopefully) something came to me.

I think I got lucky this year because I love how this design turned out! :) I even started painting before I actually figured out what I was going to do...So here's my fun, unique design!

I started off painting my ring finger with Sinful Colors, Snow Me White, and while it was drying the thought of swimming suits popped into my head :P It was quite appropriate because that's how my fiance and I were spending our holiday :) It's been averaging about 106 (degrees) here this week so that's all we could think of doing lol!

Using my acrylic paints, I free-handed the swimming suits (they are not a replica of mine or my fiance's :P), and I think they turned out so cute!! A little Red Polka Dot Bikini :P

I didn't use any other polishes to finish this design, it was all done with acrylic paint...which is good that I have that because I don't have a red polish this color :( 

And this is to prove that my left hand gets love too :P lol This is definitely a 'His & Her' design. I hope you guys had a fun and safe holiday!! Thanks for checking out my blog! :)

FUN NAIL STAMP

If you follow me on a regular basis, you've probably noticed that I haven't done much stamping recently. But because I was going on vacation for a week and wasn't going to take my nail supplies, I decided to do a fun, simple design with my stamps :)

The day I before I left for my vacation my fiance and I were at the grocery store and when I went to put something in the cart my pinky nail hit right directly on the top of the bar :( ...so the Zoya PixieDust held on pretty good right until the end! :P So not only did they need to be repainted, but because of the one break, they all needed to be filed down. I even debated putting the Zoya PixieDust back on, but decided I should do a fun stamp instead.

I loved the orange on my nails before so I decided to stick with orange-like colors :) I used China Glaze, Sun of a Peach as the base coat (it needed about 3 coats for full opaqueness), and then used Zoya, Maura and Cheeky plate CH7 for the stamp. I only have 2 Zoya polishes (atm...) so I haven't had any experience before stamping with Zoya polishes, but Maura is the perfect color for stamping! It has a really nice consistency and is very opaque with one coat.

(China Glaze - Sun of a Peach)

(Zoya - Maura)

There you have it! Short and sweet! :) I hope you guys enjoyed this design as much as I did! It has inspired me to want to stamp more...I may have to buy more stamps soon :P I'll keep you updated!

ZOYA PIXIEDUST

Good morning! :) I have a few posts to share with you guys today and I am super excited about all of them! This first one is a '3 in 1' post :P I wasn't able to finish the June Nail Challenge because I went on vacation for a week, so I missed some of the fun days :( ...don't worry though, I will make up for it! The reason I am excited about this one is because I was able to do the Sparkles and Match OOTD of the #nailartjune. The reason it's a '3 in 1' post is because this is also a swatch of my first Zoya PixieDust :) I have always wanted the Zoya PixieDust collection because they are absolutely gorgeous! But I was a little hesitant on whether or not I would actually like them, so for starters I bought one.

Say hello to Beatrix :P

So this is Zoya PixieDust, Beatrix :) I am absolutely in love with this polish! I am so glad I bought one and tried it out! I don't think I would have been disappointed if I had bought the entire set, but I think one for starters was good for me. The reason I picked this color over any of the others is because I don't have many orange polishes, and none of my orange polishes are this color so I was happy to have a light orange.

When I applied this polish over my nails I actually applied a base coat first (apparently Zoya suggests no base coat and no top coat, but I didn't read that until I was done painting), and then applied 2 coats of the color. I think I could have gotten away with one coat but I like doing two just to make sure all of the nails have the same opaqueness. When I finished I debated putting on a top coat because I wanted to see how it would look, but I figured since this was my first time wearing a textured polish, I would leave it plain...and I am glad I did. I wore this for an entire week and I loved the way it felt! Plus I'm positive it saved my nails from breaking twice during that week. The only (not really negative) thing about this polish is because it has sparkles its hard to clean up...if you look at the pictures you can see that there are still sparkles on my cuticles.

Overall, I am absolutely in LOVE with this polish and definitely recommend it to anyone wanting to try it out. If you have any questions or comments feel free to leave them below :)