It's a Wash!

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Do you ever have one of those days where you're inspired to create some nail art...and you're lucky enough that it turns out EXACTLY how you envisioned it? The day I created this design was definitely one of those days for me. It was after I watched an episode of Project Runway, and I was inspired by a rug, of all things. :D I liked how the colors messily faded from one color to the next, and I knew I wanted to do it in a cream/turquoise/navy color scheme. I feel like I'm inspired by rugs a lot...weird. Either I look down a lot, or I have a thing for rugs? (not bad toupee rugs though)

For this design, all I did was paint the cream color as a base, then grabbed my turquoise polish, wiped all the excess polish from the brush, then brushed the polish lightly from the tip toward the cuticle, stopping about 2/3 of the way down. Next, I did the same with my navy color, only going 1/3 of the way down, so both the cream and turquoise would show. I tried to make the strokes look semi-messy and distressed looking. I topped it off with topcoat and was good to go! I got so many comments on these nails, and I absolutely loved them (so much so that I touched up the navy when I got tip wear, and I'm still wearing them a week later!!).

I used:

Cream: Illamasqua Load
Turquoise: Morgan Taylor West Coast Cool
Navy: Morgan Taylor Polished Up Punk

Base Coat: Glisten & Glow Stuck on Blu
Top Coat: Glisten & Glow HK Girl

Tell me in the comments about a time where your next art turned out exactly as you envisioned!


Disclosure: Some of the items in this post were provided by the manufacturer for consideration. 

Point Taken!

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It's spring. Seriously, in Michigan today I am able to go outside WITHOUT A COAT! How exciting, right?! I have to say, I'm super stoked about slightly warmer days and well, the lack of snow. I can't wait to be able to play outside with Homer and take his energetic little white butt for walks.

Today, to celebrate a day above freezing, I decided to do some quick nail art using some nail polishes from the Morgan Taylor nail polish line. It's very simple, but it makes me think of pools and bright sunshiny days!

To achieve this look, I simply painted my nail with Morgan Taylor Water Baby and then used tape to mask off where I didn't want the turquoise to go, then painted with Morgan Taylor West Coast Cool. Remove the tape, add topcoat and done! :-D

I used:

Light Blue: Morgan Taylor Water Baby
Turquoise: Morgan Taylor West Coast Cool

Basecoat: Morgan Taylor Stick With It basecoat
Topcoat: Morgan Taylor Need for Speed topcoat

What do you think? Does this nail art feel like Spring? What are you painting for spring? Tell me in the comments below!

Morgan Taylor nail polishes, as always, are free of formaldehyde, toluene, and dibutyl phthalate and can be purchased at loxabeauty.com for $8.50. 

Disclosure: Products in this post were provided for review by the manufacturer. See the legal page disclosure for more information.

Bright Meets Blah

Sometimes I just start a manicure with a color scheme in mind, and let things develop as I paint. Sure, manicures like this generally take way more time than even some of the more complicated ones (surprising, right?), but I like to do them every so often because it's fun to see what happens. I hope you guys don't mind! :D I actually really like how this turned out- and I think I might do a full manicure of just mix-and-match half moons.

Chris and I went to Mahabalipuram this weekend to grab some gifts for him to take home when he visits, and on the way, we stopped to talk to his surfing buddies in Kovallam. I'm pretty excited, when my sister comes, we're both going to take surfing lessons! (I'm also slightly terrified because neither of us can swim) How cool is it that we're going to surf for the first time in the Indian Ocean?! I'm pretty stoked, its going to be an amazing experience! I'm also pretty excited for all the other things that we have been planning to do when she gets here- we're going to visit the Taj Mahal in Agra, stay at an elephant preserve in Jaipur, and tons of other stuff we haven't decided yet! I'm excited to finally see the country I've been living in for almost the past year. I'm totally going to pick up one of those curly toed pairs of leather shoes (and probably a million other things!).

Anyway, the nails. Yes, the nails. I have an array of half-moons, stripes, and dottiness in a bright-meets-blah color scheme for you today!

I used:

Dark Grey: Nubar Stronghold
Light Grey: Nubar Marble Tower
Yellow: CND Bicycle Yellow
Turquoise: Zoya Robyn

Topcoat: Seche Vite topcoat

Basecoat: Seche Vite basecoat

Get to the Point

Uh-oh. One of those nail doodles happened. This started out being inspired by a F*(King awesome pencil skirt that Divya wore on the show 'Royal Pains' (If I can ever find a photo of it, I'll post it!), but evolved after it looked too bland. I'm actually loving how it turned out. The colors were bottles I already had on my nail table from previous designs (save for the yellow), and it seemed like a natural path to get to the picture(s) below. :)

Are you ever nail art inspired by fashion you see on TV shows or movies?

I used:

White: Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On
Yellow: China Glaze Happy Go Lucky
Grey: Nubar Stronghold
Teal: American Apparel Peacock
Turquoise: Zoya Robyn
Topcoat: Seche Vite

Spotted!

After some of the recent designs I've done, I wanted to keep it simple today. Super simple. This design was inspired by an interesting invitation fold where 4 semi-circles come together to make a cool looking center. The best part about this design is that is entirely done with a dotting tool! But wait–you don't have a dotting tool? How about a toothpick? Maybe a pin? A nail? Anything with a small, round tip can work! Easy stuff.

Another thing that is nice about this design is that it can be done in a zillion different color combinations if you don't like grey, purple, lime, hot pink, and turquoise! :D (But, let's be realistic- who doesn't like those colors?! Maybe not necessarily in this combination, but still! :-D)

I used:

Grey: Nubar Stronghold

Purple: American Apparel Imperial Purple

Lime Green: Sally Hansen Grass Slipper

Hot Pink: Zoya Lara

Turquoise: Zoya Robyn

Topcoat: Seche Vite

Disclosure: All Zoya links in this post are Zoya Love links, and points earned when you click on them, start an account, and make a purchase go directly back to you— as Giveaways!! :)

That's a Wrap!

First off, thanks for the suggestions (and compliments) for my tutorials! I'm glad that you guys are liking them. I'll do everything I can to take your suggestions and use them to influence my future tutorials! Keep those suggestions coming though- don't be shy, I can take it! Don't forget- there's something in it for YOU too! :)

I work in an office, and our dress code by U.S. standards is pretty casual. Common attire is polo shirts and jeans, though the women usually wear kurtas (a type of tunic) with leggings or salwar (loose, pajama-y pants). I often wear kurtas with jeans, but when I don't, I wear cute, work-appropriate tops. Today my top, though bright-colored, felt a little plain, so I threw on one of my favorite scarves...I've had it for years, and it made the trip to India with me. I initially bought it because of the bold graphic print and the color combination, but it's grown to be somewhat of a frequent accessory in my wardrobe. Anyway, when looking at it today, I felt the desire to do a nail art design inspired by the print of the fabric. It's not the same, but it uses similar colors and patterns. The best part about this design? It almost exclusively uses a dotting tool to make the design, I only used the nail art brush in a few places!

I used:

Brown: Zoya Codie
White: Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On
Pink: Zoya Lara
Turquoise: butter LONDON Artful Dodger
Green: Sally Hansen Grass Slipper
Topcoat: Seche Vite