Tropical Gradient Nails!

Hello hello! Words cannot describe how excited I am about today's manicure. Like, for realsies. Any avid followers of my blog may have noticed that there's a few major nail trends that I tend to avoid - water marbling, stamping, dramatic taping - because even though the rest of the nail blogging community says they're "easy" and "mess-free" and "fun"...well, I find them to be extremely challenging, disastrously messy, and no fun at all.

One such manicuring technique has been, to this point, gradient nails! I've never used the right sponges. Or the right colors. Or the right anything. But...at long last...I think I've finally gotten the hang of it!

So, without further ado, here are my tropical-colored gradient nails!

Aren't they fun!? I spent the greater part of my day just looking at them...(mostly because it was oddly dreary outside today, and my nails were significantly happier-looking). As for colors, I used...

Ciate Loop the Loop (yellow)

Orly Green Apple (green)

Julep Sasha (coral-orange)

I'd do something silly like promise to make a sponge gradient tutorial for you all, but Sammy at The Nailasaurus already has basically the greatest tutorial of all time up on her blog HERE. In fact, it's the tutorial that I followed to figure out how gradient nails work!

...Instead, I decided to do something silly like pick a household object that went along with my tropical theme and take a picture with that, then edit it all artsy-like. 

Hehe...yeah. Any guesses as to what it is? Try me in the comments!

Stay happy :D

Julep Maya (Swatches!)

Well hello there! 

Today's polish is one that isn't exactly "me" - but I'll leave the judging up to you, I guess. Another from Oprah's favorites, here's Julep Maya...

Maya is a pearly cross between champagne and seashell with a frosty finish. Heh...I'm still working on describing my colors right, if you can't tell. Anyway, I have incredibly mixed feelings about Maya.

One one hand, I think Maya is a really interesting color! Most of my nail polishes are the bright, pop-out-ish colors that most people only sport on their toes during the summer, and Maya seems a little...tame. Nonetheless, I like the way she looks on my nails. Now...my mom did say it looked "old-lady-ish" (her words, not mine!), and I don't know if I'd call Oprah an old lady, but she's definitely not young any more.

On the other hand, Maya's finish is something else. I don't usually work with pearly finishes or frosts, and if you can't tell by the SUPER-visible brush strokes, I'm not very good with them, either. They kind of confuse me, and I had to do an extra coat to cover up some really ugly brush strokes (pictured is three; Maya was opaque at two).

But, I mean, to each his (or her!) own, right? Overall, I think I like Maya; I'm just not going to be wearing her every single day of my life. How do you like her?

Stay happy!!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Yes! It's my birthday!

...a little narcissistic, no? But I guess that's to be expected from someone who blogs about their own nails, right? Oh, well.

My sister surprised me with the most AMAZING nail polish birthday present ever: the Oprah's Favorite Things Nail Color Jewelry Box by Julep! It's a super pretty white box with velvet lining and TWELVE Julep polishes in it ("A 12-polish set of Oprah's hand-picked favorites"!). Which is absolutely perfect, considering right now I'm at least kind of obsessed with Julep products.

Anyway. Here's what my birthday manicure was GOING to be - just a plain creme, because I thought I'd give myself time in my day to do real-people fun things, not just paint my nails:

This is Julep Carrie, a delightfully soft pastel pink. Yes - delightfully. I don't know why that doesn't seem like a word that should ever describe a nail polish, but I just went there. Carrie was perfectly self-evening and everything in just two coats!

After I'd been sitting around for a couple minutes, I realized that I had to do something at least a little more exciting for birthday nails, so I grabbed a dotting tool and got to work using Julep Lauren...

Just FYI, if you're ever dotting with a neon, be aware that you will have to work SUPER quickly! Something about the way neons dry all fast and matte and stuff make them harder to dot with.

So that was going to be it for my birthday nails, but then I had a ridiculous accident with a broken shower tile that left me rather immobile. (An accident? In the shower? Only me. I know. It actually takes talent to be as uncoordinated as I am.) I couldn't swim, but I showed up to the pool anyways to help my coach out a little bit.

Well, I ended up sitting at a desk beside the pool for the better part of two hours, and if you've ever tried to watch a swim practice, you know that swimming is a downright boring sport to observe. I stole two of my coach's Sharpie pens and went at my nails:

(This is after a few hand-washings - the green and red started to fade off.)

It was supposed to look floral-ish...which I guess it sort of did...but nobody could really tell what was going on with my nails unless I shoved them in their faces saying, "LOOK AT MY NAILS THEY HAVE FLOWERS!" At which point most people would just smile and say, "Sure they do, Natalie."

So...yeah. That was my birthday. Maybe soon I'll try the "floral" thing again (and maybe I'll actually use real nail polish this time!). What do you think of the look?

Stay happy!

Focus on French: Glitter Gradients

Hello there!

Sorry it's been awhile - it's been one of those weeks where I can't seem to find time to do anything, yet I feel incredibly busy. Anyway, I'm back with part 2 of my fun with French tips: glitter gradients!

These might not actually count as French tips, but done right, I think they can have the same effect, if not an even nicer one. To go with the whole French theme, I started with a nude-ish base and used gold glitter on top.

This look is SUPER simple to get, and I think it comes off as pretty classy. But maybe that's just me. Anyway, I used Zoya Kennedy as my nude and e.l.f. Golden Goddess as my glitter. Here's Kennedy alone:

Glitter gradients - yes or no?

Stay happy!