Tuxedo Nails!

Happy New Year's Eve! I spent awhile thinking about what kind of nails I'd do for today, and I came up with a really cute dotted manicure, but I was too scared to try doing a mega dot mani on my right hand. So here's what I have instead - tuxedo nails!

That's my left hand; after a few accidents, I wasn't brave enough to do the same on my right hand (everything was done freehand!), so I changed it up a little:

I have to admit...they turned out a lot better than I thought I would! 

How do you like the look? 

Stay happy!

Zoya Gwin

Right after Christmas, I was a little tired. Too scared to try out my dotting tools again...so I took a step back and went back to a happy place - orange.

Gwin is one of my favorite oranges ever (even if it's not neon). Check it out!

Isn't she pretty! In some lights, Gwin leans a lot more coral than orange, but she's mostly orange. She has a golden to almost-green duochromey effect going on, which you can see more in the bottle than on my nails in these pictures, but in real life you can definitely see the color shift.

My ONLY issue with Gwin is her formula - she's a little thin and runny and does need three coats for full opacity. But for an orange-obsessed nail freak like me, Gwin's color makes up for that.

Stay happy!

Happy Christmas!

IT'S FINALLY HERE!! Happy Christmas everyone - even if you don't celebrate it. I still hope today is rockin' awesome for you. I hope today is rockin' awesome for everyone, frankly.

Two different Christmas-themed nails today! I'm going to start with my right hand, because I think it's slightly less impressive. Having finally figured out the art of tape manicures, I decided to go a step further than just diagonals....with candy canes!

Christmas Candy Cane Nails

As you can probably guess, I'm right-handed, so this was my right hand done by my left...I was pretty pleased with how this turned out, considering I did it with my bad hand!

Now, my left hand mani...I'm in love with it. Without any further ado...reindeer nails!

Christmas Reindeer Nails

AREN'T THEY CUTE? The best part is that now I can't POSSIBLY be lonely on Christmas...I have five new friends on my nails!

Well, if candy canes and reindeer can't make you happy on Christmas, I don't know what will. Try to find  a happy place today. It should be hard to find a place that ISN'T a happy one...

Stay happy :)))

Red Holiday Nails!

So red is basically THE holiday color right? Well. Have I got a red for you. If you're looking for your go-to red that isn't summer-status bright, stop looking right now. It's right here. Zoya Dominique.

Zoya Dominique

Dominique isn't a straight up pure red. In the bottle, there's almost a brownish-clay-ish look going on; she does dry redder though. She's perfectly opaque in two coats, and for some reason she dries shinier than a lot of other creme finish polishes I have. Like, even with topcoat on, other cremes don't seem to be as shiny. I don't know how and I don't know why, but I love it.

But, with the holiday season in full swing, I couldn't just leave Dominique alone like this. I had to add some glitter.

  

I think it turned alright! The glitter is Julep Vivien, which is described as "champagne bubbles"...although I think she looks a little lighter than actual champagne-color.

Quick! Any more nail ideas for Christmas before it's gone? And then any inspiration for a New Year's mani?

Stay happy!

My phone looks like the UNIVERSE!

First in the sky itself. Then on nails. And now...on the back of my phone!

...Yes, that's right. Now my phone looks like the universe.

Galaxy phone...ha, ha...get it?

I used the same exact process that I use on my nails to make the back of my phone look like the universe! It took even less time than my nails, though, because I didn't need to do a layer of base coat or of black!

Additionally, I could not get over my own genius in making my phone (which is a Galaxy something-or-other) look like...well, a galaxy. Okay...maybe not "genius", exactly, but at least let me think it's super clever, okay?

Stay happy!

Julep Harper

I AM SO HAPPY THAT GLITTERS ARE THE THING TO DO FOR HOLIDAY NAILS.

Sorry. Too much excitement? I just am so, so, SO thrilled that its the general consensus that glitter is appropriate for Christmas and New Year's and all the other wintry holidays that are arriving right about now. In keeping with that spirit, Julep released a bunch of new glitters and for now, I have my favorite one for you: Harper.

Julep Harper

 This is two coats of Harper over a coat of Zoya Wednesday (Harper is, unfortunately, too sheer to stand alone). I might have gone a little overboard with pictures again...but I wanted to make sure I got all the aspects of the glitter and the color and all of Harper's beauty - Harper is SO pretty. I feel like I say this about a lot of polishes I use, but she looks like mermaid nails!

Harper had perfect formula but, as per the usual with glitters, needed a coat of Gelous and then one of Out the Door topcoat to smooth it out.

How are we liking the winter glitter trend? If you can't tell, I'm loving it!

Stay happy!

More Christmas Nails!

Joyeux noel! (That's French for "Merry Christmas". You're about to be overwhelmed by my cleverness right here...)

Today I have my French tip Christmas nails for you!

Understandably, that is a LOT of pictures. But I really liked my nails and I couldn't figure out which were the best...and I took a LOT of pictures in the first place because my nails are kind of ...um...yellow...and I was trying to see if I could find a way to hide the staining. As you may be able to tell, THAT didn't work.

I used Essie Hi Maintenance, Zoya Ivanka, China Glaze Ruby Pumps, and nails inc. Kensington Caviar topcoat (because it has a pinkish tint and helped with the yellow issue a little bit).

Stay happy!

Let It Snow!

...or let it not. There's always that one day of the year in this part of California when it snows for, like, a total of an hour and it's the highlight of everyone's entire month, but our weather's been so weird this week! (Which has really been killing my cuticles.)

Anyway, I thought I'd bring the snow here a little early! 

Zoya Natty (blue) and Purity (white)

Don't judge me for all the pictures. I couldn't decide which to use, and I couldn't get any that looked REALLY snowy... If it doesn't look like snow, you might need to turn your computer (or your head) sideways. Cool bonus trick, though: if you turn your head sideways the OTHER way, it doesn't look like falling snow any more - it looks like ocean spray! At least that's what I thought.

Any other ideas for snowy manicures? Let me know!

Stay happy! 

Happy December!

So I've been listening to Christmas music since Halloween already, but now that it's December, I can finally start my Christmas countdown! 

TWENTY-FOUR MORE DAYS!!

Anyways, today I have a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful red that's sure to get anyone in the holiday spirit: Butter London Come to Bed Red. (First off, can we take a moment to laugh at that name? I love nail polish names sometimes...)

Butter London Come to Bed Red

Come to Bed Red had PERFECT application and was opaque in two coats. I think there's kind of a jelly finish going on, which I really like. Additionally, I really enjoy the square bottle! Just sayin'. I just think it's really exciting.

Anyways! Since I've been kind of into nail art recently (even though I can't really do anything exciting...) I thought I'd try to Christmas this mani up!

This was my first time trying to do nail art with tape! Not going to lie - tape manicures are harder than they sound. Or maybe I'm just THAT massively uncoordinated (more likely). If you ever decide to try it out yourself, make SURE that the tape is firmly sticking to your nail EVERYWHERE - especially the edges! Then, when you're painting over the tape, don't worry too much about how opaque things are turning out - rip the tape off FAST before your polish starts to get tacky. You can touch things up afterward.

What designs have you done on your nails with tape? Any other Christmas nail art ideas? Let me know!

Stay happy!