NAGG - Day 6: Neon Tribal Nail Art

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Hello, all! So I'm hoping that after today's post I will finally be back on track with the Nail-Art-A-Go-Go challenge! I was technically supposed to do post these yesterday, but I was just so exhausted from work that the thought of editing photos made me cringe ;) I am once again sleepy tonight so I'll keep this post short and sweet. 

Today's theme for the NAGG challenge is Neon! And, because I haven't done tribal in forever, I decided on a neon tribal look. 

NAGG - Day 5: Blue and Orange Daisy Nail Art

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Hello, all! Sorry for my brief hiatus - this cold really took it out of me. If that wasn't enough, I had planned on posting this look yesterday so that I would be back on track with the Nail-Art-a-Go-Go challenge, but my cable and internet provider decided to take a dive in our area all weekend so I'm only just able to use the internet. I don't know how we ever survived without the internet...I was dying without it! 

Day 5 of the NAGG challenge is contrast! Which is wonderful for me because some of my favorite color combos are contrasting colors, particularly, orange and blue. And I mean, were you really expecting anything other than awesome florals for this?? ;) 

The Beauty Buffs - Yellow Trend - Nail Art

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Hello, everyone! The Beauty Buffs are back with another set of nail, fashion and beauty looks and this week's trend is Yellow! Personally, I love yellow. I know it's a tough color to wear and it often clashes with skin tones, but ugh, it's just so lovely and bright and cheery :) 

I wanted to create a look the encapsulated the bright cheeriness that the color evokes for me, while also creating something that was somewhat fashion forward and chic. I was browsing the web yet again for inspiration, and came across this grouping of yellow outfits for spring/summer. I of course fell in love with the outfit sporting the yellow and black (you guessed it!) flowers! The second look from the right in the inspiration photo spurred this mani forward and I think I like how it turned out. 

Happy Earth Day! - Nail Art

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Hello, all! Happy Earth Day! I love the idea behind today so much and even though it was late when I realized the date, I knew I had to do some Earth Day nail art :) 

I did an Earth Day mani last year and really loved it (and it was actually featured in a Divine Caroline Earth Day mani list!) so I really wanted to try something again this year. 

NAGG - Day 4: Monochrome Floral and Lace Nail Art

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Hello, all! Hope you had a great weekend - mine was good until I got sick :( I'm really struggling with it right now and it took me about 5 hours to get this mani and post together because I kept needing breaks. Really hoping I feel better soon, but I'm not going to hold my breath. 

Despite the plague I've acquired, I really wanted to get back on track for the NAGG challenge since I wasn't able to get my post up last Thursday. In a perfect world, I'll post again tomorrow with the next challenge theme, but we'll see what happens! I also have my final Digital Dozen look to get out so I may be playing catchup for awhile ;) 

Anyway, day four of the Nail-Art-a-Go-Go challenge is Monochrome! 

Happy Easter! - Retro Easter Nail Art

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Happy Sunday, all! I hope you're having a wonderful day with family and friends. To those who celebrate, Happy Easter! For me, today has always been about getting together with family and enjoying the spring time weather with those you love. 

I've been seeing so many Easter themed manis lately that I couldn't help but catch the bug and want to paint something festive as well. The only problem was that I ran out of time to get an Easter look done. I don't know how the date got here so quickly! Last week was Digital Dozen week (which I still need to finish!) coupled with NAGG and some tutorials and I just had way too much going on. The boyfriend and I ended up heading north to visit our family and we left Thursday night...which left me no time for any nail art. 

Saturday morning, however, I got such a strong urge for nail art, that I went to Michael's and bought an absurd number of new acrylic paints. I basically filled out my collection. Which I have zero problem with. They're cheap and will last forever! :) Anyway, I grabbed some new brushes and with my mom's nail polish supplies for the base polish (OPI's Alpine Snow) and top coat, I created these vintage-y retro Easter themed nails. 

The Digital Dozen does Texture - Day 4: Fuzzy Violets?

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Hello, all! Anyone else exhausted? ;) I'm pressing on though and have day four of Digital Dozen textures week! I really wasn't sure what I was going to do for today's mani, but I knew that I wanted to use the purple flocking powder I mentioned in yesterday's post. I thought it would be a fun way to add texture to today's mani and since I've never used, it gave me a chance to try something new.  

I decided to start searching online for fuzzy purple things...and then just purple things...and then, since I was sad about taking off yesterday's mani, I searched for purple flowers figuring I could replace one flower with another. And violets were one of the things that showed up! 

The Digital Dozen does Texture - Day 3: Sunflower Nail Art

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Hi everyone! Day 3 of the Digital Dozen is upon us and I've got some hand painted sunflowers to share with you all today :) 

This has been a tough challenge week for me and I'm flying by the seat of my pants to an extent as I don't know what I'm doing until the night of. I was trying to think of things I wanted to paint, and then see if I could fit that to meet the "textured" theme...and since I love my florals, I wanted to paint flowers. 

I started thinking about flowers with a lot of texture and sunflowers came to mind immediately. Not only are their petals full of interesting ridges, the seeds in the center provide a ton of textural interest. 

The Digital Dozen does Texture - Day 2: The girl in the wind

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Hi, all! I'm so excited for how day 2 of Digital Dozen texture week has turned out! When I got home from work I was so stumped as to what to do, I frantically started searching the web for inspiration. After coming up empty handed, I decided to shower and wash away the sweat from the gym earlier in the evening and as I was doing so, I had an epiphany! I should think on manis in the shower more often haha 

Anyway, my epiphany was hair. Yes, normally I would cringe at the thought, but I mulled it over a bit more and the idea of painting a girl, with her hair blowing in the wind wouldn't leave my mind's eye. When I got back to my desk I browsed the web to solidify my idea in my mind and came across this beautiful drawing of a girl with hair I'd kill for and who became my inspiration. 

NAGG - Day 3: Warm vs. Cool

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Yay! Time for another post! Moving along with the Nail-Art-A-Go-Go challenge, day three's theme is Warm vs. Cool, meaning, warm color tones vs cool color tones. I once again turned to google to spark my imagination and came across this awesome sunset collage. I love that a sunrise/sunset over the ocean provides such a lovely warm vs. cool contrast that can be experienced daily so it felt like the perfect subject for today's theme. 

The Digital Dozen does Texture - Day 1: Metallic Tribal

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Hello, all! This coming week may very well be my busiest nail art week ever! It's Digital Dozen week once again (this time our theme is Texture!) and I'm continuing on with the Nail-Art-A-Go-Go challenge today and Thursday. Since that's not enough, I'm hoping to also squeeze in a few Easter themed manis! Can someone put more time in the day for me?? 

Very exciting news in the Digital Dozen world is that we have 4 new extremely talented ladies joining our ranks! I can't wait to see what they come up with and I know we will enjoy having them be apart of the group. I can't believe that this is my 6th DD week. Time sure does fly. 

NAGG - Day 2: Jewel Tones

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Hello, all! I'm so glad it's Friday. I had a rough work week and fell behind on my Nail-Art-A-Go-Go posts almost immediately! How sad is that? Haha I hope this doesn't happen too often in the future, but sometimes you just can't force nail art. Luckily, Mireia is still on track!

Day two of NAGG is Jewel Tones (Nail-Art-A-Go-Go is SO long and there are hyphens in there and ugh, I'm lazy so it's acronym time!). I think this theme was part of why I couldn't get motivated after work Wednesday and Thursday. This was also the theme that was the nail in the coffin for me last time I tried this challenge as I could not come up with anything for it (yes, day 2 was my breaking point). While I love jewel tones individually, I don't really love them together - it feels a bit overwhelming to me - so I had no clue what to do. 

The Beauty Buffs - Royal Blue Trend

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Hello, all! Happy happy hump day! ;) Today I have my second Beauty Buffs post to share with you all! I'm so loving being apart of this group of talented ladies and I can't wait to see what they've come up with for our second trend - Royal Blue!

Now, there was some discussion amongst the Beauty Buffs as to what exactly a royal blue was. If you do a search online, you'll find royal blues of the dark and light variety and it leaves some wiggle room for the definition of the color. When I was thinking of what I was going to do for today's look, my mind wandered to a simple gradient...which evolved into a new take on a gradient...which turned into a paint swatch?! Here is my cutout paint swatch gradient! 

Nail-Art-A-Go-Go Challenge - Day 1: Achromatic

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Hello, all! Happy Monday (at least as happy as it can be)! Today I finally have a purely nail art post to share with you all! If you'll recall, at the beginning of February I had planned on completing the Nail-Art-A-Go-Go challenge put on my Missy over at Gnary Gnails...and if you'll also recall, I failed miserably at keeping up with it. I loved the themes in the challenge so much though that I had hoped to eventually revisit it at some point. 

While the NAGG challenge was initially meant to be completed during the month of February, it's a versatile theme that can work for any time of year. About two weeks ago I was chatting with my friend Mireia from The Nail Art Show and she mentioned that she was interested in trying out the challenge herself. I jumped at that and we decided we'd embark on the challenge together! So, for next few months, the two of us will be working our way through the challenge, posting Mondays and Thursdays. Pretty exciting, right? :) 

While I already completed Day 1 of the challenge back in February, it only felt right that I should start fresh and redo the Achromatic theme. Achromatic is "without color" and for some reason, tonight, my mind jumped directly to mandalas and henna! So, here is my Day 1 mani :)

Two Birds Lacquer - Swatches, Review & Nail Art

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Hello, all! Thank goodness it's the weekend! I had a rough week that included working several 12 hour days, so needless to say, I'm wiped! Today I have some spectacular polishes from a brand new Australian based indie called Two Birds Lacquer...and I could not be more impressed by these polishes! This is one of the best first collections I've encountered and I am so excited to see how this line grows in the future. Stacey, the founder of Two Birds, was also kind enough to share with you all a discount code to her Etsy shop - really, what's not to love here? :)

The Childhood Treats collection, was inspired by, well, Stacey's favorite childhood sweets! I really enjoyed that the colors and polishes were all different, yet were still cohesive through this theme. Growing up in the US, I only knew of one of the treats that inspired these polishes so it was fun for me to research each of them and see what kids in Australia grow up enjoying. Let's take a look!

April's "The Glitter Box" - Review, Swatches & Nail Art

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Hello, all! I've got some swatches of this month's collection from "The Glitter Box" as well as some nail art to go along with them! I'm trying to do nail art in conjunction with swatches as often as I can now, and though it's incredibly time consuming, I'm loving being inspired by these gorgeous indies. 

I reviewed March's Glitter Box last month and was so excited to get the opportunity to do so again this month as I'm loving these indie makers. Once again, this box includes a polish from The Juice Box Lacquer and Kawaii Lacquers (though Fat Lacquers is on hiatus since she just had a baby - congrats!), with the guest indie being Lavish Polish. 

I apologize in advance, this is a pic heavy post because I was so excited about these!