31 Day Nail art Challenge - Day 11: Polka Dots

I'm so sorry that I'm posting this mani late - I suppose that's par for the course for me this challenge, but I'm still fighting this silly cold and it's seriously kicking my butt. I'm so tired! 

I was so excited about today's theme. I've been wanting to do a scene of some sort using polka dots for awhile and haven't had an excuse to do so lately. However, when I sat down to do the design that I've been thinking about for a long while, I was suddenly uninspired by that concept. To my frustration, my tastes vary per day - some days I'm feeling floral and other I'm feeling tribal or geometric (or anywhere in between!) and even if I had loved an idea the night before, suddenly I'll hate it the next day. Does this happen to anyone else?! 

Anyway! I recently splurged and bought OPI's Euro Centrale collection (I know everyone is obsessing over the San Francisco collection, but I'm really not feeling it) and I really wanted to use some of those polishes in today's look. I ended up doing a funky and simple triangle pattern with some tribal print undertones and I really love how it turned out. It definitely shows the touch of the hand, but I like that so much. When I think of Polka Dots, I tend to think of larger dots than these, but I think I'm still staying within the theme for today. 

31 Day Nail Art Challenge - Day 10: Gradient Nails

If you've been in the nail art world long enough, you might notice there are some discrepancies between the terms "gradient" and "ombre." Personally, when I first got into nail art, I learned that a gradient is when the color transition happens on each individual nail and an ombre is when the color transitions over a series of nails from a lighter shade of a single color to a darker shade off that same color (one color per nail). There are some who swear ombre is what I think of as a gradient and vice versa. There are others who think the terms are interchangeable. If the nail art world can have an up in arms debate about something, it would be the difference between the two terms.

As an homage to this classic nail art argument, I decided to do a gradient look that also ombres - meaning, each nail has two colors that transition AND each nail color will go from light to dark - that way I can appease everyone's opinions! What can I say, I'm a people pleaser ;) 

A Mattified Monday

Happy (hopefully!) Monday my dears! Today's theme for my Lulu*s tutorial is matte and I wanted to show the versatility of a good matte top coat - so I did 3 looks! They vary in difficulty so there is something for everyone, though the final look is more for show since there's no tutorial for that one. Be sure to check out their blog post for my 2 step how-to's!

Happy Polishing! :)

31 Day Nail Art Challenge - Day 9: Rainbow Nails

Friday nights are my absolute favorite. I have been browsing numerous Fall polish collections (and yes, buying them as well) and painting my nails. I've also watched Best In Show, Ella Enchanted and I'm not on Hotel Transylvania - totally random titles but that's the nature of OnDemand. There will likely be at least 2 other movie viewings tonight ;) the boyfriend is out of town so I don't feel too bad about being a lazy bum (that and I'm still recovering from the office plague I caught so that's even more reason to watch movies all night). 

Today is the next theme in Meghan and my 31 Day Nail Art Challenge! I was initially really excited about this day because I've had a rainbow pattern saved on my phone for MONTHS and I knew I wanted to do it for today. However, my execution of said pattern was lacking so I switched gears and went with a super simple (and perhaps often done) striped rainbow look. While I'm sure several people have done something like this, I'm really happy with how these turned out. They're simple in design but visually interesting nonetheless. 

Zoya Pixie Dust Fall 2013 Swatches

Happy Thursday, Everyone! I'm still feeling pretty lousy and hoping that I'll be on the up and up by tomorrow. For now, I've got some swatches to share with you all! I splurged and bought the entire fall Pixie Dust collection from Zoya a few weeks ago and thought I'd share my experience with them here with you all. It's a picture heavy post to hang in there!