Neon Week Nail Art: Neon Rainbow Flowers

Neon Week is going by very quickly! If you missed day one or two you can see them here: Neon Mist (Day 1) and Monochrome Arrows (Day 2). Day 2 also had a tutorial, so be sure to check that out. For today's look I was inspired by the way that Oh My Gosh Polish did her Rainbow Abstract Dab and I wanted to re-create the underlying color. She is amazing and she posts YouTube videos daily and sometimes more than once daily! She seems like such a sweet lady too. Definitely go check her out. She used a dry brush technique which is one that I love! I ended up with a dry brushed rainbow as a base and then I stamped over it! I used China Glaze White On White to make the neons pop. Then I started with Color Club Warhol at the base of my nail and feathered it out far enough to create an orange blend between it and Orly Glowstick. Then I feathered Glowstick out enough to create a green with it and Color Club Chelsea Girl, and finally feathered that out and blended it with Color Club Mrs. Robinson. All of the Color Clubs are from the old Poptastic Collection. I then stamped with plate D14 from the Born Pretty Store and used Wet N Wild Black Creme.

Nail Art: Memorial Day Poppies

It is Memorial Day. Today is a day when we take the time to honor our fallen soldiers and remember the cost of our freedom. 

I was given a challenge to create a nail art design for Memorial Day without using red, white and blue. I decided to try poppies, since they are supposed to symbolize remembrance. I decided to do a sunset gradient with grey and black poppies (since I couldn't use red). I'm not sure the poppies really look like poppies, but that is what I was going for here. I used Julie G Miami Beach and Old San Juan.

Nail Art: Zoya Tickled and Bubbly Gradient Tape Mani

Press Sample

Oh Zoya, how do you make such fantastic polish? I recently reviewed the Tickled & Bubbly Collections on my blog and was so inspired by the colors I had to do some nail art right away. For this look I started with a base of Jesy from the Bubbly Collection and created a gradient over that with Rocha, Rooney and Kitridge. I used striping tape to create my design. 

Nail Art: Spring Gradient

This is one of those rare instances where I really like what I created. I guess we are our own worst critics, but I always find something about my nails that I usually wish I could have done better. These ones, though, turned out really well! I was proud of how my gradient turned out and the stamping was just dainty enough to not overwhelm the gradient. The blue I used is Sephora by OPI Havana Dreams and the green is an unnamed Sally Hansen. Unnamed. How dare they not put a sticker with a name on it! Seriously, it kind of makes me twitchy when my polish doesn't have a name. I could have sworn I saw the same color elsewhere and it had pear in the name, so if any of you know the name, please let me know!! I also used my beloved MoYou plate from the Tourist Collection.

Nail Art: Gradient Hearts

Valentine's Day is tomorrow! Whether you love it or hate it, you can celebrate it with nail art! I picked a particularly girly look. I created a gradient and added a reverse gradient of hearts over top. I used Color Club Endless, Sally Hansen White On, Sally Hansen Punch Drunk, and OPI Miami Beet. I only used three colors for each gradient, but swapped out White on which I used in the base for Endless which I used for the hearts.

Nail Art: Catching Fire Nails

I feel terrible, I have been neglecting my nail community here. It has been five days since I last posted, can you believe it? Work has been crazy lately, which makes it difficult to publish blog posts. I promise, today's post will be worth the wait. For #nailartnov the theme for Day 22 was "Catching Fire" for the premier of the movie Hunger Games: Catching Fire. I read all the books after I saw the first movie, so, needless to say I was really excited for this challenge. Some of you know, last year China Glaze came out with a Hunger Games collection, two of the polishes I used here to create my Catching Fire look. I used Smoke and Ashes as the base color and the top gradient color. I used Riveting as the orange gradient color. I sponged on the two colors over a layer of Smoke and Ashes and it worked really well. I also finally got my order of nail studs, so I was able to use those for this design!

What do you think? I wore these for the movie, which felt really special. I loved the design, I did notice that the polish chipped really quickly, which was not cool. Maybe I just had too many layers. For those of you who have the China Glaze Hunger Games nail polish and the new Cover Girl Hunger Games nail polish, which collection do you prefer? Do you know of a difference in quality? I love the HG collection from China Glaze. I loved what they did with their collection, I was a little ticked that they weren't doing the polish this go around and haven't picked up any Cover Girl because I was protesting. Let me know if you like it though, I am always a fan of good polish finds! Hope you like this design, I will try not to neglect the blog so much anymore! I am planning a tutorial soon, so stay tuned!

Nail Art: Pastel Summer Neon Gradient

Today, I have something special to share. I love nail art gradients and ombré designs! I decided to create a very summery look with only two colors, and I think it turned out great. I used the sponge gradient technique, which is pretty easy and very rewarding. I also tried at home gel nails. I'm not sure I've quite mastered it since this is my second time, but I think I am getting the hang of it.All photos taken outdoors in indirect sunlight.

I am so in love with this design!! I used Birchbox exclusive colors from Color Club. These came in a mini set that I bought after receiving one of the colors in my monthly Birchbox. I've mentioned Birchbox before, but it is a monthly beauty product subscription service. So far, I like it a lot. For a base color I used Mod in Manhattan which is an off white and the two main colors are Pardon My French and Reign in Spain. I didn't know it was possible to have pastel and neon in the same polish, but it is possible, and it is gorgeous! The sponge technique is really easy, maybe that can be this month's tutorial? I had to dab about three layers over Mod in Manhattan, but I'm not sure I would have done three layers if I was just painting them like normal. I love this so much, I don't know if I will want to to take it off! I hope you like them. Thanks for reading!