Nothing To Disclose Last semester my schedule was so full of school work that I barely had the time to paint my nails. This led to months of sketches of unfulfilled manicures, so today I finally found the time to do one of them.

Instagram nails!!!!!!


I've said time and time again how much I love IG so why not express it nail art form? Amirite?


Nothing To Disclose

Yesterday was the first day of spring, but that meant absolutely nothing here in Western NY. The temp was in the thirties and in between me getting to work and going across the street for lunch it had rained, stopped, snowed, stopped, and snowed again. But my nails were so hot my fingers could've sworn it was summer! You ready?

Are you not in summer induced love right now? You have to be if you love super bright colors and 3D embellishments like I do.

I laid down a base color of OPI My Vampire is Buff--my favorite OPI shade by the way--to start. Next, for my thumb, index, and pinky I carefully placed some striping tape and sponged a gradient over all of it.

For my middle finger I skipped the striping tape step and sponged on Illamasqua Optimist, Illamasqua Gamma, and Illamasqua Lament; which are the same lacquers I on my other nails. After my gradient reached full opacity I placed these full-nail nail charms from Born Pretty Store.

Press Sample | Affiliate Link A few weeks ago I was creating content for this very blog. I did my nails, set up lighting, took photos, and then completely forgot about the mani as it sat in one of my memory cards. Until now.


I decided to take my favorite parts of the last two Nail Art Society Kits, Great Glitzy and California Dreaming, and combine them for one easy look.


From the California Dreaming kit I used one of the bows and Jessica Tangerine Dream, and from the glitter packed Great Glitzy kit I went with Floss Gloss Dime Piece.


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Press Sample Okay, so I don't actually hate Valentine's Day, but someone did ask if I could put together a look that says exactly that. Time to move on with the details shall we?


You probably noticed my perfectly square nails are no more. Well yesterday I had a really bad nail break on the corner of my middle finger and decided I should try out stiletto nails. After shaping the sides I was too chicken to go all the way so, for now, I'm rocking almonds while I slowly transition into stiletto. I know, who transitions into a nail shape? Sounds pretty odd doesn't it?


For this mani I used nailuv Hardcore Rock and then glued on some silver nail spikes after I was done curing.


I even bought a matching phone case shortly after I came up with the idea and I've got to admit these nails matched with this case makes me feel like a total bad ass!

And a product porn shot done a little differently...


nailuv Hardcore Rock Gel Polish retails for $14.95 on nailuvpolish.com.

How's that for Valentine's themed nails?
Tune in. Drop out. Love polish.
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Press Sample It's Christmas and if you're like me and still in your bed clothes with no idea as to how you're going to paint your nails this post may help you out, or at least provide some form of entertainment.

First up I have a simple way to wear China Glaze Mingle with Kringle & China Glaze Santa Red My List.



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Press Sample | Affiliate Link Alrighty folks, I'm back with another preview for Nail Art Society! And as the below photo suggests; this kit features Mint Nail Polish and Hex Nail Jewelry!! You excited yet? Yes? Good. You have very good reason to be.

Before we get into what I did with this kit, let's go over what you'll be getting.

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Nothing To Disclose Yes, today's post does feature Shu Cream. What in the world is Shu Cream? In real life, Shu Cream is a Japanese desert similar to a cream puff. In the nail world, it's a nail polish from Nanacoco. Never heard of either until recently (read: just now)? You're welcome for this installment of fun facts.


Nanacoco Shu Cream is a translucent tan jelly base with different size white, copper, and silver glitter throughout.


Because the color is so sheer, I decided to layer it over OPI My Vampire is Buff before adding the embellishments I bought on eBay.


The diamond ring shaped gold pieces have all of the same qualities of the Hello Kitty pieces I used last week; very malleable and easy to cut.

I intended to glue the pyramid spikes to the back of my cell phone case--hence why they're so large--but after that so-called life proof case broke after falling the short distance from my bed to my carpeted floor, that ended up being a no go.


I've never seen Nanacoco nail polish in any store before so score for my local beauty supply! They also have Essie for $4 and OPI for $5 so what's not to love right? Right!

Will you be adding some Shu Cream to your life? Either lacquer or desert? Chime in.
Tune in. Drop out. Love polish.

Oh! I almost forgot, if you run out and pick up the November 2013 issue of Nailpro Magazine you'll see a familiar face set of nails!

Nothing To Disclose

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Okay. So it's officially fall. But it is never too cold for ice cream or neon nail polish so why not have your cake AND eat it too?


I wanted something simple and sweet. Get it? Sweet because I has ice cream on my nails. Okay, so my jokes are cheesy, but they'll never be as bad as my 11th grade social studies teacher. More on Mr Kelly later on.

I started with a base of Icing Candy Shop (swatch here) and paint some drips using a white nail art pen I bought in a set of five from urban Outfitters.



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Alrighty folks, time for some nail art! I don't have much of an anecdote of an intro so let's just jump right into it shall we?

Press Sample Recently butter LONDON released the limited edition Pop Art Collection. A self proclaimed set of  "punchy, kaleidoscopic brights." I figured why not try some 3D pop art-ish nail art, right? right!
Bam! 3D cubes! I've actually been wanting to try this design since I first saw Copy That Copy Cat (aka one of my first and few nail crushes) do it. See her original post here.

I changed the colors slightly and made the design bigger, but ultimately followed her YouTube tutorial for the execution.


I started with a base of butter LONDON Cotton Buds from their new A/W 2013 Color Clash Collection. Next, I used my go to black nail polish to paint the boxes. And finally, I used all three shades to fill in three complete cubes.


The limited edition Pop Art Collection consists of Cheeky Chops, Primrose Hill Picnic, and the new shade of the bunch, Keks. 
Wanna get your hands on them? Find them at butterLONDON.com for $45 for the set of three.


Press Sample Quick Notes:
Keks dries to somewhat of a wax like finish which I wasn't expecting, but really like.
Cheeky Chops. Boy, oh boy, was I surprised with just how good the formula on this guy is. Why? Well for starters it's a yellow creme, and for finishers (pretty sure I've never heard finishers anywhere so um, YOLO I guess? ) I had a very rough time with Jasper a few months back. 

What I like the most about this collection is that it is the perfect grouping of yellow, cyan, and magenta! Which reminds me; I need to buy some more ink for my printer.

Got any suggestions for nail art you'd like to see my attempt? Leave them in the comments, tweet me, or post them on my timeline.

If you've been reading my blog for any amount of time, you'll notice my one favorite things when it comes to nails are spikes! Today I decided to dig up a few of my gold spikes, as well as some nail art foil a purchased two years ago to bring this manicure to life.

Press Sample The folks over at Layla—you know, the company that came out with those super strong linear holographic lacquers about a year ago—are jumping on the texture and gel like shine trends!

Let's start with Gel Effect Nail Polish shall we?
Gel Effect in a super high shine nail polish that doesn't need any curing and can be removed just like any other lacquer, with nail polish remover. I've got to say that I'm really impressed by the dry-time and when I removed it there was no staining.
By the way, it comes in 11 different shades.

Now on to Velvet Effect.
Velvet Effect is Layla's addition to the flocking powder/fuzzy nail trend. It comes in 12 shades. What I like about Layla's packaging for Velvet Effect is that you can easily shake the powder onto the nail, as opposed to picking it up out of a jar and sprinkling it on. Plus it comes with a little brush to remove any excess!

If you read this far you're probably wondering where/when/if any nail art is going to come into play.
You know I'm not gonna leave you hanging so here it is!
I started with Layla Gel Effect Red & Rich as the base and drew some squiggly lines using a black nail art pen I bought from Urban Outfitters. While the lines were still wet I applied Layla Velvet Effect Sense.

Both Gel and Velvet Effect retail for $15 each on Zappos.com.


Press Sample Have you tried any texture or gel like shine manis yet? Will you?
Tune in. Drop out. Love polish.

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Recently Born Pretty Store got spikes in stock. Me being the ostentatious embellishment lover I am, I had to get my well-manicured hands on them!