Moonlight v-gap manicure

This year's Academy Award winner for Best Picture, besides being an outstanding film, really captivated me with its gorgeous promotional design. The colors in the Moonlight cover are just luminous, and I couldn't wait to put them on my nails. Plus the visual split of the main character's three different times of life into one image was a shape just begging to be nail art - so this was my motivation to actually attempt nail art for the first time in a while!

Blast from the Past: InDecisive Lacquer Neon Speckled

This is an old manicure of mine, way back in November of 2013! But I can't remember if I've ever posted it anyplace, and I really enjoyed looking at it again going through my manicure photos! This is InDecisive Lacquer's amazing Neon Speckled collection, in Blue and Pink, which I put over complementary colors. Unfortunately I can't remember what the pink is (I may not even have it anymore!) but the blue is Nina Blue La La.

I was privileged to communicate with Aleksandra, the brain behind InDecisive Lacquer and she is the nicest person :) I was a huge fan of Speckled Black and White, so when she was developing colored neon versions, I got a few of the very first bottles. I immediately wanted to do a matchy pos-neg sort of deal to show off the speckles! It actually turned out so bright and contrasted that the colors kind of wigged out my camera - they sort of bleed in a weird way in the photos! (This was my old camera, by the way, with worse resolution as well.)

Essie Udon Know Me - comparisons and koi fish

This is my favorite shade from Essie's new Fall 2016 Japan collection: Essie Udon Know Me! This is kind of my perfect shade, because I eat  udon noodles all the time, plus I'm a sucker for a dusty color, and also for a good blue-green. Now that I've worn it, I have to say this is the perfect shade - a nicely balanced pale turquoise, which looks a lot like a dusty blue in a lot of lights, but has an obvious hint of green when you look at it next to true blues.

Essie Tart Deco and a bit of nail art for fall

There's no doubt Essie Tart Deco is a staple. Coral is one of those colors I have many of, and this is definitely one of the best, if not my favorite. It's bright but also dark as corals go, a really rich and vibrant hue. Plus it's Essie, which actually dries properly without a topcoat and won't imprint on your clothes or sheets the same night. I didn't take comparison photos (yet) but it seems most similar to the rich shade I liked of Covergirl Coy Coral, but with a better formula.

Coffee and TV

Coffee is my drug of choice. I'm up to about 6 cups a day. Naturally, I gravitate toward nail polishes with coffee names. I was really excited to run across this cute nail sticker on a sheet of kawaii type foods and things from Born Pretty Store (unfortunately don't think it's still available) to adorn my coffee mani!

Oh Baby! ... it's dangerously pretty!

This is an unusual combination for me ... so is a bow and a spike I guess! I wanted to do something that looked venomous - seductively cute but also prickly. So I put Pure Ice Oh Baby, which is a mostly shimmery blue topper, over Covergirl Outlast Crushed Berries, which is pretty much the perfect rich berry red/pink. For some reason I enjoy wearing a bow on my pinky, so I complemented the sky blue of Oh Baby and added a little edge with a silver spike stud (both from Born Pretty).

Sprout for Spring

I got into a very springtime mood, and was inspired by my new Sally Hansen Luxe Lace Crochet, a lovely cloud-like mixture of many sizes of white and sky blue, which just screams the idyllicism of spring. I put it over a gentle warm grey, Covergirl Outlast Non-stop Stone, a really great neutral that is somewhere between tan and grey, but not actually the full intensity of a greige. (Hold it up to any other grey and you will see the tan come out!) Finally, I added some nail stud shapes to form the two petals of a little green sprout, which I painted with Pure Ice Wild Thing (appropriately!).

Rimmel Sage all the Rage + accent nail

I thought I really didn't like greens, then I went through my nail polish and realized just how many shades of green I possess! One of the shades that I tend to gravitate toward is the moss/sage/khaki greens. Rimmel 60 Seconds Sage all the Rage was my first of these. I feel in love with the pale mossy green, kind of like the classic green khaki but with a lighter, powdery tone.