Starry Gradient

I read quite a bit.  I haven’t always.  Last summer I started and haven’t looked back.I recently finished The Fault In Our Stars by John Green. I LOVED IT! Highly, highly recommend it. Another favorite is Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins. I’ve read it and listened to the audiobook more than once. This design is inspired by these books. One is fairly obvious from the title. The other, you’ll just have to read to see why. 😉 I started with OPI Vant to Bite My Neck then sponged on some Jordana Smooth Blue and finished off the gradient with NYX Sepia. The stars are a vanilla colored acrylic. I love this gradient! So pretty.

If you’re a reader, you neeed to check out these books. They’re two of my top picks.

From the Vault: Big Sky

Home improvements and potty training are seriously rough on a manicure. I’ve been sanding and spackling and texturing, oh my! My poor hands are sooo dry lately. I’ve been trying to give them a little extra TLC and lots of extra moisturizer to make up for all the not so nice treatment.

While I repair my hands and find some time to paint my nails, I will re-show you one of my favorites from the vault. I should do another constellation mani. I loved it. I hope you enjoy this blast from the past today.

Originally posted 2/29/12, here.

I was eating my breakfast the other morning thinking about what I was going to do with my nails to post today. I was really happy with my franken from yesterday and didn’t really want to take it off. And then it hit me… Constellations. Perfect!Creating the design was pretty simple, but I had to do a bit of research to prepare for this one. I looked at a couple of websites then I remembered about a constellation book I have. I dug out my National Audubon Society Field Guide to the Night Sky and looked up the four constellations I’d decided on.

This picture is lacking a bit in quality, I did it on purpose though. I had a hard time photographing this mani because the reflection of the lights kept obstructing the design. It kept washing my stars out, hence, the poor quality. I also decided I would draw the constellations out for you to see them. I’m an Aquarius and my husband and daughter are Capricorn and Cancer. Cassiopeia is a constellation that is pretty recognizable for me. We vacation in “Big Sky” Montana each year and it’s near impossible to look up in the sky at night and not be able to spot constellations. Cassiopeia is just another one that I’m familiar with and is pretty easy for me to spot. I used OPI DS Radiance for my “stars.”

 

No Clean Up Splatter

Doing a traditional straw splatter can not only be super messy, but can waste a lot of polish.  Why not paint it on?I know, this looks totally different from a straw splatter.  This is a little more cartoonish.  I’ve actually done a mani very similar to this before.  I must have liked it to almost duplicate it.

My base polish is one I just picked up; China Glaze Moonlight.  It’s pretty sheer and needed a good three coats to get decent opacity.  I love the color though.  It’s a very muted soft white.  Really, it is the color of the moon.  The other colors are acrylics.

Blue and Black Dotticure

It’s been a while since I did a chevron so I decided to do the dotticure version.I love the combination of black and aqua-ish blue.  I used Wet ‘n Wild I Need a Refresh-Mint and black acrylic.

How do you like my short little nubby nails?  I’ve been trying to keep them a little shorter lately, but I broke my middle nail pretty low and there was nothing I could do but shorten them all.  Oh well.  They grow pretty fast, so they’ll be back to normal in a week.

Drip, Drip, Drop

I didn’t even think that Orly Halley’s Comet was sorta the color of water until I was watermakring my photos.  I don’t know why it didn’t dawn on me while I was doing it.I haven’t done many drippy manis, but always love them when I see all the fabulous ones out there.  I want to perfect it, so I figured I’d better practice.

Like I said above, I used Orly Halley’s Comet over my naked nail, the topped it off with Chill Zone top coat.