Vintage Floral Stripes

I've always had mani envy when I see pretty, vintage inspired floral manis in my feed. I decided to rectify that and use my straight vinyls (two birds one stone!) with soft pastel stripes and pops of neon pink for the flowers.

Barry M Coconut

Kicks Mint Gelato

Color Club Neon Pink (unnamed mini)

OPI Mod About You

China Glaze Be More Pacific

essie Good to Go Topcoat

My Nails Did Straight Vinyls 

This cute little mint polish was brought back for me from Sweden. Adorbs! I only wish I had skipped the leaves detailing on the striped nails, it looks like I just slipped while painting the lines. 

xo Shawna

#thedress bestie twin nails

Now I'm on a  roll with bestie twin nails! Kaitlyn and I decided to collaborate this week. She was more than game to go along with an idea I had (although is it already irrelevant this week?) to do a mani inspired by "the dress"! 

Products Used

China Glaze Snow

Sally Hansen Pacific Blue

OPI Golden Wing

Wet n' Wild Black Creme

China Glaze Fast Forward

Brush eBay (trimmed)

And here's the collab. I love how different nail art can turn out running with the same idea! I knew Kaitlyn had a bottle of Pacific Blue so of course we had to use that as the base. Originally I was going to stamp before this became a twin mani, so I decided to hand paint instead! It was kind of fun actually! 

For the record, both Kaitlyn & I see white and gold, screw the evidence!!

Are you team white and gold or black and blue?

xo Shawna

Candy Hearts Mani

I saw this stamping plate from Bundle Monster when I placed my order in December. I knew I had to have it for some Valentines nail art! I've seen these candy heart sayings stamped over solid nails, but I wanted to do something a little more creative. So I came up with a negative space half-moon sweetheart mani! (I don't know if there's a name for it that's less of a mouthful- I'm sure someone else has come up with this idea before, I just haven't seen it!) This also worked perfectly for this week's theme for the twinkie nail art challenge of "hearts". 

Products Used (thumb - pinky)

Essie Lapis of Luxury

OPI Panda-monium Pink

China Glaze For Audrey

Barry M Coconut

Deborah Lippmann Shoshanna

OPI Manicurist of Seville (stamping)

China Glaze Fast Forward

Bundle Monster 425

I love this mani! I think it's super fun and it turned out exactly like I envisioned. I love all the pastel colours and it works well with the almond nail shape! I just wish the letters stamped a little bit more solid. 

Are you rocking V-day nails?

xo Shawna

Black and White Forest

Happy Friday! Goodness am I glad it's the weekend. I only work about one 5 day work week a month, and of course in January it's the first week back after the holidays - boo hoo right? Anyways, I'm wiped! 

Today's manicure is for week 2 of the January twinkie nail art challenge - the theme being "black and white". The timing couldn't have been better - I got a bunch of stamping plates I ordered in yesterday's mail (both MoYou and Bundle Monster, which is a new-to-me brand). I had seen the gorgeous, ethereal tree design in my feed a few times and just had to have it. Black and white was a perfect palette for this stamping mani! I sandwiched the stamping with a few different glitters and this is the first manicure all week that I have kept on for longer than a day!

Products Used

China Glaze Snow

Sally Girl (unnamed) Silver Glitter

Wet n Wild Black Creme

China Glaze Fairy Dust

China Glaze Fast Forward

Bundle Monster 407

I hear that BM plates can be hit or miss with the quality, but this image stamped like a dream. (I also tested out a second plate, and it was slightly more finicky but I still got quite good transfers. It was the sugar skull design - notorious for people having issues with). 

Any plans for the weekend?

xo Shawna

NYE black and gold

Well here it is folks, the last post of 2014. I am happy to say I am still just as in love with nail art as when I started this blog in August, and excited to bring you my final manicure of 2015! Ask any of my family members, and then will tell you I go through phases where I become obsessed with something only to move on from it in a few short months. I'm sure know they thought my nail art obsession was another one of those. Well, 5 months on at least I can justify my rapidly growing polish collection at least slightly! 

This manicure was inspired by So Nailicious. 

Products Used

Wet n' Wild Black Creme

OPI Love.Angel.Music.Baby

Finger Paints Striper Hip Hip Hue-Ray

China Glaze Fast Forward Top Coat

China Glaze Matte Magic

This look was super easy to create with minimal or no tools and cleanup. (I love stamping, but it really makes a mess!) I highly recommend getting striper polishes in basic black and white if you're into nail art. It makes it much easier to create a lot of looks, and reduces the need to buy or dirty nail art brushes! I got my finger paints stripers from Sally Beauty, but you can also get Sally Hansen brand from any drugstore. 

I love this look! If I can transfer the larger file to my computer for upload to YouTube, I'll have a tutorial soon as well. 

Happy New Years to all of you lovely readers!! I thank you so much for your views and comments. I hope you'll continue to return to the blog in the new year! 

xo Shawna

candy cane stripes

I've been wanting to do a candy cane striped mani, and I knew the red creme from the China Glaze holiday 2014 collection would be the perfect pairing with white. I'd also been itching to try watermarbling again after watching the video tutorial I linked the other day, so I figured why not kill two birds with one stone!

 Products Used

China Glaze Snow (marbling)

China Glaze Tip You Hat

BK Matt White (stamping)

HK Girl Top Coat

MoYou Festive 06

I am really happy with how the water marble turned out! The tutorial definitely gave great tips. I also used the tape to minimize cleanup this time and it worked like a charm (until I got excited to do the opposite hand and forgot to tape up for that one- oops!)

There will probably be one more post before Christmas! Do you have any exciting Christmas manis planned?

xo Shawna

Barry M and Water Decal Orchids

When my friend Kelly told me she was going to England for her honeymoon, I started dreaming about getting my hands on some Barry M. I figured rather than sending her from drugstore to drugstore hunting down colours, and not finding them, I'd save her the hassle and order online! I had them shipped to her grandmas house, easy peasy. Except the part where my computer kept autocorrecting the county name... Oh well! Also, please excuse the picture quality, my camera just wasn't doing well with the available light for some reason tonight. 

Tonight I finally got them in hand! (Scroll all the way for a pic). Sadly I had just broken a nail (AGAIN) so I chopped my nails into little nubbins. I already miss my almond shorties and feel kinda weird without them! Funny how such a thing grows on you. I decided on some simple nail art tonight and used some water decals from born pretty store. 

Products used 

Barry M Coconut

Barry M Purple Countess

HK Girl Top Coat (except on accent)

Born Pretty Store Orchid Water Decals (use SDPX31 to save 10%!)

While the process of applying water decals takes about the same time as stamping, clean up is certainly easier! I think these designs are so pretty and I'm glad I could fit them onto my nubbins. 

Here's a macro of purple countess - a textured polish. I'm in love! 

Have you tried water decals before? 

xo Shawna

Breakfast at Tiffanys for #nailartnov

Ok, so this one is a few days late but better late than never! I have been picturing doing something like this ever since I ordered the Audrey plate from Born Pretty. The #nailartnov theme Movies finally presented me the perfect opportunity. I used the technique to shrink your stamping image so I could fit the entire Audrey on my nail and it works like a charm :) Feel free to click on the image to see it up close! 

Products Used

China Glaze Snow

Nicole by OPI My Lifesaver

Wet n Wild Black Creme

HK Girl Top Coat

Stamping Plate QA38 from Born Pretty (SDPX31 to save 10% on reg. priced items!) 

I see what the fuss is all about for this white polish. I've being using the Ciate Snow Virgin that came with my caviar kit and this one seems a lot more crisp. Winner! 

Do you like Breakfast at Tiffanys?

xo Shawna

Romantic Stripes & Sparkles

My friend and I are at a yoga retreat centre for a few days of R&R. Of course this means we brought a bunch of nail supplies (she's one of my few friends who shares my nail polish obsession!) and got painting on our first night here. I wasn't sure what I had in mind when we started, but I wanted to try my new essie "Mint Candy Apple" so I laid down a base of that. 2 coats was fairly opaque (not perfectly so) but enough! 

I tried a few rosettes but they were sad looking so I wiped that off and did accent nails in OPI "Panda-monium Pink" (one of my fave shades and sadly discontinued). 

I used my striping brush and dotting tool to make each nail different. The white is Ciate "Snow Virgin". My chevrons on the right hand are not nearly as straight! 

Lastly, the accent nails needed a little bling so I added some rhinestones from born pretty store and two coats of a Sally Beauty glitter, finished off with a coat of HK Girl. Done! I didn't love it at first but it's definitely grown on me. I love the romantic colour palette! 

Do you like to mix and match patterns or keep everything uniform?

xo Shawna