Twinsie Tuesday: Monochrome Nails

When I picture a monochromatic manicure, the first thing that comes to mind is all-white nails. So that's what I did! :) Somewhat ironically, I used two polishes to create this monochrome look. I started with Barielle Enduring, a white creme from their new keratin-infused Prosina line. Then to make my nails extra squishy-looking, I layered Essie Marshmallow, a white jelly, over top.

It's a simple look, but I thought the mix of jelly and creme finishes gave a little extra visual interest.
Please excuse the bits of bubbling. I need a new bottle of topcoat!

Not too much more I can say about this one--like I said, it's pretty simple, but I think it fits the theme.

Alaina at The Little Canvas

Alice at Nail Art in Wonderland

Amanda at Amandalandish

Amanda at Fashion Footing

Amber at Nails Like Lace

Bridget at A Painted Nail

Chelsea at Nailed Blog

ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi

Claire at Kerruticles

Jessica at Blue Velvet Lacquer

​Lisa at The Polish Playground

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Marisa at Polish Those Nails

Megan at A Beauty in the Business

Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les

Sara at The Call of Beauty

Sarah at Cloudy with a Chance of Lacquer

Savannah at Addicted to Polish

Sharon at Behind Green Eyes

Steph at Lovestruck Lacquer

Tiffany at Polished To Precision

Disclosure: The Barielle polish in this post was provided for my honest review. For more information, please see my disclosure policy.

Twinsie Tuesday (On A Wednesday): Birds

Hey guys! Sorry for the late post. There was a little mishap involving my dishwasher and a buncha water, but that's all sorted out now so we can get back to the very important business of nails!

We are doing bird nails this week, so I pulled out some Born Pretty nail stickers from my stash (you can see more about them HERE) and got to work! This particular set has a bunch of different shapes, but I made the owl stickers the main focus here, because...hello, birds?

My base shade is cult favorite OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls. It's a deceptively complex shade that looks white, but has this wonderful hint of blue-grey to it. I thought it'd be a good "clean" shade to let the neon stickers pop, but not so plain that it fades completely into the background.

Alaina at The Little Canvas

Alice at Nail Art in Wonderland

Amanda at Amandalandish

Amanda at Fashion Footing

Amber at Nails Like Lace

Bridget at A Painted Nail

Chelsea at Nailed Blog

ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi

Claire at Kerruticles

Jessica at Blue Velvet Lacquer

​Lisa at The Polish Playground

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Marisa at Polish Those Nails

Megan at A Beauty in the Business

Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les

Sara at The Call of Beauty

Sarah at Cloudy with a Chance of Lacquer

Savannah at Addicted to Polish

Sharon at Behind Green Eyes

Steph at Lovestruck Lacquer

Tiffany at Polished To Precision

Twinsie Tuesday: Mix and Match

The theme mix and match is pretty broad, so I tried to pick several polishes with different finishes in colors that I thought would be kind of unexpected and edgy together. That was the idea anyways. Instead, I think they just came out...well, I don't wanna go so far as to say ugly, but...it wasn't quite what I was going for. See and judge for yourself.

Index and pinky fingers: OPI DS Coronation
Middle finger: OPI Did It On 'Em with KBShimmer nail vinyls
Ring finger: OPI Metallic 4 Life
Thumb: Illamasqua Scorch with KBShimmer nail vinyls

The nail vinyls are by far my favorite part of this mani. They're a great nail art cheat--super easy and fast--and I love the variety of designs KBShimmer has to choose from. My main issue is with Did It On 'Em. I thought it'd be an interesting pop of color but it seems like it threw off the cohesiveness of the rest of the mani.

Anyways, I'm overanalyzing this. This mani had some hits and some misses, but I guess that's the nature of mix and match! ;)

Alaina at The Little Canvas

Alice at Nail Art in Wonderland

Amanda at Amandalandish

Amanda at Fashion Footing

Amber at Nails Like Lace

Bridget at A Painted Nail

Chelsea at Nailed Blog

ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi

Claire at Kerruticles

Jessica at Blue Velvet Lacquer

​Lisa at The Polish Playground

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Marisa at Polish Those Nails

Megan at A Beauty in the Business

Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les

Sara at The Call of Beauty

Sarah at Cloudy with a Chance of Lacquer

Savannah at Addicted to Polish

Sharon at Behind Green Eyes

Steph at Lovestruck Lacquer

Tiffany at Polished To Precision

OPI Kitty White

OPI Kitty White is a mother of pearl shimmer. I'm normally not big on these types of shades, but I actually liked this one quite a bit! It's pretty alone, as you'll see below, but it also makes a nice base for layering (like in last week's Twinsie Tuesday post) or you could put it over top of another shade to add a dash of shimmer.

I kind of became obsessed with photographing this polish. I took swatch pics in a bunch of different lightings, so hopefully that will give you a very thorough idea of how this shade looks!

And then a pic with flash to finish things off. It's been a long time since I posted a swatch with flash but I thought it brought out the shimmer nicely.

 

As you'd probably expect with this type of shade, it's more on the sheer side. I wore three coats above and while that was not completely opaque, it was close enough that it didn't bother me. I was worried this would look frosty or brushstroke-y but it really doesn't, so that's a huge plus in my book!

Twinsie Tuesday: Shattered Glass

I'll admit, I had to look up what this technique was because I'd never heard of it before. But near as I can tell, a shattered glass mani involves large iridescent mylar flakes laid across the nail. The nearest thing I had in my collection to replicate this style with was Studio M Covered In Diamonds, which has a clear base filled with mylar pieces.

I like the way this polish looks but I don't wear it much because 1) it's a bitch to remove and 2) the mylar pieces are pretty jagged and easily get snagged on things. A thicker top coat is a must with this one. (I used Nubar Diamont.) My base was OPI Kitty White from the new Hello Kitty Collection.

This combination didn't come together quite as I envisioned it but it did make for an interesting pairing nonetheless. It has a cool, kind of opalescent look to it that like. It looks way more complex and multifaceted in person than my camera could pick up with all the colorful flakes. I had to layer up Covered With Diamobds to three coats to get it to stand out against the pearly white background of Kitty White, so my nails felt hella rough, but they looked sparkly and shiny so that's what truly counts. ;)

Alaina at The Little Canvas

Alice at Nail Art in Wonderland

Amanda at Amandalandish

Amanda at Fashion Footing

Amber at Nails Like Lace

Bridget at A Painted Nail

Chelsea at Nailed Blog

ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi

Claire at Kerruticles

Jessica at Blue Velvet Lacquer

​Lisa at The Polish Playground

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Marisa at Polish Those Nails

Megan at A Beauty in the Business

Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les

Sara at The Call of Beauty

Sarah at Cloudy with a Chance of Lacquer

Savannah at Addicted to Polish

Sharon at Behind Green Eyes

Steph at Lovestruck Lacquer

Tiffany at Polished To Precision

Lynnderella New Year's Eve Eve

It wouldn't be a New Year's mani without glitter and I figure there's no better choice than Lynderella New Year's Eve Eve! This is a rainbow explosion of glitter in all shapes and sizes that brings to mind the gallons of confetti that will be falling in Times Square tonight.

I layered two coats over Wet N Wild Break The Ice, a pearly white shimmer. I thought it was the perfect base because it lets the colorful glitters stand out while still adding some sparkle of its own.

New Year's Eve Eve didn't have any notable formula issues. Like any glitter polish of this type, you'll get some large pieces that need to be guided away from the free edge of the nail, but otherwise this has a nice 'n easy formula.

I absolutely love this mani and how it looks like a little party on my nails! A big thanks to my buddy (and one-time Twinsie Tuesday member) Tara for gifting it to me!

What's on your nails tonight? Any fun New Year's plans? I'm eating tacos and watching "Archer" with my boyfriend. My kind of night. :)

Twinsie Tuesday: Holiday Mani

The Twinsie Tuesday girls are checking in from our seasonal hiatus to bring you some holiday manis! This time of year is crazy for all of us, but we wanted to do at least one post for December.

For my mani, I went with my favorite holiday color combo of red and gold. Plus since it's the holidays, you know I gotta bring some extra sparkle. So I took the red and white glitterbomb goodness of Lumina Lacquer Candy Cane Lane and layered it over my favorite gold polish, OPI Glitzerland. Candy Cane Lane is such a great polish and I couldn't let the holiday season pass without wearing it at least once. Seriously, who can resist a polish with candy cane-shaped glitter?!

I plan to post again before Christmas but I wanted to take the opportunity to wish all of you a safe and happy holiday season. I hope whatever your plans are and whichever holidays you celebrate, that you feel happy and loved.

                        

Alaina at The Little Canvas

Alice at Nail Art in Wonderland

Amanda at Amandalandish

Amanda at Fashion Footing

Amber at Nails Like Lace

Bridget at A Painted Nail

Chelsea at Nailed Blog

ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi

Claire at Kerruticles

Jessica at Blue Velvet Lacquer

​Lisa at The Polish Playground

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Marisa at Polish Those Nails

Megan at A Beauty in the Business

Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les

Sara at The Call of Beauty

Sarah at Cloudy with a Chance of Lacquer

Savannah at Addicted to Polish

Sharon at Behind Green Eyes

Steph at Lovestruck Lacquer

Tiffany at Polished To Precision

Twinsie Tuesday: China Glaze It's A Trap-eze!

Hey guys! It's been a minute, right? I know I've been an awful blogger lately, but I'm trying to get back in the swing of things. So what better way than Twinsie Tuesday? :)

This week we're doing manis inspired by our favorite foods. I looooooovvvveee eating, so this was a tough pick for me, hahahaha. But I decided to go with one of my very favorite desserts. Can you guess what it is from which polish I picked?

It's funfetti cake! I know, I know, it's not the most sophisticated choice, but I can't get enough funfetti, especially the frosting!

The polish is China Glaze It's A Trap-eze!, which I thought was the perfect representation since it's got a white base filled with multi-colored glitter. It's A Trap-eze! looked kinda messy with the first few layers, but it all came together nicely in the end. Most of my nails only needed three coats, but a couple needed four to even out some bald patches.

Please excuse the cut on my index finger. I nicked it at work last week and it's taking its sweet time healing. Flesh wounds aside, I hope you enjoyed today's post and that you'll check out my fellow Twinsies today too!

                        

Alaina at The Little Canvas

Alice at Nail Art in Wonderland

Amanda at Amandalandish

Amanda at Fashion Footing

Amber at Nails Like Lace

Bridget at A Painted Nail

Chelsea at Nailed Blog

ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi

Claire at Kerruticles

Jessica at Blue Velvet Lacquer

​Lisa at The Polish Playground

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Marisa at Polish Those Nails

Megan at A Beauty in the Business

Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les

Sara at The Call of Beauty

Sarah at Cloudy with a Chance of Lacquer

Savannah at Addicted to Polish

Sharon at Behind Green Eyes

Steph at Lovestruck Lacquer

Tiffany at Polished To Precision

Twinsie Tuesday: Inspired By Your Pet

Hey guys! This week we're doing a mani inspired by our child or pet. I will tell you up front I'm not really happy with how mine turned out, but it is what it is. :-/ I did a mani inspired by my amazingly adorable fur baby, Sapphira!

We rescued Sapphira earlier this year. She is a Snowshoe cat, which is an offshoot of the Siamese breed. Snowshoes are known for their white feet (Sapphira has little "mittens" on all four paws--so cute!!) and often have white faces and stomachs as well. Sapphira's passions include napping, bird-watching, fluffy pillows and catnip. <3

To me, the most striking thing about Sapphira is her big blue eyes. So I wanted to incorporate that into my mani. I started with a white base of OPI Put A Coat On! for all of her white markings, then added Dollish Polish 3 Best Friends That Anyone Could Have, which is a blue and silver glitter, for her eyes.

I like the combo itself, but I don't think it captured my inspiration all that well. I feel like I maybe should have done something more literal. But hey, at least I tried to make up for it with cute cat pictures! ;)

                        

Alaina at The Little Canvas

Alice at Nail Art in Wonderland

Amanda at Amandalandish

Amanda at Fashion Footing

Amber at Nails Like Lace

Bridget at A Painted Nail

Chelsea at Nailed Blog

ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi

Claire at Kerruticles

Jessica at Blue Velvet Lacquer

​Lisa at The Polish Playground

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Marisa at Polish Those Nails

Megan at A Beauty in the Business

Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les

Sara at The Call of Beauty

Sarah at Cloudy with a Chance of Lacquer

Savannah at Addicted to Polish

Sharon at Behind Green Eyes

Steph at Lovestruck Lacquer

Tiffany at Polished To Precision

Twinsie Tuesday: Recreate Another Twinsie's Mani

This week, we were challenged to recreate one of our fellow Twinsies' manis. We could pick anyone and any mani we wanted. I did some looking and decided on a really cute mani done by Alaina from The Little Canvas!

I would like to preface this by saying that Alaina is a million times better at nail art than I will ever be. So while I am a big admirer of her manis, most of them are things I would never even attempt to try myself! But I really loved this mani of hers...

...and I thought it was something I could pull off. Here's my version:

I used the same base as Alaina, China Glaze Too Yacht To Handle. Then my pinky and pointer fingers are topped with OPI I'll Tinsel You In and my middle finger is Color Club Harp On It. Alaina drew the hearts on her ring fingers, but I cheated by fishing out heart glitter from Lynnderella Evermore.

I had a lot of fun doing this! I like searching my stash for the perfect polishes to recreate a look. I'm excited to see what manis everyone else picked! And please be sure to welcome our newest Twinsies, Alice and Sarah! :)

Tiffany at Polished To Precision

Steph at Lovestruck Lacquer

Sharon at Behind Green Eyes

Savannah at Addicted to Polish

Sarah at Cloudy with a Chance of Lacquer

Sara at The Call of Beauty

Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les

Megan at A Beauty in the Business

Marisa at Polish Those Nails

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Lisa at The Polish Playground

Jessica at Blue Velvet Lacquer

Claire at Kerruticles

​ ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi

Chelsea at Nailed Blog

Bridget at A Painted Nail

Amber at Nails Like Lace

Amanda at Fashion Footing

Amanda at Amandalandish

Alice at Nail Art in Wonderland

 Alaina at The Little Canvas