Best of Paint All the Nails

I have a different sort of post today. It's also a very bittersweet post. The ladies from my Paint All the Nails group are joining up again for our monthly link-up. This will be out last link up though as more than a few of the bloggers are saying goodbye or have already done so this past year. To commemorate this last link-up, we decided to do a Best of Paint All the Nails. All of us have recreated a previously done design from the PATN link-up archives, which will also show some love for one of our other fellow group members.

I went through all the photos and had such a hard time deciding which look I wanted to re-create. This is such a talented group of nail bloggers and in the end, after a lot of deliberation, I ended up doing two different designs.

This first one is a re-creation of Very Emily's dry brush link up manicure. I love the colors she chose and how the abstract dry brush application looks. I started out with Pretty Serious Absence and then used Cirque Colors McKittrick, Essie In the Lobby, and Pahlish Be True. I did not have a square nail stud but I did have this gold triangle instead. 

The other look I wanted to recreated is from Love Vanish's Dotticures link-up post. So simple but striking in the color choice. Add on the matte and it looks not just like nail art but pop art, worthy of being on the wall. 

I started out with Cirque Colors Hustle for my base, applied the black dots first, then the white and once it was all dry, topcoat and then matte topcoat. 

Please give the other ladies in this final link-up some love, the links to their posts are below. Thank you to all those lovely ladies, I will miss linking up to do these with you!

An InLinkz Link-up

Paint All the Nails Presents: Watercolor

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Hi everyone! I have some nail art today with this month's Paint All the Nails link up. For this month the theme was Watercolor.

Doing watercolor nails is something that allows for a lot of creative freedom and one of my favorite nail art techniques. I like how you can create something abstract or something more complex, depending on the colors or method you use. 

I decided to do a floral watercolor look, done freehand with a brush. The colors I chose are part of the upcoming Polish My Life Thank You for Being a Friend Collection, a four piece set. My review is forthcoming so once I have that published later, I will link it here. 

Using a little palette, I put a few droplets of the red and pink polishes and diluted them with pure acetone. Then using a brush, I painted on the flowers. I added some green and black to accent and then just dabbed on, just slightly, a little more acetone, to give it a more "watercolor" look. 

Some added matte topcoat, because that's yes, please, always to matte. I love how soft and oh so girly this looks. What do you think?

I hope you like the look I came up with and make sure to click on the links below to see what my fellow bloggers have created!

An InLinkz Link-up

Paint All the Nails Presents: Color Block

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Hi everyone! Instead of a review, I have some nail art today with this month's Paint All the Nails link up. I missed June and July's link ups with life getting in the way but I didn't want to go any longer without having the chance to contribute to this group challenge. For this month the theme was Color Block.

Color blocking is a relatively easy form of doing nail art and one I really love. If you like abstract designs (and you know I do), then a color block prompt is a great way to spark creativity. Although school has begun and pumpkin spice products are creeping back on the market, it is still summer time for me. So with that in my head, I decided to go with a neon skittle look with black blocks. 

I used all the polishes from Cirque Colors Vice 2016 Collection (which I reviewed here), plus Memento Mori to create the blocks and here is my end result. Simple but striking. The black adds a dark contrast to the over-all bright color scheme. 

I applied a layer of matte topcoat and oh yes, I loooove how this looks matte. I am wearing these still today and I have been unconsciously petting my nails because it's so smooth. 

I hope you like the look I came up with and make sure to click on the links below to see what my fellow bloggers have created!

An InLinkz Link-up

Paint All the Nails Presents: Dotticures

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Hello! It's time for another monthly Paint All the Nails link up with my fellow Paint All the Nails bloggers. This month we voted on a Dotticure theme, which is open to interpretation. 

You all must know by now how much I love to do dotted manicures! It's a very easy method to do nail art and I love how there are so many options or way to create a simple or complex design. 

I decided to re-create one of my favorite dotticures I had posted on my Instagram over a year ago and which has been re-created by a few times by others on Instagram, including Kelli Marissa.  

I started with a blank white base (Pretty Serious Absence) and using my trusty dotting tool and a rainbow of colors, I did the rainbow dot design. I am going to let you in on a secret.....I did not use a single other colored polish besides the white base. Normally I do like to use polishes for dotting but I was short on time so I used acrylic paint for the dots. Acrylic paint will dry more quickly and does not get as thick as polish can get. I can apply the dots precisely and then apply topcoat much sooner without worrying about my design dragging or messing up. 

Matte topcoat! Because of course it needs matte. 

Rainbow colors make me happy. I don't wear rainbow colors as much in my coloring or in my home decor but on my nails? I can be as rainbow bright as my heart desires!

I love seeing what other creative looks the other bloggers have come up with and you should check those out too! Click on the links below to see what they have created. 

An InLinkz Link-up

Paint All the Nails Presents: Monochrome

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Hey all! It's that time of the month in which my fellow Paint All the Nails bloggers and I link up in a group nail art challenge. This month we voted on Monochrome as the theme and I am over-the-top excited to share with you what I came up with. 

When we picked the theme of Monochrome, to make it more of a challenge, it was decided that we could be keeping a strict interpretation of the theme, no other colors beyond grayscale. I love black and white together and while I do appreciate bright pops of color, a stark black and white contrast is one of my favorite things to see. I had a number of ideas that I wanted to try so I ended up with not one, but three designs! Let's start with the first one:

For my first attempt, I decided to try a simple black and white stamped look. Stamping is not something I do as often as freehand nail art, so while I like how this flows together, I wish it was just a bit more crisply done. Gotta practice my stamping technique more. I used Rica Whiteout as my base color, and Blackout to stamp the lines from a Moyou Pro plate. I added a layer of Darling Diva Polish Crazy Doesn't Even Begin to Cover It, which is a holo topper that I will be reviewing soon. 

My next attempt was a negative space look. You guys know how much I love negative space. I went with this mod looking design using Cirque Colors Carpe Diem and Memento Mori, plus a few curved nail vinyls and some striping tape. 

My last design is a free hand floral one. For this look, I decided to use my other go-to black and white polishes, Pretty Serious Absence for the base and Presence (plus a few dabs of Absence) to create the flowers. It was a close call, but this may be my favorite of the three designs. 

Click on the links below to see what the other bloggers have created! 

An InLinkz Link-up

Paint All the Nails Presents: Pastel Geometric

Press Samples

Hello! It's that time of the month again, in which the bloggers that are in my Paint All the Nails group come together and link up with nail art. Previous posts can be found under this tag. The theme for this month is Pastel Geometric. 

Ever since I reviewed Paint Box Polish's Ciao, Gelato! Collection, I have had them sitting on my desk, waiting to be used in a nail art design and I thought they would be perfect to use for this prompt. Initially I thought of possibly doing stamped decals but I haven't had luck yet with that technique so I went another route and did this stamped marble instead. If you need a tutorial of how to do that, Emily of Very Emily has an awesome video of this in her Bundle Monster Mochi Stamper review. 

I started out with a blank white base, using Pretty Serious Absence. Then I applied about four strips of striping tape randomly crossed on my nail. Once that was done, I took a stamper and dabbed blobs of polish and then pressed the stamper onto my nail. The colors I used are Paint Box Polish Ananas, Fragola, Fruit de Bosco, Melone, Pistacchio, and Puffo. 

I really like the final result. The colors have a muted watercolor effect and the white lines are a nice soft contrast. I did have a bit of bubbling, which annoys me to no end but otherwise, this was an easy technique, if a little time consuming. 

Make sure to click on the links below to see all the other bloggers' posts, I love how pretty and springy everyone's nails look!

An InLinkz Link-up

Paint All the Nails Presents: Marble

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Hi everyone! For today I am joining my fellow Paint All the Nails group to participate in our monthly nail art series. Previous posts can be found under this tag. This month the theme was Marble, with an open interpretation of this prompt. 

I decided to go with a stone marble look, using a water marble method. I must admit that this was not my first attempt, I had an entirely other look I planned and executed but it did not quite hit the mark for me. In the end this one turned out much better. 

To start out, I applied a blank white base using Cirque Colors Carpe Diem. The I used Cirque Memento Mori and Cirque Mermaid Parade (which is an upcoming release, review next week of that!) in the water marble design. I also used Pipe Dream Polish Clearwater, just one drop between the black and teal. I wanted a very organic looking stone marble design and turned out much better than I anticipated! I love how crisp the white is and the contrast with the black and teal blue is soooo nice. 

This definitely got me excited to do more nail art again, which I hope to share more here. Please click on the links below to see what the other lovely ladies in this link up have created!

An InLinkz Link-up

Paint All the Nails: Secret Santa Edition

Hi everyone! You may recall my previous Paint All the Nails posts (here and here), in which a group of fellow nail bloggers (myself included) come together to create nail art looks around a specific idea or prompt. For this month, we were each randomly assigned another group member a la Secret Santa style to re-create a nail art look. My Secret Santa is the very talented Nathalie of La Paillette Frondeuse. It took me a while to figure out which look I wanted to recreate as she has so many gorgeous ones to choose from! I spent more than a bit of time reading her blog and finally decided on this saran wrap nail art look she posted here. 

I started out with a black white base on three of my nails using Pretty Serious Presence. Then I applied a few random drops of Essie Bell Bottom Blues and Essie Leggy Legend (both from Essie's Fall 2015 Collection) and using a bit of balled up saran wrap, created the marbled design. On my ring finger I applied Essie Leggy Legend as an accent with two gold square studs from Born Pretty Store. 

I love the finished look! The bronze/gold metallic with the bold blue and stark white are just amazing all together. I do think Nathalie's original design is far better then mine, you should check out her post if you haven't already. 

Make sure to click on the Link Up links below to see what my fellow nail bloggers have created! This is a fabulous group of ladies and I am so lucky to be part of this group. 

Also, give Nathalie some love, here are links to her blog and social media: Blog, Facebook, and Instagram. 

An InLinkz Link-up

Negative Space All the Nails

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Provided for Review

Hello! It's that time of the month again, in which nail blogger friends from my Facebook group "Paint All the Nails" and I join up to post nail art. The theme for this month is Negative Space! 

I love negative space nail art, it's something I do quite often, despite my obviously stained nails. #YellowNailsNoShame 

For me, the trick to doing negative space is to have my tips (which are the most discolored part of my nail) covered a bit. Oh and to apply a double layer of ridge builder base coat. That beige ridge builder is your friend. I have been using Girly Bits Smooth Move for a few months now and I quite like it. It's on the thin side, so you can apply two layers without it getting to thick on your nail. 

For today's negative space look I decided to do a repeat of what I did a few months ago on my Instagram, which is a one color marble with alternating clear rings. I used Cirque Colors Santorini and Pipe Dream Polish Clearwater. Cirque Colors cremes are wonderful to use for water marbling, they spread quite easily. I did find that the blue color bled into the clear a bit, so my negative space is more "almost negative". It does play a little loose with the negative space prompt with the blending of the blue and clear, but you can still see bits of my natural nail throughout. 

Once I was done with the marbling, I used my trusty dotting tool and placed dots in curve formations. I didn't want a stark white, so I used a slightly off-white cream acrylic paint for the dots. 

Final result! I hope you like it as much as I do. Make sure to check out the other ladies links below, everyone did an amazing job with this theme!

An InLinkz Link-up

Gradient All The Nails!

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Provided for Review

Hi everyone! I have something different for you guys today. I am part of a small group of nail bloggers on Facebook. We support each other's blogs and on monthly occasion, will do a themed group challenge. I wasn't able to participate in last month's theme of floral nail art as I was just returning from Las Vegas and then prepping to go to Canada but I am very excited to be able to participate in this month's theme of gradient nail art! The caliber of these other awesome nail bloggers is just outstanding so make sure to visit each of their blogs in the Link Up widget at the end of my post. 

Ahhh, gradients. It's a relatively simple form of nail art that can be very eye-catching. And with the popularity of the many latex barrier applicators out there, it's much less messy to apply a gradient then it used to be. I received a bottle of Glisten & Glow Ctrl-Alt-Del when I was at Cosmo Prof and have been using this latex barrier for a few weeks now so if you are looking for a one to try, I can recommend that one. 

As for what colors to pick, you can do a two to three to four color gradient depending on how complex you want to go. I decided to a two tone gradient of turquoise to white using Polish My Life Stripped and B Squared Lacquer Plur. Then I applied a layer matte topcoat (Polish My Life Mat(t)erialistic) and after that was dry, I applied a splatter of gold acrylic paint. Acrylic paint is awesome for splatter nail art because any stray splatter on my skin will wash off with water. 

Under Direct Sunlight: 

I love how this turned out! There is a slight textured feel of the splatter against the matte base. And the turquoise/white gradient is complimented by the gold splatter. 

Thanks for reading and please check out my fellow bloggers' gradient nail art below:

An InLinkz Link-up