Valentine's Day stripes

I had this grandiose idea that I was going to do a new mani every day this week in celebration of Valentine's Day. Then I realized:

A. I am too busy lazy.
B. That would wreck havoc on my already sad, dry cuticles.C. I own very few red and pink polishes to share.
D. I am no bueno at nail art and stamping.


E. I am so excited by my current manicure, and I never want to take it off. Like, ever. Seriously obsessed.

*The skies opened up and angels sing*

I was browsing Pinterest and I saw these gorgeous nails, which I tracked down to Kayla Savage. 

Look how absolutely beautiful they are!!! 

I wanted to recreate them to the best of my abilities. 

I started with three coats Essie Raise Awareness on my pinkie, index and thumb.  Raise Awareness is a baby pink that reminds me of cotton candy, but still very delicate - it's actually the lightest pink in my collection. The down side is that it does apply a little streaky, so three coats is necessary. Unfortunately, the many coats led to my manicure looking a little thick and not as refined as I would have liked. 

By comparison, I only needed one coat of a-england Princess Tears on my middle and ring fingers.  Princess Tears is a lovely lavender linear holo, with a pinkish flash visible in it. It's such a gorgeous holo, that I feel bad it was only used for the accent nails. I'm going to have to swatch this soon to show you the sheer amazingness. As with all my other a-england's this applied like butter. 

Love. Love. Love.

After some striping tape, and another three coats of Raise Awareness, I free handed some hearts in Zoya America. And, tada, a cutesy Valentine's Day mani.

Even my dominant hand mani turned out decent.  It's a miracle!

Olympics!!!

For those who don't know me, I am a total nerd for the Olympics. I adore everything about the Olympics: the Opening Ceremonies, the camaraderie of all the participants, the comebacks, the fierce competition... everything.

I especially love the Winter Games. I could watch figure skating for days - and I will! I also love hockey, speed skating, ski jumping, bobsled, curling... I really love it all.

This manicure is dedicated to Team U.S.A. On my pinky and pointer fingers I used Zoya Richelle, a lovely golden bronze metallic (going for the gold!), while OPI Alpine Snow was used for the base on my middle and ring fingers. 

Next, I used my striping tape (first attempt) to create represent the U.S. I originally wanted to go for a flag, but as this was my first attempt, I kept it simple. This was done using Zoya America (of course) and China Glaze First Mate.

The Olympic rings are my favorite part of the mani! I think they turned out great. How did I get such a perfect circle you ask? A simple coffee stirrer. I dipped the ends in the nail polish and stamped it on. I centered the black ring first and continued from there, using blue, red, yellow and green cremes that I had in my collection.

USA! USA! USA!

With this manicure, I'm all set to watch the Americans win gold in Sochi. Hope you all enjoy the Olympic coverage as much as I am!

Super Bowl nails

I'm going to keep this post short and sweet - it's the Super Bowl and there are dips and beers to consume!

I am a die hard Bears fan, so I really don't have a team allegiance for this game; but with many family members and friends in Seattle, I decided to cheer the Seahawks tonight.

I found Essie The More the Merrier and OPI Ski Teal We Drop to be the closest Seattle colors in my collection. And to get all wild and crazy, I decided to finally use my dotting tools that I bought myself at Christmas to try my first dotticure.

Two coats of The More the Merrier and 
Ski Teal We Drop. No top coat.

Not too shabby for the first attempt ever, in my (no so humble) opinion. 

Alright, that's all. Have a fun and SAFE Super Bowl!!