Clouds

I know I've been MIA lately. Grad school is done and graduation is on Mother's Day! And then 5 days later, I'm getting married!! So, I've been a little busy, but I have been keeping up with my nail art just fine!

I just wanted to show you all a few cloud nails I did.

 This manicure was created using an Enchanted Polish and 2 Sally Hansens.

 This manicure is 100% Zoya polish

Thanks for reading!
-Amanda

Clouds in My Coffee with Nail Art!

About a month ago, I managed to purchase myself a mystery gift bag from Llarowe. Contained within this mystery bag of polishes was Pretty and Polished Clouds in My Coffee. I remember wanting this polish when it first came out. SO happy it was in that bag!

Clouds in My Coffee is a gorgeous light brown mocha with various sizes of glitter in a few different shades of blue. It's such a gorgeous combination! Shown is 3 coats with HK Girl topcoat.

I wore it like this for a day and a half, and decided to do a little something extra to it! What better way than to keep with the theme of clouds and do the cloud technique! I used Zoya Breezi and Skylar to make it happen! I love this combination!

 I got quite a few ooohs and ahhs while meeting with wedding vendors this weekend. That always makes a gal happy!

Thanks for reading!
-Amanda

Let it Snow! Challenge #6 Winter Solstice

I've fallen behind!! I'm catching up now though!!

This challenge was difficult for me. I couldn't figure out what to do! When I think winter solstice I think of celestial bodies and deeply rooted traditions. I wanted to channel that a little and thought what better way than to depict a night sky.

I started with Zoya Storm as my background to serve as an inky sky full of stars. I then went in with my sponge and Sinful Colors Snow Me White and made the moon on each nail. I wanted it all to have a soft, uneven look. More wispy, if you will. I then went back in with my sponge and layered Zoya Harley, Zoya Carey, and Barielle U-Concrete-Me, making it look like clouds.

Hope you enjoyed!
-Amanda

Channeling Warmer Weather

This is the manicure I was rocking for a good portion of this week. I chose these colors with summer in mind!

I used all Zoya polishes again. This time it is Trixie, Zuza, and Mitzi.

Hope you enjoyed!
Thanks for reading!
-Amanda

Let it Snow! Challenge #4 Christmas/ Holidays

Merry Christmas!!!

I hope you all have an amazing day full of love, joy, warmth, blessing, and good food!!

I wanted to quickly post my next challenge completion. This one is inspired by Christmas!
I went with a nice light blue base of Zoya Kristen then took my dotting tool and made some lovely ornaments! I used Zoyas for all of these (Trixie, Elisa, and Holly).

I really like how the blue snowy background works with the other colors!

Enjoy your holiday!!
-Amanda

Let it Snow Challenge #1 Snowflakes

I've taken on another nail art challenge! Some amazing women in a Facebook group I am a part of, came up with this new challenge and I love it! I'm really hoping I can stay on top of this one.

Challenge #1 is Snowflakes. I thought I would be able to just reach for a stamping plate and use that, but man was I surprised to find that I don't have any snowflakes on any of my plates! Back to the drawing board I went and decided on a nontraditional look. PLEASE excuse the poor lighting and blurry pictures. My house has sub par lighting and I don't have a light box.

Take a look:

This last picture is the one that shows my base polish's true color. It's a gorgeous polish! I used Lex Cosmetics Peabow. The colors in this are so shimmery! They kind of get lost when you apply more layers, but with the right light, it glistens! The blue is an acrylic paint I recently picked up, and the silver is Zoya Trixie. I topped it all off with HK Girl.


Thanks for reading!
-Amanda

My Backup Thanksgiving Manicure

After my first Thanksgiving manicure chipped off in less than a day, I set out to create my replacement! I've always wanted to try the cloud design that I first saw on the Nailside, so I began with that. I altered it slightly, but overall, I like the outcome.

I used China Glaze Velvet Bow, NYX Girls Chocolate Taupe, and Cult Nails Tulum.

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!
-Amanda

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope you have a wonderful holiday with friends and family! I'm thankful for so much, including my 2 new followers! Thank you!!

This design that I am about to show you is what I intended to use as my Thanksgiving one. I thought the colors were "harvesty" is nature and went with them. I know, it looks similar to my Retro Halloween Nails, but I did substitute some colors. Sadly, this manicure didn't last more than 8 hours. Tragedy struck and I broke two nails and 7 out of 10 nails have chipped!! Oh the humanity!!!! 

I was able to snap some picture (with a cell phone again, I'm sorry!!!!!) before it got too bad. I won't show you my pinky nail because it's the saddest little nub of a nail you've ever seen! 

Macro of my thumb. No idea what that smudge is, but I can assure you it's not on my nail now.

On the left, you can see the corner break of that nail. I was so happy they were growing back and getting healthy again and then BAM! Not today sister! I've since filed it down, shed a few tears, etc..

I used all china glaze for this design. I used Agro, Riveting, Smoke and Ashes, Fast Track, Champagne Bubbles, and Velvet Bow. I'll be working on a new Thanksgiving themed/ inspired design today so hopefully I'll have something nicer for you tomorrow! And I'll take the pictures with my actual camera this time too. What do you think?

Thanks for reading! Hope your holiday is joyous!
-Amanda

Autumn Trees

Well, here in Northeastern PA, I'm still without power and I'm typing this from my fiance's house. His family has been gracious enough to let my sister and I stay here a few days as they were lucky enough to keep power throughout the hurricane. We've had so many people without power here and so many trees down. I can't complain though because what we experienced just can't hold a candle to the utter destruction of New York and New Jersey. 

On a happier note, I was going through my blog feed this afternoon and clicked on A Girl and Her Polish's most recent post. Katee did a feature on some up and coming bloggers that she enjoys and I'm reading through the post, admiring the work of the other bloggers, scroll down, and BOOM! There's my stuff!!! She included my blog in the feature! I couldn't believe it! It's such a huge honor! If you've never been to her blog, you NEED to go now. She has such gorgeous nail designs and they always look impeccable!

On to the nails! I did this design at the beginning of October. It was the first "seasonal" manicure I did and I just wanted to share it with you all! I went with a neutral color (Zoya Jana) and used some nail art brushes for the designs. I wasn't sure what kind of design I wanted so I just started making lines and I love how it turned out. I think they look like abstract trees against a dark autumn sky. 

Thanks for reading!

-Amanda

Retro Halloween Nails

I've been so busy!!!! BUT I have a post for you!

I'm sure many of you have seen the ruffle manicure. I wanted to try it as soon as I first heard of it, but that just didn't happen. Then, a few days ago I realized that one of my favorite holidays was fast approaching and I had yet to do an appropriate manicure to honor the season! Well, I quickly remedied this and decided on an autumn/ Halloween inspired ruffle manicure. As you'll see, the colors look very retro and cozy! I absolutely love the turn out, and I received so many oohs and ahhs over this! I was humbled.

(indirect light- outside)

(flash indoors)

(flash indoors)

It was so difficult to get a good picture! The lighting was horrible this week!

For this, I used China Glaze Agro, Harvest Moon, Smoke and Ashes, Champagne Bubbles, and Zoya Yara.

Thanks for reading!

-Amanda

How Not to Complete a Challenge...

So sorry for my horrible absence! Life got crazy, and now I'm packing for a vacation this upcoming week. Oh goodness do I need some time away!

Well, today I had some downtime while I procrastinated my packing and decided I needed to work on the Lazy Days of Summer Challenge...wow oh wow did I fail this next theme....flip flops...ugh! Take a look:

I'm keeping the picture small and not even watermarking it...what a disgrace! At least this one is done. 

So as not to leave you all with a feeling of disappointment, I shall show you the manicure I did today in preparation for my vacation. I used blue, purple, and green polishes- my 3 favorite colors, and my dotting tool. Enjoy!

A little better, no?

Thanks for reading!

-Amanda

LDoS Challenge- #3 Flag Day & Happy 4th of July!

Happy Fourth of July everyone! I tried to time my 3rd LDoS nail challenge to coincide with the holiday! 2 birds with one stone, and all that.

So, let's get festive! I'm all about the 4th. Sadly, I'll be working tomorrow but I'll be out in time to see some fireworks! I have many members of my family that are in the armed forces and one that will be going in soon. I am so thankful for the freedoms in this country and for the sacrifices that the men and women who serve our country make every day. Thank you!

To commemorate the holiday, I wanted to go all out with my nails. I recently won a giveaway from Noelle at XO, Noelle. It included 3 very patriotic polishes by Sinful Colors (Ruby Ruby, Blue By You, & Snow Me White)  that I was in desperate need of! (Thanks again, Noelle!)

I used Sinful Colors Blue By You on my index and ring fingers. Gorgeous, amazing blue! I highly recommend it! Then I used Zoya Trixie on my thumb, middle, and pinkie fingers. I then took Snow Me White and cut diagonally across the tips of my middle and index fingers, the took Ruby Ruby and made some stripes. I went in with my So Easy nail art brush in white and drew the stars. Then, I took Pretty & Polished Freedom Calling and applied that over Trixie. I sealed it all up with one coat Gelous and one coat Seche Vite.

Be sure to check out the links for the other ladies and their nail art:

Victoria Vertel

http://www.manicurator.com/

https://www.facebook.com/Manicurator

Alyson Epstein

http://beadsnailsfood.blogspot.com/

http://www.facebook.com/BeadsNailsFood

Amanda Murphy

http://mandyspolish.blogspot.com/

Hannah Fabiny

http://polished-prisms.blogspot.com

http://www.facebook.com/PolishedPrisms

Sue O'Connor

http://creativenaildesignbysue.blogspot.com 

Katee Baum

http://www.agirlandherpolish.com

http://www.facebook.com/AGirlandHerPolish

Charlotte-Louise Bennett

http://charlottes-nails.blogspot.co.uk/

Jessica Francis

http://nearlynaturalnails.blogspot.com

https://www.facebook.com/NearlyNaturalNails

Karine Assemien

http://karinea0a.blogspot.com 

Jen Guin

http://thepolishedzombie.blogspot.com

Jessica Brown

http://jessicasnailtales.blogspot.com/

https://www.facebook.com/JessicasNailTales

Ashley Rowlands-Vanderzande

http://onenailtoanother.blogspot.ca

Pryanka Arora

http://nailsparks.blogspot.com/

Anna Freedman, Erin Obriecht, Robin Storesund

http://www.polishedcousins.com

http://www.facebook.com/PolishedCousins

 Maribeth Robienczak

http://obsessivecosmetichoardersunite.blogspot.com/

Kayono Lan (aka Johanna)

http://kayonolan.blogspot.de/

Sharra Farivar

http://alira23.blogspot.ca/search/label/Polished%20Prisms%20The%20Lazy%20Days%20of%20Summe\

Nichole Mowery

http://aotnf.blogspot.com

Stephanie Oblas

http://alittlepolish.blogspot.com

Becky Barnett

http://glamfiend.blogspot.com

Thanks for reading! Have a wonderful and safe holiday!

-Amanda

ASBMF #14- Design of Your Choice- FUNKY FRENCH!

This is the last challenge! What?! I finished it!
I decided for this one I wanted to go out BIG! I feel like this one should show the transition of lovely spring, to sultry summer!
I started with 3 coats of Zoya Happi.

This is my first time using this color. What the heck took so long?! It's a gorgeous pink with glorious gold shimmer!! It's like spring and summer decided to have a baby!

I could have stopped here, but that wouldn't be awesome enough, would it? Of course not! I looked through my stamping plates and decided on BM-223. I stamped using Sinful Colors Black on Black. My nails are odd and the Bundle Monster plates aren't big or long enough for some of my nails so I decided to do a funky french to fill in the gap. I grabbed my So Easy Stripe Rite in this bright blue color and free handed the tips. Left hand looks awesome. Right hand (which I won't be showing) is a horror show...but that's alright.

The blue isn't this neon in life, but it's still really nice.

Love the way this came out!! Totally nothing I would normally do, but I'm absolutely doing it again!

Well, that's it! I can't wait for the summer challenge!

Thanks for reading,
Hope you enjoyed,

-Amanda

ASBMF #13- The Paper Gal- Newspaper Transfer

Second to last challenge right here!! Let me just confess how nervous I was about this challenge! I wasn't even sure I liked the idea of this challenge...it looked boring to me. Again, the April Showers Bring May Flowers challenge has proven me wrong! Not to mention, I've learned that there's another nail art technique out there that I can do- and like! I feel like this is such a momentous occasion! haha!

Anywhoooooo......the challenge!
I used the soaking method with the 70% Isopropyl Rubbing Alcohol.
I applied 1 coat of Zoya Carey (1 is all I needed!). I let it dry and soaked my nail in the alcohol for 5 seconds. Immediately upon taking it out, I placed some newspaper on it and patted it down (like you would a temporary tattoo, really). This is what resulted:

I should have waited just a little longer before putting the top coat on!! Blast!

Just an up close of my ring finger.

I can't wait to do this one again! Maybe with a light colored base!

What are your thoughts on the new watermark? I need some feedback on it!

Thanks for reading!
Hope you enjoyed!

-Amanda