Floral Pastel Nails

So one of the talented nail artists I follow on Instagram, @cassgooner, recently posted a picture of these nails.

The moment I saw these, I knew I had to recreate them! They are just so gorgeous, and a twist on typical flower nails, because the flowers are more abstract than precise. I absolutely love them! Cassie also posted a step-by-step tutorial for these nails, which made it really easy to paint this design. I'll share it below so anyone that wants to paint these nails can follow it.

Here's a picture of my nails. I used China Glaze's Highlight Of My Summer for the base- it is by far my favorite green polish, and definitely one of my top ten polishes for summertime. For the flowers, I used Color Club's Warhol and OPI's OPI red. I used Essie's Mojito Madness for the leaves, and OPI's alpine snow for the lace design.

I seriously love these nails so much! They started to chip after a few days, so I filled them in before it got so bad I had to take them off. I think these would be perfect for summer, and I plan to do them at least one more time! If you try these, please tag me @nailedpolish and use the hashtag #lookcassgooner, because this is her design. 

Mani Swap Sunday!

I finally got to do a mani swap with my good friend Erin! If you haven't heard of it before, a mani swap is when each person recreates a nail design that the other person has done in the past. I recreated a rainbow dotticure that Erin did a few weeks ago, and she recreated the nails I did when I attended my friend's wedding. If you'd like to follow Erin and see more of her designs, her Instagram is @erinhughes_!

Here is Erin's dotticure, which was my inspiration.

I used almost all of the same colors as Erin- the entire Color Club Pop Art collection, and the red is Essie's Ole Caliente. 

My wedding nails were inspired by Heather of Peaceloveandpolish.com (or Instagram @peaceloveandpolish). 

I really like this swap, it was a great way to get creative inspiration! Here's a collage of our manis together.

There are so many of Erin's designs that I want to recreate, so I'm sure we'll do a swap again soon! 

Happy Birthday Rose!

My sister turned 22 Wednesday, so I painted my nails in honor of her birthday (while singing the lyrics to 22 by Taylor Swift loudly and off-key).

These were inspired by birthday nails I did for my birthday last June. I really liked them the first time, but I've definitely learned a lot since then.

These are the original nails, I'm sure many other people have done candle nails before me, but I'm not sure who deserves the credit for this idea. If you know who started this design, please let me know in the comments below.

I used OPI's Black Onyx as the base color, topped with China Glaze's Fairy Dust. For the candles, I used Essie's In the Cab-ana, Boom Boom Room, DJ Play That Song, First Timer, and Ole Caliente.

 The cupcake is a Friendly's ice cream cupcake.

I really like these nails, they're not too obvious, but many people asked me if it was my birthday, so I guess it isn't too hard to figure out that these are meant to be birthday candle nails! If you try these out, please tag me on Instagram, @nailedpolish. 

The Fault in Our Stars

It's safe to say I'm a book nerd. I love reading, and if I have the time, I'll read a book a day. Currently, my absolute favorite book is The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. It's so incredibly emotional, and I both laughed out loud and cried hysterically while reading it. I saw a blog post on Strawburry17.com by Carla, and I was inspired to create a nail art look.

Here is the finished wall decor that inspired my nails. I also want to make this, I think it's adorable!

I used Lime Crime's Once in a Blue Mousse for the base, and OPI's Alpine Snow and Black Onyx for the design. 

This mani is pretty simple, but I absolutely love it! I wore it until it chipped, and actually filled in some of the chips so I could wear it a few more days. This is very rare for me, as I usually just do a new mani if one nail chips or smudges. If you like TFIOS, I would definitely recommend doing this design! It's pretty easy, the only part that takes some effort is the letters, which require a steady hand. If you try this design, please tag me on Instagram, @nailedpolish!

I'm on Bloglovin!

This is just a short, non-nails related post to let everyone know I'm on Bloglovin!

It's a great website where you can follow as many blogs as you want, and then instead of going to each blog and looking for new posts, you get a notification every time a blog you follow posts something.

This isn't sponsored, I just really like Bloglovin!

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/6338287/?claim=8bgpqj9rjgk">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Happy almost St. Patrick's Day!

As most people know, Saint Patrick's Day is tomorrow! Even though I'm Irish, you obviously don't have to be to celebrate it, or to decorate your nails in honor of it. I've been testing out different manis on a nail wheel, and I finally settled on a stamped heart/four leaf clover manicure.

I used a stamping plate I purchased on Etsy from Nailz Craze. Although I feel a little lazy whenever I use a stamping plate, it's definitely a lot faster and far more perfect than I could do by hand.

I used the middle design. I really love how unique the stamping plate is, it's so creative!

For the base, I used Essie's Good As Gold, and for the design, I used Color Club's Wild Cactus.

I really like the way this turned out, it was very simple but so cute! I'll probably wear it even after St. Patrick's Day is over. Happy Saint Patrick's Day! 

Why buy when you can DIY? Indie polish edition

So I'll be the first to admit that I have a problem- I'm addicted to buying nail polish. No matter how much polish I own, which is currently about 300 bottles, if I see something new and exciting, it's difficult for me to resist the urge to buy it. This is especially difficult when I hear that something is either limited edition or only in stock briefly. For example, many Indie polishes - Wicked Polish, Enchanted polish, etc. - are so popular that they can be sold out minutes after a restock. I always have a fear in the back of my mind that if I don't buy a polish immediately, it will be gone the next time I try to buy it.
Anyways, I've been trying to stop myself from buying all of the ultra chromes from I Love Nail Polish's newest collection (ilnp.com). They are $12.50 apiece, plus shipping. And knowing myself, I probably wouldn't be able to just buy one. My absolute favorite is the gorgeous ultra chrome Birefringence, which is blue and purple and incredibly amazing.

This is a swatch of Birefringence that BookPolish shared on Instagram. 

Since I already have so many polishes, I decided to keep my money and create a similar effect with a gradient. 

I used OPI Blue My Mind and Zoya Belinda for the gradient.

Photos don't do this gradient justice, it is absolutely beautiful! While it isn't the same as Birefringence, I'm satisfied with the result, and proud of myself for saving some money. After a few days of rocking this gradient, I decided to add a stamped design. 

I used the camo design on this Mash-38 stamping plate. 

The silver polish I used in the design is OPI's DS Radiance.

I really like the way this turned out, I think the colors work great together. And I'm pretty sure the design is supposed to be camouflage, but regardless, it's very unique and interesting.

Let me know if you have any Indie lemmings in the comments below!