Inspired Floral Leopard Print Nail Art

Hi guys! Whew, it's been a long week, but I'm finally back - and I'm coming up with a schedule so I can get back to posting regularly (but not every day anymore!) Anyway, it's finally March which means it's time to start posting spring nail art! I decided to recreate a gorgeous manicure from Nail Bliss on Instagram, using some new OPI shades.

The Digit-al Dozen Does Patterns on Patterns: Double Stamping with PUEEN

It's that time of the month again - I mean, time for the Digit-al Dozen week! This week we are taking on patterns in a BIG way, by having double patterns (so basically, a pattern over a pattern). So get ready to see five wild manicures in a row featuring a ton of patterns! I decided to make most of my manicures for this week Valentine's Day themed (well, Valentine's colors, at least!) so get ready for a lot of pink and red, too. Shall we take a look at the first mani of the week?

31 Day Nail Art Challenge 2.0, Day 12: Intricate

Wow, I can't believe it's been almost two months since I last posted a challenge manicure! It was a much longer break than I anticipated, but life got in the way and I had a ton of swatching to do. Plus, today's theme was the most daunting yet - intricate nails?! If you have been following me for any length of time, you know that "intricate" isn't a word you can use to describe my nail art. So of course, I held off on doing my intricate nail art for as long as possible, but I finally had to face my fear of doing freehand nail art and came up with this:

When I saw this beautiful pattern  by Charuca, I just knew I had to try it on my nails (and that I could possibly pass it off as "intricate"!) To get this look, I started with a base of Cirque Carpe Diem, and then using a nail art brush and a dotting tool, I made my floral pattern with Zoya Cole, Zoya Rocha, Zoya Tilda, and Zoya Ryan. I mattified my nails to make the design easier to see!

Although my freehand skills leave a bit to be desired, I absolutely love the color scheme of this manicure and I would love to revisit it! Maybe I need to trim my brushes so I can achieve more precise designs!? How do you find success in doing detailed nail art?

Anyway, I will hopefully be back on track with the challenge now, since the swatching rush has eased up (but don't worry, I will always have a ton of swatches for you guys!) Too bad an equally frightening theme is up next - geometric nails!! I will have a field day with those! At least I will be getting back into more serious nail art, which I have missed doing.

Here are the polishes I used. You can purchase the Cirque here and the Zoyas here.

An InLinkz Link-up

Fall Vintage Floral Nail Art

Happy Thanksgiving, followers! Today I have a fun fall-toned floral nail art look to show you. I absolutely love colors like this in the fall - and especially in November, since they remind me of all the falling leaves :) I thought they would be perfect to pair together with some simple little roses!

I started this look with OPI You're So Vain-illa, and then I painted on irregular blobs with Essie Dress to Kilt, Essie Roarrrrange, and Essie Fierce, No Fear. I painted little leaves using Essie Fall in Line, and then I outlined my roses with Essie Partner in Crime. I topped everything off with matte top coat for a muted look.

I'm absolutely in love with how these turned out and I couldn't be happier with them. They almost remind me of wallpaper! I can see myself doing this style of floral nail art in a ton of different color schemes.

All of these polishes are from HB Beauty Bar - I reviewed them here (Essie Fall 2014), here (Essie Summer 2014) and here (OPI Coca-Cola Collection). Don't forget to use the code POLISHCHALLENGE at checkout for 15% off your entire order!

On a side note, I just want to express how thankful I am for all of you readers. When I started this blog a few years ago, I never imagined that my passion for nail polish and art would bring so many wonderful people to me! I appreciate every single comment, like, and share on my blog and social media pages. And I LOVE interacting with you guys. It really is a blessing- so thank you for making this holiday special for me!

What do you think of this fun and simple nail art look?

These polishes were provided for my honest review.

Inspired Freehand Vintage Floral Nail Art

So, let me start off by saying that I've never really delved into the "serious freehand" aspect of nail art - I usually keep it simple! But, there are so many incredible nail artists that create such beautiful art on their nails, true art, that I figured it would be worth trying. Yes, I've dabbled a bit, but today I wanted to try my hand (pun intended) at some true nail art to see if I've even got what it takes! This nail art look was pretty much totally copied from Lindsey of Wondrously Polished. She's got to be one of my favorite artists, and her nails are literally works of art. Anyway, here's my attempt at her vintage floral nails:

To achieve this look, I started with a base of OPI You're So Vain-illa (from the new Coca Cola collection, review coming soon!) Then, I mixed up some acrylic paints to create the teal, light green, and light pink colors, and painted them on with a small paint brush. I topped that all with regular top coat to smooth it out, and then matte top coat to soften the look.

I am so in love with how these turned out! Of course, they don't compare to the original manicure, but knowing that I have some sort of skill with freehand nail art is pretty much a huge relief, and now I feel like I can try other freehand patterns as well. I think this color scheme is gorgeous, too.

Since I only used one polish for this manicure, I didn't take a bottle shot like I usually do with nail art. Would you guys be interested (in the future) in seeing the acrylic paints I used as well, in my bottle shots? Again, I usually mix basic colors together, so it wouldn't be the same colors you see in the manicure. Anyway, let me know!

For those of you who aren't following Wondrously Polished yet, you can see her blog here. Not only does she do tons of gorgeous freehand nail art, but she also posts the occasional swatches of polish collections! (And we all know how obsessed I am with swatches.)

What do you think of complicated freehand nail art? Would you like to see more of it from me?