Hi!

Oooops, I haven't posted in almost a month! I had a bunch of stuff to do in the beginning of the year (I'm running a couple of clubs at my school, went to a national debate tournament, and skipped a level of Spanish!) but now I should be back on track. I'm attempting a less ambitious posting schedule: once per week instead of twice. I wish I could post more, but school and extracurriculars take precedence over nail art :(

Polishes Used:
Deborah Lippmann Don't Stop Believing & She Drives Me Crazy | JINsoon Tea Rose & French Lilac | Urban Outfitters unnamed gray

These were inspired by a design created by iheartnails (here's her blog). I decided to change mine up a little for a more modern sort of vibe.

And since I haven't matteified anything in forever, I decided to add a matte top coat (I used my favorite, JINsoon Matte Maker)

These were so simple and fun to do! I hope you guys like them, and forgive me for being gone for so long :)

Thanks for reading!

Lucy xx

Black and White Skittlette

Hi!

This week on my dominant hand I did a simple black and white skittle design.

On my pointer finger I did black and white stripes with Sally Hansen White On and WnW Black Creme and a small triangle of gold glitter with Deborah Lippmann Glitter and Be Gay. This nail was inspired by Chalkboard Nails' simple tribal design (here). 

On my middle finger I did matte black with glossy stripes;

on my ring finger I did simple black and white stripes;

and on my pinky finger I did plain gold glitter. 

This photo below is a little confusing because I'm holding the matte topcoat bottle but it really is glossy. Also, maybe it's the lightbox? but my nails just don't look that glossy even though I did use Seche Vite... 

This was a really simple mani to do. The only problem was that I messed it up and had to start over again twice because I didn't wait long enough for my white base to dry before putting on the tape! Grrr...

And because I just got matte topcoat, of course I had to try it matte!

Which do you like better, matte or glossy? Once again, I think I prefer it matte.

Hope your Monday wasn't too Mondayish, and thanks for reading!

Lucy xx

Sponged Flower Nails

Hi!

This week I did more flower nails! I don't know why I keep doing flower nails... I must be in a flowery mood or something...

I started with a base of my go-to white, Revlon Spirit (long tangent: I picked this up recently at a sale and discovered it's a much better white than Sally Hansen White On -- it dries about 3x faster for one thing). Then I drew stems of green with Sally Hansen Mint Sorbet and lastly sponged on "circles" of purple (BK #26). 

 In the first two photos, I used a regular glossy top coat (Seche, naturally). But another thing I picked up in the sale was a MATTE TOPCOAT! 

Of course, I had to try it out:

Which do you prefer, glossy or matte? I feel like these photos don't do a great job of showing the difference between the two... but personally I'm leaning towards matte, but that might just be because I'm in what I've decided to call my "matte honeymoon phase" where I'm basically like:

And one last thing -- I finally got my act together and built a lightbox! My photos are SO MUCH BETTER! I hope you think so too! The one thing I have trouble with is that I don't have a daylight light bulb, so my hands look a little reddish and the background looks a little purplish. 

I'm probably going to put a bunch of rambles about my DIY lightbox in the next couple of posts so I won't say much now. 

Thanks for reading!

The Nail Snail xx