Mmm, watermelon!

Here's a tasty manicure perfect for summer! I was inspired to try these after seeing a lot of different versions on Pinterest. My version came out a little messier than I would've liked, but it gave me a few ideas on how to clean it up for next time! This is going to be kind of a tutorial version since I remembered to take pictures at each step!

Step one: base coat! This would make a nice Christmas manicure, too. I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Red Carpet and Zoya Holly, one coat each. 

Zigzags

Can I hire someone to come up with titles for me? I seriously think that's the hardest part of blogging. Actually posting regularly being a close second, of course. Anyway this might be my favorite of the summer so far, though it's a bit on the darker side for the summer. What you're looking at today is a blue purple gradient beneath a stamped silver zigzag pattern from my MASH stamping plates.

The left hand! Which one of these is not like the other...?

Okay! For the gradient I used four different colors, two blues and two purples. The darker purple is Essie Sexy Divide, one of my absolute favorite polishes. The lighter shimmery purple is Sinful Colors Purple Diamond. The next is Sinful Colors Love Nails, a translucent turquoise. Finally, we have Sinful Colors Midnight Blue, an equally gorgeous marbled royal blue.

The infamous right hand! Which actually turned out just fine.

I stamped the zigzag pattern using Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Celeb City, and I loved the way it made the manicure brighter. I was originally going to stamp in black, but I'm glad I chose otherwise. Thanks for reading!

Creatures of the Sea!

Hi, everyone! This is a fun mani I did during school and the pictures somehow ended up on my computer but not on the blog, so here they are now! My roommate suggested the octopus (because they're just so adorable!)

Does anyone else get weird blanket/sheet mark creases on their nails? This happens to me frequently. 

Sand, Summer, and...Starfish!

So this was just a quick manicure I did, not to wear out, but I was just experimenting with gradients a bit.

I started with one coat of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Golden-I as my 'sand.' You can see the tips of my nails showing through on this picture, so if you're using this polish by itself, I would recommend two coats for full coverage. On this manicure it won't matter so much because that's where we'll be adding some ocean! 

Baa, baa, black sheep...

...have you any wool? (Long post and lots of pictures below!) By the way, like me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thepolishedbean :)

Pinky finger was my favorite but hard to see in this pic! But there's a better one below!

Okay, so I should've posted this last week but my roomies and I have been in this I DON'T WANNA [do work or anything really] mood for a while, so productivity has been very low recently. Hopefully this is a change towards more productivity! Haha...

Flamin' Nails

I think there used to be this appetizer at Chili's called Bloomin' Onion or something...yeah, I'm not good at titles. But this manicure is pretty cool! Err, hot!

The right hand! (In case you couldn't tell...?)

I used image or stamp plates with this awesome flame design to complete this look. I started with a base coat of NYC Taxi Yellow Creme. Then I created a gradient, using a makeup sponge to apply Sinful Colors Cloud 9 (an sheer orange shimmer) and just a dab of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Red Carpet on the tips of my nails. For the ring fingers, I used a base of NYC Cashmere Creme and built the gradient with Sinful Colors Love Nails and Midnight Blue. I also added a dab of Sally Hansen Extreme Wear Golden-I and White Out here and there to the red and blue nails respectively.

The left hand! I like this one better, what do you think?

Next I used a flame design on my MASH plate to apply flames to each nail, using Red Carpet and Midnight Blue. Lastly, I finished with a top coat. (Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Invisible) I really wanna get myself some Seche Vite, but I just bought a few bottles of the Sally Hansen clear coat (they were on sale at Target!). By 'just,' I mean, of course, a couple months ago...

Thanks for reading!

P.S. Like my Facebook page, please! :)

Frozen Inspired Elsa and Anna Nail Art

For the first time in forever, I've had time to do my nails! And my roommate's nails! (Inspired by Disney's Frozen)

Frozen-inspired nail art! 

I was actually planning on putting snowflakes on my nails, but when it came down to it (I made some decals using the plastic bag/decal method but wasn't completely satisfied) I decided to go with a more whimsical approach. All in all, I think it came out great (so sparkly!) and then of course, proceeded to do something similar for my roommate.