More like "This Month's Nails"

So I haven't been posting for a while. Sorry! May is my busiest month at work. Also some exciting things have been happening in terms of employment (as opposed to subcontracting)... So send me your good vibes as I navigate various state and local bureaucracies!

Just because I have not been writing doesn't mean I have not been manicuring. Or photographing. So here are some recent looks my digits have been sporting!


One trend I have really liked is just a plain matte color in a paste-like tone. I did this with mauve and gray (apparently, though, I only photographed the gray in very bad lighting):

Just take my word for it - it looked awesome. I thought it was both stylish and professional enough to wear to my job interview.

This was photographed nearly a week after the manicure was actually done. It does show a little wear and tear, but really not that much. Another perk of the matte top coat is how well it improves polishes' staying power!


At the beginning of the month (I guess?) when my nails were short, I did a similar pastel look, but kept the polish's intended shimmery finish.

This look is not in fashion right now, but I think it is classic, classy, and totally worth having somewhere in my manicure rotation.


Another look I tried was floral-inspired nail art. I'd love to hear what you guys think about this because basically I hated both these looks and took them off pretty much right after photographing them. What do you think?

This incorporates the idea of petals, matte emerald, and pastel purple and pink. For some reason it didn't do it for me though. (Note my awesomely colored purple walls as the background, though.)

This, I realize, may not look floral at first glance, but is a riff on a dandy-lion themed dress I have. I think it's the yellow in it that's so irritating and I might try the design on the tips again with a different base color (teal? purple? gray?) underneath.

And finally, here is what my hands look like right now. 

I'm not sure whether I'll post more or less frequently during my super-busy summer... Thanks for hanging in there so far and stay tuned to find out!

Back on the Glitter Wagon

What can I say? Primates like shiny things. Here are three recent sparkled-up manicures:

1. White on White (with some gold mixed in too)

You can also see my fancy purple wall color. Yay purple!

I started out by thinking of this as white vs. white, since I started out by painting one hand with Sinful Colors' Snow Me White and the other with Color Club's French Tip to make a comparison between the two. I found, though, that the only real difference was maneuverability. True to the purpose expressed in its name, French Tip was much easier to handle than Snow Me White. Since it's cheaper, I think I'll stick with using this one as a base and reserve French Tip for, well, french tips.

Something about this manicure that I loved but that did not show up well in any pictures was actually the white on white part. On top of the white bases mentioned above, I put a layer of Sinful Color's Tokyo Pearl (not covering the whole nail, but leaving the sides unpainted, as you can see I also did on the gold nails), a layer of Sally Hansen's Disco Ball, and finally a layer of matte-ifying top coat. I am super into the subdued shimmer of matte glitter.


2. Brightening Up Gray

Lonesome Dove by Confetti, Fantasy by Sinful Colors, 

and something black from Birchbox whose label fell off. Oops!

Okay, so there has been an absolute dearth of gray days here lately and I have loved putting together my deck furniture, admiring my boyfriend's gardening skills, and walking around on the grass in bare feet. Yay summer!

Pastels in general are in this season, and by itself this muted gray could be a classy but not flashy way to flaunt your style. Of course I could not leave it at that, so I tried out the super-thin black brush from to create a diagonal and then filled in one half of each nail with sparkle. This look and its smell were both heartily disapproved of by Brian.


3. Purple with a Pop

Mmm that name sounds like grape soda to me. Actually this was the look I decided on for the wedding I went to last weekend, where the food was even more delectable than any memories of summertime sodas. This is just Rimmel London's Wild Orchit, with a couple of whole nails getting the glitter treatment courtesy of Sinful Color's Fantasy, and a layer of matte-ifier over the whole thing. Delish!


For next week's nails (and beyond) I'm trying to convince myself to try the ombre look, but it seems like it will take so much patience! Has anyone out there been successful with it?