Tuesday, December 31, 2019

ILNP Party Bus

Happy New Year's Eve everyone! Do you have any fun plans tonight to ring in 2020? My husband and I started a tradition a couple years ago of making homemade pasta on NYE. We put together a delicious homemade meal with the pasta, open some wine, and watch the ball drop on our TV. It's nice to be home rather than out with all the crowds.

This year for my nails I picked out a color that's actually supposed to be with my birthday gift, but I couldn't resist using it. ILNP was doing a great discount back in November so I ordered 8 new polishes for my collection, which my husband bought as my birthday gift for January. He's been holding onto them but I just thought this one color would be so perfect for today!

I used my 2x zoom on my iPhone 8+ to get this gorgeous close up of Party Bus in the bottle.

The color I picked is Party Bus, a deep black jelly holographic shimmer. There are red, green, and blue holographic micro-flakes and iridescent flakes. It is seriously stunning and perfect for this occasion! I used two coats here for full opacity. I also ordered Cityscape, another black holo, so I'll have to do a comparison when I get all my polishes in a couple weeks. I did some glitter placement with silver hex glitter to make 2020 on my nails. It's a little hard to see in the photos, but looks great in person.





I hope you all have a happy and healthy new year!

xoxo
   Brooke

Thursday, December 26, 2019

OPI Let's Be Friends!

Hey everyone! I hope you had a lovely holiday. It's been a while since my last post. I had food poisoning a couple weeks ago and was out of commission for about a week, and then things got busy with holiday time and seeing family. But I'm back with pretty nails to share!

About a month ago I picked up OPI Let's Be Friends! from the Hello Kitty collection when it was on sale at Ulta. This pale pink creme was brought back from the original collection and I'm so glad I was able to get my hands on it this time. I found that I needed three thin coats to achieve full opacity, but the formula was very easy to work with. I wanted to add some glitter, so first I started with two coats of OPI Bubble Bath. Then on half of the nail I used one coat of Zoya Trixie followed by some Zoya Lux sponged over top. I love the contrast between the soft, sheer pink and the holo glitters. This would be such a pretty look for New Year's Eve!





Enjoy the rest of your week!

xoxo,
   Brooke

Monday, December 9, 2019

Essie Shearling Darling

Hey everyone! How was your weekend? We spent most of it watching all of season 3 of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (even though we initially said we wouldn't binge watch it, but it was just so good!) I also obsessively oiled my messed up index finger nail to try to help it grow faster. I think by the end of the week it'll be looking much better.

I wanted to do a deep red on my nails today, so I went for Essie Shearling Darling. This is one of those colors that can look almost black. I achieved opacity in two easy coats. One of my favorite ways to dress up my nails is adding nail foil (like these from Amazon). Once my polish was dry I pressed on small pieces of gold foil diagonally across two nails and sealed the foil in with a top coat. It's so easy and looks gorgeous!





I hope you have a great week, despite this gross rainy weather in the NYC area!

xoxo,
   Brooke

Monday, December 2, 2019

Blue Skittles Nails

Hey everyone! How was your Thanksgiving? We went out for dinner with my parents on the actual day and then the next day we went to my in-law's house for second Thanksgiving. So basically lots of eating all around. Over the weekend we relaxed and I took advantage of some sales. I'm most excited about a big order from ILNP that my husband will be holding hostage until January for my birthday.

It's supposed to snow all afternoon here in New Jersey and I'm hoping for more than just a dusting. I love the first few big snows! It inspired me to a do a blue skittles mani today. The colors I used are all OPI: Dreams Need Clara-fication, Kanpai OPI!, Suzi Without a Paddle, and I Am What I Amethyst. For each of these colors I used two coats. I really need a darker blue from OPI so I can do a true ombre look.

As you can see I still have that annoying nail break on my index finger. Not sure how long a break on the side like that will take to grow in, but hopefully not too long!






Hope you have a great week!

xoxo,
   Brooke

Monday, November 25, 2019

Fall Skittles Nails

Hey everyone! Hope you had a great weekend. We were out most of Saturday running errands and then Sunday was a crappy weather day so we just stayed in and chilled. We also signed up for Disney Plus and I had so much fun looking through all of the original Disney movies and shows. Definitely going to be re-watching a bunch of them.

With Thanksgiving coming up this Thursday, I thought it would be fun to do two different nail looks. Today's mani is perfect for those of you who have been into the skittles trend. You can use any reddish brown toned polishes for this! I grabbed three Zoya polishes: Pepper, Kalista, and Tawny. Pepper is the only creme of the three, while the other two are more shimmery finishes. I think these colors go beautifully together and it's so easy to do for Thanksgiving. Btw, please excuse my messed up index finger. The side of the nail broke and it looks pretty bad but I'm hoping it will grow in quickly.




I'll be sure to share my Thanksgiving day nails on Wednesday or Thursday. If you don't see them here, they'll definitely be on my Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter!

xoxo,
   Brooke

Friday, November 22, 2019

OPI I Am What I Amethyst

Hey everyone! Hope you had a great week. Last weekend my husband and I celebrated our 2 year wedding anniversary, so I recreated the nails I wore for our wedding. If you want to see those check out my Instagram (@manicurediaryblog). We went out for dinner on Saturday in the city to an Italian restaurant called Crispo. They're known for their homemade pastas, which of course we ordered. It was all so good! It was also very easy to get to via the PATH from Jersey City so we're definitely planning on going back.

I've been dealing with some broken nails this week (ugh, it's that time of year) so I didn't really paint my nails. They're looking a little better today so I painted them with OPI I Am What I Amethyst. This pale lilac/blue creme works for any time of year. I paired it with some silver polish to paint some stripes, but I also think silver glitter or foil would look beautiful! This color really is a great base for glitter or nail art.





Hope you have a great weekend!

xoxo,
   Brooke

Monday, November 11, 2019

Essie Cashmere Bathrobe

Hey everyone! Hope you had a great weekend. It was cold here so we stayed bundled up in the apartment for most of it.

I was looking through my polishes and pulled out an old favorite I haven't worn in a while - Essie Cashmere Bathrobe. I love that this gray polish has very fine shimmer that does show up on the nails once applied. It's a great option as a softer alternative to black. I used two coats here and the formula was excellent. For detailed instructions on how to create this smoosh nail art, check out this post.





Hope you have a great week!

xoxo,
   Brooke

Monday, November 4, 2019

Nails Inc. Girl King Duo

Hey everyone! How was your weekend? We were long overdue for an apartment clean up and laundry so we spent most of Saturday doing that. As a reward to ourselves we went out for all you can eat sushi afterwards and it was so good.

I asked hubby for a color suggestion for my nails and he wanted a dark green, so I decided to pull out my Nails Inc. Girl King duo (available at Sephora for $15). This set comes with Fearless Female, a khaki green creme, and Bosses Be Like, a metallic pale pink foil. My favorite thing about Nails Inc. polishes is the wide brush. It makes application so easy!

For this look I started with two coats of Fearless Female and then used Bosses Be Like to paint a small diagonal section at the tip of the nail. It's sort of like a more updated take on the french manicure and is so simple to do. I'll just never get tired of these colors!




Hope you have a great week!

xoxo,
   Brooke

Thursday, October 31, 2019

Halloween Nail Art

Happy Halloween! Are you dressing up? I'm not super into Halloween and plan on staying in tonight, but of course I had to make sure my nails were painted appropriately for the day.

The colors I used are both OPI. The orange is Tempura-ture is Rising and the shimmery black is Black Dress Not Optional. I used two coats for both. I have a cute Halloween stamping plate from Born Pretty Store that I had to use for this look. The designs I went with were the spider web, pumpkin, and skull. You can use any white or black polish to stamp with these. I also found some pretty rhinestones and thought the orange ones would look so good over black (I was right). I love this mismatched look!




Enjoy the rest of your week!

xoxo,
   Brooke

Monday, October 28, 2019

Blood Drip Nails

Hey everyone! It's been a while since my last post. We had a wedding near DC last weekend and then we came home to a pipe leak a couple floors up from our apartment. Luckily the maintenance crew caught it early enough so the carpet wasn't too wet, but the plaster on the wall got some water and smelled horrible. We had giant fans and de-humidifiers going for a few days to get everything back to normal. It was definitely a huge inconvenience, but could have been worse.

With Halloween upon us this week I wanted to try to do two different looks. Today I have some blood drip nails for you! I started with two coats of Zoya Willa, a black creme. If you're looking for a good black polish I really like this one. I then used one coat of their matte top coat. Once that dried I went in with a dotting tool and small detail brush with Zoya Dream, a holographic red, to make the blood drips. You don't even need fancy tools for this, a toothpick or bobby pin would do! Obviously I didn't go in with a glossy top coat because I wanted to keep the black matte. You could certainly do this look without the matte top coat if you don't have one and it would still look great for Halloween.





I'll have another look for you on Halloween. Have a great week!

xoxo,
   Brooke

Friday, October 18, 2019

Zoya Etta

Hey everyone! Hope you had a great week. We're going to a wedding this weekend and my dress has some really pretty fall colors, so I wanted my nails to compliment that.

I decided on Zoya Etta, which they describe as a vampy cabernet with a hint of violet micro pearl. After two coats of this color I could really see the gorgeous depth of it. I knew I wanted to do a glitter gradient and ended up using Julep Autumn. To be honest I've stayed away from Julep products lately since a lot of issues with ownership have been going on (just check their social media, holy moly), but I just love this glitter so much. It contains all the colors of fall.

I highly recommend getting yourself some inexpensive makeup sponges to make doing any glitter gradient super easy!




Have a great weekend!

xoxo,
   Brooke

Tuesday, October 15, 2019

OPI Good Girls Gone Plaid

Hey everyone! How was your weekend? We went to see The Joker but ended up being kind of disappointed by it. The beginning was definitely too slow and not enough action. That being said, Joaquin Phoenix did an incredible job with the acting. It was just the storyline I didn't love.

A while ago I had picked up two of the shades from OPI's Scotland collection, one which I already tried. You can see the mani I did with You've Got That Glas-glow here. The other color I got is Good Girls Gone Plaid, a dark amethyst that can look almost black in certain lighting. I LOVE colors like this. It reminds me so much of Lincoln Park After Dark, but a tad lighter. The formula was great on this one and I used two coats here. I used You've Got That Glas-glow on my pinky nail and half of my ring finger nail. The other half has Good Girls Gone Plaid and some gold glitter down the center.




Enjoy the rest of your week!

xoxo,
   Brooke

Saturday, October 12, 2019

Zoya Vesper

Hey everyone! Hope you're having a good weekend so far. I haven't painted my nails much this week because I had a lot of breakage happening on my right hand and then I accidentally sliced a piece of my skin off on a mandoline (ugh). I got a couple of pretty new colors in the mail from Zoya's fall 2019 collection and just had to put one of them on.

The shade I'm wearing today is Zoya Vesper, a dusty grey-violet/blue creme. The formula is so good and applies perfectly in two coats. For a little something extra I applied a thin strip of Zoya Dream, a deep blue scattered holo, down the middle of each nail. I love them together!





Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

xoxo,
   Brooke

Monday, October 7, 2019

Fall Ombre Nails

Hey everyone! How was your weekend? Our apartment needed a big cleaning so after running some errands Saturday we scrubbed the whole place. As much as I hate doing it I'll admit it does feel nice to have the apartment spotless. We'll see how long that lasts haha.

If you follow me on social media you saw me post a fall ombre look over the weekend, and I wanted to put the photos on my blog too. I did an ombre look a few posts back and I just don't think I'll ever get tired of them! Some people call it a "skittles" look too. I think so many color combos work for this and you can do it any season.

I used all Essie colors here: Angora Cardi, Urban Jungle, Chincilly, and Island Hopping. I needed two coats of each except for Urban Jungle, which needed three coats for full opacity.




Hope you have a great week!

xoxo,
   Brooke