Monday, July 29, 2019

OPI Suzi Without a Paddle

Hey everyone! How was your weekend? We celebrated hubby's birthday with all you can eat sushi and some homemade chocolate cake, two of his favorite things!

I've been in a little funk with my nails since last week and haven't felt like painting them at all. To be honest I didn't really feel like it today but I'm glad I decided to. I wanted to do chevron nails, so I started with OPI Suzi Without a Paddle as my base and made the chevrons with Butter London Cotton Buds. You can use any minty and white polishes to achieve this look. I used my tiny detail brush to add silver around the chevron and love how it looks.





Hope you have a great week!

xoxo,
   Brooke

Monday, July 22, 2019

Neon Leopard Nails

Hey everyone! How was your weekend? It was HOT here in Jersey City. Felt like over 100 degrees! We mostly stayed in the AC except for walking to a restaurant for dinner (and after that walk I was very sweaty).

I was in the mood for leopard print nails, but decided to go for neon which is a super fun twist. I started with two coats of Essie Marshmallow, a milky sheer white. I tend to prefer colors like this instead of a white creme, which can sometimes look a little to stark for me.

For my leopard print I used my dotting tool with Color Club Jackie Oh! and China Glaze Yellow Polka Dot Bikini to make spots all over my nails. These don't have to be perfect circles because you'll use black polish to make some curved lines around them. I used a tiny detail brush for this. Again, don't worry about making it perfect! Any empty spaces were filled with little black spots.






Btw, what do you think of the background for these photos? I tried something different by the window and the lighting is definitely nicer. Think I'll experimenting with that spot!

Have a great week!

xoxo,
   Brooke

Monday, July 15, 2019

Butter London Molly Coddled

Hey everyone! How was your weekend? We went to see the new Spiderman movie on Saturday and both thought it was pretty good. Sunday I had brunch in the city with some friends. All in all a great weekend! This week I'm trying to stay cool in the heat, will definitely be going to the pool a bunch.

Today I painted my nails with an old favorite, Butter London Molly Coddled. The formula on this lilac color is still wonderful and is opaque in two easy coats. I used Lillibet's Jubilee, a gorgeous silvery lavender foil, to create a stripe down the center of each nail. I think these colors compliment each other so well!




Hope you have a great week and stay cool!

xoxo,
   Brooke

Monday, July 8, 2019

Purple Smoosh Nails

Hey everyone! How was your 4th of July and weekend? On Friday we drove up to Rochester for a wedding Saturday. Aside from the long drive we had a great time! It's always fun getting dressed up.

My Monday has been pretty chill and I had time to do some fun nail art. I'd seen this "smoosh" mani a bunch on social media and have always wanted to do my own. You can start with any base color, but I used Zoya Abby, a light lavender creme. The next step requires a nail stamper and a few colors of your choice. I also used my nail mat (like this one). If you don't have a nail mat you could use wax paper or just paint directly on your stamper. The colors I used were Zoya Abby, Zoya Jordan, Zoya Maeve, Zoya Aurora, and Essie Dye-Mentions.

Step 1: Paint a layer of your base color (Abby for me) on the mat.
Step 2: Quickly dot your different colors around on top of the base color.
Step 3: Take your stamper and press it down on top of the colors. This will smoosh everything together and blend the colors.
Step 4: Gently press the stamper down on top of your nail. You may need to manipulate it a little or press it more than once to get the colors looking how you want.
Step 5 (optional): Place some small pieces of gold foil around the design.
Step 5: Seal your design with a glossy top coat.





There are a bunch of helpful Youtube tutorials as well! I love how these came out. 
Hope the rest of your week is great!

xoxo,
   Brooke

Wednesday, July 3, 2019

4th of July Glitter Gradient Nails

Hey everyone! Hope you're having a great week so far. We have a crazy busy weekend coming up so I have some quick 4th of July nails to share. Unfortunately I'll have to take them off tomorrow night because we're driving up to Rochester for a wedding and I don't really think these colors will go with my dress haha.

To create this glitter gradient look I followed a great tutorial by HannahRoxNails on Youtube (linked here). Remember, you don't have to use the exact colors she or I used! First I started with two coats of Zoya Trixie for a silver base. Next, I applied Zoya Everly (holo red) from the base to just below the middle of my nail. Then, I applied Zoya Dream (holo blue) from slightly above the middle of my nail to the tip. This left a small line of silver in the middle of my nail. I then took my silver glitter, Marc Jacobs Glinda, on a small detail brush and spread it around the middle and creating small strokes into the red and blue to get my gradient effect. Lastly, I used Everly and Dream again to create some more lines around the silver to blend everything together.

I absolutely love how this came out!





I hope you all have a safe and happy 4th of July!

xoxo,
   Brooke