Monday, May 25, 2020

Purple Smoosh Nails

Hey everyone! Sorry for the long absence, but I have exciting news! I've been searching for a new job for the past year after leaving teaching and last week I accepted an offer to work on the development team at a local food bank. I went in last week to pick up my computer then I started on-boarding remotely. It was a crazy week meeting everyone via video conferencing and getting familiar with the role, but it was all very exciting!

I finally had some time to paint my nails this weekend, so I did some fun nail art too. I started with two coats of Zoya Abby, a beautiful pale purple creme. I then dotted a few other colors on my stamping mat and pressed a nail stamper into the colors to mix them together. This is where the "smoosh" part comes in. I pressed the stamper a few times on the nail to create swirls of color. I also added some gold foil to make it extra pretty!





Have a great week and stay safe!

xoxo,
   Brooke

Friday, May 8, 2020

Twinkled T Holo Lightning

Hey everyone! Hope you had a good week.

I recently ordered the Nailify Mani Box ($32) from Twinkled T, a small business owned by two sisters and located in LA selling nail polish, nail tools, and nail art supplies. Each box comes with nail nippers, a 10 pack of wood sticks, and a rose gold brush to clean up the cuticles. You then get to choose from several nail polish colors or a holo top coat, a glass nail file, and a sticker sheet. I ended up choosing the Holo Lightning top coat, sprinkle file, and star sticker sheet. They're also selling a Nailify Stamping Box ($32), which comes with liquid latex, a mini holo stamper and scraper, and your choice of stamping plate and 2 stamping polishes.

I was very excited to try the Holo Lightning top coat and decided to apply it over Smith & Cult Suburban Warrior, a hot pink creme. Holo Lightning is filled with different sizes of holographic flakies, ranging from large pieces to tiny flecks. They add so much gorgeous dimension to your nails and I bet this top coat would look awesome on top of other holos. My absolute favorite thing about it is that the flakies are smooth on the nail and don't have any texture.





Have a good weekend and stay safe!

xoxo,
   Brooke

Monday, May 4, 2020

Milk Bath Nails

Hey everyone! Hope you had a good weekend and had a chance to get outside to enjoy the warm weather. We took a long walk each day and it was so nice just to be out in the sun.

I was scrolling through Instagram the other day (like how I do every day haha) and came across something called milk bath nails. This nail art trend is meant to look like a beauty treatment called a milk bath, which is a mixture of milk and water with colorful flowers suspended throughout. To recreate this on the nails, you'll want a milky, sheer nail color and some dried flowers. My flowers from Born Pretty Store are no longer available, but here's a link to something similar.

Generally I've seen these done with acrylic nails and I'm sure you'll get a nice smooth finish over the flowers this way. Since I've done mine on my natural nails with regular polish, my flowers feel a little textured on top. I don't mind this, but just something to think about before you get started.

I thought OPI Bubble Bath would be the perfect color for this look, and I ended up using 3 thin coats to get my desired opacity. Once this was dry I used my top coat as a sort of glue with the flowers and placed the different colors throughout each nail. I also added a bit of gold foil just for an extra pretty touch. Top coat sealed all of the flowers in and they've stayed on really well. These nails came out gorgeous and I would absolutely wear this look again!






Hope you have a good week and stay safe!

xoxo,
   Brooke