Valentine's Day Lace Nail Art & Tutorial

Hi, everyone! Today, I'm starting my four-part series of Valentine's Day nail art! I'm going to try and bring you some manicures that are fun and funky, along with classic and sweet. For the most part, you'll be able to do all of them at home!

Monday's manicure theme is lace!

This look was accomplished using two coats of OPI You Only Live Twice and and OPI Skull and Glossbones. But obviously, you can replicate this using any shades you like and two different sized dotting tools! (Or a toothpick and a bobby pin. Seriously, that will work too! It's what I used before I knew what dotting tools were.)

This is really easy to replicate!

Step 1: Paint your base color until opaque, as you normally would.

Step 2: Using your second color, paint a French tip. It doesn't have to be perfectly even because you're going to be covering it up anyway!

Step 3: Take your larger dotting tool and dip it in the second color. Make dots along the outline of the French tip, with the top 1/3 of the dot overlapping the tip.

Step 4: Take the smaller dotting tool and dip it in your base color. Place a dot in the center of each of the large dots.

Step 5: Let it dry for about fifteen minutes before applying top coat to avoid dragging.

Step 6: Go rock it and look fabulous!

So what do you all think? Is this something you'd try on your own?

Until tomorrow!

Day 23: Zoya Dannii

Though I don't own Zoya Danielle (due to its sheer, ballet slipper-like appearance), I like to take some creative license and consider Dannii another namesake.

I'm not going to lie. I waited a really long time to buy Dannii. When the Intimate Collection came out last spring, I dragged my heels. I wasn't in the pastel mood, not even for the much-hyped Gemma. But when the Zoya 2012 promo came out, I finally pulled the trigger and caved.

And boy am I happy I did.

EPIC HAUL: Borghese Fantasioso (Rapido) Collection

I was picking up Halloween decorations at a local, independent dollar store near my house and out of the corner of my eye, spotted a supermarket basket next to a nail polish display. Through the slats, I noticed these familiar swirly tops that could only mean one thing...

BORGHESE!!!!

Borghese polishes retail for upwards of $8 at various drug stores, but for $1? I bought one of every color! As it turned out, these were their quick-dry polishes from the Spring 2011 collection.



First up is Capriccio Blue which looks a lot like Revlon Blue Lagoon without the sparkle. I only wish it had a little better application.



Next is Romanzo Pink, a bubblegum pink. This is the shade that pops into my mind when I think of Barbie pink. Again, same streak issue.



Cantanto Purple was a lovely dark lilac color that I adore. I apologize for the blurry nature of the picture, I did not realize my Macro wasn't on during this shot. But it's a beautiful color and was probably the least streaky of the collection.



Felice Tangerine was a great shade in the bottle and would have been awesome if it wasn't so streaky. Yet again. Unfortunately, while this shade would have been one of a few oranges to actually work with my skin tone, it looked terribly clumpy on my nails.



Fantastico Lime was, by far, the worst application of the collection. And it really was a shame for such a promising color.



Last is Castello Blue, a deep sky blue. I LOVED this color, but the application is pretty streaky. I think that this is mainly because of the quick-dry formula, as it was a common theme throughout this collection.

Overall, I was disappointed in the application of the color. If you pick up any colors, I would go with Cantanto Purple hands down. It is the easiest to work with and I think the color I would wear more than once.

Essie Smooth Sailing

As you can tell from the photo, I chopped all my nails down this week due to some breakage issues. Well, not so much chopped as clipped, but you get my point. Either way, I was in the mood for some change.

Since I'd been wearing mostly heavy-duty glitters lately, I decided to go for a little more subtle sparkle and picked out Essie Smooth Sailing from the Spring '11 Brazilliant Collection, at the local salon late last week.

Smooth Sailing is a periwinkle blue creme finish with the slightest hint of silver glitter. It's subtle enough for an extra pop, but not in-your-face enough to be overwhelming.



Let me start by saying that I like this color, but I don't LOVE it.

I just don't think it suited my nails when they were on the stubby side. I think it looked a little weird in a way, but I can't put my finger on why. However, if my nails were longer, I think it'd look great. I just don't think it works well on shorter nails. Tomorrow's post will explain it a little better and you'll see why I say that.

Also, the glitter didn't pop enough for me. It kind of looked like I had put some polish over a glitter top coat to try and hide it. I'm all for subtle sparkles, but I think this one just missed the mark. In the light, it has a nice glass-flecked finish, which saved it for me. But in the rainy days of September, it just didn't do it for me.

Don't worry, Essie... I love you anyway. And I hear my grandmother just brought home a new polish from you for me to try. Apparently, it was in the clearance bin at Harmons. Go figure.

Until tomorrow!

- Princess Polish