City Skyline Nails

These were the city skyline nails! They were fairly easy as I just used a torn bit of makeup sponge for the gradient and the black polish's own brush for the buildings. The most difficult part was using a large safety pin for the windows of the buildings and for the moon. Even that isn't too difficult if you have steady hands and patience! (I have steady hands, but I certainly don't have patience :P)

These turned out great and I got tons of compliments on them!

I used the following:
China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat
China Glaze Sea Spray
China Glaze Awakening
Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear Black Out
Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear White On
OPI Top Coat

Galaxy Nails

These are my first attempt at galaxy nails. I'll certainly be trying these again as I really like the concept behind them, but the toothpick I used for dotting made dots that were far too large and took away from the overall appearance. I've found a smaller dotting tool and will certainly be trying these out again in the future since they are super easy and super cute!

I used the following:

China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat

Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear Black Out

Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear White On

Orly Cotton Candy

Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear Marine Scene

Piggy Polish Get Ogre It!

Ulta Yellow

OPI Top Coat

Army Geometric Nails

I wasn't really sure what to call this mani, but the colors reminded me of army colors. I think I'll do a lot of manis using this color scheme since these are all my favorite polishes and I love how they look together!

I used the following:

China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat

Essie Sew Psyched

OPI Cuckoo For This Color

OPI San Tan-tonio

OPI Top Coat

Art Deco Nails

These nails were originally meant to be more tribal and while they do still look slightly tribal, I think they ended up more art deco. They aren't perfect, but I thought they were fun and cute!

I used the following:

China Glaze Strong Adhesion Bast Coat

Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear Black Out

Revlon Minted (for the triangles)

Essie Sew Psyched (for the base of the triangles)

Revlon Mad About Mango (for the dots in the middle of the triangles)

OPI San Tan-tonio

OPI Top Coat

Full Watermelon French Tips

I decided to pick one of my practice nails to make a complete manicure out of and since I didn't want to put a good decorative watermelon to waste, I chose the watermelon french tips!
I like it a lot! I had some bubbling occur on one of the nails because I was too impatient to let it dry properly before adding another top coat.

I used the following:

China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat

Revlon Mad About Mango (for the tips)

Piggy Polish Get Ogre It! (for the tips)

A watermelon from this small set of decorative fruits

OPI Top Coat

Watermelon French Tips

This has to be my favorite of the designs I've tried so far! It's fun, summery, and I found it really easy!

It's a diagonal green stripe and a diagonal mango/pink stripe on the tips with a little watermelon piece stuck on, although none of the pictures showed the green diagonal stripe well enough (perhaps I should have made it larger?).

I used the following:

China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat

Piggy Polish Get Ogre It!

Revlon Mad About Mango

OPI Top Coat

Blue French Tip

I've done french tips before, but recently saw a new technique and decided to try it. It was much easier and neater than how I used to do it (free-handing, which looks nice until I try to do it with my non-dominant hand). I even tried this technique using my non-dominant hand and it turned out well!

I only did the index finger to test it out.

I used the following:

China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat

China Glaze Sea Spray

OPI Top Coat

Purple and Blue Gradient

First time attempt at gradients! I think my first try was pretty good and my next try will be much better.

The purple isn't normally a purple, but ended up looking purple on top of the blue, which I liked!

I used the following:

China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat

China Glaze Sea Spray

China Glaze Awakening 

OPI Top Coat

Braided Nail Design

Another first for me! This was only done on one nail as I was trying several different techniques on myself at once. I like this style, but I don't think my execution was the best. I see what I need to improve on and I think I'll do it much better next time!
I thought this would be very time-consuming but it wasn't. It took me about an hour including drying time. It'll take much less if I make a "thicker" braid, which I think would look much better than my thin (and uneven) braid.

I used the following:
China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat
Maybelline Express Finish Go Go Green
OPI San Tan-tonio
China Glaze Sea Spray
OPI Top Coat

Sparkly French Dots

This was my first attempt at using a dotting tool. I had to get the hang of it as I was doing these nails, and honestly I still haven't fully gotten the hang of it. Practice makes perfect!

I used the following:

China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat

OPI Jewel of India (for dotting)

China Glaze Awakening (for dotting)

China Glaze White Cap

OPI Top Coat

Cinderella Nails

I decided to call these Cinderella Nails since they ended up reminding my of Disney's Cinderella's dress. I used the following:
China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat
China Glaze Sea Spray (2 coats)
Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Xtreme Wear Silver (2 coats) for the french tips, which I did free hand.
China Glaze White Cap 
OPI Top Coat