NOTW: I've Got My Eyes On You

Halloween is the BEST time of year. You'd think I'd do more to celebrate it on here with how much I love it, but it kind of snuck up on me this year. I just barely broke out my Halloween decorations at home, and Andrew and I were total party poopers last weekend when we decided to skip out on a themed party we were invited to.

I've got to make up for it somehow, right? And what better way is there than even more eyeballs on my nails! Inspired by this photo.

I can't even remember the last time I used glow in the dark nail polish, but it's so fun! It was probably around the same time as my obsession with glow in the dark stars on my bedroom walls and ceiling. I know I'm not the only one, right? Admit it! We all had a Spencer's phase.

From left to right: Fright Night Claw Polish in Ghostly Glow, Sinful Colors in Cross My Heart, Wet n Wild in 2% Milk, Fantasy Makers in Darkest Hour, and Finger Paints in Paper Mâché. I immediately posted a photo when I finally found the tombstone and coffin-shaped polishes because I was so excited! They're so cute.

This manicure is super easy to recreate with a little patience and a steady hand. I free-handed my half moon shapes but you could easily use French manicure stickers or reinforcements to help. Using different sized dotting tools, layer whatever color iris you choose, black for the pupil, and white just off-center. That's it! If you want to make it extra spooky, using a thin brush or toothpick, make small squiggly vein lines. Finish off with your top coat of choice, or use glow in the dark nail polish!

NOTW: It's Jelly Time + New Nail Care Routine

It's been a minute since my last NOTW post! Let me tell you, I'm not sure if my affinity for cheap dollar store polish is the main culprit or what, but my nails were in shambles. They were thinning, peeling, and chipping at even the slightest of bumps. It got ugly. I decided to put away and, in some cases, toss out my usual products and let my nails take a breather.


Eliminating cuticle removers and gels and my giant gallon container of pure acetone from Home Depot has helped immensely. To clear my nail beds, I simply rub a slice of lemon or lime onto my cuticles and let the acidity soften them up. Then I gently push back with my nail to remove the dead cuticle bits rather than cut them. When I'm feeling fancy I'll also soak my nails in warm water and use a nail brush to remove any leftover debris. To be extra safe, I file my nails in one direction after applying a clear coat of polish. I'm not sure if all of this making a difference but I'd like to think it is, especially after making the switch to a better cuticle cream and non-acetone polish remover.


To only blame the products I was using seems unfair. There had to be some dietary things involved so I did a little digging and decided to add biotin to my daily vitamins in addition to drinking lots more water. I don't want to give out any recommendations because everyone's body is different but I really think the biotin has been working wonders for me. My nails are growing faster than I can keep up with and thankfully they're getting stronger. Bonus: My hair is too!

I've been easing my way back into partying with polish so I kept it simple with my first jelly sandwich!

Have you tried this kind of manicure before? I really like the look of it but layering so many polishes to get the right effect is rough! It totally started to puff up a little after my fifth layer of jelly polish (2 jelly + 1 glitter + 2 jelly). Not the greatest and certainly won't be very long lasting, but it's still cute. Being the nerdy perfectionist I am I couldn't sweep the glitter on and had to place each hexagon with a toothpick.

From left to right: L'Oreal in Bubble Trouble from their Miss Candy Collection and Milani Jewel FX in Hot Pink.

P.S. Can you tell I had the PBJT dancing banana in my head when I titled this post?

NOTW: Uneven Lengths + Simple How-To

After getting the perfect almond shape I love oh so much, I promptly broke a nail on Andrew's car door. I told myself "alright, just make sure you crop out that bad boy in your next nail post." Then I broke another while walking Princess and Muscles the same day... of course. So uneven nails it is!


I love drugstore shopping, which I know I mention all of the time, so it should come as no surprise that I spent a lot of time hopping from Walgreens to Dollar General to CVS this past week. My final stop was Five Below where I picked up three new nail polishes I used for these nails.


From left to right: Unlabeled Skull Nail Polish in Black, Funky Fingers in Pink Pixels and Fool's Gold, and Love & Beauty in Purple/Black (which I already owned).


To get this look I started with two coats of Pink Pixels followed by two coats of Fool's Gold. Next, with very little product on the brush, I lightly covered each nail with the Purple/Black glitter. Using a small brush, I made sure to slowly build the glitter starting at the cuticles, moving outward to get the gradient just right.


Using a cosmetic sponge, I applied black just at the cuticle (be sure to use a moist sponge with a very small amount of black). Then, I placed a small oval stone at the base of each accent nail with a toothpick. Finally, I painted two layers of top coat (three on the accent nails so those stones will stay put). If you try this look please comment below with a link! I'd really love to see it!


In an effort to catch up with all of you savvy internet users, I signed up for Bloglovin' (finally). I'm only a few years late... I was suprised to see I already have quite a few of you following me there, so thanks guys! Follow my blog with Bloglovin' if you'd like!

NOTW: Black Tips & Chunky Glitter

A few months back I was turned onto Kleancolor after seeing a bunch of nail blogs talking about their beautiful holographic polishes. They're available online here for those who don't have beauty supply stores nearby that stock these. I ordered a measly 12 I couldn't find in-store...


All in all, I have about 21 Kleancolor polishes and I love them. Surprisingly, my nails have been bare for a few weeks despite my continued habit of picking up a "few" bottles here and there. This week I kept it simple and utilized one of my Kleancolor chunky glitters, though!


My top coat is getting pretty gloopy so I'm open to new recommendations. Any ideas? Seche Vite doesn't seem to do the trick anymore, and my bottle is less than a year old! Perhaps some polish thinner would help?


From left to right: Sally Hansen in Fog, Kleancolor in Chunky Silver, Sinful Colors in Queen of Beauty, and Wet 'n' Wild in Silvivor and Black Creme.

NOTW: Gradients & Fleck

Remembering back to when I first got into graphic design, I was in 8th grade, I used gradients on ev-er-y-thing. The more knowledgable I became, the quicker I tamed that beast but with ombre everything everywhere (still), it's alright to sneak them in and not be super embarrassed.


The subtle shift in colors with nail polish that's been applied by sponge is so dreamy to me. I really like this manicure and I'll definitely be doing it again! I'm still on my Meteor Shower kick, clearly...


From left to right: Sinful Colors in Cross My Heart and Rain Storm, Wet n Wild in I Need a Refresh-Mint and American Apparel in Meteor Shower.

NOTW: Golden Tones

Last week I ordered nail striping tape online after searching locally to no avail. It was time. Hopefully eBay will pull through and it won't take forever to arrive! In the meantime, I had to trust my hands, hold my breath for steadiness, and ask Andrew to help draw the line on my right thumb. Luckily for Andrew (me), I had new nail art pens to help.


Meteor Shower is becoming one of my favorite glitter polishes. I love the gold flake look without the price tag of actual gold flake polishes like the 18K Real Gold Flake Zoya just launched. Don't get me wrong, it's really pretty, but it's just nail polish!


From left to right: Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen in Pearly White, L'Oreal in Gorgeous Gold, China Glaze in First Mate, American Apparel in Meteor Shower, and ORLY in Naked Ivory.

This manicure actually caught the eye of my boss who never notices my nails. It must have been all the sparkle!

NOTW: Birthday Nails + DIY Nail Decals

After our trip to Cedar Point, my naked nails were dying for some love and affection. I decided to try something new this time. Homemade nail decals!


Whenever I do my nails, I reuse the same few pieces of plastic as makeshift paint palettes to dip my brushes and sponges. Over time the small pools of polish pop off with such ease, I knew I could totally make use of it.


After some googling, it seems I'm not the only one who knows about this great trick. Everyone's directions vary a bit, most paint large areas and use scrapbook punches, but I found that painting the designs directly onto a sandwich bag was exactly what I was going for and the most fun. I went to town!


Let the artwork dry overnight, otherwise there will be no give when trying to peel the designs off. Make sure you fold the sandwich bag, starting closest to the edge of design and slowly roll the bag back between your fingers. It works like a charm.


I painted my base coat and background design and let them dry fully. Using a tooth pick dipped in a tiny bit of clear polish, I added as many burgers, french fries and eyeballs as I could fit onto each nail. A couple of top coats later and...


My thumb and pinky are my favorite. Fries, eyes and polka dots, all day, every day!


The colors used for the background are ORLY in Naked Ivory and China Glaze in Rose Among Thorns (Neon). I recommend you give this a go, it's super fun and helps rid you of you your non-dominant hand's shameful work! Well, at least it did for me!

The Nail Saga Continues

New nails alert! I stumbled upon this great nail blog, Gorgeois, and immediately had to try her summer shatter mosaic for myself.



It's a really quick and easy manicure worth trying for yourself, and it puts crackle polish to good use. Though, things can get messy with your non-dominant hand while painting all those small squares. You've been warned!



From left to right: Pure Ice Crackle in Shattered, Funky Fingers in Teal, Black, and Silver Scales, Cherimoya Cracked in Sanctuary, Exodus, Purgatory and Peace, and ORLY in Naked Ivory. All but Shattered are new. Wait, it gets worse...



Between last Monday and yesterday I managed to do the unthinkable. A WHOPPING 25 NEW POLISHES. IT IS SHAMEFUL. SHAMEFUL! My habit is so uncontrollable, I mean, look at those grabby hands in the foreground! Ah!! And just when I thought I'd reached a new low (high?), I leveled up on my obsession:



I bought two more on my lunch break. There's added guilt, too, because American Apparel is so despicable! What have I become?!

Nails & Friendship Bracelets

Lately I've been in a little bit of a funk. It's become this weird cycle of wanting to do one million things at once, overwhelming myself with planning, and nothing really getting done. Painting my nails is one of the few things I managed to do outside of work last week. No super cute designs either because I've dropped not one but two of my nail art brushes AND a dotting tool in my gallon container of acetone! Pitiful. Solid colors, tape, and half brushed nails are where it's at until I find replacements.


Itching to see something through to its completion quickly (other than food/nails), I decided to hop on a trend a bit late and start making friendship bracelets again. For the first time since I got this Klutz book in '96!

Having tons of embroidery floss and stacks of books laying around definitely helped. They're such simple, low commitment projects and you finish in no time. I finished this one before Andrew even uploaded the photo to flickr.


There are tons of super awesome and involved free patterns online but right now I'm obsessed with hearts. I've made a few for my BFF (not just for myself, I promise), too.

NOTW: June 5th Edition

After my last nail post I happened upon this gorgeous woman, Lianne La Havas, and her amazing outfit in W magazine. Of course now I love her and her music, and I was immediately inspired for my next manicure!


As usual, I had all of the polishes for this perfect color palette! From left to right: Wet n Wild in Black Crème, Essie in Waltz, Wet n Wild in Blazed, Sinful Colors in Summer Peach, and Wet n Wild I Need a Refresh-Mint and Silvivor.


The ombre nails took a couple of tries but I found that this method from The Beauty Department worked best. I used Waltz to I Need a Refresh-Mint to Blazed. So, now to the reason this post is so delayed... My dearest Andrew got into a pretty bad cycling accident and was hospitalized after losing consciousness the same day he took that photo up there!


The hospital stay was brief and after being monitored for 24 hours, they finally let him eat. It was probably the happiest he's ever been in a hospital. He's totally fine now, and cycling again, too. But it was very, very terrifying. I'm thankful it's over!

NOTW: Take 2

Hooray for new nails! This week's manicure was inspired by my vast collection of fat quarters. Because they're just so easy to hoard and I haven't been putting them to good use, I figured why not?


One perk of being obsessive about nails and therefore nail polish, is almost always having the exact colors I need to replicate whatever my inspiration may be.


See? Perfect match! From left to right: Sinful Colors in Pull Over and Unicorn, L.A. Colors Color Craze in Palm Tree and Nuclear Energy.


My brush skills need some improvement (take a look at that right hand) but making the leaf shapes wasn't too terrible. I think I'll take a stab at ombre nails next week. We'll see!

NOTW: First Edition

It has been SO. LONG. since my last post. I am totally embarrassed and I'm just going to move right along... Deal? Instead I will be writing weekly posts about my nails. Last summer I peaked with these bad boys and I want to get back to that!


For this manicure I used four colors. In the order of the photo above: Santee Plus in Vikini-Green, Sinful Colors in Cream Pink, Love & Beauty in Purple/Black, and Wet & Wild Wild Shine in Black Creme.

I managed to do a whole lot of eating with these nails...

Please note the cilantro accessory in my hair that Andrew didn't tell me about!
Leopard print nails have been everywhere for ages and yet I had never tried them. They're super simple and there are tons of tutorials all over the internet, so I won't go into detail on how to get this look. Unless, of course, you'd like me to! Just let me know and stay tuned for more nails next week. :)