Spring Gradient

  Hey guys!  Here is are some gradient nails that I did that I think look really pretty for spring!

I used two Essie colors, but I don't know the name of them because the labels are missing. I do think that the pink/coral one close to my cuticles is California Coral, though.  I did this gradient starting with two coats of the color that I think is called California Coral and then I used a damp makeup sponge to dab the other color about halfway down each nail.

And I don't know if you can tell, but I changed my lighting set up around a little bit before I took these pictures and they came out looking really good besides the fact that the light made my hands look so white! haha

Happy Valentines Day!

  Happy Valentines Day everyone! I did this heart look using Essie Leading Lady and Essie Beyond Cozy.  I started with two coats of Leading Lady and then I used a detail brush to add a cute silver heart with Beyond Cozy.

  I love these colors a lot and I really was just looking for an excuse to use them again, but Leading Lady is so freaking hard to photograph. This second picture shows the color better, but you have to see this color in real life to see just how beautiful is really is.

Sassy and Classy Red Leopard half moons

  Hey guys! Here are some nails I did that other day that I'm slightly obsessed with: Red Leopard Half Moon nails! 

  To do this, I started with two coats of Ciaté Cookies and Cream and let that dry. Then I outlined where I wanted my half moons to be with a small brush dipped in Butter London Pillar Box Red and then filled in the rest of my nail with that color. On my ring finger I just filled in the opposite side of the moon. I don't have any of those white paper reinforcements, so I just draw my half moons.
 

 
  Then, I took a dark brown, I used Kleancolor Cappuccino, and just made some random spots over the parts of my nail with Cookies and Cream showing. I did that on each nail, and then with a small brush and black acrylic paint, I outlined each brown spot with either a "C" shape or a bracket type shape. I then added some small black spots in the empty spaces. Finish off with top coat and you're done!

My Christmas Nails!

   Hey everyone! This will obviously be my last post for the Christmas nail season. I really hope everyone has a awesome Christmas holiday, and here's some very festive red with gold leaf!

 The red I used for this one was Ciaté Dangerous Affair aka my new favorite red. This read is slightly darker in real life, the flash caused it to look lighter. The gold leaf was from a regular sheet of fake gold leaf. I ripped it up and pressed it onto the wet nail polish with my fingers. Then I finished with one coat of Seche Vite.

Merry Christmas everyone! Love Zoe

Gold Leaf Half Moon

  Hey guys! Here is a mani that I am so excited to share, my Gold Leaf Half Moon nails. This started out with my trying to do something completely different and then this being the end result. That seems to happen to me a lot, but that's ok in this case, because I LOVE this! I feel like this would be perfect for a fancy holiday party or something.

   The red color I'm using here is Dangerous Affair from Ciate. It's a very deep, dark, red wine color. The bottom picture shows the color more true to real life. I really love the formula on this, and most of the other Ciate colors that I've tried, it goes on really nice and the color is always perfectly even in two coats. It dries really fast too.

  The gold leaf is just regular faux gold leaf. I'm sure you could find it at a regular craft store. I put it on by putting a thin layer of clear polish over the red and picking up some shredded gold leaf with an orange wood stick and then placing it where I wanted it. If I messed up a little, I just took the red and covered what I didn't want to show. I finished it off with a coat of Seche Vite.

Holiday Plaid

Ahh the holidays. Thanksgiving is tomorrow, so here is my first official holiday manicure of the season. 

  This is a glittery red with a black and glitter plaid accent using Essie Leading Lady and Beyond Cozy.

The red is Essie Leading Lady. Unfortunately, I was extremely disappointed with this nail polish. It's a beautiful color, but the formula on this is all wrong. It's thick and goopy and really hard to apply. I only did two coats of this and my nails feel like they have 4 coats of polish on them.

   I did the accent nail with a black striper and Essie Beyond Cozy.

My Zombie Friend

    Ohhh man was I excited to post this. This is another nail design that started out as something completely different, but ended with a result that I totally love. This started out as an alien mani until I just hated it and then went in the direction of zombies.

    I know that in the last few years there has been a huge fascination with all things zombies. I'm personally not really into it, nor do I get the obsessions people have with zombie apocalypses, but I am sooooo loving this design. This is partly inspired by the Iron Fist zombie design that they have on some of their clothes but I wanted mine to be a little more gore-y so I added blood and wounds and things. 

    I did this by first dabbing a bunch of different greens over one solid green color and then I free handed the rest of the design and just made some quick slashes of red over everything.

 Here is my long list of colors that I used

OPI- Did It On Em

Kleancolor - Bikini Green

Kleancolor- TLC

Funky Fingers- Tortuga

Kleancolor - Cappuccino

OPI- Red Hot Gift

Generic black and white stripers from ebay

Black Cat Lacquer "The Skinner"

     This is "The Skinner" from Black Cat Lacquer. I have been on an indie polish kick this month, and when I saw this on etsy I had to have it. I really think it was the description that sold me "Part of our Darkly Dreaming collection, The Skinner is made to look like the bleeding flesh of his victims." Haha I like weird things...

    Anyway, This nail polish is a red micro glitter in a nude/light pink base. I have nothing like this and I've never seen anything like this either. That could be a reason why I loved it so much. The formula of this is perfect and I only needed two coats for it to be completely opaque, and this went on surprisingly smooth for a nail polish with glitter.

   I already have soo many Halloween nail ideas for this planned in my head... is it Halloween time yet? haha

    And any other Game of Thrones/Song of Ice and Fire fans think of House Bolton...I really feel like this would be their official nail polish.

    If i had to grade this, I'd give it an A+ I love love love it! Here are some pictures!

This nail polish was purchased with my own money and all opinions are mine.

Knot-ty Nauticals

      Well I guess I forgot to make a post about these nails. I'm not even sure how that slipped my mind. It was probably because I took a short trip to New Jersey with a couple of family members about a week ago. 

      If you know me, you know I love anchors and all things nautical themed. I love love love nautical themed nails and I've done some before, but these have to be my favorite I've ever done.

      Anyway, For this I used OPI - Red Hot Gift For the red, and Essence - Walk On Air for the blue, and of course Essie - Blanc as the white. I used an angled nail brush to do the stripes and designs. I got a chance to use my new nail beads/balls! I'm not really sure what they're called but I'd rather say beads than balls. I got these on ebay for super cheap and the little nail wheel that they came in has both gold and silver tiny, metal beads. They are a nice addition to my nail art accessory collection and I'd recommend buying them. They make it really easy to make add a cute accent to a simple or extravagant nail, and they are pretty cheap on ebay.

I also wanted to add that I made a Pinterest account where I will also be posting all of my nail art along with Tumblr, Beautylish and Instagram.

Polka Dottie