31DC2014 Day 3: Yellow Nails

Not gonna lie, this was one of my favorite manicures of the entire challenge. I don't know what it is about it, it's so basic. But I LOVE IT.

Polishes used:

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mellow Yellow (yellow crème - original formula)

OPI Goldeneye (metallic gold)

I painted my nails with three coats of Mellow Yellow since it wasn't quite as opaque as I would like at two coats. I was originally going to use striping tape for these, but since I used three coats of polish, it wasn't drying as quickly as I wanted it to. So, since I'm an impatient person, I just freehanded them instead. I used a long striper brush from Princeton Artist Brush Co. It's actually a watercolor brush, but it works perfectly for nail art. To help me align the triangles properly when freehanding, I like to place two dots on my nail (in this case, on the base of each nail) where I want the triangle to begin, and one dot where I want it to come to a point. That way it's much easier for me to paint straight lines without much fuss.

Oh, and for those of you who don't know what I mean when I say "original formula," Sally Hansen reformulated their line of Xtreme Wear polishes, and from that reformulation came some color changes; Mellow Yellow being one of them. From what I've heard, the new formula isn't very good, so before my drugstores brought in the new ones, I stocked up on some basic colors like Mellow Yellow, Coral Reef, Mint Sorbet, Lacey Lilac, and Pacific Blue (6 backups of this one oops). It really stinks though because those colors were perfect! Especially this yellow; I'm in love!

Thanks for reading!

31DC2014 Day 2: Orange Nails

I always love the early days of the 31 Day Nail challenge because the themes are so simple. My favorite kind of nail art is the simple kind; simple but also eye catching. Don't get me wrong, I also love doing really intricate things and think they look amazing, but usually I don't have the patience, let alone the time, to spend hours painting little things on my nails. That being said, a lot of the nail art I do is simple and graphic, because I think that makes just as much of a statement as the really intricate and detailed stuff :).

For day 2 I decided to do a random stripe design using some striping tape that I ordered from Amazon.

Polishes used:
Color Club Cosmic Fate (orange holo)
Essie Tart Deco (coral crème)

I started by cutting four pieces of striping tape for each nail before painting. I always stick any kind of tape I'm using to my phone after I cut them. Don't know why, but it works for me :). I then painted my nails with Cosmic Fate, then waited for it to dry completely. When you're using any kind of tape or decal, you HAVE to wait for your base color to dry completely before you stick them to your nails. If you don't, then when you peel off the tape you'll peel the polish off with it, and that's not what we want to happen! So after I let the polish completely dry, I stuck four pieces of striping tape to each nail in a random pattern. Then I painted over each nail with two coats of Tart Deco. Usually I like to only do one coat of polish after placing the striping tape, but it wasn't quite opaque enough after one coat so I had to do two. In my opinion, the best time to remove the striping tape is immediately after polishing; I find that it gives the sharpest lines that way.

Side note - Cosmic Fate is one of the only polishes I've tried that looks absolutely HORRIBLE on me. I have a pretty neutral leaning but very fair skin tone, so orange polishes tend to look weird on me. The polish itself is amazing though! It's wonderfully opaque in two easy coats and the holo is incredible! Paired with Tart Deco made it look less funny on me than it did on its own, which I'm very happy with :).

Thanks for reading!

NOTD 1/28/15

So technically this isn't an NOTD post since I wore these yesterday, but oh well. I liked these so much I wanted to post them anyway :). 

Blue nail polish and glitter gradients are my weaknesses, so when combined, they make some of my favorite manicures ever. 

Polishes used:

Essie Style Cartel (dark blue crème)

Cirque Mirror Mirror (silver flakie)

I couldn't get the camera to capture Style Cartel exactly how it shows up on the nail, so picture it being slightly warmer and a tiny bit more teal than what the picture shows. Outside, Mirror Mirror pulled much more gold than what it actually is, even though it's a very warm toned silver.

In the indoor photo, Style Cartel looks kinda different, but Mirror Mirror looks pretty spot on. Side note - if you can somehow manage to get your hands on this polish, DO IT. It is SPECTACULAR.

I started by painting my nails with Style Cartel, then did my usual technique for glitter gradients using Mirror Mirror. I lightly dabbed some flakies onto the nail using an almost dry brush, then built it up a little bit with a makeup sponge. Depending on the density of the glitter I sometimes just go right in with a makeup sponge, but in the case of Mirror Mirror the flakies are so dense that I only needed to sponge it on just the tips of my nails.

Oh, and apologies for the nubs, especially my thumb. I wanted to go back to my beloved squares after sporting ovals for a while after a tragic break (ahem - thumb nail).

Thanks for reading!

31DC2014 Day 1: Red Nails

I had already done the 31 Day Nail Challenge a little over 2 years ago, but let's not talk about that... This past September though, I decided to follow Chalkboard Nails (who is absolutely amazing by the way) and do the challenge again. I mean why not?

So for day 1 I decided to go with a simple glitter gradient, which are some of my favorite manicures to do since they're simple but also very eye-catching.

Polishes used:

Zoya Kristi (red crème)

Sephora by OPI Be-Claus I Said So (red glitter)

I started by painting my nails with Kristi, then added a little bit of glitter to the top third of my nail by wiping off most of BCISS, leaving only a little bit of glitter on the brush. Then I used a makeup sponge and started sponging the glitter directly onto my nail. Using a makeup sponge for glitter gradients is easier than just using the nail polish brush in my opinion, because the sponge absorbs most of the clear base. That means when you sponge onto your nail, you're only leaving glitter behind, so it won't be as thick as it would be if you just used the polish brush.

I'm always super pleased with how my glitter gradients turn out, and this one is no exception!

Thanks for reading!

About Me

Hi! My name is Abby Diecidue, and I'm just a 19 year old girl from New Jersey who is slightly obsessed with nail polish. I'm not currently in school, but I'm planning on becoming an art major with a possible double major or minor in Psychology.

Up until about 5 years ago, I was an avid nail biter. I bit my poor little nails down to nubs constantly. That is until a friend of mine took me to get a manicure for the first time. I then realized that nail polish was absolutely amazing, and it only took one trip to Walgreens after that to get me hooked for good. Now I appreciate and love all kinds of nail polish and nail art, and consistently paint my nails with bold, obnoxious colors and fun designs.

I created this blog to focus mainly on nails, but to talk about some art, as well. Because I'm an artist, art is one of the ways I choose to express myself, and nail art combines my two favorite things: art and nail polish. It's basically the ultimate form of self expression... At least for me. I made this blog to share my love of nail polish, nail art, and fine art to whomever wants to take the time to read it :)

If you want to contact me, send me an email at abbydiecidue@gmail.com

Hope you enjoy!

-Abby :)