Best of 2012

Well this year has been a great one, considering it's the first year of my blog!!! I think things have gone well so far, and a big thank you to all my followers and new nail buddies!! You guys are great!!

So to commemorate, I've put together a Best of post. There are various "Best _" awards which I have given to different posts. But enough talking, and on with the nails!!!

UPDATE- 1/3/13: I know that the poll has not been working right, but I got it fixed, so please vote!!! (see the bottom of this post)

Best- Toes:

These adorable ladybug toes were definitely my favorite pedicure design of 2012!!!  To get an easy tutorial for these toes (or you could even make it into a manicure for summer!!) check out the post here.

Best- Stamping:

I actually haven't done too much stamping on this blog yet, but these orange nails were one of my best designs yet!! For a stamping tutorial, click here.

Best- New Technique:

Now I must say, while I did LOVE these icy ombre nails, I don't think they were my absolute favorite new technique. However, my first choice is actually my favorite mani for the year, so I decided to honor these (I mean, they were in 2nd place anyway :). Keep reading to see my favorite design of all!! Instructions for creating an ombre manicure can be found here.

Best- Halloween Design:

I REALLY loved these Frankenstein nails!! I just thought they were so cute, and the bright green and black were such a great color combo!! And not to brag, but these were definitely a favorite at my school! :)

Best- Swatch:

Do you recognize these?? LOL :) (And if you don't, just take a look at my previous post). I think this is one of my favorite polishes ever!!! Can you tell I like glitter? This also commemorates a very important moment in Polished history: my 1st GLITTER BOMB!!!! Okay, enough now... :)

Best- Simple Design:

I loved these Chanel nails so much!!! It was so easy to create as well, but it's a really classy and elegant design. The pearl strings were made with a dotting tool, and I freehanded the logo. My mom says that this is one of her favorite designs too. :)

Best- Tape Manicure:

We all know I love tape, but it wasn't hard to pick my favorite design!!!! While these nails remind me a lot of Ancient Greece, they looked great with my Robin Hood Halloween costume!! Check out this link for the tutorial.

Best- 3D Nails:

I thought this design was so pretty, but it's sad as it was created for the terrible tragedy in Newtown, CT. The white is to promote peace and nonviolence. I chose my white, 3D nail art flowers which are so cute and iridescent. I definitely adored this design, although the reason for it was so terrible.

Best- Cute Manicure:

The pastel colors did not show up the greatest in pictures, but I thought these little cupcakes were just too cute!!! My favorite part- the cherries and sprinkles (I used Bedazzled for the sprinkles :)!!!!

Best- Freehanding:

Now this manicure is definitely a close second for my favorite manicure of all!!! This Apollo 11 design was part of the Time Warp Challenge I did earlier in the year; the daily theme was a historical event, so I chose the moon landing. On my nails I painted: "1 small step for man, 1 giant leap for mankind", the Apollo spacecraft, an "11", the earth, and the American flag on the moon. Now I know the last photo doesn't show too much freehanding; it's predominately sponging with some freehanded stars; I just wanted you to get the whole look because I love it so much. :)

FAVORITE Mani of the Year:

Drumroll please...

Yes, I did make this photo extra large on purpose. :) And that's because it's my favorite!! If you hadn't seen this yet, I did this water marble for Labor Day (the post and tutorial can be found here). I just thought that the color combo was perfect, especially for a Patriotic holiday, and it was a major shock to have my first water marble turn out so well (in my opinion, that is :). My pictures turned out nicely as well (which does not always happen), and I love the sidewalk background. In short I LOVE THIS MANICURE!!!!!!

I think that's a wrap of 2012, now bring on the New Year!!!

Thanks so much!!
:) Trendy Tips :)

And finally, I have a poll for you all to see what you'd like me to do more of on this blog in the New Year. Please vote, I plan to listen to the results!!!
Click here to take survey

Halloween Mani/Lazy 15- Day 1

Today's post is a double- it's my Halloween design as well as the first challenge for my "Lazy 15 Challenge." (Although technically, the Lazy 15 should be starting on Friday... shhhh!!! Don't tell anyone!! :)

 So I knew that today's manicure was going to have to match my Halloween costume, and I chose gold and white as my colors. Then, the Lazy 15's first theme was a tape manicure, so I created a design I tried out earlier in the summer. It was inspired from a magazine (not sure which one) and is very simple when done with tape. :)

 To do this, you will need two different polish colors (glitters probably won't work well for this). Paint the first color (the one you will see LESS of) on and let is COMPLETELY dry! You will also need to cut masking/painter's tape into little triangles, and apply them to dry nails as shown above.

 After this, you can paint your second color over top. Don't be afraid to cover it completely!! One tip for this step: be sure to paint over all exposed nail. Sometimes, the tape makes it hard to get every area, so be careful.

 After the second polish dries, you can remove the tape, and voila!!! It's a really simple,  but elegant design. I love these two colors together as well!!!

 I bet this exact design would look great for a Grecian or Egyptian costume!!

 And here's my costume!!! I'm going to be Robin Hood, in case you couldn't tell from the little hat. :)

These are my nails against the costume. The golds aren't exactly alike, but I think they're close enough.

As for the colors, I used Sally Hansen Salon minis. They didn't have names on them, so...

Anyways, have a happy- and safe!- Halloween!!!

*EDIT (November 2, 2012): Check out this Phoenix nails post to see all of the other great bloggers that are participating- Phoenix Nails

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Candy Corn Carnival

 Hello, and welcome to my third Halloween nail art!!! I can't believe Halloween's only in 4 more days!!! Get ready  for some more nail art, as I'm working on a manicure to go with my Robin Hood Honey costume! :)

 But for today, we have candy corns! I don't think there is anything more iconic of Halloween besides the pumpkin and candy corn. So I chose to do the candy corn several different ways to make it more unique.

We have a gradient design on my first and ring fingers. The thumb and pink were done with, what else- masking tape!! LOL :) (Gotta love me and my obsession with tape... :) My middle finger though is definitely the most creative and different technique out of the three. It's more of an "abstract design" and I want to try it out again with different colors.

The technique I used was based off of this "Sugar Spun" design by Kristine at Pink & Polished. She has a pretty good tutorial for it, so if you're interested, check out her post!! I unfortunately had the same problem she did: impatience. Therefore, the nail didn't turn out as well as it could have...

Here is just another shot that gives a better view of my thumb. I'm pretty happy with the stripes- I think I'm getting neater!! :)

Polishes used:

• Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Lightening
• NYC in Times Square Tangerine Creme
• Wet n Wild in French White Creme

Anyways, enjoy!!!

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Featuring- Frankenstein

 Halloween is fast approaching! Which means I have more Halloween nail art for you all today! This manicure was inspired by a little character known as Frankenstein. Ever heard of him? I thought so. :)

 On three of my fingers, we have Frankenstein's lime green skin with black stitching. Then, I thought it would be fun to alternate and do a "reverse Frankenstein" on the other two nails.

 I'm really happy with the way the design turned out. And I love this green, it was the perfect polish!

 Unfortunately, my top coat smeared the stitching a bit, but luckily you can't see it in most of the photos.

Colors used: Sinful Colors Nail Art in Sour Apple and Wet n Wild Wild Shine in Black Creme.

Thanks for reading, and I hope that if you like what you see, you'll decide to follow me! :)

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Pumpkin Patch

It's that time of year... HALLOWEEN!! Now while I'm not big into creepy, horror stuff, I do love Halloween. This is mostly because I have an excuse to dress up in a fun costume (different every year :) and get candy! And I seriously LOVE candy! :)

 So for my first Halloween nail art, I've chosen to do jack-o-lanterns! Carving pumpkins has always been one of my favorite fall activities, and visiting the pumpkin patch is definitely a fun treat.

 On each nail, I tried to give the pumpkin a different face from the last one. Some look scary, and then there's ones like my ring finger that are just smiling happily. :)

 When designing this mani, I knew right away that I wanted to try out a silver background. And I'm actually really happy with it! I thought about black, but I think that would have been too much... what do you all think? Should I have done a different background polish?

 A final shot of my right hand... I apologize for all of the pics, but the lighting in my house was terrible, and I really wanted you to be able to get a good idea of what it looks like. It is pretty cute if I do say so myself. :)

And since I'm left-handed, I elected not to try to paint pumpkin faces with my right hand. So I just left the pumpkins plain. I still think they're cute, but do prefer the ones with faces. Which do you like better: plain or carved?

Come back soon for my next Halloween nail art! (Frankenstein- themed! :)

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