Valentine's Nail Art

It's almost Valentine's Day! Whether you're all for Valentine's Day or more anti-Valentine's Day, I thought I would share some seasonal nails with you all.

To be honest, I'm not really into Valentine's Day too much myself, even in a relationship. However, like almost any holiday, I do love the decorations, themed nail art, and just having an excuse to do something a little special now and then. My boyfriend and I never really go all-out for holidays like this, but it's at least an excuse to go get sushi!

I wasn't really feeling any pinks or purples this time, but I was still hooked on red after my last manicure with red and white. I also loved the little gold studs I had used last time, so I thought I would go with red and gold! I used China Glaze Phat Santa, Rainbow Honey Honey Gold, and Milani Gold Glitz.

I used two generous coats of Phat Santa on each of the red nails. It's sort of a jelly or "crelly," so it's actually like a vampy sheer polish. I then used Honey Gold on my ring finger nail and thumb nail, and topped them with Gold Glitz for some added sparkle. I then used a medium-small dotting tool to try and make little hearts using Honey Gold. I didn't apply Gold Glitz to the hearts since they actually turned out very sparkly with just Honey Gold! I then topped each nail with a coat of Seche Vite for a glossy finish.

 

I'm very pleased with how these turned out, and I've been receiving quite a few compliments around the office at work and even at the doctor's office this week! I also love how Honey Gold is actually a scented polish, so my nails smell pretty sweet too.

White and Red Stud Nail Art

With Valentine's Day right around the corner, I was in the mood for some red nails. Since I rarely just wear red polish alone though, I decided to try something new! I accented the red with some white, but since the white was a little too stark and plain to me, I added some flat gold studs.

Also please excuse the terrible cleanup job around my cuticles! Even in Florida it has been pretty dry recently, and my cuticles have been suffering. They soaked the red excess right up!

For the polishes, I used Zoya Purity and Zoya Livingston. I applied two coats of each polish to each nail. I used Livingston on my index, pinkie, and thumb, and I used Purity on my middle and ring fingers. I didn't apply the studs right into the wet polish this time, but I applied a coat of Seche Vite and then laid them right into the topcoat.

It seemed to work well though! The studs actually stayed on all last week at work and while doing various chores around the house. I think it helps that these studs are pretty flat and just didn't catch on anything. I got both sizes of studs from Born Pretty Store. 

It's not the most amazing manicure, but I like it! Sometimes I like to have relatively plain polish, but focus on some studs or other accent instead. But now it's making me want to do more red nails for Valentine's Day!

Rainbow Honey - Stolen Dance

It's been a while since I got this lovely Rainbow Honey polished called Stolen Dance. It was from their Summer Mixtape collection last year, and it's just gorgeous! While it's amazing on its own, I decided to pair it with a copper-gold accent to dress it up a bit.

Stolen Dance is a gorgeous minty polish. It's a little more on the green side than most mints, but I'd still call it "mint." It's a little sheer, but it does build up, and it even has a gorgeous pinkish shimmer to it. For the accent, I decided to pair Stolen Dance with Cult Nails Blaze, which is a glittery topper that consists of copper and gold microglitters. I also decided to use a couple of rose gold studs.

I started off by painting all nails with Stolen Dance. It's sheer, so it took about three coats to build up, but it was worth it. The color is gorgeous, and the shimmer is just stunning! I then took Blaze and applied it to my accent nail (ring finger), and half of my middle finger nail (freehand). Blaze also took about three coats to build up to opacity, but this is also gorgeous! In retrospect, I should have probably applied just a solid copper under Blaze, but alas, hindsight is 20/20! 

I then applied Seche Vite topcoat to all nails to finish them off. While the topcoat was wet, I carefully placed a rose gold stud onto the index finger and pinky finger nails. They're a little plain, so I'm thinking I should have just dotted some spots of Blaze on at least one of the mint nails for some polka dots, but I'm still happy with the overall look.

Although my thumb isn't pictured, I also applied Blaze to my thumb and built it up to opacity. However my thumb had a bit of a break last week, so it's still not entirely presentable! At least the shimmer on my other nails, along with the neutral color of Blaze itself, helps hide the broken one!