Autumn Leaves French Manicure

I guess that I should have named this week Festive Fall Nail Art Week! :P Today I have a festive french mani for you to enjoy. I always forget how much I love fun french mani designs like this; I did one around the holidays last year and swore to myself that I would wear them more often, but alas, I never did.

I started with two coats of Confetti Pink Paradise and used Milani Chocolate Sprinkles to create my french tip by painting it right on the tips of my nails. I didn't use any kind of tape or anything since I knew the edge would be covered by the leaves anyway. After that was totally dry, I stamped some leaves randomly with a bunch of different colors: Essie Very Structured, Milani Rapid Cherry, Orly Luxe and Rescue Beauty Lounge Santa Fe. I think I'm going to do this again as my Thanksgiving mani! :)

Festive Autumn Tree/Foliage Nail Art

I know I mentioned this in Monday's post, but I was really inspired this past weekend to do some nail art. I realized when I was working on my guest post for Let Them Have Polish that I have done barely any nail art recently and it made me sad! So to remedy the lack of nail art situation, I looked at some of the recent photos that I have taken and drew inspiration from them! This mani was inspired by a photo of the fall foliage at the lake behind my house; you can see that photo at the bottom of this post.

I started out with two coats of Rescue Beauty Lounge Bella for my base and sponged the "leaves" with Rescue Beauty Lounge Santa Fe, Zoya Elisa, and Illamasqua Scarab. Once I was satisfied with the color variety for the trees, I drew the actual tree on with a thin brush and Milani Dark Coffee. I thought the design was missing something, so I sponged Shimmer Tracy on the rest of the space. I'm glad I did; the gold glitter reminds me of leaves blowing around in the wind!

Lastly, here is the photo that inspired these nails! I took it with my iPhone and added a filter to make it a bit more pink so that it would match my phone case when I used it as a background. I hope you guys enjoyed this mani; I know I did! :)

Shades of Autumn Water Marble

Hey everybody! I was just thinking over the weekend how I haven't done a water marble in a while, so I worked on one yesterday with some seasonal colors. I'm pretty happy with it considering that I haven't practiced in a long time.

For this marble, I used Rescue Beauty Lounge Santa Fe, Milani Dark Coffee, Zoya Elisa, and OPI Don't Pretzel My Buttons. This marble wasn't as easy as some of my previous ones; Elisa did not spread well at all and Don't Pretzel My Buttons was temperamental, but Dark Coffee and Santa Fe worked great.

And here's a little family photo of the colors I used for this mani. So what do you think? I hope you guys like it! I have a couple more fall nail art manis to show you that I'm really excited about! :)

Trind Moist & Shiny Kit Review

Hey everyone, I have a nail care review for you today instead of the usual polish swatches. :) I have been using this nail repair kit from Trind for the past month and I am absolutely in love with it. I received the Moist & Shiny Kit to review; it came with the Trind Nail Balsam, Nail Repair, and Nail Magic buffer file, which is a two sided smooth file, meant to make your nails nice and shiny.

The Nail Balsam is, hands down, my favorite nail care product in the history of nail care products. You brush it on your nails just like polish and let it soak in for a minute or so, then massage what is left into your nail and cuticle. It serves to moisturize and hydrate your nails, but it also preps them for polish, meaning that you don't have to wash it off or clean your nails any further!

After the Nail Balsam soaks in completely, I apply a coat of Nail Repair and use it as my base coat for polish. It seems to work just as well as any other base coat I use. After I do a lot of swatching, my nails tend to split and get peely, but I've noticed that they have been a lot better since I started using this Trind system.

The only downside to these products is that they are a bit on the expensive side, but trust me, they are totally worth it. I would definitely recommend at least picking up the Nail Balsam to try if you are wary! You will be completely won over. You can browse all of the Trind products on their website: www.trind.ca.

*Products in this post were provided for my honest review.*

Zoya Giveaway Courtesy of Verve 360!

Hello readers! I have a special post for you tonight: a giveaway courtesy of Verve 360! The prize will go to one winner and consists of one bottle of Zoya Toni and one bottle of Zoya Natty. I've included my swatch photos so you know how gorgeous these shades are!

 

Please fill out the Rafflecopter widget below to enter and take note that you must leave a blog post comment to enter. The prize is only available for those who live in the contiguous United States and will be shipped directly from Verve 360. Lastly, thank you to Verve 360 Pittsburgh salon for providing these awesome prizes!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Soulstice St. Barts & Tokyo Swatches/Review

Good morning readers! Today I have swatches of two new Soulstice colors for you, St. Barts and Tokyo. St. Barts is a gorgeous shimmery turquoise blue that was perfect in two coats and has the most perfect finish.

Tokyo is a stunning maroon shade packed with golden shimmer. These type of shades seem to be really popular this fall and Soulstice did an excellent job with Tokyo. Two coats were used here as well and the formula was great.

Soulstice polishes can be purchased on their website and retail for $8.

*Products in this post were provided for my honest review.*

Monthly Favorites: September!

Nails:
I was asked to take part in the Milani Fall Nail Trends project this month and it was so much fun coming up with designs for them! The first photo is of the "Haute Rod" design I did and loved. It was so fierce and totally not something I would typically wear, but I can't wait to do this mani again and wear it out! The second is Tess D'Urberville from A England. All of the polishes in the Gothic Beauties collection are stunning, but Tess D'Urberville was definitely my favorite.

Beauty:
When I found out that the limited edition Alice in Wonderland EOS lip balms has Mickey Mouse heads on the back of them, I knew that I needed to own them. Luckily, my Target is awesome and had two left in stock when I went to look for them!

The highlight of my blogging life in September was being asked by Cristina at Let Them Have Polish to do a guest post on her blog! After fangirling out for a little bit, I said absolutely yes and started brainstorming an awesome idea for her. I can't show you the mani since she hasn't posted it just yet, but I did take a photo when I was preparing to do it! Make sure you check over on her blog in a couple of days to see the finished mani! (Pssst: it's really awesome! ;P)

It finally got cold enough that I could break out my sweaters and boots! Also, this photo shows the new jeggings I got recently from American Eagle. They are perfect for wearing with boots and I'm so happy I finally caved and bought a pair. My sweater is from Gap, scarf is from American Eagle (I think), and boots are from Target.

 

Random:

My boyfriend and I moved out of our parents' houses in the beginning of the month! We are having a great time and are really enjoying being on our own. The first photo here is of a celebration gift from my mom and the second photo is a view from our fire pit by the lake. I put a filter on it with a photo editing app so that it matched with my pink iPhone case. :P It's so gorgeous down there!

 

September was a great month, but I'm really excited to see what October has in store! How was your month?