Little Aquarium Nails

Arden: Hey everyone!  I have a super cute manicure for you today.  I found this picture from the French nail blog Mademoiselle Emma and knew immediately that I needed to try them out for myself.

from http://mademoiselle-emma.blogspot.be/2013/08/nailstorming-retardataire-ocean-etoile.html

I started with my trusty L'Oreal One Stop Base Coat and then added two coats of Zoya Neely.  (This polish was on Lisl and my wishlist for a looooong time before we were finally able to snap it up during a sale.)

I then painted on the seaweed fronds using Wet N Wild Caribbean Frost and one of the smaller brushes from our MASH nail art brush set.  I then added bubbles using Sally Hansen White Out and a dotting tool, and drew on the fish, starfish, and jellyfish using Zoya Arizona (orange), Zoya PixieDust Miranda (texture pink), Zoya PixieDust Liberty (texture royal blue), and Julep sea salt finish Tracy (purplish blue texture polish) using the nail art brush. 

I finished up with a coat of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Anti-Chip Top Coat (used this one instead of my trusty Essie Good to Go because Zoyas and Essie top coats don't play nice).

I think I probably should've added the bubbles after I drew on the fish, because I ended up having a bunch of bubbles on nails with fish-- the poor fish look a little crowded!

And here's my proof that it's possible to draw on this pattern using your non-dominant hand! (I actually think painting my nails has really helped my non-dominant hand become much more dexterous.  See, mom, there is an upside to my nail polish habit!)

Drawn using my left hand!

Left-handed artwork! And yes, I messed up under the goldfish. But you can barely tell!

Has anyone else tried out any fish-themed nail art recently? (Ok, that might be a little specific.)  But still, tell me what you think!

Ocean Gradient Nails

Arden here!  Today's manicure is in honor of the summer.  My family isn't going to the beach together until October, but I found myself thinking about the beach the other day and decided to try out some ocean gradient nails. 

I started with two coats of Sally Hansen Barracuda (as you can tell from the sticker on it in one of the pictures below, I snapped up this polish when it was recently clearanced at Target).  I then sponged on a 3-color gradient using Barracuda, Nicole by OPI Khloe Had a Little Lam-Lam (guess that one must've been part of some Kardashian collection), and a navy blue from the 3 piece Trendsetter Chic set by Physician's Formula Endless Color (unfortunately each individual polish in this set doesn't have its own name).

I finished by dabbing on some NYC Starry Silver Glitter on the two darker colors (leaving the lighter tips without glitter) and adding a top coat.