Aggies Do It Better

Hey guys! (I start every blog like that, don't I?) Today I have something a little different. When I swatched the new, re-released Zoya Matte Velvet collection, which you can see here!  I was completely amazed at how fast they dried. Like, amazed.  For some it can be an issue because if you go over the same spot twice it can cause the polish to drag a little, but if you work quick enough you won't have that problem. Shortly after I swatched them and then wore Harlow for the rest of the week (for a wear test, post on that coming soon!) I had an idea. What if I could film a real-time video showing how fast they dry and how quickly you can tape over them to create a cute design? Thus my Rapunzel inspired mani was born!      A few more things about this since I don't talk in my videos....yet. :) -I started my stopwatch at the beginning, with bare nails. I did not stop it until I was done. -I only did 4 nails for this tutorial. My total time was 18 minutes...

Hey guys! Guess what?? Today is my first Instagram anniversary...meaning when I first decided to start a nails only account in conjunction with taking the plunge and doing a 30 day nail art challenge. I had no idea what I was doing and no idea this would turn into what it did! On tomorrow's blog I'll have more about what inspired me, the first nail art I ever saw on the internet (yes I remember!) and I may even share some of my early work ;) But today, I have something super fun! I have made some really awesome friendships with ladies I've met in this community! Some of the most awesome ladies I've met are Danele, Marcella, and Aly, and we have formed a little group called The Glitter Gals! We have already done a few collaboration manis which you can see here for July 4th  and here for ocean colors colorblock  . We basically decide on a design and all do the same thing in our own way! (I don't think I've ever explained that here!) Click Read More for polishes us...

Hey Guys! I have another mani swap today! I am really loving these lately....they are so fun :) Today I swapped with my friend Tracy in Australia (hence the late in the day post!) It was really hard to choose but these are what I chose. I even had all the same polishes she used except one! She chose my Neon Colorblock  I did back in April and did them better than I did! For more pics and polishes used click Read More! sun Please excuse the dry hands, my digits have been quite busy this month. Some days they show the effects of it more than others! clouds The polished used were: Base: OPI Alpine Snow First white: OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls Light gray: Zoya Dove Darker gray: China Glaze Recycle Black: OPI Black Onyx (this was the only non duplicate polish!) I'm super happy with the way these came out. I'm really getting along with the striping tape lately! sun

Hey guys! I wore yesterdays nails of Zoya Blaze for several days before I decided to add to it. The Zoya Pixiedusts are some of my favorite polishes to use for sparkly accents! I haven't used my craft scissors for nails in forever it seems so I figured it was about time! I love using them because I can create unique, one of a kind looks! I took a couple of quick pics for a short tutorial at the end! Be sure to click "Read More" after this!  shade

Hey guys! I have another tape mani for you. I don't totally love how this came out, sometimes it just looks better in your head! But I'm continuing my project of trying to catalogue my polishes here and use them! This is is OPI You Only Live Twice from the 2012 James Bond Skyfall collection, another Publix find for me! This is my first time using it and MAN isn't it pretty!! The gold is OPI Love.Angel.Music.Baby from this years Gwen Stefani Collection....old news, I use it all the time haha!  late in day sun

Hey guys! Today and tomorrow I'm reviewing the new Zoya Naturel2 transitional fall collection! How gorgeous are these brown and plum shades!! I die! I used all 6 of the colors to create this look, and I used the 4 lightest shades as the background colors. I wanted to see how opaque they were over each other. Turns out, very! :)  sun

I say inspired, I should say, replicated! Hey guys! Another fun post today :) One of my first nail buddies and friend Margaret of @m_a_tom is having a contest celebrating a milestone for her account! The rules are it's not a giveaway, its a contest. You have to do an inspired by (or replicate) mani of hers for your entry. She is my tape-spiration FOR SURE and the one who encouraged me to stop being afraid of striping tape and go for it. The rest is history! Who knew it would become my favorite technique! And she's Australian so obvious bonus points for that ;) I peeped her feed and narrowed it down to 3, then this one. Again, grateful for  a design not to be on all fingers!!! I also had the 3 same polishes she used...lucky me.  sun

Hello! More blues from me, haha! In continuing with my project to use the polishes I have (and not buy any more) I was rummaging through my Zoyas picking out blues and greens, several of which I still have from the Earth Day Sale I haven't even used yet! I'm also trying to work down my list of new and different techniques out there that I haven't done yet. One is called "negative space" , where you basically leave unpainted areas on your bare nail. I've always been kind of on the fence about this, because I'm not a big fan of VNL (that's nail code for visible nail line, hahahaha!) So I knew if I did it I'd have to think of a way to cover that up. The solution? Stripes! I do love me some stripes! shade

Hey guys!  Let's start with a PSA....If you don't like blue polish, you should just stop reading this now. ok? good? OK. GUYS. LOOK.  sun This is Drip Drop Nail Paint in A'hoye Amy, an "indie" brand and my first of this brand. It was a gift from my friend Danele of @lowcountrylacquer . She thought I would get more use out of it and she was right! Holy MOLY! It's so pretty!!! And guess what else....this is ONE COAT of the blue. I'm not even kidding. I added a small accent nail with striping tape and OPI liquid sand in It's Frosty Outside, one of my favs for this type of thing. It didn't come out as clean as the last time I did this design here because I was super distracted but I still like it!  sun Here are some pics of it before I added the silver. I'll be quiet now and let you take it in.   sun sun Did I mention that this is one coat? Ok. Just wanted to be sure I mentioned it. shade shade   ...

Hi! Who's tired of seeing these nails! This is my final version. I new I was going to tape over these because a) I love the look tape gives and b) I need to get some mileage out of them! It took me forever to decide what color to use and what design to do but this is what I came up with! I used striping tape to do another pattern that's been on my to-do list for a long time! The gold is another gift from my friend Marcella of @lovepurplepolish . Its called 50 Years of Style from the OPI Mustang collection. I hope I can pick up the rest of the mustangs soon! For details on the rest of the colors I used in this mani see here ! I felt like there was literally a million layers of polish on when I got done with this. But this is my favorite look of the three! I wanted to do a tutorial for this but I just didn't have time. Hopefully when the kids get back in school I'll be able to do more tutorials again! sun sun shade shade

Hey guys! These were my final July 4th nails I wore the whole next week! Texture is the only way to go when traveling for me. They wear so well.  I just loved them so much-I was really sad to take them off. Polishes used: Zoya Sunshine (blue) OPI Magazine Cover Mouse (red) OPI Solitare (white) sun shade  pool

Hey guys! Here's another flag mani for July 4th! I'm back posting these because I wasn't blogging this week. I did these with  my star punch and striping tape! Polishes used: Zoya Red Door Red White-Sally Hanson White On blue- Sally Hanson Pacific Blue  sun  shade

Hey guys! It's Monday! Yay! not. Anyhoo, Today I dug in to more of my untried...I really need to get a post up about that!  This is Zoya Lola, a neon pink and Zoya London, a charcoal gray textured pixiedust. Oh man, I love those textures and they are so great for tape because they don't bleed! Yes! When I was rummaging through my Zoyas I thought these would look nice together.  shade For the single chevrons, I used nail vinyls again. I'm still on the fence about them...I LOVE the lightning bolt ones, but I haven't had much luck with the chevron and single chevron ones. Still practicing with those!  sun  shade This is Lola by herself. There's almost a fuchsia/purple duochrome going on there, and MAN is it bright!!  sun  shade  different shade

Hey guys! I have another super fun Design Seeds inspired manicure for yall! Four of us got together on IG and decided to do nails based on this fun Design Seeds pic of a Mai Tai on a beach.  Yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm  We started with one basic design and we all did our own version! Here is what I came up with! shade sun Here is the picture we used for inspiration and color palate! design seeds I used all OPI Polishes for this. From L: Can't Find My Czechbook Big Apple Red I Just Can't CopeAcabana Lucky Lucky Lavender Did You Ear About Van Gogh (base) Gone Gonzo Blasted Turquoise Glitter (now discontinued Sephora by OPI) polish line up I'm pretty happy with how they turned out! shade This is OPI Did You Ear About Van Gogh (long name!) that I used for the base. I've had it for a little bit and haven't gotten around to using it-I just love it and I'm sure it will be in heavy rotation! shade sun

Hey guys! I have some taped nail art today with a couple of the new OPI Neons for 2014 sent to me by a friend! They are so awesome, I might have to get the rest! (can wait for clearance??? UHHHHHHHH!) The purple is called Push and Pur-pull and the green is You Are So Outta Lime! As I've seen others say, I don't know how "neon" these are, but they are super bright and fun, and I love them!  sun On my first finger I used striping tape to create color blocks. I also used striping tape on my ring finger. For the middle finger I used  a lightning bolt shaped nail vinyl (which I love now! sold!) and Just simple dots on my pinky.  shade I loved the lightning bolt so much I did it on my thumb too :)  sun  shade  sun

Hey guys! As promised I'm trying to step out of my box this month. So here is a mix and match mani, which are quite popular but I don't do very often. Hmmm, what do you think? I used "nail  vinyls" for the 2 chevrons, I think there is a definite learning curve with them, as they didn't turn out as good as my times using tape. I will try them again! Apologies for the lighting, we haven't had much sun lately and I only take my pics outside so the lighting on these is natural light on a gloomy day. shade Colors used are all Essie: Come Here (coral), Beyond Cozy (glitter) and Mint Candy Apple (light blue...its not "mint" at all to me but whatever!) shade This is  my first time doing flowers/roses that aren't "cartoony" in type. I need more practice! shade This is Mint Candy Apple by itself. I love it as a light blue, but it's not a mint to me! shade