So, Valentine's Day... I went to my lab at 11:00 AM, returned to my dorm at 12:00 PM, and have been eating continuously ever since while prepping this post. Not a bad day at all. My PhD student mentor/coworker bought some chocolates for the lab – we're pretty festive, I think.

I'm not all about Valentine's Day, but themed nails had to happen. And I'm pretty glad with how these turned out! This was my first experience with striping tape, and it most definitely won't be the last. (Especially when it's fuschia holographic...)

The rest of the nails were freehanded with normal nail polish brushes (not art brushes) – super easy and quick. Establishing the base was actually probably the most difficult part, as that light pink just did not want to even itself out. Patchiness for daaaays.

If you're wondering about my thumb, have a blurry shot:

"I am not displeased by your presence" was a bit too long, so this'll have to do. If you read this blog, though, know that I do love you and not just tolerate you. ;)

Products used:

• Urban Outfitters Picnic Peach – peach-pink crème
• Zoya Janel – cool red crème
• Pure Ice Reddy-Or-Not – multi-sized fine red glitter in a clear base
• Skin Food Sparkle Sun Yellow – ultrafine dense gold metallic flakes
• Deborah Lippmann Boom Boom Pow – gold glitter in a clear base with 24k gold shimmer
• China Glaze Fairy Dust – fine silver holo glitter in a clear base
• Omega Labs Nail Glitter #117 – pink-green iridescent glitter
• Swarovski rhinestones – 2.5 & 2 mm Crystal AB, 2.5 mm Crystal
• Striping tape – fuschia holographic
• Metallic studs – gold, matte gold
• Black gel pen (I know, I know) 

Thanks for reading!

Bethany
Currently listening to A Month of Sunshine by Fever Dreamer

All products in this post purchased by the author. Photos taken with an iPhone 6s and color-corrected in Adobe Photoshop CC 2015. 

[Click on the photo to view full post.]

Happy Pi Day! 3/14/15 at 9:26, if this posts correctly. How could I pass up a themed manicure for this very important holiday?

I never thought I'd have to hand model on a graphing calculator, but the colors look so nice together despite the graininess of nighttime indoor iPhone photography. Annnd so I decided to hand model on my TI-84.

A more typical arrangement. I'm not terribly pleased with this impromptu design, but the giant pi on my index nail gets it done! Abstract flowers on ring finger for spring – no circle or pie, sadly, because the only nail art brush I own is relatively massive. Small lines it can do, but no actual detailed coloring work. :( 

Polishes used:

• Zoya Heather - pale lilac creme
• Floss Gloss Pony - neon peach creme
• China Glaze Dreamsicle - sheer orange jelly base with iridescent glitter
• Wet 'n Wild Black Creme

Under two months late for this one! Not bad.

Then again, I did this manicure on January 2... Close enough. 

I had a lot of fun constructing this one! The blue and black bases had actually been painted for a few days before I decided to add accents, which is fairly typical. Very few of my manicures start with predetermined designs – I just paint on patterns randomly, and if it ends badly, I just keep adding/erasing/fixing until it looks decent. 

Linear holos astound me every time. Such a gorgeous collection by Color Club! Not going to lie, though... my favorite part of this manicure is the piercing. I absolutely love nail piercings! So easy to perform (albeit slightly scary) and completely painless. I have no other piercings on my body lol so a nail ring will do for now. 

(Thinking about doing a natural nail piercing tutorial... it's pretty self-explanatory, but piercing yourself can be pretty terrifying the first time. Unfortunately, there aren't any great natural nail self-piercing videos on Youtube [at least any obvious ones]. Most likely going to at least do a pictorial!) 

Average room lighting photo. 

I added a black diamond 3mm Swarovski flatback to the base of the pinky nail the day after taking these photos. Didn't get any decent pictures with it, sadly!

Look at that holo. (Pre-piercing.)

More pictures – blurry, holo-accentuating ones – and details after the jump!