A couple of weeks ago, I posted a summer mani preview on my Instagram... Hopefully you've seen it! If you haven't, well, there's not really any reason to check it out anymore because it's right here. 

Despite that, I still highly recommend checking out that new IG ;)

And here it is! Wish I didn't save the image in such a small size, but can't exactly go back and undo that now. Anyways... this was my first manicure of summer 2015! Much like my detailed floral/poppy mani, this mani came to be after a sudden urge to create an actual design I would have to draw with a teeny brush and acrylic paint. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out – the pointed ice cream pinky is a result of a broken nail, but I think it ended up alright ;)

The process was simple: a basecoat of color, designs drawn in with a small paintbrush and acrylic, and matte topcoat. I was inspired by various Instagram nail techs for the ring and pinky fingers, and a random nail wrap for the pineapple print nail. A somewhat shameful admission: the pinky is hidden because I messed up and was too lazy to redo it. After a good week of wearing the mani, I ended up replacing it with a 100% silver mirror shard coat of F.U.N Lacquer's Pay Day. I sponged on the flakies, resulting in dense coverage and ultra-enhanced mirror-like qualities. As if the neon weren't bright enough!

Materials used:

• Julep Hope – white satin-finish crème
• Nicole by OPI Lay It On The Lime – light lime crème
• Floss Gloss Pony – neon pastel peach crème
• Zoya Charlotte – warm greige crème
• F.U.N Pay Day – silver flakie topcoat (not pictured)
• Various shades of acrylic paint

These nails couldn't be any more different from the nails I'm currently wearing, but it's already been well-established that I have a problem with publishing my manicures on time. Off to a trip to Hong Kong beginning next Monday – this time I have a good excuse for inactivity! Currently contemplating what to wear on nails for the trip...

Hope your summer has been excellent thus far. Thanks for reading! :•)

Currently listening to: Vicious Love (ft. Hayley Williams) – New Found Glory & Love Me Like You Do – All Time Low (cover)

Long overdue. In fact, almost exactly two months overdue. Senior Ball was that long ago? And I've been sitting here at home being unproductive, wasting my summer away? Apparently...

This year, I decided to go "elegantly simple" after a wild glitter gradient last year (that took forever to remove!) and left all the sparkle to my dress. Another highly belated thank you to my date for a great night at the California Academy of Sciences! (Not gonna lie, though, the massive pool of stingrays may have captivated me more... ;) Unfortunately, there weren't any whales.)

If I've learned one thing this year, it's to never be afraid to tear it up on the dancefloor. Get crunk. In a multiple-hundred-dollar floor-length dress and four-inch heels. I've made the mistake of being "too cool to dance" before, and I'm never going to make it again. Even if it means your feet are in absolute AGONY and slow-dancing means nearly collapsing on your date, jump all over the place and get your arms involved. You're not living if you just stand outside the glass-enclosed dancefloor and sit with a bunch of people you don't really know until the final slow dance.

Anyways... the mani!

Confession: This isn't the actual mani I wore to prom. This is the matte-ified version of it, worn for the week after it. I never got a "quality" photo of the glossy original version, so this'll have to do for the post picture. 

...And here's the original, in all of its over-exposed glory on the fabric of my dress in the car five minutes before the pre-prom photoshoots! This was a simple Scotch tape mani inspired by a photo I saw online – not much explanation necessary here. It was insanely difficult to get the triangles even remotely close to equal in width, but you don't really notice the inequality if you don't scrutinize ;) 

Colors used:

• Julep Bess – light sky blue crème
• Julep Hope – white satin-finish crème
• Zoya Severine – champagne/pewter semi-frost, semi-metallic

And as supplementary material, a photo of my lack of height and my date in front of the massive Pacific aquarium exhibit! (Hope he doesn't mind...) We do have actual photoshoot pictures that aren't grainy and dark, but I figured it was about time to pay homage to my blog title. No whales, but at least aquatic life... yeah?

(And yes, those are crystals all up on the bodice of the dress. All over the front. And parts of the back. Hence the reserved nails!) 

Ah, good memories from the end of senior year as I write this post in the middle of summer. Appropriately jamming to The Middle by Jimmy Eat World and Go Away by Weezer – good vibes all around. :') (Might add "Currently listening to..." as a feature.)

Thanks for reading! 

Hey guys!

Haven't posted in a while, thanks to crazy exams (shout out to APs) and finals and just life. Besides testing, things have been pretty good lately, so I can't complain too much. :)

About nails, though. I finally got my first matte topcoat! I know – I've been seriously doing my nails for years, and I just purchased my first matte topcoat. And it's nothing too fancy (NYC Matte Me Crazy). What? I've been in love with matte-ified gradients for a while now, though, so the first mani I designed with the topcoat had to be a super simplistic pastel gradient. It features Floss Gloss Pony once again...I just can't get over how cool that neon pastel is.

(Indeed, I wore it on my toes to National Ocean Science Bowl, and as we were walking to our dorms post-sunset, the polish nearly glowed. The guys on my team commended it as "super cool" after staring at it for about ten seconds.)

And after all of that rambling, here's the actual mani! Again, super simple – three colors sponged over a white base. With matte topcoat. The mint-aqua blue shade, Essie Mint Candy Apple, takes on varying casts in different types of light. It can range from greenish mint to OPI What's With The Cattitude?-esque powder sky blue. 

Colors are adjusted in both photos, but they give a decent sense of how different MCA can appear in different lighting. In retrospect, I should've totally taken an angled shot to demonstrate how matte NYC MMC truly is. It's not as flat-out matte as Essie Matte About You, but it's not a leather/plastic finish either. MMC provides a sufficient matte effect, and it's not bad at under $2! Value. The brush is pretty decent, with a wider side and moderately stiff bristles that don't fan out terribly much. 

Here's a gradient I found on a blog for computer-generated gradients that happened to coincide with my color scheme. Pretty wild.

Polishes used:

• Julep Hope – satin finish white creme
• Floss Gloss Pony – neon peach pastel
• Zoya Heather – light lilac creme (with imperceptible silver microshimmer)
• Essie Mint Candy Apple – light aqua-mint creme
• NYC Matte About You – matte topcoat

My new dilemma: how do I do my nails for senior ball? This is my second – and last – high school dance ever, so gotta make it good! I did a rhinestoned blue-black glitter gradient last year for Senior Ball 2014... My dress this year is a royal blue jersey Rachel Allan with a healthy amount of iridescent rhinestone beading, so I'll probably do something slightly more understated. Soon! Super excited for senior ball though.

Thanks for reading :)