40 Great Nail Ideas – Teal

Hey everyone, Happy Friday today I have a simple look to share and it's teal one of my favorite colors to boot! I'm back with another edition of 40 Great Nail Ideas.



The super awesome thing about this challenge is every other week there will be a color assignment, this week it is teal, and each lady doing the challenge will have a different prompt to combine with that color combo. For me this week's it's fluid lines! I'm terrible at freehand I think these turned out terrible, but I did do one trick I can share with you that I always enjoy!



The one tip I have, since clearly my fluid lines, which are just all over the place and don't know quite what to do with themselves – is to mix finishes. I find using a polish with a creme and holo finish pair well together if they are the same color. It makes you really notice the texture.



The colors I used for this look are Indigo Bananas Shrieking Teals (holo) and Indigo Bananas Diva Plumbum (creme). Disclosure, these were both originally press samples, but now are lovingly used in various nail art!



Even in indirect light, you can see the texture and design of this look, just because I used two different finishes of the same color.



To create these fluid, but totally random lines, I used a small nail art brush (shown above). I can't tell you what I was thinking when I applied these lines, because well, there was clearly no plan when I started this and I just sort of went to town and went in all different directions for each nail.

So clearly I feel like I failed the fluid lines prompt, I mean I did fluid lines, but the design is sort of a flop. Lesson to take away from today? Pair the same color creme and texture, the result is always stunning – sorry my fluid lines aren't great!

Don't forget to check out all the other ladies, who had other prompts besides fluid lines, so you'll get to see an awesome mix of teal nail art in the inlinkz below!


   

    An InLinkz Link-up
   

I Love the Color Teal

Today's prompt for the Challenge Your Nail Art Love is the Air challenge is I Love the Color... And if anyone knows me I really love the color teal (especially on my nails!).



So instead of just choosing one hue of teal, I chose them all! To start the mani, since I can't do without holo, I started with two coats of Painted Polish Trashed on Teal, which is a teal jelly polish packed with holo microglitter! It is really beautiful on it's own!



Then I decided I wanted to do stripes over the Trashed on Teal, in sort of a ombre look! For the stripes I used straight nail vinyls with the polishes: Sally Hansen OMGhost, Essie Mint Candy Apple, Zoya Wednesday and OPI AmazON AmazOFF.



And since it's Valentine's week, I decided to use dots to create a heart. I started with two thin coats of Mint Candy Apple and then used a dotting tool to appy a heart using OMGhost, Wednesday and AmazON AmazOFF.



I really looooooved this look! One of my favorites I've done in awhile, probably because it features sparkles and my favorite color, teal!

What is your favorite color and have you ever put it together in a single look? I'd love to see it! Also, don't forget to check out the other ladies participating in this super fun challenge!

   

    An InLinkz Link-up

   

What I'm wearing on my nails TODAY

It's not often I share with you my manicures in live time, but I am so in love with this new color I got from Literary Lacquers, I couldn't resist showing you right away.



This is Literary Lacquers Je Reviens from Literary Lacquer's Rebecca collection, inspired by the novel by Daphe de Maurier. The polish is a darkened teal holographic polish, with a linear holo finish with larger holographic pieces scattered throughout!



Here is what maker Amy wrote about this beautiful shade:

The buoy was just opposite, about thirty feet away. There was something written on it. I craned my neck sideways to read the lettering. “Je Reviens.” What a funny name. Not like a boat… “Je Reviens” – “I come back.” Yes, I suppose it was quite a good name for a boat. Only it had not been right for that particular boat which would never come back again.

Rebecca was assumed to have drowned in her little sailboat, Je Reviens, despite being known as an excellent sailor. Je Reviens means I come back or I return, is it ironic that the boat is named such? Has the boat disappeared beneath the water for good or does the name herald future events?

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier is a suspenseful novel told in the form of a flashback. I struggled with these descriptions because I don’t want to give too much of the story away. This collection is dedicated to Rebecca, the book simply throbs with her presence, but yet we never meet her alive.



I think it's pretty appropriate that Je Revins means "I come back." Last night, I took off the above manicure (you'll notice the manicure above has wavy lines and the manicure I'm currently wearing has chevrons). After redoing my nails, I literally missed Je Reviens so much I put the manicure back on, this time with chevrons instead.

I know that is pretty silly sounding. Literally taking a manicure off, redoing my nails to something I didn't love as much, and then recreating the manicure I took off. I guess that is love though!



The polish I paired Je Reviens with is Essie's The Perfect Cover Up, from their fall collection, which is a lovely muted teal that just pairs with Je Reviens perfectly!

Application: The application of Je Reviens was flawless, goes on completely smooth, but is a little sheer. I did three coats for this opacity, but you could probably get away with two coats just fine.

Where to purchase: You can purchase Je Reviens from the Literary Lacquer Etsy shop. I purchased this polish for $12.

Anyway, Amy's words above had me so intrigued I've decided I must read this book! So I'm off to go start that now!

I'll leave you with a photo of my cat Patty – I've named this shot "Patty the Polish Protector!"

Smitten Polish Glacial Springs

Happy Monday everyone! Today I'm sharing with you this wonderful jelly holographic polish from Smitten Polish – Glacial Springs.



Glacial Springs is a teal holographic glitter suspended in a turquoise jelly base! This polish has depth as the holo pieces build in the jelly base!



And the sparkle is so unique, almost like a micro glitter, I haven't seen anything else quite like it. And because I have to nail art all the things I added some unique zebra stamps courtesy of the Bundle Monster BM221 plate!





Application: This polish was a little on the thick side, but not hard to work with at all. Because it is a jelly base, opacity level may take up to three coats, but you would be fine with two. And boy, is does this polish have lasting power. I believe I wore this manicure for several days but I've had this sparkly polish on my toes for more than a month now. It is gorgeous and sparkly and unique and you need this!

Where to buy: Smitten Polish just restocked her store this weekend and it is full of amazing polishes. I bought five new bottles myself, but as far as quality goes, I have yet to be disappointed by Smitten Polish! Every polish is unique and applies/wears like a dream. I'm seriously crushing hard on Smitten Polish. Anyway, this retails for $9 on the Smitten Polish website.

P.S. My MoYou Stamping Plate Giveaway ends soon, get your entry in now!

Girly Bits Get Weaponized with stamping nail art

I've been a sucker for these teal/aqua colored holo polishes lately. Once I got a good look at Girly Bits Get Weaponized, I could tell this one was special.

Get Weaponized is a teal linear holo with larger sporadic blue iridescent glitter pieces. Those pieces really made this polish stand out among my ever growing collection of teal polishes. Indoors, those sparkle pieces are more apparent to the naked eye and my iPhone.

Because I wanted to bring out the blue sparkle which makes this polish so unique I thought I'd try some bright blue stamping, using my favorite MoYou Sailor 04 plate. I used the fish scale stamp this time.

I thought the cerulean blue of Zoya Song would be a good complimentary color to Girly Bits Get Weaponized. 

I thought the results were unique, but not exactly the most amazing nail art I've ever done.

Application: Get Weaponized wore very well and applied smoothly with two thin coats. I was happily surprised I could use Song to stamp, will definitely be using that in the future.

Where to purchase: Girly Bits Cosmetics is a Canadian polish maker and you can order her polishes from her website. I got this polish with a gift certificate I won for $11.50. There are so many other polishes of her's that I want, every time I visit her site I see something new that looks amazing!

Extra note: I was out of town this weekend visiting my parents, so I drafted this post on an iPad, so please be forgiving of any errors, etc. thanks!!!

Colors by Llarowe In Another Dimension with some beach-y nail stamping

One of my favorite nail colors is definitely teal. It's pretty obvious as my blog and Instagram feed show, I wear it A LOT. Anyway here is a beautiful teal holo I recently purchased on a whim, and boy I am super glad I did!



I eventually added some stamps, so here is a quick preview of that!



Anyway, some of the clean up isn't quite finished on these polishes, but I had to run out and see it in the sunshine and I just couldn't wait!



I feel this is a teal that leans blue, in the shade (below), you can see which way it wants to lean better.





To add a little flair and because I love any ocean themed nails, I added some wave stamps (from MoYou Sailor Plate 04) and some fun beachy stamps include a whale (Winstonia 108 plate) and a crab and palm tree (Winstonia 106 plate).



Application: Unfortunately the formula on In Another Dimension was not great. It was so thick upon opening I had to add thinner to it before even trying to properly apply. I've truly never had to do that with a polish before. Adding thinner did help a bit, but the polish is still quite a bit on the thick side. The polish did wear well (wore on another weekend out of town) and was topped with HK Girl Top Coat.

Where to Purchase: Colors by Llarowe In Another Dimension was part of their Spring release and they have already retired it. But fear not, Leah Ann has 31 new shades releasing for preorder very soon! I purchased this polish for $12. Colors by Llarowe are available on the Llarowe website, along with many great indie nail polish brands.

Combining my two loves: hockey and nail polish!

I love it when I can use my love of nail art as a way to support my favorite sport teams. My ultimate favorite sports team San Jose Sharks is currently (EDIT: drafted this post on Sunday, now they have been eliminated and I am in mourning) in the playoffs and during the first playoff game, I decided I just had to sport some teal and black nails in support of their playoff stint!



I super loved these nails, so be prepared for a lot of photos of it! This was my first time using nail vinyls, but I think they look so great! Although, I thought this manicure was so perfect, that it almost looked manufactured like a nail sticker or something.





Because I wanted this manicure to last a few days (which usually isn't the norm for me, I wanted this to last for Game 2, which my hubby and I had tickets to) I used a combination of CND Vinylux Weekly Top Coat with a layer of HK Girl Glisten and Glow top coat to maintain shine.





And finally, on my favorite nail community Makeup Alley nail board, we were doing a selfie with our nails day, so I took this pic!



Application: I used two coats of OPI AmazON AmazOFF, which is the most perfect Sharks teal. But warning, this does stain. Not terribly, but enough that you have to use a lot of remover to lift the stain and the stain might last awhile in the cuticle area, if you accidentally get some there upon removal.

I used nail vinyls on top of the teal (after topping it with a coat of HK Girl Top Coat and waiting a good 30 minutes for it to dry), using tweasers to carefully apply the nail vinyls one strip at a time. Once I had them placed perfectly, I added a coat of Zoya Storm (a beautiful black with fleck holo pieces in it) and quickly removed the nail vinyls before the coat of Storm dried. Once I finished all the nails, I had the beautiful chevron effect.

When I want a manicure to last I usually use CND Vinylux Weekly Top Coat, which does make my manicure last. I find that after a few days, the top coat dulls a bit, so I topped it with HK Girl Top Coat and it maintained its shine pretty well! So when you need a manicure to last longer than normal, I definitely recommend that!

Where to purchase: Nail Vinyls can be purchased at their website and they come in many different designs. I chose regular chevron's and bought one sheet of 100 for $5. I used about 20 for this design, because I did it on all hands, not just an accent nail. I also got straights as well, so I can do some striped designs coming up here!

CND Vinylux can be purchased a various nail supply stores, but it readily available on Amazon. Here it is listed for $6.70. 

Do you ever combine sport team love with nail designs? What team are you rooting for with your nails?!

My first gradient nail art

One nail art technique I have never tried but always wanted to was the gradient. Today I have to share with you my first attempt, a teal gradient using a slew of Zoya polishes.

To begin I started with a coat of Zoya Neely, a beautiful mint green which is perfect for the spring. The other two shades I used was Zoya Wednesday and Zoya Alexa.



To complete the gradient, I used a makeup sponge and painted stripes of the colors, from lightest to darkest. I waited until Neely was dry and then sponged on the makeup sponge, moving vertically from the top of the nail to the bottom.

To be honest it was an absolute sticky mess! Part of me thinks it is maybe because I didn't let the basecoat of Neely dry long enough (Zoya's can take a bit longer than most polishes to dry) and the final result was a little more subtle than I had hoped. I guess that's because I used all the same shade of color.



To bring out the gradient, and make it more obvious, I used a Konad M60 – the dot gradients, with a darker teal polish (Essie Go Overboard) to make it more obvious. Before stamping though, I added a layer of China Glaze Fairy Dusts, so that the dots would float on the top of the manicure.



I really liked the final results of this manicure, though it was extremely involved and took a lot of time. Next time I think I'll try and make a more obvious gradient (not use different shades of the same color).

What do you all think? I was pretty proud of the final result, it was my biggest nail art achievement to date!

Indigo Bananas We Are The Music Makers

Today I have a review of Indigo Bananas We Are The Music Makers from their Willie Wonka collection. This is a gorgeous sparkle with a duochrome shift from teal to violet.



The shift is apparent indoors and outdoors, but harder to capture on camera than some color shifters I have been wearing lately.



Outside shots shown below.





This color is so beautiful and I originally saw used in an aquatic-themed nail art by The Mercurial Magpie. I plan to use it for the same purpose at some point.

Application: Some people wear this polish with a coat of a darker polish underneath, but I used three coats for opacity and accurate measure of color since this was my first time wearing it. It had a bumpier finish, as sparkle polishes do, but was easy to even out with top coat. Unfortunately this one chipped on me within a day of application, but I want to blame that more on the HK Girl Glisten and Glow top coat than the actual polish itself. HK Girl Glisten and Glow just does not want to work with me, I wonder why so many other people absolutely rave about it! But I get it, not every polish works with every person's body chemistry.

Where to Purchase: Indigo Bananas has their shop on Etsy and the great thing about this brand is you can get either the larger bottle or the mini if you are just testing it out. I purchased my mini bottle (8ml) for $7.25. I remember it taking a while to ship to me though, but that might have been a glitch in their system or something. Don't not check out their store on account of that, they have some amazing polishes in there!

What do you think? I know my photos weren't the greatest in this post, but I was always trying to capture that color shift which makes this polish so special! Enjoy!