Happy Valentine’s Day!
In the Boston area, it’s the calm before the next storm that starts this afternoon. So our plans for going out to dinner are up for grabs. But in the meantime, I did an easy polka dot Valentine’s Day mani that I copied from inventive nail blogger, Nidia from Beauty Lit From Within. Check out her much more perfect version of this mani and lots of her other original designs.
To do this mani, I searched through my stash for a dark pink, white, and a red polish with shimmer.
I started out with Sally Hansen Salon Manicure Smooth & Strong Base Coat, then I applied two coats of Zoya Flora, one of my all-time favorite Barbie-ish pinks. I let the pink polish dry completely.
I searched for my double-ended dotting tool from essence cosmetics, but couldn’t find it anywhere so I improvised. I went to the tool kit, and I mean my actual household toolkit to look for some nails. With nails, you can use the round head or the point for dotting depending on the size of the dot you want.
I found a plastic insert from a skincare product that I’m testing out. Unfortunately, this plastic insert doesn’t appear to be recyclable, so I figured I would use it for my nail polish and at least get a second use out of it before I throw it away. I poured some of the NYC white polish into one of the little indentations in the tray, then I used the nail head to make random dots across each of my nails. I mostly made big dots with the nail head, but I made a few tiny ones with the point. I didn’t have a pattern, although next time I may try a specific dotting pattern for more uniformity. I let the white polish dry completely.
For the red dots, I used Milani Ruby Jewels, a stunning red from last year’s collection with red shimmer rather than pieces of glitter that would be too hard to work with. This polish is worth tracking down (see the Amazon ad below). It’s a stunner.
I did some red dots on their own and others partially on top of the white dots. I meant to let the red polish dry thoroughly, but I must have jumped the gun because there was a little spreading after I applied a coat of NYC New York Color Grand Central Station topcoat. Patience is a virtue that I don’t always have. Still I think it looks cute!
Next up are this week’s beauty blogposts from Beauty Blogazons with reviews of eye makeup, tips on applying mascara, a review of the derma roller that I reviewed a few weeks ago, nail art tutorial, red makeup for Valentine’s Day, a lip/cheek stick review, an innovative makeup remover, and my review of LATHER’s all natural Tinted Lip Balms. Lots of fun reading for a snowy day!
- Lola’s Secret Beauty Blog: Need some twinkle in your eyeliner? Then prepare to LOVE Milani Fierce Foil Eyeliner in Black Gold Foil and Navy Foil!
- TheFabZilla: Looking for an all-matte eyeshadow palette? TheFabZilla’s rockin’ neutrals feat. Paula’s Choice The Nude Mattes
- Barbie’s Beauty Bits: 20 Mind-blowing Mascara Tips & Tricks You MUST Read!
- Kizzy Online: Are you ‘derma rolling’ your skin yet? Kizzy reviewed the Diva d丹r Derma Roller, a titanium micro-needle roller for face.
- Beauty by Miss L: Manicure post featuring two of Leelo´s favorite nail art techniques
- Never Say Die Beauty: Allison tried the new natural Tinted Lip Balm Trio from LATHER. So pretty!
- Theadorable Beauty Blog: Sexy red make-up for the Valentine’s Day Challenge!
- The Feminine Files: I’m thinking pink with this multi-tasking stick from Paula Dorf!
- The Passenger Element: Makeup Removal the all natural way with The Makeup Eraser – Demo/Review/Giveaway
Enjoy Valentine’s Day whatever’s on your agenda! And what’s on your nails today??
Hopefully the snow cooperates with your dinner plans. Presently we have what I would call a snow squall going on here. Cute mani. I need to start doing my nails again. The reason I put it off is because of my lack of patience so I understand. If I did not have to wait for my nails to dry I would be fine but that wait kills me. I am more or less a nail polish collector at this point.
Thanks, Laura! I hope the squall doesn’t leave much behind. I wish I were more coordinated when it comes to nail art. I try the easy stuff, but leave the other manis to the nail bloggers. I still like a nice normal mani. Hope you do get back into it some day! Happy Vday to you xoxo
Happy Valentine’s Day to you too. 🙂 Hubby works outside and still is not home. I think he will want to spend the evening thawing at home. I still need to go to Sally’s and get some hair color. This is the longest I have ever let my silver and natural color get and I hate it. I am not silver enough to let it go just yet. But if I were I would go entirely silver and do a couple chunky lavender highlights in front by my face. Yes I am that girl. 😉
Ooooh, I love that idea, Laura! Maybe in a few years you’ll be able to do it, and you’ll have to post pix.
Hope you and your husband have a nice cozy evening at home. It’s snowing here now so we’re just going to a local hole-in-the-wall place for dinner. But at least I’ll have dotted nails 🙂
We had a couple snowy squalls going on here today too. Why are you sending me your snow, Allison? 😉
I’ve even had nail art smudgy fails occur when I waited to topcoat until the next day, so don’t feel bad about a little migrating red. Sometimes it just happens. <3
I can’t believe we sent you snow, Rach, ‘coz we’ve got ALL THE SNOW! It is a blizzard again. So we changed our plans and stayed much closer to home. Everything is buried in white.
Went to the Peabody Essex Museum this afternoon before the storm really started. Thought of you as we walked through the museum stores. Always so tempting
Thanks for letting me know that smudgy nail art wasn’t only my fault! And unless you look closely, it looks pretty cute 🙂
It is cute! I don’t think the smudgy bits are really very noticeable. 🙂
Are you SURE you didn’t send me this snow? You really have ALL of it?!?!? It certainly does seem like you’ve got most of it though. I hope it lets up soon. Maybe you can just hunker down at home until the boy with the snowblower comes back into town.
Oh and tempting is exactly what we museum store people want, hehehe! I need to change some of my displays around. Not really so much because our visitors notice, but because they’re just looking sort of stale to me. I must have the winter blahs. lol
I love this cute mani, I’d wear it right now even though Valentines is passed! xxx
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I love it too, and you can do it in any shades. I’ll be doing greens for St. Patrick’s Day 😉