#NailTechNailedIt - Recent Designs

My social media's been blowing up with these pictures, but I wanted to officially share some of my most recent nail art done on clients in nail tech school.

Snowflakes have been particularly popular, and rightly so. It's currently 1 degree Fahrenheit here in Boulder with crunchy snow covering everything.

Sorry this one's a little blurry.

I also had an adventurous young client who let me do whatever I wanted on her. Since she chose such a Bora Bora sea blue, I chose seashells!

And finally, Rachel was escaping the cold for climates where flipflops weren't a ridiculous idea, so she wanted a matching mani/pedi.

And tonight, even though I had no clients, I got a lot of work done on my holiday menu for designs. Here's just part of it.

Here's hoping someone wants something!

Cacee Polish - Spring Collection Swatches & Review

First order of blog business tonight is to thank all of you for entering and spreading the word about my giveaway. It was a wonderful success and a winner has been selected. Congratulations to Christine of Michigan! I hope to offer more giveaways in the future for you all, especially if readership continues to grow!

Tonight I'm swatching another collection from Cacee Polish. I've swatched their BFE summer collection for you before here. This new post is for their spring collection, which I absolutely love! I think I like all of these colors more than the last one, which is difficult to say because there were so many brights in that one.

Here's the nail art I did for it, using Anita as the base.

Isn't that the most gorgeous teal? Click below to read more and see the reviews for all the other colors!

Shown above is Cora in three coats. This is the color of wet sand or sandy clay. Very Native American! It's not the most complementary color for my skin tone, which sucks because I love it. I'll definitely use it in nail art, but not as a base.

Jodi (shown in 3 coats) is a sandy mustard, great for fall. Not quite sure how it wound up in the summer collection, though I could see it working well with the right pink color.

Tess is a military, mossy green (shown in 2 coats). I love this creme to death!

Anita (2 coats) is the base I used in my nail art. It's an amazing creamy teal, definitely a new favorite.

Mae (2 coats) is a totally new color in my collection. It's a dark periwinkle, almost purple. It's not as blue as China Glaze Secret Peri-Winkle and not as pastel as most others. Just dusty and just right.

Finally, there is Mara (2 coats). This is the deepest of navy polishes, almost black. It rounds out the collection perfectly. It also seems to have summoned Slenderman into the reflection of my middle finger. Creepy!

Cacee is a great addition to your collection if you haven't tried it already. It's a totally affordable brand I've seen in my local beauty supply store. Unfortunately, I still haven't made my way out there to find the price.

These products were sent to me by Cacee. The reviews are based entirely on my experience with the products and were in no way influenced by anyone.

AA Floral

I'm sure you've seen the floral designs by mrcandiipants recreated all over the place. Jumping on that band wagon, and equally as motivated by her love for American Apparel polishes, here's some American (Apparel) Floral nails!

This was an impossibly easy look to create. Simple tools and even shaky hand skills are all you need for the look. (I obviously did roughly outline the flowers with a striping brush and black polish, but even that can be messy.) I love the way you can just dab the leaves petals onto the nail without the perfection of some other designs.

Also check out that color combo! Peach and neon? This combo of nude/neon is really trendy right now, though it's going into pastels as it's technically spring. My neon is Neon Green and my peach is Summer Peach, both from American Apparel.

I'd like to accumulate all the American Apparel colors throughout my lifetime. Is that possible without going broke? Maybe I'll start a Polish Piggy Bank, and save up some money every day until I have enough for them aaaaallllllllll!

Cartwright's Blouse

I'm back! And I missed sharing things with all the readers.

For example, did you know that I'm shamefully running out of room for polishes as my collection grows larger and more colorful? Did you also know that I'm looking for a new pad for the summer? That means that my ever-growing collection will soon have a desk to live on, and an area to be stored in.

I've seen so many beautiful polish rooms, and so many great ideas for storage and organization of polish. Do you have a clever solution to your lacque-clutter? Tell me about it, I'd love to hear!

Tonight's look was inspired by an outfit I saw Karen Cartwright wear during a beautiful performance on "Smash" (a television show in the U.S.) Her red skirt had a gold embellished belt, and her blouse was a white silk number with black polka dots. It's almost a literal translation!

The colors I used include Peterhof Palace and Carmen (Zoya), and Alpine Snow and Black Onyx (OPI).

Back to Beautiful

With blog responsibility comes the struggle for creativity. I've been approached by a lot of different companies, both big name and indie-size, about doing reviews of polishes and tools and decorations. I always like to try new things and show you guys what's out there, so I'm usually inclined to say yes. With so much traffic in my inbox though, it's easy to lose sight of the nail art love behind the blog, and focus efforts on giving good reviews.

Tonight, I just opened up some drawers in my polish storage and picked out a few good colors. A simple pink, Parfait Day from Lime Crime, and my trusty Black Onyx from OPI, as well as Purity from Zoya. Pink. Black. White. Simple.

In keeping with the simplistic theme, what better than stripes and dots. Easy, clean, and refreshing.

Ah it feels good to breathe beautiful!

Betsey Johnson-esque Roses

A design with rich colors, floral and a funky accent like dots just screams Betsey Johnson to me. So a mix of Sea Breeze (Sally Hansen Insta-Dri), Sugar High and Something Sweet (China Glaze) was perfect for this one. I think Betsey would be proud.

This is another easy design that everyone can do. Anything that looks good with little effort is primo in my book, especially when I have to photograph my right hand for you guys. Just wipe off the majority of the polish from the bottle's brush, and do a little dabbing. First dab your dark green leaves, then dab your flowers (darker pink and lighter pink) on top. The less polish on the brush the better. You can always add more.