Color of the Month: Opal + Pier 1 Inspired Halloween Mani

Hey all!

When I sat down to do my October manicure, I realized that the birthstone is Opal, and that I have already done an Opal manicure, which you can see HERE. But for those of you who like the historical/geological aspect of COTM, I did discover that Opal is a formation of non-crystalline silica gel that seeps into crevices in the sedimentary strata. It then hardens to make the opals you know from the jewelry store! 

October babies also can claim tourmaline as their birthstone, a gem known for its color-shifting properties. 

Since I didn't have any new ideas for Opal, I decided to just link to my old mani and do a halloween themed manicure this week. My inspiration was a tea towel that we got in at Pier 1. 

I'm hoping to get a couple more halloween manicures done before the holiday. I have a couple cute designs in mind, so keep your eyes peeled!

Color of the Month: Sapphire

September's birthstone is yet another precious gemstone: Sapphire! 

Sapphire is a variety of the gem species corundum, which occurs in a huge array of colors. If you've been to a jewelry store recently, you've no doubt seen pink sapphire, yellow sapphire, etc. Ruby is actually the red variety of sapphire. However, for this color of the month, I decided to stick with sapphire in its traditional blue form. 

I also decided to use silver (Zoya's "Trixie") for this look. I thought it helped the blue pop. And of course, my beloved Nail Vinyls make an appearance. 

For this look, i featured Zoya in "Dream". This rich, holographic beauty is like a sapphire in a bottle!

So sparkle. Much wow. 

I am also very excited for the mail to come today because my HIMYM box set will be arriving, as well as the last Zoya order I placed before my no-buy. And with new polishes, come new swatches, which mean new blog posts for you!

Color of the Month: Ruby

For this month's gemstone feature, I was inspired by the Ruby, July's official birthstone. Rubies are one of the four precious gemstones, and "are said to guarantee health, wisdom, wealth and success in love", according to the American Gem Society. 

It doesn't hurt that they're also gorgeous ;)

I couldn't think of rubies without thinking of Dorothy's ruby slippers from the Wizard of Oz, and luckily I had a beautiful Julep polish from their Wizard of Oz collection called "Ruby Slippers" that I was able to incorporate into the look. So here it is!

I painstakingly placed all those red rhinestones individually on my ring finger for this look. 

I really enjoyed this look; it was time consuming but I thought it would be really pretty to do again around Christmas time :)