Gradients and Dots Mani

I'm obsessed with neons right now. I just got my Zoya Earth Day Exchange order in the mail, and half of the polishes I ordered are screaming fluorescent. 

I haven't had a chance to use them yet, so I used another set of my favorite neon shades from Orly. 

I saw this manicure done by @duhmynails on Instagram:

Credit: @duhmynails

It was so adorable and fun I knew I had to recreate it, but since I love gradients a bit more than dots, I switched the design up a bit. 

I used Orly's neons from their "Baked" collection in "Neon Heat", "Ablaze", and "Saturated" for the gradient and dots with Zoya's "Purity" for the base. On the ring finger I used OPI's "Coronation" topped with Zoya's "Electra". 

This upcoming Thursday I'm headed up to NYC with Mike to visit amazing friends, so I'll definitely be putting my new Zoya neons to good use and writing a big blog post on the weekend, so keep your eyes open for that next week! 

I'll also likely dedicate an entire post to swatches of my Earth Day Exchange haul. 

Have a fabulous week! 

Monday Morning Dotticure

It is the end of August, which means I am once again gearing up to go spend a week out at sea counting the fishes. When I'm on ocean trawl, I don't get to look very pretty. I don't wear makeup, I'm in t-shirts and cut up jeans, covered in fish scales and slime, trying to quell my nausea with Dramomine.

Because of this, I usually spend my days prior to trawl putting extra effort into my nails and makeup, because I know I'll miss it so much (judge if you will, but right around day 3 I start to feel a little like a Neanderthal). 

I did a dotticure (that's a manicure featuring dots) for my mom last week and it inspired me to break out my dotting tools and do one on myself this week. I love how it turned out! Sometimes I get so overwhelmed by nail art techniques, I forget about the original pioneers. Dotticures are easy, versatile, and make a big impact. They are also not as time consuming as watermarbling. 

Left to Right: Zoya in "Purity", "Rooney", "Sooki", "Rocha", and "Darcy"

While my week out at sea will prevent me from doing a new manicure for next week, I'm going to try my best to test out all of my new Ipsy products before I leave so that I can write up a review for you next Monday.