Diamonds are a girl’s best friend! for #NAILLINKUP

It’s DIAMOND week for the Nail Art Ideas Linkup.  This theme makes me think of Marilyn Monroe’s “Diamonds are a girl’s best friend!” and also “Material Girl” by Madonna.  Remember their hot pink dresses with the big bow?  And how they were dripping with diamonds?  That’s the inspiration for my manicure today!

I’m wearing two coats of my favorite hot pink polish- Zoya Ali.  It’s so hot and summery… when I applied it the other day I was actually screaming HOT DAMN! Because I love it so much. Does anyone else get super excited by polishes like me?  So much so that you run around the house waving your hands around hooting and hollering?  Please tell me you do that too.

Now that we’ve established that Zoya Ali is a good base color for me…. then I applied a sheer pink holo over some of those nails.  Bobbie brand Margarita (which I swatched the other day) needed four coats, so I assumed it’s sheerness would be a good topper for Ali to allow the hot pink to shine through, yet still add a touch of holo sparkle to it.  I didn’t apply that holo to my middle or thumb fingers, just because.  And on my middle finger I painted a bow just like on Madonna’s and Marilyn’s dresses.    I used a white and a black striper along with thatleanne’s tutorial to do my bow nail art.  And the funny thing is, I just realized she used Zoya Ali in her tutorial post too!  What are the chances of that?  Such a strange coincidence!

Lastly, I added some diamond-looking bling on a couple of my fingers.  I love this manicure!

Don’t miss the other diamond nails here:

21st – 27th April : Diamonds

 

April #NAILLINKUP Prompts

It is with heavy hearts that we announce this. We are discontinuing the Nail Art Ideas Linkup challenge that we’ve been running since there hasn’t been enough interest.

Hold up, we are totally kidding! April Fools!!!

Did we fool you, or are you too clever for our tactics?? Not a chance that we would discontinue the #NAILLINKUP! The only month we are skipping is July. Because that’s when we host our huge 2nd annual 31 day OMD nail challenge!  More info on our prompts and prizes in the coming months.
Let’s get back to April! It’s one of the rare months where we can squeeze 5 prompts in instead of 4. For your nail art pleasure, here are our ideas-

RAIN (week 1) There’s an old adage that says April showers bring May flowers.  Well, maybe not in all parts of the world.  But still, we all know about rain!  Let’s see your nails painted with rain, droplets, umbrellas, or however you want to interpret this theme!

BIRDS (week 2) Did you know that April 8th is officially Draw a Picture of a Bird Day?  Let’s ‘draw’ birds on our nails to celebrate this weird holiday!  Of course, you can use a stamping kit or some decals if you’d like.

EASTER (week 3) Bunnies, colored eggs, candies and green grass!  We expect to see lots of cute nails for this prompt.

DIAMONDS (week 4) What is the birthstone for April?  Diamonds.  And we can’t think of a prettier way to decorate your nails.  After all, diamonds are a girl’s best friend!

DOTTICURE (week 5) We like to throw a nail art ‘technique’ in the mix every month and polka dots are a classic!

Rules for Nail Art Ideas Linkup (N.A.I.L.)……

• Do one of the weekly themes, or do them all.  It’s flexible!
• The dates for each week are only suggestions- you can post your nails whenever you want in April.
• The nail art ideas/themes are open to interpretation so you can create whatever kind of design you want! Stamps, stickers, acrylics- anything goes!
• We encourage all nail enthusiasts to join in no matter what platform you use; blog, FB, IG, Tumblr, etc…
• Feel free to post our widget on your site and you can use hashtag #NAILLINKUP on your social media.
• Lastly but most importantly, don’t forget to share your nail pics via the inlinkz below.

31st March – 6th April : Rain (April Showers)

7th – 13th April : Birds

14th – 20th April : Easter

21st – 27th April : Diamonds

28th April – 4th May : Dotticure

NAIL ART IDEAS LINKUP is hosted by Brijit, Craftynail and Eeeek.  Feel free to contact us if you have any questions at all!  You can also read more info about our monthly N.A.I.L. Linkup on our blog links below.  We look forward to seeing your nails this April!

warm regards,

Brijit from Brijits Digits

Jacqui from Craftynail

Jemma from Eeeek! Nail Polish! 

It’s the little things…

Brilliant Earth, who makes ethical origin jewelry, is doing a campaign called ‘Create a Little Love’.

Create your own photo representation of “LOVE,” then give a little insight into your creative expression and what it means to you. Whether you tell a story, give a quote, express a memory or even jot down a quick blurb, share it with your readers for all to be inspired by!

It’s ironic that Brilliant Earth asked me to contribute considering I’ve been thinking a lot about ethical engagement rings and basically, how much I want one!  In case he’s reading this, pay attention now!  LOL.  But in all seriousness, in this day and age I think ethically-sourced is the only way to go.  So I’d be happy to share with you and Brilliant Earth exactly how I ‘say love’.  Also, maybe this post will give me some good engagement vibes!  For double measure I might make this engagement chicken recipe for our v-day dinner. Hahaha think that may work?

 To me, love is all about the little things: the little things he says to make you smile and the little things he does because he cares.  Would you believe that my boyfriend remembers to turn the outside light on every evening before I pull in the driveway, just to make sure I make it in the door safely?  Or how when I’m putting my makeup on he’ll walk in the room and say, “hey pretty lady” just to let me know I look nice!  All those little things he does shows me he really cares.  I’m getting all verklempt just thinking about it. ❤  That’s why the theme of my nails today is the ‘little things’.

To honor the little things, I painted a whole bunch of little tiny hearts on my nails!  Since I painted them on just my french tips they had to be very little because there’s not much room there.  But I made it work!  How did I do these nails?  I started with some french manicure Incoco real nail polish appliques in Champagne (I will post a full review on these next week).  Then I taped off the tips and dotted little hearts using Butter London Snog and a small dotting tool.  Sweet and sexy right?

Tell me…what’s your stance on valentines day this year?  Are you so over it!?!  Or do you enjoy all the v-day hoopla??