Vacation nails and toes

I was so busy when I got back with the Geek Challenge and working on swatches and reviews that I realized I never did get around to posting the nails I wore on vacation! I was so excited about going to the beach that I did beachy, summery themed nails - it stormed and rained the entire time we were down there, but I didn't care!

I decided to try a sunset gradient on my nails, and I thought it turned out pretty well for my first try at a sunset! I actually haven't done a gradient in a while so I was glad I didn't get rusty. :]

They lasted about halfway through vacation, and then I decided to do something simple for the rest of the week because it was vacation and I didn't want to do anything super complicated. So, I just did a solid coat (gasp!) of Catrice Sold Out Forever. I never do solid one-color manis anymore, but this color was worth it. It's a gorgeous, so slightly mint green/off white. I didn't get any photos of it myself though, so swatches will have to wait til my boyfriend offloads his vacation pictures.

Then, for my toes, I was SO excited to try making mermaid nails after I got the large Martha Stewart glitter I've seen on The Nailasaurus. At first I tried placing them individually and that did not work at all! So I just took a brush with top coat on it, dabbed it into the glitters and mushed them onto wet polish. The base coat is Essie - Trophy Wife with an accent nail of Catrice Sold Out Forever, though you can't really see it much anymore!

These actually lasted way longer than I expected. I put a ton of Seche Vite on overtop (I think 3-4 coats) to try and make them last throughout vacation, but sand combined with me picking at them caused them to chip a bit about halfway through the week.
SO, I used the few colors I had brought along and my trusty new dotting tool to make another beachy or ocean-inspired look to get me through the rest of the trip. I thought it turned out pretty well for something I did on the fly!

And that does it for my vacation nails! What do you like to wear at the beach??


Kelly