Sweet as Honey

Hi everyone!
Happy New Year, or as you might say, Shanah Tovah Umetukah (for all of you non-Hebrew speakers, that basically means "have a sweet new year"). It may be a few hours until the holiday actually occurs, but today's post is--you guessed it-- Rosh Hashanah themed! I'm Jewish, and Rosh Hashanah is an extremely important Jewish holiday that just happens to be the Jewish new year! But you might have guessed that. Anyway, naturally I just had to do Rosh Hashanah themed nails. I did a mix-and-match mani with random designs on each nail. After the first few, I wasn't really sure what they even were. The thumb is a shofar (a ram's horn which is blown during the holiday), the pointer finger is an apple (eaten with honey to symbolize having a sweet year), and the middle finger is a beehive (for the honey). The ring finger and pinky are just random, pretty designs, and I think the ring finger might have some honeycomb on there. The majority of the polishes that I used for the design are unlabeled yet gorgeous minis from Sephora by OPI that were given to me by my wonderful aunt (Thanks Liz!). However, I did  get to use one very special polish on one finger (not that all polishes are special!). When I was away in California, I had the amazing opportunity to travel to the lovely Tallulah boutique in Healdsburg (which is in Sonoma County) and buy my very first indie polish! This one was made by the wonderful nail artist who runs Sonoma Nail Art. If you haven't seen her blog, do check it out! She does wonderful work, whether it's with detailed portraits or simpler, adorable patterns. The polish is called Russian River, and it's the most gorgeous mix of blue and grey glitters in several shapes and sizes! In addition to Russian River, I also used Illamasqua Taint, NK Grin, and a billion of those Sephora polishes (the kit came with 16 minis and one regular sized bottle!) Here are the nails:

The words on the bottom of the thumb say "shofar". Sorry about the awful cleanup job... The orange polish was beautiful, but trying to clean it up got quite ugly!
I'll be pretty busy over the next few weeks (what with schoolwork and the High Holy Days), but I'll try to post a bit more!
Keep reading for more manis!
'Til next time,
Caroline S.
<3

Teacher's Pet

Hi everyone!
Before I begin, I'd like to apologize for being gone for sooo long... I was away in California for 10 days, and when I came back I had to prepare for school. I finally found time for a design tonight... the night before school starts! So, here you go.
I thought about a stereotypical school-themed item: an apple. I decided to paint apple french tips! I'm not used to experimenting with french tips, so my design isn't exactly perfect. None of my designs are perfect. But I do like how this came out!
I started with a base of OPI Did You 'Ear About Van Gogh? Then I added apple tips using OPI InStyle Red. Finally, I added leaves and stems with NK Grin and Illamasqua Taint. Here are the results:

Yes, I added a watermark... Technically, it's not actually a watermark, but it is there for the same reason: to protect my work. I used eyeliner to do this... hahaha. Oh well. If you don't like this, please comment. I don't want anyone to stop reading my blog because of an invading watermark.
I'm going to be quite busy now as I'm starting school, but I'll hopefully be able to post more frequently than I did this summer because I won't be going away any time soon. I hope that no one minds I've taken a break!
Keep reading for more fall-themed fun!
'Til next time,
Caroline S.
<3