Christmas

Christmas is still a few weeks away, but I just had to share these Christmas manicures. So I put on some Christmas Peaceful Piano Music, lit my Balsam & Cedar candle, and sat down to post this. This first one I absolutely loved. It's a French manicure, but with Christmas wreaths! The second design is a little more freestyle watercolor looking. I decided it was some very fancy wrapping paper.

Stones

Stone nails were fantastic to do, so I did them a couple times over the past year. I got the tutorial from Pinterest and thought they would be really unique. They were surprisingly easy and very fun. I loved the muted colors. It made me think of a garden pathway. It was a nice interlude between different flower designs.

Coals and fire

     When the last Hunger Games movie, Mockingjay part II, came out, I did my nails in anticipation of going to see it. When I first discovered the book series, I remember sitting down and reading all day until I finished them. With Mockingjay in particular, I read 80% of the book by the time my mom called me for dinner. We had family visiting and I was being rather withdrawn. They were such amazing books!! The movies were even more exciting because if the hype, and this was the last time that I could go to the theater to see a Hunger Games movie, so I had to show my devotion somehow. Nail art is always a fun and inexpensive way to rep.
     I started with a dark brown base coat and then sponged on red. Then I drew on some yellow squiggly lines and finished it off with golden sparkles. It's really hard to paint flames; they turned out looking more like lava than fire. Either way, they looked cool. For the coals on the accent nails, I started with my sand nail polish to give it the rough look. Then I painted over it with a silvery gray. I was worried those nails would just look sticky and I was thrilled with the metallic stone look that resulted. So there's the Catching Fire look for the Mockingjay movie.

Favorite roses

This is probably my favorite flower design that I have done. I started with one of my favorite nail polishes, a light blue-gray, for the base. Then I added roses that were my favorite dusty pink color, with some lighter pink on top to make the roses look a bit more realistic. I added teal flowers as well (though they kind of resemble leaves) simply because it was another one of my favorite colors. Finally, I put yellow spots all over to brighten the whole manicure. I remember it was a dark fall night, one of those nights where my sister and I were both home and decided to hide out and hang out in our room. I put on a good music playlist and colored on my nails while talking and laughing with her. Favorite colors, best music, great times.

Swirly colors

I saw this design on Pinterest (again) and I loved the colors. Usually what catches my eye in pictures I see is the color, but this one also happened to have a very doable design. I had some blue sand polish that worked well and gave the nails a really cool dimension. I like doing ombre designs, and pink and yellow always look really nice together. It kind of makes me think of darker clouds in front of a lovely sunset. In the original design, the blue paint on top was in the form of a flower. I kind of tried to mimic the swirl, but I ended up with spots all over. I was really happy with how they turned out, however. Super cute. 

Purple bubbles

        I found this cool OPI polish that is supposed to be light purple, but in the light, it sometimes looks a little green. I like the polish all by itself, but I got bored. I didn't really have an idea in mind when I sat down, but I started putting dots on and it ended up being a pretty cool design. I did purple dots and then white dots (dots are just really fun) and then added sparkles at the end. It resulted with banners of purple bubbles decorating each of my nails. Very purple.

Tulip time

Most of the nail designs I do include flowers. In an attempt to not be overwhelming, I have neglected to post many of them at all. Today, I shall fix that.
Every year in May my family and I attend the Tulip Festival in Holland, MI. I love flowers and can easily spend hours walking around the cute, little town, taking in the sights and colors. Having recently gotten in to nail art at the time, I decided to do my nails appropriately for the occasion. Because it's such a long event, I got to do tulip nails twice! I liked the first design a bit more, because of the sky blue and the cute, little pink & purple tulips. The second design was supposed to be the view from above of open tulips. They didn't turn out quite the way I wanted them to, but they were still pretty.

Fall manicure

More fall nails for the last few weeks before it snows (up north). I love warm weather, and the beginnings of cool breezes, harkening the coming of winter, scare me a little. I'm not a big fan of pumpkin flavored things, and I never have good ideas for costumes. But I like flannels, blankets, warm tea, and especially the beautiful colors of the trees. The changing leaves are something I miss the most about fall, having spent the last three years in Florida.

I didn't have much of a plan when I sat down to do my nails. I just had a few fall colors and my french tips kit. So I started with some black tips, and decided to try adding some leaves. I originally only did green, but it needed more color, so I added red and yellow. Then I had to add some "tiny leaves" (dots) at the end to fill it in nicely. I ended with a thin shimmery gold coat to finish off the look. I loved this fall manicure.

Animals

Leopard print is, or at least was, a popular nail design. I don't usually like following trends just because, but they looked fun, so I gave it a try. I didn't want to just do the leopard spots though. To make it a little cooler, I did a couple different colors and underlying base patterns to give the design more dimension. I think it turned out well. They weren't too hard to do and were unique.
Next, I tried a zebra pattern. It ended up not looking much like a zebra at all because my nails were pink and red, but they were really pretty. Accent nails are easy to do and can really make a design more noticeable, and so it was a rather easy project that looked really cute.

Rain drop

I don't remember exactly what inspired these nails. I like them a lot, though. They weren't meant to look like raindrops, but that's how they look to me. The little brushes of paint thin out as they near the tips of the nails and give the impression of precipitation. I like busy designs, such as spots on nails, stripes on pants, or flowers on blouses. Also, the blue and black go nicely with any outfit. They pop a little bit without being as crazy as, say, neon hearts.

Nerdy

Talk Nerdy to me. For real though. I love nerds of both kinds. One of my friends inspired the placing of candy upon an accent nail. It looked pretty great. The π nails were another idea I got from Pinterest. I had recently spent time memorizing 20 digits of pi, and was therefore somewhat in love. So I got some pretty colors and made some fun, nerdy nails.

Teal dress

Nail designs based on clothing and fashion can be really creative. With more Pinterest exploring, I found this dress that I really liked. I'm sure it's been off the market for quite a while, but teal is one of my favorite colors, and it looked so pretty with the blue. Therefore, I based my nails off of it. I started with a white base and then used a makeup sponge to add smudges of teal. I did blue dots on top instead of as a base because it stood out a little more, and I always enjoy putting all the little dots onto my nails.


A few months later, I decided to try a similar pattern, but with my second favorite color, coral, as the base. I added gold on top at the end to give it a little more dynamic. the dots weren't as perfect as I wanted them to be, but I still really liked the design. The blue specks stood out more with the coral. Both of these were fun to wear around!

Camouflage

Since I live in the country, I have always liked camouflage, even though I don't wear it a lot. It's a great disguise so no one can see my fingers. Camo is always in style, and these nails are great for when you have a desire to hike out in the woods, or just look really cool. It was fun to do all the spots, and the matte finish always looks fantastic. 

Neon hearts

These nails were super fun to do! I got the idea from Pinterest, but it took me a long time to get around to doing them. I finally sat down, picked a bunch of bright colors, and started putting on lots of dots. They made my hands look pretty tan! 

I really like lots of colors. I wear pink shorts and yellow cardigans more often than I wear dark jeans and gray shirts. That's one of the reasons I liked this design so much. My nails really stood out and made me happy.

Worm

At the end of summer, I was out at the edge of a field and found this cool worm. It had such an interesting pattern that I decided to try to replicate it. My design wasn't as bright, but it was weird looking and that was cool.

Polka dots!

I love polka dots! The pink and orange polka dot nails were some of the first I ever did. I had just picked out some new, bright colors for summer and wanted to put them together. They were fun, cute, and colorful.
The black and white polka dot nails turned out better than I had originally hoped. I was inspired by the display of a boutique while Black Friday shopping and decided to transfer the pattern to my nails. The contrast was more noticeable, which I liked a lot. Also, the white dots were bigger, rounder, and lined up diagonally, which gave it a more professional look. They were both fun to wear around.
So there you have it: polka dots for summer and winter.

Fall Flowers

        There are two inspirations for the name of my blog. The first is my namesake, St. Therese the Little Flower. Her father gave her a little white rose from their garden when she announced her intention to join the Carmelite order. She saw it as a symbol of herself, as she was "destined to live in another soil." Thus it became her title. The second reason is quite simply that I love flowers. My first word was "flower," and my enjoyment continued as I got older and began to plant and tend my own garden.
        These nails were simply inspired by my desire to paint some roses. Because it was autumn, however, I went with fall colors: a brown base and some darker reds. The contrast of spring blooms and fall colors is fun, and I think it works. I still get flowers even when the rest of the world is preparing for winter. Plus, I got to try out my new matte top coat.

Galaxy Nails

      Hey all! Because this is my first post, I would like to give you a quick introduction. My name is Emma Therese, and I am a small-town girl from Michigan. I am currently in my junior year at Ave Maria University in Florida, working towards a degree in Communications with a double minor in Literature and Psychology. I am passionate about art in all forms, but I express myself with nail designs. They are fun to do, don’t take much time, and can be easily displayed to the world. I also enjoy tea, flowers, cats, nature, poetry, books, and most importantly, I love my friends and family.

I am excited to start this project. I have been doing nail art for a few years now, and am thrilled to be able to share it with you. This first design I have for show-and-tell is one of my favorites.

      Galaxy nails were (obviously) inspired by the galaxy; specifically seen on my MacBook’s original wallpaper. I love the colors used in this design. There’s a good mix of maroon and blue with a darkness that makes it majestic. They are also easily done with a makeup sponge, and I don’t have to be careful about staying in the lines with this design. Plus, I can incorporate sparkles without looking childish. Galaxy nails 2.0, inspired by Doctor Who, also turned out fantastic. I loved the gold, and I enjoyed doing the little white dots. Nothing beats the original, though. Maroon is my favorite color.

~Emma Therese