Happy New Years!

To ring in 2013, I took to Google to find some ideas for some nail designs! What I found was something from Robin Moses (the link takes you to her youtube tutorial). I didn't follow this exactly, and mine didn't come out nearly as awesome as hers, but I used her idea for inspiration :)

After my Beauty Secrets base coat, I put on two coats of Finger Paints Cerulean Seascape (such a pretty blue!). Then, to do the confetti swirlies, I used Nina Caribbean Blue and then for the lighter color I mixed that Caribbean Blue with Finger Paints Hip Hip Hue-Ray! I then used a thin brush to make the curlicues and squiggles, later adding a touch of sparkly silver to some. I then used the Hip Hip Hue-Ray! to draw the champagne glasses. The champagne itself was done with Orly Glitz with a bit of Orly Too Fab on top, since it has big glitter pieces it could give the effect of the champagne being bubbly :)

On the other hand, I did the ball drop. I did this with a large dotting tool and my sparkly silver polish (one by Kiss Nail Art Paints). I did a bunch of dots to make up a large circle, and then outlined the whole thing with Nina Black. To finish it all off, I used Finger Paints Sparkle Top Coat, which is perfect for sparkly confetti!!

I still need to just clean up the edges around the nails, but I'm pretty happy with them! Have a Happy New Year!

Themed Christmas Nails!!

So, I thought I'd have some fun with nail designs for Christmas! My friend Emily was flying home to southern California for the holiday, so I thought it would be cute to do some Christmas palm trees for a SoCal Christmas!!

To start with, after a Beauty Secrets base coat, I did two coat of China Glaze For Audrey. On one thumb, I did one vertical line of Finger Paints Bronze Sculpture, and on the other thumb I did two vertical lines of the same color bending toward each other. These were the trunks of the palm trees. Then I used Finger Paints Sketch N Etch to draw in the leaves of the trees and outlined them with Nina Black and a very thin brush. I also used the thin brush and the black to do diagonal lines down the trunks of the trees which would turn into light strings. Under the trees, I painted a couple presents just by doing small squares in one color and then painting a thin ribbon on them. On the rest of her nails, since they were short, I just did the same Christmas Lights pattern that I've outlined in a previous blog, and then did tiny dots of colors down the palm trees as lights as well.

And there you go! A SoCal Christmas!

No, for my own nails, since I'm spending the holiday at home with family, I wanted to do a New Mexico Christmas! Which means chili ristras and adobe buildings and snow!

I also started out with China Glaze For Audrey (isn't it just the perfect color for a blue sky??). Then I used Finger Paints Hip Hip Hue-Ray (you can use any white polish) and a small piece of a make-up sponge. Using tweezers to hold the piece of sponge, I dipped it in the white polish and dabbed it along the tips of my nails to give the impression of snow on the ground.

Then I used Sinful Colors Under 18 and a small flat brush to draw chili ristras on every other nail. I did this starting at the top of the ristra (at the base of the nail) and building downwards with short strokes so that individual chilies could be seen.

 I then used Nina Black and a thin brush to outline the individual chilies, and voila! Classic New Mexican chili ristras!

 The next step was to make the adobe buildings. For this, I mixed together Nina Shiny Penny and Finger Paints Bronze Sculpture. They didn't really actually mix, but it worked well enough! I then used a small flat brush to paint a rectangle along the base of the snow, and then a smaller rectangle on top of that. I outlined each with black and then added a door and some wooden posts using the Bronze Sculpture and a small brush and small dotting tool.

I then used the sponge to dab a little more snow along the front base of the buildings, like it had recently built up, as well as a tiny bit on the roofs. (I'm still not sure if I shoulda added the snow to the roofs but oh well). I then decided I wanted falling snow, so using a tiny dotting tool, I made several small white dots and then, after they had mostly dried, I did a coat of my Beauty Secrets top coat, going from tip to base, to drag the tops of the dots a little to make them look like they were falling. 

 I think I should've waited a little longer before adding the falling snow 'cuz some of the other colors dragged with the top coat as well, but you live, you learn!! Anyways, hope you enjoyed my themed Christmas nails!!

Happy Holidays!

Sparkle Drips

So, I felt like something a little simpler than what I've done recently. I picked up some new polishes at the store and this was the perfect opportunity to use them!

First, after my Beauty Secrets Base Coat, I put on a couple coats of Finger Paints A Heart For Art on all fingers except my ring fingers. For those nails, I put on a couple coats of Finger Paints Hue Left A Message? (seriously... who comes up with these names? LOL!).

I left it like that for a couple days, then, just as the tips were starting to wear or chip, I decided to add a little bit of flair. On the A Heart For Art nails, I wanted to make some drips of sparkle with the Hue Left A Message? polish. Using the brush that came with the bottle, I made one or two drops of polish toward the tip, then filled in along the top. This made it looks like I was dripping the polish down my nail.

The end result is still simple, but with a slight kick of glitter-flair! ;)

Christmas Lights!

So, when I was trying to think of new ideas for holiday nails, I thought of Christmas lights! All the houses in town are all lit up in brilliant colors, why not my nails??

So, after my Beauty Secrets base coat, I did a coat of China Glaze For Audrey. And then I used a striping brush to do a stripe of Finger Paints Sketch N Etch on each nail that would serve as my string for lights.

Then, I'm thinking that the light bulbs have an interesting shape to them. How do I recreate that shape? So what I did was use two different sizes of dotting tools. The larger dotter was used as the fatter, base end of the light bulb, and the smaller dotter was used as the thinner end... and then I just did my best to fill in the shape to make it more tear-dropped.

The two sizes of dotting tools I used

The different colors of polishes I used for the lights are::

Sinful Colors Kissy

Orly Hook Up

Sinful Colors Under 18

Finger Paints Cerulean Seascape

Nina Caribbean Blue

Finger Paints Be A Pal-Ette

Then, I had been thinking of trying to do a snow effect. I considered using the trick I've done in the past that involves using a tiny dotting tool with a white polish. Then, before the dots are fully dry, I'd put on a top coat but applying from the tip to the base so that the dots drag toward the base just a little bit to give it the effect of movement like the snow was falling.

BUT, I was at Sally's today and was drawn to a bottle of Finger Paints Sparkle Top Coat, and so figured I'd give that a try. It doesn't really look like snow falling, but it gives a nice festive feel to it!

And thus, my Christmas Lights nails are complete!!

Holiday Nails

For the upcoming holidays, I thought it'd be cute to do my nails like a present! I wanted to make a ribbon across my nails with a bow on one of them. They turned out pretty well for a first attempt!
(PS, I took step-by-step pictures for this design. I'll leave out some of the pics I used and try to keep it brief, but if you wanna see all of them I can add them later!)

So, after a Beauty Secrets base coat, I did two coats of Nina Love Struck which is a nice red. One coat leaves the color really bright, so I did a second coat to make it a little darker. (Note: the flash on my camera makes it look pretty bright anyways :P)

My next step was to use a nice thin-ish brush (not a striping brush, but much thinner than the one in the bottle) with Finger Paints Sketch N Etch to draw a ribbon across some nails. On one nail, I drew a bow. To do this, I made several little loops in a circle, with a couple tails coming out of it. With just the green, it looks pretty much like just a blob, but after the next step it'll look much better!

Next, I used Orly Glitz and a striping brush to line the outsides of the ribbon in gold. I also did my best to outline the individual loops of the bow. Next time I might try a thinner brush for the bow so it doesn't look so messy! The one on my right hand is even messier since I was drawing with my left hand and I haven't quite mastered that skill yet

To finish it off, I used Orly Too Fab with a dotting tool to add a few specks of gold glitter to the centers of the bows and around the ribbons. And, done! I think next time I'll use a brighter, more sparkly gold instead of the Glitz. But not too shabby for another idea I had pictured in my head that I had to try!

Gothic Flowers

So, today I picked up a couple new colors, mostly some grays and it made me think of this design from robinmosesnailart I stumbled across on youtube in the past.
As it turns out, the colors aren't the same, or, as I would find out, really anywhere close to what she uses lol! And I am no where near as neat and talented as she is so my version ended up looking sloppy compared to hers, but, still, it looks kinda cool :)

First, I started out with my Beauty Secrets Base Coat, and then I put on a coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust because I was planning on it being more along the lines of a french tip so I was gonna do my usual trick with the sparkle under the plain polish. Instead of putting my plain polish over the Fairy Dust, I put on a coat of Sally Hansen Platinum, which is a opalescent white polish that has kinduva pink sheen to it. Then, since I'm not as talented as robinmosesnailart at doing a gradient by hand, I used my sponge technique.

My colors were:
Sinful Colors Slate
Sinful Colors Winter Wonder
Nina Black

Now, I wanted the tips to be deep black so I didn't use the sponge very many times and then started adding the colors with the normal brushes. It took some playing around, and I don't think the end results were anywhere close to perfect, but I figured they would be good enough since I was going to be drawing over them.

The next steps were close to the video tutorial. I used my Nina Black to do some stripes up from the base and some leaves, then I used Sinful Colors Under 18 to draw my flower petals. I then used China Glaze Ruby Pumps to add a little of a deeper red and some glitter to the inside of the petals. The tutorial used silver polish to accent but I didn't have any regular silver, so I used white. I used a tiny dotting tool to put white dots in the middle of each flower as well as a few dotted accents on the edges.

Again, they don't look nearly as good as the model I was going off of, but they still look pretty cool!!
:)

Marbled French Tip

So, I had about 15 minutes of free time on Wednesday and thought I'd try to do a quick manicure. I figured a french tip would be quick and easy, but at the same time I wanted to dress it up a bit. So, while the white polish was still wet, I used a teeny tiny dotting tool (a toothpick would probably work) and put 3 black dots on the tip of the nail. Using that dotting tool, I just swirled the black and white polishes together. You don't want to swirl too much, 'cuz then you just end up with a gray french tip! If things were unbalanced or mixed a little too much, just put another dot of black or white and try again! If you end up with any places that the polish has been wiped away all together by your dotting tool, just dip it in the white or black and fill in the spots where needed. 

Super easy! And, like I said, since this was a *VERY* quick manicure, it didn't come out perfect. If I had had more time, I would've taken a bit more care but, oh well!

Feeling Plaid

I wasn't quite sure what pattern I wanted to do last night, so I went cruising on the internet to get some ideas. I remembered looking at some plaid designs in the past so I did a search on plaid nail art and stumbled across a tutorial from meliney that had a nice and easy way of doing an argyle/plaid design.

For my base color, I used Finger Paints Bronze Sculpture. Then for the diamonds I used Finger Paints Sketch N Etch. For the first lines that went through the center of the diamonds, I used Orly Glitz. Then I went one step beyond the tutorial and added another stripe of China Glaze Ruby Pumps. 

Now, when you pile up colors like this, the polish tends to be a little uneven and even kinda bumpy. But I think it still turned out really cool :)

Catching Up with Stripes :)

Since I have another spare moment, I figured I'd share a couple designs that I've done in the past.
This first design was one that I did last spring for my first choir concert with the local chorale, and it was my first concert in a couple years, so I was quite excited for it :)

It's really simple, but it was a bit difficult! I painted my nails white, and then using a very thin striping brush, I drew 5 parallel lines in black. Then, using a dotting tools, I dotted myself a couple notes, using the brush to finish them off. I also did a treble clef on my thumb and base clef on my other thumb (other hand not pictured). Since I did this all free hand, it wasn't perfect, but it was pretty damn close and I was excited about it!!
I'm thinking of doing this again for my next concert in a couple weeks :)

This next design is real basic. This last August I was able to score some tickets to a Rockies game and figured I would do my nails for the event. I painted my nails with Sally Hansen Purple Pizzazz, then did a diagonal stripe of sparkly silver. I then put a stripe of black both above and below the silver, trying to keep the spacing even. Simply supporting the Rockies!

For this next stripy share, again it's very basic. Starting around the middle of my nail (granted, my nails were quite long at this point so I had lots of room to go on) I painted my nail Orly Hook Up at an angle and all the way to the tip. After that dried, I did the same with Orly Glitz, leaving a little bit of the Hook Up visible. I continued doing the same thing with Nina Burnished Bronze, Nina Candi Apple, and Nina Love Struck. To top it all off, I put a dot of Sally Hansen Golden-I on the fat end of the Love Struck. It looks kinda like a retro version of a french tip... lol

For my last stripy share, some tiger stripes!! So, I was actually inspired to do these when my puppy dog was missing, since she wears a pink collar with tiger stripes on it. She was missing 6.5 days and to help me stay calm and not too depressed, I did my nails in tribute to her. Here's a pic of my baby girl, Daenerys (Dany), below!

Anyways, I looked up a couple tutorials for tiger stripes on youtube. There are a handful out there, and I kinda combined some techniques from two or three different videos. This pic below was my first attempt which looks a little messy, so I redid it better a second time but did not take a picture. Anyways, I used a nail polish from MAC called Steamy and a striping brush with black for the stripes. The trick is to do a little flick at the end of the stripe :)

So, the moral of the story is: A good striping brush goes a long way!! :)

Civil War Day!!!

I am a proud Alum from Oregon State University, and today was our Civil War football game against our long-time rivals from University of Oregon. Although my OSU Beavers fell short in the game (truthfully and sadly, they were looking very sloppy by the end), my nails were still awesome!!!

 My left hand, with the mascot Benny Beaver (real picture below) on my thumb :)

My right hand. A little messier since I had to draw/write with my left hand. 

First I did a base coat of white. Then, using a variety of different brushes, I used Finger Paints Bronze Sculpture for the majority of Benny, outlined him in Nina Black and a spot or two of Nina Shiny Penny, and then a final outline of Nina Burnished Bronze. For all the letters I used the Nina Burnished Bronze and outlined in the Nina Black. 

So, although we lost the game, my nails are a win :)

In the past, I've done a much more simple design: marbling. I painted my nails black, and while the polish was still wet, I used a medium sized dotting tool to put a couple dots of orange on my nail. Then, using the dotting tool, I just did a little swirling action and it came out pretty cool looking :) I also did one nail the opposite.

Thanksgiving Nails

So, when I was thinking about doing something Thanksgiving themed, I knew for sure that I did NOT want little turkeys on my nails. I've also already done fall colors and leaves. So, since I was still in the mood to play with gradients, I thought I'd try something a little different...

Over the summer, I saw something on pinterest that I really wanted to try. You paint your nails bright, vibrant, even neon colors. Then, using striping tape (I found mine on Amazon for maybe $5), stripe designs on your nails. Stripes, diagonals, Xs, whatever. Then, you paint over them with a thick layer of black polish and pull the striping tape off. What you'll have left is a pretty cool effect!!

This was only my first attempt. Since then I got a little better at it lol :)

So, remembering that technique, and wanting to do fall colors in gradients, a fun idea was born!!

First, after the Beauty Secrets Base Coat of course, I painted my nails Sally Hansen Golden-I. Then, to my dismay, I couldn't find my striping tapes!! So, believe it or not, I used regular ol' scotch tape! I would tear off a piece, and then use scissors to cut a really thin strip. I could make them taper to a point, or just put one end of tape on my nail... whatever I felt like! Maybe someday I'll try cutting wiggles or something lol.

Then, I wanted to put my gradient colors in the right order. The colors I picked were:
OPI Bogota Blackberry
Nina Candi Apple
Nina Shiny Penny
Finger Paints Bronze Sculpture

I put them in that order for a reason... I wanted the darker colors on the outside and the lighter colors on the inside. Why, you say? Because I wanted to do a VERTICAL gradient! So going from left to right, it goes from the Bronze Sculpture to the Bogota Blackberry.

Then I simply pulled off the tape and voila!! Now, on one nail some of the Golden-I came up with the tape, but it was an easy fix with a small brush. I have a lot of pictures because it was difficult to really capture the subtle gradient.

 From the brown side

 From the red side

You can kinda see the transition between colors here. Also can see what I mean about the tapered points and blunt ends.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Fun With Sponges!!

So, I introduced one way to use a make-up sponge with my Snow Day nails in my last post. That technique can be used with a variety of colors for all sorts of fun! The gradience always looks super cool on it's own, or as a base for other designs!
Here is the sponge for the purple nails that I did for my friend this past week.

And below is the result! Since her nails are a little on the short side, I only used 4 colors: 

China Glaze VIII

Finger Paints Be A Pal-ette

China Glaze Spontaneous

Nina Lilac-ing Discipline

I then put China Glaze Fairy Dust on top and used a sparkly silver to do a little flourish on each ring finger nail. 

Here's something similar that I did on my own nails a long while ago using shades of blue (it may take some research to remember exactly which colors!):

And below is another gradience using oranges and golds, and I eventually put Orly Too Fab over the top to add some glitter:

Below is one that I did a while ago that I think is still one of my favorites! I'm going to take a guess on what colors I used:

Sally Hansen Golden-I

Orly Glitz

Orly Hook up (maybe?)

Nina Shiny Penny

Finger Paints Bronze Sculpture

Orly Too Fab over the top

I then used Nina Black to draw in some leaves. I did some searches on youtube and found a couple different tutorials with different leaf designs that I combined. I'll try and look up which ones I used.

Now, that's a lot of cool stuff you can do using the same technique! What about other uses for the make up sponge?? Check out this tutorial to make a galaxy design that's out of this world! (hehe): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EMgt4_jW5U
I followed this tutorial almost exactly. I had to make some slight adjustments on the colors used, but I followed the same steps! You just tear off a small piece of sponge, dip it in your color, and use that to dab the polish onto your nail in the design!

 I'm sure there are other ways to use a sponge to have some fun with your polish, and when I know more I will certainly pass that info on!!

Enjoy :)