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 :)

Snow Day!!

So, in celebration of my first snow day (that's right, my class on Sunday was cancelled due to the winter wonderland outside!), I did snow day nails!
I'm actually pretty proud of this design and *LOVE* how it turned out! And it's actually REALLY easy!! And, look how pretty!!

So, for this design all you need is a make-up sponge (like those little wedges), a piece of aluminum foil, and a small dotting tool. If you don't have a dotting tool, a toothpick would work just as well for this one.
So, your first step is, obviously, to put on a base coat! I always use Beauty Secrets Base Coat. Then you're gonna take your make-up sponge and starting at the tip, put a stripe of each color going from darkest to lightest. The polishes and the order that I used are::

Nina Black
China Glaze First Mate
Finger Paints Cerulean Escape
Nina Caribbean Blue
Sally Hansen Frozen Solid (this one is real sheer so I actually overlapped almost all of it with the neighboring colors
White

After you have your polish on your sponge, dab the sponge on the aluminum foil to get rid of some of the excess.

Then, dab onto your nails! You repeat this step over and over and over again and the polish will slowly build up on your nail and look super cool! I've used this technique several times with different colors and different designs, and I love it every time! I can't find the video tutorial where I first discovered this technique, but it's similar to this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbOhpugJlkk

After I have enough color on my nails and it's dry, I used China Glaze Fairy Dust just at the base where the color is darkest. This gave the impression of a starry night :). Then I used my dotting tool to add dots of white to be my snowflakes. Afterwards, before the white dots were fully dry, I put on my Beauty Secrets Top Coat. I applied it moving from the tip to the base, and since the dots weren't absolutely dry, they smeared just a little bit. This little smear at the top gives the impression of movement, like the snow is falling!!

I really love how these turned out!! And with the white at the tip, it looks like the snow is already piling up! So those are my Snow Day Nails!!
Enjoy!!

Some Things Don't Turn Out How You Think...

So, sometimes my brilliant ideas look wonderful in my head, but then just don't turn out quite right when I try to do them. Here is my most recent example::
So I really liked the idea of the one-stroke technique. It's where you use a thin flat brush, put one color on one corner and a second color on the other corner, then you sweep it into a design and it incorporates both colors and looks super cool. All the tutorials online use acrylic paints, but since I don't have any acrylic paints, I used nail polish.

Well, now it's obvious why they use acrylics instead of finger nail polish on finger nails!

So... it REALLY didn't turn out how I imagined it.... It just kinda looks like a mess!! And, lesson learned!!

Fun with Polka Dots!

So, I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge some of the wonderful tools that make all these designs possible! For this design, which is pretty basic, I used an assortment of dotting tools shown below.

I actually got these tools off Amazon for only, like, $2 + shipping!! At that price, I couldn't resist! Each of the 5 tools is double sided, so there's 10 different sizes of dotting tools!! 

Anyways, so for the design I had in mind, I wanted to start with large dots at the base and work my way toward the tip, having the dots get smaller and smaller as I go. Then I figured it'd be fun to have the color change from darker to lighter as well. Since this was on Saturday when my dear old Oregon State Beavers were playing, I wanted to do a black-to-orange look.

I started with the same shimmery base that I usually do instead of just a plain base, and then I used Nina Black, Finger Paints Bronze Sculpture, Nina Shiny Penny, Nina Burnished Bronze, and Sally Hansen Hard to Get. For the tiny dots at the end that look kinda pinkish, I mixed a little white polish with the Hard to Get. I wanted just a little lighter, but it ended up kinda pink instead... oh well!

This didn't come out quite as I envisioned so I may need to try it again in the future. I have varying shades of purples and blues, so I might try one of those next time... Or maybe do an actual base color... Hmm...

Laters!

Elegant Black French Tip

So today I want to share a design I'm actually proud of because it came from my own brain. I'm sure it's nothing revolutionary and has been done before, but it wasn't something I looked up, it was just something I did, so I count it!!

First off, I want to share a little something extra that I like to do for some french tips or other designs where the base/background of the nail isn't colored. 

First, I start with a base coat. I use Beauty Secrets.

Then, I put on a coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust to give some sparkle.

Then, I put on a coat of Nina French Ivory. This is the key. This is what I use when I'm doing any french tips, but since there's a layer of Fairy Dust UNDERNEATH it, it tones down the sparkle to make it so that there's just a little shimmer. 

 This doesn't picture very well, but you can kinda see what I mean. That way, you're starting with a clean-looking nail with just a little bit of shimmer!
For the french tip, I used Nina Black. Then, using a dotting tool, I put dots along the border between the black and the rest of the nail. Originally, I did all nails except my ring finger nails dotted with Sally Hansen Platinum. My ring finger nails I dotted with China Glaze Exceptionally Gifted. After a day, I went over all the dots with Exceptionally Gifted.

I wanted to use opalescent-ish polishes for the dots to give them the look of pearls. This is a picture of the first time I did this. Below I have what I did just tonight. I did everything the same, except instead of black, I used Finger Paints Be A Pal-ette which is a nice, dark, shimmery purple! :)

(a yellow polish stained my nails a while back so that's what that yellowish discoloration is :P)

Enjoy!