Color Combinations

I took a long time for me to pick out this color combination, but I love it!  I decided to make a nail polish swatch book.  It was super fun and it made choosing color combinations easier than going through all my nail polish bottles.

I first used L'Oreal Now You Sea Me and painted on two coats.  Then I painted on a coat of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.  When that was dry I applied squares of masking tape to my nails where I wanted the base color to show through.  I then painted Sally Hansen Espresso over top and immediately removed the tape.  Once all that was dry I applied 2 mm light pink studs from Born Pretty Store with some Dries Instantly.  I finished it off with two coats of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.

Magnetic Nail Polish

Hi!  I have been very busy, so I am happy that I have finally gotten around to painting my nails again!  I tried out my magnetic nail polish for my first time and I am very happy with the result!

I found this Sally Hansen Magnetic nail polish in Kinetic Copper at Target for only a bit over $4!  I had only seen it for around $10 before that.  I followed the directions of the back of the bottle and this was super easy to do and it came out great.  This was my first time ever using magnetic polish.  I applied a coat of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly over top of it.

Half Moons

I have only done one half moon manicure before, so I have been wanting to try another one.  I love the look of half moon manicures!

On my ring fingers and thumbs I applied two coats of Essie Haute as Hello (the pink color) and then a coat of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly to speed up the process.  I applied two coats of Sally Hansen Golden-I to the rest of my nails.  Then I applied a coat of Dries Instantly on them too.  Putting a fast drying top coat on before the stickers helps because the nail color can come off when you peel off the stickers if it is not dry enough.  I then took some hole reinforcer stickers and cut them in half and applied them near my cuticles.  I then painted the opposite color than the base color on each nail and immediately removed the hole reinforcers.  I finished off the manicure with two coats of Dries Instantly.

Sponging For My First Time!

Today I finally tried sponging for my first time.  I had always said that I will never sponge my nails because it makes too much of a mess, but I finally broke down and bought some triangular makeup sponges from Target.  I cut a small piece off mine to do the sponging with:

My first attempt didn't come out that well, but I'll get better with time:

I just sponged my ring fingers and thumbs.  It came out a bit blotchy and I covered almost all the tan on my ring finger.  The tan is Rimmel Caramel Cupcake and the blue is L'Oreal Now You Sea Me.  I painted the very tips of my sponged nails with the nail polish brush to get them more opaque.  I used Sally Hansen Dries Instantly as my top coat.  Applying that soon after sponging smooths it out a little.  Cleaning the nail polish from around my nails after sponging was not a pain.  I just used a Q-tip dipped in polish remover.

I want to add something else quick to this post:

For the past month, possibly, I have been using this on my cuticles at night.  I generally watch some Netflix before I go to bed and I apply lotion to my hands and this cuticle cream to my cuticles and wear cotton gloves.  I didn't expect my cuticles to get any better (they have always grown up with my nails and they would peel and I always have to push them back.)  I still do carefully push my cuticles back with my towel after I get out of the shower, but my cuticles are staying very nice and pushed back lately and I am pretty sure that it is from this cuticle cream.  I highly recommend it to anyone who has annoying cuticle problems.  It has totally fixed mine!  

Silver and Gold

I love incorporating tape into my manicures.  You can do super cool things with such a common item.  Today I used masking tape instead of scotch tape for my first time:

This manicure is based on a manicure that Bubzbeauty did one time.  The first picture was taken under fluorescent lighting and the second was under sunlight.  The silver is Sally Hansen Pumping Iron, the gold is Sally Hansen Golden-I, and the copper dots are Essie Penny Talk.  I used Sally Hansen Dries Instantly as my top coat.

I actually liked using masking tape better than scotch tape.  Masking tape is more flexible and can stick close to your cuticles, avoiding paint going under the tape and you having to clean up with polish remover to create a sharp line.  Scotch tape is just not flexible enough.  I will probably use masking tape from now on.

So, I cut squares of tape and applied a corner to the base of my nail.  my silver polish wasn't opaque enough with just one coat, so I waited around 30 seconds and applied a second coat before immediately removing the tape.  That worked really well and the lines still came out sharp.  I applied another layer of the gold after removing the tape.  One coat looked pretty good, though.  I used a toothpick to make the copper dots around the edges of the silver and gold polish at my cuticle.

Here's just a quick fact about my chevron manicure:  I applied at least 2 coats of topcoat to all my nails.  Some had 3 coats.  The day after I did the manicure, though, edges of the tape were sticking out and were very scratchy.  I had to take it off on the third day that I wore it.  It was a lot of fun to do and very cute, but mine didn't last long.  It was easy to remove, though.  The tape pretty much dissolved when I used nail polish remover.

Scotch Tape Chevron!

Today I FINALLY tried something that I have been wanting to do for a long time now: Chevron using painted scotch tape!  Cutepolish taught me how to do this, but I had never gotten around to doing it.  I am extremely happy with the final result:

The way I did this was the way that Cutepolish did it in her video on Youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QCWF6oK7Wk).  It would take a while to explain, so it would be better for you to watch her video so you can understand how to do it.  I followed all of her directions.

I painted my tape this morning and cut it into strips soon after so it had hours to completely set before I even started my manicure.  The dark blue is Sinful Colors Rain Storm and the brown is Essie Mink Muffs.  My base color is Revlon Dreamer.  I used a very thin tipped pair of scissors to cut off the excess tape.  That made all the difference.  I had tried to use larger scissors, but that was much too difficult.  The top coat that I used was Sally Hansen Dries Instantly, the top coat I always use.  This design was pretty easy, but very time consuming, at least for me.  It was loads of fun, though.

Here's a small update on those Sally Hansen Salon Effects Real Nail Polish Strips:
I actually still have them on my toenails.  I had to put on another coat of my silver polish on the nails that didn't have the strips, but the strips are still totally intact.

Pearls on Purple

I was so excited to test out my 1.5 mm half pearls from Born Pretty Store:

I used Revlon Impulsive as my base color and used Sally Hansen Dries Instantly to apply the pearls and as my top coat.  The pearls are really nice.  The only slightly strange thing that happened was that the top coat removed a small amount of the shimmer on them and dragged it over my entire nails.  I don't really mind because the pearls still look totally fine and the very slight shimmer is pretty and barely noticeable, anyway.  I just found it a little odd.

I couldn't think of anything more creative to do with the pearls, so I just settled with placing them pretty basically.  I cannot seem to get my little old Kodak Easy Share camera to take really nice pictures, especially inside.  I played around with settings and lighting inside, but finally gave up and settled with taking my pictures outside.

Simple Silver Curve

I've been super busy with starting another year of college, but I actually did this nail art a couple days ago:

I painted my nails with Essie Wicked, one of my all time favorite nail polish colors, and then I made a curved stripe with Salon Perfect Silver Plated, a polish with a striping brush.  The lines didn't come out as well as I would have liked, but the thumb came out the best.  I used Sally Hansen Dries Instantly overtop.  It looks fancy-ish, at least.  

I just made a few new purchases from Born Pretty Store.  That is a great website.  I highly recommend it!  You need to make an account with them to shop there, but that's totally worth it.  Their prices are super and they sell all manner of nail art equipment and more!  All shipping is free!  Depending on where you live, items can take a very long time to reach you.  What I just ordered came from Hong Kong, so it took at least a couple weeks to reach me.  I ordered some 1.5 mm half pearls and some pink 2 mm studs.  I am so excited to use them!