Oceany

Here's a manicure that I created a few months before I started my blog:

From my thumb to my ring finger, I used Essie Borrowed & Blue (I also used that on my pinkie), Essie Chinchilly, Essie Mink Muffs, and Essie Da Bush.  I used a dotting tool to make the starfish.  The purple ones are Revlon Impulsive and the coral ones are Essie Haute as Hello.

I have so many pictures of old manicures that I did, but, sadly, the majority of them were taken with my phone.  The camera on that only has 2 mega pixels, so the quality is not very good.

Statue of Liberty

So, tomorrow I am super excited to visit the Statue of Liberty.  I got these multicultural nail stickers from Walmart a while ago and have been looking forward to wearing them.  I bought the bluey-green nail polish at Walmart today, specifically for this manicure.  I know it's not the exact color of the Statue of Liberty, but I am happy with it:

I painted my ring fingers and thumbs with Rimmel Mintilicious and the other nails with Essie Penny Talk.  I got the 2 mm rhinestones from Amazon.  They came in a set of 12 colors and were only a few dollars.  I stuck them on with Sally Hansen Dries Instantly and then painted that over top of all my nails.  I hope everyone has a great weekend!  If you ever have any suggestions for manicures, feel free to leave a comment!

Candy Corn & Black+White

I decided to do my nails very festively today:

I will start with the black and white nails.  My inspiration for these is black and white movies.  I know, they don't look like movies...but they are black, white, and grey.  ; )  I guess it sort of looks like static.  I used Essie Chinchilly as my base color and put a coat of Claire's splatter effect glitter on top.  I then applied a coat of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.

For the candy corn nails I first painted on two coats of Avon Sunshine (the yellow) by my cuticles.  I didn't even bother painting that to the tips of my nails because I was going to cover them with other colors.  When the yellow was dry I took a small nail art brush and painted on the orange stripe in the center with NYC Spring Street.  I then used the same nail art brush and painted on the white tips with Sally Hansen Hard to Get.  Then, when that was all dry, I applied two coats of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.

I cleaned up the small bit of polish that got on my skin with a nail art brush dipped in pure acetone.

Sugar Skulls

So, I decided to be a little festive and attempted to recreate Cutepolish's Sugar Skull manicure (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLMTXjJyxDU).  Mine did not come out nearly as nice as hers, but I had fun with it.

I painted two coats of Rimmel Hot Chilli Pepper on my thumb, ring finger, and pinkie.  On my pointer and middle I painted two coats of Sally Hansen Hard to Get.  I attempted to draw flowers on my pink nails with a black and a metallic light blue gel pen, but they didn't come out that well and my camera didn't photograph them clearly.  I applied a coat of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly over top.  For the sugar skulls I followed Cutepolish's directions.  I have very small nails, so designs like this are hard for me.  I never have enough room and I forget to make things extra small.  The black I used was Sally Hansen Black Out.  I put multicolored dots around the eye sockets.  The tools I used to do all this were a black striper (for the line separating the upper and lower teeth) and a couple dotting tools.  As always, I used two coats of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly when everything was dry.

Patriotic Nails

This design is actually from this past Fourth of July.  I know it is a little off season, but you can be patriotic any time, right?  =)

On all my nails but my ring fingers, I first painted on two coats of Sally Hansen White On.  I then applied a coat of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.  When that was dry I put on a few pieces of striping tape and painted over with Rimmel Stiletto Red and then immediately removed the tape.  After all that was dry I put on a coat of Dries Instantly.  For my ring finger I painted on Rimmel Blue Eyed Girl.  I then put on rows of 1.5 mm silver studs from Born Pretty Store.  I finished that off with a couple coats of Dries Instantly.  This manicure is modeled after The Nailasaurus's Fourth of July nail art, which this link will bring you to:  http://www.thenailasaurus.com/2013/07/independence-day-nail-art.html

Sally Hansen Salon Effects II & Top Coat Review

So, today I decided to do something a little boring.  I have a lot of stuff to do, so I didn't want something that would take multiple steps and take a while to dry.  So, I decided to try out some more Sally Hansen Salon Effects Real Nail Polish Strips.  This time I used Tri-Bal It On:

 I like this print.  I also got this package for only $3 from "Five Below."  I applied two coats of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly over top of the strips.  

If you're looking for a great top coat, you should really try Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.  It really does dry super fast.  It dries completely in literally a couple minutes and it only costs around $3 at Walmart.  My sheets have never left prints in it at night. 

I suppose I am not the best expert on top coats, though, since I have only used four different top coats since I got into doing my nails.  The first was Sally Hansen Diamond Shine Base & Top Coat.  That worked well, I think.  That was the first top coat that I had ever used, though, so I can't really remember how fast it dried or anything.  I do remember it was shiny and strong, though.  I used up the bottle, so I guess I liked it. 

The second top coat I used was Rimmel Base Coat Top Coat Pro.  I really liked that, but I didn't have much to compare it to.  I did notice that I always woke up with sheet prints, though.  At the time, I thought that was normal with nail polishes.

The third top coat I tried was Sally Hansen Strengthening top coat.  That worked well, but didn't dry nearly as fast as Dries Instantly.

So, after this tiring review, I shall conclude that I find Dries Instantly to be the best out of all these.  If you're looking for a good, inexpensive top coat, this is it!

Star Trek Uniform Shirts

I am a bit of a Trekkie, so I really enjoy creating Star Trek nail art.  I saw a picture on Pinterest and really liked the design, so I recreated it on my nails:

I painted 2 coats of base color on all my nails.  On my thumbs I painted Sally Hansen Black Out; on my index fingers I painted Avon Sunshine; on my middle fingers I painted Covergirl Out of the Blue; and on my ring fingers and pinkies I painted Rimmel Stiletto Red.  After all that was dry I painted on a coat of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly and then put strips of masking tape a little away from the tips of my nails so that I could achieve a clean black tip.

As soon as I painted on the black, I removed the tape.  Then I used a small nail art brush and painted on the black at my cuticles, which is supposed to look like the collars of the Star Trek uniform shirts.  (I used Black Out for all black details.)  After painting on the black details I cleaned up around my nails with a nail art brush dipped in acetone.  Then I used a nail art brush dipped in Sally Hansen Pumping Iron to add the Star Trek insignias.  Here's the easiest way to draw these:

After step 3, fill in the center with your color.  I have made Star Trek insignias on my nails multiple times now and this is the easiest way, in my opinion, to go about it.  I finished off this manicure with two coats of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly, which is my favorite top coat, as you have probably noticed.  I have been through many bottles of it.  "Live long and prosper."  ; )  

Fimo Canes

I have been seeing people using fimo canes on their nails for years, but I had never wanted to buy them.  But, when I found out that they were inexpensive and you can cut them thin so they are not too annoying on your nails, I decided to try them.  I got a pack of 100 from Amazon for only around $6.  I still need to get better at cutting them, but they're pretty cute.  I wouldn't use these that often, but they're nice to have.

I didn't cut them quite as thin as I would have liked, but the overall result is cute.  I used Rimmel Steel Grey as my base color and finished off the entire manicure with plenty of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.

White Roses

Today I decided to stamp my nails.  They came out so well!

I first painted on two coats of Rimmel Black Satin.  I let that dry for a while and them I began stamping.  I used my Bundle Monster Plate BM323 and selected the rose pattern.  I have an old white polish, Sally Hansen White On, that got very thick.  That worked perfectly.  With stamping, thick polishes work better.

After I stamped all my nails I cleaned up around my cuticles with a Q-tip dipped in pure acetone.  I had never used pure acetone before, but it worked so much better than nail polish remover with acetone.  I didn't need to rub my skin to get the paint off.  The acetone took it off effortlessly.

I let the stamped images dry for a long time and then applied two coats of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.  The trick to not smudging the images is letting them dry for a long time and using a top coat with a thick consistency.  Thin top coats do not provide a barrier between the nail and the brush.  If you use a thick top coat, though, and make sure you have a lot on the brush and apply it very lightly to your nails, the design will remain intact.  When I first buy Dries Instantly, it is pretty thin, but when it gets a little older it becomes thick enough to paint over designs.