Earthy with Triangles

Okay guys, I am sure you can notice that I am not the most creative person when it comes to titles.  I am the same way with college essays.  Haha!  So, I actually have a few manicures piled up so I can blog even when I am too busy to paint my nails, which hasn't really been happening lately. =)  I was planning on posting this one later, but I love it so much and am super excited about it.  I currently have this on my nails:

I started out with a base coat of Sally Hansen Double Duty.  I then painted two coats of each color onto my nails.  On my ring fingers and thumbs I used Essie Mink Muffs; on my pointers I used Sally Hansen Espresso; Essie Da Bush (I LOVE that name!) on my middle fingers; and Essie Borrowed & Blue on my pinkies.  I love earthy color combinations.  Color combinations can really make a manicure interesting, even if the designs aren't too complicated.  I really like simple, striking manicures.

After putting on all of my colors, I applied a coat of Seche Vite so the tape wouldn't pull up my color.  For the little triangles at my cuticles, I used Essie Wicked (one of my favorite polishes.)  To create the triangles, I took two thin strips of scotch tape and overlapped the ends so they formed a narrow "V" shape.  I then put the hollow of the "V" where I wanted the dark red triangles to be.  Once I painted on my color, I quickly removed the tape.  To finish off the manicure, I applied two coats of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.  There are a lot of bubbles in the manicure because I need a new bottle of Dries Instantly.  Mine is really thick and gloopy.  It is too bad that you can only use half of the bottle before throwing it out.  I am loving the length of my nails at the moment.  I can't have them too long because then they drive me crazy.  I have been putting up with them well this time, though.  =)   I hope you like this manicure!  

Maroon Paisley

This didn't turn out as neatly as I had wanted, but I still like the effect:

I started out with a base coat of Sally Hansen Double Duty.  Then I applied two coats of Rimmel Caramel Cupcake.  After that, I stamped on the paisley pattern from Bundle Monster's plate BM-315 with Essie Wicked as my color.  I made sure to not stamp on the paint the same on each nail because I wanted the paisley designs to be facing different ways.  It smudged a little when I stamped, but it looks okay, I think.  I then applied a coat of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly and then a coat of NYC Matte Me Crazy for the matte effect.

If any of you have any suggestions or comments for me, feel free to leave a comment!  I would love to hear from you!  Suggestions on ways to make this blog more interesting to you would be greatly appreciated!  And any time you have nail art ideas or questions, leave a comment!  =)  

Galaxy and Earth Nails

I have always LOVED the galaxy nails that The Nailasaurus has created.  She has created multiple galaxy manicures, and I decided to try it out on my best friend.  I loosely followed The Nailasaurus's tutorial (http://www.thenailasaurus.com/2013/07/galaxy-nail-art-tutorial.html).  I also loved a picture I saw on Pinterest of an amazing earth manicure (http://media2.onsugar.com/files/2013/03/12/6/1844/18445232/9f3f8c9ce83394b9_DSCN8471ala.jpg).  So, here is what I created on my friend's nails:

  

My friend started out by painting two coats of Sally Hansen Black Out on all of her nails.  Then she applied a coat of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.  After that, I did the detailing.  I painted a blue partial earth shape on the tips of her ring fingernails using a flat nail art brush with Essie Borrowed & Blue.  (The trick to putting paint on another brush is to make sure the new brush is saturated in the paint, just like the brush that comes in the bottle is.  This will help you to avoid smudging the polish underneath and will help you to get a smooth, non-streaky covering of polish.)   Then I began the galaxies on all her other nails.  To create the galaxies, I used many colors and sponged them on using tiny pieces of sponge that I held in tweezers:

 Above are all of the polishes I used for this manicure.

I used a different piece of sponge for each color and I made sure I dabbed the sponge on a paper before applying it to her nails to avoid sponging on too much paint.  After making all of the galaxies, I used a dotting tool to dot on differently shaped stars with Sally Hansen Celeb City.  After the blue earths were dry, I mixed together a little green and white polish to make an even lighter green.  I then applied light blotches using a small nail art brush.  I just winged the shapes of the continents and it came out fine.  At the end, my friend suggested that I put some glitter over the black above the earths, so I carefully applied Sally Hansen Diamonds.  To finish off the manicure, I applied two coats of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.

Sea Creature Inspired

There was a sale at Walmart for two Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear polishes for $5!  I bought two polishes that I thought would go great together.  I wanted to do a mermaid design, or something oceany.  It turned out to look a bit like fish scales:

I started out with a base of Sally Hansen Double Duty (I can't compare this to other base coats--except for that Essie one--because I haven't tried any others.  This definitely prevents staining better than using no base coat, though!)  I then painted on two coats of Sally Hansen Jazzy Jade (one of my new polishes.  I don't usually buy shimmery polishes, but this one is only slightly shimmery and I love the aqua color!)  Then I used the diamond pattern on Bundle Monster plate BM-315.  My stamping color is Essie Go Overboard.

After that was dry, I dabbed on a coat of Sally Hansen Sea-ing Stars (my other new polish.)  This is a very pretty, blue tinted glitter polish with teeny and slightly bigger than teeny iridescent glitter.  I dabbed it on to avoid smudging my stamped pattern and because I wanted to make sure I had enough glitter pieces on my nails.  (This one has pretty fine glitter, so you don't really NEED to pat this on.  That's the technique for large glitter.)  I then applied 1.5 mm half pearls onto the wet glitter polish on my ring fingers and thumbs.  I finished off the manicure with two coats of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.

Shamrocks!

I wanted to get on the bandwagon and make some Saint Patty's Day nail art.  My right hand came out better than my left hand this time, so I have included a picture of each hand:

I started out with a base coat of Sally Hansen Double Duty.  Then I applied two coats of Revlon Rain Forest.  When that was dry, I carefully painted on a coat of Nicole Glitter in my Stocking so that some green near my cuticles was left uncovered.  I had never done this before, but this was surprisingly easy to do!  I think it depends on how thick or thin the polish you are putting on top is, and what the brush of the top polish is like.  This glitter is thick, so it didn't run anywhere, and the brush is pretty good.

For the shamrocks, I used NYC High Line Green.  I used a dotting tool to make three hearts into the shape of a shamrock.  I got better at the technique and placement by the time I put them on my right hand with my left hand (which is my non-dominant hand), so that it why I included a picture of both.  The way I made these was by dragging the dotting tool lightly for each stroke, so it took me two strokes to make each heart shape.  I finished this manicure off with two coats of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.  The glitter is scratchy, so I also wrapped the tips, which means that I glided the top coat over the very tips of my nails.  
Happy Saint Patty's Day to anybody who celebrates it!  I don't do much for the holiday, but I will probably have some corned beef, cabbage, and Irish soda bread.   =)

Splattered Nails

I LOVE this splatter effect glitter I got one time!

I started out with a coat of Sally Hansen Double Duty.  Then I pained on two coats of Essie Borrowed & Blue.  After that was dry, I painted on a coat of Claire's Splatter (the glitter.)  The best way to apply a glitter polish is to dab it on and then spread it out.  This allows you to apply more pieces of glitter without accidentally streaking the paint underneath from going over with the brush repeatedly.  I finished off with two coats of Seche Vite.
I did this manicure two days ago and have not done anything too rough with my hands, but it has already chipped in a few spots.  I did not notice any shrinking this time, but Dries Instantly holds up better for me, chipping wise.  Maybe I got a bad bottle of Seche Vite.  I don't know.  I am just very happy with how inexpensive Dries Instantly is!  That remains my favorite top coat.

Star Sequins

I FINALLY got around to doing another manicure.  I have to do a quick post because I have to go to work soon:

I started out with a base coat of Sally Hansen Double Duty.  Then I painted on two coats of Sally Hansen Celeb City (the silver) on my pointer fingers, middle fingers, and pinkies.  I applied two coats of Sinful Colors Into The Blue on my ring fingers and thumbs.  Then I stuck some holographic star sequins on my blue nails using  a dot of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.  I put two coats of Dries Instantly on my silver nails, but three on the ones with the stars because the stars are pointy and I wanted to make them less scratchy.