Sequin Heart

Last night I watched the "Supernatural" episode "Death Takes a Holiday" and I loved Pamela's black nails.  I hadn't given myself a plain black manicure in a long time, so I really wanted to.  I decided to make it a little fancier by adding a heart made out of small hexagonal sequins:

I started out with a base coat of Essie Protein Base Coat.  I then painted on two coats of Sinful Colors Black on Black.  I used a dotting tool and Sally Hansen Dries Instantly to place the sequins on my middle fingernail.  I first placed the center top sequin so I would be able to make the heart mostly symmetrical on my nail.  I eventually placed the bottom middle sequin and joined up the lines to make a neat heart.

Whole hand shot!

I finished off with two coats of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.  

I accidentally cut my nails a bit too short for my liking, but it is actually nice to have such out of the way nails.  It feels good to take a break from longer nails.  I am still loving the rounded shape!

Veterans' Day French Tips

I have been wanting to do this manicure for a long time now, and I thought it was a very fitting time for it since it is Veterans' Day in the United States tomorrow.  

Veterans' Day french tips

 I started out with a coat of Essie Protein Base Coat.  I then painted on two coats of Revlon Pale Cashmere on all my nails and finished that off with a coat of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly to avoid pulling up my base color with the tape.  When that was all dry, I applied french tip guides on all my nails.  I made sure that I stuck them all to the back of my hand first to make them a little less sticky.  

I then created a red, white, and blue french tip pattern and immediately removed the tape.  The red is Rimmel Stiletto Red, the white is Sinful Colors Snow Me White, and the blue is Sinful Colors Into the Blue.  I finished off this manicure with two coats of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.

Thank you to all of the men and women who have served America in such a noble, significant way.  I am patriotic because of you.  

"Supernatural" Nails!

I am really excited about how most of this manicure turned out!  I thought it would look much worse, so this was a pleasant surprise.  So, in my last post I mentioned that I am loving the show "Supernatural" and that I wanted to do a "Supernatural" inspired manicure.  Well, here it is:

"Supernatural" inspired designs

I started out with a coat of Essie Protein Base Coat and then painted two coats of Sinful Colors Snow Me White on all my nails except for my ring fingernail, which I painted with two coats of Sinful Colors Black on Black.  (On my right hand I painted the white on all my nails.)

This was fun nail art to do because there were so many details that, when I waited for one thing to dry, I could work on something else.  I was never waiting around!  The first thing I did was make the blood spatters on my pointer and pinky on my left hand and on all five nails on my right hand.  I took a straw and would dab polish right from my bottle's brush onto the end and then blow through it with it positioned a couple inches above my nail.  I went over some nails a few times until I got the effect I wanted.  I bought a new blood-red polish that was thin enough to blow on to my nails.  I got Revlon Forbidden.

right thumb nail blood spatters

After I had done that and done a bit of cleanup, I painted a large silver (Sally Hansen Celeb City) circle with a small, flat nail art brush onto my ring fingernail.  I had meant to make the outside ring gold, but I forgot.  So, after the silver ring was dry, I took a large dotting tool dipped in Sally Hansen Golden-I and filled in the edges in with gold and left the center silver.  I then took a small nail art bush and some black acrylic paint and painted the small circle around the silver part and put a small dot in the center of the silver circle.  This is supposed to be the base of a bullet casing.  When the gold was dry, I took a toothpick dipped in the acrylic paint and stippled on the words "45 COLT" on the gold part of the circle.  

"The Colt" bullet casing base

I finally got around to buying some acrylic paint and I DO NOT regret it!  I got mine for $.50 each from Walmart!  (The brand is Apple Barrel.)  Lots of nail art people have said that it is so much easier to work with than nail polish and they are 100% correct!  It is easier to use because it isn't as sticky, so it glides on easily;  it washes off with water, so if you mess up you can wipe it right off and start again; it is very opaque; and it dries really fast.  I would definitely recommend anybody getting it for details and such!

I painted on the "Supernatural" star symbol on my middle finger with a small nail art brush.  I used black acrylic paint to do this.  I messed it up a bit.  I am not that happy with the final look of it either, but I was able to clean up the edges of it and add the white spaces inside the star with some white acrylic paint.  

"Supernatural" insignia

The last bit of nail art I did was the license plate on my thumb.  I first painted some yellow and blue (yellow--Sinful Colors Unicorn; blue--Revlon Dreamer) over the white base to create something that somewhat resembles the background of Dean's Kansas license plate.  When that was mostly dry I added a coat of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly to make a smooth, dry base for the rest of the art.  I then used a flat nail art brush dipped in my black acrylic paint to make the border of the license plate.  Then I took a toothpick dipped in the same acrylic paint to write on "Kansas" and the license plate number (KAZ 2Y5.)  

Dean's Kansas license plate

I finished off everything with two coats of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.

Guys, the best thing you can do with nail art is not be afraid to experiment and mess up a little!  It is okay to make a mess!  And I have discovered that you can usually save a ruined bit of art in one way or another.  I never take off all the art from a nail because I hate starting over.  I just salvage what is messed up.  Experiment!  And even if you are left with a messy nail, people do not notice.  The overall nail art is what people see!  Have fun with it!

Autumn Earthy Tones

Hi!  I am back again!  I came up with this one yesterday:

I started out with a coat of Essie Protein Base Coat.  I then applied three coats of Essie Da Bush (I LOVE that polish name!)  I needed three coats because this polish is rather thin.  I waited for that to dry and then took some clear polish and a dotting tool to apply the studs with.  I would put a dot of clear polish on my nail, and then use the smaller end of the dotting tool dipped in clear polish to pick up a stud and apply it to my nail.  I put three near each cuticle.  These are 1.5 mm gold studs from Born Pretty Store.

I then took the brush from the bottle of Essie Mink Muffs (the brown) and put a curved stroke of it about half way up each nail.  I then filled in the tip of the nail with the polish.  I had to go over each of those again to make the brown opaque.  I used a nail art bush dipped in Essie Good As Gold to paint on the gold line separating the two colors.  If I made the line too thick, I just took one of my base colors and went over the edge of it to clean it up.

It's okay to get polish on your skin!  I used to try to avoid this at all costs, but now I don't mind getting a little on my skin.  It would have been hard to get nothing on my skin when I used the brush to make the brown curved lines.  It is easy to clean up the edges with a nail art brush or Q-tip dipped in acetone or nail polish remover!

I finished off with two coats of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.  Sadly, mine is old, so you can see a lot of bubbles on my nails. =(  This manicure looks much better in person since you can't notice the bubbles when you aren't super close to them.  

I have been watching the show "Supernatural" on Netflix for a couple months now.  I am in season 4 and I LOVE the show!  I am dying to do a "Supernatural" inspired manicure sometime!

Hey!  This is my 100th post!  So exciting!