The Land of the Free Because of the Brave

Hi guys!  I haven't blogged in a while.  I started a new summer job co-leading a summer activities program for kids on Monday.  I am pretty busy with it.  But I really wanted to do a good ol' patriotic manicure.  It is the Fourth of July in only three days.  I am an American, so I am going to be seeing fireworks.

My family used to always take 3-4 week camping trips in Canada every summer.  So, I was rarely in the USA during the Fourth of July.  It is cool to be here during the most American holiday.

Okay!  Here's what you came here to see:

I started out with a coat of OPI Natural Nail Base Coat.  I then painted two coats of Sinful Colors Snow Me White on my ring fingers, and two coats of Pure Ice Short Bet (a tan) on the rest of my nails.  I applied a coat of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly on the ring fingers to prep for striping tape.

I looked at pictures of camouflage print on Google.  I also watched some tutorials for camo nails.  I used the technique that Demelza's World used to create this effect.  Here's the link to her video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4K3Q9TCAXU

So, I started with my lightest colors and then went on from there.  I took a medium sized dotting tool and stippled on the blotches of colors.  I first used Essie Da Bush, a light earthy green.  I then moved on to Essie Fall in Line, the military green polish which inspired me to create this mani.  After that, I stippled on my black, Sinful Colors Black on Black.  I did the black before the brown because I wasn't sure if I was going to use brown at first.  I decided it needed it.  So, I stippled on the brown, Essie Mink Muffs, last.  I just did 3-4 blotches of each color on each nail.  Don't be afraid to overlap colors!  This creates a better effect!  It was quite easy and I am very happy and surprised with how well it came out!

I got plenty of polish on my cuticles.  That is totally fine, though!  Just clean it up at the end!  I used to avoid a mess like that at all costs, but your manicures really will turn out better if you concentrate on the art and then clean up after.

For the flag nails, I applied striping tape with my trusty curved tweezers and then painted on a generous coat of Sinful Colors Gogo Girl.  I immediately removed the tape.  When that was dry, I used navy blue acrylic paint to create the blue portion of the flag.  I used a small detail brush to do this.  When that was all dry (if you use matte acrylics, it is easy to tell when the paint's dry.  It will turn matte.) I used a detail brush to paint on some silver glitter polish (Sinful Colors Queen of Beauty) on the blue to represent the stars.

I finished off with two coats of Dries Instantly over everything.

The reason I am patriotic is not because of the government of anything like that.  No country is perfect.  I am patriotic because I respect all of the brave men and women who have fought for my freedom, died for my freedom, or sacrificed (health, family, ambitions, etc.) for my freedom.  America is a beautiful country.  There is such a diverse landscape.  In 2009 My family and I drove cross country for four weeks.  We camped at Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks.  We saw Mount Rushmore, Bighorn Canyon, and tons of other things.  It was amazing.

America would be nothing if not for the brave people who have defended and protected, and continue to defend and protect it.  I am truly grateful to them.

America is the Land of the Free BECAUSE of the Brave.

Spring Gradient

I actually did this manicure months and months ago.  It's about time to post it.

My cuticles were not in tip top shape here!  Haha!  The great thing about humid weather (like the kind of weather we are having now in the almost summer of the north east of the USA) is that is allows your cuticles to stay much nicer.

I started out with a coat of Essie Protein Base Coat (which I will never go back to after OPT's base coat) and then applied two coats of a white polish.  I then applied a coat of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly to prevent my base color being pulled up by my sponge.

To the makeup sponge, I applied a stripe of L'Oreal Now You Sea Me, Pure Ice Shore Bet (a tan), and then a stripe of Essie Da Bush (an earthy green).  I stippled this onto my nails so the blue (Now You Sea Me) was at the tips of my nails.  I finished off with a coat of Essie As Gold as It Gets, which is flakes of glitter.  It is really not as exciting as it sounds.  You can see that it is barely gold at all.  I finished off the whole manicure with two coats of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.

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!

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!  

Dot Gradient

I saw this super cool picture tutorial for this design on my Facebook news feed this morning and NEEDED to try it out.  The tutorial is by Quite Polished.  I just went to her blog and it is great!  You'll have to check it out!  http://quitepolished.blogspot.com/

The green color is Essie Da Bush; the white is Sally Hansen Hard to Get; and the blue is Sinful Colors Rain Storm.  I painted on two coats of each color.  (To be honest, I would not recommend this white polish to anybody.  Two coats is just barely enough.  If my nails were only white, I would need three coats.)  After that was dry, I used a small dotting tool to create the dots.  (I got a very inexpensive pack of dotting tools from Amazon, but if you don't have a dotting tool, a toothpick works.  The colored end of a straight pin works, as well.)

I put lots of dots at the tips-- some overlapping to make them look crowded.  I then put them sort of close together in the middle regions.  Near the cuticles I tried to space them more.  I have not got the gradient effect perfect, but that will get easier with practice.  I will finish this manicure off with a coat of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.  To tell you the truth, I do not always have a top coat on in these pictures.  A lot of times I take the photos right after finishing the design because I do not want something to happen to them in between finishing them and taking a picture.  Also, if you apply a top coat too soon, the design will smudge.  Sally Hansen Dries Instantly works great when the design is all dry, though.

I used pure acetone on a flat nail art brush to create a clean line around the edges of my nails.  To clean my nail art brushes, I swish them around in acetone and then rinse them in water.  The bristles get very stiff if acetone is left in them.  

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.