Asia Inspired

So, I had nail stickers and a stamping plate that were Asian themed, so I decided to put them to good use and do an Asian themed mani!  I am really liking how it turned out!

I started out with a coat of OPI Natural Nail Base Coat.  I then applied two coats of each base color.  I used Sinful Colors Snow Me White on my thumbs and ring fingers; Sinful Colors Black on Black on my pointers and pinkies; and Sinful Colors Gogo Girl on my middle fingers.

I then applied nail stickers to my thumb and middle fingernails.  I stamped my pointer and ring fingers with Bundle Monster's plate BM-405.  I used an old black and an old white polish to do this.  The thicker the polish, the better it will be for stamping.  So, don't throw out your gloopy polishes!  They may be good for stamping!

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

Classic French Tips

A manicure that is sure to go with absolutely anything is the french tip.  I absolutely love french tip manicures.  They are so classy and elegant.  Whenever I have a french tip mani, I can't stop looking at my nails.  A while ago I did a basic french tip manicure on my nails.  French tip manicures can also be spruced up with different colors, glitter, rhinestones, studs, and whatever else you want!  Here's my version of a classic french tip:

I started out with a coat of OPI Natural Nail Base Coat and then applied two coats of Pure Ice Satin Ribbon, a very light pink sheer polish (the typical pink used in french manicures).  I then applied a coat of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly because I planned on using french tip guide stickers to create perfect tips (you can also use striping tape, scotch tape, any other type of tape, or just do it freehand).  

I applied my french tip guides and then used Sinful Colors Snow Me White for the french tips.  I removed the tape right away and then applied two coats of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.

Here's something interesting:  I have read that the french tip is actually American.  A Hollywood makeup artist invented it because it went with any outfit a woman would be changing into.

Monochrome Nautical

I am super excited about this manicure!  I did it yesterday and couldn't wait any longer to show it to you!

I started out with a coat of OPI Natural Nail Base Coat.  (This base coat is working out really well for me!  My nails have not been staining at all and it dries sooo fast!)  I then painted all of my nails with two coats of Sinful Colors Snow Me White.

I waited for that to dry and then applied a coat of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly to my pointers, middles, and pinkies in preparation for the striping tape.  I then took white and black acrylic paints and used a dotting tool to dot on the top of the anchor near my cuticle on my ring finger.  I took a small detail brush and painted on the anchor (first the vertical line, then the curved lines, one by one, then the horizontal bar.)  A couple spots were messy, so I took my white acrylic paint and neatened up the edges.  Then I dotted on a smaller white dot in the center of the black one to make the hoop at the top of the anchor.

I then moved on to the thumb.  I decided to stamp on an image from Bundle Monster's BM-401 image plate.  I chose the tentacles.  I used Sinful Colors Black on Black to stamp with.  

I cut a ton of strips of striping tape when I waited for various stages of the manicure to be dry.  I applied them to my pointers, middles, and pinkies with tweezers and then painted over those nails with Sinful Colors Black on Black.  I immediately removed the tape after painting each nail, waited for the black to dry, and then applied two coats of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly to all of my nails. 

Ziplock Bag Technique

Hi!  Today's post is inspired by ohmygoshpolish from Youtube.  She does AMAZING manicures!  Around a week ago she released a video called "Zip Lock Bag - Navajo White Howlite."  In this video, she used a cool technique involving a ziplock bag!  I wanted to give it a try.  I will explain the method, but watch her video if you want to see it done!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4v2hybB-Cw4

I started out with a coat of OPI Natural Nail Base Coat.  I then painted on two coats of Sinful Colors Snow Me White.  After that was dry, I went on to the ziplock bag technique.

So, you need a ziplock bag.  I used a small sandwich sized one.  I chose three polish colors, one of them my base color.  So, I used the white, Sally Hansen Pink Blink (the light pink), and Essie Angora Cardi (the dark pink).  I took a dotting tool and randomly dotted on some white (you can also just use the brush from the bottle of polish.)  You do not need to be at all neat with this because you eventually squish it all with your plastic bag.  I then immediately dotted on some of each of my pink colors.  Don't worry about them mixing.  This is totally fine.  

Right away, I grabbed my plastic bag and pressed it onto my nail on the wet polish.  I then immediately peeled it off and was left with a marbled effect.  If you ever aren't happy with a nail, just add more dots and squish the bag onto your nail again.  You can't go wrong!  

I wanted this to be glittery and even more girly, so I added a coat of Salon Perfect Cosmic Dust, a very fine holographic glitter which I love.  I finished off with two coats of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.

This is what my bag looked like after I used it on all my nails:

the aftermath

I am nearly done with this semester of college.  I cannot wait for it to be over.  I am going nuts!  Is anybody graduating?  Leave a comment!  =)

   

Water Marbling Mani!

Hi!  I am FINALLY getting around to blogging!  I've been wanting to for days, but it just hasn't happened.  I only have three weeks of school left until I graduate with an associate's degree in childhood education!  I am so excited!  So, anyway, I have done water marbling twice before doing this mani.  I had never done it on all of my nails.  It was messy and time consuming, and I am still not perfect at it, but I was very happy with the result...especially on my thumb!  Here it is:

I started out with a coat of OPI Natural Nail Base Coat.  Then I applied two coats of Sinful Colors Snow Me White.  Oh!  Also, before doing anything I made sure I had a disposable plastic cup of room temperature water.  For water marbling, you can use any type of water, but it needs to be room temperature.  

I used scotch tape to make this process a little less messy.  I applied it all around my nails and part way up my fingers.  This majorly cuts down on the clean-up process at the end.  I think I'd use masking tape next time, because it is more flexible.  I then started water marbling.  Here's how you do it:

1--Open up the tops of all your polishes.  The runnier the polish, the better.  Thicker polishes are more difficult to water marble with because the polish won't spread out on the water nicely.

2--Start dripping drops of polish onto the surface of the water.  Hold the bush just a little over the surface and let the polish drip off.  Use as many colors as you want.  I used three.  You can create a pattern by alternating the drops of polish, or you can use more drops of one color than another.  Do whatever you want!

3--Take a tooth pick or pin or special water marbling tool (I used a tooth pick) and drag it through the polish on the surface of the water to create a design.  There are TONS of videos of people doing it on Youtube.  There are all sorts of designs you can create!  I learned all I know about water marbling from Youtube.  (OhMyGoshPolish does amazing water marbling manis!  Look her up!)

4--Dip your nail into the part of the design that you want on your nail and then leave it submerged in the water.

5--Blow on the surface of the water to dry the excess polish.

6--Take a tooth pick and move it through the water to grab all the extra polish.

7--Remove your nail from the water.

8--Remove the tape from your finger.

9--Clean up any polish on your skin with acetone or nail polish remover on a small brush or a cotton swab.

10--Apply a top coat.

Wow.  Sorry those directions are so lengthy.  I wanted to give a fairly good explanation of how I do this.  Watch a Youtube video!  That is much easier to understand!  Anyway, I used Sinful Colors Snow Me White, Essie Loophole, and L'Oreal Now You Sea Me for my water marbling.  

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

My favorite nail in this manicure!

I was really excited about how my thumb turned out.  Water marbling is still a learning process for me.  It is super fun!  I can't wait to experiment more!

Water Decals Again!

I had only ever used nail tattoos (water decals) once before.  That was last fall.  I blogged about it.  I actually forgot exactly how to apply them, so I referred to that post before getting started today (http://ten-digit-design.blogspot.com/2014/09/nail-tattoos.html).  

I started out with a base coat of Sally Hansen Double Duty.  I then painted two coats of polish on each nail.  On my thumbs and ring fingers (my accent nails) I used Sinful Colors Snow Me White.  I used Essie Loophole on the rest of the nails.  I then used tweezers to apply the tiny mirrored stickers on the silver nails.

Before I even started painting my nails, I cut out pieces from the small sheets of nail tattoos I got from Walmart ("Heart 2 Art" brand).  I cut them so they were roughly the shape of my nails.  When I was ready to apply them, I filled a shot glass with water and then used tweezers to pick one up and dip it into the water for a couple seconds.  I then gently pressed the tattoo over my nail for ten seconds and then carefully slid off the paper backing.  

There was a bit of excess tattoo at the end of some of the nails, so I took a nail buffing file and lightly filed the end of the nail with the non-abrasive side until I could easily pull off the excess.  I used my tweezers and gently pressed them along my cuticles to break off any excess there.  Acetone on a nail art brush can help you to remove the tiny bits that may be left over.  I'd suggest getting as much off as you can before resorting to the acetone because it melts the excess tattoo and creates a sticky residue. 

To minimize cleanup, try to cut the tattoos as close to your nail shape as you can.  You can see on my ring finger that I accidentally wrinkled the tattoo while applying it.  You need to be very careful when sliding off the backing.  It isn't as noticeable in person, though.  Once you get the hang of these, they're actually a breeze to apply and clean up.  I would definitely recommend trying them out!  They are a lot of fun! 

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

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Dainty Snowflakes

I have been on a roll with wintry/Christmassy nails!  Here's a manicure I did a few days ago:

I started out with a coat of Essie Protein Base Coat.  I then painted two coats of Sinful Colors Snow Me White on all my nails.  After that I began stamping.  I used the two single snowflake images from Bundle Monster's plate BM-319.  I stamped on different colored snowflakes until I was happy with the effect.  

The shimmery darker blue is Essie Blue Rhapsody, the peach is Essie Haute as Hello, and, though you can't see it in the pictures, I also stamped on light blue snowflakes with Essie Borrowed & Blue.  The gray dots I added with a small dotting tool are Sinful Colors Cool Gray.  

There is a light blue flake in the lower left side of this nail.

I finished off the manicure with a coat of Sally Hansen Diamonds to add sparkle and shimmer, and then I applied two coats of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.

It is snowing at my house right now!  I love it!  It isn't really sticking, but it looks so pretty!

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!

Houndstooth Halloween

So, as promised, here is my Halloween post!  I actually did a manicure four days ago and then decided to add to it.  Here's what I applied four days ago:

These are Sally Hansen Salon Effects Real Nail Polish Strips.  The pattern is "Check It Out," which is just a houndstooth pattern.  The strips have held up super well over the past few days.  The trick with these is to make absolutely certain that you do not put them too close to your cuticles and that you run the smooth side of the nail file thing that comes with them all over the surface of the strips to make sure they are secured to your nails.  If bits near your cuticles are sticking up, they will continue to stick up more when they dry.  Then they will start flaking off.  

This time I was super careful and they have not been peeling up!  I actually only used one set (instead of both sets that come in a package) because my nails are small and I can cut them in half and use the excess on my nails on my opposite hand.  You cannot save extra strips because they dry out and are then useless.  So, if your nails are small enough, you can get two manicures out of one package!  

So, anyway, I applied these to my bare nails and then finished them off with two coats of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.  I wrapped the tips to try to make them last longer.  ("Wrapping the tips" just means running the nail polish brush along the free edge of your nails to seal everything in.)

So, on to the Halloween part!  I decided to use two techniques that I had never used before.  I first used the dry brush technique to rough up the look of the houndstooth.  This means that I made sure that the nail polish brush had almost nothing on it before streaking it over my nails.  You can see what I mean here:

I first used Sinful Colors Snow Me White and then applied some Sinful Colors Black on Black.  After this, I taped up my fingers (as you can see above) so I wouldn't make as much of a mess on my hands.  I used the blood spatter technique (which I have been wanting to do ever since The Nailasaurus did her "Dexter" nails: http://www.thenailasaurus.com/2013/09/31DC2013-dexter-splatter-nail-art.html)

I took a regular straw and two different shades of red.  Here is my straw before and after:

I put down a paper towel to make sure I didn't get paint anywhere and then took my first red polish (Rimmel Burgundy Flirt) and used the brush from it to paint a glob onto the end of half of a straw.  I then would position the straw a few inches above my nail and blow out hard.  It was quite difficult and I figured out why.  That polish was rather thick.  The thicker the polish, the harder it is to do this.   I ended up sticking the actual straw into the bottle of polish to make sure I got a lot in it.  I managed to get some spatters on my nails with this polish, but I then used another red (Essie Wicked--a very dark red) and the other section of my straw to add to the spatters.

This polish was thinner, so was much easier to blow.  I just used the nail polish brush to apply some polish to the end.  If you try this and are having a hard time, it could be because of the thickness of your polish.  

If I were to do this again, I would not have added any extra black on my base.  the black makes it harder to see the red.  Also, I would prefer to do it over a white base.  I want to try that some time.  White would make the red really stand out.  I removed the tape on my fingers and used acetone and Q-tips and a nail art brush to clean up everything.  Cleanup took a while.  I then applied two coats of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.

 So, without further ado, here is my finished product:

Happy Halloween!

Cotton Candy Gradient

Whoa.  I cannot believe I haven't posted in almost a month.  School's been busy.  Tonight I, maybe, could be studying a bit more, but I was suddenly overwhelmed with the overwhelming desire to blog.  So, you see what won.  I haven't done much nail art recently.  This art is from weeks ago.  I am looking forward to trying out one thing for Halloween, though.  I'll need to get on that soon!  Anyway, here's what I came up with a while ago:

I started out with a coat of Essie Protein Base Coat.  I then painted on two coats of Sinful Colors Snow Me White.  After that, I painted on a coat of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly to avoid pulling up my base color with my sponge.  

When that was all dry, I took a makeup sponge and painted on a stripe of three different colors.  I made sure they all overlapped a bit to help the color transition to be smooth.  The purple is Rimmel Wild Orchid; the blue is Essie Blue Rhapsody; and the pink is Sally Hansen Pink Blink.  I stippled the color over my nails with the makeup sponge until the color was as opaque as I wanted it.  I flipped the sponge over so that the order of the colors alternated on my nails.  On my pointer and ring fingers I wanted the purple to be at my cuticles, and I wanted the pink to be at my cuticles on my other three nails.

 I then applied two coats of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.  It's super fun to do gradients because the thin layer of polish dries really fast and a top coat will only help the colors to blend in more.  You don't really need to wait to apply the top coat!

This rounded nail shape has been working out for me so well!  I can grow my nails longer and I don't have any more sharp corners that catch clothing and/or break off!  My manicures last for so long because no part of my nails bend!  They're way stronger like this!  The corners of my nails used to always bend and then the polish would chip off.  Also, my actual nails have not been flaking!  Certain nail shapes work better on different people.  Experiment until you find out what's best for you!

I will try to post more often.  I really do enjoy blogging.  The wisest thing I have read on a blog is that you should not blog when you don't feel like it.  A blog is supposed to be fun, and if I don't feel like writing a post, the post will not be of high quality.  It can't be forced.  So, anyway, I haven't forgotten about the blog and I hope to do some more manicures!  I am super excited to do a Halloween manicure!  I hope you have all been doing well!  

Remember to check me out on Pinterest and Facebook!  I am on Pinterest all the time!  My Facebook and Pinterest are linked on the right side of my blog!