eos!

I have been loving eos lip balms for years.  I remember I was in my local grocery store, which I also used to be a cashier at, the first time I saw them.  The first one I bought was honeysuckle honeydew, the light green one.  I now have all of them (counting limited editions, there are 17).  So, I use them just about every day.  When I was half asleep this morning, an idea popped into my head: eos manicure!  So, here it is:

I started out with a coat of OPI Natural Nail Base Coat.  I then applied two coats of different colored polishes to each nail.  I matched the colors as closely as I could:

Yellow--Avon Sunshine; Pink--Sally Hansen Pink Blink; Teal--Rimmel Mintilicious; Blue--Essie Borrowed & Blue; Purple--Pure Ice Lacquered Lilacs

When that was dry I mixed some gray and white acrylic paint to make light gray and used a toothpick to stipple on the eos logo.  I then applied two coats of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly and then a coat of NYC Matte Me Crazy.  This made the texture look more similar to the rubbery packaging of eos lip balms.

Night Sky

I have started another semester of college.  I graduate with my associate's degree in childhood education at the end of this one, so I am pretty excited.  The other night I went to my school for a night class and looked up at the sky.  It was a deep blue which faded into a light yellow at the horizon.  The moon was a crescent.  I was inspired to create a manicure based on how pretty it was.

I started out with a coat of Essie Protein Base Coat.  I then painted on two coats of Sinful Colors Unicorn, a very light yellow.  I applied a coat of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly after that so the sponge wouldn't take off my base color.  

I put four colors on my sponge.  I painted on a stripe of Sinful Colors Black on Black, Sinful Colors Into the Blue, Rimmel Blue Eyed Girl, and a very thin stripe of Sinful Colors Unicorn.  I then stippled that over my nails with the black at the cuticle.  

If I were to do this again, I would have immediately applied another coat of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly to make the gradient blend better.  Since I waited, I was left with a slightly grainy effect.  It's not bad, but it could have looked smoother.  I am really happy with it anyway, though.

I eventually applied a coat of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly over everything but my ring finger.  I used a dotting tool and white acrylic paint to dot on the moon.  I then put a drop of my black polish and my darkest blue touching each other on a piece of paper and I dipped in a dotting tool so I could match the dot which created the crescent moon to the background a little bit better.  In person, it doesn't stand out quite as much as it does in the pictures.

After applying Dries Instantly over all the nails, I applied two coats of NYC Matte Me Crazy, a matte top coat.  I wanted to make my night skies look a little more realistic by taking out the shine.

Cross Stitch Hearts

Hello!  I have been feeling pretty crazy because I started another semester of college a few days ago and I am already SUPER stressed out!  I do not handle stress that well and I am earning my associate's degree at the end of this school year, so I am just taking the classes that I need to graduate which, sadly, are not at all fun and don't have much to do with my actual major, childhood education.  Well, anyway, here is the manicure that I did a while ago now:

I started out with a coat of Essie Protein Base Coat.  I then painted on two coats of Revlon Pale Cashmere.  When that was dry I used toothpicks to make the "stitches."  I made a heart shape on my ring fingers and thumbs.  This didn't turn out as well as I was hoping, but it looked cute.  The yellow is Avon Sunshine; the light blue is Essie Borrowed & Blue; the reddish color is Rimmel English Rose; and the purple is Rimmel Wild Orchid.  

After everything had dried I used one coat of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly and then one coat of NYC Matte Me Crazy (a matte top coat.)

I do not know how often I will be able to paint my nails this semester, so I am sorry if my posts are infrequent.  Good luck to any of you who have started college or school!  

Oh!  I have linked my Pinterest page to my blog!  You can follow me there if you want!  You can also "like" me on Facebook!

Multicolored Striping

So, since I have been done with college for the summer for a week, I have been able to do my nails a little more often and am enjoying posting more. I have seen multiple manicures like the one I have done, but usually black is the color that goes over everything since it is so opaque. I wanted my design to look more bright and springy, though. First I applied a coat of Essie Protein Base Coat. I am really liking this. (I have noticed that my nails are still peeling, so I think Sally Hansen Double Duty is fine. They are probably still recovering from a dry winter. They are better than they were.) After the base coat, I applied a stroke of Sally Hansen Coral Reef down one side of my nails and Sally Hansen Jazzy Jade down the other:

After that was dry, I applied a stroke of Rimmel Wild Orchid down the center of each nail.

After that was dry, I applied a coat of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly so the striping tape wouldn't pull up my base color. I then applied striping tape in random patterns on my nails. I made sure most of the tape was going in some horizontal or diagonal direction on my nails because vertical striping tape wouldn't show off the tricolored base. I then painted over the striping tape with China Glaze Designer Satin and immediately removed the tape. (Remember to remove the tape in the opposite order you applied it in. You don't want to be pulling a piece that is under another piece and ruin your work.) This isn't completely opaque, so the base colors show through a bit. I like the effect, though:

I applied a coat of Dries Instantly at the end and then a coat of NYC Matte Me Crazy. Matte polishes always remind me of wax. I actually messed up my ring fingernail a little because I bumped it on my paper towel right after removing the striping tape. I always get very aggravated when I mess up a nail, but I have learned to be calmer about it. You will probably be able to fix small mistakes. Just relax. I touched up the smudges with a nail art brush with the appropriate colors on it to go over my mistakes to make the lines clear again. Also, people do not notice little mistakes in your manicure. They generally look at the entire effect. So, don't sweat the little mistakes!!! =)

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!  =)  

Studs and Stripes

I finally got around to painting my nails again.  College starts for me in a few days so I probably won't have as much time to do my nails then, but I will try to do at least one manicure a week...maybe.  Haha!  Today I felt like using a matte top coat.  Matte polish always reminds me of wax when it is dry:

I haven't been able to get good pictures inside my house, so, again, I went outside to take the pictures.  Luckily, it's been sunny.

I used Rimmel 60 Seconds in Caramel Cupcake as my base color and then applied a coat of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly to make sure that the base was totally set before I applied striping tape, that I purchased from Amazon, to my nails.  After I applied my striping tape and painted over top with Covergirl Out of the Blue, I immediately removed the tape using tweezers.  That left me with a tan stripe across each nail.  I then applied some silver 1.5 mm studs (from Born Pretty Store) using dots of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly as my "glue."  After everything was dry I applied a thick coat of Dries Instantly and then a coat of NYC Matte Me Crazy.