Slipper Pattern Nails

I got new slippers last week and I immediately thought of turning their pattern into nail art:

I started out with two coats of Pure Ice Scandal.  Then I stuck on some 2 mm pink studs from Born Pretty Store using Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.  I only put them on my ring fingers and thumbs because I like to add some 3-D on those nails.  After that, I used a dotting tool to make white dots where I wanted to dot on color after.  (That makes the color really stand out against a dark background.)  The white I used is Sally Hansen Hard To Get.  When that was dry I used different colors to go over the white dots.  The red is Rimmel Burgundy Flirt, the green in NYC High Line Green, the orange is NYC Spring Street, the pink is an L.A. Colors polish, and the blue is Avon Shock.  After that was all done, I put on a coat of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly and then a coat of NYC Matte Me Crazy.  I wanted a matte finish so the effect was more similar to how the slippers look.

Glitter French Tips

I meant to do this design around Christmas, but never got around to it, so I decided to do it the other day.  I hadn't done french tips in so long!

I started out with two coats of Sally Hansen Innocent Nude.  Then I put on a coat of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly because I used tape to create clean tips.  (The fast drying top coat keeps your base color from lifting up with the tape).

I cut slightly curved pieces of masking tape for my tip guides.  You can buy stickers made for creating french tips, but I don't have any.  You can substitute them by cutting straight strips of tape, or slightly curved strips.  You can also freehand the french tip, but that can be tricky on short nails, like mine.  Here is what the tape I used looked like before I put it on:

It is good to stick tape like this to the back of your hand first to take off a teeny bit of the stickiness.  I applied the tape a little from the tips of my nails and then painted the tips sticking out farther than the tape with Nicole Glitter in My Stocking.  I then quickly removed the tape.  My top coat is old, so it didn't dry as fast as I intended and the tape left imprints in it when I took it off, but my final top coats (two coats of Dries Instantly) totally hid that.  On a few of my nails I accidentally got a little bit of polish under the tape, so the edge was not straight.  I covered this up by adding a stripe of silver to all of my nails, just above the gold.  I used a Salon Perfect striper in Silver Plated.  There are always ways to hide your mistakes!  I never have much patience for removing the polish on an entire nail and starting over.  Haha!

Vintage Lace

I started out with two coats of Milani Rapid Orchid, which is actually a very dark reddish-purple, though it even looks almost black in person.  When that was dry, I stamped on a lace pattern that I found on Bundle Monster's Plate BM323.  I used Sally Hansen White On as my stamping color.  I finished off the manicure with two coats of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.

So, the story behind my "vintage lace" is simply that the lace did not come out like I hoped it would.  I wanted it to look crisp and clean, but, for some reason, I was just having a hard time with stamping.  So, I am using my imagination and pretending that the lace is supposed to be old, tattered lace.  Haha!  If I think of it that way, I don't think the manicure looks messed up!

I did use my new Konad stamper, but it was definitely not the new stamper that made my stamping not come out so well.  My conclusion is that the generic stamper that I had always used is just as good as the Konad one that I bought.

Horizontal Stripes

I felt like using striping tape the other day, so I created very stripey nails.  This was fun to do, but it did take a long time because of all the coats of polish I needed and because I had to cut 50 pieces of striping tape, put all that on, and take it all off.  So, without further ado, here is the final product:

 I started out with two coats of Avon Sunshine (the yellow.)  I then applied a coat of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly (to prevent the tape from ripping up my base color) and, when that was dry, put on striping tape where I wanted the yellow to show.  Then I painted on a coat of Covergirl Out of the Blue.  I immediately removed the striping tape with tweezers.  There were a couple spots where my tape was not pushed down enough and some of the blue got onto the yellow lines.  To fix that, I used a dotting tool dipped in the yellow to cover up the mistakes.  Nobody will be able to notice if you do that.  I finished off the manicure with two coats of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.

I made a Youtube channel and a Facebook page for Ten Digit Design.  I have only uploaded one video on Youtube and it is not that good, but it is a small tutorial on how to stamp your nails.  My channel is just called TenDigitDesign and I have a link to it on the upper right hand corner of this blog.  My Facebook page is linked there too, if you are interested.

Also, I got a new stamper!  It is a real Konad one.  I will stamp my nails in a few days and then tell you how that stamper compares to the Salon Express one I have always used.

Pearl Necklaces

A couple weeks ago while I was at church I noticed a couple elderly ladies sitting together.  They both had on bright sweaters and long necklaces.  That made me think of nail art that I could do:

On my ring fingers and thumbs I used two coats of Rimmel Mintilicious.  On my other nails I used two coats of Sally Hansen Coral Reef.  When that was dry, I used a dotting tool dipped in Sally Hansen Hard To Get to make the necklaces on my coral nails.  Then I used a dotting tool dipped in Sally Hansen Dries Instantly to dot on spots to stick the 1.5 mm half pearls on my ring fingers and thumbs to add more texture to the manicure.  I like to add a 3-D touch to a mainly 2-D manicure to make it look more interesting.  

The way I pick up the pearls (or studs) is by dipping a dotting tool in top coat to make it sticky and then I just touch the pearls with it to pick them up.  

When the manicure was done, I put two coats of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly on top of everything.  

Bird Tracks in the Snow

I do not have any snow where I live right now, but I am hoping for some soon!  I love snow!  So, anyway, I also love how little bird tracks look when they are imprinted in snow.  They are just so adorable.  I decided to paint some bird tracks on my nails:

I started out with two coats of Sally Hansen Hard To Get as my base color.  When that was dry I took a toothpick to make the bird tracks.  I would draw a line first and then make the two little toes coming out on either side of the middle of the line.  I used two different shades of gray for the tracks.  The brownish-gray is Essie Chinchilly and the other one is Sinful Colors Cool Gray.  I finished off with two coats of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.

Sponging, Stamping, and NEW CAMERA!

I am super excited to be using a better camera now!  I'm still not an expert hand photographer, but I will continue to get better with practice.  I am super excited about sponging, so I decided to do another sponging manicure today:

My base color is two coats of Rimmel English Rose.  When that was dry, I applied a coat of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly to my nails so that my sponge wouldn't pick up my base polish.  I put a line of Rimmel English Rose and a line of Milani Rapid Orchid on a cosmetic sponge.  I put on the lighter color first and then slightly overlapped it with the darker color.  Then I sponged the two colors on to my nails.  I had to reapply polish on the sponge after every couple of nails that I sponged.  When I was happy with the gradient and opaqueness of the new color, I allowed that to dry.  (Oh!  By the way, you can reuse a triangular makeup sponge many times.  I simply cut off the end that I use after I am done sponging all of my nails.)

I wanted to do some stamping too.  I used Bundle Monster Plate BM404.  The white polish is Sally Hansen White On, a polish that I use exclusively for stamping because it is old and very thick.  I applied two coats of Dries Instantly to finish off my manicure.