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!

Burgundy French Tips

So, another week has gone by.  I was inspired to do this manicure a while ago when I was looking in a Nordstrom catalog.  I wasn't interested in any of the items being advertised, but one model had dark red french tips and I thought they looked AMAZING!  So, I finally got around to recreating that manicure:

I started out with a coat of Essie Protein Base Coat.  I then painted on one coat of Sally Hansen Innocent Nude, which is a sheer peach-ish color.  When that had dried I painted on a coat of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly so my tape wouldn't pull up my base color.  I took ten french tip guides and stuck them on the back of my hand so they wouldn't be too sticky on my nails (this is pretty important because it is SUPER frustrating when a sticker is too sticky and gets completely stuck to your polish and then ruins the entire painted nail when you pull it up.)

I then applied those to my nails near the tips.  I made sure that I applied them so that entire tip of each nail would be painted red.  I then painted on a coat of Rimmel Burgundy Flirt (which I LOVE-- it is the perfect blood red) and then immediately removed the french tip guides from each nail.  I finished off the manicure with two coats of Dries Instantly.

I love this manicure because it looks super classy and elegant and clean.  This actually lasted for a week on my nails before I took it off!

Perfect Polka Dots and Chevrons!

Hello!  Once again, it took me forever to blog!  I am now around 1/4 of the way through this semester! It has been crazy!  Happy fall!  Fall is my favorite season!

Before starting this manicure I searched "how to polka dot nails" on Google and found this picture:

I have always struggled with getting even polka dots on my nails, but following these steps made it super easy!  My other trick is to make sure you use a small dotting tool instead of a larger one.  I used one that was smaller than I thought I wanted, but the dots turned out much better this way!

I started out applying a coat of Essie Protein Base Coat to all of my nails.  I then painted on two coats of Sinful Colors Snow Me White.  Once that was dry, I took my small dotting tool and Sinful Colors Black on Black and followed that picture tutorial to create perfect polka dots on my pointer, pinkie, and thumb nails (and all of my nails on the other hand.)

I then waited for that to dry and put one coat of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly on my middle and ring fingernails so the chevron tape I was going to use wouldn't pull up my base color.  I then applied three strips of chevron tape to those nails and painted a coat of Sinful Colors Black on Black over top.  I then immediately removed the tape and was left with perfect chevron stripes.  I painted a coat of Salon Perfect Cosmic Dust (a fine, holographic glitter which I LOVE) over all of my nails once everything was dry.  I finished off with two coats of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.

  

Something I am really loving about having rounded nail tips is that my manicures last longer!  When I had squared tips, the polish would chip off of the corners in a couple days.  My nails are weak, so the corners of my nails would also often break off.  The rounded shape is really working out for me!  Don't be afraid to experiment with different lengths and shapes!  You can always trim your nails shorter, grow them out again, or reshape them!!  The change you make to them will not be permanent!

Vintage Half Moon Mani!!!!

Hi Guys!  Once again, I went FOREVER without blogging.  I am now 1/5 of the way through this semester.  Haha!  Counting down the days!  I did a manicure last week and haven't posted it yet, but I did another manicure today and I am so so so excited about how it came out!  I rounded my nail tips today and then decided to do a manicure that looks better with rounded tips!  I remembered how much I had always wanted to create a vintage half moon mani!  So, I did it!  Here it is:

So, half moon manicures are actually from the 1930s and '40s!  I LOVE vintage stuff!  I have many more pictures of my manicure down below.  I was just so super excited about how it came out!  Here is an old advertisement for nail polish:

Now, on to the tutorial!

I started out with a base coat of Essie Protein Base Coat (this really keeps my nails from staining).  I then painted on two coats of Essie Oui Madame (I LOVE that name!  It is a sheer, pearly color) on all of my nails.  After that was dry I painted on a coat of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly so the tape wouldn't pull up my base color.  

Another thing you can do as a precaution before applying tape (that you are planning to remove) is to stick the tape to the back of your hand to take off a little of the stickiness.  I applied half of a hole reinforcement to each of my nails near the cuticle and a french tip guide (you can use a curved or straight strip of tape too) to each of my nail tips.  I made them cover the entire tip of my nail without leaving any nail showing beyond them because I wanted to keep the entire tips the white color.  

Don't apply these like you would if you were going to paint French tips on your nails (unless you have really long nails).  It is easy to do that because of being so used to applying them that way.  You want to cover the whole tip.

I then painted on a coat of Rimmel Stiletto Red in between the two pieces of tape on each nail.  As soon as I painted each nail, I quickly removed the tape.  I cleaned up the sides of my nail beds with a nail art brush dipped in acetone.  If any red polish went under the tape I took the brush dipped in acetone and lightly dabbed at the messy edges to remove the teeny jagged bits of red polish.  Just don't dab the brush too many times in one spot or your base color might come off too.  I finished off the manicure with two coats of Dries Instantly.

I have this really old makeup kit that I found in my grandma's antique shop.  I decided to use this as a prop for my photos.  Enjoy!

Vintage pics!

Nail Tattoos!

I finally bought some nail tattoos from Walmart!  I have been meaning to try those out for a while and I finally got around to it!  My semester is looking up a little because I dropped a really terrible class, but I am still crazy busy.  I have been able to do my nails around once a week, though.  This is from days ago (I don't even have it on my nails anymore), but I am going to do my nails again tomorrow for my birthday celebration!  I am going to be 20 on Monday!  I can't wait!  And it feels weird saying that I am going to be 20!  Okay, anyway, here is what I came up with days ago:

I started out with a coat of Essie Protein Base Coat and then painted two coats of Sinful Colors Snow Me White on the nails that I would be applying the tattoos to (in this case, my ring finger and thumb), and two coats of Sally Hansen Pink Blink (which I also bought at the same time I bought the nail tattoos) on the other nails.  I then used a dotting tool and top coat to stick the 2 mm gold square studs I got from Born Pretty Store to my pink nails.  I finished those nails off with two coats of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.

Before applying the tattoos to my nails, I cut out the bits that I wanted on each nail and roughly trimmed the tattoos to the shape of my nails.  I then removed the plastic covering from the tattoo bits and picked one up with tweezers and dipped it into a little glass of water (I used a shot glass because it was a really nice size) and held it in there for a second or two.  I then took the tattoo and placed it face down on my nail and held it there for around ten seconds before easily sliding the paper backing off of my nail, leaving the tattoo behind.

I then smoothed down the tattoo and pressed the loose ends against the sharp tip of my nail so I could carefully removed the excess.  I used an orange stick to carefully break the excess around my cuticles.  I then took a nail art brush dipped in acetone and cleaned up even more.  The tattoos do dissolve in the acetone, but I would suggest taking off larger pieces of excess tattoo first and then using acetone to clean up small edges that you can't reach any other way.  I practiced on my right hand first and using acetone to clean up all of it was messy and sticky.  Also, I would recommend cutting the edge that will go at your cuticle with a curve so you have slightly less clean up to do.

I finished off the tattooed nails with two coats of Dries Instantly, as well.

I am super happy with the nail tattoos!  They were pretty easy to use and they looked so cool!  And they are only a couple dollars at Walmart for a set that comes with around 18 small sheets (by "small" I mean around 1 by 2 inches.)  The brand is "Heart 2 Art," by the way.

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!