Nail Art

Sheer Plaid Nails

I saw a manicure on Pinterest the other day and wanted to try it out, but with different colors. The colors I picked were a bit sheer, and it ended up creating a sort of plaid look. Super cool!

Polishes Used:
Essie Chinchilly
Essie Watermelon
Essie Resort Fling
Seche Vite Top Coat

I created this manicure by first painting my nails with the gray color (Chinchilly), appying a top coat, and letting it dry completely. Then I used scotch tape and masked off a portion of the nail so that I could paint the lighter coral color (Resort Fling). I made sure to do one nail at a time and remove the tape immediately after painting the coral color. Then I applied a thin top coat and let it dry. Finally, I taped off the other side of the nail, painted the magenta color (Watermelon), and peeled off the tape immediately. Then I finished the nail art design with a clear top coat. :)

Pin It

Disneyland Manicure #2 (Mickey Inspired)

Hi all! I’m back with another Disneyland manicure. I’m going to Disneyland later this month so I’m trying out different manicures that I might wear while I’m there. :) You can see the first one HERE.

For this design, I took inspiration straight from Mickey Mouse…

Index Finger: OPI Black Onyx with Dior Red Royalty on the tip. Then I used a dotting tool to add Mickey’s buttons with OPI Alpine Snow
Middle Finger: Obsessive Compulsive Comsetics Taxi with Cheeky CH6 plate stamped in Konad Special Polish in Black
Ring Finger: OPI Black Onyx. Then I used a dotting tool to add a Mickey shape using OPI Alpine Snow
Pinky & Thumb: China Glaze Ruby Pumps

Pin It

Disneyland Manicure #1 (Dots & Mickey Mouse)

I go to Disneyland each year with s good friend and I’m so excited our trip is coming up soon! I really want to have some cute Disney nails while I’m there so I’m trying out a few different designs.

I’ve been pinning some ideas on Pinterest that I’m going to try, but this one is my own design…

  • Black polish: 1 coat China Glaze Liquid Leather, 2 coats Girly Bits Into the Night
  • White polish: OPI Alpine Snow

20130127-124503.jpg

Pin It

Nail Fraud Nail Decals

I tried out a different brand of nail art strips yesterday: Nail Fraud Nail Decals. I tried the Black and White Dots pattern…

Application was so-so. I still struggle with nail stickers like this. The perfectionist in me doesn’t like how the shape near my cuticle doesn’t match as perfectly as I would get it when using traditional polish.

I also don’t like that the “polish” doesn’t smoothy wrap around the edge of the nail. In the photos above you can see the very tip of my nails. My nails are generally really sharp so I like wearing polish on them to soften the edges. These nail decals don’t really do that since they don’t extend past the tip of your nail. :( And a day after I applied these, I can feel them lifting (and I even used a top coat over them). :(

Also, they’re not entirely smooth. As seen on my pointer finger in the pictures, they all have a weird “orange peel” texture. It’s strange.

So, all in all, they’re pretty cute, but I think I prefer regular polish and stamping. On the packaging it says they last up to a week, but I don’t think they’ll last that long. :)

Pin It

Patriotic 4th of July Manicure

Hi all! I’ve had a 4th of July manicure on my to-do list for ages, mostly because I knew it would take ages to get it done! LOL! This was my second attempt and it’s much better than the first. :)

Here I used white for the accents, but in my first attempt I used silver. The silver just didn’t pop as much (you can see it in a card how-to video I did earlier today), and I had some application issues, so I was more than happy to take that manicure off this afternoon and start over. And these are the results! :)

Base Colors: Nicole Listen to Your Momager (blue), A-England Perceval (red)
Stamping Color: Konad White
Stamping Plates: Konad m84 (stars), Cheeky Jumbo Image Plate I2 (diagonal stripes & pointer finger)
Heart: China Glaze White on White
Top Coat: Seche Vite

Things to note:
I created the small heart with China Glaze White on White and a dotting tool. I just dotted two dots close together to form the top of the heart and then “drew” the bottom of the heart with itty bitty dots. Also, the tip on my pointer finger smudged a bit after stamping so I ended up painting just the tip with White on White to clean it up. I ended up liking that better anyway. :)

Pin It

Stripe Ombre Nails

A couple of weeks ago I saw the above set of nail polishes and ordered it. I thought the range of green colors was really pretty. :) The bottles are pretty small and tiny, though.

I was inspired by a manicure I saw on Pinterest and decided to do a stripe ombre design using striping tape. I wasn’t familiar with striping tape until a couple of weeks ago, too. I ended up ordering some from a seller on Amazon. It came super fast! I ordered and it arrived 2 days later! :)

So first I painted my nails with China Glaze White on White and applied a topcoat (Seche Vite). Then I cut strips of the tape and applied four to each nail. I pressed down the edges really well, and then carefully painted each of the five colors from the ombre set of polishes. I then removed the tape revealing the white polish underneath, and then applied another layer of topcoat.

NOTE: I painted one full nail at a time and removed the tape while the polish was still wet. There were a few spots where the surface of the polish had started to dry and dragged when I was pulling the tape off (see the ring finger?). I think I need to practice with the tape masking technique a bit more to master it. :)

Pin It
Teal Stripes & White Dots

Teal Stripes & White Dots

Experimenting with more tape manicures. I also tried a Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen, which I really liked. I used the white pen for the dots and white stripes. Truth be told, I only did this on my left hand since I was just playing. I didn’t have time to attempt it on my right hand as well. Anyhow, it’s certainly fun! :)

Dark Navy Base Color: Essie Midnight Cami
Lighter Aqua: Color Club New Bohemian
Teal: Butter London Slapper
White Dots and Stripes: Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen

Pin It
1 2  Scroll to top