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November 20, 2013

Cracked Ice Nails

Easy winter nail art
Here is an easy to do manicure that takes little time and is hard to mess up :)

Easy nail art tutorials
Left to Right: Seche Vite top coat/ Sally Hansen Crackle Polish Snow Blast/ China Glaze Splish Splash



All you need for this design is a clear coat, white crackle polish, a  translucent or jelly polish, and a piece of Cosmetic Wedge. I buy them in bulk and cut them into pieces. One bag has lasted me over three years of mancures.

 As per usual start with clean dry nails. The crackle polish doesn't work very well over bare nails so for this design you need to use a base coat of clear polish.

Once your clear coat is dry add a layer of crackle, you can get the one I used here, but work quickly and try not to go ever the same area too many times. I forgot to get a picture at this step so I borrowed this old pic from one of my earlier posts ;) Not the best quality or lighting but hey we all get better at things over time.

 Once your crackle polish is all done working its magic paint a little of the blue paint directly onto a makeup sponge. Dab it onto the tips of your nails and slowly work it up to about half way. Add another clear coat and all ready to sport your winter nails. ;)


I used this same sponge over crackle technique in my Neon Crackle Nails.



Four Leaf Clover

Green nail polish
Four Leaf Clover is a beautiful intense green that I absolutely love. It was part of the China Glaze Up & Away collection which had some of my all time favorite creamy pastel polishes.


China Glaze green nail polish swatch
This polish is an easy to work with cream and very opaque. I only had to use two coats and it has a pretty shine even without any top coat.

Here I used Konad Special Polish in Green and Cheeky image plate CH52 just to add a little interest.

I used Four Leaf Clover in my Rainbow Melt Nails a while back. It is the perfect basic crayon box green for rainbow designs.
I also think it is the perfect green for watermelon or strawberry nails. It made a small appearance in my Watermelon Remix Nails post.
In my opinion if you don't have any green polish in your collection this is a great one to start playing with.


November 14, 2013

It's A Trap-eze!

This is most definitely an interesting polish.
It's a Trap-eze! is from the China Glaze Cirque Du Soleil
Worlds Away collection. The formula is a little tricky to work with but it's understandable given the amount and variety of glitter packed into this lacquer. The base polish is almost a cross between a gray blue jelly and a cream. I used three coats in the above photo. The glitters vary in size and the colors include pink, green, yellow, silver, blue and even orange. Very unique polish and certainly a fun one.





November 13, 2013

Icy Blue Snowflake Nails

Baby it's cold outside.
A little something for the upcoming winter months. This is an easy to do manicure with fun accents but the holographic effect of Sci-Fly by (the light blue polish) really steals the show. Here are the polishes...
Left ---> Right: Konad Special Polish in White/ Deviantly Daring/Sci-Fly By/ Seche Vite Top Coat

Side Note: I've decided to add the names of the polishes to my labels list. If you see a polish you like just click on it's name at the bottom of the post and see all the designs featuring it. :)
This is Sci-Fly By... beautiful holo polish. It does take me about three coats to get it the way I like but its so pretty I don't mind at all.
Using a makeup sponge I added a little of the darker metallic blue Deviantly daring. Another color that I am in love with. The bottle alone is so pretty I find myself puling it of the rack to show anyone that comes near my collection.

I used two stamping plates for the snowflakes. There are a ton of winter and Christmas themed plates that have an array of adorable designs and different snowflakes. I found most of my plates on Amazon and eBay.
Add your Top Coat and all done :) Something pretty to kick off the holiday season.







November 9, 2013

Purple Snake Skin Nails


So this week I wanted to do something subtle and fun. I chose some of my favorite fall polishes. I have done snake skin nails a couple times, but so far this is my favorite color combination. Let me show you how I get a multidimensional effect by mixing colors directly on the plate.

 

 I painted my nails with a coat of Below Deck. Using a makeup sponge, I added the gradient to the tips with Prey Tell. I planned on stamping over this gradient. I wasn't really going for perfection.


This would be a nice manicure alone, but once again I can never stop at simple and sweet ;)


Now let the Stamping begin! For this design, I mixed two polishes with a dotting tool for a less uniform patchy effect. I like to mix my polish right on the image plate :) If you have a minute, check out my Crocodile Skin Nails for another example of this technique at work.


Step One: Add random dots of two or more polishes to the design plate. The silver polish I used here is Orly Dazzle. It's great for stamping and it doesn't dry as fast as the stamping polishes. The dark polish is Konad Special Polish in Purple. Konad polish will dry very fast so work quickly. Also the bottle looks brown, but I promise. it is in fact purple once get it on the plate.


Step Two: Use a dotting tool, toothpick, bobby pin, or really anything that comes to a point.  zig-zag across the design, and mix up your polish.


Step Three: Scrape off all of the excess paint. I use an old Amazon gift card. You may notice some scrathches on my older plates. This is from using the cheap metal scrapers that come with some stamping kits. This particular design is from Bundle Monster plate BM-215.
 

Step Four: If you have worked quickly enough... pick up your image onto a rubber stamper. Pretty cool effect. The polish goes from dark to light metallic depending on how the light hits it. Practice makes perfect.


Finish it all off with a little clean up, and your favorite top coat (mine is of course Seche Vite). Your'e all set for Fall. I know it's not the best for your skin and nails, but I use straight acetone, and an old eyeliner brush, for cleaning up polish boo boos.


That's it. Multidimensional Purple snake skin nails in no time at all. 

This method also works well with cream polishes.












November 8, 2013

Teal Geometric Nails

Teal, black and white... I like! :)


A simple to do manicure, that looks way more complicated to achieve than it really is.


I used Konad Special Polish in Black. The white is my go to China Glaze White on White/ China Glaze Flyin' High is a bright creamy teal color. The geometric design is Bundle Monster BM-223.


For this design I started off with two coats of my base colors. The Creamy teal color is just beautiful and bright. I love the formula of this polish. It is easy to work with, opaque and extremely glossy when dry. A lot of cream polishes are matte when dry so this one is something special. You really don't need top coat if you wear this alone.


Bundle Monster Image Plate BM-223


Once my base was dry, I added the white diagonal across my index finger. Next, I began stamping the design on my thumb and ring finger.

 

Add your finishing touches. It looks like you spent all afternoon on your nails. Truth be told this design took about 30 minutes base to top coat. :)


November 2, 2013

Purple and Pink Gradient Zebra

You just have to love a gradient manicure!


Purple fades to pink and just for fun throw in a little animal print ;)

 China Glaze White on White / China Glaze Bottoms Up/ China Glaze That's Shore Bright/ China Glaze Fairy Dust holographic micro glitter


A great way to make your bright colors pop is to start with a white base coat. This is two coats of China Glaze White On White.


I like to use cosmetic wedge sponges for all my gradients. I usually paint both polishes directly on the sponge and do most of my blending by layering multiple coats.

Make sure to let your polish dry before you move on to the next coat or else some polishes will get tacky and lift off onto the sponge.



This is one of my personal favorite Zebra designs and you can find it on Mash image plate Mash-41.



A little holographic micro glitter (Fairy Dust) and a clear coat (Seche Vite) . Bright, simple and playful.



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