Fancy Braided Nails

New. Favorite. Manicure.

It's simple, it's easy, and it looks  i n c r e d i b l e.  I am in love :)

I followed cutepolish's tutorial on YouTube here.  I used Sally Hansen Celeb City (silver), Sally Hansen Blue It (blue), and China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy (neon pink).  For my non-accent nails, I used one coat of Blue It.

No more talk!  Enjoy the pictures and be sure to check out the tutorial!!

New watermark font! ;)

This is gonna be very hard for me to take off!  But it's so easy to do I'm sure I'll recreate it with different colors eventually :)

Katy Perry Inspired

Katy Perry inspired, and Lauren Doherty failed.

This was a good idea in theory, but the execution absolutely fell through.  I took this off within a few hours haha

I started with Love & Beauty in Coral (from Forever 21), and stamped with Konad White and BM-220.  

The main thing that was horrible was that I didn't center my french tips well enough and they ended up all wonky and crooked.  Oh well!  There's always next time :)

The inspiration.  I realize my manicure is pretty far off, but it was the best my limited skills could do :)

Photo credit: teen.com

Crappy picture, but it shows the shimmer :)

Scrapbooking Boom!

I did something I've wanted to do for a while, use scrapbooking scissors to cut tape to create an AWESOME manicure.  And so I did it.  With a little help :)

I started with two thin coats of Sinful Colors Boom Boom.  I soaked my nails in cold water for 2 minutes to harden them, and then my sister cut the tape with some funky scrapbooking scissors.  It was intense!  Since the scissors were all crazy, they wouldn't cut the tape unless you held it a certain way and a certain taughtness and squeezed the scissors together :P  

Once my sister mastered the art of cutting shaped tape, I put them on my nails and painted one coat of China Glaze Stone Cold, a matte grey from the Hunger Games collection.

 I put Seche vite on the pink part to maintain the shiny-ness, and Essie Matte About You top coat on the grey.  I really liked having two different finishes :)

Teamwork! :) Thanks for reading <3

Watermelon Moon

My first time trying half moons!  I really liked how it turned out, despite all the imperfections :) I started with one coat of Sinful Colors Snow Me White, and then dipped my nails in a sink full of cold water to harden them up quicker (it's an amazing trick and it works so well!  Leave them in the water for about 2 minutes or so and they should be ready for taping :)

Then I took paper-hole reinforcements (the kind you buy at Staples, they look like little white donut stickers haha!) and lined them up along my cuticle.  I used China Glaze Watermelon Rind to paint the majority of the nail.  It was perfect, but I had to go back for a second coat of Watermelon Rind because it's sort of sheer, but I had taken the stickers off so I got some brushstrokes on the white :P Oh well!  Rookie mistake ;)

Watermelon Rind is still kind of sheer and brushstroke-y, but it's acceptable for a first attempt haha!  Thanks for reading <3

Holographic Skittles

So I knew I wanted to use a holographic nail polish, but I didn't know what I wanted to use it for.  So I did one of everything haha :)

I started with 2? maybe 3 coats of China Glaze Something Sweet (I can't really remember) and then I freehanded a bunch of different designs with China Glaze IDK (original post here)

Index: I freehanded a diagonal stripe

Middle: I used a bobby pin to make dots

Ring: I freehanded a french tip

Pinky: I used a makeup sponge to make a gradient 

I did use top coat, and it didn't dull the holographic-ness of IDK.  As much as I love holo manis, I took this off within a day cause I just didn't love it :)

Nail Polish Tastes Like Acid

Word of advice: when you create a splatter manicure (which involves dipping a straw into nail polish and then blowing on the other end), do not accidently get polish on the end of the straw that you put your mouth on.  It will taste like FOUL ACID.  You're welcome for the tip.

For this manicure I used 3 thin coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls (a greyed white that is incredible) and Sally Hansen Golden-I for the splatter.  To get the look, I first painted my nails with OPI MBSW.  Once that was dry, I went outside on my patio and laid down a bunch of newspaper, 'cause this has potential to become extremely messy :)  Then I took a straw, dipped it slightly into the SH Golden-I bottle, positioned it over my nail, and blew into the other end of the straw, making the polish splatter onto the nail :)  It's super simple, and it turns out really cool.  I've seen some people do it with a bunch of neons and it looks amazing!  But I wanted to keep this one classy and simple haha

Excuse the horrible clean up job, Golden-I is like a glitter, so it's pretty hard to get off.

I came away with some regrets, involving the nasty, unforgettable taste of polish, and I also got a huge glob of polish on my phone...
It shows I'll do anything for a cool looking manicure! :)

An Improvement to an Already Awesome Manicure

So, I was desperate to keep my eye-searing neon yellow polish on for a few more days, so I added a glitter gradient to cover up any tip-wear and chips ;)  I used Sinful Colors Frenzy and a triangle makeup sponge.  Not much else to say! :) Enjoy the pictures haha:

Even though I absolutely love the look of glitter, it's a PAIN to remove :P I soaked my fingers in acetone for countless hours (a.k.a. minutes) and ended up with dry fingers.  Oh well, the price of beauty is high :D