Movember

I wanted to close out Movember with another moustache mani. Really, I just wanted to try it again. 🙂
I used a brush instead of a dotting tool this time and my staches are much smoother.
The polishes for this mani were Jordana Mint Candy and Essie Power Clutch.

Chevron Nail Tutorial

Last week I guest posted on See Sarah Swatch with this awesome chevron mani. I promised a tutorial so here you go.
*Please excuse my dry skin.  I took off one mani and started into the next without moisturizing between.

I started with a white base of Sinful Colors Snow Me White.  The yellow I used is Sinful Colors Unicorn and it takes several coats to get good coverage.  It’s tends to be really streaky if you don’t do 4+ coats so to remedy that I put it over white.  One good coat of Unicorn over Snow Me White was pretty good.

I used some pinking shears to cut lots of small, little strips of scotch tape.  You have to make sure you line your zig zags up when you’re cutting.  Wait until your polish is totally dry before you put tape on it.  If you want to use a fast drying top coat to speed up the process, go for it.  Stick the strip to your hand a few times to get most of the sticky off the tape before you stick it to your nail.  If you use full strength sticky tape, it will likely pull your polish off.  Line the strips up to your liking.  I used tweezers to help with this since the strips were so small.  Press them down firmly and use an orange stick to get into the sides of your nails.

Apply one coat of your second color, blow on your nail for a few seconds and apply another coat to get full coverage.  While your polish is still wet, carefully take your tape off.  Put on your top coat and you’re done!

This is an example of what will happen if your base color is not completely dry before you start sticking tape to it.  Beautiful, right?

I love this chevron mani.  I guess I will have to get myself a pair of pinking shears so I don’t have to borrow them from my neighbor the the next time I want to try this.  The grey polish is Sally Hansen Wet Concrete.  Let me know if you have any questions.

**Check out my other Chevron manicures HERE.

Day 30- 30 Days of Untrieds: China Glaze Phat Santa

Last day of the challenge!  I didn’t anticipate that simply changing my polish every day would be so challenging.  I guess that’s why it’s called a challenge.  I’m happy to have a break from swatching.  I’m ready to do something fun and wear my mani for more than a few hours.

China Glaze Phat Santa:  This was a really thick formula.  It went on really smoothly, but was thicker than your average polish.  This is a good deepish red; not a primary red.

Check out all the others who are joining in:

Taylor at Nailed to the T
Jamie at Nails Adored
Shaina at Haute Lacquer
Nory at Fierce Makeup and Nails
Carly at Lacquered Lover
Thalie at Glazed Talons
Jacki at Adventures in Acetone
Sarah at Lucky Lacquers
Alyssa at Always Polished
Rachel at Cherry Glam Girl
Caroline at Good Lack, Nail!
Caitlin at Something Creative
Ashley at Follow the Yellow Polish Road
Amber at The Polished Momma
Andrea at Addicted to the Allure of Beauty
Ingie at Limited Addiction Nails
Lindsay at Nailtopia
Alexandria at Je T’aime Lacquer
Chelsea at Pretty and Polished
Natalie at Gems in a Bottle
Gwen at Pudgy Nails
Caroline at Shadow’s Nail Art

Splatter Tutorial

When I guest posted over at Nailed: A Nail Polish Blog last week, I promised a tutorial on how I did my splatter nails.  Well, here it is!

First paint your nails your chosen base color.  I painted my nails white.  I didn’t worry too much about them being super opaque because it was going to be covered up.

I dripped my colors into my palate.  I used a regular old fountain drink straw cut into thirds (just so I wasn’t wasteful.)  I taped my fingers off like I would for a water marble.  I didn’t want polish splattered all over my hand so I took a latex glove, cut the finger tips off and put it on.

To keep the splatter from getting all over the place, I took a small cardboard box and kind of cut it open so I could basically put my hand in it (like a back drop.)  Actually getting the splatter to hit my nail was the hard part.  You can see from the box that there was plenty of splattering going on, but my nail is such a small target that I kept missing.  I did find it difficult to actually get the polish to splat off the end of the straw.  Quick, powerful bursts of air seemed to work the best.  It seemed like I wasted a lot of polish to try to get my nail covered.  I’ve since tried the splatter again with a coffee straw and didn’t really notice much improvement.  Like with my water marbles, while the polish was still wet I took the point of my shish kabob skewer and ran it all the way around the edge of my nail to get the polish that was flooding the sides and cuticle of my nails.  It helps with the clean up.

When I took off the tape I wasn’t sure I was actually going to post these pictures.  What a mess.  I got out my trusty cotton swabs and acetone and started cleaning.  Once I got a top coat on it I was pleasantly surprised.  I really quite like it.

See all the purple at the tip of my index finger?  That’s where a giant glob of polish landed on my nail and I tried to fix it.  The giant purple spot on my pinkie is camouflaged a bit, but that’s where I accidentally blew the straw right out of my hand and it hit my nail.

Precision is not a word I would use to describe a splatter mani.  Although messy, this was a pretty easy mani to do.  Leave a comment if you have any questions, tips of your own to add or if I’ve missed anything.

The colors I used for this mani were Sinful Colors Snow Me White, WnW Buffy the Violet Slayer, Orly Terracotta and Sinful Colors Happy Ending.

Day 29- 30 Days of Untrieds: OPI Uh-Oh Roll Down the Window

O.P.I. Uh-Oh Roll Down the Window:  This is an awesome green.  My sister bought it a while back and I liked it so much I had to get my own bottle.  You know what’s funny?  It’s the exact same color as the accent wall in my bedroom.  Exactly.  Like I could use it to touch up nail holes.  It’s kind of an olive, army green.  The pictures are pretty true to the actual color.  Despite what the name of the color may lead you to believe; it doesn’t smell. 😉

 

Check out all the others who are joining in:

Taylor at Nailed to the T
Jamie at Nails Adored
Shaina at Haute Lacquer
Nory at Fierce Makeup and Nails
Carly at Lacquered Lover
Thalie at Glazed Talons
Jacki at Adventures in Acetone
Sarah at Lucky Lacquers
Alyssa at Always Polished
Rachel at Cherry Glam Girl
Caroline at Good Lack, Nail!
Caitlin at Something Creative
Ashley at Follow the Yellow Polish Road
Amber at The Polished Momma
Andrea at Addicted to the Allure of Beauty
Ingie at Limited Addiction Nails
Lindsay at Nailtopia
Alexandria at Je T’aime Lacquer
Chelsea at Pretty and Polished
Natalie at Gems in a Bottle
Gwen at Pudgy Nails
Caroline at Shadow’s Nail Art