Tutorial: Leopard Print

This week's tutorial is easy & simple Leopard Print nails!

How To Choose Colors For This Design:

You can use any colors you'd like!  I chose 2 bright contrasting colors and then a black for the outside borders of the spots.

Suggested Materials:

ANY brand is fine, listed below are the ones used for this particular mani

- Base coat - Seche Clear

- Fast dry top coat - Seche Vite

- China Glaze "Turned Up Turquoise"
- Sinful Colors "Fusion Neon" (pink)
- Spoiled "Visually Slimming" (black)

- Nail dotting tool, such as the ones pictured above.  (image via)

- A clean, small paintbrush or cotton swabs, for cleaning the cuticles afterwards (optional)

- Nail polish remover (optional)

Before You Begin Painting Your Design:

These steps are optional, but definitely recommended!

- Put down some paper towels in your work area, in case of any spills.

- Be sure to remove any old nail polish.

- Gently file nails into desired shape and remove any ridges with a buffer.

- Push back cuticles with a cuticle pusher or orange wood stick and trim if desired.

- Apply a base coat to protect from potential staining from color polish; wait for it to dry completely.

 **- If you have never worked with a dotting tool before, you might want to practice by putting some drops of polish on a piece of wax paper, and do a few test dots on the paper before moving on to your nails!!**

Step 1:

Apply 2 coats of base color & allow to dry 

 Step 2:

Using the largest nail dotting tool you have, create large spots on your nail with the second color.

You can do the entire nail or just part of the nail, that is up to you!

Step 3:

Using the smallest dotting tool you have, use the black polish to create borders around the color spots.

The best way to do this is to do a bunch of small overlapping dots right next to each other, forming a curved line down each side of the large spot.

Step 4:

Using the small dotting tool still, fill in any blank areas with tiny black dots.

This works best if you do almost a triangle of small overlapping dots.

 

Step 5:

If necessary, carefully clean up cuticles using polish remover & a small paint brush or cotton swabs.

Top it all off with your favorite top coat!

Here's the final product!

I simply alternated the base color and spot colors :)

Fashion Inspired: "Neon & Nude"

 I typically hate nude colors on myself but..

I was inspired by a recent post by my BFF Cassi over at the fashion blog The Granny Treatment!

She was discussing the fashion trend of mixing nudes and neons, and it just so happens to be a fabulous combination!

image via

She also mentioned that if you don't want to dedicate your entire outfit to this trend, it could me really cute as a mani!

Well here is what I came up with.

Colors used:

Nude - "Sand Tropez" by Essie

Purple - "Dream On" by Sinful Colors

Yellow - "Yell-Oh!" by Color Club 

Blue - "Aquamarine" by Sinful Colors

Pink - "Fusion Neon" by Sinful Colors

Orange - "Orange Knockout (Neon)" by China Glaze

Tried to do it as a tape mani but it was not cooperating so I ended up hand painting the chevron -_-

I absolutely LOVE this color combo!

 It's totally perfect to get into the mood of springtime :)

Would you rock nude & neons?

Teach Me Something Thursday: Ikat Patterned Nails

My friend Michele from shortgirllongisland has a fun feature on her blog called "Teach Me Something Thursday".  

She had asked me a few weeks ago if I'd like to do a special nail art tutorial exclusively for her blog, and of course I was more than happy to oblige! 

I did ikat patterned nail art, which is a lot of fun and pretty easy to do.

Ikats are patterned textiles and fabrics produced by tying and resist-dying threads before weaving, similar in process to tie-dying.

**For the full tutorial, check out Michele's feature Teach Me Something Thursday: Volume Four **

There was a bit of a glare indoors so I ventured outside to get another photo :)

Half-Moon Mani: Round 2

Yesterday's half-moon mani colors were just too... old ladyish for me.

I decided to re-do them this morning.

This time, I opted for a matte graphite color by China Glaze called "Stone Cold" as the half-moon base color. (I reviewed and swatched  it not too long ago)

On the rest of the nail, I used China Glaze "Liquid Leather" which is a very shiny patent leather black.

I also topped off the black with a coat of Seche Vite to make it extra shiny so the matte of the half-moon stands out even more.

I can actually see my reflection in the sleek black shinyness!

I like this look much better.  It's more sultry and modern, but still has a classy vintage appeal.

My First Custom Press-on Nail Sets!

So here are my first 3 sets of custom press-on nails!!

Pretty much did whatever came to mind.

This was my favorite set!! 

Mixed hand painted designs & 3D acrylic bows.. it's actually challenging to come up with 12 different designs using only 4 colors.

Simple zig zag tape mani done using my new China Glaze polishes :)

This one was hard to photograph.  If you click on picture you can see it a bit better.

Sponge gradient "ombre" and multicolor glitter topcoat, reminds me of a sunset.

So what's the verdict... Would you be able to look past the stigma of press-on nails and wear one of my custom nail sets?

Haul, Review, Swatch & The Return of Press-On's!

Just a small haul of nail products:

A couple of recent purchases I've made and wanted to share with you :)

From left to right they are: Ulta brand turquoise sparkle in a clear base,  Two of the China Glaze colors from the "Capitol Colors" collection which was based on The Hunger Games.  Each color represented a different district.  They were also on clearance, so why not?  The polish on the right is a color that I purchased years ago and absolutely loved, so I repurchased.  

And last but not least, those things at the bottom are... blank PRESS-ON NAILS! 

But don't worry, these aren't your typical 1980's lame press-on's.  I've purchased blank ones because I'm going to be hand painting them and I plan on selling them on Etsy :)

A brief review of these polishes:

(From left to right)

-Ulta "Love Fern" - Clear base with small turquoise glitter and slightly larger turquoise sparkles.  One thick coat, barely any sparkles showed up.  I'm actually disappointed with this polish & will be returning it.

-China Glaze "Stone Cold" - Represents the masonry of District 2.  It's a gunmetal gray sparkle, but actually dries matte.  It reminds me a lot of a slate or graphite.  I don't usually like matte colors, but this is beautiful.  If you want to add a top coat, it looks a bit darker and the sparkles really stand out.  One coat is all that's necessary with this color.

-China Glaze "Turned Up Turquoise" - Had to use 2 coats of this, otherwise it's a bit patchy.  Beautiful turquoise color but it dries very matte & flat.  Once you add top coat it's quite brilliant and sparkly!

-China Glaze "Smoke and Ashes"- Photos just don't do this color any justice..  it's a beautiful glossy black with speckles of a dark bluish green.  Represents the coal mining of District 12.  Only needed one coat.

Press-on's have made a major comeback!  I prefer to call them "prefabricated" because it sounds fancy, but let's face it.. they're press-on's.  

Many people like them because they're quick and easy, especially for those who are.. nail polish challenged, and they won't damage your natural nails!  You can use adhesive tabs (which never  worked for me) or you can use nail glue.  If you are careful when you remove them, you can even re-use the same pair.  

I plan on painting a set tonight and will post some photos tomorrow :)