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 :)

Tutorial Tuesday: Candy Cane

So sorry I've been slacking on the tutorials, I am having a lot of problems with my phone and that's what I use to take photos & watermark my tutorials :(

I wanted to do something fun and simple for the holidays, so this week's tutorial will be for Candy Cane design.

**There are TWO ways you can do this pattern.**

- One would be to hand-paint the stripes with a brush, and that's what this tutorial will explain.

- If you don't have a steady hand with a striper brush, another option would be to do a diagonal tape manicure using a white base and red polish over the tape!  My tutorial for the Tape manicure can be found here!

image via

How To Choose Colors For This Design:

I went with a typical red & white, but you could get creative and try to emulate one of the colorful candy canes!

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

- Nail color - Sally Hansen Insta-Dri "Whirlwind White"
- Stripe Color - red nail art striping brush

- 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.

 

Step 1:

Apply 2 coats of base color & allow to dry

 Step 2:
Begin painting your stripes on a diagonal.
I chose to start as close to the cuticle as possible.
You can do all thick stripes, or you can alternate between thick & thin.
Thicker stripes will be easier but if you are comfortable working with a nail art striper brush,
try to challenge yourself & alternate with thin stripes too!

 Step 3:
Make sure you have equal amounts of space in between your stripes.
If you are alternating thick & thin stripes, you can do 1 thick and 2 or 3 thin, since this is a very common pattern!

 Step 4:
Continue your pattern, spacing it out as evenly as you can, until you fill up the whole nail & top it off with your favorite topcoat.  Clean up cuticles for that extra finishing touch!
  
If you want to try this as a tape manicure instead of hand-painting the stripes, here is my tape manicure tutorial
Enjoy :)

Tutorial Tuesday: French Manicure

I've been very busy this week so I chose something simple and practical for this week's Tutorial Tuesday..  
French Manicure!
This French mani will be done in almost the exact same manner as the Half-Moon Mani and will require the use of paper reinforcement stickers.

You can purchase these at any office supply store, and I've even seen them at dollar stores.

How To Choose Colors For This Design:

Any colors your little heart desires!
Just make sure the tip color is opaque enough to cover the base nail color!

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

- Nail color - LeChat UV gel "Midnight Pearl" with Young Nails "Funkadelic" glitter
- Tip color - Spoiled "Visually Slimming"

- 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.

Step 1:

Take a circle sticker and stick it to the palm of your hand.  Remove it, and re-stick it 4 or 5 times.  

This is to reduce the stickiness of the tape and makes it much easier to peel off of your nails later on.

 Step 2:

Apply 2 coats of the base color and allow to dry.

You can use any brand of fast-drying top coat to speed up this process.

Don't worry too much about being super neat, you can remove excess polish from your cuticles later.

**It is VERY important to allow all polish to dry before applying the tape over it, otherwise the polish will get stuck to the tape and come off**

Step 3:

Gently  apply the circle stickers.  

Place the top half of the circle near the free edge of the nail, the bottom half of the circle should be over the rest of your nail. (You can click the photo to enlarge & see it better.)

I aimed for approximately 1/6th of my nail. 

You can do more or less, depending on how big you want your French tips to be!

The nail naturally curves, so the sticker might need to be adjusted a bit near the free edge.

*Try to avoid any bubbles near the edges of the tape because the top color could get into the bubble and you'll have to start all over!*

 Step 4:

Beginning at the outermost edge of the circle sticker, paint 1 or 2 coats of the French tip color over the base nail color.

It's better to paint a tiny bit over the sticker this way your edge will be clean.  

You can click the photo to enlarge & see a little better.

 Step 5:

Gently  peel the sticker off once the tip color is mostly dry.

Be very careful not to rip it off too quickly, or the polish could come right off.

Also, be careful if the polish is still very wet on the top of the sticker, it could get onto your base color.

Use a new sticker for each nail, since there will be wet polish on the used ones.

Step 6: 

(Forgot to take a pic sorry!)

If necessary, clean up cuticles using polish remover & a brush.

Top it all off with your favorite top coat.

And there ya go!

Simple & easy French Mani :)

For all past Tutorials click here

Tutorial Tuesday: "Liquid Sand"

This week's tutorial is for the newest upcoming nail texture trend called "Liquid Sand".

About 2 weeks ago Opi's Facebook page announced their new Mariah Carey x Opi collection called "Liquid Sand" to be released in January.

 image via

I've found a way to get the look before it even hits stores!!

 How To Choose Colors For This Design:

Any color will work, but if you want the texture to be more noticeable, try to choose a lighter color.

Suggested Materials:

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

- Salt! Sounds weird but it works.  I used some fine grain Sea Salt from the supermarket

- Base coat - Seche Clear

- Top coat - Seche Vite

- Clear polish of any brand, as long as it is NOT a fast-drying topcoat - Sally Hansen Diamond Strength "Flawless"

- Nail color - L'Oreal "Butterfly Kisses"

- 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.

 Step 1:
Before you begin polishing, pour the sea salt into a clean bowl and keep it near by!

 Step 2:
Apply 2 coats of your nail color and allow to dry.

Step 3:
Apply a fairly thick coat of clear polish to one  nail.
*Do not use fast dry topcoat, you want the nail polish to remain wet for now.*
*Make sure you do this step one nail at a time*
Press your finger down firmly into the sea salt.
Make sure you have a decent amount stuck to your finger.

Step 4:
While the clear coat is still wet, quickly place the sea salt on your entire nail.
Use a firm, patting motion while applying the sea salt.
Apply as many layers as you can, until the salt begins to look dry.

 Step 5:
All of your nails should be covered, and your nails will look a little dry or dull.
Make sure to shake off any excess salt.
Once your clear polish seems to be dry, you can gently brush off any large clumps on the edges of your nail.

 Step 6:
Evenly apply your favorite top coat.
Make sure the top coat is covering all of salt, so that it's "sealed" onto your nail.

 Step 7:
This final step is completely optional, but it will really help to achieve a neat & clean looking mani.

You can use either a small paintbrush or cotton swab, dip it in nail polish remover, and use it to remove any excess polish on your cuticles and skin.

Be careful not to use too much remover, otherwise you will risk ruining your mani.

 Here's the final product!

If you have sealed the salt correctly and you're not too hard on your nails,
this mani will hold up for at least 4 or 5 days!

I tested it out and it was able to withstand being submerged in water such as hand washing, dishes, bathing, etc.

*Disclaimer: This texture can be a little rough so be careful!!  Especially while picking your nose ;) * 

For all past Tutorials click here

Tutorial Tuesday: Blood Drip Nails (Perfect for Halloween!)

This week's tutorial is for Blood Drip nails.

I wanted to do something simple yet spooky so you can try it out for Halloween.

These nails are popping up everywhere, and I can see why!  They are the perfect combination of scary & sexy.

I've seen them done dripping down from the cuticle or dripping from the tip of the nail.

I chose to do it dripping from the tip of the nails so it looks like I just clawed someone :)

How To Choose Colors For This Design:

I've seen this commonly done with clear coat as the base color and only using red polish, but I chose to use a neutral base color.  Either way, it looks great.

Suggested Materials:

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

- Base coat - Seche Clear

- Top coat - Seche Vite

- Base color - Essie "Sand Tropez"

- Any brand of red nail art striping brush - I used red acrylic paint & striping brush
- Nail dotting tool (optional)

- 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.

 Step 1:

Apply 2 coats of base color and allow to dry.

 Step 2:
You have a few options here.
You can either use a nail dotting tool, the edge of a regular polish brush or a nail striping brush.
Using any of these methods, make a few large dots across the top half of your nail.
Varying sizes works best!

 Step 3:
Using the nail art striping brush, begin to round out your dots and pull them towards the end of the nail, making an elongated teardrop shape.
Try to keep these lines fairly thin if you can.

 Step 4:
If you are comfortable enough working with the nail art striping brush, you can make smaller teardrops in between the larger ones.
If you're not great at using the striping brush, you can skip this step :)

 Step 5:
Using the nail art striping brush, begin to connect the elongated lines of the teardrop shapes.
I did this by making a U shape that connected from line to line.

Step 6:
 Fill in the rest of the tip of the nail with red.

Step 7: (Forgot to take a picture!)

This final step is completely optional, but it will really help to achieve a neat & clean looking mani.

You can use either a small paintbrush or cotton swab, dip it in nail polish remover, and use it to remove any excess polish on your cuticles and skin.

Be careful not to use too much remover, otherwise you will risk ruining your design.

Finish off with your favorite top coat and you're done!

For all past Tutorials click here!

Tutorial Tuesday: Zebra Print

This week's featured tutorial, by popular request, is zebra print.

How To Choose Colors For This Design:

Typically bright or lighter colors work best as the base.  Anything that the black stripes will show up well against.  I also chose to do an accent nail with silver sparkles, but that's totally optional!

Suggested Materials:

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

- Base coat - Seche Clear

- Top coat - Seche Vite

- Base color - Sinful Colors "Fusion Neon"

- Any brand of black nail art striping brush
- Accent nail color - Opi "Crown Me Already!" (optional)

- 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.

 Step 1:

Apply 2 coats of base color and allow to dry.

 Step 2:

Using the nail art striping brush, start from the outer edge of the nail and pull a line inwards.

The line should be thicker on the outer edge and thinner towards the middle.

I also find it easier to start in the middle of the nail and work outwards, this way you don't run out of room quickly.

 Step 3:

Using alternating directions, begin to pull lines above and below the first stripe.

If you want to, you can just repeat these steps until the nail is done.

If you are comfortable working with the striping brush, proceed to the next step. 

 Step 4:

To make your zebra print look a little more realistic, you can start varying your stripes.

You can do some imperfect sideways V or Y stripes, or pull some stripes completely across the nail.

 Step 5:

Continue working towards the top and bottom edges, using slightly smaller and shorter lines, until the nail is full.

 Step 6:

This final step is completely optional, but it will really help to achieve a neat & clean looking mani.

You can use either a small paintbrush or cotton swab, dip it in nail polish remover, and use it to remove any excess polish on your cuticles and skin.

Be careful not to use too much remover, otherwise you will risk ruining your design.

 Finish off with a top coat, and you're done!

For all past Tutorials click here

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 :)

Tutorial Tuesday: Half-Moon Mani

This week's featured tutorial is the half-moon mani.

The half-moon manicure actually was very popular from the 1920's to the 1940's and has recently made a comeback.  Who doesn't love a modern twist on a vintage style!?

This was my first attempt, and even though these colors are so not something I'd typically choose, I'm happy with the outcome.  Very fall-like. 

The half-moon mani is done in a very similar fashion as last week's tape mani, except instead of scotch tape, we will be using the small circle paper-reinforcement stickers.  They can be found at any office supply store.

How To Choose Colors For This Design:

You have a lot of artistic freedom with a half-moon mani, since nothing really has to coordinate.  

You can do similar colors, you can do completely different colors, use the same color but matte and glossy, neons, neutrals, glitters.  In the 1930s & 40s it was very popular to leave the half moon of the nail natural, and only paint the tip. There's lots of options!

Suggested Materials:

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

- Base coat - Seche Clear

- Top coat - Seche Vite

- Top color - Essie "Sew Psyched"

- Half-moon Base color - Essie "Love and Acceptance"

- Circle paper-reinforcement stickers

- 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 on 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 deep ridges with a buffer

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

• To make things easier to find (and because I'm super neurotic) I always set up my polishes in the order that they will be used.

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

Step 1:

Take a circle sticker and stick it to the palm of your hand.  Remove it, and re-stick it 4 or 5 times.  

This is to reduce the stickiness of the tape and makes it much easier to peel off of your nails later on.  

Step 2:

Apply 2 coats of the base color and allow to dry.

If you are using a light and dark color for this mani, try to use the lighter color as the base.  Most light colors tend to be less opaque and will not cover a dark color very well!

Don't worry too much about being super neat, you can remove excess polish from your cuticles later.

**It is VERY important to allow all polish to dry before applying the tape over it, otherwise the polish will get stuck to the tape and come off**

Step 3:

Gently  apply the circle stickers.  

Place the top half of the circle over the bottom of your nail and cuticle, and the bottom half of the circle should be over your finger. (You can click the photo to enlarge & see it better.)

I aimed to cover approximately 1/4th of my nail length. 

You can do more or less, depending on how big you want your half-moons to be!

The nail naturally curves, so the sticker might need to be adjusted a bit near the cuticle.

*Try to avoid any bubbles near the edges of the tape and cuticle, because the top color could get into the bubble and you'll have to start all over!*

Step 4:

Beginning at the outermost edge of the circle sticker, paint 1 or 2 coats of the top color over the base color.

It's better to paint a tiny bit over the sticker this way your edge will be clean.  You can click the photo to enlarge & see a little better.

Step 5:

Gently  peel the tape off once the top color is mostly dry.

Be very careful not to rip it off too quickly, or the polish could come right off.

Also, be careful if the polish is still very wet on the top of the sticker, it could get onto your base color.

Step 6:

This final step is completely optional, but it will really help to achieve a neat & clean looking mani.

You can use either a small paintbrush or cotton swab, dip it in nail polish remover, and use it to remove any excess polish on your cuticles and skin.

Be careful not to use too much remover, otherwise you will risk ruining your design.

If you opt for the brush, be sure to use brushstrokes in the same direction; don't "swish" the brush around because it tends to spread excess polish around rather than remove it.

Finish off with a top coat, and here's the final product!

I feel like a classy lady.

I will definitely be trying other color combinations with this, since it was so easy.

For all past Tutorials click here