Mermaid Nails!

The other day I was playing around after I had been snowed in. Leaving work early put me in an awesome inspired mood so play around with my polish and stamping. So I did Mermaid Nails for the first time. It didn't come out as perfect as I wanted it to but I still liked the result. I used China Glaze Highlight of My Summer & Too Yacht to Handle, and Essie In the Cab-Ana for the gradient. Color Club Under the Misteltoe for the glitter. Let's just talk about the glitter for a second. It is absolutely beautiful! So much holo glitter, they were so sparkly I didn't want to take it off! I'll be redoing them again eventually when my nails grow back, but they were fun to do. I stamped the scales with Konad black stamping polish and a plate from Amazon. 

Day 22: Studs!

Happy Wednesday! ♥ I hope everyone is having an awesome week! I have been doing a nail art challenge on Instagram and I thought I'd share my mani for today, because I absolutely am in love with it. Today's theme was STUDS so of course I used gold circular studs. I used Essie Bahama Mama with Orly Ingenue on top for my pinky and middle accent. I really love these so much. They two colors blended together so amazingly. ♥ 

Zoya Blaze!

Have you ever had a polish so pretty that you never wanted to take it off? Yeah? Well you get how I'm feeling right now about Zoya Blaze. Let me start off saying that Zoya is in my Top 3 favorite brands. I haven't had a bad formula yet, and the Pixie Dust is so amazingly pretty. I am definitely a Zoya girl! Hahaha, anyway I'm just sharing some swatches. I got this polish for $9.95 on Amazon, which is kind of pricey considering they run $7 at ULTA and other retail stores.

It's a beautiful red/raspberry polish with lots of holographic glitter. It's not completely holographic but in the sunlight you will see some holo goodness. This polish is so sparkly and pretty I cannot stop looking at my nails.

Matte Black with Roses!

This post is long overdue, but my desktop computer has a potential virus and kept restarting while I uploaded pictures to my blog. I have about three more posts to work on but it takes so long to do on my iPad. :\ Oh well, anyway! This will be a tutorial for the manicure I did a while ago on Instagram. Also let me say this: I reached over 350 followers on Instagram, received two features, and I got over 100 likes on a couple of my pictures! These milestones make me so proud of myself and my hard work. I love what I do, and it's amazing how far I've come. From having crusty nubs, to beautiful nails - learning from wonderful role models on IG, etc. I just wanted to say thanks to everyone for the support. ♥

First gather your materials! You'll need:

- Your favorite base and fast dry top coat 

- Matte top coat

- Base color (black)

- Light & dark blue (or whatever color) and a white polish

- Clean up brush

- Medium Dotting tool

- Small detail brush

- Acetone 

- Cuticle oil (optional)

STEP 1

- Make sure your nails are clean of oil and lotions and apply your favorite base coat. 

STEP 2 

- Apply one (or two) coats of your base color to your nail. Pictured is one coat of OPI Black Onyx. Clean up around nail and cuticle if need be. 

STEP 3 

- Take the medium side of your dotting tool, and make five dots for the flower with the darker blue polish. I used Sally Hansen Pacific Blue. Put as many flowers as you'd like, big or small. 

STEP 4

- Take your detail brush (I got mine from Winstonia on Amazon) and make tiny "C" shapes in your flowers. Also outline the outside petals with the lighter blue polish. I used China Glaze Bahamian Escape. 

STEP 5

- Take the white polish and outline the lighter blue polish to kind of highlight the rose. Add as much as you'd like. 

STEP 6

- Add a quick dry top coat. I used Seche Vite because I needed a coat and ran out of HK Girl.

(Optional: add green leaves to your roses) 

STEP 7

- Add your matte top coat. OPI Matte Top Coat smears so terribly, so using a topcoat before reduces smearing. Once dry you have a beautiful manicure! 

End result! A beautiful manicure that is as easy as it looks.

The OPI matte topcoat is so nice and I love it. Without a topcoat underneath, you'll have potential major streaking of your nail art. I learned that wonderful trick from Sabrina (@sabrinasnails) on Instagram! Using a matte topcoat is really life changing ahaha, you just want to mattify everything. Hope you guys enjoyed my blog post!

Chevrons! Nail Vinyls VS. Scotch Tape

Hello all! Today I am reviewing Nail Vinyl's! You can buy these cute nail decals from the Nail Vinly website, although she is sold out right now since they're in such high demand! :) Anyway I purchased 300 regular chevrons and they are cute as a button. You can place them on your nails or paint over them to achieve the chevron look on your nails.

I used to use craft scissors to make chevrons, but they never made the triangle portion "pointy". The scissors cut dull in the scotch tape and still made a chevron shape, but it was more curvy. In this tutorial I'm going to show you how to make a chevron with both tape and the nail vinyl's also to show you the difference. This tutorial is not perfect, the lines are messy - I just did this so you'd get the idea. ♥

Collect your materials. You'll need:

- Nail Vinlys

- Chevron craft scissors

- Base and Top coat

- Scotch tape

- Acetone and clean up brush

- Black and white polish (for monochrome look)

STEP 1

- Apply your favorite base coat.

STEP 2

- Apply your base color. I used a one coat of a white polish and cleaned up around the edges. Apply fast dry top coat so that it can dry completely and quickly. If your polish is still wet and you apply vinyl/tape it will ruin your design.

STEP 3

- While I waited for my nails to dry I took my craft scissors and cut three little strips for the comparison. Then gathered my nail vinyls.

As you can see there is a distinct difference in the methods. The nail vinyl is completely pointy and very sticky. It's much better than the scotch tape I was using. It's wavy like, and semi-sticky.

STEP 4

- After my nails completely dried, I applied the vinyls and tape to my middle and ring finger.

STEP 5

- Paint one coat of black polish over the nail.

STEP 6

- Remove the vinlys and tape from your nails slowly while the PAINT IS STILL WET. I had a lot of problem with that. My Black Onxy by OPI was wayyy too thick and it made the polish stick to the vinyls and cause stringys. After some thinner I got the hang of it and removing it while the paint is wet is so crucial. If the paint it dry it will keep the stickers and tape stuck to your nail.

STEP 7 

- Add your favorite top coat and you're done! (I forgot cuticle oil in these pictures) 

Overall, I love the nail vinyls and when they restock I will be buying more chevrons and also lightning bolts for a different design. They're very helpful and who doesn't love a chevron to complete a manicure? ♥

Stamping!

Happy Thursday again! This is a stamping tutorial to follow up with my post on Instagram tonight! This is really my first time stamping. I had so much trouble with the Konad stamper but I have found salvation! I bought a sticky stamper from Winstonia that I got on Amazon. It literally picks up alot of polishes and especially Konad stamping polish. It's amazing! Anyway this is my quick tutorial for anyone wondering how I did my mani tonight. It's not the best because of course, I need more practice but I am proud! 

List of things you'll need:

- Acetone and brush for clean up 

- Stamper and scraper

- Stamping plate with design of choice

- Base coat and top coat

- Base color

- Stamping polish or any polish/color you'd like to use!

- And maybe a napkin underneath to catch the mess. 

STEP 1: Make sure your stamper is clean of any old polish and for this stamper, any lint! It literally is sticky. You can use a lint roller or a piece of tape to get any lint. 

STEP 2: Apply base coat.

STEP 3: Apply base color. 

STEP 4: This is when you want to start working quickly but carefully. Apply the polish to the desired image. 

STEP 5: Get your scraper ready 

STEP 6: Scrape your polish off and on to the napkin. (See where it may get messy :]) 

STEP 7: Roll your stamper gently on to the image. See how flawless it picked up that image! This stamper is literally the shiz! 

STEP 8: Using the same gentle rolling motion you used to pick up the image, gently roll it on your nail after you have aligned it with your nail. (I'm sorta of off but it's okay) (Also my cuticle is so ashy from acetone I used to clean up the white) lmao. 

STEP 9: Clean off your stamper again with a lint roller or like I used tape. I haven't used acetone on it because I'm scared it'll take away the sticky-ness, but if you're brave then go for it! 

STEP 10: Add topcoat (and in my case some cuticle oil) and BOOM! Gorgeous manicure in no time. 

Stamping is truly amazing. I thought it would be much harder but with that sticky stamper it is literally my new favorite thing to do. I love it to pieces and I'm buying tons of new plates and stamping polishes from Amazon to play with. Hope you guys enjoyed my post!