31 Day Nail Art Challenge, Day 11, Polka Dots

Since I've done two polka dot-esque manicures already, I decided to do a simple manicure that has polka dots, but not as much as my rainbow one. I saw this over at The Beauty Department and decided to do an even quicker version of it on my nails today. (Instead of adding one and a half rows of dots, I just did the one row underneath.) I really like this version of the french because it is still classy and easy, but has enough flair to be unique. I just put a coat of Sally Hansen hardener on my nails then used Sally Hansen's Xtreme Wear White on for the tips and dots. I hope you enjoy! xx

31 Day Nail Art Challenge, Day 7, Black and White Nails

For today's post I did perhaps one of the easiest nail art designs I've ever done, the plastic wrap technique. Basically, it's where you scrunch up a piece of plastic wrap, put nail polish on the plastic, then dab it onto your computer. A good, short video of it can be found here. For my white base I used Sally Hansen's Xtreme Wear White On, which is a pure white and goes on evenly and has full coverage in two-three coats. All of the polishes in Xtreme Wear seem to have a nice, thick formula in my opinion. For the black I used my Migi Nail Art Black because I felt that it would be better to have a thick formula to put on the plastic wrap so it wouldn't smear as much when I dabbed it on. Overall I like how it turned out, almost abstract in my opinion. To make the manicure a little more interesting I put on Sephora's matte coat to finish it.

I like how my ring finger, pink, and thumb turned out more than my pointer and middle finger. On those two, I think I used to much polish and should have scrunched up the plastic into a smaller ball. I think anybody can get some really awesome designs just playing with the shape and amount of plastic.

Overall I think this is one of the easiest manicures to do and I definitely will be doing this again!

31 Day Nail Art Challenge, Day Two, Orange Nails

So for the second day I decided to use the Wet n Wild 9.0.2.1. Orange. It is a very light, shimmery polish that was completely opaque after three or four coats.I love how it looks in the light and it did dry fairly quickly. On the tips of the nails I wanted to do a "paint drip" effect and used my Migi Nail Art white pen to free hand the design.   

I had kind of wanted a "creamsicle" look and I am pleased with how it turned out. I believe this is a cute summer manicure. What do you think?

Water Marbling

Sorry I haven't posted anything in a long time! Today I have my first full attempt at water marbling. I used instructions and tips that I remembered from various blogs and Pinterest. I started off trying NYC Long Wearing colors Fuchsia Shock and Times Square Tangerine but it didn't spread exactly the way I wanted to. So instead I used two coats of Maybelline's Color Show Go Go Green as a base and used both the green and Sally Hansen's Xtreme Wear White On to do the marbling. Overall I think this was a really good first attempt, but it did take a long time.

By far the one I think turned out the best was my middle finger on my right hand. The white was completely opaque and the design was interesting. 

As for my left hand, the designs weren't as intricate, and the white was a lot more transparent than I would have liked, but I think it still made for a pretty nail design.

Sorry for the polish staining along the cuticles!

Tips I learned while researching and doing water marbling are:

1. WORK FAST! The polishes I used at least seemed to dry quickly and then it becomes much harder to marble the colors together.

2. Use filtered water. I read this somewhere on another blog (I can't think of it at the moment) and it seemed to help the colors spread easier.

3. Don't get too complicated, at least at first. When I tried using the NYC colors I had originally planned to use the green, orange, and pink, and do multiple patterns. Between the lack of spreading and time it took for me to add the colors, I just created a disaster. I think if you master two colors first with simpler designs, then you can build up to those crazy, beautiful designs we all see on the internet. Practice IS perfect.

Tomorrow I think I am going to start a 31 day Nail Art Challenge I found over at http://www.galacticlacquer.com/ and show you a great deal on 8 nail polishes I got from Walgreens!