Holiday Nails #2

So... this tutorial will be skimpy on pictures, because my phone and I were not seeing eye to eye... I told it to email all the pics to myself, and it only emailed one. And by the time I noticed, I'd already deleted the step by step pics. Siiiggghhh... of course.
Hopefully, I'll be able to describe well enough what I did, that it won't matter, and you'll be able to tell what I mean from the finished pics.

First, I painted my nails silver, then added a coat of holographic silver glitter. Nice and shimmery! 

For the Holly, I did the leaves in 5 steps using a stiff calligraphy brush. 

1. I drew a v shape for the inner point of the holly, pointing towards the corner of my nail. 

2. Draw little C shapes from each point of the V, making sure the curves are in towards each other

3. End the shape with another V, this time upside down. 

4. Color in your leaf shape

5. Add a few dots of red paint for the berries

 Next, and the more "fancy" of the two designs is the pine cone & bough. It really isn't a hard design to do, and having a bit of a shaky hand actually comes in handy with this one.
So here are the steps I took to create my little forest
1. I started with the outer corner of the pine cone, with a small dot of brown
2. Draw a small squiggle with the brown over the dot, slightly larger than the dot.
3. Add another squiggle, leaving breaks and uneven spots to simulate the layers of the pine cone, continuing to increase the size of each layer, until the mid point. Then decrease the size of each next layer of squiggle until you end up with a small point again.
4. If you look really closely at the pic, you can see little white squiggles in between the brown squiggles... go in with white, and fill in a few blank spots, to make it look like snow has gathered on the pine cone. It isn't a very "obvious" look, but it just gives it a little more dimension and makes it fun.
5. Here's where a shaky hand really would pay off: draw in a ragged, twisted branch next to the cone.
6. Using some green, draw in whispy little pine needles. I used two colors of green, for a little dimension and interest. I used the light green first, and drew in bundles of 3 pine needles in several places (4, if you're counting). I made them different lengths, thicknesses, etc. Then I did the same with the darker green, typically only putting two little streaks of green. I didn't want to totally cover the lighter color, just provide some interest.

Now just cover it all with a good top coat, and you have some pretty nature-y seasonal nails.

Holiday Nails #1

Holiday parties call for something other than a simple every day sort of nail. This is a time of year where glitzy and festive is in order! So, for my first set of Holiday appropriate nails, I will show you Ornament nails! 

These guys are simple to do, with a few simple tools. I am using a bamboo skewer that I have snipped the tip off of and filed smooth, and a caligraphy brush that I haven't broken down the bristles, they are still stiff except for the last 2 mm, that you can see in the pic slightly bending.
Choose 4, 5, 6, as many colors as you want! I poured small blobs of each of my colors onto my "pallet", which is just another old used CD case.

I started by painting my nails a really cool black with sliver iridescent flecks in it. Then using the bamboo skewer, I began to randomly place different colored dots on my nails, in no particular color pattern, layout, or size. I stuck with mostly round, though none were perfectly round. 

Continue to fill in spaces on your nails, alternating colors on the nails, or making them all the same if you prefer.

Once you've gotten all the little dots you want in place, add little gold or silver "hooks" on each. I used the stiff bristled brush for this, but a toothpick would also work.
I drew a little straight bar at the top (or side) of the ornament, and then a little C shape on top to make a D shaped hook. It is ok if they are crooked, or filled in too much, or too small, or too big. How many ornament hooks have you seen that are perfect?

Once you have all the hooks on your ornaments, cover with a good clear topcoat, and you're done! You now have cute little piles of ornaments to spread cheer wherever you go. 

Showing my right hand, so you can see that even using your non-dominant hand you can accomplish this look easily. (For me, it helps if I hold the brush still with my left hand, and move my right hand below the brush, instead of moving the brush around.)

Merry Christmas to all!

Do-it-yourself Nail Polish colors

I can't go to a store with beauty products without finding at least three new polishes I feel compelled to bring home. However, at anywhere from $5-$15 a pop, my wallet doesn't agree with this strategy.

Luckily, there is always making my own polish colors at home from items you probably already have, or with minimal cost.

Here are the supplies you're going to need:

Small glass bowl

butter knife

paper towels

two bottles of clear nail polish (one new & one half empty is ideal)

scrap paper & tape, or a funnel

wooden skewer or tooth picks

Plus an assortment of eye shadows in colors you don't mind sacrificing to your project

Now all you need is a to have your perfect shade in mind.

1.Pour some of the polish from the new bottle (any inexpensive clear polish will work) into the partially used bottle, making room for your pigment. 

A color I have always liked is a nice pretty Periwinkle Blue. I love the mix of baby blue and lavender, it is such a delicate pretty color. However, I don't have any desire to wear a light blue on my nails (I don't need help looking as pastey as a corpse). So I'm thinking a more grown up version, a little duskier, deeper than your typical Periwinkle. Call it Periwinkle that grew up with attitude.

If you have a shade of shadow that you want to use as is, skip to step 3.

2. If you don't have a shadow the exact shade you want, then you'll need to mix your own pigment. Picking your base color is important. Too dark and you'll never be able to lighten it to suit your tastes, and too light and you'll have to add so much darker pigment you'll end up with too much to fit into your bottle.

Since I am going for a matured version of Periwinkle, I am going to start with some snow white, light silver and a medium blue.

3. Using your butter knife, scrape small amounts of the colors you've chosen into your glass bowl. Don't add too much at first, so you don't end up with too much to use.
Because I know I like my colors multidimensional, I have added an ivory white, two shades of blue, a light purple and an almost black purple to the colors I'd listed above.

4. Using your knife, begin to chop and blend your powders. Crush larger clumps to make sure your end powder is as fine as possible.

5. If the color you have ended up with, isn't to your liking, continue adding more shadow in small batches, and then chop and blend together.

In this example below, my powder was too purple for my liking, so I added a fair amount of a lighter blue than I'd used previously. It took me several adjustments to get to a color I was happy with.

Because I like my colors to be shimmery, I decided to add a small amount of purple super fine glitter, and white fine glitter. I didn't add so much that it will look like a disco ball, but just enough to give it a bit of oomph.  

 This is my final powder product:

6. Take the paper and tape and make a funnel that will fit into the mouth of the polish bottle. (Or a small kitchen funnel works too) 

7. Delicately pour the powder into the funnel slowly. If it gets clogged in the funnel or the neck of the bottle, use a wooden skewer or tooth pick to push it through gently. 

8. Cover the opening with your thumb and shake vigorously! After 30 seconds of shaking, check inside the neck, as a lot of powder typically gets shoved in there. Use your skewer or pick to push it down into the bottle. Recover the opening and shake violently again (PLEASE make sure your thumb is VERY firmly over the hole... I don't think you're planning a paint splatter makeover), and again check the neck. I've found three cycles of this typically is enough to incorporate all of the powder into the polish. At this point, you can add the cap & brush back into the polish, without worry that the powder will crust on the brush. 

And VOILA!!  Your very own "signature you" color. 

If you poured out too much of the clear polish to begin with, or if the polish is a little thick for your liking, pour some of the polish you'd originally poured out back into the bottle, and again shake shake shake! 

See my color!! There isn't much sparkly goodness to it, and not much purple is coming through in the pics, but it is a very cool color that I am very happy with. It isn't exactly what I had in my head, but that is part of the fun. If you look at the reflections, you can see little flecks of purples and lighter blue glinting, which makes the color so much more interesting in my opinion. 

This first pic, is with no clear coat. The second pic has clear coat just on the tip. 

Because this is "homemade", there will probably be a significant amount of separation as the color settles. This is easily remedied each time you use the polish, by shaking vigorously till the color is mixed. The more glitter and heavier pigments you use, the more separation you will have. Adding a few small glass or stainless steel BBs will aid in the mixing. 

If over time, your color gets a little thick and goopy, add a few drops of Acetone and shake. This should thin out the color nicely. 

Happy mixing! 

Butterlfy Wing Nails Tutorial

I am obsessed with painting my nails. I typically re-do them twice each week, sometimes more depending on what I have going on, if I find an idea I just HAVE to try out now, or if my current paint job is chipping or flaking. Because of this, I've been asked to provide tutorials on some of my looks.

There are many pics and tutorials out there with "How-to's" on pretty much everything, so why another tutorial? I think my designs are easy, because I am not a perfectionist, I see the beauty and the fun in little "oops" moments, and because most of what I use you can pick up at any drug store. While I do have a few OPI, and I SWEAR by Seche Vite, most of my products are on the inexpensive end of the spectrum.

So... with that said, let's begin! I am going to start with the manicure that got the request for a tutorial: Butterfly Wings!

Pic of the manicure on my actual hands.

For the tutorial, I have chosen to do the process on a set of fake nails, since I just did the manicure on my own, before tutorial. 

There are two ways to do a Butterfly wing: black first or color first. Today I am going to show you how to start with a dark base, and add color. (If you are going to be using very pale colors that might not cover black easily, then you would want to do the color first, then apply black. That will be a different tutorial)

First step: Pick a dark base color.  I chose a flat charcoal/black that I mixed myself (using LA Colors clear as the base, which I got at the $1 store)

A nice, textured flat black

Next I decided that I wanted some of the nails to have a little bit of sparkle to them (I am a glitter FIEND!)

  

I used Pure Ice Irridescent Glitter

You can see the slight shimmer on the top two nails

Second Step: Choose what colors you want your wings to be. Below I am holding 3 of the many colors I will use. These are bottles of stripping polish, the brushes are long and thin, perfect for nail art. (Sinful Colors runs about $2 per bottle, so very affordable)

If you do not have Stripping polish, or you have colors that you want to use that are do not come in the stripping paint, going to the craft store and buying inexpensive paint brushes are ideal. The two below are my favorites to use, and were less than $3 each.

 Pour a small amount of the color you want to use onto a flat surface, or into a small container. (as you can see, this old CD case is getting a lot of use). Make sure you only pour out a small amount at a time. You don't want the blob to dry out too fast and waste more than necessary.

Pretty light lime green!

Third Step: draw a long tear-drop shaped wegde on one side of the nail. (there are two main ways I draw wings, this is the first way)

Draw a second tear-dropish shape next to your first. 

 Finally, draw a third tear-dropish shape. Remember, this is your wing, there is no "EXACT" way it has to go. It can be an upsidedown tear drop, like I have below, or more angular. Whatever shape looks good to you, and "looks right" is the shape you should go with.

 Second style wing: Start with a wedge of color at the top of the wing

Add your three tear-drops below that wedge.  Make sure there is always at least a little bit of background color showing between each wedge of color, to get the right effect.

 You can always leave your wings a single color, there is no requirement that you use two colors for each wing like I do. Also, there is no reason you have to limit yourself to two colors... make your wings tri-colored, or quadra-colored if that is what makes you happy!

I am, however, going with Bi-colored wings at the moment. So here's how you do that.

Step Five: using one of the stripping colors, or small paint brush, begin to add little swipes of color. I like to add them in the corners, and in this example I made them more like a gradient of color, smoothly fading from blue to green.



If you do not like how much of the second color you put on, go back with your small brush and dab your first color along the edge where the colors meet to blend better.

If you are using stripping colors, it is ok to do all colors on one nail, before moving onto the next. You can get some great marbling effects by layering color on when the first color is still wet.

However, if you are using a small blob of paint you poured out and a paint brush, I would recommend doing all nails that you want with that color, so the paint doesn't dry out between nails.

Sixth Step: Using white paint on your small brush or stripping paint, dot little irregular dots of white in the black space. You can dot only the tip...

 Or anywhere there is a gap between the colors. Vary it up, play with what you think looks best. And remember: the white dots do not have to be perfect! They should vary in size, be oddly shaped, and do not have to be symetrical! Butterflys aren't perfectly symetrical, so your nails don't need to be.

 Last Step: Make sure you follow with a good clear coat. I use Seche Vite... it is fast drying, strong, long lasting... It is one of the FEW things I will pay more than a couple dollars for. It typically runs between $9-10 dollars per bottle, which isn't bad, but I'm typically cheap, so my being willing to pay that for polish means I adore it. 

These yellow and orange nails are a good example of not smoothing out and fading the colors into each other.

The pink and blue nail is a good example of the kind of marbling that can happen when the first color is still wet when the second color is applied.

 

Up close, you can see little color strays, odd mixing of the colors, maybe some "oops" moments... but that's ok, step back, and look at them again. From a distance the colors blend together, and you don't see imperfections, you see beautiful nails.

I hope that this will make it easy for you to do your own Butterfly Wing Nails.