Cuddly Critters

I have seen many manicures online with cute creature faces, and wanted to give it a go with putting my twist on it. I didn't take step by step pics, because I wasn't sure how it would turn out. And I'm glad I didn't, because I'm less than thrilled with the outcome. I am posting anyways, just to show that even someone who does their nails all the time and is at least at an intermediate skill level can have flops.

 They didn't turn out bad, just not as cute as I had imagined in my mind.

Mr. Giraffe definitely looks a little... um... wonky.
Part of it is because I wasn't using the right sized brush.  And part of it is just because.

I think Mr. Hippopotamus is my favorite. 

4th o'July Polka Dots

I know I'm posting just a few days late, but better late than never, right?

For the 4th I just did simple polka dots. Nothing complicated, but fun nonetheless.

Being new to Idaho, I didn't know what to expect of the holiday around here. What I wasn't expecting was the volume and saturation of fireworks displays in each neighborhood. It was a constant cacophony of booms, pops, whistles, hisses, snaps and cracks, that lasted for many hours with no lull in the sound. 

Oddly though, throughout the night I didn't hear any sirens. 

I hope everyone's 4th was safe and a celebration worthy of our independence. 

Tequila Summer Sunset Nails

I decided that I wanted something summery, but different than the polka dots I often do. A fabulous summery drink is a Tequila Sunrise, and I love the colors, but wanted to incorporate purple, so decided why can't I have a Tequila Sunset?

I decided to use this as a great time to test base colors also. Many of us who are "into" the whole nail art thing emphasize base color importance, and I wanted to see if it always makes much of a difference. 

So, on my left hand, each nail is painted a different base color. (1 coat each, except the pinkie which is 2 coats)

Thumb = China Glaze Avalance - a nice gunmetal charcoal color

Pointer = some old, random, obscure brand in Silver - a nice metallic opaque silver

Middle = Sinful Colors Snow Me White - a very opaque white

Ring =  Salley Hansen Insta-Dri In A Flash - a shimmery, white-ish nude

Pinkie = Wet'n'Wild megalast Sugar Coat - a slightly pinkish nude, no shimmer or sparkle

Once my nails are dry, it is time to move onto the coloring!
Take a regular makeup sponge, and dip it into water to get the sponge damp. Dry off the outside of the sponge. This is to help the paint not dry up so quickly on the sponge.
Paint a stripe of each color you want on your nail, onto the sponge.

Dab or roll the sponge onto the nail to apply paint. You can tape off around your nails, or apply Vaseline around your nails to make less of a mess, or to be lazy like me just paint on your fingers and clean it up later.

This is one dab/roll across each nail. I reapply a small amount of paint to the sponge between each nail.
If you like the base paint peeking through, or like the lighter more pastel color scheme, you can stop here, apply some top coat and be done.

I would like my colors more vibrant, so I will do another dab/roll cycle for each nail. This tends to make the colors blend just a little more, and they are much more bright. Wait at least a few minutes between each coat, otherwise the sponge will pick up as much paint as it is laying down.

Once my nails are colored to my liking, I use a Q-Tip dipped in acetone to removed the color from around my nails.

To protect the color, I added a quick dry clear coat.

I thought the nails still needed a little more, so I added some iridescent glitter polish.

I really can't see any difference in the outcomes of each nail. So in this instance, the base color didn't really matter.
On my right hand I didn't use a base color at all, and the results are the same. So if you're going to make your colors dark, and opaque, the base color is optional. The results do look a bit different, and that is because the nails of my right hand are shorter than those on my left, and there wasn't as much room to get as much purple on there.

These are the colors I used for this manicure
Mabelline = Plum Paradise
Sinful Colors = Cream Pink
Salley Hensen Insta-Dri = Lightening
Pure Ice = Don't You Wish

Made for Summer: Yellow Polka Dot Bikinis

Today is to be the start of the hottest week of the year so far. Over the next six days the temp will increase from 98 today, peaking at about 106 on Tuesday.
With such hot weather, minds turn to stereotypical sunny, summery things to keep cool. And what better personifies that than the itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow polka dot bikini? Well, I don't have a pool, and I'm not about to prance around at a public pool in that sort of get-up, so what's a girl to do in order to channel that vibe, without inspiring recitations from Moby Dick?
Yellow Polka Dotted nails of course!

To break it up and add a little pop, I painted an accent nail hot pink. I used yellow for the polka dots on the pink, using two different sizes of dots just to keep it different. 

And what is another thing that inspires cool thoughts on a hot day? A Sonic Strawberry Fruit Slush! 

Grapey Dots

Last night I did a super simple purpley polka dotted nail. 

The light color I used is Zoya's Rory, the dark color is Sinful Colors' Fig. 

Then I just used my dotting tool to put white dots on the dark color, and the Sinful Fig on the light. 

Polka Dot Gradient Flower Burst Nails

I'm laid up on the couch today, foot elevated and iced because at 2am this weekend I decided that my latent super powers must be kicking and launching myself off the stairs was an AWESOME way to test my skills. By looking at the rather large and ugly splint I am now rocking, it seems pretty obvious that flying is not within my skill set.
Ok, so really I just fell, but testing super powers sounds so much more cool.
So, I am spending as much time as I can with my foot elevated, but I really need to redo my nails. Which means I had to think of something to do that didn't require a lot of skill.

I used a silver polish that only required one coat of paint to be opaque.
Then using my dotting tool, I placed a central dot, and then two successive rows of dots, each row a different color.
With some, I started with the lightest color in the center, and others I started with the dark in the center.
By placing the center dot in different spots on each nail, it gives a bit more visual interest and variety, which can seem lacking with such a simple design.

It is a fun simple design that would work well with many color combinations. 

Summertime Fruit Stand Nails

One of the best things about summer is the fabulous fresh fruit that is abundantly available. 

Temps here are beginning to strive for that summery feel more consistently, so I thought it would be a great way to celebrate summer by rocking some yummy fruity nails. 

I have Blackberries, Cantaloupe, Strawberries, Watermelon and Cherries represented. 

These nails are a lot more simple than they look, so you can easily impress anyone with your skills. 

I started with a base color for each nail that would either be the primary color of the fruit, or the background color. This is two coats of color, and a quick dry top coat. It is important to add the top coat, because when adding multiple layers to nails, with each new layer only covering part of the previous, it is very easy to smear or smudge the newer layer. If you apply top coat, you can easily dip a Q-tip in acetone and dab away the mistake, and not have to repaint the whole nail from the beginning. 

I am going to start painting the cherries first. It is a good practice to get into, to start from the nail furthest from you. That way you don't accidentally drag your hand across already decorated nails. 

I often will use white as the base when I'm doing cherries, but this time I went with yellow. I felt that the other nails would be so bright and busy once done, that white would be drab and get lost in the shuffle. I wanted my cherries just as bright and vibrant as the rest. 

I place a little dab of red paint in a plastic tray, and using my dotting tool I apply pairs of dots to the nail. 

 Like so: (If you do not have a dotting tool, many many things can be used to make dots: a Q-tip stick with one cotton end cut off, a dead ball point pen, toothpick, unfolded paper clip. These are all things I have used at one time or another to make different sized dots. Improvise with what you have)

I used my brown and green striping paints to add the stems and leaves.

 Remember the warnings I gave about doing outer nails first, and using top coat? It is a GOOD thing I did, because on my right hand, I did the fruits in a different order than my left hand, and on the right, the cherries are on the middle finger. And of course, I smeared the cherries.

 I used a Q-tip with acetone to dab away the excess red, and then used my dotting tool to add a bit of yellow back over the problem area... and voila! Mostly fixed nail :)

 I used my dotting tool to add a darker green over the light green striping paint, because the light green didn't show up well against the yellow, and I wanted it to pop more.

Next I did the Strawberries. I forgot to take a pic of the strawberry on its own, poor mistreated strawberry!
The Strawberry is probably the easiest to do. With my striping paint, I made a few small downward facing triangles of different sizes, overlapping each other for the leaves, and added rows of small black dots for the seeds.
Since the Cantaloupe and Watermelon are so similar, I did them at the same time. I painted the top half of each nail with dark green. It took two and probably a half coats to get a solid green.
It would also be cute to paint the lower half of the nail, and have the rind at the bottom. I didn't think of that till after I'd already painted the green on, otherwise I would have turned one of them around the other way.

Using the light green striping paint, I added a few wavy lines straight down for the watermelon, and a few curved down from a single point for the cantaloupe. A straight stripe across finishes up the rind of the cantaloupe, and a wavy line across does so for the watermelon.
In this pic you can get a good view of the poor little strawberry.

 To finish out the look, a few lighter orange/peachy spots for the cantaloupe seeds, and three black teardrop shapes for the watermelon. I have experimented with more seeds on the watermelon, similar to the strawberry, and I thought it just was too much. looked more like an odd strawberry. Just a few bigger seeds conveys the idea more clearly I think. But, that is my opinion, anything you like is what is right for your nails.

 Lastly, I did the blackberries. I was originally trying for grapes. However, the bunchiness of them didn't translate well. So I kept layering three colors of purple, overlapping them till I got what I thought looked very berryish. A few straggly green lines for the brier vines, and I think it does a pretty good job being a berry. (I am actually glad the grapes didn't' work out. I love grapes, but blackberries are one of my favorite foods ever).

 And there you have it. Your fabulous, summery fruit nails. Perfect for any BBQ or picnic.