Manicure Monday: Art Deco Modern Polish

I tried to create a tape manicure design over the weekend. I started with painting my nails with a base coat (Essie First Base Base Coat) and proceeded to paint my nails a soft purple brown color. This was Essie's Ladylike. I think this new color is great for fall as a neutral!

I attempted to take a photo in the sun to get a more accurate color, however, I am not sure about that lighting situation. 

Next, I used painters tape to outline where I would be keeping the Ladylike color. This part was the hardest part for me to try and make a uniform thickness of tape. It was also hard to put the tape on my right hand, as I am right handed. I think with more practice I will have more success with tape manicures.

I then painted my nails with OPI by Sephora in In The Shadows. I waited until the two coats were dry and removed the painters tape. One thing that I thought would not make a difference but actually did was using painters tape. I used to use scotch tape when I did tape manicures. However, I found that the scotch tape would lift up some of my polish along the edges and leave a sticky residue on my nails. Painters tape was perfect! No wonder why people use it for painting! It did not leave a sticky residue and did not lift up any of my polish. I was worried about my right hand not being dry enough but the paint did not smudge as I removed the tape. This is a valuable tip to remember for next time.

I finished my manicure with Seche Vite quick drying top coat. The above picture is before I cleaned up the edges with nail polish remover.

I hope you enjoyed the design and will try your own tape manicures! :) 

Love, Erica

Nail Sticker Tutorial

Apparently I have been really into nail art the last few months. I always want to try intricate nail designs but do not have the dexterity to paint my right hand (as I am right handed). I decide to experiment with creating my own nail stickers and it is ridiculously easy to achieve cool custom looks! This tutorial is documenting my first foray into creating my own stickers; my skills can only go up from here once I learn more! 

First, lets look at the things you will need.

For this tutorial, I used a variety of nail polish colors to create this cool tribal/art deco look. Products I used were:

- Essie First Base base coat

- Essie Tart Deco (coral color)

- Essie Avenue Maintain (blue color) 

- Kiss Nail Art Paint in Black and White

- Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Sheet Me Now (nude color)

- Seche Vite Quick Dry Top Coat

- Tweezers

- Plastic sandwich bag.

The sandwich bag is the most important part for this tutorial!

First, I laid out my sandwich bag and cut off the little lip part that folds over to seal the bag. It was just annoying to me, but you can leave it. I painted ten strips in the general shape of my nails in the colors I wanted directly to the bag. The above picture is with two coats of nail polish. Starting at the left would be my pinky nail. You can see the size of the polish strips increases gradually as I make my way toward the shape of my thumb. I let this dry just like regular nail polish in between coats; about 5-10 minutes.

Next, I decided to paint little details outlining the general shape of the tribal print I was going to create. I also decided I did not want two blue nails right in a row so You can see I made a nude nail above on the plastic to go with my pointer finger. The thing that is nice about this method of painting your nails is that you can change things up and not have to use nail polish remover and possibly ruin your other polish on your fingers!

After this, I used the nail art pens to draw different designs and stripes on each nail. (I like the ring finger the best!) This took a little practice and I think if I were to do this tutorial next time it would go even better. Again, I waited until my polish was dry before painting the details onto each strip. In total, from starting the base color polish to ending with the details I would say this design took about 30-40 minutes. But, I was watching a show on Netflix too, so this may have been a distraction!  The thing I liked about this method was that I could do things like eat and wash my hands while waiting for the polish to dry on the bag without worrying it would ruin my nails (which is the worst after you paint your nails!)

Next, once the polish was dry, I used the tweezers to lightly lift up the polish and separate it from the plastic bag. You can see the edge of the polish coming up in the picture. Once this happened, it was easy to pick off the whole strip. I then applied a base coat to my nails and pressed the polish on my nails. I filed off any excess that was hanging past the shape of my nails and allowed the strips to dry for a minute or two and really adhere to my nails before locking them down with a top coat.

 Here is the finish product! I messed up a little bit on the edges, and I think I would change the design a bit to match each nail with a nude base coat but have different designs and shapes on each nail if I were to do this again. Overall, this method was ridiculously easy and it was nice to know I could experiment with ideas and styles I wanted and not pay for pricey strips at the drugstore! Plus, I didn't mess up my manicure with wet nails like I always do. I will definitely do this process again.

I hope you are inspired to try something like this for yourself! If you do, we would love to see your designs in the comments below this post! Feel free to ask any questions too. Happy painting!

Love, Erica

How To Extend Your Shellac Manicure

About a week and a half ago I got a Shellac, or gel, manicure at a local salon near where I student teach. I love the color, and while though there are no chips at the end of my nails, my nails have grown out to the point of being annoying. I constantly want to pick at them -- a habit I have acquired when I become annoyed with my polish which completely ruins the manicure. I decided to try something different to save money, keep my nails healthy and let them grow out naturally, and to save time.

I hate having to go to the salon to have my manicure professionally taken off; I always get persuaded into buying a new Shellac manicure because the last one looked so good! We will see if this extender I created will keep me away from the salon....

Things you need:

Base coat (Essie First Base)

Loose glitter (Makeup Forever Glitters #11)

Top Coat (Seche Vite Quick Dry Top Coat)

Any makeup brush you don't mind getting glitter or a bit of nail polish on. Any brush will really do. I like to use a brush because it deposits the pigment more and is less messy, but I suppose a finger would work just as well. 

First, you will need to cut and shape your nails. I have found that even if you cut your nails, the shellac manicure will stay put. Just be careful not to file your nails to break through the manicure as this will weaken the bonding to your nails.

Next, apply a generous amount of base coat to the grown out part of your nails and extending a small amount onto the Shellac polish. I did this rather unevenly to give the glitter a gradient effect.

Next, while the polish is still wet, dip your brush or finger into the glitter and gently pat the glitter onto your nail. Allow for the glitter to dry before applying a top coat to make sure the glitter stays put.

I made this short video to demonstrate the process.

I have done this with regular polish too and the glitter removes easily with nail polish remover.

Good luck and happy painting!
-Erica

Ikat Nail Tutorial

I love ikat. I want to wear it on everything... it is so fresh and summery! I have had shellac manicures for the past few months now and decided to save some money and paint my nails myself. I thought I would give the ikat pattern manicure a try and it turned out quite nicely. Its a nice manicure to try because you don't need the steadiest of hands... the pattern looks complicated but it really is not! You can make the strokes choppy and still achieve the desired effect. Here is how I did this: 

Materials Used

Essie Nail Polish First Base Base Coat

Essie Nail Polish in Avenue Maintain (blue)

Essie Nail Polish in Tart Deco (coral)

Kiss Nail Art Paint in Black 

Kiss Nail Art Paint in White

Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat

After buffing my nails and trying to even them out from months of shellac manicures, I used the base coat and painted my nails. I then applied two coats of Essie Avenue Maintain. I am the sloppiest nail painter so you can see in these pictures some of the polish extended to the sides of my nails. I am also impatient and hate waiting for polish to fully dry (a whole 20 minutes!) in between coats. This turned out very nicely and I love this color! It is very summery and I would totally sport this alone... this is perfect for the pool or beach! But let's continue....

 Once my blue coats were dry, I used the Kiss Nail Art polish in white. I roughly painted on a diamond shape on my nails, some nails containing only half of a diamond. The edges were very rough; you can see each stroke. I thought this added to the graphic effect of the ikat print.

I bought the Kiss Nail Art polish at my local Walgreens because the sales person said the polish has a very thin applicator brush -- this was exactly what I wanted for this design! And this polish came with the black shown above, a silver glitter polish AND stencils for your nails. All for about $7.99. Pretty good! These polishes smelled pretty strongly but really had a lot of pigment for a mid-line product. I am pretty impressed overall!

Next, I took my Essie Tart Deco color and dotted a bit of coral into the center of the "diamonds." This was also roughly done and not perfect. As you can see, some of the shapes are more circular, while others are more oblong. Again, this does not have to be perfect as it adds to the graphic effect of the pattern. 

Next, I outlined the diamonds in short, choppy strokes with the Kiss Nail Art polish in black. This was the scariest part of deciding to do this manicure to me because I am so sloppy when I paint. However, this turned out to be the easier part! It is almost as if you can't mess up; it just adds to the pattern's effect! I filled in the lines on the boarder of the white "diamonds" and overlapped a little bit of the black over the white. I added a bit of black to the center of the coral because it was looking too empty without it. 

Lastly, I finished off with a top coat of Seche Vite once I was sure all of my polish was dry and cleaned up the edges with a bit of nail polish remover and a Q-tip because I have such an unsteady hand. Surprisingly, my right hand (my dominant hand) looked fantastic too -- this manicure seems to be foolproof! I am looking forward to teaching tomorrow and seeing my student's reactions (they have gotten extremely excited about nail art less intricate than this in the past). I will definitely be doing this again all summer. 

Good luck and happy painting :) 

Love, Erica