Water Lilies

   Another interim design. This time I'm waiting to paint my Halloween nails! This week's design was inspired by the amazing Cotton Coney over on Instagram. She has this neat abstract birch design that for some reason reminded me of water lilies. The leaves just made me think of lily pads!

   I started with a dark green base of Revlon Colorstay Jungle. Next I added some white to L'Oreal New Money and applied it somewhat haphazardly with a thicker brush. Over top of that I added L'Oreal New Money (in its original shade). To make the lilies I painted the basic shape in white, and then painted over that with a combination of Revlon Colorstay Cardshark and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Coral Reef.

   I hope you all have a fantastic weekend and Halloween!

Ikat Tutorial

   My first tutorial! I painted these ikat nails last week and as I was blogging I realized that that's a really hard design to describe. I've been talking about making tutorials for a while now, I just never remember!

The Supplies:

Cream Polish - Orly French Manicure Pink Nude

Peach Polish - L'Oreal Orange You Jealous

Black Striper* - Black Stripe Rite

White Striper * - White Stripe Rite

Nail Art Brush

*If you don't have a striper, you can just use regular polish and a thin brush! 

The Steps:

Step 1: Paint on a cream base base polish.

Step 2: Using a white striper, paint 2 jagged triangles.

Step 3: Using a black striper, outline the triangles, keeping it jagged.

Step 4: Paint small peach jagged triangles inside the white with a thin nail art brush.

Step 5: Using a black striper paint very small jagged triangles inside the peach triangle.

Have a wonderful week!

Ikat and 100th Post!

   This is my 100th post! I didn't even realize it until I went to write this post. If I had been on top of things I might have come up with some fun giveaway or something. Oh well. I'll find another excuse for it!

   This week I'm being super trendy! In case you've never noticed, I'm not super trendy. I like what I like and don't change it around much. Not that I'm unfashionable, I just don't like having to change everything every few years as the trends change!

  Ever since it became more popular, I've thought that ikat was a neat design. I've just never gotten around to painting it before now. I used L'Oreal Orange You Jealous for the peachy-pink splash of color.

   To make the ikat design, I started with my favorite base, Orly French Manicure Pink Nude. I don't understand the name, because it's definitely not pink. It's cream. But whatever. Then I painted two white triangles on my nail, one at the top and one on the bottom. I made the edges jagged with my white striper. I'll have to do a tutorial on this design sometime, it's kind of hard to explain!

   Next I used my black striper to make a jagged outline on the top of each triangle. I used L'Oreal Orange You Jealous inside the triangles and then used my striper to make a small black triangle inside the peach triangle.

   Surprisingly, my right hand turned out looking pretty good! I actually like how it looks a little better than my left hand, which is definitely a first.
   This will definitely get put in my shop at some point, which is probably when the tutorial will be made.

   I hope you all have a fantastic weekend!

**Update: I've made a tutorial! You can see it here. This design has also been put in my shop, you can find it here.

Halloween Patches

   I've started early on Halloween designs! I have two I want to paint so I can get the pictures up in my shop (the skeletons and Frankenstein tips), plus one other I've had my eye on for a year or so, which is the one I have on now.

  I've seen several different takes on this design, the most common being a version of Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas. I almost did that, and I probably will for Etsy, but the version I did says 'Halloween' to me more than Sally.

   I started with a green base, L'Oreal New Money. I just painted one thin coat so that the other two colors wouldn't potentially not show as brightly. Next I drew on some lines with my black striper. Just the outlines, the stitches will come later.

   After the lines dried, I filled in the spaces I wanted purple. I used Nina Ultra Pro Plum of the Earth. Next I filled in the triangles I wanted to be green (I had made the first coat thin, so the green needed another round of paint). Then I filled in the remaining spaces with orange, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Sun Kissed.

   Next I went back over my black outlines, and then added the small black stitches, all with my striper. Then I sealed it with a top coat. I'm still using Seche Vite, despite the smell and the price. It's a really good top coat!

   I hope you all have a fantastic week! I probably won't have anything new for you guys until this weekend. I'm going to be super busy this week at school.

Copper Triangles

   This is actually kind of old. In all my excitement of having 50 million designs to show you guys, this one got lost! I had this one on my fingers right before the foxes. It was a kind of in between design; I was waiting to paint my foxes (I wanted them for my Biltmore trip) and had already taken off the previous design, so I needed something easy and simple in the meantime.

   I bought some new polishes last weekend and wanted to try them out. My base is a new color, OPI A-Piers To Be Tan. I didn't want to leave it by itself, so I used Revlon Colorstay Buttercup to make some triangles. I outlined them with my ivory striper, which you probably can't really see. If I ever made this again, I'd probably use gold or something for the outline instead. Then I topped it all off with some tiny 2mm rhinestones I got several months ago from Born Pretty Store.

I hope you all have a fantastic week!

New Sets

   As promised last week, I have the rest of the evidence of my super-productiveness last week. I had planned to post them right after the first batch, but I was too excited about those cute foxes!

   I think this one will be a good summer design. Tribal things always seem to be at their height during the summer. I started with a base of L'Oreal Walk on the Beach and then used a small brush to paint on the teal triangle (Studio M Blue Ming). Then I just used my striper for all the black.
   You can find this here in my shop.

   I don't know what I think of this one yet. I like it, but at the same time I don't. I started with the same base, Walk on the Beach. Then I made three black lines with my striper, the top and bottom lines, and then one in the middle. Then I made diagonal black lines and filled the spaces with varying shades of brown (I used 3 shades). After that I went back over the black lines and then sealed it with a topcoat.
   You can find this here in my shop.

   This design is currently on my toes! I need to take a picture of them before I take it off. I forgot to get last months, so I 'll have to do better this time! This design is a simple glitter gradient. My base is Finger Paints Masterpiece of Minimalism and the glitter I used is Orly Glam FX Watch It Glitter.
   You can find it here in my shop.

   I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Fall Fox

   I am super in love with these foxes! They're so cute!

   I originally found it on Pinterest, and I knew I had to paint it! It was just so cute! I started with my favorite cream base, Orly French Manicure Softest White. To make the fox, I started with L'Oreal He Red My Mind. I used a white striper for all of the white on him, and black on a dotter for his feet, eyes, and nose. His ear shadowing was made with a thinned out brown (Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Branch Out).

   For the leaves I used orange (L'Oreal He Red My Mind), green (Revlon Colorstay Spanish Moss), yellow (Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Butterscotch), and brown (Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Branch Out), all slightly thinned.

   I also made this in to an Etsy set, so you can buy it! You can find it here in my shop. I made the fake set first, so of course it looks slightly better.

   I hope you guys had a fantastic weekend! I'm on my fall break, so I know I will! My mom went to the Biltmore mansion for the weekend. I'll have to show you some pictures when I get back.

Candy Canes and Skeletons

   I've been busy this past week. Aside from normal school busy-ness, I've also been busy making more Etsy sets! I thought I'd be super on top of things and make two new Christmas set, as well as try and get a new Halloween design out in time. (I've also made 4 others, but for your sake, I'll split them up into two posts so you aren't drowned in nails.)

   As the closest holiday, the Halloween set is up first. I found this one on Pinterest a couple years ago but never painted it (skeletons aren't really my thing). This year though, it hit me, people will bu this for Halloween! I felt kind of dumb for not having thought of it before. In case you can't figure it out (the picture is a little confusing) this design is made so that one hand has the heads and the other hand has the bodies, so that when you put your fingers together the whole skeleton lines up. You can see the original pin here, that would probably help more than my crappy explanation.
   You can find this set in my shop here.

   And for Christmas I'm ahead of the game! For now. I thought this one was super cute and Christmas-y without being elaborate. And it's easy to make, so if you like painting your nails instead of buying them, you can easily recreate this! To make the stripes I started with a white base and then used a red striper. Then I used a small brush to make the silver stripe.
   You can find this set in my shop here.

   My second Christmas set is a cute simplified sweater design. To make this one I started with my favorite cream base, Orly French Manicure Softest White. For the red I used Revlon Colorstay Velvet Rope and the green is Revlon Parfumerie Balsam Fir.
   You can find this set in my shop here.

   More sets to come! I'm also super excited to show you all my nails. I've painted a cute Fall design....!

Orange Flowers

   I know I said I was going to start some Fall designs, but Pinterest is really distracting! I found another really cute flower graphic and I just had to try and paint it.

   I definitely didn't do it justice, but I think it's a good enough adaption.

I started with my favorite cream base, Orly French Manicure Softest White. Then I painted the branches using two browns -  a light brown, Nina Ultra Pro Beige-A-Vu, and a dark brown, Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Branch Out. To make the orange flower, I mixed together white and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Sun Kissed. Then I added a little brown to that to get the shadowing on the bottom of the flower, and then a lot more brown to get the top shadowing.

   For the leaves I started with a dark green, Revlon Colorstay Spanish Moss, and then dry brushed a lighter green, a mix of Spanish Moss and L'Oreal New Money. For the small round white flowers I used a dotter to apply the white, and then added a small dot of brown near the branch.

    Maybe next time I really will paint a fall design... We'll see!

   I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Rhinestones and Rainbows

   I was cleaning out my nail folder this week and I found some custom orders from last month that I never showed you guys.
  
   The first one is a rainbow set I made for a wedding-goer.

   I really liked her idea of having one rainbow spreading over 5 fingers instead of one finger you usually see. I think that looks nicer (and it's easier to paint!). I used my favorite cream base (Orly French Manicure Softest White). For the rainbow I used Revlon Colorstay Red Carpet, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Sun Kissed, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mellow Yellow, L'Oreal New Money, Sally Hansen Xtreme WEar Blue Me Away, and L'Oreal Royally Reinvented.

   This next one is very different from what I normally do. It not only has small 3mm rhintestones, but it also has a huge 4-rhinestone set!

   I personally would not want to wear it, but I understand the attraction to it! The biggest beef I had with the whole design was the the larger rhinestone set pokes way out from the nail, probably 2-3mm at some points. For me, I know I would get it caught on everything and loose it withing the first day. But I realize some people are more careful than me. Probably lots more! I ordered the rhinestones from Born Pretty Store. They have a huge selection!

   I hope you all have a fantastic weekend!