4th of July Nails

Now that July is here (yay!) I had some fun with nail polish and came up with a patriotic nail art idea to share with you.

To pull off this look, all you'll need is red nail polish, blue nail polish, and white glitter.

1.  Paint all of your nails red except for your ring fingers.
2.  Paint the nails on your ring fingers blue.
3.  While the blue paint is still wet, sprinkle lots of white glitter on top of it.

Easy, huh?

Definitely do this outside or over a sink or trash can because the glitter has potential to get super messy super quickly.

This Independence Day is going to be all about glitter for me.  I did this to my nails and then came up with a glittery game to play on the big day as well... I'll tell you all about it soon!

How are you preparing for the 4th?

xoxo
Laura

Nail Stickers

With Valentine's Day in mind, I put some love note stickers on my nails last night.

 

What do you think of nail polish stickers? I love them because there's no drying time after you apply them like there is with regular nail polish.  And I also love that they're on sale at target this week.  ;-)

xoxo
Laura

New Year's Eve Nails

I hope you all had a great Christmas!  Now that it's over, it's time to gear up for the next party, New Year's Eve!  For the occasion, I got some champagne colored nail polish by Essie called Imported Bubbly and used it along with a tub of glitter to make sparkling champagne nails.

This look is super easy to achieve.  All you will need are two things: nail polish and a tub of glitter.

And there are only two steps to the process:

1.  Paint your nails.
2.  Dip the tips of each nail into the tub of glitter while the nail polish is still wet.

That's it!  I can't wait to show these off at our New Year's Eve party!

What are you doing in preparation for the big night?
xoxo
Laura

Nail Stamping

Hi There!

You know that terrible moment when you've done a beautiful job painting your nails and you're trying to wait patiently until they're fully dry before you start doing anything, but then you get hungry and reach for a snack and accidentally bump your nails and all your hard work is ruined?  Yeah, that happens to me too.  All the time.  So today I was in the stamp isle at Michaels and it dawned on me... what if I dented my nails on purpose and in a pretty way?  I decided to try it out and I got this:

Here's how to do it:

1.  Paint your nails any color you want.

2.  Let them dry for a half hour so that they will be dry but not dent-proof.

3.  Gently press a clean, dry stamp onto the nail on your ring finger (or all of your nails, if you want!).

4.  Paint over all of your nails with a clear top coat.  The one I used on my nails was a matte finish, but a glossy one should work great too.  This top coat will fill in the divots in the nail that you stamped and make it feel smooth again without erasing the impression that the stamp left.

I like this look because it is so subtle that you could get away with wearing it to places where full-blown nail art might not be appropriate (like at work).  What do you think?



Happy stamping!
xoxo
Laura

A Colorful French Manicure

Hi There Everyone!

After three months of tour, I am back home in good old Colorado.  I didn't realize how used to cloudy weather I had become in England until I walked out of DIA yesterday and the sun was shining in the sky and bouncing off of leftover snowbanks and instantly lighting up my mood.  With all this brightness in mind, I decided to do a colorful manicure, so I gave myself an at-home french manicure using pink nail polish instead of white.

If you are also in the mood for a little February pick-me-up, here is how you can do it to:

Things you will need:

• Nail file
• Hole punch reinforcements
• Clear base coat nail polish
• Bright pink nail polish (or try another fun color)
• Sheer pinkish top coat
• Nail polish remover
• Small brush

How to do it:

Prepare your nails by filing them, painting them with the base coat, and letting them dry fully.  Once that is done place the hole punch reinforcements on your fingers, leaving the amount of room between the sticker and the tip of your nail that you would like to be pink.  On your thumb, you may have to use multiple stickers like I did.



Now paint the tips of your fingers with the pink nail polish, making sure that the sticker is firmly pressed into your nail to help stop the polish from seeping under the sticker.

Now you can remove the stickers and clean up any stray pink polish with a small brush that has been dipped in nail polish remover.

Let the pink polish fully dry, then paint over your whole nail with a sheer pinkish top coat.

Let them dry and you're all finished!

Happy painting!
xoxo
Laura

Pink/Black Nail Art

A couple of months ago, I was minding my own business, about to walk into Ikea (which I love), when I rudely slammed my finger in my car door.  It was pretty messed up so I wore a splint on it for a few weeks.  Now that the splint is off, I sort of miss it because it hid my impressively black and blue nail.  But now that the nail is out in the open in all its glory, I'm thinking the only cure for it is nail art!

I did a little blog surfing and settled on a "fade to black manicure" that I found at Runway DIY.  Here's how I did it:

1.  Start with unpolished nails (even if they're scary like mine)

2.  Paint them pink (or the non-black color of your choice)

3.  Dab a teensy bit of black nail polish onto the base of the nail, then immediately paint over it with a clear top coat while the black polish is still wet.  This step will turn your top coat's brush black, so make sure it's a cheap one that you don't care too much about.

And then you're finished!  The hardest part for me was trying to apply the same amount of black to each nail so that it would spread out the same way every time I brushed the top coat over it.  At fist I was a little bit frustrated that I couldn't make all my nails look the same, but by the fourth nail I had embraced the idea that it was more artsy if each nail looked unique.

I thought this was so fun that I'm thinking you will definitely be seeing more nail art from me in the future!

Until then,
xoxo
Laura