Cute and Easy Tiger Striped Mani

I have been a little lazy lately and haven't felt like doing the gel nails. I love that they last longer but on the same aspect they take a little more work getting off. So I have been exploring with the many bottles of regular polish I have.

I wanted to do something cute but easy and came up with this.

What you will need:
- Base and top coats
- White polish
- Pink polish
- Black polish
- Small piece of foil
- Thin nail art brush

Start by prepping your nails and painting with a base coat. Then follow by painting all your nails except thing ring finger pink. Then paint your ring finger white and repeat as many coats as you desire. Let completely dry.

Then place a small amount of pink and black polish onto your foil. Starting at the edges of your nail, create a small stripe. Practice on the foil first if you need to. Ensure you don't have too much polish on your brush. Repeat with the black polish.

Let dry then finish with a top coat. Enjoy! Oh and don't forget to follow me on Instagram - @fabnfrugalnails

Pink Ombre Mani

This is a fairly easy mani to do. I did this one with regular polish - I didn't try it with the gel polish. I have seen these all over and decided to try and it. To my surprise it was very easy to do!

Oh and for those of you who don't know - I now have a nail instagram account. Follow me @fabnfrugalnails

What you will need:
- Base and top coats
- A few different colors. I used 3 pinks and a white as a base.
- A triangle make up sponge

Start by painting your nails with the base color. In my case it was white. Once completely dry, use your make up sponge to layer the different colors onto starting with the darkest and going to the lightest colors.

You will likely need to do multiple coats so repeat the step on each nail until you get the desired color effect.

Finish off with a top coat!

Striped Nail Tutorial

This is a fun easy one that you can do if you have nail striping tape or you can use regular tape. The great thing about this mani is that the possibilities are endless and there are so many color combinations.

Here is what you will need:
- Base coat and top coat
- Two nail colors (I used white and purple)
- Nail striping tape (or scotch tape)
- A glass of wine (ok not necessary but important nonetheless!)




Start by prepping your nails (clip, file, etc). Then paint your base coat and let dry. Then paint your nail with your all over color. You want to make sure you accent color can cover the all over cover well. I chose to use the purple on the bottom because I knew the white would cover the purple.

Now, place your nail striping tape (or regular tape) in your design manner. I chose to do different designs.

Now, paint your accent color on the side of the nail you want. If you are using the nail striping tape, be careful not to paint onto the other side of the nail. If you want and have a steady hand, feel free to leave the striping tape on the nail and just paint the top coat over the tape. Make sure to trim the excess edges.

Let dry completely before removing the tape. Then apply your topcoat. Enjoy!

Using a Nail Stamper

Indoor light

I have had my mash nails stamping plates for quite some time and haven't done anything with them. I pulled them out and tried this neat floral type design.

Start by painting your nails an all over color. I chose purple. Let dry completely before stamping.

Now chose your stamping plate and paint your accent color onto the stamp. I used white. Use your scraper to scrape off the excess polish. Then take your stamper and stamp it onto the polish.

Now take the stamper and make sure you have a good solid design on the rubber part. If you do quickly stamp it onto your nail.

Wipe off the stamper and the scraper and the plate with nail polish remover and repeat each step for every finger.

The stamper kit is something you have to practice with but when you get the hang of it you can come up with some really neat designs! 

In sunlight

Halloween Glitter Mani Tutorial

This picture is taken with a flash

I wanted to do something a little different for my Halloween Mani this year. I did candy corn last year. I am not sure if I like the outcome of these yet. The orange glitter ended up turning out green after I put the top coat on, but I went ahead and decided to post the tutorial anyway.

What you will need:  
- Base and Top Coat
- Black Polish
- Orange Polish
- Black Glitter
- Orange Glitter
- Brush (to apply the loose glitter)



Start by prepping your nails (clip, file, etc). Then paint your base coat and let dry (if using gel polish cure your base coat).

Now, paint the nails you want black, with the black polish. I did my pinky, middle, and index fingers in the black. Then go back and paint your remaining nails with the orange polish. Let dry (or cure if using gel) Repeat this step if another coat is needed.

Next, we are going to apply the glitter. I did a reverse ombre and added the glitter starting at the tips. Dip your brush into the glitter and carefully apply to the the nail.

Apply the black glitter on the orange nails and the orange glitter on the black coat. Then apply your top coat and let dry (or cure if you are using gel polish). I like to add two top coats when using the loose glitter.

For some reason the orange glitter came out looking green but green is still kind of Halloween. What do you guys think? Ya or Na on this one?

this picture is taken without a flash in natural light

More Vegas Nails

Went to Vegas again add had to do another fun mani. I don't have step by step instructions on this one just a picture. I decided to play on the black and red, then add a little bling for good luck!

It's a cute mani but unfortunately did not give me much luck :-)

Leopard Tri-Color Mani

This week I decided on a fun multi colored leopard print mani. I used a Pinterest picture as inspiration but the link was dead so I can't give the person credit. I also added my own spin on it to make it a little different.

The leopard spots are extremely easy to do and I love how they turn out. This is a fun mani for those who are just starting out!

What you will need:
- Top and Base coats
- Black polish
- Teal (or light blue) polish
- Light Pink polish
- Dotting tool (or bobby pin but dotting tool works best)
- Foil or something similar (I use the top of a vitamin bottle so I can reuse it)


Start by prepping your nails as you normally would do (cut, file, etc) Next, paint your pinky and index finger with the black polish. Paint your ring and middle finger with the teal polish. Paint your thumb with the pink polish.

Next, we are going to create the spots. Dab some of the pink polish onto your foil. Use the larger end of your dotting tool, dip the ball into the pink polish so that we can create large non-perfect dots onto the ring and middle fingers.

Repeat the same steps for your thumb but instead of using pink, use the teal color. What we are doing is creating an offset effect with the colors.

Now we are going to finish the spots by adding black accents to the nails. Using the smaller end of the dotting tool, create small "C" shapes around the circles. Add a few small random dots in between the pattern. Repeat the steps for the thumb nail and the teal colored nails (ring and middle finger).

Last step is to paint with a top coat and you are all done! Rock that awesome mani :) Try playing with different colors to see what you like best.