Who Doesn't Love Glitter #2?

Another simple glitter gel nail idea. I didn't use powder glitter for this one, I just used Gelish Harmony Water Field over IBD Just Gel color Serendipity.

I love the IDB colors. I only have to do two coats and they go on so smoothly and evenly. The top picture is in artificial light and the one below in natural light.

Have I mentioned lately how much I love gel nail polish? :)

Vegas Bling Nails!

I am headed to Vegas tomorrow so I decided to do some fun bling nails that also looked a little summery. I am calling this the Vegas Bling Mani. Hopefully my nails bring me luck and I hit the Jackpot! If I do, nail polish for all... :)

Here is what you will need:

• Light blue polish
• Grey polish
• Base and Top coats
• Loose nail glitter (I got mine here)
• Small Gel Rhinestones (I got mine here)
• Orange stick or toothpick
• Nail brush

Step 1: Prep your nails as normal (file, clip, etc). Paint your nails with a base coat (if using gel polish, cure the base coat).

Step 2: Then paint light blue on your index, middle, and pinky fingers. Paint the grey on your thumb and ring fingers. Let dry completely (if using the gel, cure in the UV light). Repeat if you feel you need a second coat.

Step 3: On your blue fingers, place 4 or 5 gems (depending on finger size) at the base of your nail bed. To do this, take your orange stick and dip it in clear polish. Then open your gem container and use the orange stick to get one gem. Place the gem onto your nail. 

If you are using the gel polish, the gems should stick because of the "tacky" layer underneath after curing the last coat. I know it sounds weird, but trust me it works.

If using regular polish you may want to make sure your nail is a bit tacky from the last coat so the gems will stick. If your nail is already dry, try adding a layer of a topcoat so you can have something to stick the gems to.

Step 4: On your grey fingers, you are going to add the glitter dust. I used a silver glitter to match my silver gemstones. Dip your nail brush into the glitter and then coat your entire nail with the glitter. The nail brush should be dry when you dip into the glitter.

Step 5: Lastly, make sure you top coat like crazy so those gems will stick. If you are using the UV system, top coat gem nails and glitter nails at least two times. Cure between each coat. 

If using regular polish, do the same, but make sure that each coat is completely dry before you add another coat. 

Wish me luck people!!!

Heart and Design Mani

Fun and cute but I smeared the heart! 

I had fun playing with some designs. I got the idea for this manicure from a picture I saw on Pinterest. It didn't turn out perfect but it was a lot of fun.

I didn't take pictures to do a tutorial but it was actually quite simple.

Thumb: Paint nail with the two colors. Don't worry about making the line even because you will just put the gems over it. Once colors are mostly dry place the gems in a line down the nail. See easiest way to apply gems in this post.

Index Finger: Paint all over with the lighter color. With the darker color add a heart. See how to do the hearts in the heart mani tutorial.

Middle Finger: Paint the entire nail with the dark color. Once nail is mostly dry but still a little tacky, apple the gem towards the cuticle of the nail.

Ring Finger: Paint all over with light color. Once light color is dry, paint stripes in different directions. There is no rhyme or reason to this one, just so it looks good.

Pinky: Just like the middle finger, paint the entire nail with the lighter color. Once nail is mostly dry but still a little tacky, apple the gem towards the cuticle of the nail.

Top coat, let dry, and you are done!

**Make sure when you top coat, do two coats on the nails that have the gems.

Another angle, the last pic didn't have the ring finger! Whoops...

Striped Dot Nail Tutorial

Striped Dot Manicure

Alright folks, I am back for another fun quick nail tutorial!

This one looks like it may be a little hard but it is actually very easy.

All you need:
- Dotting tool
- Two different color polishes
- Gems for accent

Start by painting your nails your all over color. In this case, I used the Gelish Harmony 'Seafoam'. A nice spring time color. And for the accent we used a black polish.


Next, start by creating a few dots using a dotting tool with a different color from your all over color onto your nail. We chose to put the dots going vertical all the left side of the nail.

Continue creating the dots in a straight line. Try to make each dot the same size. Practice using the dotting tool by putting the color onto some foil and dipping the dotting tool into the polish on the foil and creating dots on the foil. This way you can know how much polish you need on the tool in order to get the size you want on your nail.

Now, finish the rest of your nails, and if you want to add something different, try accenting different nails by placing a rhinestone instead of a dot. Also we created a diagonal line on the thumb to create a different effect.

Have fun with it and try different colors and designs! Thanks to my awesome Mommy for being my hand model on this tutorial :)

We did this using the gel polish. Please keep in mind if you are trying designs with the gel polish that you need to cure each coat. After we put the all over color on, we cured it in the UV light. Then we did another coat of the all over, cured again. We did the dots with black gel polish, then cured the dots in the UV light. Then we added the gems, and did two coats of the top coat, curing it after every coat.

If you do this with regular polish make sure to let each coat dry in between so you don't have any lumps or bumps.

How To: Remove Gel Nail Polish

Got shiny new gel nails? Rocking those bad girls for a few weeks and ready for them to come off? Do not despair, you do not have to go to the salon to get these off. I will walk you through how to do this at home without ruining your nails.

Before I start - let me say, DO NOT peel the gel nail off. If you do, you will ruin your nail!!! If you peel the gel nail polish off as it starts to come up, you will remove the top layer of your nail and it will make your nail weak and brittle.

OK, now that I got that out I will proceed with the instructions.

This is medium grit file

Step 1: Get yourself a nice thick grit nail file. I picked mine up at Sally's for about a buck! File the top layer of your gel nail polish.

Step 2: Tear off pieces of foil that you will wrap your nails with. I like to do longer thinner pieces. You will wrap your finger and the cotton ball inside the foil so you want long pieces that can wrap around a few times.

Tear foil pieces

Step 3: Take a piece of cotton ball and tear it in half. I have the large cotton balls so I like to save $ and polish remove by using a smaller piece of cotton ball.

If you have the larger cotton balls, tear them in half

Step 4: Now dip your cotton ball piece in acetone. You have to use acetone nail polish remover, regular nail polish remover will not work.

Use acetone nail polish remover

Step 5: Place the dipped cotton ball on top of your nail and place your nail on a foil piece. Now wrap the foil piece with the cotton ball in place around your finger. I recommend doing your dominant had first. If you are right handed, wrap your right hand first, then your left. Once you have multiple fingers wrapped it gets a little

tough to wrap the other hand so make it easier on yourself by wrapping your dominant hand first.

Wrap the rest of your fingers. Make sure you place a towel under the surface you are working on. Acetone can ruin furniture and even melt plastic! I am sure you are wondering if it's safe for your fingers. It is, just make sure to hydrate your hand and nail once you remove the polish.

Wait 10-15 minutes once your nails are wrapped until you take off the foil. I sometimes will pour a little more acetone into the foil pieces (at the knuckle of my finger where they are wrapped) if I feel the polish is being stubborn. Just be careful not to spill!

Step 6: Now go ahead and pull each foil piece off. Have your cuticle pusher reader or a similar tool to help scrape the rest of the polish off. When you take the foil off, most of the polish will have lifted up at the ends. If there is still some polish on the nail, that't OK. Use your scraper to remove the excess. Once you are done scraping each nail, there still may be some residue on your nails. Just dip a cotton ball into the acetone and remove the rest with a cotton ball.

You can also do the "easier" route and dip your hand in a bowl of acetone nail polish. I don't like doing this because you expose your hand and nails to SO much acetone and it can really dry it out. Also this way, you can still move around without being tied down to a bowl of polish remover.

If anyone has any suggestions to add that have worked well for them please leave them in the comment box. I would love to try them out!

Fun Easter / Spring Nails

Today just a quick tutorial for a great spring or Easter nail. I like this take on an Easter Egg without being too literal about it.

I got this idea from a Pinterest pin, so I cannot claim the creativity on this one. However, I loved it so much I had to try and recreate it.

Start by taking an all over color. Choose something light so that the overlay will show up. I chose Harmony Gelish Seafoam.

After you paint your 1 or 2 coats of an allover color, paint a diagonal line with your thin nail brush with a black.

Fill in the tip of the nail from the diagonal line up with black polish.

Using a dotting tool, make medium sized dots over the black polish.

Use a thin nail brush to create a glitter accent diagonally where the light color meets the black.
Lastly, finish with a top coat!

I will post pictures when I do it next :-( sadly I didn't have my camera while I was doing this.
Enjoy!

This was done with gel nail polish. The base color is
Gelish Harmony Seafoam

Tiger Nails - Rawr!

Tiger Nails! Rawr! 

Ok today I am posting another idea that I got from the book 'DIY Nail Art' by Catherine Rodgers. Like I said in some of my other posts, I am not clever enough to think of these ideas on my own and you should check out her book here, on amazon.

At first, I thought this one may be difficult but it was actually pretty easy and even better, the nails turned out pretty well!

I changed the instructions a little from what she posted in the book so here is my take on it:

Paint nails white first.

Then using a small make up sponge, blot 2/3 of the way with the yellow.

Then blot the tip of the nail with orange.

Use a gold or orange glitter and blot all the color.

Using a nail art brush paint black stripes.

Lastly, use a top coat!

Get creative and let your inner tiger out!

Easy Holiday Nail

I've been absent for a few weeks. The holidays have been coming and I've been busy. That's not an excuse not to post at least a nail idea.

So here is my easy holiday nail tutorial.

Step 1. Paint all over green.

Step 2. Use scotch tape (nail must be completely dry) and create a diagonal design.

Step 4. Paint red over exposed nail.

Make sure underneath color is completely dry before you put
tape on or it will ruin the effect.

Step 5: Remove tape and paint over with top coat.

I told you it was easy! Happy Holidays!

Cute Wedding Gel Nail Idea

Simple, cute, and elegant. If you want something a little different than french tips, this is a cute idea. Try doing a gel polish for your wedding nail instead of acrylic. That way you won't have to get used to the longer nails, and this can give you a more natural look but give you the lasting chip free protection!

Gelish Harmony color - Princess Tiara with waterfiled on ring finger 

Stripe Tip Manicure

Blue gel with gold stripe

Again with the easy. I like quick and easy but something a little different.

Today I went with a shimmer blue and accented it with a gold stripe. I did do this with the gel polish. You can obviously do it with regular nail polish too, just carefully apply the stripe before your top coat. I would do this while your under coat is still a little wet to help the stripe stick.

Now with the gel polish, a friend and I tried doing it after the cured top coat. We did this thinking that the tacky color layer would cause the manicure to have imperfections etc. But the stripes did not stick well to the cured top coat, so this time I did this after my second coat of cured polish color. I did not spray with alcohol or do a top coat. As the color was still tacky from the color coat the stripes stuck perfectly.

If any of the edges started to come up, I just used my orange stick to put them back in place, then did the top coat over all nails and cured. Worked great!

Blue gel polish with gold stripe

Criss Cross Nails

Really easy and really cute!

OK did a manicure on a friend last night with the gel polish and decided to add a little bling to it. We did a silver ribbon and randomly criss crossed the ribbon on her different nails.

Do your normal color first. then before the top coat add the ribbons. Then top coat and you've got a little extra bling to you manicure!

Thanks Tiffany for being my hand model :)
We left the pinkies plain and crossed the rest. 

Bella's Vampire

For all you gel nail fanatics out there, I had to post my most recent gel manicure. This color was perfect because it's a deep blood red/purplish color and it's almost Halloween! The color is called Bella's Vampire. I have to admit I am a huge Twilight fan, but that's not why I bought the color. I bought it because it's a beautiful color.

It looks almost black in non-natural light. But when you go into the sun, or rooms with lots of natural light you can see the purple color start to come through.

I topped my ring fingers with a gold glitter for accent. If you are wanting instructions on how to do the gel manicure, go here.

Anyway, wanted to post my review on this color. Please excuse my messy cuticles. I was doing this manicure in room that was not well lit, thus I got color on the cuticles which I always try to avoid.

Enjoy!

Gel nail polish, Bella's Vampire topped with Vegas Nights -
Gelish Harmony brand

Let me show you...

You want to know how to do your own gel nails? Yay! Welcome to my addiction that is nail beautification! First let me congratulate you and say that you are in for a treat. Now let me make sure that you have read my first post on the cheapest ways to go about getting all the supplies you will need to do your nails at home.  If you haven't read it, go read it here.

Let me put my disclaimer in that I am not a certified nail technician and I do not claim to be. I have just tried doing the gel nails at home and have come up with the best way I have found to do them myself. Please read and get yourself educated on the gel nails before you attempt to do this at home. 

Now you've got all your supplies and ready to get your nail on. Lets do this! Lay out everything you will need. UV Lamp, polishes, orange stick, buffer, rubbing alcohol etc.

Step 1: Remove Old Polish First things first, you need to take old polish off. Out with the old in with the new I say! If you have gel polish on you will need to use acetone nail polish remover.

Cuticle pusher

Step 2: Pre-treating Now, pre-treat your nails as needed. If you need to remove cuticles, clip, file, etc. Do all of this first. make sure you use a cuticle pusher to push the cuticles down. Then take a fine grit nail file, and finely buff the top layer of your nails. This is to get rid of all the imperfections and score the nail to allow the gel polish to slick it's way perfectly on top of your nail. You don't need to go crazy just a little file over the whole nail.

Step 3: Wash OK, now go wash your hands you dirty girl. Don't use soap just use water, and if you have a nail brush, you can use that to get all that gunk out from underneath yo finger nails! OK kidding but you really want to make sure you have a nice clean surface.

Step 4: Apply UV Base Coat Apply one coat of your UV base gel. Carefully apply the coat and try not to make the coat too thick. Also, make sure to get the entire nail but not paint onto your fingers at all. I can barely do better than my 2 year old niece coloring in the lines... but if you get a little on your fingers like I always do, use your orange stick and get it off. Cure your base gel in the UV lamp per the instructions of the UV lamp. More powerful wattage UV lamps only need 30 seconds, some that are less wattage require more time. Mine requires 2 minutes. I always try texting with one hand or play doodle jump while waiting to cure. Somewhat difficult for me but at least I don't get bored.

I purchased some Anti UV Gloves to protect my hands while
curing my nails to dry. If you don't do gel nails that often
you don't really need this. If you do them often, this
isn't a bad idea.

 

use orange stick to get off any excess polish 

Step 5: Apply UV Color Now apply your color. When you apply the color  make sure to do nice thin coats. The thicker the coat  the longer it will take to cure and you can get some "waving" on the nail. Also, try to ensure you don't get the polish on your cuticles. I try to make sure I paint the entire nail leaving a itty bitty amount of of color not touching any part of my finger or nail bed. If you get color on the finger or it collects in the cuticles, it will grow out uneven and cause your manicure peel and not to last as long. So if you are like me and get it everywhere, don't despair! Take your handy dandy orange stick and use that to get it off your finger. BTW  my orange stick is not orange it's a wooden little nail tool... I don't know why it's called an orange stick. But they're cheap and work great!

Cure again after putting the color on.

Repeat the color step as much as needed to get the desired color. Thin coats are your best friend with gel polish. Every coat you need to cure in the UV lamp.

"Sealing" the tip of the nail

Step 6: Apply UV Top Coat We are almost done. Apply the top coat using the same cautions I mentioned above. You can follow instructions I know you can! Make sure to "seal" the tips of your nails by applying the top coat to the tip. Then, yep, you guessed it, cure again!



Step 7: Final Wash Take your rubbing alcohol and spritz your nails. Use a cotton ball and wipe off the weird tacky stuff that is left on the nails. I have no idea why it's there or where it comes from, but it's there so mop that nastiness off with the alcohol and cotton ball. There is no need to wait for anything to dry, your nails are cured and hard. Hey now - don't be dirty.. haha hard... anywho, gel nail polish does not need drying time, that's one of my favorite qualities of the gel manicure! Oh and it's magic and it's awesome.

Ta-da! You are done! Oh wait, go wash your hands one last time to ensure cleanliness. No actually, to get all that alcohol off your hands so that way if you operate a motor vehicle and get pulled over you don't get asked if you've consumed a bottle of vodka. OK - now you are done!

                                                        You're welcome!

I used the Harmony Gelish Tiki Tiki Laranga.
I added Harmony Gelish Waterfield over the ring finger for
some extra bedazzlement!