31 Day (Week) Challenge - Day 13: Animal Print Nails

Hi everyone!!

I'm super excited to show you the challenge mani that I created for today! It's simple and I think that it doesn't have too much going on, which I believe is the case for the most part with animal print manis. I decided on doing french tips with the animal prints overflowing onto my bare nail (on top of the base coat, of course). So check it out below and let me know what you think! Welcome to The Polish Zoo!!

 I used several different polishes so bare with me! And everything was used after applying a base coat.

To get this look: 

• Thumb (zebra print): French tip was made using Sinful Colors Snow Me White and the zebra print was made using a medium sized detail brush and Sinful Colors Black On Black
• Pointer (leopard print): French tip was made using Piggy Polish Stand At The Edge. The leopard print was made using Revlon Top Speed Varnished and Sinful Colors Black on Black and a medium sized detail brush and small dotting tool
• Middle (cow print): The french tip was made using Sinful Colors Snow Me White and the spots were made using a medium sized detail brush and Sinful Colors Black On Black
• Ring (giraffe print):  The french tip was made using Orly Country Club Khaki and the print was made using a medium sized detail brush and Revlon Totally Toffee
• Pinky (tiger print): The french tip was made using Sally Hansen Insta Dri Snappy Sorbet and the print was made using Sinful Colors Black On Black and my smallest sized striping brush

 

This mani was quite fun to create and I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. I didn't want an overpowering animal print mani this week so I opted for the french tips instead The entire look was not time consuming either because I just made quick french tips and didn't have to worry about them being super clean since I was going to put the print over it anyways. Also, animal print is never PERFECT. There are always some imperfections so it allowed me to just go with flow in creating the different prints.

My inspirations! 

What did you all think about my mani? I really like love it!! Let me know your thoughts on this one or if you have any suggestions/tips/ideas to help me next time I decide to do an animal print mani.

Make sure to check out my friend's post today at My Life In Turquoise!

13 down, and 18 to go!! Check back next Monday for the flower challenge mani!!

31 Day (Week) Challenge - Day 7: Black & White Nails

Hey guys!

I can't believe it's already week 7!! Time has been going by way too fast. This week's theme is black and white and I knew just what I wanted to do for this mani. It's the perfect theme to combine my two favorite things. I give you nail art and pandas!

Any one of my close friends can tell you how much I love pandas. They're adorable and definitely my favorite animal!!

The face of the pandas and the french tips of the accent nails were created using Sally Hansen Insta Dri Whirlwind White. The eyes, ears, and noses of the pandas were made with Wet n Wild Black Creme. For the "bamboo" on the accent nails, I used Nubar Nail Art Green Frost and Nubar Nail Art Mint Frost. (And as always, I started off using my favorite base coat, Essie 3 Way Glaze and topped it all off with my favorite top coat, Sally Hansen Insta-Dry Anti-Chip Top Coat).

I'm happy with how this turned and it was super easy to do after I figured out which tools to use. I thought I would be able to make the entire face of the panda using a small detail brush but quickly found out that it was too messy. I ended up using dotting tools in various sizes to get the eyes and nose and then made the ears using the detail brush. I absolutely love how the accent nails turned out and think they look perfect!

The only bad about this mani is probably my habit of not waiting long enough for the mani to dry. I applied to top coat too soon and it kind of smeared the pandas. The bamboo was fine though. 

I think it's really cute and I hope you all liked my mani too!

Also, check out my friend's mani for this week at My Life In Turquoise!

Wow! That's seven down and twenty-three more to go!! Stay tuned for next week's METALLIC nails!

Doodles and Flowers

Hey everyone! So last December my family has 2 weddings to attend. Before the first one, I obviously did my nails to get ready for the upcoming festivities! After seeing my nails, a few of our friends asked to get their nails done by me (yay!) and of course, I was thrilled and more than happy to do their nails! Indian weddings are all about color so the girls brought over their outfits and we decided to match the colors and patterns that were on their dresses.

Here's what the end product looked like:

  The left one: Her dress was green and pink and had a lot of intricate swirls that almost looked vine-like. Then there were pink embellishments and embroidery work that went along with the green swirl pattern. The detail in the dress made me go for a simple look so that everything did not look too busy. I opted for pink french tips and a cute simple green design.

 The right one: This dress was blue and purple with lots of shine and sparkles. Again, the pattern and overall look of this dress was very detailed so to not make everything look too busy, I went for something simple. To match the background color of her dress, I gave her blue french tips. The dress had purple and some flower patterns so to go along with that, I highlighted her ring finger and put a purple with some dots on it.

I hope you like it! These were simple but fun to do because they were happy with the end result :)

Triangles

Once again, here are my mom's nails! I just love doing her nails because she keeps them long most of the time and I always end up cutting mine after I'm unable to type anymore.

Again, I made a design to match her outfit. The base color was a light purple with a grey tint, then I went over it with a yellowish gold, and then a black. Topped it off with a red dot!

I normally use painter's tape to make the lines straight but since her nails are so long, it was easy for me to be able to make almost straight lines without the tape. So if you try to do this but aren't able to make straight lines, use painter's tape! Or any tape that you like and prefer :)

Uneven French

My mom wanted me to do her nails but she doesn't like anything too drastic and out there. So I tried out an uneven french with some fun colors.

The base color she chose was a shiny, light greenish color that had a hint of grey sparkles in it (I don't think you can see it in the picture). For the french tip, I used a dark purple and made it at an angle and then used a dotting tool to add some gold dots along the line.

What do you think?!

And I promise, as I get to recent designs, I'll add more of a tutorial and the names of the polishes that I used.

Half Matte

I love matte polish! It looks great and there are so many things you can do with it. I got Essie's Matte About You and wanted to try it out.

I love black so I thought I'd try doing black french nails. I painted the entire nail black and then after it had dried, I used painters tape to block off the tips of the nails. Then I painted over it with the matte top coat.

I guess I didn't let it dry enough because when I peeled off the tape, the edges were sticking up. It still turned out pretty good!

Let me know if you all like it!

ZigZags

Hi everyone! French manicures are fun but I thought of adding a twist to it!

  

It's quite easy to do:

1) Put on a base coat

2) Apply your base color (I chose purple)

3) Cut piece of tape (I used painters tape) in whatever shape you would like the tips of your nails to be (I have zigzags)

4) Put pieces of tape on your nails after your base color has dried

5) Apply tip color over nails while making sure they don't go out of their boundaries

6) Peel off tape after polish has dried

7) Apply top coat

That's all! Have fun :)