Nail Art Tutorial: Splatter

Hi everyone!!

I made my very first nail art tutorial today! The tutorial is for the splatter manicure that I created for Day 4 of April's Tri-Polish Challenge. I'm very excited to show it to all of you and I hope it helps!! If there is anything that I missed or if you would like me to include another step in future tutorials, please let me know in the comments section below.

To refresh, here's the manicure that I created for the Tri-Polish Challenge:

To get the look, you'll need:
The exact names of what I used are in parentheses, but you can use whichever brands/colors you prefer.

Base coat (Essie 3 Way Glaze) and top coat (Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Top Coat)

 

A toothpick/small-sized dotting tool/orange stick

White polish (Sinful Colors Snow Me White)

*Cream polishes work best*
**You can use any combination of colors*
Purple polish (Sinful Colors Amethyst), pinky coral polish (Sinful Colors Timbleberry), green polish (Sinful Colors Irish Green)

 

Now, onto the tutorial!

I hope this tutorial was helpful! And as I stated before, if any of you believe that I missed a step, or believe that I should explain something more clearly, let me know in the comments section below. Also, if you try out my tutorial, I would love to see pictures! Leave me a link in the comments section!

31 Day (Week) Challenge - Day 14: Flowers

Hello hello! I hope everyone had a great weekend! We're back today with the new challenge mani for the 31 Day Challenge! I'm starting right off the bat by saying that I was disappointed with my mani but I didn't have time to fix it or create a new one. So I'm stuck with this one for this post. Womp womp :(

My favorite flower is the white calla lily so I really wanted to do something with it. I'm just not going to say anything more than that because I really am upset with the end result.

A lot of polishes were used to create this so bare with me again!

To get this look:
 Lily

•  I started by working on the lily. I needed an undie so I used Orly Country Club Khaki. It actually ended up being the perfect base for my accent nail!
• To create the green background for the accent nail, I sponged on Sally Hansen Insta Dri Lickety-Split Lime and Revlon Colorstay Spanish Moss in random spots. 
• For the actual calla lily, I used a small detail brush and Sinful Colors Snow Me White to create the heart shaped petal. Then I used my smallest detail brush and Revlon Colorstay Bonsai to create the shadow/hole where the center piece comes out.
• I needed to add some shadows to the calla lily because it looked too fake to me so I mixed together Sinful Colors Snow Me White and Revlon Downtown to create a light blue because I don't own the right shade to use as the shadow color. I added some of that custom blue to the left side of the petal and to create the shadow from the center piece.
• I didn't have the correct shade for the center piece either. The polishes that I have are either too yellow or too orange, nothing in between. So I mixed together Revlon Sunshine Sparkle and Sally Hansen Insta Dri Snappy Sorbet to create a light orange. I used my small detail brush to create the carrot-shaped piece.
• I add some darkness/shadow under the calla lily, I used Zoya Yara and the sponge to dab a little of that polish under the petal on bottom right and left sides of the accent nail.

Other nails

• I used Zoya Pixie Dust Vespa on the other nails.  

I'm actually proud of my calla lily but it's the Pixie Dust that, I think, ruined my mani. I haven't used it before so I thought it would be a darker color and would just add some sparkle. But this was about 3 coats (1 nail was 2 coats) and the color was still a lot lighter than what the bottle shows. I do love the polish, just not with this mani. I also think I ended up crapping out on the shading because the lighting was bad in my room. It looked good in that light but ended up looking completely different in natural light and you could see the the stark difference in the shading. But what's done is done! Hopefully I'll be more happy with my next challenge mani.

** Just in case someone wants a reference to the flower, here's a picture**

http://pphotography-blog.blogspot.com/2012/01/calla-lily-flower.html

I hope you all at least like my attempt at creating the calla lily! Be sure to check out my friend's flower post at My Life In Turquoise!

Now that's 14 done, and 17 more to go!

31 Day (Week) Challenge - Day 9: Rainbow Nails

Hey guys!!

I'm super excited to show you all my challenge mani for today. Originally, I was going to have one balloon on each finger but then I realized that I would have to lose one color since there are only five fingers. So I decided to have two balloons on each finger so that I could fit in that extra color.

I'm also dedicating this party inspired mani to my boyfriend's nephew because his 1st birthday just passed!!

A lot of polishes went into creating this challenge mani. I wanted to have a base color because I didn't want to have the balloons and confetti on my bare nail and I didn't want to have a white background either. So for my base polish color, I used one coat of Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Platinum because I still wanted to have a VNL. The red balloons and confetti were made using Sally Hansen Maximum Growth Perfect Cherry. All of the orange was created by Sinful Colors Courtney Orange. I used Revlong Sunshine Sparkle for the yellow but it was too light so I ended up going over it with Wet n Wild Fast Dry The Wonder Yellows. The green I used was Sinful Colors Irish Green. The blue was made using Rimmel London Marine Blue. And last but not least, the purple came from Nicole by OPI Prized Possession Purple. Now for the detail work. For the balloon strings, I used Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen Black. To make the "shine" streaks on the balloons, I used Nubar Nail Art Pen Basic White. Of course, none of this would have been possible without my handy dandy small detail brush!

Even though there were a lot of nail polishes involved in making this mani, it would super easy because of the detail brush. I worked with one color at a time so that I didn't have to keep cleaning the brush after every single use. But I'm not going to lie, as easy as this mani was, it was highly time consuming because of all of the small detail work.

This is such a fun mani and it makes me so happy every time I see it! It just reminds me of parties and all the fun that goes along with it. I really hope you all love this mani as much as I do!

Be sure to check out the challenge mani by My Life In Turquoise!

That's 9 down and 22 more to go!

Malted Easter Eggs

Hey guys!

Easter is coming up this weekend so I thought of creating a mani that was simple and easy to create! A friend actually showed me a similar mani and I thought it was really cute and perfect for Easter so I had to recreate it! Easter is all about candy and pastels so this mani is dedicated to the malted easter eggs candies that I love so much :)

I thought I would throw in a picture of my inspiration!

I used several different polishes to create this mani. My thumb was made with Revlon Colorstay Bonsai. My pointer finger was made using Revlon Top Speed Pink Lingerie. My middle finger was made using Revlon Sunshine Sparkle. My ring finger was made with Wet n Wild Wild Shine Rain Check. And last but not least, my little pinky finger was made with Sally Hansen White. Most of the malted easter egg candies I've had have had brown spots so I decided to go with brown for my mani. The brown specks were made using a small dotting tool and Revlon Totally Toffee. To get the dusty look of the malted eggs, I used Essie Matte About You top coat.

I love love love this mani! I think it's so cute and perfectly Easter! The mani is also very simple and super easy to make. All you really need to do to make this mani is find pastel/Easter colors, add some brown or colored speckles, and top it with a dusty finish! I hope you all liked this mani too and I hope that it gave some you ideas for your nails.  

For another idea, take a look at my last year's Easter mani here!

Happy Easter!

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!

Drugstore Haul

Hi everyone! I hope you had a great weekend! I had to run to a few drugstores to pick up some things and I guess it was my lucky day! Of course, I have to check on the nail polish to see if there is anything new or if there are any sales. SALE!!!

I ended up getting 9 polishes in really fun colors!! They remind me of Spring so I'm really excited to try them out and get out of this winter funk. Hopefully, I'll have the swatches for you soon, even though I'm not a big fan of swatches because I think they're boring and I'd much rather show you my nail art. But swatches are great to see how a polish will look before you get a bottle, if you want to make sure you will like it.

Stay warm, everyone!

31 Day (Week) Challenge - Day 6: Violet Nails

Hi everyone!! I'm so excited to show you all today's challenge mani!

Originally, I had planned a completely different mani for today but it didn't work out so I decided to go with this look instead. I will definitely show you all the other look that I had mine sometime soon because it's a great idea and looks awesome!

Ikat print!! For the base coat, I used Revlon Scented Parfume Grape Icy. It's a very pretty purple and really smells like grapes!! The color is almost like a royal purple but with a softer look to it soI thought it would be perfect for this print to soften it up a bit. For the black and white parts of the print, I used some nail art pens, Nubar White and Nubar Black. The blue/green color that I used in the print is Sinful Colors Mint Apple, which has a nice sparkle to it.

I've been wanting to try this one out for a while and what a better opportunity to do it! It was fun making this mani and I was pleasantly surprised at how it turned out because I thought I would mess up badly. But I like it!

My friend at My Life In Turquoise also has her challenge mani for all of you so make sure to stop by there.

I can't believe week 6 is already done!! Next week is black and white and I already have something in mind for that. Let's hope that it turns out well.

6 down, 25 more to go!!

31 Day (Week) Challenge - Day 4: Green Nails

Hey guys!

I'm so excited to show you all today's challenge mani!!

We have GREEN for this week's theme! The design that I have is probably a bit much for some of these earlier "easy" challenges, but I've been wanting to do this for a while now. Take a look!

After I started the design, I realized that I would need a lot more blues and purples to get an actual peacock look, so I'm not going to say that this is a peacock design. It's peacock inspired! I used a lot of different shades of green to get this look but it didn't take as long as I thought it would. You will definitely be seeing me trying out this design again with a wider ranger of colors!

 

To get this design, I used a tiny brush to get the smaller strokes and medium and small sized dotting tools to get the two smaller spots for the eye.

The polishes I used (in order) were:

For the base...

Zoya Edyta

L'oreal Because You're Worth It

Revlon Colorstay Fall Mood

Zoya Yara

Revlon Colorstay Spanish Moss 

 

For the eye...

Revlon Top Speed Golden

Revlon Scented Parfume Ocean Breeze

Spoiled The Parking Meteor Expired 

Oh and btw, Revlon Scented Parfume Ocean Breeze actually smells amazing! And it's such a pretty color!

I think I could have done better with this design, but I'm happy with how it turned out considering this was the first time I've tried this type of look. I will definitely be trying it again with more colors as I mentioned above! 

I think I will be trying a simple look for next week's challenge :)

My friend, My Life In Turquoise, is also doing the challenge so don't forget to check out her page as well!!

4 down, 27 more to go!!

31 Day (Week) Challenge - Day 1: Red Nails

Hey guys!

Today's the big day!! This week's theme is red nails and since yesterday was the Superbowl, I of course had to do something that played along with that as well.

To get this look, I used my favorite red polish out of the bunch: Revlon Valentine. It looks a bit bright in the picture but the color is actually darker and looks almost maroonish. For the accent nails, the base color that I used was Revlon Colorstay Bonsai. That one was really light and I had to put on several coats.

To go along with the second football theme, I used a striper brush and my white polish to make the "yard lines" of the football field and added the Latin numerals for the 47th Superbowl: XLVII

 
I really like how it turned out!! And I'm definitely going to be enjoying by manicure for the week. I think this one was a great start to the challenge!

One down, only 30 more to go! Stay tuned for next week's ORANGE themed 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 :)

Autumnal Blur

I did these a few days ago since it is now fall. I wanted to do something to match the colors of the leaves changing because Fall is my favorite season and the leaves are gorgeous! Especially the trees near me. There are so many around me that turn bright red. These trees start turning red at the tips of every leaf and VERY slowly move down the leaf. So right now, some of them are half red and half green, where the tips all around the tree are red and in the middle, towards the trunk are still very much green. It looks breathtaking. Enough about these trees...!

One of the things I like about Fall is sitting in the car and just staring at the trees passing by. So I tried doing something to match what that looks like.

 This was easy to do but just took a steady hand.

1) Always always apply a base coat!!
2) The base color that I used was Revlon Golden
3) Then I used an art brush to lightly swipe across my nails. But I only used each color on a few spots on my nails and sometimes even only swiped across once for certain colors. The key is to not take up too much polish on the brush so that you can see the brush stroke on the nails.
4) Here are the colors I used, in order:
- Wet n Wild Sage in the City
- Zoya Sarah
- Revlon Sunshine Sparkle
- Revlon Amber Ablaze
- Zoya Edyta
5) Then to add some sparkle, I used Jane Megawatt and wiped the polish brush on the edge of the bottle so that most of the polish was off the brush. Then I swiped over the nail in the direction I did the other colors.

What do you think of my blur of autumn colors??

Toothpicks

Helloooo. Some of my bottles of nail polishes are a bit old and I noticed that the brushes aren't soft anymore. So whenever I put the polishes on, the brush would scratch the polish during the second coat. That got me wondering...what would happen if I used something sharp to put on the polish? I searched online and found out that you can do this with toothpicks!!

Doesn't it look awesome??

And it wasn't even that hard to do!

Here are the steps:
1) Pick a base color and apply (I chose white)
2) Pick some colors that you want to "scratch" with the toothpick (blue, pink, purple, teal in the picture)
3) Start with one color and do all of your nails so you don't have to go back and forth opening the bottles over and over again. Put a drop of one of the colors at the crown and then take a toothpick and start scratching it lightly towards the tip of the nail (the size of the drop will determine how far you are able to scratch the color)
4) Repeat with each of your chosen colors
5) Finish it off with a top coat!

I hope you like this because I sure did!!

And yes, that's henna on my hands. I got it done for a wedding that I had to go to.

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.

Bunnies, Eggs, and Pastel

Bunnies, eggs, and pastel colors remind me of Easter so I thought of putting those on my nails! 

Bunny on the thumb and a chick hatching out of an egg on the ring finger. And then for the other nails I decided to try to make them look like decorated eggs.

I used an art brush and dotting tools to make the designs. Isn't it cute?! I hope you all liked it!

Gold Clovers

Since my other St. Patty's day nails didn't work out, I redid them.

  The base color was Wet n Wild Sage in the City. Then I used to gold to create four leaf clovers on all of the nails. And added some dot designs using a dotting tool.

Hopefully you all like it!