Simple Ways to Spice it Up

Hello readers!
For this post I am bringing you two simple manis. I love complicated, unique manis as much as the next girl - after all that is how this blog started! But this past week work has been hectic & life can be crazy in other ways - school, family, responsibilities - sometimes spending a couple hours on an awesome mani just isn't feasible. But that doesn't mean your nails have to look boring. So in this post I'm going to go over some simple, quick techniques you can use to give your mani some flair.

First things first - colors! Chose bright colors that are eye catching on their own. Glitter or high definition polishes comes with flair of their own & need little, if any, enhancement to turn some heads. Crackle polishes also add a cool effect with little effort. These polishes can be expensive but look out for sales! Today while browsing CVS I scored some Sally Hansen HD & crackle polishes for $1.82 down from $7.29. Neon polishes are also quite popular right now - not surprising considering it is summer.

Byte, Wavelength, Hue, Spectrum, & Antiqued Gold. Love a bargain!

So you got your color, now what? One really easy way to spice up a mani is to add an accent nail. Accent nails started as a way to highlight your ring finger & your engagement/wedding ring. But even if you don't have a ring an accent nail is still a fun trick & some people prefer to either do the thumb instead or in addition to the ring finger. But there are no rules - your accent finger(s) can be any one(s) you like! Here are a couple examples I played around with tonight -

Sally Hansen's HD Byte & Orly's Luxe 

Orly's Luxe & China Glaze's Dorothy Who?

Notice the shine on the blue accent nail? That is Essie's high definition topcoat Shine of the Times. There are a lot of top coats out there that can add shine & accents to your mani quickly.

Some other suggestions for a quick, fun mani -

• Taping like I used in my sunset pedi post.
• Dotting! I will do a post elaborating more on this in the future.
• Striping tape such as I used here, but instead of painting over them for a laser effect use the colors of the tape to add some colorful accent stripes.
• If you're talented, some freehand nail art can add some flair. This may take some practice to become quick at though
• Nail stickers can be added to one accent nail or your whole mani for some quick embellishments