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 

Acquiring a Passion for Polish

Before recently I didn't paint my nails much for a couple reasons. The first being I work as a receiving associate which makes it hard to keep nails looking very pretty. The second reason was that I didn't know much about nails. Before a couple months ago I didn't know what a base coat was, how to have healthy cuticles (nor did I know why this was important) or how to get multiple colors on your nails - or even paint one color on smoothly! 

This past Christmas my mom decided we should get mani/pedis together. I was excited - just because my job makes it hard to have pretty nails doesn't mean I didn't want them! We both got acrylic nails, I picked a red tip with striping for a festive look.

They reminded me of candy canes!

I had forgotten how much I enjoyed having acrylic nails. But like all acrylic manicures, my nails started to grow out and once the first acrylic popped off it was all over. By this point Christmas was over as well so I was itching for a new color. So back to the salon I went...

By this point I was hooked. But I was also becoming more aware of the financial burden of going to the salon every time I needed a fill or wanted a different color. When this manicure started to grow out I didn't have the money right away for a new one so I figured I would remove them and wait until I could afford a new one. But when I took them off I was really disturbed by the condition of my nails underneath. They were weak, discolored, and uneven. I decided between the financial aspect and the damage my nails had taken acrylics weren't worth it.

By this point my best friend Pixie had introduced me to Reddit and I had stumbled upon the glorious subreddit known as r/RedditLaqueristas. After being inspired by so many of the wonderful posts I decided that I would build up a polish stash and learn to do my own nails. The following pictures include the cast of this blog - my polish stash thus far.

Sally Hansen Polishes

China Glaze Polishes

Misc Polishes

Which brings me to the point of this blog - to share what I learn (the good & the bad) as I experiment with my nail art. Posts will include step-by-step pictures of new techniques I try, pictures of new polishes I add to my stash, and general nail tips I come across as I go. I hope that through sharing these I can meet other nail enthusiasts and we can all learn from each other.

On that note, I want to share with you a few of my first attempts at doing my own nails. This manicure used China Glaze Dorothy Who? & China Glaze Platinum Pieces crackle polish.

This next one was a bit harder and took a few tries. I used a Sally Hansen french manicure kit. It came with a white french tip color, a sheer french pink coat, & a UV top coat. This kit also came with little stickers that are used to guide the painting of the tip. This took me a few tries and I had to redo a couple nails but overall I was happy with the outcome.

My latest manicure was inspired after watching a late night Harry Potter movie marathon. For this one I used Sally Hansen Red Carpet & China Glaze Electrify from the Hunger Games collection (which was a birthday present from my lovely girlfriend). Overall I liked the combination but I wish the tips were more even but since I drew them on freehand that was to be expected. If I do this manicure again I will try using the strips I used for the french mani. I also learned the glitter is not cooperative when it comes to removal - if I find a good technique for removing glitter polish I will share!

Gryffindor Nails!

This brings me to now. From here on out I will be sharing my manicures in more depth and hopefully improving!