Inspiration in Unusual Places

I have to admit I've been a tad uninspired lately. I was so happy my nails had gotten so long & pretty but the inevitable happened, one by one they got chipped & cracked. A couple I was able to fix with the teabag method (which the next time this happens I'll document now that I'm a tad more confident using it) but it got to the point where I only had two nice nails and had to file them down. Some people like short nails & that is fine but I just find them a tad sad. I have a few ideas floating around in my head but I feel I don't yet have adequate canvas space to really do them justice.

I'll try to be positive though. My new nails growing in look much healthier & feel stronger than my old nails. My old nails I could easily bend if they didn't have polish on & the tips would flake a lot. So perhaps my older nails breaking off so new, healthier ones could grow in their place is a good thing. I've also noticed since I started this blog manis don't take me hours anymore. I have less cleanup (even on my left hand!) & can get through a whole mani without completely having to redo a few nails.

I give credit to my nail vitamins for my stronger nails

So a week or so ago I got one of those Victoria's Secret flyers in the mail with a free underwear coupon. I was pretty stoked because who doesn't love free underwear - nobody that's who! So the other day I went in before work & picked out a really cute pair that was pink with white polka dots. Then it hit me - I want this on my nails. Since I hadn't used my dotting tools yet this seemed like the perfect idea to pull me out of my uninspired rut.

For this mani I used Essie Off the Shoulder & Sinful Colors Show Me White. This was the first time I used an Essie polish besides Shine of the Times & I was really happy with it. It went on smooth, the color was true to the bottle & it dried nicely & quickly. In this picture you can also see my dotting tools. They came as a set of five with a different size dot on each end. They were less than five dollars with shipping on Amazon & I was really excited to have some other size dots besides twisted bobby pins especially since I need those bobby pins for work.

Polka dots are fun but they aren't too flashy so I decided to do an inverse accent nail just to make this mani pop a little bit more. I made sure that the base colors were completely dry before dotting them, I was nervous enough about smearing the dots I didn't want to smudge the base colors too.

For the first couple dots I tried painted it onto the tip of the dotter but I found I achieved better, more even dots by just dipping the dotter into the polish. I was so nervous to do the dots but I was surprised at how easy it was! Just press it lightly onto the nail & there you go! Only a couple dots came out warped and those were on my right hand so I was expecting that. The dots looked a tad bumpy until I used my top coat, then it had a nice smooth look.

I am very happy with these, I feel super cute wearing them! I'm really happy to know that dotting was easier than I thought - now I just need to start playing with my nail stamps.

Fourth of July Splatter Explosions

Happy Fourth of July everyone! I'm very excited to be writing my first holiday post. I decided to try a splatter mani because I figured it would be fun & capture the spirit of Fourth of July fireworks. This is a mani that kids could have a lot of fun with - with parental help & clean up of course.  I'm going to warn you this is a messy mani & if symmetry or every nail looking the same is important to you this isn't the mani for you.

Since it is the Fourth of July I used red, white, & blue of course! I chose to use this red & blue because they both were a shining, sparkling color. The colors are Sinful Colors Show Me White & Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Blue It & Red Carpet. I chose to do one color as a base & slather the other two. If you like you can splatter all three colors either on your own nail or on an addition base color such as black. You will need as many straws as you will have splatter colors - one straw for each color. I used Starbucks straws because I love going there but any straw will work. I would imagine different straw sizes would create different splatters. The paper plate is to drop your splatter polishes onto.

Start by painting your base color. A lot of people like to use white as the base but I didn't want that much white on my nails.

Once your base color is completely dry tape up your fingers because this mani is going to get messy! You can also use Vaseline but I couldn't find mine so I taped.

I dropped small amounts of the white & red polish onto the paper plate. I used a little because I'd rather have to add more than waste polish.

Now for the fun part! Dip the tip of your straw in the polish & blow it onto your nails. This required a strong breath, little blows did nothing at all. I also found that just lightly painting the polish onto the straw between nails worked better than the dipping for me. I think this really depends on what straw & polish you use so experiment. Use lots of paper towels on your counter! I vastly underestimated how far the splatters would go & ended up with a counter covered in paint spots. If this happens just put a little bit of acetone on a paper towel & wipe it up.

Now you see why taping is strongly recommended for this mani! I had a bit of trouble getting the red to splatter, I think the glitter in the polish changed the texture & made it a bit tougher to use than the white.  Once the tape is removed spot clean up if you have to & enjoy this fun, unique look.

Thanks for reading! I wish you all a happy & safe Fourth of July!

Gotta paint 'em all, Pokéballs!

Finally, the much delayed Pokéball mani post! Why is this post delayed? Because I made a major mistake - I didn't make sure I had all my supplies before I started my mani & found myself in a rough spot. 

The polishes I used to create my Pokéballs were Orly Forever Crimson, Sinful Colors Show me White & Stripe Rite in black. 


It was not until I had painted all my nails red before I realized my blunder. I must say this Orly color is beautiful & I love how smooth Orly polish goes on. I used two coats to get a nice bright red. 

I originally tried to do the white halves freehand but it looked awful. I'm a bit obsessive with detail, even though I'm still new at this I will do a finger over four or five times if necessary to get it as perfect as possible - which is why my manis can sometimes take hours. After trying the freehand I removed it, painted it red & decided to take my chances with sealing the red with a top coat. I wasn't sure how well the white would paint over the top coat but since I knew I wouldn't be able to get tape right away I didn't want the red coat to be wasted. I hate wasting polish. As I've said before I'm a college student working retail & these nicer brands of polish aren't cheap. I don't feel like I've gotten my money's worth if the mani doesn't last at least five days but I usually aim for a week. Lucky for me, the red held up until I was able to grab tape a couple days later!

I lined my tape up halfway down the nail. When taping, make sure that the edge of the tape is completely stuck to the nail. As you can see in my picture there were some bubbles in the tape but it was sealed at the end & that is all that mattered. I made especially sure to press it down tight where the side of the nail meets the skin so I didn't get bleeding. If you're doing this mani in one setting like I intended make sure your red is completely dry before you start taping.

Once the tape is sealed paint the white polish on. Make sure to cover up all the red & try to paint it on as smoothly as possible. All of the area not covered in tape should be covered. 

When I did my laser mani I let the polish dry before removing the tape. However on this one I removed the tape as fast while the white polish was still dry. I was quite happy with the result, I got a smooth nice like without bleeding. 

If your white line isn't perfect don't worry, the black line that is drawn where the white & red meet will cover up any small mistakes. For the line I decided to attempt freehand with the striper. One does not realize how much their hands are capable of shaking until attempting something like this! But the Stripe Rite did make it really easy to get a clean line. I did mine in one quick swipe to try to get as clean of a line as possible. 

Now to be accurate all we need is the the dots in the middle of the black line. This requires a larger black dot & then a white dot inside the black dot. I didn't have a dotting tool that was quite up for the challenge so I figured I would challenge myself & use the striper to freehand paint the larger dot. The result was not perfect bit better than I expected. 

For the smaller white dot I wanted a more precise shape. I know not everybody has dotting tools, especially if you're starting out like me, so I decided to test out the bobby pin method I had heard about from a couple friends. This involves using the rounded ends of a bobby pin dipped in paint to make a dot. Cool right? I decided to bend my bobby pin into a shape that served this purpose a bit more.

You could dip the pin right into the polish jar if you wish but I decided to just lightly dip the tip into the brush since it requires very little paint to make one dot. The result was actually quite nice, I was impressed.

There you have it! A relatively easy, cute mani. I chose to only do two balls as accent nails but you could paint as many or a as few as you like. 

Here they are holding Pokémon Conquest, the game that inspired them! If you're a fan of Pokémon I definatelty recommend the game, I couldn't put it down yesterday which is why this post wasn't up yesterday, sorry! This game is a crossover between Pokémon & Nobunaga's Ambition. You play a warlord with an Eevee traveling through the Ransei region with the goal of conquering all the kingdoms within the region. You can form links with new Pokémon & recruit allies to achieve this goal. I really enjoyed how it is nostalgic of classic battles but with a new twist. I think Nintendo underestimated how many people were excited for this game, when I went to pick mine up from Gamestop they told me they were only sent enough to fill preorders and had to turn people away. My sister was unable to find a copy today but I'm sure over the next couple weeks more copies will come in.