Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Funky Feather French

Today I have for you a funky french and feather mani!
I had just purchased a little bag of colored craft feathers and really wanted to try it out. Since it was my first time working with the material (feathers!) I decided to only use 1 per hand so that if it looked horrible, I would only have to worry about fixing 2 fingers :)

To my surprise, these things were super easy to work with. The hardest part is trimming the feather to fit your nail. Once that's done, the rest is easy peasy!




Franken (made by myself) in Lady Finger
Blue glitter that I seriously cannot remember the name of...
Craft feathers from Hobby Lobby

 I used a green and a blue feather, just to test out different shades. I liked how the green feather matched my funky french but preferred the coverage with the blue feather.


Here's how I did my feather mani:

1. select a feather large enough to cover your who nail
2. trim the bottom into a rounded shape to match and fit your nail shape
3. paint your nail a nude color (if you have a very dense feather, you can probably skip this)
4. wait for the nude polish to dry and then apply a thick layer of topcoat
5. quickly place your feather and apply LIGHT pressure. Too much and you risk your nude polish seeping through the feather
6. trim the tip so that you don't have extra feathery bits hanging from your nail
7. apply another thick later of topcoat!

there may be an easier way to do this, but this method worked well for me. The feathers stayed on as long as the rest of my polish. After a couple of days, I did find myself peeling little feather strips but by then, my tips were starting to show signs of wear...

What do you think of feather accent nails?

Until next time ^_^




Monday, February 18, 2013

Post Valentine Detox Nails- Studs Baby!

After about a month of pink and red cutesy nails, I thought you might all be in need of a more edgy design!
Today I have for you my first mani using studs :D
I was really excited to try this out because I have seen these everywhere on the internet. However, none of my local nail shops carried them >_< which is why it has taken me so long to jump on this awesome train...
But now, I have studs, so many studs! and here is what I did with them



Flash picture to show the subtle shimmer stripe :)


Wet n Wild in Black Creme
 L'Oreal in Owl's Night (stripe)
Studs from The Born Pretty Store 
All sealed up with a thick coat of Seche Vite


So after 3 days of stud-y nails, I've noticed that these don't hold up all that well. I had 1 mini-round stud fall off the morning after I did them, a square one fell off 24 hours later, and the remaining studs are starting to fade to silver... Maybe I didn't use the right kind of topcoat, or maybe this is the kind of mani that requires nightly TC application. I don't know, I suppose I will have to try again.

However, even though they don't stay on too well, I think they are completely worth it! The shine off these bad boys was incredible! People had no choice but the notice my nails haha! Consequently, I received quite a few compliments on these. Next time I will stick to the silver studs to avoid the color rubbing off part, but then again, maybe a thicker top coat could have avoided that entirely?

If you are looking for your own studs, and who isn't really ;) I received mine from The Born Pretty Store.
The little wheel box had tons of little shapes, in both silver and gold, making it the perfect starter kit to studs!

At less than $5, it is a pretty darn good bargain. You can click the picture to be taken directly to the product page and as always, feel free to use my coupon code to get 10% off your order.

Have you ever used nail art studs before? What did you use to "glue" them down?

Until next time ^_^

*The product in this post was provided to me for honest review. Please see my disclosure policy for more information*

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Funky Feather French

Today I have for you a funky french and feather mani!
I had just purchased a little bag of colored craft feathers and really wanted to try it out. Since it was my first time working with the material (feathers!) I decided to only use 1 per hand so that if it looked horrible, I would only have to worry about fixing 2 fingers :)

To my surprise, these things were super easy to work with. The hardest part is trimming the feather to fit your nail. Once that's done, the rest is easy peasy!




Franken (made by myself) in Lady Finger
Blue glitter that I seriously cannot remember the name of...
Craft feathers from Hobby Lobby

 I used a green and a blue feather, just to test out different shades. I liked how the green feather matched my funky french but preferred the coverage with the blue feather.


Here's how I did my feather mani:

1. select a feather large enough to cover your who nail
2. trim the bottom into a rounded shape to match and fit your nail shape
3. paint your nail a nude color (if you have a very dense feather, you can probably skip this)
4. wait for the nude polish to dry and then apply a thick layer of topcoat
5. quickly place your feather and apply LIGHT pressure. Too much and you risk your nude polish seeping through the feather
6. trim the tip so that you don't have extra feathery bits hanging from your nail
7. apply another thick later of topcoat!

there may be an easier way to do this, but this method worked well for me. The feathers stayed on as long as the rest of my polish. After a couple of days, I did find myself peeling little feather strips but by then, my tips were starting to show signs of wear...

What do you think of feather accent nails?

Until next time ^_^




Monday, February 18, 2013

Post Valentine Detox Nails- Studs Baby!

After about a month of pink and red cutesy nails, I thought you might all be in need of a more edgy design!
Today I have for you my first mani using studs :D
I was really excited to try this out because I have seen these everywhere on the internet. However, none of my local nail shops carried them >_< which is why it has taken me so long to jump on this awesome train...
But now, I have studs, so many studs! and here is what I did with them



Flash picture to show the subtle shimmer stripe :)


Wet n Wild in Black Creme
 L'Oreal in Owl's Night (stripe)
Studs from The Born Pretty Store 
All sealed up with a thick coat of Seche Vite


So after 3 days of stud-y nails, I've noticed that these don't hold up all that well. I had 1 mini-round stud fall off the morning after I did them, a square one fell off 24 hours later, and the remaining studs are starting to fade to silver... Maybe I didn't use the right kind of topcoat, or maybe this is the kind of mani that requires nightly TC application. I don't know, I suppose I will have to try again.

However, even though they don't stay on too well, I think they are completely worth it! The shine off these bad boys was incredible! People had no choice but the notice my nails haha! Consequently, I received quite a few compliments on these. Next time I will stick to the silver studs to avoid the color rubbing off part, but then again, maybe a thicker top coat could have avoided that entirely?

If you are looking for your own studs, and who isn't really ;) I received mine from The Born Pretty Store.
The little wheel box had tons of little shapes, in both silver and gold, making it the perfect starter kit to studs!

At less than $5, it is a pretty darn good bargain. You can click the picture to be taken directly to the product page and as always, feel free to use my coupon code to get 10% off your order.

Have you ever used nail art studs before? What did you use to "glue" them down?

Until next time ^_^

*The product in this post was provided to me for honest review. Please see my disclosure policy for more information*