28 6 / 2012
Dip straws in in different nail polishes for these cute circles! So simple! Happy painting! :D
22 6 / 2012
Check out this great tutorial from the beauty department! http://thebeautydepartment.com/2012/06/turquoise-gold/
- Start by painting your base with a nice shade of turquoise. We used this one.
- Next, take a small plastic sandwich bag or plastic wrapper and crinkle it up. Hold most of it of it in your palm and make a “flower-y” shape with the rest as you see in the photo above. You’ll use this like a stamp.
- Paint some of your gold polish (we love this one) on the plastic. Doesn’t matter how you paint it on or where.
- Note: Dab the plastic bag/wrap on a piece of paper once or twice before you start to remove the excess polish. Now dab it on your finger. Then do the next finger. You’ll need to re-apply gold polish to the plastic bag every couple fingers.
- After you finish dabbing the gold on each finger, clean up the edges with nail polish remover and a paint brush.
- Add our favorite quick drying clear coat and you’re all set!
06 6 / 2012
Another great nail tutorial from http://www.collegefashion.net/beauty-and-hair/diy-nail-art-tutorial-breton-strips-gold-glitter/ Happy painting! :)
What You’ll Need:
- Base coat
- White polish – mine is Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear in White.
- Black polish – preferably with a thin brush for making nail art, but a regular brush will do just fine.
- Gold polish – and, if you have it, gold glitter polish. I used Milani 3D Holographic Lacquer in “510″ for the dots and Sephora by OPI Top Coat in “Only Gold For Me” for the tips.
- Dotting tool – you can pick up a professional one here, but I made my own by using the tip of a mechanical pencil with the led retracted. Other household items that could work are the flat heads of pins/bobby pins, the bottoms of matches and the ends paper clips. If you’re willing to get creative, I promise you can find something that will work beautifully.
- Top coat
- After applying a base coat and letting it dry, paint your nails white. You may need 2-3 coats to get even, opaque coverage. Wait until your nails are dry to the touch before moving on.
- With the black striper polish, create four evenly spaced horizontal stripes across each nail, starting just a little bit below the nail bed and ending with the tip. If you don’t have a black striper, I explain a technique for making stripes using scotch tape here.
- Next, create gold dots on the nail to emulate the brass buttons that are so often found on Breton stripe pieces. Take your dotting tool and, using the polish brush that comes with the bottle, dab a bit of gold polish onto the tip. Then make little dots in the middle of each white area between the black stripes, so it forms one vertical line of gold dots all the way down the nail.
- Optional: To add a bit more sparkle to your manicure, take some gold glitter polish and put it on the tip of the nail on your index finger, and on more of your nails if you’re feeling extra sassy.
- Slap on a top coat and you’re done! However, a word of caution: Make sure the black stripes are completely dry before applying a top coat. On my first attempt, I didn’t wait long enough and the black polish streaked a bit, which was very noticeable on the white background and ruined the crisp, clean look of the manicure. Don’t let this happen to you – give it a good half an hour before you put on your top coat.
06 6 / 2012
Great tutorial from http://www.collegefashion.net/beauty-and-hair/diy-nail-art-cherry-blossoms/
What You Need:
- Base coat
- 3 shades of pink – one very pale, one medium and one darker. I used Sephora by OPI Nail Colour in “Dear Diary…” and “How Cute Is That?” and Chanel Le Vernis Nail Colour in “Splendeur” (which has unfortunately been discontinued, but “Rose Exuberante” is similar).
- Black polish – I used Milani Nail Art Lacquer in “Black Sketch.”
- Bobby pin
- Top coat
- After applying a base coat, cover your entire nail with the lightest pink shade. Make sure it’s opaque – you may need to do multiple coats. Let this dry completely.
- With your black polish, paint jagged lines on your nail to make the branches of the cherry blossom tree. These should be somewhat random, and it’s better if each nail doesn’t look exactly the same! My black polish has a thin nail art brush, but if you don’t have one with a thin brush, you can also use an old eyeliner brush or a toothpick and achieve the same effect.
- Once the branches have dried, it’s time to make the blossoms. Take the medium pink, wipe the brush on the rim of the bottle so there is minimal polish on it, and then blot the tip of the brush (almost as if you were sponging the polish on) around the branches to make imperfect circles. It’s okay if they bleed into each other a bit; you want it to look like the branch is full of blooms.
- When you’re finished with the flowers, take a bobby pin and dab a tiny bit of the darkest pink on the head. Then dot it in the center of each blossom. Repeat this step until every blossom has a pink dot in the center.
- All finished! Allow your nails to dry thoroughly and then put on a top coat to preserve your blooms.
08 4 / 2012
We’ve seen lots of ombre techniques in the past, but this one is pretty cool because it’s done on your bare nails and has more of a stain effect than looking like actual nail polish. This was much easier than I thought it was going to be, but you should be prepared to practice once or twice before doing the actual mani. It’s all about technique! Here we go:
You will need: 3-4 gradient nail polish colors (dark to light and all in the tonal family), a clear top coat, a triangle makeup sponge, a cup of water, a piece of paper for blotting the polish, a paint brush + nail polish remover for clean up.
- Unscrew the lids of your 3 or 4 gradient colors so they’re ready to go. Be careful not to knock them over! Here I used because I was feeling very mermaid inspired.
- Get a little cup of water and soak your triangle makeup sponge. Squeeze the sponge out about 80% leaving it damp but not wet. This will keep the polish from soaking up too quickly.
- Apply a single line of the darkest color toward the edge of your sponge. The first time, I went over the line twice so that there was enough polish to transfer to the nail.
- Next, use the second darkest color and make another line above that one. Coat it twice also. Keep going until you build up your 3-4 colors. NOTE: you want to work somewhat quickly so the polish doesn’t dry out.
- Dab your sponge on a piece of paper and you’ll see the colors together but not quite blended.
- Bounce it up and down in the same spot a few times and you’ll see how the separation of colors disappears and they become blended!
- Line the tip of the sponge up with the tip of your nail and when you’re ready, give it a med-firm press. Bounce it up and down a couple times in that spot. DON’T BE SCARED that you’re going to mess it up because you’re not. If you keep it in the same general spot it will be just fine. It doesn’t have to be exact. If it’s a little off each time you bounce it up and down that’s actually good because it blends the colors even more.
- Re-apply a line of each polish color to the sponge for every nail. If you work quickly, you can probably re-apply polish to the sponge for every other nail.
- Now you have pretty polish but a mess around your nails.
- Take a little polish remover + a paint brush and clean up the sides and aroud the cuticles.
- Apply a top coat once the ombre has dried completely. The top coat will also make it appear more blended.
Try it in other colors. We did pink and blue but we’d love to see what you choose! Tweet them to us @TBDofficial and we’ll pin them!
