Mermaids

These nails were really inspired by mermaids or fish. One half of the nail you have a flowing, waving sea. On the other half you have lightly colored scales. 

This is why I usually find ideas from other people's nail designs. When I come up with my own I'm not too happy with them...What do you think?

Paint on.

Felicia

Water Marbling

Oh no! It hasn't even been a week and I forgot to post yesterday! Darn. I am so bad at that, but I am busy in college. 

Today I bring you water marbled nails.

I have only done this once and here they are.

Let me tell you something about water marbling, it's a mess!! At least when I did these it was. Since then I have learned a little trick to cutting down on the mess. Here is how to do water marbling:

1. Get a container that you can fill with water. It must be big enough for you to dip your nails into. I used a small plastic container that was usually used to hold leftover food.

2. Fill with water. (=

3. Drop the colors that you want into the water. You may use as many colors as you like!

4. Use a toothpick to swirl the colors together. Make sure it looks neat in the water because it will be the mirror image of that on your nails! ***Be careful with this if you have used a lot of different colors!! If you over swirl the colors they will mix into a not very pretty color.

5. This is the step I just learned! Put tape around your nail to minimize the mess. BRILLIANT! Ha. I can't believe I didn't do this. I seriously needed to take a picture of these nails BEFORE I removed all of the extra polish.

6. Dip your nail into a spot that looks pretty to you! Hold it for a few seconds so that it has time to adhere to the nail. Carefully remove your nail from the water.

7. Repeat for all nails. Eventually the original polish may start to dry or become too blended. You may have to clean out your container and start over. 

These nails take some time, but they look fantastic! I think it'd be really cool with some bright colors. It may look kind of like tie dye.

On a side note, I received some new polish today!! OPI in Brake for Manicures.

It's a very dark purple. I thought it would be a nice winter or fall color. (=

Paint on!

Felicia

Japanese Cherry Blossoms

Once again, this is a really old design of mine. I don't remember the products that I used. Since then I had to throw out a lot of my polishes because a friend had asked to borrow them, and then I left them in my car for about two weeks. Definitely not a good idea. NEVER do what I did that summer!! 

These were free-handed as most of my nail designs are. VERY simple. Anyone can do this. 

Paint on! 

Felicia

Strawberry Shortcake

I honestly can't remember when I did these nails. It was a long time ago. I won't be able to give a product list for this one.

I love this design so much! It was really fun to paint these. I may do it again sometime along with a tutorial. (=

Paint on!!

Felicia

Purple Flowers

This will be a tutorial!!! I decided to finally repaint my nails. I finally did these without getting any inspiration from the internet too.

Polishes:

Essie--nice is nice

Essie--blanc

Sally Hansen Lacquer Shine--flair

Stripe Rite--not named...

Seche Vite--top coat

Step 1: Paint nails with nice is nice. This requires 2 coats!

Step 2: Make five dots on each nail using Sally Hansen's flair. I used the biggest dotting tool I have.

Step 3: Take a dotting tool(I used my smallest one) or a toothpick would work too. Drag from the middle of a dot to the center. This makes petals.

Step 4: Using either the same dotting tool that you used on the petals or a smaller one, dot Essie blanc in the middle of the flowers.

Step 5: Use the white Stripe Rite to make two lines coming from the flower. One line should be shorter than the other. The part that is going in the direction with less space on the nail.

Step 6: Repeat step 5, but with the bright purple Stripe Rite.

Step 7: Using the same bright purple Stripe Rite and the smallest dotting tool, place dots under the longer lines. The dots gradually get smaller the further they get away from the flower. Do this by adjusting pressure on the dotting tool.

Step 8: Seche Vite top coat!

And that's it!!!

Paint on!!

Felicia

Butterflies

Monarch nails!!! These were so much fun to do! As you may be able to tell, these are not my real nails. I do have an acrylic nail kit. I did the false nails all by myself! I don't offer acrylic nails as a service here on campus at Indiana University because I left all of that stuff at home. Plus, that gets really expensive! No butterflies were harmed in the making of these nails. I just happened to find one sometime later after a golf practice. I feel like this one is pretty self-explanatory. So here are the products that I used:
 1. Dotting tool for the white dots
 2. KISS black striper
 3. Pure Ice nail polish in Hot Tamale

Need more explanation? Feel free to contact me at fmgradow@indiana.edu

Paint on!
Felicia

New Blog on the Block(=

First post! Woohoo! Since my vintage fashion blog has died now that I am in college, I have decided to blog about my other passion, nail art!
 For this first post I obviously am covering zebra nails. Zebra nails are very, very popular, but a lot of people, even professional salons, completely mess this one up. I went with my cousin to get zebra nails professionally done and what we got looked more like tiger. So let me give you some tips on doing zebra nails and the products that I use.
 1. Look at a picture of zebra print--this really helps! You can get a feel of how the print should look.
 2. Use nail stripers--these are you best friend. I use them on all of my designs.
 3. Have fun and be relaxed--if you don't get it right the first time, that's okay. Keep trying. (=

Products used for the blue and pink zebra nails:
 Pink base: Sally Hanson complete manicure
 Blue zebra print: Milani stripers

Pink and Purple zebra:
 Neon pink base: Milani
 Purple zebra: Stripe Rite (My favorite stripers!!)

If you need any more help with perfecting your zebra nails I would be happy to help. (=

Paint on,
Felicia