Hi!

This week I actually did decent nail art on my left hand! Which is a major accomplishment for me (yeah, I'm left-handed)! Do I get a badge or something?

This design was inspired by a tutorial from I Feel Polished!. Actually, there's an interesting story behind the tutorial: she created it because people were accusing her wearing press-on nails and lying about having done her own nail art! Weird, right? To prove that she actually did do her own nail art, she made a tutorial for her amazing design, and I was like "wait, that isn't so hard after all" so I decided to try it out.

Deborah Lippmann Harem Silks From Bombay Swatches

Hi!

In the Dark Clouds mani I said I was going to do swatches of the base color I used -- a dark purply shimmer. Well, it was actually a matte polish, but I didn't realize that until I started doing the design:

Dark Cloud Nails

Hi!

Originally I was planning to do some color block nails with striping tape, but then I felt like I wanted to do something freehand, so I decided to do cloud nails!

Most people do cloud nail with bright pinks, whites, and blues, but I really wanted to try out these two polishes I have, an orange holo and Harlem Silks From Bombay (swatches of that one later).

As you can see, my freehand skills do need a lot of practice! Actually, it was pretty easy overall but using a holo polish for the layer near the tips = not a good idea. I had to kinda glob the polish on to get it to be opaque, and then the clouds turned into blobby things. Grrr. Oh well, they look pretty good from a couple feet away! (I mean, except for the pinky. Apparently Seche Vite wasn't as quick-drying as I thought)

Mani Thursdays 3: Citrus Nails

I can't believe it's already been three weeks since I started this blog... time really flies sometimes! Also, I can't believe summer's already almost over -- I'm going back to school on Monday the 26th, and I haven't really gotten anything productive done this summer :\

Anyways, I felt like I had to do a summery nail design for the last summer nails -- next week, I'll be doing back to school nails -- so I chose citrus nails!

I was inspired by Cutepolish's video tutorial, but I decided to use light green as a base color instead of just leaving the bottoms of the nails bare, because my nails are a little stained right now (but I have been using base coat, I swear!). I'd say Cutepolish's way looks better, though, so if you have healthy nails, definitely show them off with this design! (I'm not the only one with bad natural nails... right?)

Overall, it turned out better than expected. Okay, the index finger wasn't the best, I kinda globbed a lot onto the nail when I didn't mean to, but still better than expected. Especially since my nail art brushes, which I've used all of three times, are already falling apart! At least they were only about $2. But still. Any recommendations for fairly cheap but decent quality (e.g., not falling apart after three uses) brushes?

Next week, if my plans proceed correctly (which rarely happens haha) I'm going to do apple nails, and I was actually planning watermelon nails for the last week of August. A bit of a fruit nail art kick, I guess. I'd love to see any fruit nail art designs you've done, and if you try this mani definitely share it with me! 

Polishes Used:

Sally Hansen Mint Sorbet (light green base)

Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow (yellow on ring finger)

Deborah Lippmann Lara's Theme (orange on middle finger)

Deborah Lippmann Harem Silks From Bombay (dark purple on index finger)

and, of course, Sally Hansen Top Coat!

Tutorials/Other Versions:

Cutepolish's video tutorial is the best, but it's pretty self-explanatory;

This video tutorial is different, but also really nice-looking (but you have to be pretty good at drawing straight, solid lines with a striper...)

Thanks for reading!

The Nail Snail :)