Technique: lace + mint

So a couple months ago, I kind of just gave up on blogging. I was being way too much of a perfectionist about it and wouldn’t post nails/pics unless they were flawless. It started to get really frustrating and time consuming; not at all what I started the blog for in the first place. However, I recently came across reddit.com/r/RedditLaqueristas and instantly became inspired. The positivity and enthusiasm on the site has motivated me to keep polishing and keep blogging- sans perfection. So who cares if I couldn’t perfect this next technique. At least I gave it a shot :)

So this technique is supposed to look like a corner of lace.. but I did it quite fast so it didn’t turn out the best. I actually think I should have stopped after the first set of dotting but it still looks pretty, even if you can’t tell its lace.

I started with 2 coats of this pretty mint polish (Re-Fresh Mint by China Glaze). I’ve noticed that for mint polishes they always look a little darker on your nails than in the bottle. So when picking out a mint, pick a little lighter shade than you want. This one almost looks pastel blue in the bottle, but is a perfect mint on my nails.

For the start of my accents (only did 3 nails each hand) I made a little cloud looking shape in the corner of my nails. I used a French manicure pen for this because I felt it gave me more control for the half circles than a brush would. I had to color the clouds in twice because the French manicure polish in the pen is pretty thin.

Next, to give it more of a frayed lace look, I dotted around the edges of these little humps. I’m thinking this step could be skipped if you use a color other than blue for your base coat. I did this to make it look less like clouds and more like lace.

For the next step of the lace look, I used a dotting tool. I’ve heard of some people also using pins stuck in erasers, works the same I would assume. Basically, I started by putting 3 small dots under each “hump”.  I think this is enough to make it look like lace, but I was feelin’ fancy so I added some more dots and hearts.

Here is the final look with a coat of Seche Vite. I planned on adding a matte coat, but I did a top coat of Seche Vite first to level out the dots/designs. At the top is the final look with the matte coat. I think the matte made it look more like lace, but the shinny coat looks nice too!

Yay for polishing and posting again!! I’m excited :)

Critique: Polish Strips

My Thoughts on Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Polish Strips

Personally, I have mixed feelings on these guys. In my opinion, it is a waste of money to pay 8 dollars for 1 manicure that lasts about a week. When the average bottle of nail polish is about $8, contains about 40 2-coat manicures, and lasts at least 5 days with a good top coat, doesn't this seem like the better choice?
  
With that said, I did try them (in "Laced-up", pic below), but only because a kind stranger claimed they lasted for over a week without chipping. First of all, she was either lying or very dainty because mine yielded chips the very next day. Some even started to peal off entirely. However, they really weren't that hard to apply and they did look quite fabulous for the first day ;).

 

Advice for use: I think if you really want have fun with these (and get your money's worth), buy one of the fancy designs and apply these the day of some event that you know you are going to ahead of time. i.e. New Years, a birthday party, a dance etc... That way you can coordinate with your outfit and hopefully you will have a chip free manicure all night =). I would also suggest finishing with a no chip top coat.

link to Sally Hansen Salon Effects Real Nail Polish Strips