Combo: Mint + Whimsical

I love love love this combo. It looks like frosting and sprinkles or some sort of dessert. I just want to eat it right off my fingers!

Colors I used are: Re-Fresh Mint by China Glaze (base coat) and Whimsical by Revlon (Deborah Lippman Glitter in the Air dupe!)

I did this combo because I was not too impressed with Whimsical by itself. Here is a picture of Whimsical without the mint base coat… this is 3 coats of Whimsical too!

So here is Re-Fresh Mint by itself. A pale blue opaque/crème polish would also do the trick! This mint is more blue than green anyhow.

So in all it is 2 coats of Re-Fresh Mint and 2 coats of Whimsical. For the Whimsical polish I "dabbed" it on to make sure I got some nice hex glitter pieces on my nail.

Here is a couple more pics… Yummy!!

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 :)

Technique: Matte + Sparkle Tips

I've been MIA for a while on this blog. I had a rough couple of weeks and then was out of the country so no posts for about a month....
But now I'm back :)
I am just obsessed with greens lately. Chartreuse, avocado, pistachio, and most of all MINT. I found this glitter that I just had to have and when I took it home I realized it would look gorgeous with a mint polish.
I was bored of the plain old sparkle tips so I added some Matte in the mix. Tip: do NOT put the Matte top coat over a glitter polish. It looks icky... trust me. 

So the order goes... 2 coats of color polish (I used Mint Candy Apply by Essie). 1 coat of matte top coat (I used Matte About You by Essie)... This isn't a great pic but you get the idea.

Then sparkle tips. This really only works with highly concentrated glitter polish. This one is Ray-Diant by China Glaze. The key to the sparkle tips is to do very thin strokes of the glitter. then when you have the tip done dab a few straggler glitter pieces more towards the bottom of the nail. 

If your like me and hate the feel of these kinds of glitter polish you can cover the glitter part with a clear top coat. Just be careful not to cover the matte portion!

Viola! a great contrast of Matte and Sparkle :)

Technique: Argyle Tips

 This technique is a modern take on a classic pattern. The best part is... it’s pretty easy and doesn’t take long to do. Argyle is a cute preppy pattern, but also very detailed and usually needs to be perfect to look good. These tips only use a tiny portion of the pattern so it isn’t difficult at all!

The first step was obvi the base coat. I used a very sheer pink. I needed 4 coats of this pale pink Essie polish to get the color I wanted. I let this dry a loooong time before I did the next step.

Next was the taping! Since this is a look for your tips I had to be careful not to do a half and half diagonal. To do this I made sure that the tapes did not go corner to corner, but a little but higher than that. To the left is the diagonal tips in Mod Square by Essie (my favvvv pink right now).

Lastly was the dots in the opposite direction. The polish I used was Essie in Mint Candy Apple. I used a dotting tool for these diagonal dots so it was pretty easy. If you don't have a dotting tool you can use a pin head or bobby pin. Seche Vite top coat then I was done!

Below is the final look! I just looooove this look and I will most definitely wear it again!

|La

Technique: Little Blue Box

Above left is the final look and to above right was my inspiration. Of course I had that little blue box in mind for this technique. I found this Tiffany blue color “For Audrey” by China Glaze and thought this look would be perfect. I used the cross design because it reminded me of the X the ribbon makes on the box.

Undercoat: I started this look with 2 coats of a silver polish. To the left is the silver color I used, “Loophole” by Essie. I’m pretty much obsessed with this silver color because it has just the right amount of shine. Not crazy shine like chrome, but not dull enough to be considered grey. Perfect 925 silver ;). I even wore just these silver nails for a day because I love the color and wanted them completely dry before the next step! This technique would also be VERY cute with a bright white as the undercoat to match the Tiffany & Co box ribbon (or Red around Christmas time hee hee).

Tape: Next comes the not so fun part. This takes a while and it is QUITE a process, but the look is so worth it! Make sure your undercoat is completely dry before starting the tape otherwise your undercoat will peal! This will be sad and you will have to start all over- so just go read a book or watch a movie haha. To the left shows how I cut the scotch tape into stripes with a scissors. You need a very sharp scissors to avoid the tape bending instead of cutting clean. This is necessary to make a straight cut. I tried to make the strips proportional to my nail, just like the ribbon is proportional to the box.

Technique Steps: So here is the best way the taping and painting works…

1.  Tape all 5 nails on one hand. Make sure you mark which one is on top. Once you paint over you will not be able to tell. I folded down the end of the tape strip on the bottom so I knew which one to pull up first after polishing. Also make sure tape is pushed down securely  and there is no air bubbles.

2.  Paint the pinky first. This way you will not smudge your other nails as you go. Do an even coat: not too thick, but thick enough to not have to do a second coat.

3.  IMMEDIATELY remove the pinky nail’s tape. If you don’t do this right after you paint the polish gets tacky and smears.

4.  Move on to paint the ring finger, and immediately take off the tape again.

5.  Repeat step 4 with the rest of your fingers.

6.  Let this hand dry before you start cutting tape for the other hand. This prevents many smudges and frustration…

7.  Tape the other hand, start with the pinky again, and repeat process.

Summary: Tape hand, paint pinky, remove pinky’s tape, repeat… Tape other hand, paint pinky, remove pinky’s tape, repeat…

To the left is a nail after the tape is removed. As you can see it is easy to tell the different thicknesses of the silver and blue polish. That is why a thick coat of fast drying top coat is necessary. I used Seche Vite. This soothes the nail and prevents chipping.

And I said, what about, nails just like Tiffany’s…. :)