Happy 4th of July!

With tons and tons of 4th of July nail art posts all over my Pinterest feed (and a little guilt I’ve been neglecting this blog…) I decided to take my nail art brushes out from the bottom on my bin and get creative again! I wanted this to be more subtle and not 4th of July in-your-face so I went with the classic “accent nail” approach. I mixed my own light blue shade using white and blue polishes and used glitter for the stars. I think these actually turned out well and didn’t take me that long to do! Now I’m feeling very patriotic…

Spring Fever!

When I first heard about Sally Hansen Nail Strips, I have to admit I was skeptical. As a nail art DIY enthusiast, these strips took all the work and agony out of “doing it yourself”… it’s totally cheating! However, I quickly learned that these strips were equally as satisfying as painting a complicated design on my own nails. My sister gave these strips to me as a present and I was waiting for the right time to use them. Cinco de Mayo seemed appropriate enough to apply these “Spring Fever” strips and I loved them! I put a top coat on them and they lasted SO LONG! If I didn’t have to take them off for internship training I would guess they would last around 2 1/2 weeks! Check them out for yourself!

Ombre Stain

The Beauty Department has done it again with another absolutely genius nail tutorial. I instantly fell in love with this gorgeous design and thought it would be perfect for spring. My roomie and I tried it and with a little bit of practice and luck, we finally got it down! If you want to try it yourself, just make sure you really let the nail polish soak through the sponge or else no color will transfer to your nail. Good luck!

Minty Fresh

I was feeling in the St. Patty’s day spirits last week and decided to expand my ever growing nail polish collection when I bought this Sally Hansen nail polish called Mint Sorbet. I also picked up the Milani Jewel FX glitter polish in silver which I have been eyeing for the longest time and finally decided to buy! I did an ombre effect on the ring fingers with the glitter and it turned out really cute, if I do say so myself :). 

Tribal Nails!

My roomie Chloe came to me with tribal nail challenge. We watched this Free People video nail tutorial and instantly knew that we had to try! Well… 8 colors, 2 hours, and one steady hand later, our creation was finished and looked AWESOME! Seriously, all the effort was worth it and Chlo’s nails were probably my proudest nail art moment. She loved them and got tons of compliments too! :)

Ikat Nails

I got this idea from Refinery29’s tutorial on ikat nails. This design is great because it looks so cool and so complicated but it was super easy to do. The only thing you need to be able to draw is a dash. The best part is that it really doesn’t have to be perfect. I was stressing out because some of the dashes were too thick or too long but everything ended up blending together after I put on a clear coat. I love this design and I’ll definitely be trying it out with different color combinations soon!

Lavender and red half moon mani

Special thanks to Jess!

Art Deco Nails

This week, thebeautydepartment.com posted a tutorial about these art deco inspired nails. My roommate Maria needed a manicure so we thought it would be fun to try this out on her. I think these turned out really well and she’s been getting a lot of compliments!

Pop of Neon

I’m loving the neon trend for spring right now but I was unsure about how to incorporate neon into my mostly neutral wardrobe. I figured the best (and most subtle) way for me to incorporate neon into my life is to put it on my nails. I saw these inspiration nails on Pinterest, instantly fell in love with them and knew I had to try them! Plus, the neon pink tips are fun with springtime just around the corner!

Coincidentally, the day after I did my zig zag nails, one of my favorite sites thebeautydepartment.com did a nail tutorial about how to do zig zag Missoni inspired nails. I loved it and modified my existing zig zag pattern to create my own Missoni inspired nail art!