Gradient Glitter Nails

Summer is finally here in the Pacific Northwest! *knocks on wood* The weather has not been great this year. Most of the time it's cold and rainy. At times we will get some hot days. But it doesn't stay that way. I love summer!! Summer means wearing airy clothes, putting your feet up, eat copious amount of popsicles and berries. My most favorite thing to do is wearing strappy sandals. That means I get to paint my toes and nails with pretty summer colors.

I haven't bought any new nail colors lately. I was looking through my stash and came up with this brilliant idea. Gradient glitter nails, using only one color.

I know there are a lot of tutorials out there for gradient or ombre nail idea. Usually they use more than 2 colors. I wanted to do something much simpler. The trick is to use a color that is sheer and has fine glitter. Here I used colors from Wet N Wild Fast Dry collection. The purple is called Hannah Pinktana (I know, it's hilarious!) and the Blue is called Blue wants to be a millionaire. 

To get the gradient effect here's the technique.

1. Paint your nails with a base coat.
2. Paint 1/4 of your nails at the tip. Wait 3-5 minutes to dry completely.
3. Paint 1/3 of your nails at the tip. Wait 3-5 minutes to dry completely.
4. Paint 1/2 of your nails at the tip. Wait 3-5 minutes to dry completely.
5. Then paint your full nails . Wait full 5 minutes before you finish it with a top coat.

I call this the 'the measuring cup method'. It's easier to remember how much you need to paint in each step. Since the glitters are quite fine, your nails won't look bumpy with layers of colors. 

Right now, I'm sporting the purple one. It resembles a glittery lilac color which a great color to wear in summer. I hope you try this and have fun!

Earth Day Inspired Nails

Tomorrow is the 42nd Earth Day. And to celebrate I have these Earth Day inspired nails on me. These takes the saying 'Earth is in your hands' seriously and literally. Cool, huh?

What are you doing this Earth Day?

Perfect Nude Nail Polish

I buy most of my nail colors from the local Rite Aid. There is no Walgreen or CVS in the 10 mile radius of where I live. The local Walmart doesn't have much nail colors besides some Sally Hansen. So Rite Aid is my favorite place to shop for all the beauty products. And every time I go there these days, I'll spend a good 20 minutes near the Sinful Colors display, searching for a pretty color and resisting the urge to buy everything on the shelf. They have a ginormous collection!! I'm not really fond of their quality per se ( translucent, streaky, etc.) but I do appreciate the wide range of colors. If you are into nail arts involving a wide array of colors, these are cheap buy ($1.99/bottle).

Anyway, while browsing the other day, I picked up this color. It's called Flirting Nails. I was a little skeptical at first, thought it might not work for me. But this turned out to be the perfect nude nail color for my skin tone. The color is a taupe-bronze mixture and has a little shimmer to it. I loved the color so much, I wore it 7 days straight ( a bit unusual for me) and it didn't chip a bit. Of course I always wear good base and top coats.

Do you have any favorite neutral/nude nail color?

Gradient Dot Nails

This is one of my favorite nail designs I've done so far. I kinda got the idea from a t-shirt tutorial sometime ago (Can't remember where I saw it though. Bummer!). The idea is to create a gradient effect by painting dot from either light to dark or dark to light colors. You can use 3 different shades in the same color family. Or you can do what I did. Used a color of my choice, pink, and white.

After painting my nails with a black polish, I started making colors for the dots. For the lightest color, I mixed a lot of white with a tiny bit of pink to make the palest pink. Then dotted away at the bottom part of the nails. You can scatter some dots upwards to make it look more blended. Then for the second step I mixed a bit more pink to the white paint, say in 1 to 1 ratio. This time when I started dotting, I drew couple of them in the previous color area. This again will make the blending look perfect. Finally I made another color mixture with a tiny bit of white and lots of pink and painted the dots on the very tips of the nails. And here they are!

Paints Used :
base Sally Hansen Xtream wear in Black Out
dots mixture of White (Sally Hansen Xtream wear in White On) and Pink (Petites in Ice Berry)

This design looks really pretty. And you don't have to be precise for your dot placements. I used a toothpick for my dotting tool. A genuine dotting tool will create for uniform dots.

Not-so-French Manicure

As much I love to paint my nail in a neutral tone, I can’t bare to stand the stark white French tips. They seem so… unnatural. This is because my skin tone is some what light olive with golden under tones. And the crisp white tips totally clashes with my skin tone. Up until then, I’ve never encountered an American manicure.

I think I first saw it on YouTube. So I picked up a bottle of a creamy white color for the tips. Here, I used Essie’s Adore-a-Ball for the tips. It is a little bit pinkish compared to the Marshmallow (also from Essie). But I think it works perfectly. Topped with a clear natural tint, it looks really nice. I like SH’s (Sally Hansen) hard as nails.

The bottle I’m holding is actually SH’s hard as nails nail hardener. I always use this as my base coat. My nails used to be thin and brittle and I couldn’t seem to grow them out. This hardener helped a lot in the process. Of course, my calcium and protein rich diet helps too.

So tell me, which manicure do you prefer, French or American?

Red and White Polka Dot Nails

My most favorite pattern in the world is 'Polka Dots'. I am so obsessed that I own a lot of things with this pattern. Bags, accessories, dress... A lot of stuffs. I think the most classic is white dots on red. When I first started doing creative nails I had to do this of course. Back then I didn't own any dotting tools. I used nail art pen and toothpick. I think, for a makeshift dotting tool, toothpick works absolutely wonderful. Of course you have to train your non dominant hand to paint on your dominant hand. In my case, I had to train my left one to paint on the right. It takes a while to get used to. The key is to practice. Yes, mom is right. Practice makes it perfect. Practice, practice, practice. And practice some more. In no time you'll have perfect dots on your nails.

Here are two versions of the pattern. The left one was my first. As you can see it has jagged edges (one of my first paints). You can use tape to paint neat edges.

Paints used:

Base: Petites in Hot Sauce - (both left and right)

Dots: Sally Hansen nail art pen in White (left) and Sally Hansen Xtream wear in White On (right)

How do you do your nails? Do you have any favorite patterns?