Ikat & Rhinestone Nail Art

Hello! Happy Friday! I hope you're all ready to have a great weekend. Today I'm sharing this ikat inspired nail art design with you. I also threw in some rhinestones because I haven't used any in a while. I feel like these ikat designs are a little misunderstood because a lot of people don't even know what it REALLY is. Ikat (ikkat) is a dyeing technique used to pattern textiles. The yarns are wrapped tightly in little bundles and then are dyed prior to being made into the textile. So really... ikat doesn't have any kind of specific pattern. When people say "ikat" they're sort of referring to the way the brushstrokes look in the art.  Most people who do ikat nail art designs will make them using small vertical strokes which give it a similar look to ikat. I could go on, but I'm not an expert and Google would be able to help you more than I can. I just wanted to give you some sort of idea as to what it is.

Products Used:

• Beauty Secrets - Base Coat
• Wet 'n' Wild Megalast - Whipped Topping
• China Glaze - Custom Kicks
• Zoya - Cole
• China Glaze - Lemon Fizz
• Butter London - Hardwear P.D. Quick Top Coat
• Rhinestones from Born Pretty Store and MoYou London

I think the color combination I picked is really cute for the upcoming spring and summer months. Obviously, it can be changed to any color which also makes this a fun design.

If you want to see how I created this design, check out my video tutorial below!

* Embedded video coming soon!*

Doughnut Nail Art

Hey everybody! Guess who got a new camera. ME! Guess who doesn't know how to work all the fancy new settings. ME! Seriously though, it's a struggle. I had a DSLR before, but my new one is a lot more fancy than the one I had. It's still the same, but completely different. I've also realized that adjusting photos in Lightroom is A LOT easier than adjusting the color in Photoshop. That's another thing I'm trying to get used to. Hang in there while I get all my settings to the way I like them.

ANYWAY... Nail art! I did some doughnuts! Donuts? Doughnuts? They're both the same to me. Apparently "doughnuts" is the proper term, but "donuts" is also correct. They both date back pretty far, so if you're crunched for time, you can be like me and always use "donut".

Products used:

• Beauty Secrets Base Coat
• OPI - Don't Pretzel My Buttons
• Essie - Pinkadelic
• Apple Barrel Acrylic Paint
• Butter London P.D. Quick Top Coat
• Dotting tool
• Liner brush

I bet I made you hungry for some donuts, yeah? ;)

If you want to see me create this design on my nails, and want to give it a try yourself, then check out my video tutorial below!

Flamingo & Floral Nail Art

Hey everybody! I hope you're having a great weekend! I'll make this post super short since it's a Holiday weekend. Today I have some flamingo nail art photos to share with you. Along with the flamingos I also created a polka dot and floral nail art design. Everything is hand painted, like usual, with a small nail art brush and a dotting tool. The tutorial for this design will be embedded below.

Products Used:

• Beauty Secrets Base Coat
• China Glaze - New Birth
• Plaid Apple Barrel Acrylic Paint
• Butter London - Hardwear P.D. Quick Top Coat
• Dotting tool
• Nail art brush

If you want to see how to create this design, then watch my video tutorial below.

Floral Mix & Match Nail Art

Hey everybody! I hope you're having a great week so far! Today's nail art is a little mix and match-y with some floral print, polka dots, and stripes. I don't have too much to say for this design. I just went with what I was feeling and this is what I came up with. Everything is freehanded except for the stripes. I used striping tape for those nails because it's a million times easier. I can't draw a straight line to save my life.

Products Used:

• Beauty Secrets - base coat
• Wet 'n' Wild Megalast - Whipped Topping
• OPI - Privacy Please
• Wet 'n' Wild Wild Shine - Black Creme
• China Glaze - Seas The Day
• China Glaze - Don't Get Derailed
• China Glaze - Secret Peri-wink-le
• China Glaze - City Siren
• China Glaze - Dance Baby
• Plaid Apple Barrel - acrylic paint
• Striping tape
• Butter London - Hardwear P.D. Quick top coat

Want to learn how to create this design? Watch my video tutorial!

Cute Reindeer & Fair Isle Holiday Nail Art

It's officially December! Which means holiday nail art is fair game. Today I'm sharing my first holiday design of 2015 with you! It's a really cute reindeer with a simple style fair isle design. I am so proud of my little reindeer! I think he's absolutely adorable. I would definitely put him on all of my nails instead of just one. I can't get enough of him. My boyfriend named him Ralph. hahaha! So if you want a pet... here you go! Nail art pets.

I decided that I'm going to start doing a quick list of the products used for nail art designs because I feel like it's easier. Not only for me, but also people who aren't too fond of reading blog posts. For the most part, people don't stay on my blog posts too long. That's according to my analytics anyway. I assume most people come for the photos, which is 110% alright with me.

Products Used:

• Zoya - Anchor base coat

• Motives Cosmetics - Wedding Dress

• Butter London - Pillar Box Red

• China Glaze - De-Light

• Plaid Apple Barrel Acrylic Paint

• Butter London - Hardwear P.D. Quick top coat

• Nail art brush

• Dotting tool

I will have a few more holiday designs before December passes, but I'm pretty happy to say that I'm proud of my first one. I hope you guys are having a great start to the new month!

If you want to learn how to create this design yourself, feel free to watch my video tutorial below!

Watercolor Floral Nail Art

Hey everyone! I hope you're having a smooth Monday. Hopefully you're easing yourself into the real world again after binging on turkey and other delicious food! Today I have a floral print nail art to share with you. A watercolor floral!

For the white watercolor floral base I used Motives Wedding Dress. For the purple nails I used China Glaze All Aboard. The flowers were done with Apple Barrel acrylic paint by Plaid. The glitters on the purple nails are from Born Pretty Store. I also used two different top coats for this design. I went with Butter London's Matte Finish top coat for the floral and then Lauren B Beauty's Gel-Like top coat for the others. 

I'm hoping these colorful flowers will keep the winter blues away! I'm definitely a summer girl even though my birthday is in December. Anything under 70 degrees is too cold for my body. What do you guys prefer? Hot or cold weather? Or are you somewhere in between? 

If you want to see how I created this design and want to give it a try yourself, then check out my video tutorial below!

Bruised Nails Nail Art with Video Tutorial

Happy Sunday everyone! I hope you've all had a great weekend. Today I am sharing this bruised nail art design with you. Lately I've been learning about SFX and watching loads of videos about it on YouTube. I took the idea of the bruising technique that is very popular in SFX and made it into nail art. I think this looks pretty cool!

The base color I used for this design is Samoan Sand by OPI. It's seriously the perfect nude for my skin. I'm going to be so sad when I run out because it's now discontinued. I also used Butter London's Matte Finish top coat. All of the bruising colors were mixed using Apple Barrel acrylic paint. I used dark green, purple, blue, red, bright green, yellow, and black. I applied it with a sponge that I ripped up so it had an awesome textured effect. You can see how I did that in my video tutorial below! Once I finished applying all of the colors I added another layer of the matte top coat because, obviously, bruises aren't shiny. 

If you want to see how I created this design then feel free to watch my video tutorial below!

Zombie Bite Halloween SFX Nail Art with Video Tutorial

Hey everybody! It's been a while since I've shared some nail art with you. I bet you didn't except to see this kind of nail art either. I started my Halloween series on my YouTube channel! Every video I upload will be related to Halloween in some way. They will either be Halloween colored or design themed.

For my first video I did zombie bites! An SFX style nail art. I really love the way it turned out. It's not a practical, every day nail art design. It's definitely only meant for a night out to a party or to compliment a zombie costume because it has a ton of nail polish layers and it does take a while to dry. Someone in the comments section of my tutorial video mentioned that you could do this on a set of fake nails and let them dry ahead of time. That way you can just glue them on when you're ready to go. I thought that was brilliant! It's certainly something to keep in mind if you want to give these a try.

I started out using a base coat and a red polish. I used China Glaze's Hey Sailor. I built up the red polish and then placed a clear top coat over it. Then I added a nude polish. I used OPI's Samoan Sand. Once I built up my nude polish to be opaque I made it matte with Butter London's Matte Finish top coat. After that I used a dotting tool and started to rip holes into the polish since they polish underneath is still very wet. I let them dry and then added details with acrylic paint. I used a thinned out blue for the veins with a striping polish and then sponged on thinned out red using a makeup sponge. Then I filled up some of the holes with my red polish and made some of them look like they were dripping blood.

Gruesome yet fun! What do you guys think about this design? Would you wear it? If you want to see exactly how I did this design, then check out my video below.

Gradient and Glitter Ruffian

I have an usual combo today! A glitter and gradient ruffian manicure! I decided to use fall colors and I absolutely love the way this turned out! This was so hard to photograph because the glitter almost over powers the gradient. I only had one or two photos that actually came out well. I'll include my Instagram photo below as well because I took that with my iPhone and it came out pretty good!

I started with one thin coat of China Glaze Kalahari Kiss so I would have a base to sponge on so I didn't have any bare spots.

Then I took a small piece of a sponge and I sponged on some China Glaze Desert Sun vertically so it covered half of my nail. Then I did the same thing with the Kalahari Kiss so it blended together so it made a nice little gradient that would be peeping out from underneath the glitter! 

The glitter I used is China Glaze I Herd That. I had to use two coats of it for it to be opaque over the gradient. Which is super impressive. I've been loving the opaque fine glitters China Glaze has been releasing lately!

Then I used Butter London's Hardwear P.D. Quick Top Coat to finish it all off.

Overall, I LOVE the fall colors and I'm really digging this whole gradient and glitter ruffian look. I know ruffian manicures were so 5 months ago.. but I really don't care. If I like it, I'm going to wear it. :) No shame here!

You can give this a try by watching my tutorial!

Products Used:

Matte Nude, Black, and Gold Glitter Leopard Print

Here's a quick design I threw together today! Just some simple leopard print. Sometimes simple is better than crazy and extravagant.

The base color for these nails is OPI Samoan Sand. I know I've said this before... but I am seriously obsessed with this polish. It is the PERFECT nude polish for my skin tone. I should probably stock up on it before it mysteriously can no longer be found, because I don't think I'll ever find another this perfect for me. If you're on the pale side like me and you have a hard time finding a nude definitely give this one a try! I have it as one of my favorites in the Amazon widget to the along along with some of my other faves. I seriously buy everything from Amazon.

The glitter in the center of the leopard print is I'm Not Lion by China Glaze. It was part of the On Safari collection (which I just ordered from Amazon! Can't wait for it to come!) It's a sandy gold glitter with silver and holographic glitter in it as well.

The black part of the leopard print was done with black acrylic paint by Apple Barrel and I used a tiny little paint brush. 

I also used Butter London's Matte Finish Topcoat to finish this simple, but gorgeous babies off.

I really love these. So simple, but so cute! What am I saying... Any nail art that's matte and nude is cute!

Butter London Wallis

I'm so glad I have a large backup of swatches that I have stored on my computer at the moment since I smashed my fingernail in an oven drawer. OUCH! Thankfully it's not going to fall off, but it's hurting and I'm trying to avoid polish until it feels a little better. So until then I'm cleaning out my swatch folder and luckily I had some fall colors in there!

This is Butter London Wallis. It's a mix between an olive green and a gold metallic. It's one of those polishes where if you look at it you think, "Wow, that's kind of ugly, but so gorgeous!" It's so unbelievably shiny as well. These photos have no top coat on them, with the exception of the bottom matted one.

The application for this polish was literally flawless. It was heaven. It's so extremely opaque that if you apply it correctly with a generous coat you can easily get away with one coat! No streaks, no clumps, nothing but smooth. Amazing! Why can't all polishes apply like this?

This polish even looks amazing matte! I used Butter London's Matte Finish Shine Free Topcoat. If you want a polish that's ugly and pretty at the same time, I suggest that you pick this polish up. 

NAIL MAIL! Butter London Coterie Order!

I completely forgot to share with you guys that I finally got my order from Coterie!! They had a crazy deal for Butter London polishes and it was seriously too good to pass up. I made a video of me opening my packages and talking about the offer and I also quickly described the polishes in the bottle. I do have some of them swatched and I will hopefully get them posted within the next few days. Until then, you can enjoy this video! :)