Splatter Nails

I spend a lot of time on Pinterest looking for inspiration.  I bounced around a few different designs but eventually settled on my initial idea.  I tend to choose designs that don't have a lot of clean up after but, hey, sometimes you need to get a little messy.

For this splatter design, I started with a base of "White On" by Sally Hansen.

The colours I chose to do that splatter were "One Time Lime" by Nicole by OPI, "Vio-last" by Covergirl, and "Outrageous Orange" by Sally Hansen.

 I used three cocktail straws to do the splattering.  I flattened out the ends a bit and found that this gave a better splatter and I was less likely to get big drops on my nails.  To do this design you just dip the straw in the nail polish, hold the straw a few inches above your nail, and give a short, strong blow through the straw.  Repeat the process with all the colours until you get your desired look.

 

 ...and here's the final product! I don't know about you, but it reminds me of those big jawbreakers that we used to eat when we were kids.  I'm really happy with how they turned out.  I should note that if your nail polish is too thick, you won't get a good splatter.

Ok, so I said it was messy.  This is what my hands looked like before I got them all cleaned up! Ahhhh!  I used nail polish remover to get the worst of it off and my morning shower got the rest of it all cleaned up.

Love, Kate xo

Accent Nail: Dots, Dots, Dots

You know that moment right before you fall asleep when you are super relaxed and your mind wanders? During that moment last night, the idea for these nails popped into my head.  I forced myself to wake up enough so that I would remember the design in the morning.  I continued to think about it all day today, considering various background colours and dot arrangements.  I kept coming back to the grey background.  Black or white felt too harsh for what I was envisioning.  But the only way to really decide was to just go ahead with my initial idea.

I started with a base of "Grey Matter" by Rimmel London.  I haven't used this colour in a while and forgot how much I love it!  However, contrary to what the bottle says, it does not dry in 60 seconds but what nail polish does?

Next I decided on the colours I wanted to use for the dots.  I ended up going with turquoise, orange, and lime green.  My "dotting tool" is simply a pencil with a straight pin pushed into the eraser.

 

I knew for sure that I wanted dots of my ring finger (accent nail) but was still undecided on whether or not to put dots on the other nails.  I started with the ring finger and tried a few different things on my other nails.  I ended up painting over the other fingers and kept just the ring finger.  I think in this case less is more.  Here's the final product!

All in all, I really like the pop of colour while still being able to show off the gorgeous grey colour.  I hope you like this simple design!

Love, Kate xo

First Time Blogger and Nine West Nails

Lately, I've really been getting back into nail polish and nail art.  I'm pretty proud of my work and decided that I wanted to share my passion with others.  I tend to do my nails every Sunday (why not start the week with fabulous nails?).  Depending on how well the nail polish stays a.k.a when it starts to chip (I try to make it last as long as possible!), I do another design mid week.

I don't use any high tech tools for my designs.  I usually just use a fine paint brush, make up sponges, nail polish, acrylic paints (for really detailed designs), and whatever else I find around the house.

So let's start this blogging experience with the current nails I'm sporting.  

For these nails I was inspired by these Nine West shoes I bought last summer.

Here are some of the areas of the shoe that I chose to recreate.  You'll notice there are only 4 areas there.  For the thumb I kind of just chose a random "vine-y" design that can be seen in various parts of the shoe.

Here are the paints that I used to create my nails.  I obviously had to do some blending to get the right colours.  I usually do my base colour (blue) using nail polish but I didn't have this particular colour in my collection (GASP!).  Since I didn't have the right blue nail polish, I painted a base with Sally Hansen Xtreme Nails "White On".  I then painted over top of the white using my blue acrylic paint.  When using acrylic paint on your nails it is very important to use a nail polish base otherwise the acrylic paint with stain your nails (yikes).

...and here's the final product!!

I'm really happy with how these turned out.  They are colourful and make me that much more excited for summer.  I hope you like them as much as I do!

Love, Kate xo