Neon Pink French Mani
This one was a favourite just because it was so easy and turned out so well the first time I tried it. For the white tips I finally got a Sally Hansen nail pen, specifically made for making white tips for French manicures. I can't seem to find the pen itself at the moment, so I can't show you what it looks like, but you could find it at any drugstore in the nail section for around $5. I found it super easy to use, although it took two coats to get a nice solid white line. The pink colour I used was Avery from Julep. The colour swatches on the website make it look more like a creamy pink, which is odd, because in real life it's pretty dang neon. On first try it was pretty translucent, which was a bit disappointing at first, but then I learned you have to put neon colours over a white base to make them really pop. But this translucency made it perfect for a French manicure as it let the white tips show through just the right amount.
Yellow & Green Half-Moon & Experimental Abstract Designs
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| Sorry it's so blurry. I had to use the timer function on my phone while holding it between my legs. SKILLS. |
I was so excited for these colours from Julep because I think they look fantastic together and really pop when they're put right next to each other on the nail. These two were from the June Boho Glam set. They are Lexie, a bright opaque lemon yellow, and Dianna, a soft creamy green that almost borders on seafoam. Each one offers great coverage and could really only be done in a single coat if you wanted to, but I like to do two especially with yellow as it can sometimes have thin spots that show through. I love the idea of using these colours together in a half-moon mani, however I haven't quite perfected the use of those little round stickers. It's hard to get the placement exactly centered and the same on each nail, and I find they pull up the polish as I remove them which is frustrating. So I only did it on one hand and experimented with tape lines on the other. I had the same issue, but thought of using a striper brush to go over the lines where the colours meet. The white looked good, and I wanted to make a super thin black line over top using these tiny nail art pens I have but for some reason my black was clogged. Argh. So I had to use another striper, which was too thick, and so it kind of got messed up. But I will definitely be trying again, since these colours are perfect for summer. Onwards!
Galaxy Nails
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| Oooooh STARZ |
I had been wanting to try these for EVER but I had lost my makeup sponges in the black hole that's under my bathroom sink. I finally found them the other day and promptly thought GALAXY NAILS YESSSSS. I had to use a whole bunch of colours for this one:
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| Galaxy friends. |
The colours are, from left to right: Midnight in NY by Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure, Co-Bolt Blue by Sally Hansen Insta-Dri, a no-name small blue sparkle in a clear base by Art Deco, Please Me Ceam colour by M.A.C., Spit Fire by Pure Ice, and Nail Junkie by Sinful Colours Professional. I started with three coats of the sparkly black, followed by sponging on little blobs of the flat blue and pink colours in random spots on each nail. On the blue blobs I put a coating of the blue sparkles, and on and around the pink blobs I used the pink sparkles which were a little bigger and looked more like stars. Finally I put a tiny amount of the yellow-green sparkles on the sponge and just dabbed them around in random spots. I really love how they turned out, but next time I think I'll leave slightly more black areas just to give the illusion of more depth. Galaxy nails might sound like a lot of work, but they really aren't--each colour goes really quickly since you're only doing a small area of each, and you don't really have to wait as long for each of them to dry since you're not doing full coats of each. Make sense? Give it a try!
Fuschia to Pink Ombre
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| New fave. |
This one was super easy and had a great result. I'm loving how simple the concept is and the contrasting stunning result. You could do this with any two or three colours theoretically, however lately I'm sticking to two polishes that are darker/lighter shades of the same colour. As you can see the makeup sponges leave quite a lot of polish on the sides of your fingers, but it's easy to remove since it's a really thin coat. These colours were that same pink from M.A.C. above, and a darker pink from Suzy Shier number 14033.
Watermelon Toes
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| Juicy. |
After finally getting myself some dotting tools, I wanted to have some fun with them. I had a green polish with a striper brush, so I instantly thought of watermelon slices! How cute for summer, right? I again used the pink M.A.C. featured above and the same Art Deco brand of striper brush. The dotting tools were only a few dollars on Amazon, and the light green colour was one from Julep which I seem to have misplaced somehow. I'll post the name of it when I find it.
So there you have it! If you have any questions about the colours or techniques I used, you can send me a shout on twitter @hannahxb.
