Lace Overlay

This is an awesome, and pretty sexy, look that it really easy to accomplish. I made these nails for my little sister to wear to her Homecoming Dance. I was so excited to do these! Her dress was black lace and her heels were black with a little gold. These were perfect!

The nice thing with this design is that there can be so many different looks. You can change the base color, the lace color, and the lace pattern. For this manicure I used Finger Paint's "Key to my Art" as the base color. It's a really shimmery gold and looks lovely with the black against it. I got the lace for pretty cheap at Joann's Fabric Store (especially using that 40% off coupon).

What you'll need:

• base color
• clear polish
• lace
• scissors

 In preparation for this manicure, I cut 10 small strips of lace that were wide enough to cover the whole nail.

The first step is to paint all of your nails with your base color. These pictures show the nails glued onto a wooden dowel because I was painting a set of fake nails for my sister.

In order to get the lace to stick to your nails you'll need to put a coat of clear polish over your colored polish. While the clear polish is still wet, place a strip of lace over your nail. Gently press it down with the tip of your finger. It's okay if it smudges the clear polish a little bit - you're going to paint another couple of clear coats over the top of the lace to smooth things out.

The final step is to use your scissors to cut the excess lace from around your nails. Take your time and be careful on this step. It is easier if you use small scissors - nail scissors are perfect!

Voila! You've got a lovely manicure that didn't take forever to achieve a detailed look (and that took no artistic talent at all).

read more

Birthday Candles!

So, in celebration of my birthday (tomorrow!) I decided to do a birthday themed design. Birthday candles could be used for any birthday (one idea was to do "24"s all over in different colors). They're easy too!

You'll need a pretty good variety of nail polish colors for this design. It's supposed to look festive!

Here is what I used:

• a clear base coat
• a blue polish (Sinful Colors "Why Not")
• a purple polish (Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear "Deep Purple")
• a white striper or polish
• nail polish for the candles
• yellow polish for the flames
• a clear top coat

If you don't have stripers you can use a thin paintbrush or toothpick to draw the stripes and flames.

Let's get started!

First, paint your nails with your base coat. This will help protect your nail and prevent staining from your polishes.

Next, paint all of your nails the background color - I chose blue.

Take your accent color - mine was purple - and paint a diagonal section on your pointer and ring fingers. I did mine going in opposite directions. It doesn't have to be a perfectly straight line...you're going to cover the meeting point up.

Next, use colors you chose for your candles. You can put as many candles as you want on each nail. Just paint a straight line, from the middle of your nail to the tip, for each candlestick.

Here is a closer view:

Here's where the little details come in. Use your white striper (or other tool) to cover that diagonal meeting point. Also, paint little white stripes going down each candle at a diagonal.

Almost done. Now use a little bit of yellow polish to paint a flame at the top of each of your candles.

Cute, huh?! All that's left to do now is paint on a top coat to protect your design.

read more