City Lights

I painted this design earlier last week, but haven't put the tutorial up until now because of long work days, a lack of sleep, and migraine headaches. Fun stuff. Anyways, I really like how this turned out and got a lot of compliments on the design. It was somewhat inspired by 9/11 and the really pretty sunsets we've been having around here lately. I love the colors of sunsets!

What you're going to need:

• clear polish (for that base and top coat)
• white polish
• blue polish
• purple polish
• black polish
• yellow polish
• striping brush
• dotting tool
• make-up sponge
• nail polish remover/acetone

This tutorial incorporates a technique that I haven't shown on here before - sponging to get a gradient effect. A sponged gradient is a good way to get a smooth transition from one color to another. In this case, we're transitioning from blue to purple - think sunsets people.

First off, paint on that base coat to protect your natural nails. I tried a new base coat this time and I must say that I was quite pleased. This base coat, Orly's Bonder, is an adhesive base coat which helps the polish stick to your nails better. This is especially important in nail art because you usually have quite a few layers of polish on. My designs usually last a day or two before they start chipping or peeling off - this design lasted almost a whole week! I was so pleased with this base coat...

 Next, paint all of your nails white. This is going to help our sponged colors show up better on your nails. I used Finger Paint's "Paper Mache".

Now we're going to use that make-up sponge. Using one of the flat sides, paint your blue and purple polishes side by side. It needs to be painted on wide enough to cover your nail.

Once you've got your polish on we're going to lightly sponge it onto each of your nails. The two colors I used were Sinful Color's "Why Not" (blue) and Orly's "You're Blushing" (purple). You'll want the purple near the tip of your nails. Again, we're going for a sunset look so you could probably even use pink or orange here if you wanted a different look. I suggest repainting your make-up sponge between each nail so that you will have the same look for each nail.

After sponging your nails, apply a clear top coat to help smooth the color transition. I also used a new top coat on this manicure and am in love with it also. I used Seche Vite's Dry Fast Top Coat. It smells like straight spray paint, but works wonderfully. It is definitely the fastest drying top coat I've used and didn't cause any shrinkage of the nail polish on my nails.It gives an awesome shine too.

Next we are going to paint on the outlines of the buildings. You'll want to make them different heights to create a city skyline look. You could probably skip this step, but I think that if you use a regular polish brush the buildings will have a rounded look instead of square corners. Use that striper or striping brush with black polish to create the outlines. I used Finger Paint's "Black Expressionism". I used the striping brush to add little lightening rods to some of the taller buildings.

Now you can use the regular polish brush to fill in the lines.

The last part of the design is to use your dotting tool and yellow polish to create little lighted windows on your buildings. I used Sinful Color's "Unicorn" yellow polish.

I added a small crescent moon to each of my thumbs to show that it was night time, but that is completely optional...and also really cute I think. Paint on a clear top coat, and your done!

read more

"Braided" nail polish

I got a lot of compliments over the weekend on this design. It looks really complex, but if you have ever braided someone's hair this will all seem pretty familiar.

For this design you are going to need three different colors and a clear coat, for your base and top coats. You don't need any special tools to achieve this look; however, you can use a toothpick to get any nail polish off of your skin around your nails.

From what I've heard in other tutorials for this design: you get the best results if you use one metallic, one pearlescent, and one neon color. You want the colors to be somewhat different, but they shouldn't clash.

I chose to use Nina Ultra Pro "Smoke-N-Mirrors" for my metallic, base coat. I also used Sally Hansen's HD "Resolution" and Finger Paints "Pop Art Purple." The purple color turned out much darker in the pictures and design - believe me this is a bright purple.

Start off by painting on your clear base coat.

Next, paint all of your nails with your metallic color. Depending on your polish you may need two coats. The polish should be opaque on your nails - you shouldn't be able to see your nail through it. I needed two coats of the "Smoke-N-Mirrors" color.

Here comes the fun part. Like I said earlier, it is just like braiding hair...at least the same pattern.

I chose to use the green "Resolution" color next. Make sure to get the excess polish off of the brush. Using the polish brush swipe a diagonal stripe across your nail, leave just a little bit of the metallic color showing at the top.

I chose to have them going the same direction on each hand so that every nail had a uniform look. Now you're going to take your next color, in my case "Pop Art Purple", and paint a diagonal stripe going the opposite direction.

Try to line the top of this stripe up with the bottom of the previous one. You'll do this for each stripe.

Now you'll use the metallic color and make a diagonal going in the opposite direction. Remember, it is like you are braiding.

You'll continue the pattern, rotating through the polishes in the same order.

Personally, I think it looks best with three stripes coming from each direction. The above picture is missing the final silver stripe.

I really like how this design turned out, and plan on trying it out with different color combos. Finish it off with your top coat and you're finished!

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