Mad For Plaid We found yet another use for those lovely DIY nail stickers. Here’s how we created a plaid party: Paint your tape with 3 or 4 different colors. Cut into strips. Do a couple different widths. Paint your base coat. We used an off white vanilla color. You’ll want to start building from the inside corner and move outward. Over lap one vertical and one horizontal strip. Now do another set of stickers out from that set. Keep going until you get to the opposite corner. Use cuticle nippers to trim the excess sticker. Always apply a top coat over tape stickers to avoid to peeling!
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Robin’s Egg Nails Some people are more skilled at nail art than others and some can’t wear crazy funky nail art to the office. So here’s a simple look that anyone can do no matter your skill level or work environment. It’s 2 super easy steps and a really subtle, wearable look. This happens to be my all time favorite polish combo because it’s soft and sparkly and takes about 5 minutes. Here’s how to get this Robin’s Egg mani… Paint the base coat with any pastel polish. Here I used THIS ONE for the blue. And top it off with THIS GLITTERY GOODNESS by Deborah Lippman. I’ve never been able to find a glitter polish quite like this one. It’s got several sizes of glitter in one bottle which is what give it the robin’s egg look. That’s it! Sweet and simple.
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In this tutorial we’ll teach you how to make your nails look like turquoise stones, but instead of using black as the accent color (which would make it quite literal) we’re using gold for a slightly softer and more glamorous look. Here are the 6 simple steps: Start by painting your base with a nice shade of turquoise. We used this one. Next, take a small plastic sandwich bag or plastic wrapper and crinkle it up. Hold most of it of it in your palm and make a “flower-y” shape with the rest as you see in the photo above. You’ll use this like a stamp. Paint some of your gold polish (we love this one) on the plastic. Doesn’t matter how you paint it on or where. Note: Dab the plastic bag/wrap on a piece of paper once or twice before you start to remove the excess polish. Now dab it on your finger. Then do the next finger. You’ll need to re-apply gold polish to the plastic bag every couple fingers. After you finish dabbing the gold on each finger, clean up the edges with nail polish remover and a paint brush. Add our favorite quick drying clear coat and you’re all set!
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If you combine our love of chevron patterns with our love of color, you get Missoni. Since the famous italian fashion house doesn’t make nail decals, we figured we’d give “Missoni Nails” a shot! While doing these nails, I discovered my new favorite nail decorating tool: THE GREASE PENCIL! The work so well for drawing on nail polish once it’s dry! It’s almost like a soft colored pencil. I got them in black and white and then did the colors with paint and polish… I USED: Essie, Mink Muff (Essie, $8)as the base color. Sharpie “Peel-Off” China Marker “the grease pencil” (Blick $0.81) to draw the chevron pattern. Orange and yellow acrylic paints (Blick, $4.31) in Cadmium Yellow and Cadmium Orange Sally Hansen Complete Manicure ($5-8) in “Fairy Teal” Sally Hansen Insta-dri Top Coat (Beso, $4.04)
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TOOLS: base & top coat, dark pink, medium pink, light pink, reinforcement stickers. Steps 1. Start with either your darkest pink or lightest pink.  Try to use colors that have good coverage with just one coat because you want this layer to dry completely before the next step. 2. Put 2 reinforcement stickers together (should look like an “8”) and place them towards the bottom of your nails. You are going to do this twice so look at your nail and cover 1/3 each time. You want to make room for all 3 of the colors for the final look. 3. Paint your medium color. If possible just paint 1 coat, you will also want this to dry completely before placing stickers on your nails again. Use quick drying nail polish for the first and middle layers. 4. Remove the stickers when the paint has dried with your medium shade. Waiting for it to dry is important because removing the sticker too soon will cause the nail polish to smear and not have clean lines! 5. Now repeat steps 2 & 3 this time using either your darkest pink or lightest pink. 6. Remove the stickers once that layer has dried and check out those nails!!! At first they may look choppy and layered but once your apply your top coat it will even out and complete the look on your nails. Plus putting stickers on your nails can dull your color some so this also helps your colors be bright and shiny again.
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There’s nothing more decadent than the Art Deco era so it was really exciting to translate that concept using black + gold on our nails. Scalloped edges are a major factor in deco designs and create a very feminine feel. This is actually really simple to do but you’ll want to prep your nails with a neutral base color first. Tools: round-tipped brush (we got this one from our local art store), black + gold polishes, clear top coat 1. Make small puddles of the black + gold polishes onto an artist’s palette or a surface that you can dispose after (a business card works great!). 2. Determine how many scallops cover your nail area, depending on the width of your brush. Here we started with the gold shade. If you’re going to use other colors, start with the lighter shade. Since the tip is rounded, plact the bristles where you want the column to be and drag the brush to the end of your nail. Repeat to create the other columns. 3. Repeat with the black polish. Don’t forget your top coat!
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