4th of July Nails

Hey there!
I hope everyone had a stellar 4th of July! If you are reading this from another country, I hope you had an awesome Wednesday celebrating you :)  Every year I try and do some sort of festive nails for the 4th.  In the past I have done more literal versions of patriotic nail art, but this year I wanted to try something a little different.  I apologize ahead of time that there is only one photo, I was only able to get one good one before I started doing things and dragging the design around (I'll explain in a second).  Anyway, here it is!

So I started with a peel off base coat, since I had to take the polish off the next day for work.  I think this is what caused the dragging.  The design wasn't smudged (at least not from this), but it looked like the whole nail was pushed to the side.  I think this may have something to do with the fact that this base coat is meant to peel off relatively easily.  I plan on eventually doing a  comparison on some different peel off base coats when I've tried some more and have some more experience using them.

Anyway, for the base color on all the nails except the ring finger, I used Essie Gel Couture polish in Fairy Tailor.  I may do a post at some point about this line and the polishes I have within it.  I really enjoy this polish as a nice sheer wash of color on the nails.  I used two coats and still have a visible nail line, but that was fine since I covered up the tips anyway.  The colors I used for the dots were OPI Unfor-Greta-bly Blue, Zoya Vanessa (red), and Pop-arazzi Icing on the Cake (white).  I started by putting each color on a business card.  I used several different sized dotting tools to achieve the fading effect.  If you don't have dotting tools, you can use toothpicks and just vary the amount of polish you use.  I tried to make the dots decrease in size as they got closer to the cuticle.  I decided to do each size at once, not each color (does that make sense?), which may have been to my detriment.  The dots of polish on the business card started to dry a bit after a while, so they got a little gummy.  If you could see my other hand you would see little strings of red from after I placed some of the dots.  I kept having to add more polish so that wouldn't happen.  All that to say if you try this I would recommend either doing all of one color at once or testing the polish between rounds.

For my ring fingers I used the same white polish as a base and topped it with OPI Happy Anniversary.  I also sponged on some of OPI Pirouette My Whistle for that glitter.  Not gonna lie, this was not the look I was originally going for.  I originally wanted sparkly silver glitter, but I am totally in love with the result I ended up with! I'm definitely going to have to do this on all my nails sometime.  I've never sponged on this glitter, but now that I've tried it I realize how necessary it is.  It is ordinarily so hard to get those big glitters in there, but sponging is a big help.  I will say, however, use a makeup sponge or something along those lines.  Don't use a sponge-tipped eye shadow applicator like I did.  Not nearly as effective. I topped everything off with Seche Vite top coat.

So those are my 4th of July nails!  Let me know what else y'all would like me to write about, and if you did anything fun for the Fourth I would love to see!  Hope y'all have a great week!
~ Mary Elizabeth

Really Late Fourth of July Nails

Hello Friends!
So I'm a slacker.  Don't judge me.  But here I am!  So I had to work on fourth of July this year :( but that doesn't mean that I couldn't do fourth of July nails! So... here they are!

 So first of all, let's ignore the little polish mistakes that I didn't clean up.  I got lazy.  Anyway, this is a lot easier than it looks.  I got several comments along the lines of "OMG how did you do that?" It's really not that hard.  So for the red I used OPI Red Hot Rio.  This is the only red I have that is not a purply red, and I think it worked out pretty well.  The blue is OPI Unfor-Greta-bly Blue.  The white is Julie G White Orchid. For the stripes, I started with the white and let it dry.  I took some small pieces of striping tape, put it on my hand to unstick it a little, and then place the pieces vertically on my ring finger nail.  Then I applied Red Hot Rio over the tape.  Next I carefully pulled the tape off.  Finally I finished all the nails off with a coat of Seche Vite top coat.
I hope y'all enjoyed this post and had a great fourth! To close here's a picture of my family on the fourth.

 Have a Marvelous Monday!
~ Mary Elizabeth

Valentine's Day Ideas

Hello there!
It's that time of year again  and I have some nail designs to share that you might like to try!  These are just fun, Valentine's Day themed nails that are simple and time friendly.  Hope you give them a shot!

 This first design is based on something I found on pinterest.  I used two coats of Zoya Mickey as a base color.  Then I used Essie Penny Talk for the french tips.  In the pinterest post they used tape to get the french tips, but I just kinda freehanded it.  This takes very little time if you have a steady hand.

This next design is my favorite of the two.  I used OPI Steady as She Rose as the base.  Then I used one of my dotting tools to plave two dots next to each other on the nail.  Then I dragged the dots together to a point in order to make the hearts.  For this I used OPI It's All Greek to Me.  Warning: I would wait a bit for the hearts to dry before applying top coat.  I smudged one of the hearts on my thumb because I used top coat too soon.  I love how cute and simple this one is.

I hope you get a chance to try one or both of these out for Valentine's Day!  If you do, I would love to see a picture of your take in the comments.  Have a terrific Thursday!

~ Mary Elizabeth

September Nail Art Day 3: School!

Hey Everyone!
I apologize for this look being so late, but I've had a pretty busy weekend and haven't had time to write a post.  Anyway, the theme for day three is school colors.  My school's colors are red, white and blue, but I decided to substitute white for silver just so I could use a little glitter.  Cuz who doesn't like a little glitter, right? :)

For a base color I used Sally Hansen Complete Salon in Navy Baby.  I thought about using red as a base, but I think the navy is a little more classy.  Then I used Zoya Sarah to add a red stripe on the side.  The silver stripe was added with my Kiss silver glitter polish.  This is one of my favorite ways to do my nails lately, and I think it does my school's colors justice.  I hope y'all enjoyed, and stay tuned for more (day 4's design will be a little late too)!  Have a terrific Tuesday, and bow wow bulldogs!!
~ Mary Elizabeth

September Nail Art Day 2: Gold and Teal

Hey everybody!
Today I am posting the first of my September nail art designs!  Today's theme is gold and teal. These colors represent childhood and ovarian cancer awareness, for which September is the month.  Not gonna lie, this ended up reminding me of perry the platypus.  Here's what I came up with!

I started with a base color of OPI Fly.  This is a little darker teal than I was hoping for, but it works.  Then I used OPI Goldeneye as a gradient.  I'm really excited that this worked! I was a little bit skeptical as to whether this would work or not, so I'm glad to have discovered a new technique. 
I hope y'all enjoyed, and be sure to stop back on Saturday for school colors day!  Have a fabulous rest of your week!
~ Mary Elizabeth

September Nail Art!

Hey Guys!
First off, Happy Labor Day!  I apologize that I haven't blogged in a while, but I've been getting settled back into the routine of school and my new room and roommate.  So far it's been a really good year! Anyway, today I wanted to let y'all know about my plan for painting my nails in September.  I found this on Instagram and decided it would be a great idea to keep me on track!

This is the basic chart of when I will be posting.  Now I know you're probably thinking, "Wait a sec, today is the 2nd; where's the camo?"  The answer to that question boils down to wearability.  Not only is camo really difficult and a little above my skill level, but I really would never wear camo in real life.  I do in fact have to go to class and band and things like that, so i'd like to enjoy what's on my nails :) Anyway, that's my plan for the month, and I will try to stay consistent.  I will also be posting pictures on my instagram, so be sure to follow me at @theatre_geek1712.  Also, be sure to follow @californails, the creater!  I hope y'all enjoy this, and i hope you will join me! If you do decide to join in, be sure to leave a comment and use the hashtag #nailartsep.  I hope y'all have a great week!
~ Mary Elizabeth

Secret Garden Nails!

Happy Saturday everybody!
I know I didn't post a Pink Wednesday this week, but I wanted to wait to post this manicure!  This weekend my school's drama department is putting on The Secret Garden, and I am house managing (which means that I am in charge of the ushers and making sure the audience isn't distracting anybody).  It is a tradition that my nails match the show, so of course I had to do Secret Garden nails!

 For the base color I used OPI Uh oh, Roll Down the Window.  I really don't use this one too much, but I thought it fit for this look.  Then I used Bundle Monster plate BM19 and Sally Hansen Insta-dri Silver Sweep, which I reviewed in my last post.  It works really well for stamping! for the flower, I used OPI Cajun Shrimp for the petals and Kiss gold glitter for the middle.  I may do a tutorial on how to make these flowers.  Finally I used Seche Vite top coat.  I hope you all enjoyed this post, and have a lovely weekend!
~ Mary Elizabeth