3 Swatches

I guess I always wind up going for minty greens... I feel like this is the third I've bought in the last couple months.. and I realize they are all starting to look the same! This one is Pastel Pop from Charolette Russe.

This orange swatch is Hazard by Sinful Colors. The photo looks quite orange, and actually one person asked me if this color was 'pumpkin' but I swear in person the color was much more coral looking. I couldn't capture the pinkish tones on camera for some reason.

And then this last swatch here was a weird moment I had... I polished my nails white and then tried a light pink tip, but it wound up barely showing.

Nails in Purples

I love purple and I recently got some new purple polishes, so I made a simple accent nail manicure! I used Funky Fingers Sugar Plum Fairy and Sinful Colors Verbena.

Birthday & Crackle Nails

I spent quite a while googling and pinning ideas for birthday nails and came across so many amazing designs. Between the birthday cakes, candles, and balloons, I was impressed. Well, needless to say, I do not do handmade painted designs- I just don't have that talent! So I needed something simple. I thought... hm ok birthday nails can mean glitter. But I'm not a glitter type of person.... so maybe something more metallic looking? I wound up doing a pretty boring birthday nail manicure, but here it is.

I used Wet'n'Wild Metallica for accent nails (thumb and ring finger) and then Sinful Colors This Is It for the rest. One day later, I was too bored with the results so I added OPI Black Shatter. I've used the Shatter before, which results in a Crackle nail look... but I've always been torn about the crackle look. Does it look cool? Or does it really just look like a chipped manicure? It's still up for debate in my mind. What is your opinion about Crackle nails?

Crackle Nails

Birthday Nails

Real Housewives of NJ Inspired Nails

RHONJ Nails! 

My American (and maybe other?) readers are likely familiar with The Real Housewives TV series. Most people have their favorite series.... whether it be Orange County, NYC, NJ, etc.... the one and only version I watch is The Real Housewives of New Jersey! That being said, I think we all have our favorite housewife on the show too! Right? I have a clear favorite myself!

Since the show is in full speed right now and the season is so great (every week I'm excited for the new Sunday night episode!), I decided to make some nails inspired by The Real Housewives of NJ (otherwise known as RHONJ). Scroll past my photos to read about my How-To process.

How-To in Photos:

 End Results of Real Housewives of New Jersey nails:

Is that NJ on your nails? Heck yes it is! I painted my base coats with Waltz by Essie (the white) and This Is It by Sinful Colors (the gold). Waltz had to be applied for 4 layers! The RHONJ was written onto my nails with a gold Sharpee. The New Jersey shape was much harder! I tried out a few methods that did not work- cutting out the NJ and painting over the paper stencil, tracing the outside shape of the NJ, etc..  In the end, I wound up printing out NJ to size-up to my nail. Then, I placed the NJ paper on top of scotch tape. Then, I taped the side of the paper onto the actual piece of tape itself (weird, right?). Then, I cut out the shape of the NJ with a scissor. I removed all the excess tape and paper from the original piece of tape and then placed the tape onto my finger to paint over.

What do you think of my RHONJ nails?

Sponge Nails

I just tried Sponge Nails! My friend saw this idea online and I was intrigued! My first attempt at Sponge Nails went pretty well. I do have to say, the edges of my nails started to chip pretty early on. I'm not sure if this was because of the polish brand quality or because of the technique used, but the color started to go away pretty early on.  However, it was really easy and looked very clean for the first few days. It got a lot of compliments too. This technique does not take a lot of skill, so it's easy to try!

You can use as many colors as you'd like, but I painted a white base coat and then used 3 colors for the sponge: Last Chance by Sinful Colors, Metallica by Wet'n'Wild, and This Is It by Sinful Colors. The silver was almost invisible at first glance, but it's there! You can also place the lines in other directions- diagonally, horizontally, or vertically- for totally different looks.

How To:

I took a make-up applicator sponge and cut it with scissor so that one piece was roughly the size of my nails and another piece was roughly the size of my thumb nails. Then, I took my 3 nail polish colors and unscrewed the tops. Then, I just painted lines of each color onto the sponge. I did a few layers of nail polish for each color so that the paint was pretty thick on the sponge.

Once the nail polish was applied to the sponge, I just stamped the sponge onto my nail. I also tried rolling the sponge onto my nail from one side to the other. Both ideas worked for almost the same result. I could also stamp the sponge over the first try of the application to fix any spots on the nail I missed or to blend things more between the change-over of colors. I had to reapply the polish onto the sponge for each new nail.

 I sort of liked blending the colors for more of an ombre look instead of strict, harsh lines separating each color. It gave my nails a cool look where the colors were prettier. Placing the dark color on the tip of the nail also made my nails look a bit like I had actual tips on them. At a glance, it looked like a reverse French manicure.

This process was fast and easy and I would definitely try it again with other color combinations and other directions of the nail polish placement.

Blue Water Marbled Nails

Water Marbled Nails! I can't tell you excited I was to try this trick out. I've been Pinning water marbling obsessively. It seemed so hard, but I gave it my first attempt and I swear it's not that hard. Clearly, my photos don't compare to most out there, but it was fun and looks cool!

Like suggested by most instructions, I set up all my supplies ahead of time so that everything was handy. Once everything was set up, I painted my nails a base coat of a chosen color.

Supplies:

2, 3, or 4 nail polish colors

paper/plastic cups

paper towels

nail polish remover

Q-Tips

toothpicks

big cup of water

vaseline

Supplies

Base color coat

I then filled 6 paper cups with water and let them adjust to room temperature. I had read that this helps the nail polish to spread easily, but who knows if that's true. (I had 6 cups out so I wouldn't have to keep waiting for each fresh cup of water to become room temperature).

Next, I prepared my finger by slathering vaseline over the cuticles, knuckle area, and underneath. This helped the polish to not stick to my skin. I did this one, or two fingers at a time. I did come out cleaner when I only did one at a time.

Now for the polish! I used China Glaze Re-Fresh Mint, Sinful Colors Verbena, and Sinful Colors Savage. I unscrewed each nail polish bottle so it'd be ready to work quickly. Then, I flung a drop of color into the water cup. Take each color you are using and flung another paint drop into the center of the circle within your cup (so as each dot expands, you put another color in the center). If ever the paint did not spread, I just shook the cup slightly to help things along.

Once you feel you've put enough layers of nail polish into the cup, take your toothpick and draw lines through the circles to create your own design. I found that making simple lines made a better design, rather than getting too creative.

I also found that light colors like pink did not work, so you'll see I had to add another color into the mix.

The 'clear' color here was the pink polish... so I had to replace it with another color.

Results once I added purple polish and used my toothpick to create a design.

Now, I was ready to dip! I took my prepped finger and stuck it into the cup. I sort of curled my finger as I placed it into the water so that my nail was almost flat on top of the water's surface as the nail dipped further into the water. Then, I removed my finger and saw a very messy area of skin.

Dipped finger.

 I took my dipped finger and wiped off the excess polish with my paper towel. The towel removed most of the mess and then I used a Q-Tip with nail polish remover to clean up the rest.

Once all the nails were dipped and cleaned, I did notice some bubbles and mess on my cuticles. Here's a first look:

Left pointer.

Middle finger

After one day, the bubbles went away and my cuticle areas cleaned up. I also put a top coat of clear polish to finish things up. Here is my first attempt, final result of Water Marbled Nails!

Best one?

Full hands:

Water Marbled Nails

Right hand

Left hand

After thoughts:

I found that the less amount of polish layers I put in the cup, the better. It seemed when I placed too many that it limited the designs and made things too cluttered. I thought putting about 4 layers or polish drops total was better.

I suggest keeping an extra option or two out for additional nail colors. I found that pink didn't show up at all, but I had no way of knowing until I was in the process. Luckily, I just added in another color to take it's place.

I also think that next time I'd like to place my nail deliberately on a specific point of design, instead of just dipping my nail in. Although, it was fun to just wait and see what surprise would come out on my nail, next time I may go for a more planned looked!