Tassel Nails for Eva’s Nail Art Contest

Eva from Fight of Whimsy is having a nail art contest giveaway and here’s my entry!

The only rules of the contest are that you must have ONLY nail polish on your finished design.  No rhinestones, acrylic paints, decals, etc.  That works for me since I mostly use polish for my nail art anyway!  For first step was to pick a color scheme.  I was laying in bed thinking about it, and I went to turn on my Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet.  While it was booting up the Nook logo appeared on the screen in the perfect color combo!  Here’s the four polishes I chose based on my nook inspiration:

light green ♥ Ulta Limelight

dark green ♥ Essence  Deep Sea, Baby

blue ♥ Revlon Blue Slate

yellowy/taupe ♥ China Glaze Kalahari Kiss

After I chose my four colors I did not come up with a plan like I normally do.  This time I decided to ‘wing it’ since some of my best work comes from no planning.  I created the cool V shape which looked great, but I thought it still needed something.  And then came the tassels!  I have no idea, it just popped into my head.

I really enjoyed my tassel manicure.  And that light green Ulta polish wore like armor!!  I had this mani on from last Sunday til today (Saturday) with no chips.  6 days…like, dang!  My polish doesn’t normally last that long.  I only took it off today in preparation of my eclipse mani for the N.AI.L. linkup.  I love this shiny green polish- Go Ulta!  And thanks to Eva for holding this contest!  Without her contest I never would’ve ended up wearing a cool mani like this, especially for 6 days straight. 🙂

Wish me luck in the nail art contest!  The contest ends on Nov 3rd, 2013…. so you still have a little time left if you decide to enter!  Here’s all the details on the Flight of Whimsy of blog.

Ruffle Nail Art

I’m so excited about this nail art technique called Ruffle Nails! Every nail fanatic needs to try this- it’s easy and has lots of wow factor.  All you need to do is grab your favorite polish shades and a dotting tool (or bobby pins) to make some over-lapping rows of dots (it helps to use the largest tool you can find so the dots aren’t too small).  If you’d like to see a step-by step tutorial here’s a great one by Chalkboard Nails.  Now that I’ve discovered ruffles- I’ve got all these ideas swimming around in my head- neon ruffles, rainbow ruffles, black n white ruffles…  I want to try them all!

My first attempt came out much so better than I expected!  I casually worked on this design while sitting on the couch and I honestly didn’t try too hard.   I figured I’d end up taking it off with polish remover and then give it a real go later.  Well, I couldn’t believe how cute my test mani came out so I took some pics!  I used some of my favorite green and purple polishes here… and I think the matte topcoat really pulled it together nicely.  The variety of colors and the satin finish made my fingertips look like fimo clay! ↓

I went with a cool color combo of blue, pink and grey for my second design. ↓

One thing I like about the ruffle technique is that it’s so easy, you can even do a great job on your ‘other’ hand!  I’m right-handed so my left hand nail art usually looks good, and my right-hand comes out how should I say… non-photogenic? LOL.   Well, not with ruffles!    Try it out for yourself and let me know your results!

♥ Mood struck polish as my base (teal)

♥ Wet n wild I Need a Refresh-Mint (light green)

♥ Revlon Charming (light purple)

♥ OPI Dutch ‘Ya Just Love OPI (dark purple)

♥ Orly Gumdrop (light teal)

♥ MASH Matte Topcoat

♥ Orly Faint Of Heart as my base (grey)

♥ China Glaze First Mate (navy blue)

♥ Revlon Blue Slate (medium grey/blue)

♥ China Glaze Dance Baby (pink)

♥ Orly Kiss The Bride (light pink)

♥ Seche Vite Topcoat

french manicure using nail guide stickers

You can easily do a french manicure at home using inexpensive nail guide stickers! I purchased a pack on ebay for $2.99.  You basically apply the guide sticker to the end of your bare nail … and then paint the tip whatever color you choose.  When you remove the disposable sticker you are left with a painted tip with a nice clean line.  I did get get a little impatient when I was applying them (my OCD came out when I was trying to position the stickers just right!)… but overall, they were pretty easy to use.

Since I like to jazz things up…and the traditional french manicure is a lil boring for me…I tested out my new stickers using bright colors and sparkle topcoats!!  For my blue mani I used the traditional curve-shaped stickers with ‘Revlon– Blue Slate’.  For my my purple mani I used the chevron-shaped stickers with ‘Sephora by OPI– Eve-y on the Eyes’.  I must say, I’m LOVING the chevron-shaped stickers!  The angles in the design made my nails look long and strong!

BTW, french manicure guide stickers are great for ladies with short nails because you can purposely position the sticker further back on your nail bed to create the appearance of a longer tip 🙂

French manicure using Revlon Blue Slate for tips and NYC Starry Silver Glitter as topcoat

Chevron-shaped French manicure using Sephora by OPI Eve-y on the Eyes for tips and Cover Girl Crystal Mist as topcoat