Anyone For a Game of Checkers?

This nail design is more difficult than the others I've done so far, and requires some experience and skill before attempting. Even I had some parts that needed redoing for this design.

Here's the supplies I used:

- Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear, White On
- Cover Girl Continuous Color, Rouge Vamp
- Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear, Invisible

 












First, put a piece of tape on your natural nail dividing it in half one way, and then the other, so you have only a quarter of your nail showing. (sorry it's hard to see here)

Next, take off one piece of tape so the part you just painted and the piece of nail next to it are showing, and paint that with the second color. Repeat with the last two quarters.

Lastly, apply top coat or clear nail polish, and you're done!

Magenta Triangles

This manicure was so easy, and looks gorgeous!

Here's the supplies I used:

- Sweet Serenity, #75 (just use any sheer pink)
- Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear, Invisible
- Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear, Hot Magenta

Paint all your nails with the lighter pink (I used about 3 coats), and then swipe the magenta on from the top to bottom corners (only 1 coat). With a little practice, this is very easy, even with your non-dominant hand. Add a clear or top coat, and you're done!

Water Marbling Tutorial

Here it is! Like I said last Friday, this is the tutorial for doing your own water marble.

Supplies needed are the same as my last post, though of course use whatever color nail polish you want. I'm not going to re-post the supplies here. As a tip, though, use thinner nail polish that easily drips off the brush because you need to work very quickly when doing the marbling.

Step 1: Fill your disposable cup with water

Step 2: Cover your finger in Vaseline

Step 3: Drip nail polish into the water, one color at a time

Step 4: Keep dripping in nail polish until you like the color scheme

Step 5: Take a toothpick or sewing needle and make your marble design

Step 6: Pick a spot to stick your nail in

Step 7: Put your finger in directly vertical, so the surface of the water/polish comes to your first knuckle

Step 8: Wait a minute or so for the surface polish to set, then clean it up with a Q-tip

Step 9: Take your finger out

Step 10: Clean nail polish off your skin with a clean Q-tip before it dries

Step 11: Wait for nail polish to dry, and use a top coat to seal in the design

And you're done!

It's much easier than it looks to get a great looking marbled design, just a little messy. Sorry it's hard to see the colors that I used in these pictures. I used orange, gold, and a clear glitter polish. It looks prettier in real life.

My First Try at Water Marbling

This manicure actually turned out very good being my first time (ever) trying this technique.

For this manicure, I used:


- Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear, White On
-Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear, Invisible
- Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear, Hot Magenta
- Avon Nailwear Pro, Nude Gold
- Q-tips
- toothpick
- plastic cup, cut to height of my index finger
- tube of white petroleum jelly or Vaseline

I'll be doing a separate post on the exact steps of how to do this manicure, so check back next Friday for the post! For now, I'll just point out a few tips:

Some nail artists use clear tape around their finger to prevent their skin from getting nail polish on it, but I find it also pulls the polish off of your nail area. Instead, I coat my finger (except for the nail, of course) with the white petroleum jelly, and before the polish dries wipe if off of your skin with a Q-tip. It's a little messy, but works so much better.

Please don't use a drinking cup or mug for this. As you can see in the picture above, after doing only one manicure (12 nails, because I redid two of them) the cup gets pretty mucky with dried polish, and it's never going to come out. Use something disposable and preferably see-through, so you can see what you're doing.