Gradient French Manicure

After trying out galaxy nails again, I decided to go with another old favorite (and my manicure that's by far gotten the most re-pins on Pinterest): the gradient French!

I started by painting my nails with two coats of Julep Layne, then applied a quick drying top coat and waited for them to dry.  Next, I put some Julep Brigitte and Layne on a makeup sponge, and sponged them on to the tip of my nail to create a gradient.  Added a top coat, and I was good to go!

Gratuitous engagement ring shot to re-create the original frequently re-pinned image.

I'm still considering doing this design on my wedding day (it is what I was wearing for my engagement pictures)..... but I'm also leaning towards just wearing a solid pink or purple (current frontrunner is Julep Evelyn).  Your thoughts?  Weigh in on this very important decisions! ;)

Julep Azure Duo

I just got the Azure duo from Julep with the colors Annie & Shenae.  I loved them so much I had to try them out together, so I did this quick triangle manicure.

I started by painting two coats of Shenae and added a quick drying top coat.  Once that was dry, I taped off the triangles (I used striping tape, but you can easily use any kind of tape) and painted on the triangles using Annie.  Then I applied a final top coat, and voila!  (I probably should've waited a little longer for the triangles to dry-- you can tell on my ring finger that the top coat caused the blue to streak a little.)

Pictures in the sunshine:

Easter Egg Nails

Arden: Ok, here's my second try at Easter egg nails, and these were much more successful!  They might be the design I go with on Easter Sunday itself!

I was trying to go for the kinds of Easter eggs my family used to dye-- where you've drawn on designs in white crayon before you dye them, and then the dye leaves them unevenly colored.  Like this:

Using that as my inspiration, here's what I came up with:

How I Did It:
I started my painting each nail white (Sally Hansen White On) and then applied a fast-drying top coat (Essie Good to Go).  Once each nail was dry, I applied tape.  I used both striping tape for the thin lines and washi tape cut using zigzig scissors.  Then I applied several shades of the same color to a makeup sponge, and sponged over the tape.  I immediately removed the tape, and voila!  Easter egg nails!

Left hand pic!  I think my egg designs got better on my left hand, but sadly my hand positioning for pictures with that hand needs some work!

Colors Used (so many!):

Orange/Yellow:
Julep Marjorie
Color Club Ringo & Love Letter

Pink:
Julep Drew & Helen
Color Club Hot Tub

Purple:
Julep Bette, Charlotte, Joanna, & Helen


Blue:
Julep Annie & Joanna
Essie Bouncer, It's Me

Green:
Julep Diana & Shenae
Color Club Double Dare

What do you think?  Have you decided on your Easter manicure yet?  Let me know in the comments!

Rainbow Nails inspired by Kesha!

Arden: Hey everyone!  Oh my goodness, I am so excited to share these nails with you.  I was looking for some inspiration, and stumbled across a gallery of pictures from Coachella, and that led me to realize that Kesha currently has some AMAZING rainbow hair:

Full disclosure: I love Kesha.  She's just amazing.  (Also, she's from my hometown!  Woot woot!)

After I committed to doing something bright and colorful, I remembered this picture that Lisl posted from Coachella:


Super awesome, right?  I wanna go grab some glowsticks and do this to my hair right now!

Using the color scheme of Kesha's hair and the radiating shape of those glowsticks, here's what I came up with:

How I Did It: Started with a white base.  Then I applied tape (I used both striping tape and washi tape).  Then I applied all of the colors onto a makeup sponge, and sponged them on to each nail.  For my middle finger, I then applied more striping tape and painted white over it.

Colors Used:
Sally Hansen White On 
Sinful Colors Rise 'N Shine
Maybelline Color Show Shocking Seas
Color Club Hot Tub, Ringo, & Love Letter
Julep Korin and Bette

Bonus shots outside in the sun:

I just love the neons on these nails so much!!!  They really just scream "spring" to me.  I can't stop looking at them!  I hope they'd make Kesha proud.

Ocean Nails

Arden: All my kids at church have been on spring break for the last couple of weeks, and it's made me miss getting a spring break pretty bad!  Why can't they give you a mandatory week off work every spring?  There's just something about spring that makes you want to jet off to somewhere sandy and warm. 

My manicure today is inspired by this picture of the ocean I took at the beach a couple of years ago on spring break.  Isn't it beautiful?

I love how the ocean water changes from green to blue, so I created a manicure that did the same!

I worked on one nail at a time, and tried to apply each color while the previous color was still wet so they could swirl together a little.  (It's kinda hard to see this effect in the darker colors, but it come across pretty well with the lighter colors.)
 
Colors used (from dark to light):
Butter London Blue Coat
Color Club Blue Velvet
Butter London Blagger
Julep Diana
Essie Mint Candy Apple

I then added a top coat of Girly Bits Cosmic Ocean to give them that cool, glittery ocean look!

This post is part of a spring nail art competition Julep is holding; they are by far my favorite nail polish company, so you should definitely go check out their colors and consider getting some yourself!

Dyed Easter Egg Nails

Arden: Hi friends!  So, I've been workshopping some Easter designs in anticipation of Easter on Sunday (still not sure what I'm definitely going to go with though!).  This manicure was inspired by this picture of cracked dyed Easter eggs (have you ever done this?  They look so cool!):

More specifically, my manicure was inspired by that pink egg there in the middle. 

I made these my painting my nails white (Julep Bunny), and then sponged on all the additional colors (Julep Paige, Helen, Veronica, and Greta) using Saran wrap!  I then stamped on the eggshell pattern using an incredibly old white polish I thinned a lot and the BM-313 stamping plate.  (Fun tip for anyone who hasn't been successful stamping yet: using a thin polish will help!)

What do you think?  I kinda think these would scream "Easter eggs!" more if I'd done each nail in a different color.  Oh well, I guess that's something to do next time. 

Has anyone else found a favorite Easter nail design?  If so, please share, cause I'm still on the lookout!

Galaxy Nails

My last stab at galaxy nails has become my most re-pinned pin on Pinterest-- isn't that interesting?  Apparently galaxy nails are universally popular!  It'd been several months since I'd done any that I decided I should try again!

My technique was basically the same as last time-- black base, then sponge on different colors to create galaxies!  At the end I added some white and gold dots for stars, and a glitter top coat.  Some of the colors used: Julep Estelle, Diana, Charlotte, & Drew; Essie Beach Bum Blu and Good as Gold; and Sally Hansen White On. 

Bonus picture of manicure in the sunshine!

Casa de Polish Returns!

Arden: Hey everyone!  We're back!  Sorry for our long absence, but we're hoping to post regularly again now (in a little more simplified form).  Just so you know, even when we aren't updating the blog, we're always posting our manicures on our individual Instagram accounts, so you should follow us:

Arden: @arden_elise
Lisl: @slisl

Here are some of the manicures I've done recently:

Glitter sandwich using Julep Soraphine & Autumn, with dots of Julep Myriam, Majorie, Karen, & Helen.

Striping tape nails with Julep Roc Solid and Diamond Theory for St. Patrick's Day.

Neon dotted nails using Color Club Double Dare and Love Letter.

 Rainbow nails with a twist: sponged on a rainbow gradient, applied striping tape, painted over nails with black, and then removed the tape!  (Used wayyyy too many colors to list.)

Passion fruit tips with Julep Paige and Veronica.  (P.S. Veronica is an amaaazing color for spring!)

More dots using Julep Diana and Bette.  (I just keep being drawn to dots this spring!)

Bright sponged on colorful nails (again, too many colors to list!)

Blue sparkly chevrons with Julep Joanna, Tracy, & Jordan.  (P.S. Julep reposted these nails in a blog post about spring manis-- check it out here.  How cool is that?)

All right, that's it for now.  Will post again soon!

Slow Swatching: Picture Polish Monroe

Hi guys! Remember us? Well, me? This is Lisl (in case y'all haven't learned to tell us apart by hand-shape yes).  So we've been absent from the blog recently, perhaps you have heard of this thing called "life;" it happened to us in a major way and we just got too busy to edit pictures and do the typey thing where coherent sentences come out of your fingers.

Anyway we're back!  For my first post back, here is a manicure I did ages ago, and never posted: slow swatching Picture Polish Monroe.

Slow swatching is the term I came up for to describe the act of swatching one polish at a time, perhaps with added nail art if desired!  I don't care for regular speed swatching, because it often involves painting a color on your nails, loving it, and then immediately taking it off and painting on another color so you can get many manicures done in one night.  I prefer to savor my manicures, letting them settle in and age for several days before switching them out for a new one. 

So anyway, this is Picture Polish Monroe!  Arden got me this polish for my birthday (which was in July, which should give you an idea of how long I have been sitting on this manicure).  I did not take any pictures before I stamped over it with Essie Good as Gold (unconscionable, I know). Isn't it lovely? A beautiful deep red with holo glitter for days.  I just love it.  I stamped with Bundle Monster BM 310.  

PS I am terrrrrrible at stamping, but these nails are from back when I was extra terrible at stamping.

This was my first Picture Polish and I pretty much love it.  Any other recommendations for shades we should try? Let us know in the comments!

Guest Post! Kissed by a Rose

Lisl here! It's been a long time since either Arden or I posted (long story short: life happened), but Casa de Polish will not be neglected.  I'm super excited because my two best friends from elementary school guest posting today!  Take it away Karebear and Sher!

Hello, Casa de Polish followers, minions, and fans!

Karen and Sarah here, two of Lisl's longtime bffls. We are both beginner nail artists, with more passion than practice, and today we set out to try out this pink mani with black rose accent nail from one of our other favorite nail blogs, Pshiiiit.

We went through Sarah's collection to  find colors that closely matched the original and came up with:

Base coat: Essie - Feed Me

Main Pink: Unforgettable Moments - Pink Lai

Dark Pink: Essie - My Place or Yours

Light Pink: Essie - Blanc

Main Green: Julep - Courteney

Dark Green: Butter London - Thames

Gold Highlight: Nail Rock - Venus Gold

Top coat: Seche Vite

STEPS

1. Base coat, pink coat with a black accent nail

Sarah:

First, I painted my nails with Essie - Feed Me. I don't think this is actually a base coat but I've been using it as one. Next, I painted all but one of my nails with two coats of Essie - My Place or Yours and then the accent nail with one coat of the very solid, very mysterious Noir polish of unknown origin. I've never had a decent black before, so I was very excited to find this in the cupboard under my sink!

2. Roses.

Karen:

I started by dotting two dots of Unforgettable Moments - Pink Lai where I wanted to paint the basic flower shapes. I then filled them out into irregular blobs, and waited for them to dry. Protip: Make sure the pink flowers are small enough so that you can add leaves around them.

I then added shadows in the darker pink My Place or Yours with a dotting tool. While the roses dried, I added leaves in the main green color, also with a dotting tool. I finished off the roses with white highlights (light pink would work well as well). 

As you see from the photo, I started out with a dotting tool, but ended up using a mechanical pencil to do smaller dots because it had a more precise tip. I then shaded the leaves with dark green, and added gold highlights to make them pop.

Here is a handy gif if you are more of a visual learner than I am:

3. Top coat & Cleanup

Sarah:

Seche Vite is arguably one of the most useful polishes in my opinion, as it makes everything super shiny and smooth to the touch. I ran out a few weeks ago, so inviting Karen over was very strategic on my part.

4. Admire

They are so, so pretty!

We hope you enjoyed this rose mani. Try it yourself and let us know what you think!

33DC: One Manicure Three Patterns/Slow Swatching: Girly Bits Cosmic Ocean

Hi Y'all It's Lisl! I'm playing maaajor catch-up with the 33 Day Challenge right now, I think this is last Friday's challenge prompt? Anyway, here it is!  The prompt was "three patterns."  Obviously, in the picture above I have not shown my three patterns yet, but just you wait! It is coming.

I first wanted to slow-swatch (my special word for when I very lazily swatch one polish at a time) of Girly Bits Cosmic Ocean, which Arden got me for my birthday like a million months ago!  Oh my goodness, guys, it is just amazing.

It's like this blue-green shimmer wonderfulness that, here, I layered over Sally Hansen X-treme Wear Black Out, but you can layer it over anything! Arden layered it over dark blue and it was so, so great. I couldn't get all the beautiful facets of the color to come through. Sometimes it is super green and it looks like the parts of space where bad guys live, sometimes it is blue-green and it looks like dragon scales, sometimes it is blue-blue and it looks like the sea!

So for my three patterns I chose zig-zaggy, stripey, and whatever you would call the pattern on my ring finger.  You can read more about how I did it after the jump!

As Seen on Pinterest: Koi Goldfish Nails

Arden: Hey everyone!  Today's prompt in the 33 Day Challenge is to create something inspired from Pinterest, which means it's time for a new installment of my series "As Seen on Pinterest."  The manicure I have for today is one I did several months ago (seriously, I think it was back in September) and for some reason never posted on the blog.  It was inspired by this manicure by Elizabeth of Did My Nails, which I found on Pinterest and instantly had to try!

*Full disclosure: I did these nails so long ago, I don't remember all of the polishes I used.  I'll try to guess as well as I can!*

I started with a base coat of Sally Hansen Barracuda.  Then I used Saran Wrap to dab on several other blue/blueish green polishes to make the water for the koi pond.  I added a layer of Revlon Snowflurries and ended up with this:

I liked it, but felt like it might be a little too busy for the background of my fish, so I added two layers of one of Lisl's new birthday polishes-- Girly Bits Cosmic Ocean.

Then it was time to paint on my fish!  Using our set of acrylic paints, I painted a little koi fish on each nail.  Sadly, my fish were not nearly as beautiful as the originals (mine look a little like goldfish with turtle bodies), but they still looked pretty cool.

I was pretty proud of myself for my ability to draw koi using my non-dominant hand, so here's a picture!

What do you think?  Like the koi? Think they don't look anything like fish?  Weigh in in the comments!  And be sure to check out everyone else's entries today below.

New Technique: Marbling without Water

Arden: Hey everyone!  Today's prompt in the 33 Day Challenge is to try out a technique that is new to you.  If I were a person who embraced adversity, this probably would've been the perfect opportunity to try out water marbling again.  But everytime I've ever tried to do water marble nails I've ended up wanting to bash my head into the wall.  I've just never gotten it to work.  So instead of suffering through the same crushing defeat again, I decided to try out this marbling without water technique by Robin Moses.

First, watch this tutorial video.  It is super great!

 I started by painting my nails with a base coat, and then two coats of OPI Don't Touch My Tutu (whenever I do nude nails, I always start with this polish, because I feel like it helps me work up to a nice opacity quicker).  Then I applied a very thick coat of Julep Layne (a more pinkish nude) to my first nail.

I dabbed on white (Julep Bunny), black (Sally Hansen Black Out), and sparkly tan (Julep Cynthia) polish and used a small nail art brush to swirl them together.  I will say that I don't think my nude coat was as wet/thick as the one in the video, because my colors did not swirl that well together.  When i try this again I will definitely try to make the base coat thicker.  But the polishes still swirled pretty well.

When I finished with each nail, I went back and dabbed on some gold glitter polish using my Color Club gold striper.  I added a top coat and voila!

Obviously, not as totally awesome as the original, but still pretty good!  I'm gonna call this new technique a success.  (And not nearly as maddening as water marbling.  Which I will try again someday.  Maybe.)

Be sure to check out the rest of entries in the 33DC below!