Nail Art Nail-Off: Happy Easter! (Part 2)

Happy Easter, everyone!  I hope you enjoyed Lisl's Easter nails and decal tutorial!  Here is my take on Easter nails. 

I started by painting my nails with Revlon Dreamer.  Then I sponged on OPI Did it On 'Em  for grass.  I carved an egg shape out of a pencil eraser (no picture cause I'm a little embarrassed how makeshift my egg stamp looks).

I used the erase egg stamp to stamp eggs onto the nails using L'Oreal Creme Puffs,  Sally Hansen Insta-Dry Pink Blink, L'Oreal Royalty Reinvented, and Cover Girl Outlast Stay Brilliant Coral Silk.  I used the same colors to decorate the eggs using a "dotting tool" (read: a super small wall nail).  I also stamped some Revlon Snow Flurries onto the remaining eggs for some sparkle.  (Disclaimer: I have had Snow Flurries since I was in 9th grade or something, so I have NO IDEA if they still make it or not.)

Please excuse the cut on my pointer finger

Nail Art Nail Off - Easter, Part 1 + DIY Decal Tutorial

Nail Art Nail-Off: Two Takes on One Nail Art Technique!

Lisl here:  Today Arden and I are going to show you our Easter themed manicures! Since I have a long tutorial, we're splitting it up into two posts!

So when we first started talking about our plans for Easter manicures it became very apparent that, over several days of scheming, we had both come up with the exact same idea for manicures: a blue background with "grass" on the tips, and Easter eggs peeking out.  We haggled and brainstormed and tried to think of alternatives, so that we didn't end up doing the exact same thing, but we couldn't come up with any better ideas and figured that y'all could just deal with it. 

Turns out that even when we're trying to do the exact same thing, the outcome is totally different!

NOTD: Holy Week nails

Arden: Just a quick one today.  I just wanted to show everyone the manicure I wore all week for Holy Week!

For Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, I wanted to have darker nails, but also with a hint of springtime pastels.  I ultimately decided on a brown base with dots of pastel.

Colors used:
Essie Little Brown Dress
Essie Bangle Jangle
Revlon Dreamer
Essie Mint Candy Apple
 

This was far from my best dotting job; I definitely wish I'd done a better job making the dots look randomly scattered.  Next time, I'll do better!  But I did really like the combination of the pastels with the deep brown.  Has anyone else tried that color combo?  Let us know!

As Seen on Pinterest: Decorative Squares

Ok, so this idea is kind of pseudo-seen on Pinterest.  I was initially going to try out this design that I'd pinned a few months ago:

from coewlesspolish.wordpress.com

But then, I clicked on the pin, and noticed this design in the header of the Coewless Polish blog, and decided I just had to try it out instead!

from http://coewlesspolish.wordpress.com/2013/03/03/notd-retro-squares-feat-fnug-neglelakker/

I started by painting my nails with two coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls.  (As you can tell, this is my new go-to white polish.  I've been disappointed with Essie's Blanco for quite some time and just picked up My Boyfriend Scales Walls at 40% off.  So far, I've found it to be much more durable than the Essie!)

Nail Art Nail-Off: Saran Wrap Nails Tutorial

Nail Art Nail-Off: Two Takes on One Nail Art Technique!

Arden here: Today, both Lisl and I are going to show you our own unique versions of the same nail technique: the Saran wrap marbling effect.

We're starting with me, because I went through A LOT of trial and error to perfect my technique.  First, we have my very flawed attempt at using NOT Saran wrap.  When I first sat down to do my nails, I couldn't find any Saran wrap in our apartment, and decided (erroneously) that we didn't have Saran wrap.  I put on my MacGuyver cap, and decided that surely I could just use a Ziploc perfect portions bag (basically the consistency of a produce bag from the grocery store).  Fun fact: this does not work as well as Saran wrap.

Here's my first attempt using this less effective form of kitchen plastic:

Index finger: This was with one coat of the base color (gold), then the top color (turquoise) immediately on top of it.  As you can see, a LOT of the polish was pulled off.  There's a lot of natural nail shining through!

Middle finger: Two coats of base color, then top color.  This worked better, but there were still a couple of holes.

Ring finger and pinky: Two coats of base color, one layer of fast-drying top coat, then the top color.  This was definitely the best way to do it, but it still didn't look quite as good (and marble-y, if that's a word) as Saran Wrap nails are supposed to look.  MacGuyver might've been able to make a bomb out of Windex and a coat hanger, but Ziploc bags really aren't a good replacement for Saran wrap when it comes to nail art.

Review: Nailene Perfect Tip Stickers, Part 2

As promised, I'm back with pictures of how the Nailene Perfect Tip stickers work when you're using them to do a traditional French tip manicure.

If you missed part 1, check it out here.

I started by applying the stickers to clean, bare nails, then painted two coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls to the tips.  When I removed the stickers, here's what I was left with:

Not exactly what I was hoping for.  There was some messiness around the edges of the nails, plus a fair amount of polish seems to have bled under the stickers.  (Obviously a lot of polish also got on the skin around my nails, but that was wholly my fault, and the fact that I'm pretty messy.)

I then used a small brush dipped in acetone to clean up all the edges.  That resulted in:

Nail polish swatches: Lush Lacquer neon polishes

Arden: A couple of weeks ago, Lush Lacquer was having a sale and we bought four mini bottles of their polish, three neons and another glitter.  They are so unique!  I love their neon pieces of glitter.

But before we get to the polish, let me just stop and tell you about the great customer service we received from Lush Lacquer.  After we Gchatted for over an hour about which polishes we wanted to buy, Lisl asked me to place our order.  As Julia Roberts says in Pretty Woman, BIG MISTAKE.  HUGE. Cause I'm always doing things like referring to our blog as "Casa de Nails." (Or, y'know, setting up our Facebook account under that name.)

But in this case, what I did was set up our order, hit "send," and then in the next instant realize I forgot to use their coupon code.  I messaged Lush Lacquer asking if they could cancel my order so I could re-submit it with the code, and they responded within an hour telling me there was no reason to re-submit, they'd go ahead and apply the code and send me a refund.  How great is that?

And now, onto the polish!