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.

Abstract Nails

Arden: Hey everyone!  Sorry for my absence last week-- I was hanging out at the beach with my family!  Today's prompt in the 33 Day Challenge is "abstract nails."  Wow, there were a lot of different ways to go with that one!  For inspiration, I googled "abstract art" and found this neat painting:

I started by painting my nails with two coats of Revlon Timeless.  I then dabbed on a bunch of other gray polishes using Saran wrap, before moving on to adding the blue splotches.  I then added a top coat of Essie Good to Go and voila! 

Colors used:
Julep Stevie
Maybelline Color Show Impeccable Greys
Julep Annette
Julep Faye
Butter London Blagger

What do you think?  The blue in the nails doesn't really match the teal in the painting, but I still think these nails can count as abstract.  Up close they do look a little more like swirls than actual paintbrush strokes, but I worried that if I used a brush they would come out all funky.  At least I knew Saran wrap nails would look cool!

Please excuse the chip on my pointer finger-- Saran wrap nails always chip so easily!

Let me know what you think of these nails in the comments, and as always, check out the other entries in today's challenge below!

I Can't Afford That: Zuhair Murad Couture

It's Lisl!  I'm back from my travels and, even though my brain is still somewhere between Greece and California (the Atlantic ocean?), I am painting my nails like I blog about it or something.  I started scrolling through Pinterest at some point when I was sitting on the couch and trying to get my mind right and saw this dress. This one. The one that is above these words. Oh man, guys. Want.

It's Zuhair Murad Couture and since I don't have any Award Shows on my schedule, I am sad to say I will not be purchasing and wearing it any time soon.  And also it is undoubtedly about 1 gajillimillion dollars.  But, I am a lady of action. I will not stand idly by and not recreate this dress on my fingernails.  (Cost < 1 gajillimillion).

Gradient Candy Stripe Nails

Arden: Hi, imaginary friends!  So sorry for our spotty posts last week-- I was out of town on leading my youth mission trip, where I often didn't have cell service, much less Internet access and nail polish supplies.  But I'm back now and excited to share my mission trip nails with you!

Before I left on my trip, I put a lot of thought into what manicure I wanted to sport on my nails for the whole week I was gone.  I ultimately decided on this gradient candy stripes design I found on Pack a Punch Polish. 

I started by painting my nails white using OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls.  I decided that instead of doing my usual base coat + two coats of white, I'd follow these directions Julep published recently.  So, I painted a base coat, one coat of white, a matte top coat, and then another coat of white.  Not gonna lie, didn't really see a huge difference in how evenly my white coat looked.  Sorry, Julep, don't think I'll be using your method again.

Then I applied striping tape in diagonal lines across my nails (three pieces per nail).  Following the instructions on Pack a Punch Polish, I then sponged on brightly colored gradients doing each color individually on the sponge.  In retrospect, I think my colors would've blended a lot better if I'd followed my usual gradient method of applying several colors on the sponge at once.   If you try these out, let me know which way you think works best!

Sally Hansen Fuzzy Coat Swatches and Review

It's Arden!  A couple of weeks ago I was strolling through Target (which my boyfriend calls my "happy place") and I spotted this new Sally Hansen display:

I was instantly drawn to the fuzzy coats!  Each fuzzy coat is composed of a clear base with one or two different colors of rectangular glitter.  After weighing my options VERY carefully (read: for a very long time), I ended up picking out these three shades:

As Seen on Pinterest: Stippling Gradient Nails

Arden: Hi everyone!  Greetings from Florida!  Today I'm sharing a manicure I did a few weeks ago.  I kept running across this style of dotted nails again and again on Pinterest, so I finally decided to try it.  Here's a picture of the original, from Quite Polished:

Super pretty, right?  Apparently, this technique is called a "stippling gradient."  Who knew?  (Until I actually read the post on Quite Polished, I was calling them "scatter plot nails.")

I started by painting my nails with two coats of a white, black, and grey polish. 

Colors used:
OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls
Milani Black Magic
Maybelline Color Show Impeccable Greys

Nail Art Nail-Off: Matte Nails

This week on Nail Art Nail-Off, we're experimenting with matte nail polish!  Matte nails are pretty fashionable right now, and there's actually a lot of fun stuff you can do by mattifying (is that a word?) your manicure!

Arden's take: I started by painting my nails with two coats of Maybelline Color Show's Impeccable Greys.

I then added a thin top coat of Essie Matte About You.  If you want to read more about this matte coat, check out my review here.

I then cut 3 triangles out of Scotch tape and applied them to my nails leaving a star burst pattern visible at the tips.  I'm afraid I forgot to take pictures of this step, but I went back later and took a picture of the tape so you could get an idea of how to position it:

As Seen on Pinterest: Fish Scale and/or Mermaid Nails

Arden here: Today I tried something I've seen a couple of times on Pinterest, a nail design that looks like fish or mermaid scales.  This is one of the favorite ones I've seen:

from http://little-nails.blogspot.com.au/2012/07/picture-polish-blog-fest-2012-pshiiit.html?m=1

I decided I'd try to model my fish scale nails after the most famous literary fish scales of them all-- yes, that's right, I'm talking about The Rainbow Fish.

I started by applying on two coats of Maybelline Color Show Shocking Seas. 

Then I took A BUNCH of colors and dotted on colorful scales!

NOTD: Gradient Fading Dots

Arden here: Aren't these nails super cute?  This might be one of my favorite manicures I've done so far!

It is also by far the most extensive dotting project I've ever taken on.  Previously, any time I saw a design that required an even distribution of dots, I shied away because I just didn't think I could ever possibly make dots that neatly.  But when I saw a similar fading dot design on My Nail Polish Online I fell so in love with it that I knew had to try.  (I also thought that the larger dots might've been easier to pull off than smaller dotting patterns.)

I started with two coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls.  Then I sponged a 3 color gradient on each nail (white, light color, slightly darker color).  This was not a super easy process-- it took a couple tries to get each nail right, and that usually involved sponging on some extra white at the base of the nail.

Colors Used (thumb to pinky):
Essie Mint Candy Apple
Zoya Wednesday
Revlon Dreamer
Essie Bikini So Teeny
Essie Jangle Bangle
Zoya Mira
Essie Navigate Her
Sinful Colors Rise and Shine
Revlon Timeless
Maybelline Color Show Impeccable Greys

Whew!  That was a lot of colors!

Then I used my dotting tool to make even dots across my nails.

As Seen on Pinterest: Glitter Sandwich

Arden here: Oh my goodness, I had wanted to do a manicure like this for MONTHS and I'm so glad I finally was able to!  I spotted this manicure on A Girl and Her Polish a while back, and instantly pinned it to my Pinterest board because I wanted to try it some time.

From http://www.agirlandherpolish.com/2013/01/new-31-day-challenge-day-26-inspired-by.html

Doesn't that look so cool?  I hadn't been able to try it earlier because I didn't have a good sheer polish to use as the "bread" in my "glitter sandwich," but I finally scored one and was so excited to try it out!

I started out with a coat of OPI Don't Touch My Tutu then I added a coat of Lush Lacquer's Clowning Around.  (For more swatches of Clowning Around, see our Lush Lacquer post.)  To complete the sandwich, I added another coat of Don't Touch My Tutu.

Then, to finish off the look, I added a bunch of brightly colored dots like confetti at the tips.  Initially I was only going to do a few colors, but then I got really excited about it and used a bunch of different ones to match all the colors of glitter in Clowning Around.

NOTD: Skittle Saran Wrap Manicure

Arden here: For today's nail of the day, we're going to learn some new nail art vocabulary!  Here are three nail art techniques that are often confused:

1. Gradient: when one color gradually gives way to the next on an individual nail.  Check out our gradient tutorial here.

from http://blog.julep.com/fan-nail-of-the-day-ombre/

2. Ombre: when each nail is a different shade of the same color (often going from darkest to lightest).  We haven't posted one of these yet on Casa de Polish, but maybe we should!

Eagle-eyed readers will notice this is both a Skittle AND a gradient.

3. Skittle: when each nail is a different color--- like a bag of Skittles!  We've shown a couple of these, most notably right after Easter.

On the Dot: Dotted Gradient Nails

Hi friends!  It's Arden, and I'm trying out a new recurring feature today: "On the Dot," where I showcase nail designs using dots!  I realized the other night that I really love to make dot designs, but I haven't been doing it as often as I'd like.

Before we begin, I should explain the tools I use to dot: namely, a few different sized wall nails and toothpicks.  I own exactly one dotting tool, which I originally bought to mark paper for easier folding while scrapbooking.  I hope someday to own a set of dotting tools with several size tips, but for now I'll just keep using whatever I can get my hands on!

As Seen on Pinterest: Gold Reverse Manicure

Arden: Hi, friends!  Today, I'll be basically directly recreating an amazing pin I found on Pinterest a couple weeks ago.  Sadly, it has no attribution-- as always, if you know where it originates please let me know!

Here's the picture directly from Pinterest:

picture from http://25.media.tumblr.com/2e64a12603189eb49d0b3b0964cec791/tumblr_mh4kicdDNI1qfye3lo1_500.png

Now the way you classically do a reverse manicure (also known as a half-moon manicure) is to paint your nails the color you want at the base of your nail, apply a hole reinforcement sticker at the base, paint the top color, and remove the sticker.

Nail Art Nail-Off: Tape Manicures

Arden here:  This week, we're tackling tape manicures!

For mine, I decided to use tape to mark off three triangular regions on my nails.  I started with a base coat, and then two coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls.  (Apparently I use this polish a lot!)

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.