Monday 4 February 2013

Super Bowl 2013 Nail Design!

Not a big fan of football? That's okay! These nails are just a fun little tribute to one of the most watched sports events of the year.
 
This year I spent Super Bowl Sunday at work, but a lot of people noticed and commented on my football themed nails!

This design is actually really easy because of the simple design and the minimal amount of colours used.

To start I came up with a list of different iconic symbols related to football. After I chose the ones I wanted to paint, I drew them on a piece of paper. I often do that before I start painting my nails because I like to have a plan. I am also not the best artist, so if I can't draw it with a pen then I probably can't paint it. For this design I chose to paint:


Referee stripes
  • This was the easiest to paint. Do 2 coats of white polish to get the colour solid. Then with a thin brush or toothpick, create a few black lines. 
Football
  • Also very easy. Paint your full nail brown, then when dry, add the laces pattern in white! This could also be done with a thin brush or a toothpick.
50 yard line
  • Paint the full nail a grassy green colour. Add a white line down the middle of the nail and write a '5' and a '0' on either side.
Goal post
  • Paint the full nail blue. Once that is completely dry, add some green at the tip of your nail for the grass. Then take your thin brush or toothpick and create the shape of the goal post in the middle of the nail.
And the NFL logo.
  • Compared to the other nails, this one is by far the hardest and most time consuming. I started by painting my whole nail white and waiting for that to dry completely. Then I used a blue Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen to create the design. If you haven't used one of these pens before, I would not recommend it. The concept is good, but the pens are flawed. The polish comes out of the tip of the pen very thin so it doesn't offer very good coverage and smudges very easily. Without a top coat it rubes off within a few hours after application. In order to release the polish from the pen you have to push down on the tip. If your not careful, I huge rush of polish can be released all at once. Since that happens to me quite often, I usually put a blob on a piece of paper and use a toothpick to create the design. After the blue was done I filled in the letters with Red Art Deco Nail polish.

Finish off your nails with a top coat and enjoy!

Thursday 31 January 2013

Galaxy Nail Design

 
Over the past few weeks I kept seeing these really cool galaxy nails on Pinterest and I decided that I needed to try them out. They were much easier than I had expected and I am thrilled with the final results!
To complete this design you will need a variety of nail polish colours, a makeup sponge, tweezers, and a toothpick.









Start off by painting your nails black. I used a black polish called Razzle Dazzler from the Nicole by OPI collection. Two coats should do it! Make sure it is dry completely before you begin the designs.

Rip up small pieces of the makeup sponge. This will be used to apply the different colours of the galaxy to get them to blend together and give is a very whimsical look. To apply the colours simply hold the small pieces of the sponge with the tweezers so its easy to control and apply the paint to the sponge. From there you just dab the sponge on your nail until you like what you see!




To start of my galaxy I applied swooping lines of Moonstone by Sally Hanson with a small piece of sponge and repeated on all my nails.





 







Then I added a gold colour (Guilty Pleasure by Sally Hanson) over top parts of it to make it stand out a little more.












 

Then to add some depth and mystery to my galaxy I added some purple (Di-vine Is Divine, Nicole by OPI) and green (Jumpin' Jade, Sally Hanson Insta-Dry). I applied it with the sponge onto the galaxy line in a very spotty pattern.

 Then I sponged on another coat of gold over top to make them blend together. I found out afterwards that the gold coat I had done before was not really necessary. But that is the beauty of this design, its so forgiving! Your given a lot of freedom to add your own colours and alter it to your ability.



 

The next step was to add some stars. I did this my apply a light coat of blue sparkles along the galaxy line. I used Blue Mosaic by Revlon. I liked it because it has both large and small size sparkles in it which made it look like there were small and large stars. The sparkles in the polish were mainly blue and some silver. I would have preferred for them all to be silver for this design, but I'm not too picky.







 


Next I used a toothpick to make small white dots on my galaxy to make more stars.

Finish it off with a top coat and you have some nails that are out of this world!






Wednesday 16 January 2013

Favourite Nails: Blink 182 Nail Design

Over the years I have done many different nails designs. Many of these designs I have really loved! However, when people ask me which was my favourite, my answer is always the same. My favourite nail design that I have ever done is my Blink 182 nails. A few years ago I was lucky enough to see them in concert. To pay tribute to one of my favourite bands I decided to do some Blink 182 inspired nail designs for my friend Rachel and I. On my nails I attempted to duplicate some of their album cover art. Although they aren’t perfect, I am extremely pleased with how they turned out!

I Fell In Love With The Girl At The Rock Show