Two tone nails

I must admit, nail art is my new favorite obsession! I love all of the ideas I find on Pinterest and I've been trying my hardest to recreate my favorites! What I'm loving right now are some diagonal bold two-toned nails! Here's try #1...

I used Milani polish in Black Magic as the base and when that dried, I applied Essie's Mint Candy Apple using the tape trick. I waited until the Mint Candy Apple dried and pulled off the tape. I should have just left as is, but I decided to add polka dots with Milani Nail Art in White Canvas. Added top coat when the dots dried and voila! If I were to do this color combo again, I would definitely only use one coat of each color (because they're dark/bold enough) because this was entirely too much polish. Took forever to dry and I ended up making a mess of them after just a few hours.

So...since I could not walk around with bare nails for too long, I decided to try another color combo. This time, I stuck with Milani Black Magic, but used Essie's Glamour Purse as the top (no dots). I like this simple art deco-y look for my weekend with friends in the city!

As you can tell, I am not the best nail artist, but am pretty proud of my new found tricks to make my nails cute! Obviously, I need to clean up a bit, but you get the idea! Happy Friday and enjoy the weekend!

Laura

Valentine's Nails 2.0

Happy Valentine's Day! Changed my nails once again (thanks to all of the great ideas on Pinterest). This time I went with simple cute dots which came out really cute! I used Essie's Splash of Grenadine (my favorite nail color) and made polka dots with Milani Nail Art with Precision Brush in White Canvas.

And it was easy as pie...just paint with the base, let dry and dot with the white. Wait about 30 minutes to make sure the dots are dry before applying a top coat. There was no real rhyme or reason to where I placed the dots, I just started in the middle of the nail and worked outwards from there. Enjoy!

Laura

Valentine's Nails

Maybe I'm going a tad overboard with all of the pink as of late, but I just can't help myself! Here are my frill nails, valentine's pink edition.

Used Color Club's "I Believe in Amour" as my base and Essie's "Splash of Grenadine" as my frilly top. Hope you enjoy!

For a tutorial, read 2 posts ago. It's a lot easier than it looks, I promise!

Laura

Tickled PINK!

Now that Valentine's Day is just a week away, I'm thinking pink! I just love Valentine's Day (and always have)... why not spend the day with those you love and tell them just how much you love them? I, for one, would love to be told with these love-themed pink presents!
(Okay, maybe I already have the ASOS blouse, but it's just so darn cute and holiday appropriate that I couldn't resist!)

1. ASOS CURVE Exclusive Blouse in Chair Print, $62.67 (www.asos.com); 2. Paul Smith Alessandra Flat, $154.99 (www.zappos.com); 3. Archie Grand for J.Crew notebook, $10 (www.jcrew.com); 4. Peonies in Pink, $79.95 (www.teleflora.com)

So whether you're enjoying a night with the main squeeze, the kids, the girls, or the guys (Ben, Jerry, and Russell Stover), have a lovely and love-filled day!

Laura

Adored this Week

Bright Pastel nails! I know that February has just begun and NY is still pretty cold this time of year, but I can't help but using these bright pastel colors from Essie...

I tried a new technique that I had seen on Pinterest and put my own spin on it. I used two coats of Lapis of Luxury and my quick dry top coat. When I was sure that my nails were totally dry, I began making strokes of Mint Candy Apple in a staircase pattern. I tried to fix empty spots as best as possible and when I knew the frill paint was dry, I added another layer of quick dry top coat. I know the results are not salon perfect, but I'm proud of my unsteady hand's accomplishments!

Now that I know that this is way easier than it looked, I'll be sure to try in more colors. I would suggest using a creamier color or darker color as your frill so you don't have to do too many coats and potentially mess up the pattern! Here's to keeping February happy and bright!


Laura