On Beauty High: Crosshatched Tutorial

Stop by Beauty High today to see another neato tutorial for some sweet geometric nails in my guest post, Awesome Nail Art Idea: The Crosshatched Manicure!

The colors I used are both subtle, so the gradient itself is subtle, but you can punch it up to any mix you prefer. Don't limit yourself to just two colors either if you don't mind the cleanup. I decided to use Blu (Zoya) and Something Sweet (China Glaze).

Painting the straight black lines was really simple too. I recreated it on my right hand, no problem.

The full tutorial is available on Beauty High here, and I'll be teamed up one more time for Manicure Month this July with Beauty High, so keep an eye out for more! 

Winstonia Nail Art Tools Review

An essential piece of any aspiring nail artists' arsenal in my opinion is a good brush for detail work and something to use as a dotting tool. When asked by a company called Winstonia to review a set of tools including two of these, I jumped at the opportunity.

This is now my new favorite set of tools, and I highly recommend it for anyone wanting a set.

The set is 8 pieces: a satin bag to store everything in, a two-sided nail file with a 100 and 180 grit strength, 5 dotting tools with two different size rounds for dots (for a total of 10 different unique sizes), and three detailing brushes, also ranging in different sizes.

The whole set retails on the Winstonia website for $8.95, which is an insanely good price! I pay more for lunches when I make runs at work! For those of you with Amazon gift cards, there's also a Winstonia store at Amazon that also sells the set.

I would recommend buying from their actual website though, because they've given me a coupon to share with you all! For 10% off this nail art tool set (not your entire order), use the coupon code NAILEDIT. (This expires February 28th.)

The quality of all the tools and the bag they come in is very high-end. The dotting tools are all solid, no wiggling of the dotting heads against the surface of your nail as you place your dots. The sizes of each side of all five tools are different too. So you're literally getting 10 different sizes.
 

The brushes are AMAZING. They're brush tips are the perfect length, and the actual brush handle is round and thick, making it really easy to hold. It's also a less plastic-y feel, so I am hoping it doesn't melt in my acetone as quickly as my other brushes did.

I was really inspired to try something with a lot of detail for the nail art design tonight, so I chose to do a Native American design using the smallest brush. (I actually got this idea looking a a license plate on the road one night. I don't know what state it was, or if I was seeing things, as it was during a road trip, but I'm glad I finally got the chance to get it down on nails.)



The colors I used, starting from the darkest blue down to my cuticle are:

• Man Hunt (China Glaze)
• Ride the Waves (China Glaze)
• Blue My Mind (H&M)
• Blue (Zoya)
• My Boyfriend Scales Walls (OPI)
• Jacqueline (Zoya)
• Arizona (Zoya)
• Desert Sun (China Glaze)

Again, I HIGHLY recommend picking up a set of these as your first nail art set! I rarely use any other size brush besides a detailing one, so that, coupled with some awesome dotting tools is perfect.

You can buy this set at the Winstonia store here. Don't forget, enter NAILEDIT for 10% off! Please note: This coupon code only applies to the set of tools, not your entire order.

You can also get 15% off your order of $30 or more by entering EVERYTHING15.

They also sell other brushes and dotting tools, stamping plates, glass nail files, studs, false nails, fimo, stickers, microbeads, striping tape, rhinestones, and other 3D nail art decorations. I've added them to my Where to Shop page.

These products were sent to me by Winstonia. The reviews are based entirely on my experience with the products and were in no way influenced by anyone.

Frankendrip

Happy Halloween folks!

Remember my bleeding gradient tutorial? It's the perfect technique for some awesome Halloween colors.

The colors I used here were Neon Yellow (Savina), Pucci-licious (Color Club), and Black Onyx (OPI).

Reminds me of Frankenstein's monster's head.

Have a spoooooky night!

Gingham

Here's some Fall gingham nails, inspired by this pin. This is not to be mistaken for Gangnam.

Don't confuse those two. Your Google results will be very different if you search for one but meant the other.

I did this with two colors: Strumming My Nails (Sation) and Desert Sun (China Glaze).

It's really amazing what you can do with just two bottles of polish.

Oh...gee...speaking of two bottles...have you entered or thought about my nail art competition yet?

EDIT: 10/12/12

Now you can create this look yourself. Check out the tutorial below.

Click to Enlarge

 

Goddesses' Garden

My once itty bitty bitten nails have really grown and become much healthier since starting the blog. They've gotten to the length where a French manicure is flattering and feminine with hand's shape, no acrylics required.

I'm embracing this grace tonight. A vine of leaves over Milky Ways from Lime Crime provides the perfect elegance. I see Greek goddesses playfully sunning and drifting to sleep after barrels of sweet wine against marble pillars adorned with delicate vines and tiny pink blossoms.

Additional colors used include Something Sweet, For Audrey, and Kalahari Kiss (China Glaze).

Ah...just thinking about that beautiful goddess life has the sultan of sleep weighing down on my eyelids.

Dutch Stripper

 
You'll never guess what this manicure was inspired by. Never.

No, not candy canes.

No, not blood.

A milk carton. This milk carton.

Cool huh?

And the name comes from the polish I used (Dutch Tulips from OPI) and the strips of polish. Mix that with My Boyfriend Scales Walls, and a Dutch stripper is born.

Triangulate Position

I can't get enough of geometric shapes. The blog's had lines galore, dots-a-plenty and shapes for days. It's the ultimate nail design, and the possibilities are pretty endless. Right angles and curves really turn me on. Plus, with the left hand out of commission, it's a huge challenge to get those angles down on my right hand. Triangles are the best way to do that.

The base color for this is Zoya's Reagan. All the triangles were drawn freehand using two striper polishes.

I love it!

Bleeding Blue

Tonight's nail art comes straight off of ColourLovers. It's a gorgeous gradient, but it's called melting. It actually looks like it is melting, and so do my nails.

The colors used were Load (Illamasqua), Rock-a-Guy Blue and Blue Sky's the Limit (Sation).

This was a really easy design to do. Just paint your base color, add messy stripes of your second color about half way down your nail, and then add some more on top of that near the top of the nail. Easy and effortless.

EDIT: 8/26/12 You can easily try this yourself. Follow this new tutorial for the exact steps and tools you'll need.

Striped Skittle Gradient

The colors used for this manicure were plentiful. 15 different bottles from several different brands, with the common denominator, Lime Crime. You get the best of two worlds: skittles and gradients. Cheating at gradients with stripes is something I've wanted to try recently, and this one was pretty great! It probably took longer than a regular gradient since I did both hands and the non-dom is less than perfect and steady, but like I said, the best of two worlds. The best!

I'll happily edit this post with each polish color if you're interested, but for now, let's just bask in the polish bath I've set up. What a magical place!

Encounter Exotic Stripes

I've got some spiffy nail art tonight, using two colors from the China Glaze On Safari collection.

I used two colors I was really excited about when press releases first popped up on blogs last year, Desert Sun and Exotic Encounters. They definitely belong in the same collection, so I thought they probably belonged in the same nail art piece. The uneven stripes were drawn freehand with Black (Color Madric).

Unfortunately, my top coat is getting a little thick so I dented a few spots as I was setting up my camera and lights. Lesson learned there: get everything out that you will need beforehand! I hadn't even thought that I'd need to do camera set ups first, but it makes sense.

Electric Feel

This week will prove to be sparse for Nailed It posts, so I apologize for that. The schedule holds two concerts, a double-header kickball game and some visiting friends. Nail polish has no choice but to take a backseat. I've set up my VCR to record my bottles' favorite shows so they don't get lonely while I'm away. The automatic feeder is set to dispense every twelve hours so they don't go hungry. I've also put a few extra blankets out in case the weather gets cold and the bottles start to clatter as they shiver.

No, not really.

I will be busy though, so here's a manicure that may have to tide you over until the weekend or beginning of next week. Both polishes are China Glaze: Flip Flop Fantasy and I Herd That. I added the chevrons with Black (Color Madric). Gotta love the trigger pistol accent!

Again, I'm so sorry that I'll be missing in acetone-action for a bit, but I promise I'll be having fun, and there are good things to come!

My Boyfriend Scales Nails

Black and white freehand designs are simple and simply stunning. There's nothing fancy about this one, but it's pretty and it was fun to do. Practice makes perfect, because my right hand is also done well (though I didn't get a picture).

The off-white is My Boyfriend Scales Walls (OPI). The striper brush is from Color Madric and I picked it up at the local nail supply store. Fun huh?

Native American Rug

Native American culture is amazing. From the wall art to the baskets and blankets, Native Americans really seemed to have some serious artistic ability. Southwest U.S. states still flourish with the styles portrayed by our predecessors, and tonight's nails reminded me a little bit of this kind of art.

This simple yet striking design was really easy to create too! I coated my nails with Load (Illamasqua) first, then a small diamond shape of alternating January (Julep) and Cote D' Azur (Icing). Then it was just a matter of painting some small vertical lines outlining the diamonds and a little blob in the middle. It was easy because it's imperfect and uneven, which makes it more interesting.

I'm betting we'll be seeing a lot of these skinny little imperfect lines here at Nailed It.

EDIT: Ok...this is too hilarious not to add. After I posted this manicure, I got a comment from my mom, who reminded me of this song we used to listen to in our Plymouth Voyager mini van when I was a little girl living in Utah. Here's the lyrics to the song that must've somehow brought some emotional memory to my mind's forefront:

Ay yi yi Katy. 

Shades of red and blue.

Ay yi yi Katy.

Whatever became of that Navajo rug and you?

The lyrics aren't as innocent as the song's memory in my mind, but it's obvious it had some serious impact on me. Thanks Mom!

Glitter and Nail Art: Day 4

I needed more neon in my life, especially after looking at American Apparel's mix of promos for their neon line. I've shown you Floam and Orange You Unique? already though. I want to share with you my find from GlitterFest Nail Polish, Water Wings.

It's made up of neon green, blue and purple glitter pieces. The blue pieces provide the most sparkle, but I bought this polish for the matte green neon glitter. Can you see it very well? Here's another picture showing it a bit more up close.

Just another glitter shop to keep a watchful eye on. I may have to tell Siri to remind me to check for restocks a few times a day.

I just used my striping brushes dipped in Lickety-Split Lime (Sally Hansen Insta-Dri) and Fan the Flames Fuchsia (Sation) to create the stripes.

Hard Rocks

I scored School of Hard Rocks at Walgreen's for $3. I'll admit, I was totally shocked to see it there. It's easily one of the most gorgeous green shades I own. I've been wanting to put it on my nails for a few weeks. It's so creamy and dark. I took a lot of care putting it on because I wanted to keep looking at it. God it's lovely.

I didn't know it was called School of Hard Rocks until I looked into my Helmer and saw it sitting there, with its name all up on top in the color of the polish (one of the smartest decisions any nail polish company has ever made). When I saw that, I wanted to add some 'rock' to it, so I went with neon shades made of Flip Flop Fantasy and Icicle (China Glaze), then outlined with Black Creme (Wet n' Wild).

Geometry was Never My Best Subject

But at least it translates onto nails!

This was done using my MASH brushes, Planks a Lot (OPI), Grape Pop (China Glaze), Happy Go Lucky (China Glaze), and Sand Tropez (Essie). Not much else to say about it.

Crowned in Her Yellow Polka Dot Bikini

Thanks to everyone who wished my BBQ well! It went wonderfully, though most of us walked away with it regretting not wearing more sunscreen. I suppose we'll just call these burns our base tans, though the lines are sort of horrendous. Makes me wish I was wearing a bikini like my nails are today.

I've been seeing a lot of neons lately, but seeing Traci's manicure at Drinkcitra was the tipping point that made me realize I needed more neon in my life. I used Yellow Polka Dot Bikini (China Glaze) and Crown Me Already! (OPI) for this taped manicure. Nothing to fancy, but the color and the glitter, topped off with the striped line of Time Off (Sinful Colors) really makes my nails pop. Another crash-test-worthy set of nails I probably shouldn't drive with, especially with the sun so readily available now.

Also! Big news! I've reached 500 followers for my blog! I'm so excited! I've also seen some great advances in those interested in my other social outlets as well as you can see by these exciting numbers!

• Facebook: 231 Likes for Nailed It's page
• Twitter: 66 followers for my Twitter name, blognailedit
• Pinterest: 383 followers for My Nail Art board alone, plus others for my other boards!
• Tumblr: 3,042 followers for my Tumblr blog (I'm especially proud of this one, as on Tumblr, people tend to follow based on photos alone, so it seems people enjoy looking at what I work so hard to create).

So to everyone that has ever read, liked, repinned or reblogged my nail art compilations, thank you! You guys rock and it's so encouraging to get such awesome feedback from complete strangers!

Strawberry BBQ

Spring is fast approaching. With skiing only a few weeks ago, it seems weird, but I welcome it with open arms and open skin. Vitamin D and bronzed skin is coming!

We're kicking off the beautifully sick weather this weekend with a little BBQ at our place. Frisbee, bags and beer pong are going to be the perfect solution to sick doldrums. I hope there are strawberries!

The yellow is Lemon Fizz, the lighter blue is Sea Spray and the darker blue is Flyin' High, all by China Glaze. You may recognize this plaid technique from Candice's manicure. I switched it up slightly using diagonals, and after photographing it, decided to spice it up even more with some berry lovin'.

Juicy! 

Xhilarated Nails

I haven't mentioned this yet, but this weekend, I'm going to Vegas with some friends and Andy. We'll only be there for two days, but I'm sure we all expect to pack as many adventures into those days as we possibly can.

Ramping up for Vegas required some serious accessorizing, from sunglasses to bathing suits to outfits. One of the dresses I bought was actually designed as a coverup for a bathing suit, but the way it fits on me makes it a sexy dress.

Awesome striped zig-zag patterns totally inspired be when I walked by my closet today, so with White On (Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear) and Four Leaf Clover (China Glaze), I created this manicure.

I'll keep working on my free handing abilities, if you keep promising to be so kind! Seriously, I had a less than glamorous day yesterday but reading the kind comments for the past couple of posts, seeing the amount of reposts and Likes, really brightened up a dreary day. I know I hardly ever respond to comments, but it doesn't mean I don't love them. I'd like you all to know that I read each and every one of them. So thanks guys!

St. Patrick's Day Digits

You all saw Bree's nails yesterday. Today are the nails I wore out last night. After working so hard on Bree's, I wanted something more simple, and easy to do, and you can never go wrong with a glitter. No matter what anyone tells you in life, you can never go wrong with glitter. Rules to live by.

The base (below the glitter) is Cha Cha Cha (China Glaze). I really am not a huge fan of this color, but I knew it would come in handy for something! Hiding it is Here Comes Trouble (ORLY). Oh man I had a hard time covering that gorgeous green glitter with designs, but I just didn't feel right with only one color. The stripes were done with Bad Chick and Time Off (Sinful Colors) and Gold Digger (Color Madric).

I loved wearing this manicure last night, which turned out to be quite the adventure. From the fight breaking out in the bus line when we got off to the pepper spray that leaked into the bar we first bought drinks at, it was an amazing night.