ARTSY WEDNESDAY: Farewell

For my last Artsy Wednesday, I used Rimmel Mintilicious as the base and stamped flowers using Bundle Monster stamping plate BM02 and Wet n Wild Black Creme.

I think this is a fair representation of why it's time for Artsy Wednesday to end. While it was fun to have the challenges, sometimes I just wanted to do nail art that didn't have to do with the challenges, and doing my nails every 2 weeks was kind of hard. I also have been getting busier, hence why this picture is so awful: it's just one I took on my phone.

Check out the other girls' manicures for the last time:

Lab Muffin - Nail & Polish - An Accent Nail - Valiantly Varnished - MASPOOASE - Makeup and Masala - Every Little Polish

Artsy Wednesday: Polka dots

Today nails were kinda inspired by a Kate Spade phone case I saw and loved:

It's very simple, but I was just in the mood from something simple this week. I used Wet n Wild French White Creme for the base, and OPI Designer De Better for the polka dots and accent nail.

Check out the other girl's manicures:

Lab Muffin - Unnaked Nails - Nail & Polish - An Accent Nail - Valiantly Varnished - MASPOOASE - Makeup and Masala - Every Little Polish

ARTSY WEDNESDAY: White nails

This week's theme was white. I did a white and silver manicure using striping tape. I used OPI Designer De Better and Wet n Wild French White Creme. This was definitely pretty time consuming, but I think it was worth it:

Check out the other girl's manicures:

Lab Muffin - Unnaked Nails - Nail & Polish - An Accent Nail - Valiantly Varnished - MASPOOASE - Makeup and Masala - Every Little Polish

ARTSY WEDNESDAY: Crystals

This week's theme was crystals. I did a saran wrap manicure using Wet n Wild Tickled Pink and BK Neon Luminous Glow in #13. I did a coat of the BK polish, and then did a coat of the Wet n Wild polish. While the Wet n Wild one was wet, I dabbed saran wrap in it. After this dried, I added the crystals.

Check out the other girl's manicures:

Lab Muffin - Unnaked Nails - Nail & Polish - An Accent Nail - Valiantly Varnished - MASPOOASE - Makeup and Masala - Every Little Polish

ARTSY WEDNESDAY: Disney-Inspired Nail Art

I was running a bit short on time this week, and so I couldn't spend as much time on my nails as I would've liked to. I didn't really have a good reason for doing 101 Dalmatians-themed nails; I just saw Sally Hansen Diamonds and Rubies in my nail polish stash and thought that it was the perfect "101-Dalmatians red."

I used Diamonds and Rubies as my base and then covered it with one strip of striping tape to make the red stripes on my nails. I used Wet n Wild French White Creme as the white and a Sharpie for the black spots. I covered my nails in PVA peelable base coat to prevent the sharpie from smudging [thanks for the tip Michele], and then used top coat. I'm not happy with my NYC top coat right now because there have been bubbles on my nails the last couple of times I used it. I'll need to find a new top coat. Any suggestions of good drugstore top coats? Should I just go with Seche Vite?

Check out the other girl's Disney-inspired manicures:

Lab Muffin - Unnaked Nails - Nail & Polish - An Accent Nail - Valiantly Varnished - MASPOOASE - Makeup and Masala - Every Little Polish

TUTORIAL: How to do Splatter Nails WITHOUT Blowing Through a Straw!

I really wanted to rock a splatter mani, but every time I try the blowing through a straw method my nails just look like a hot mess. I tested two methods to see if there was another way to do splatter nails.

Here's my best result:

I used Revlon Minted as the base and black and white acrylic paint for the splatter. I did this using an old toothbrush:

First, I put Vaseline all over my hands so the splatter wouldn't make a mess all over my fingers. Then, I dipped an old toothbrush in some paint (I used black first) and ran my thumb over the bristles to produce "splatter." I would def recommend wearing gloves when you do this, even though I didn't in this picture:

(Here, I was running my thumb from the right to the left on the toothbrush, and I produced the black splatter shown on the paper below.)

After letting the black splatter dry, I repeated the process with the white acrylic paint. After that dried, I sealed everything with top coat and wiped the Vaseline off my fingers. I tried doing this method with black and white nail polish instead of acrylic paint, but I couldn't get a good splatter.

I also tried to make splatter by dabbing a mascara wand into some polish and tapping the wand on my nails:

This doesn't look like splatter, but I still think it ended up interesting.

Have you had success with splatter? If you have any tips, please share! 

ARTSY WEDNESDAY: Three colors

Today's theme was three colors:

I used Rimmel 60 Second Nail Polish in Mintilicious as the base, and Kiss Brush-on Nail Art Polish in White and Wet 'n Wild Tickled Pink on top. After letting my base coat dry, I dipped a wand in some white polish, and then brushed the wand against my nail from my finger tips back to the middle of my nail. Then, after the white dried, I did the same thing with Tickled Pink. For my ring finger, I just dipped the mascara wand in white polish and then randomly brushed it against my nail. I think it ended up looking interesting; I want to try it with light colors on a dark background and see if the design will pop more.

Check out what the other girls did this week:

Lab Muffin - Maria's Nail Art - Unnaked Nails - Nail & Polish - An Accent Nail - Valiantly Varnished - MASPOOASE - Makeup and Masala - Every Little Polish

ARTSY WEDNESDAY: Designer-inspired

Today's theme was designer-inspired. I was inspired by this gorgeous Monique Lhuillier dress:

I was pleased that my idea for my nails panned out:

I used Wet n Wild Shine Black Creme as the base, and used paper reinforcements to make the half-moons. [There's a great tutorial here.] I used Wet n Wild Shy on top of the black. Last, I used one of my new Bundle Monster stamping plates, BM-20, to stamp the design on top of my half-moon manicure. 

This was my first time doing a half-moon manicure with paper reinforcements, and I learned how important it is not to use a thick polish for your top color. If the polish is too thick, then it's hard to get a clear half-moon. Also, if you accidentally put too much polish on your nail, you also don't get pretty half-moons. This was also my first time using my stamping plates; I plan on doing a review of the plates soon, and I'll include some tips on stamping there, too. Also, let me know if you would like a more detailed tutorial of this!

Be sure to check out the other girls' designer-inspired manis:

Lab Muffin - Maria's Nail Art - Unnaked Nails - Nail & Polish - An Accent Nail - Valiantly Varnished - MASPOOASE - Every Little Polish