Fireworks!

My birthday is July 3- the day before Independence Day. When I was a little kid, my parents would tell me every year that the fireworks all over were for celebrating my birthday. And of course, I believed them for a few years. LOL. So I've always loved fireworks.

I was torn this year between doing my nails birthday themed or America themed. (I know, I have so many problems, right!?) So I chose fireworks- something that for me, signifies both!

I especially love big colorful fireworks, so that's what I did.
I painted a couple coats of Sinful Colors black on black and then picked out a few colors I thought would pop. I was concerned that the non-neon colors wouldn't be as bright- but they worked so well!

I tried different firework-painting techniques. Some I did long lines, others short. Some bent and falling and others going up and spreading. I played around by drawing fireworks on paper with chalk- a super fun 4th of July craft to do with my little girl.

As you might have noticed, I did this design on artificial nails so that I could take photos for my Etsy shop, Finger Candy. You can buy this design over there, if you want! Check out the link to my shop. :)

Black: Sinful Colors black on black
Blue: Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Blue Me Away
Green: Cosmetica Fanatica neon green
Yellow: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Lightning
Neon Yellow: Cosmetica Fanatica neon yellow
Purple: Essence Color n Go Passion for Fashion
Orange: Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Sunkissed
Pink: Cosmetica Fanatica neon pink
Top Coat: Seche Vite

Essence Snow White mani

The movie Snow White and the Huntsman inspired Essence's newest collection- the Snow White collection.
The collection itself consists of seven polish colors— one for each of the seven dwarfs— and three "special effect toppers." I was immediately drawn to the display in the store, but I wasn't thrilled with the seven colors. I did, however, really like two of the three toppers.

I started with TWO layers of a base coat, in this case, I used Seche Base. I recommend two layers of base coat any time you want to apply serious glitter or sparkle to your nail, simply because it protects your nail bed.

Then I used The Color Workshop Nala nail color in Bronze as a base color. I needed two coats of this color to get the pretty mocha-ish color I was looking for.

One coat:

 Two coats:

Then I used Essence Special Effect Topper: The Evil Witch to paint 8 of my nails. It took two to three coats of the color on each nail to get the desired effect of the glitter.
I loved how the glitter pieces were large and rounded- you don't often see a glitter polish like that.

Then I painted one nail on each hand with Essence Special Effect Topper: The Huntsman.
What I love about this polish? The glitter flecks were all different shapes and sizes. Plus, it had real glitter in it. It shined and sparkled and looked fabulous.
Look closer...

For both the purple and gold glitter polish, the clear polish was wonderful. It was not goopy or sticky or anything - it glided on nicely and held the glitter in well.

I wore this mani - coincidentally actually- to go see the Snow White movie with some friends. It was good! :)

Base coat: Seche Base
Base color: The Color Workshop Nala nail color in Bronze
Purple glitter: Essence Snow White Collection Special Effect Topper: The Evil Witch
Gold glitter: Essence Snow White Collection Special Effect Topper: The Huntsman
Top coat: Seche Vite

Blue to pink gradient

I love this gorgeous gradient design. And I created it differently than I've ever made gradients before. This time, I used a fan nail art brush. It was *very* easy and it looks fantastic.

Instead of the hassle of sponging or the difficulty of blending with regular brushes, using a fan brush allowed me one stroke per nail to make this design. Yes, just one stroke! wow!

This is the brush I used. It is called a fan brush and it is part of a set of nail art brushes I bought from Amazon.de.

First, I practiced using the brush a bit, just to get the hang of it. I tend to practice brush strokes and make color dots on the back of tissue boxes. This is a very well-used tissue box, lol.

I played with a few color combinations before I settled on blue to purple to pink. I put color splashes of blue, purple and pink in that order one after another- close to each other but not touching.

I simply dragged the brush through the colors, pulling them downward. Then I dragged the brush from left to right across my nail. Simple as that! It does leave a good amount of polish all over your skin, though, so it requires a bit of clean up.

But, with some polish remover on q-tips for the big stains and an angled nail art brush dipped in polish remover for the cuticles, it looks perfect.

Add a top coat of Seche Vite for some shine and protection and you're done!

One of the best things about this mani is that it was just as easy to do on my right hand as it is on my left, which I know can be an issue for many DIY manicures.

Base coat: Revlon Multi Care 965
Blue: Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Blue Me Away
Purple: Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Deep Purple
Pink: Butter London's Primrose Hill Picnic
Top coat: Seche Vite

Fishtail braids

This morning I did a fishtail braid design on my nails! It was pretty simple and I love the colors I chose.
The only bad part of this manicure is that it layers... and layers... and layers. So parts of your nail have three layers of polish on it at a time. Takes a while to dry. It's the type of design I can only do on the weekends when my husband is available to pick up the baby when she cries. Because of this, I chose to forgo to the base coat and top coat.

Aaannd I put together Pretty in Polish's first tutorial!!

Would you try this design? What colors would you use?

My first sponging :)

Seems like I'm seeing more and more sponging everyday out there in cyber space it didn't look SO hard so I figured I could do that. Let me tell you it made a MESS! Not quite as bad as mater marbling before i learned to used tape but it still took a while to clean up my nails. And here's the finished product.

I started out with a layer of Sally Hanson's No Hard Feelings and then took my make up sponge and sponged a layer of China Glaze's Royal Tease about half way up. Then followed that up with another sponging layer about a quarter of the way up with Sinful Colors Black on Black. This is a technique you have to practice but after you get the hang of it you can control how much polish goes where and make the gradient look like it really blends into each other. When it was all done I put a coat of China Glaze's Fairy Dust on top (My go to glitter). 

I really love these and will probably wear them for a few days but I have to work tomorrow and my job is not nice to my nails so a new design  should be coming very soon! Thanks for reading!!

:)

  Kristy