Sephora Spring Nail Trend DIY

In March, I was playing around with the Sephora iPhone app and stumbled upon some Spring trend videos. They were talking about brights, romantic looks, and how you can translate some of the Spring runway trends into your everyday makeup look. During one of the videos, an image of the model for the romantic look flashed across the screen with a really cute subtle color block mani on her artfully displayed fingers. I was able to scrub the video and get a screen grab:

This nail look became my obsession. I couldn't think about anything else until I found the colors I needed to make this happen. Everything about it was appealing. The subtlety of the shades, the awesomeness that is the half-moon mani, and the fact that the model looks a little bit like Fiona from Burn Notice, right? So my search was on.




I dragged my BF to Ulta with me, armed with my precious screen grab to see if I could match the colors enough to make it work. We must have looked like total psychos, huddled in the corner of the Ulta, holding up different polish shades and saying, "No, too brown," or, "This one looks right for the base shade, but do I already have this color?" Then congratulating each other with high fives when we settled on the appropriate colors. This is why I love him. He doesn't mind humoring my quests for silly things like this.

Ended up with Ulta Professional Nail Lacquer in "Girl Next Door" for the lighter color and an OPI color I already had, everyone's favorite "Barefoot in Barelona."

So here's how it came out. Please excuse my horrid, ugly cuticles in this picture. It was taken after a rough work week which was murder on my hands. Seche Vite basically made it bulletproof, so no chips! This was taken in natural light on the steering wheel of my car, because I'm classy like that.

Hope you enjoyed! I promise I'm going to move on from the half-moon/color block manicures soon. I seem to be going through a phase with them. Next, I'll probably experiment with the new set of nail art brushes I picked up at Sally. Yay.

NOTD: May 30, 2011

Picked up Orly "Green With Envy" on a whim from Ulta last week. I"m pretty sure I've looked at it a hundred times. Not sure what made me pull the trigger this trip, but I've paired it here with a Revlon Nail Enamel in "Minted."

As you can tell, I'm a fan of the half moon manicure lately. For whatever reason, I can't just do a plain one color mani right now.

Here's the application details in order over bare natural nails:

Sally Hansen Hard as Wraps
Two coats of Minted, which is a thin, semi-opaque creme with no shimmer
One medium coat of Poshe, which I let dry for five minutes
Applied nail tip guides onto space where I wanted Minted to show through, making sure the corners were well adhered
Three coats of Green With Envy, which was a VERY thin, translucent creme with no shimmer
One medium coat of Poshe over semi-dry nails

 

The first picture in natural light makes it look very blue. The picture on the right with the flash is much more true to life.

This is one of the only Orly polishes I've tried, and I have to admit that I was a little taken aback by how thin the consistency was. It would definitely suit the nail artist who likes to do several thin coats to build up opacity, but I don't have the patience for that. I do, however, love the color. I'm really drawn to blue greens lately and have been eyeing a similar color from OPI for a while now too. Stay tuned!

Hope you enjoyed!

Livestrong Inspired Manicure

My little brother (@LaserRobotTime on Twitter) is running his first marathon this weekend in honor of all of my family members that have battled cancer. Throughout my Grandfather's illness, my family relied on a lot of the information provided by the Livestrong Foundation. Long after the wristband trend died down, this non-profit has helped countless families and patients learn about what to expect, and what support is out there for them. In order to help raise awareness for my brother's fundraising efforts, I decided to try out China Glaze's Solar Power in a half-moon manicure over China Glaze White on White.

Please pardon the junkiness around the cuticles. I've yet to invest in one of those remover clean-up pens. I used regular french tip guides for the clean half-moon line. I wanted to make the half-moon a lot larger than normal, to almost appear color blocked.

Here's my process:

Sally Hansen Hard As Nails acrylic strengthener as a base coat over my natural nails. Then two coats of China Glaze White on White, concentrating on the base of the nail for opacity. One coat of Poshe, and then I let it sit for a few minutes so the stickiness of the french tip guide wouldn't mess up the base color. Then applying the manicure guide with just a little white peeking underneath, I applied two medium coats of China Glaze Solar Power. One relatively thick coat of Seche Vite sealed it all in.

I think I'll probably use Orly Instant Artist in black to draw a thin black line over the half moon line to make it even more Livestrong inspired and put "Go Tyler!" on one of the nails.

Thanks for checking out my blog. I'll be writing about everything from nail polish to hair products. I'll add reviews of what I'm loving now, and what I'm using now. While I love MUA's reviews, I'll go slightly further in depth.