Trendy Metallic Holiday Party Nails - HOWTO

Hey everyone!
I have been enjoying the holiday designs very much this year. I am actually really in love with this design and I hope you all like it too.
I mean, when in doubt go with florals... even if there are several inches of snow on the ground and no living shrubbery in sight ;)
Anyway thanks for watching!

Items Used:

First Base Base Coat 

http://www.essie.com/search.aspx?q=first%20base

Essie 'Bahama Mama' 

http://www.essie.com/search.aspx?q=bahama%20mama

Essie 'Penny Talk'

http://www.essie.com/search.aspx?q=penny%20talk

Essie 'Blanc' (or white acrylic paint to make things easier)

http://www.essie.com/search.aspx?q=blanc

Essie Good To Go topcoat 

http://www.essie.com/search.aspx?q=good%20to%20go

Detail Brush

Small dotting tool

Large dotting tool

Medium Dotting Tool

Cutesy Valentines Day Nails

Beautiful Wedding Nails

Hatched Nail Design

21 Halloween Nail Art Ideas

SPRIIIIING!

Here is one of my all time favorite spring manicures!

IF you love mixing prints then this is definitely a great spring mani option for you! Plus it is really super simple and even a beginner can accomplish it.

Let me know what you think!

XX,
     Harli

DIY Pineapple Room Decor

How freakin' cute is this pineapple lampshade/room decor? Ya know what? Most people are probably like "OMG summer is almost over this is a SUMMER room decoration" well, I think that because summer is almost over this pineapple is even MORE necessary for our bedrooms or dorm rooms. Who doesn't want to have a vibrantly colored decoration in their room to look at? This pineapple will remind me of summer every single time I look at it and that is most definitely not a bad thing!

So if you need to spice up your space then give this purty pineapple DIY a shot! It's way easy to do guys, I'm serious. 

PS: I decided to make this tutorial into a video on youtube because it would have been way harder to understand if it was just a bunch of pictures and instructions! I have started a YouTube channel and I will post nail art, diys, and probably a bunch of other things onto it so subscribe if you want to be notified of when I post new videos! Thanks guys (:  

XX, 

   Harli

DIY Flash Tattoos

IF you have been on the internet at any point this summer, I am sure you have seen someone flaunting these little gems. Flash tattoos are simply metallic temporary tattoos, how freakin' cute are they? They are actually pretty expensive... $25 for a couple of sheets. Personally I think that is just absurd for something temporary... doesn't Flash Tattoo realize some of us are trying to get through college??? 
I created a way to DIY them for under $10!

WAY #1:

• Pull out a page protector and the metallic marker or eyeliner of your choosing. 

• Draw your desired tattoo onto the page protector. (Go over the design a few times to make sure it is still wet by the time you need to apply it!)

• Once you are content with your design, place the side you drew on right where you want it to show up on your skin. 

• Then apply some pressure and hold there for several seconds. 

• Once you lift off the page protector the design will be transferred to your skin! 

• Using Liquid Bandage trace over the top of your design to make it waterproof. If you don't want the design to last for several days spray use hairspray instead of liquid bandage for a more temporary tattoo. 

WAY #2:

• If you are doing a very big design or an easy to draw design, you can always just draw right onto your skin and then apply the liquid bandage! 

Here are some photos of the designs I tried (I went kind of crazy haha):

 Well, I hope you love these as much as I do! Let me know if you try them out.

XX,
    Harli

Put Old Gunky Polish to Use!

I don't know about anybody else, but I have a bin full of almost-gone nail polish that is tacky, sticky, and too thick to use. It really pains me to throw the nail polish away no matter how bad it gets because it's just so darn expensive... so I brainstormed a way to use up all of my ol' nail polish babies. Guess what! I came up with this super cute and ultra simple manicure to put all of that gunky polish to use! Oh and did I mention you don't need any nail art tools? No? Well it's true! Old nail polish is all that you will need. 

I honestly just walked out to the backyard on a hunt for some manicure inspiration and immediately after I looked at the marble-looking pavement in my parent's patio, I knew what to do with all of my old polish. So quick S/O to Mom for painting the patio floor brilliantly and inspiring this mani. 

Okay. The most time consuming step in creating this manicure is finding all of the nail polish that will be used. This step took me a good 15 because I have a lot of colors to sort through. I decided to go with neutral tones with some hinted pops of color.

I used a total of 12 colors to accomplish this look, but you can use anywhere from 3-15. Anymore than 15 and some colors won't show through. If you use any number on the lower end, then you will have to do a lot of layering to get the perfect marble look. 

Now into the actual manicure... 

THERE AREN'T REALLY ANY STEPS

Once you have the colors chosen that you will be using, open up the first color you wish to apply and wipe all excess polish off of the brush on the neck of the bottle. Once most of the nail polish has been removed from the brush, stroke it onto your nail. Very little color should be left behind on the nail. 

*Wiping excess polish off is the MOST IMPORTANT part of the entire manicure.

This is what the first coat should look similar to. If your polish leaves behind a little less it's okay I promise!

Now seriously, all you do the rest of the manicure is layer your colors on top of each other. With some colors apply only a stroke or two and with others layer entire sections of your nail.

Here's what it should look similar to after adding a second color.

And after about half of the colors are added.

Continue adding colors until you achieve your desired result! 

Here's what mine looked like when I finished before I added a topcoat. 

And after applying a top coat

I opted to paint my middle and ring fingers with glitter polish. 

     

 

    

Thanks for taking the time to check out my blog! 

Harli 

Perfectly Polka Dotted

I'm not naming names or anything because she'll know who she is, but let's just say that one of my dorm roomies *Cough Cough ... Alex* made a really nice attempt at painting a friends nails polka dotted once... unfortunately they weren't excellent, but there was a lot of love that went into them... which has to count for something right? So, since I no longer live with her... maybe this will help! So, this one is for you, aw_nels!

Do not ask me why, but of all the intricate and detailed designs I do people are most impressed with the "perfect" polka dots I am able to paint. I have not a clue why people are so impressed by them because, honestly, they are super simple to accomplish! Every time I paint polka dots onto someones nails they always ask how I do it and then are super let down when I tell them how easy it really is. So... I decided to let more people in on my tips and tricks to get the perfect spotted manicure!

In this blog post I have given two ways that you can get spot on... pun intended... polka dotted nails. Whichever way you choose is up to you and your own personal preference!

YOU WILL NEED: 
A dotting tool one size smaller than you want your spots
A base color polish
A color for the polka dots
A clear coat

Just remember when choosing your dotting tool, that the polka dots will be a little larger than the size of the dotter on the tool.

I chose my smallest dotting tool because I want the smallest possible dots.




FYI
Before following these steps make sure you have applied two coats of your base color (I chose white) and let them dry completely. 

Step 1:
Begin by applying one dot to the center bottom of each nail.

*when applying the dot you must press down firmly to ensure equal sized dots each time.

Step 2:

Eyeball the next few dots and guess how much space you must give in order for the dots to be equally spread. I usually end up applying 3 or 4 dots depending on the length of nail. 

*If you struggle with this step, try applying a dot at the bottom and top center of each nail and work your way toward the center

Step 3:

On the rows surrounding the center guideline you just created, apply a dot next to each of the spaces between the dots from row 1. 

*Notice that each dot in the row 2 is equally spaced from the center of the gaps as the dots do from one another from row 1

Step 4:

Keep filling in dots parallel to gaps in the previous row to finish. 

Finish with a top coat to complete the pedi/mani. 

TRY ME... if you aren't comfortable eyeballing the spaces

 measure finger against CM side of ruler

 apply piece of tape so one edge covers the marks on ruler

 make marks with a sharpie where top and bottom of fingernail hit

 make a mark in the center of the top and bottom marks

 make marks in between center mark as well 

 peel tape off ruler and apply to center of nail 

 with dotting tool make dots next to each marking on the tape

 peel off tape 

Finish by creating dots between each of the original dots

Then seal in with a top coat

I really hope one of these ways to perfect polka dots work for you! 

Harli