Week 2: Tape Manicure

Hey everyone!

Today I am going to show you a new nail art technique. Just as the name of this manicure sounds, it uses tape to make interesting designs.  It can be time consuming, but gets easier the more you do it.  Look below to see my tape manicure!

So, for this manicure I started with a base coat. I used Seche Natural as a base coat followed by Revlon Touch of Mauve.  After both of these were completely dry, I added my Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat.  I waited about 10 min for all of this to dry completely. 

After the bottom colors are dry, I took some scotch tape. I taped it to my arm about 3 times and removed it so that it wasn't quite so sticky. I used my nail scissors to cut it into strips in the design I liked and placed it on my nail.  

 After it was on my nail, I simply painted on my top color.  For this, it is best to use a color that gets full coverage in one coat.  I used Orly Purple Velvet, which is actually a matte color.  I bought this color about 2 years ago, but have only used it one other time because I found that when you have a matte dark purple color on your nails by itself, it just looks like you accidentally closed your hand in the car door and your nails are black and blue.  BUT, as a top coat, the contrast to the shiny bottom pink color looked nice! 

After you paint this on, you need to remove the tape quickly. If you let the top color dry before taking off the tape, it will tear the color off.

My original idea was to use a matte top coat instead of the two colors to make my design shiny and matte. I know that Essie makes a matte top coat called "Matte about you" that will make any color you put under it matte. I looked everywhere for this and was unable to find it. What I did find was a Seche base coat called Seche Natural.  I thought that if I just used this as a top coat it would make the polish matte, but as you can see form the picture above, it didn't really work.

Anyway, this is a good way to make nail art with straight lines if you don't have a steady hand.  Do you think you will rock a tape manicure? If you do, send me pics!

Gradient Nails

The "Fade" is a pretty popular thing in clothes right now.  This trent is one in which the color fades gradually from one color to another.  It has also become pretty popular on nails.  On nails, I have heard it referred to as "the fade", "the gradient manicure" and "sponging".  There are several different methods to do this.  I have tried many of them, and below I am going to show you the method I found the easiest.

The "fade" on a dress.

The fade on my nails!

Cool right?  It is actually easier then it looks. 

Supplies: 

3-4 nail polish colors.  Do not use quick dry formula. 

Makeup sponges

q-tips

Polish remover

Base and top coat

Small cup of water

Directions:

1.  Paint base coat on your nails. After base coat is dry, paint your lightest color over entire nail.

2.  After the first color coat has dried, take all your colors and line them up from lightest to darkest. Unscrew the caps of each color. You want to have everything ready so that you can work quickly.   Take your makeup sponge and dip it in some water. Squeeze 80% of the water out of the sponge. This is very important because if you do not get the sponge wet, it will soak up too much polish and the polish will not go on evenly.

3.  Start at the edge of the makeup wedge and paint a thin strip of your darkest color.  Paint a thin strip of each color, from dark to light.  Go over each color once more.

4.  Take your sponge and press it firmly on a piece of paper or paper towel. You will notice that the more you press the sponge, the more the colors blend. Next step, press sponge onto nail.  You can press twice at slightly different spots if you notice the color is not blended enough.  Make sure you press with firm even pressure.

5.  You will notice that the polish gets all over your skin, and has the texture of the sponge. The skin issue is easily cleaned up by using a q-tip dipped in polish remover. The texture issue is fixed by putting a top coat over.

My nails before cleanup. 

6.  Paint your top coat on and you are all done! 

Other tips:

Do not use quick dry polish for your gradient. It will dry before you have a chance to get it onto your nail.  

I found this a little more difficulty to do with metallic polishes, because most of them also dry rather quickly.  

The wet sponge is very important to make this come out correctly.

Remember to press the sponge firmly against nail so that you get the edges of your nail as well. 

For this manicure, I used the following polishes.

Revlon Quick Dry Base Coat

Revlon Tropical Temptation

Revlon Cherries in the Snow

mystery polish I have had for years

Revlon Valentine

Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat

Shellac Attack!!

Hello!
I realize that I have been a little bit lame on my posting this week. So... today I am going to show you guys a tutorial for how to properly apply shellac nail polish.

 For those of you who don't know, Shellac is a "gel-polish hybrid" made by CND (Creative Nail Design).  It was released back in April of 2010, but has really gained popularity within the past year.  It gives you a shiny 14 day manicure without chips, peals or breaking. I find that when I use it, my nails tend to grow longer because it adds just enough thickness so that they don't break off.  Shellac uses a UV light to cure, so it has no dry time except for application process itself.

What is the difference between shellac and acrylics or gels?  Well, shellac is supposedly better for your nails because the application and removal process requires no fileing. If you have been to a salon and gotten a shellac manicure which involved fileing, your nail tech was doing it wrong.  Shellac is also easier to apply because it paints on just like nail polish.

I first got a shellac manicure in a salon, but then decided to buy the supplies to do it at home.  I bought mine online at amazon.com.  If you are looking to purchase shellac, make sure that any product you buy is actually shellac. There are other products out there, such as gelish, which are similar, but not the same.  You cannot use gelish with a shellac color or base/top coat and vise versa.

Anyways, if you are interested in doing shellac at home, check out my tutorial below.

Supplies:
Shellac base coat
Shellac top coat
Shellac color
36 wat UV lamp with 4 bulbs (I bought one called uspicy lamp off amazon)
Scrub Fresh (A mix of acetone and rubbing alcohol)
99% isopropyl alcohol (I bought this online, rubbing alcohol in standard drug stores is only 70%)

My shellac supplies

1.   Do a basic dry manicure. Push back cuticles. File nails to whatever shape you want. Do not buff nails.

2.  Use scrubfresh on a cotton pad and gently scrub each nail, like you would with polish remover.

3.  Paint on thin layer of shellac base coat. Make sure you cap your ends. This is very important, because if you don't cap them correctly, the shellac will chip or peal off early. Also, if you get any polish on your skin or cuticles, use an orange wood stick to remove it. If shellac is on your skin, it will lift off the polish and peal.

4.  Place your hands in the UV light. For the base coat, you only need to place them in for about 20 seconds.

My UV light. 

5.  Apply thin layer of color coat of your choosing. I chose to use romantique. This is a very sheer, pale pink shade.  Cap your ends.  Place your hand in your UV light again.  For all color coats, you need to keep your hand in the UV light for 120 seconds. My light has an automatic timer and shuts off after this time period.

6.  Apply second color coat following same steps as 5.

Shellac Romantique with 2 coats on the first three fingers, and only 1 coat on the last 2. See how sheer it is?

7.  Apply top coat using same steps as 5.

8.  Use 99% isopropyl alcohol on a cotton ball. Lightly swipe over nails. This will remove the sticky layer and give your nails a shiny finish.

9.  Go do whatever you want!  Your manicure is now 100% dry and ready for all the dishwashing, key grabbing, whatever you need to do for the next 14 days! Kiss chips goodbye!

My complete shellac manicure.  That is paint on my thumb, not polish.  

If you think shellac is not for you because you like to change your polish color frequently, think again! You can paint regular polish over shellac if you want. It will keep it from chipping!  To remove regular polish without taking the shellac off, just use a non-acetone polish remover.