Magnificent finds: Nail Art tool kit

Hello everyone! This week I decided to have an extra post for all of you. Every so often I will do a post about any kind of nail tools or nail accessories that I find that I think would be cool to show. In the Magnificent finds post, I will be giving a review of the product and how well it worked out.  

(Depending on how many cool nail accessories I find will determine how many times I will do a post like this.)

For my 1st Magnificent find I will be showing/ going over the new I Heart (love) Nail Art Tool Kit from Sally Hansen. 

 This set comes in a small box with small nail art tools (travel size.)

    This kit includes: (From top to bottom) 1 striping brush (or long nail art brush), 1 detailer brush (or what I call small nail art brush), and a dotting tool with a small and big point to

 each end.

Along with the brushes and dotting tool their is a sticker stencil that can be put on the nails to create nail art.  

This kit has been out since around early to mid Spring (Along with the nail brush kit they also have gem, studs, glitter, art bead kits.). I think Sally Hansen made these nail art kits to promote their I heart nail art content, where you can enter your nail art design to win money and a trip to New York. Also they may have made this kit due to the popularity of nail art in the past year or so.  

Anyways I have had this kit for a few months and I have only used the detailer brush (small nail art brush),the dotting tool and just recently the striping brush. ( I used the detailer for the color wheel design and the 4th of July design, the dotting tool I used to create the stars/ dots for the American flag in the 4th of July design as well.)

 For rating this nail art brush I give it a happy polish! (I liked this one)

As for the detailer brush (small nail art brush) as the name states it is good for painting small detailed designs on your nails, or like I have done I some of my nail design, I used it to fill in small areas that would be difficult to fill in with the brush that comes with the polish. 
I really like this brush as I found it very helpful and useful when doing small designs/ filling in small areas. Unlike the nail art polish, I found that this brush has more control because I can easily hold the bottom of the brush unlike the nail art polish (well unless you want to get polish all over you finger.) 

  For the dotting tool I also give this a happy polish! ( I also really like this one)

This dotting tool has two ends to it like most dotting tools, a large end with a bigger ball at the tip and a small end with a small ball at the tip. This tool is good for making dots (just like the name states). It can also be used to make other designs like if you wanted to create an animal, you can use this to create the head. I also really like this dotting tool as well. Before I bought this kit I used toothpicks to create dots, which I found not to work as well. Their is one minor down fall to this dotting tool though. On the large end it ended up falling out ( you can see it a little in the photo, it looks a little bit cracked at the large end). But this was easily fixable by just gluing it back in.    

For the striping brush I give this a blank face. (found this brush to be so so, it was okay)

The next tool I just recently used is the striping brush (or long nail art brush). I used this brush for the first time for the Lilo design. I had high hopes for this brush due to the other tools working out pretty well. But once I used this and cleaned it off the bristles began to split on the side. I then cut through and they still split. Other than that it seemed to work out okay, it just made it kind of hard to use due the bristles splitting.      


The last item in this kit the sticker stencil, I have not used yet. So I am unsure if it is any good. 

For cleaning these brushes and dotting tool in between uses I had a small plastic jar with nail polish remover, which I should have realize would not have worked out due to the jar melting. So I got a small empty glass candle jar to put remover in, which should work out better. 
I took those brushes and dipped them into the polish remover in between and after I painted the designs to clean off the brushes. Then I wiped off the brushes on a paper towel. When I am completely done, I take some clean polish remover, dip the brushes in the remover and once again whip off the brushes with a paper towel, also if needed I rinse the brushes off under water. Then if any polish got on the plastic part of the brush, I take a q-tip dipped in polish remover an wipe the plastic part off. 
(This is just how I clean my nail art brushes, I am not necessarily saying this is the right way to clean them.)         


In conclusion I did like this kit and thought that it is a good starter kit for anyone that would like to try out nail art. I am just not sure about per-long use of the brushes if they will last.   




If you are look to purchase this nail art kit you can find it for around $5.99 at Target, Meijer, CVS pharmacy, or anywhere that sells Sally Hansen products.

Ohana Means Family- Lilo & Stitch Design

Aloha everyone! For today's post I will be doing a design on one of my favorite Disney movies Lilo and Stitch. This movie has been out for quite a while, (since 2002) but it has been one of my favorites since it came out. I really like the story line, it teaches you the importance of family, and that even if your family is small and broken, it can still be good.  
Now while I've enjoyed all of the characters from the movie their is one characters that I feel is the most relate-able and stands out the most would be Lilo. I like her quirky personality and that she shows that their is nothing wrong with being different.

Today's design will be based on the outfits that Lilo wears throughout the movie.

- The red Hawaiian dress with leaves printed on it that she wears the most (this will  go on the thumb and pinky nail.)
- The orange and yellow stripped bathing suit (on the index finger nail.)
- Her teal/ turquoises pajamas(on the middle finger nail.)
- Lilo's hula dress (goes on the ringer finger nail.)

   (* As always this can be changed around for a different look, this is just what I did.)

As usual here are the polishes and tools I used to create this design:

Polish: Revlon no chip topcoat, Sally Hansen I heart nail art pen in pearly white,

   NYC- big apple red creme, NYC- Midtown Mimosa, Orange polish, Milani- Quick Teal, Sinful Color- HD Nails, Sinful Color- Mint Apple, and NYC- Fashion Safari.

Nail tools: Glass jar for nail polish remover, used to clean brushes for nail art (found that it is better to us a glass jar not plastic, the polish remover will make the plastic melt), tape and scissors, small nail art brush, nail stripper brush. 

From here on out I decided that I will be adding a level of difficulty before I start the tutorial. From beginner (2 polishes), Intermediate (4 polishes), and Advanced (5 polishes). This will be based on if I think a design I have done is easy for someone to do, somewhat hard/ intermediate and a design that would be hard to do/ advanced.

     Advanced

Due to all the steps in this Lilo design and the difficulty of the red Hawaiian dress and the hula dress, I gave it an advanced rating.   

1. First cut your tape into 3 thin strips, place two on the index finger for Lilo's bathing suit, and one thin strip on your ring finger for Lilo's hula dress. 

 2. Paint your thumb and pinky finger with 2 coats of red for Lilo's red dress, the middle finger will just be a solid teal for Lilo's Pj's, on the index finger paint the parts that are not covered by tape with 2 coats of orange (it's okay if you get polish on the tape.)
Also ignore the light green on the ringer finger (do not paint it this way, just leave it blank for now) I end up not liking it this way.
 

 3. Take the tape off the index finger. As stated in the last step do not paint the bottom part of the ringer finger light green, leaves this blank for now and leave the tape on.

 4. On the index finger paint the part that had tape on it with 3 coats of yellow, you now have Lilo's bathing suit.

5. Now we will start Lilo's hula dress. Paint the upper part of the nail with 1 coat of red for her top.

 

6. With the nail stripper brush and dark green polish, begin to paint under the tape small lines to look like a grass skirt. (I went over the lines 2 times to be opaque enough)

 7. After painting lines with the dark green polish, paint small lines with the light green polish right next to the dark green lines. (I once again went over the lines 2 times)

 8. Now take the tape off the middle. Next add two lines (by slowly rotate your finger) above the grass skirt with the light and dark green polish.  

 9. Where the tape was paint that with 2 coats of tan polish for Lilo's belly. 

10.  For Lilo's head piece take the small nail art brush with the light green polish and start to make lines that look like small leafs. ( I went over the leafs 2 times)

 Do this all the way around the nail. Now you have Lilo's hula dress.

 11. We are almost done. For the final design on the thumb and index finger, we will be creating Lilo's Hawaiian dress that she wore the most. Take the white nail art pen and draw a rectangle, it can be rounded at the top like I did, or have a point. (I found it a lot easier to use the nail art pen to draw the leafs then using a nail art brush.)

 12. Next draw to lines on the side (I know it looks a little weird, but once it is done it will look better, I tried to make the leafs look as much like Lilo's dress as possible.)

 13. Under those 2 lines draw two more lines.

14. The last and final step (wow that was a lot of steps!) With the nail stripper draw a small line with the red polish to complete Lilo's red Hawaiian dress. (I repeated steps 11- 14 three times.)

After your design has dried add a top coat . Now you have a fun Lilo inspired nail design with all of her Hawaiian outfits.

 Here is a close up of the thumb nail.

If you would like a different look you can have all of your nails with Lilo's red Hawaiian dress or even add a cute Stitch to your nails for a Lilo and Stitch design. For a simpler look just have the ring finger or accent finger with one of her outfits, and the other nails with just a solid color.

  Thought I would add this photo of me holding my cell phone with my cute Stitch case. Thought it would look cute with my Lilo nail design, due to me not adding Stitch into the design.

Hope everyone likes this Lilo inspired nail design. Also, remember Ohana means family, family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten. (Lilo and Stitch quote.)

Aloha and see you next time for my next nail design tutorial!

Munchkin's favorites- All chromed out

Hello Everyone! For this weeks post I will be showing something a little different, called Munchkin's favorites. This will be a post that I will do every so often on polishes that are new, or are a favorite of mine. I will just be going over the finish of the polish, what I like about it, or hope that I will like about the polish, and the wear of the polish. 

For my first Munchkin's favorite, I will be going over the new polish from Sally Hansen called Color Foil Cobalt Chrome. 

This polish has a metallic chrome like finish that is similar to what the bottle looks like.

 A few years ago Sally Hansen had a very similar polish to this called Chrome nail makeup. I had that same polish in a blue color and I loved it. It had really good wear, I could wear it for almost a week with no chipping, and it looked very cool because it had a very shinny chrome-like finish. But, like with any polish, in time it starts to go bad.   

Then a few months ago I stumbled across this at Meijer, I was very excited to see this because after my chrome nail makeup went bad I could not find that polish and assumed it had been discontinued. So of course, I had to pick this polish up because I assumed it would be the same polish that I loved years ago. 

 Sally Hansen Color Foil Cobalt Chrome with no topcoat

 Before I started this blog, I painted my nails with this polish like I paint with any other polish, with the color and then topcoat, then let it dry. When applying this polish it seem to be going on well, it went on in one coat (opaque in color). So this gave me some hope that my once favorite polish was back. But as the day went on with just wearing this polish for a few hours, I would look down at my nails and notice on the tips that they are already starting to chip (Oh No!!). As usual, I would touch them up. Then each day they still chipped way too much and way too fast for just polishing them.

 For this blog post I decided to give this polish another try. I figured once again I would put a topcoat on (even though on the back it does say to not us base and topcoat) I always like to have a topcoat on to give my nails some kind of protection. Once again the polish chipped after only having it on for a few hours. 

Not willing to give up on my once favorite polish (at least the one called chrome nail makeup) I decided to follow the directions on the bottle and not wear a base of topcoat. 

Unfortunately I still had the same results after a few hours of not even really doing much to cause any chipping, and unfortunately this polish chipped again on the tips of the nails. 

 This was after just 1 day of wear and it had already chipped way too much. (Just in case you are wondering why their is a picture of a sad version of my logo in the corner. When I do post like this that will be a way that I will rate the polish, happy face if the polish is good, sad if the polish is bad.) 

I really had high hopes for this polish after having a great experience with the Chrome nail makeup that I had a few years ago. Sadly I am disappointed with the wear of this polish due to it chipping pretty much as soon as I put the polish on.    

        

Let's Celebrate the USA!- Fourth of July Design

Hello everyone! It's that time again to watch the fireworks, eat lots of yummy BBQ, and celebrate America. Another great way for us nail polish lovers to enjoy celebrating the 4th of July is by doing a fun flag and firework design.


Here are the nail polishes and nail tools that I used to create this 4th of July design: 

Nail Polish Used: 

Revlon Extra Life No Chip topcoat, Kiss nail art stripper in white, Nicole by OPI- A Lit-Teal Bit of Love, NYC- french white tip, NYC- Broadway Burgundy Frost,
 Wet n Wild- wild shine black,Color Club- Daisy Does it, and Color Club- Wing Fling (For the nail polishes I decide to us colors with glitter in them to give this look more of a sparkle).

Tools Used:

 A plastic jar (with a lid) to put nail polish remover (for removing polish on the nail art brush), Tape and scissors, a dotting tool, and a small nail art brush.

1. Before you start off with anything you need to cut the tape into thin strips. Then, you take the tape and place them diagonally on all 4 of your nails (leaving the ring finger blank, this is where the firework design will go.)

 

2. To start off the flag design, I painted the bottom part near the cuticle with 3 coats of A Lit-Teal Bit of Love.

 3. Next I paint the strip above the blue and at the tip of the nail with 2 coats of french white tip. (it is okay if you get some polish on the tape.)

 4. Above the white polish I painted the next strip with 2 coats of Broadway Burgundy Frost,( I know this looks a little messy right now, but once you are finished and take the tape off it will look better.)

5. Once you have finished painting all the strips you can take the tape off.

6. I forgot to take into consideration that their would not be any polish under the tape (duh). So, now you need to thicken up your lines by adding more white and red polish. When I was done, I felt that the white strips where too thick, so I added another diagonal line of red polish to the tip of the nails. 

 

7. Now that the flag is almost finished ( all that is left is the stars, you just need to wait for the blue polish to dry), we can go ahead and start the firework design on the ring finger. You will now need to paint the ring finger black for the night sky.

8. While the black polish is drying we will be adding the stars (well dots for the stars). Pour just a little bit of white polish on a paper towel, or piece of paper, and take your dotting tool and dip it into the white polish.

9. Take the dotting tool and place it on the blue part of the nail as many times as you like

to create the stars/ dots. (I did not put a set amount of dots, I just put enough dots to  make sure their is still some blue showing.)

10. Now that the black polish has dried take the white stripper and make a lot of random line that resemble fireworks. In order for the color to show over your dark background you need to first paint the lines for the firework with white polish.(you can also make a few more fireworks on the nail or just 1 big one like I did.) 

11. After the white lines for the fireworks has dried, I took the small nail art brush and dipped it into the bottle of Daisy Does it and went over the white lines. Also, this is where the clear jar I used came in handy, you will need it to take off any extra polish on the nail art brush and if you want to change colors, and of course, in the end to completely clean off the brush.   

 Once your patriotic design has dried add your topcoat. As usual I used Revlon Extra Life No Chip topcoat. In the photo above I painted the firework with Daisy Does it, on my left hand.

This time I decide to show my right and left hand in two different photos. In the photo above I paint the firework with Wing Fling it, on my right hand. 

As with any design their are many different colors and designs that you can do. To change up this 4th of July look, you can also paint all of your nails with the American flag, or all of them with fireworks with all kinds of colors.  

Hope everyone enjoyed this design and that everyone has a safe and fun 4th of July!