Gobble Gobble- Happy Thanksgivng

Hello everyone! Happy Thanksgiving! It's that time again when we all get together and have turkey, ham, stuffing, mash potatoes, mac and cheese, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, and many more yummy thanksgiving foods. Other then enjoying time with family and friends we  also think about what we are thankful for. What are you most thankful for?
As for me I am thankful for my family, friends, and my fiance that has been there for me and very loving and supportive with everything I do. Also I am thankful that I decided to start this blog. This has been a way that I can show my creativity and love for nail design with all of you, and a way to improve and learn and little something along the way ( along with all of you!)

       The final look at the Thanksgiving nail design

Here are the nail polishes and tools used for this Thanksgiving nail design:

Top as base coat- Revlon Extra Life No Chip top coat, and Nicole OPI-  3in1- base, top, & strengthener.

Nail polish-  Color Club nail art- Black, Wet n wild- wild shine black, L'Oreal- Tangerine Crush (very small amount of the black and tangerine crush polish), Sally Hansen- xtreme wear- White on, light copper/ gold polish, NYC- Fashion Safari, NYC- Brownstone, Sally Hansen- xterme wear- Sun kisses, NYC- big apple red creme, and Sinful Color-Let's Meet

Nail art tools- small glass jar with nail polish remover in it for cleaning nail art brushes, a small thin nail art brush (The DL professional 10pc nail art brush from Sally Beauty, I numbered them from 1 largest - 10 smallest, this one I've numbered brush 10.), and a dotting tool. 

The skill level for this Thanksgiving nail design is: 

Intermediate 

This design has a lot of steps to it and does have quite a few small details to it, which is why I decided to give this design an intermediate skill level. 

1. Start off by applying a base coat. 

2. Once your base coat has dried, apply a white coat to your thumb nail, a light cooper/ gold to your index and ring nail, and then a peach color on your middle and picky nail. For this step you can really paint any neutral color you would like. You can always paint all of your nails with a light gold or peach and paint your thumb nail white. I chose to paint my thumb nail white for the turkey to help the colors pop, just to change things up a little bit I alternated between light cooper/ gold and peach.  

* For this design I went back and forth between each nail, as I let parts dry. That's why it may seem like I am skipping around some.

3. Once again after your solid colors have dried we start the fun part of the nail design. We will first start off with making a tree on the ring finger nail. Take your black nail art polish / stripper and draw a curved line on the side of your nail.  

   4. Next draw a few more curved lines for the tree branches.

5. Then keep adding more lines for the tree branches until it starts to look like a tree. We will let this part dry and come back to add the small leaf buds. 

6. Next we will create leaves on the index nail. Take your small nail art brush and first dip it in orange nail polish then create a leaf like shape on the sides of the nail, then clean off your brush with nail polish remover and do the same thing for the red and yellow polish. Do this until their is only a little bit of the light copper/ gold polish background showing. 

7. Now we will go back to the tree on the ringer finger nail. We will be creating the leaves on the tree, due to it being fall I made the leaves look like buds because in fall their is not many to no leaves on the trees. Take your dotting tool and create small leaves or dots on the ends of each branch. 

8. To add a little more to the tree you can add more leaves with a different color. First clean off your dotting tool with nail polish remover and once again dip your dotting tool in yellow polish and make small dots next to the orange ones.

9. Once again we will go back to the index finger nail to finish the leaves. We will be creating the veins on the leaves. Take you black nail art polish/ stripper and draw small vertical lines on each leaf.

10. For more veins on the leaves draw two more lines on the sides. Then after that you can draw two more above those (not show in the photo above, refer to final photo of needed.)

11. For the middle finger nail we will also be creating leaves, but this time they will be a different shape. Take your small nail art brush dipped in orange nail polish and make a V shape on the side of the nail.

12. Repeat last step two more times then at the top make a point. Then on the other side repeat the same thing to create a leaf on the other side.

13. For an optional look, I painted a yellow over the bottom leaf and red over the top leaf. Once that is dry add the veins to the leaf by drawing a vertical line and lines on the side of the leaf, for this part follow the outline of the leaf, for the bottom leaf make seven lines. For the top leaf make six lines. (not shown in the photo above)

14. While we wait for the middle nail to dry, we will paint leaves on the pinky nail. For this nail I decided to do a mix of both of the shapes of the leaves, one yellow leaf like the leaves in step 12 and one red, orange, and yellow (which is had to see in the photo, it is on the other side of the red leaf) like the leaves in step 9. Just like before fill up most of the nail with leaves only leaving a little bit of peach polish showing.

 

15. Once the leaves dry once again add the veins of the leaves, by taking your black nail art polish/ stripper and drawing a vertical line, like in step 10 draw draw four more lines on the sides for the veins of the leaves. (not shown in photo above)   

16. For the thumb nail we will be making a turkey. The turkey I end up making was cartoon like, you can make your turkey cartoon like or more realistic it just depends on your style. First we will start of by making the head, I ended up using a dotting tool for this, if you want you can also use a small nail art brush. If you choose to us a dotting tool, dip the large end of the dotting tool into brown polish and with a stippling motion create a circle, then fill it in. 

17. Next is the turkey's body. Once again if you choose to use a dotting tool, first if needed you may need clean off your dotting tool. Then dip the large end of the dotting tool in brown polish, with a stippling motion create two curved lines on the side then fill in the body. If needed you can also use the smaller end to help fix the shape. 

18. Now we will be creating the bright feathers on the turkey. Take your small nail art brush and deep into a coral color polish (I used Tangerine Crush) and make a triangle like shape with no point at the top, on the top of the head and on both sides.

19. Repeat step 18 until the whole turkey is filled with feathers. The other colors that I used was yellow for four of the feathers, and orange for three more feathers. As always, you can paint the feathers whatever color you would like. After you are done with the feathers we need to make the beak. You can use your nail art brush or dotting tool for this. I used the dotting tool and made a small upside down triangle. 

20. Then after you are done with the beak we will create two eyes. First clean off your dotting tool, then dip the large end into white polish, and make two dots above the beak.

After the white dots for the eyes have dried, clean off your dotting tool. Now with the small end of the same dotting tool dipped in black polish, make two dots inside the white dots. Once your Thanksgiving nail design has dried apply a top coat. Now you are finished with this cute Thanksgiving nail design.

 Just an extra photo to show all of you the turkey design on my left and right hand. I rotated this photo so the turkey on the right side is actually my left hand, and the left side is 

actually my right hand.  

Hope everyone enjoyed this Thanksgiving nail design,and hope all of you have a good Thanksgiving with lots of yummy food and, the most important part, enjoy the time with your families and friends!

See you next time for my next design tutorial! 

 

Ocean View- Tropical, Ocean Design

Hello everyone! If you have checked out my last few blog postings, I have stated that I recently just got back from a Caribbean cruise. I have been pondering a way that I could share the beauty and amazement of the Caribbean Sea with all of you, and of course what better way than having an ocean/ sea themed nail design!

If you have ever been on a tropical vacation to the Caribbean, Bahamas, Hawaii, etc. You know how beautiful the ocean is, from the different shades of blues and greens and just how clear the water is. 

Here is a photo of the Caribbean sea that I took while on the trip to Cozumel, Mexico. 

Also I thought I would show the final design at the top of the post, that way you don't have to scroll to the bottom to see the final design.

Here are the polishes that were used for this ocean view nail design: 
There are no nail tools required for this design.

Top coat and base coat- Revlon Extra Life No Chip top coat, Nicole OPI-  3in1- base, top, & strengthener.

Polishes- (starting with bottom row) Light copper/ light gold nail polish, Sinful Color- Gorgeous, Sinful Color- Midnight blue, NYC- Water street blue, NYC- Cashmere Creme, and Del Sol- Starry Night.
Optional polishes, for index and pinky nail (at the top)-  Zoya- Charla, Sally Hansen- Color Foil- Cobalt chrome, and Color Club-  Mini- Silver Glitter.

The Skill level for this ocean nail design is: 

Beginner to Intermediate

For this ocean view nail design it could be a little tricky to get all the colors to blend, but for the most part this design is simple. 

1. Start off with a base coat (I am now giving the Nicole OPI- 3 in1 a try.) If you choose to use a foil/ chrome polish, do not put a base coat on the pinky nail, this polish becomes streaky if you do use a base coat with that kind of polish.

2. For an optional look you can paint your index finger with a blue polish with green glitter in it (I used Zoya's Charla), and your pinky nail with a blue foil/ chrome polish and a silver glitter polish over that.

3. Next we will paint the sand part of the ocean. Paint one coat of a light copper/ light gold polish. Right now I know the sand color looks light, but we will be adding more coats to this later. 

4. For the Ocean nail design I will just be showing it on one nail. Due to fact that you kind of need to work fast on this nail design to make sure the colors blend together. For each color that we will be adding there is no need to let each color dry, it is best to work with the colors when they are still wet. For the first color of the water we will be painting a blueish green, almost all the way up the nail. When you paint this it does not need to be even, it actually looks better if it is not (as shown in the photo above.)

5. For the next part of the ocean we will create the dark part or the deepest part of the ocean. Take your dark blue polish and paint it up the nail just a little, this will cover part of the greenish blue part but that is okay. 

6. Next we will be sponging on light blue in the middle of the greenish blue polish and the dark blue polish. 

Take your makeup sponge that is cut into a small piece, paint the light blue polish on the sponge, and dab the sponge lightly between the greenish blue and dark blue part. 

Remember to paint each part when it is still kind of wet to get the colors to blend.    

 

7. Then for the shore line of the ocean, take your very light blue (it almost looks white) and with the flat part of the brush and dab all the way around the nail. Then, if needed, take your blueish green polish and blend the light blues together. Also you can take your dark blue polish and blend the light blue polish together. 

After your ocean water looks good, take your light cooper/light gold and add another coat for the sand. Then add a gold glitter to the sand to give a sparkle. 
The trick to this design is just to try to get the colors to blend, it doesn't need to look perfect. For each color that you add if needed you can keep adding the color above or under it to try and blend the colors, just try not to make the polish too thick. 

Once your beautiful ocean design has dried apply a top coat. 

For this look you can always paint all of your nails with the ocean design, or do something like I did with some accent nails. Also with nail designs I get my inspiration from the internet, and I want to give credit for this inspiration to blogen beaute. But of course when I do find inspiration I always try to make it my own, and use that as a base for my design. With any nail design you really can reinvent the wheel, most designs have been done over and over and just made different to make them their own. 

Hope everyone enjoyed this beautiful ocean design, and I am glad that in some way I was able to share the ocean/ sea with all of you through nail art. 
  

See you next time for my next design tutorial!

  

Ooh Coconut, hand/ body scrub update

Hello everyone! For this week I once again have an extra post for all of you. This is more of an update on the hand and cuticle care post I did back in August. For the most part, when it comes to the products that I use for my hands and cuticles even my nails, I use the same thing unless I don't like the products. 

When it comes to hand/ body scrub I have tried a few, with the most recent one that used that was included in my August post about hand and cuticle care, The Premier Dead Sea salt hand/ body scrub. Although this worked good the price was way too high, $30 for the scrub and another $30 for the lotion. So I spent $60 on a lotion that was not good and a scrub that did work okay but was just not worth $30. 

That scrub did last me about two year. I just used it before I would paint my nails,which is just once a week. Before I got that scrub I had used the Yes to Carrot pampering hand and nail spa. Unfortunately, like most products that you seem to like, they no longer make it. 

  Yes to Coconut hydrate & restore polishing body scrub

Now that the over priced Dead Sea salt scrub is gone, I came across this product at Target from the Yes to line that is new: The Yes to Coconut hydrate & restore polishing body scrub. I love the Yes to Carrots super rich body butter, so I thought I would give this a try. On the jar it says that it helps smooth dry and cracked skin. The coconut husk is an natural exfoliate, and their is sweet almond oil that is a natural moisturizer. You use this like any scrub. I take about a spoon full of the scrub rub it into my hands and take a nail brush to rub it in just a little bit better (mainly into the nails), then wash it off in warm water, then dry the hands.    

  Yes to Coconut hydrate & restore polishing body scrub, what it looks like in the jar

From the first time that I opened this to actually using it, even though I have only used this a few times, I love this body scrub! This scrub smells so amazing! If you love the smell of coconut then you will love this because it smells like the real thing. The texture of this scrub is gritty, sand like which I love in a hand scrub. Seeing how it is dry hand season right now it is hard to tell if this does what it is supposed to as for long term use. But when I first used this hand scrub it does make your hands feel very soft. 

For the Yes to Coconut I highly recommend it! I love the Yes to line and find the products that I have tried to worked very well. This line is a natural product which is supposed to be better for you. 

The Yes to Coconut hydrate & restore polishing body scrub cost  $7.99 at Target. 

I have only seen the Yes to Coconut line at Target and Ulta, I am unsure if this is an exclusive for those stores.Though I have found the Yes to line at many different stores that sell beauty products.

Hope this post was helpful, also if you missed the hand and cuticle post don't forget to check that out as well. Click the link below

Hand and Cuticle care 


As always Hope you enjoyed this post/ update about hand care!

See you next time for more nail fun!  

  

The search continues- For a good base coat

Hello everyone! As you may know if you have been reading my post for a while now, I have been trying for a while to find a good base coat with no luck. Then, after a doing some research online and seeing a lot of good reviews about all the formals for this strengthener, I thought I would give OPI nail envy- nail strengthener for sensitive and peeling nails a try. 

  OPI nail envy- nail strengthener for sensitive and peeling nails

At Ulta for $17.95 with tax $19.03! 

I have been using this strengthener and base coat for about three to four weeks. I have the problem with my nails peeling way too much on the tips of my nails and I thought this would be a good base coat to try and help this problem. Unfortunately after using this for a few weeks I notice when trying to apply nail color over this base coat, it made my nail color 

thick and streaky. At first I was not sure if I just did not let it dry enough, so I tried applying it overnight knowing that it would be dry, but once again it did the same thing. Once this kept happening I decided to return it back to Ulta. 

    
I had really high hope for this strengthener/ base coat because of all the good review I had read. As for the strengthener part I am unsure if it really did anything do to the fact that I didn't us this product for very long. For the strengthener part it might work well if you don't wear nail polish all the time and are able to reapply the strengthener every day like it says in the instructions. 

  Here are the different OPI nail treatments for each nail type.  

With any product just because it didn't work for me doesn't mean it would be the same for everyone. If you are willing to spend a little more money on nail products, OPI does have a few nail treatments for many different nail types that might fit your needs.

Nicole OPI-  3in1- base, top, & strengthener

Once again my search continues for a good base coat. After I returned the OPI nail envy, I went to CVS and found the Nicole OPI-  3in1- base, top, & strengthener, that I tough I would give a try. This all in one would probably be good for some one that does not want to buy separate top coat and base coat that just want it all in one bottle. For me I will be using it as a base coat  and see how the strengthener works out. Also this all in one is a much better price then the OPI nail envy. The Nicole OPI-  3in1- base, top, & strengthener cost $8.29 at CVS and I think you can find it cheaper at Target for around $5. So far I have only used this two times, but once again I will keep you all posted about how well this works out.


See you next time for more nail fun!