Not So Gradient, Yellow and Orange Gradient Nail Design

Hello everyone! As you can see from the title, I once again tried to create a gradient nail design, but I didn't really have to much luck. Although this design might not have turned out the way I had hoped, I still wanted to show all of you this design anyways, to show that I am not perfect at doing nail art and that sometimes our nails designs don't always turn out the way we like, but they still some what look good. 

Yellow and Orange Gradient? 

Here are the polishes and one item you will need for this nail design:

Base and top coat- CND Stickey Base Coat and Revlon Extra Life No Chip top coat.

Nail polishes- Sally Hansen- Triple Shine- Lemon Shark, Sally Hansen- xterme wear- Sun kissed, and Revlon- Holographic Pearls- Transforming Effects.

Nail art tool/ other- makeup sponge.

 

 Yellow and Orange Gradient? 

For this design I have created a few gradients before, some have turned out better then others. This one still looks nice but this is not exactly what I was going for.

With a gradient the colors are suppose to fade into each other like the orange is darker at the tip of the nail, then get lighter going up the nail, to where it would then fade to yellow. As you can see my nails don't really look like what I just explained. 

For a gradient nail design you first polish your nails (for this design) yellow and then you would normally take a makeup sponge, polish the bottom part of the sponge orange and the top yellow making sure to over lap the colors, then you would dab the sponge on the nails and blend the colors together.   

 

 

 Yellow and Orange Gradient?

For me when I have tried this I have trouble with it and it seems like it doesn't want to blend. So I will do one color at a time, in this case I still had to trouble. Their has been a few times where I have tried doing a gradient and this method has worked out better. 

Like anything I still need to practice with this type of design.

 

 

 Yellow and Orange Gradient?

Here are the link to the other gradient that I have created: 

(The ones at the top of the list I fell like turned out better.)

sea you by ocean gradient ombre-nail     

lava meets water gradient nail design

happy belated new years purple gold

day of love valentines day nail design

its freezing outside blue glitter

paradise found tropical design

Well I hope all of you enjoyed this post, even though their was not much to it, I just thought this design was still worth showing. 

See you next time for more nail fun!  

Spring in bloom- flower nail design

Hello everyone! Hope everyone is having a nice spring time, I know where I live it has been a very rainy one. Anyways today we will be creating a blue spring time flower design. 

 

Blue flower nail design

The nail polishes and tools we will be using for this flower nail design:  

 

Base and top coat- CND Stickey Base Coat and Revlon Extra Life No Chip top coat.

Nail polishes- Finger paints- Tiffany imposter and OPI- Hello Kitty- My Pal Joey.

Acrylic paint- white, blue, green and yellow.

Nail art brushes- a thin detail and linear brush, and a striping brush.

A cup of water to clean off your nail art brushes.

 

 Blue flower nail design

As always start off with clean nails that are free of old polish, then apply a thin layer of base coat.

Let that dry.

Once your base coat has dried polish your thumb, middle and ring finger nail with a medium colored blue (I used OPI- My Pal Joey), then polish your index and pinky with a light blue polish (I used Finger paints- Tiffany imposter.)

Let that dry.

 

 Blue flower nail design

Then once your base colored polishes have dried on to the flower nail art, which will be done on the thumb, middle and ring finger nail.  

*First we will need to mix some paint colors to make the different shades of blue. We will need to make two shades of blue (medium and light blue) and a lighter green. For the blues first take a darker blue and some white paint and mix those together to make a medium blue. For a lighter blue add more white then blue. Then for the light green ad some yellow to a dark green.

Staring with the middle and ring finger nails and then the thumb nail, we will first make a bigger flower that is more off to the side of the nail. Take a thin liner brush with white paint on it and make your first petal starting near the tip of the nail, and then two petals from the sides, two more under that, and then one last petal under that.

 Blue flower nail design

For the other two flowers repeat the same steps, just change the colors of the flowers and of course make them smaller. These flowers should go under the lager flower. Also some of your flowers can have a few less petal or the same as the large flower. 

Once you have your flowers, we need to add the leaves and green branches. Take a thin stripper brush with light green paint on it and make some random long lines from the flowers and then add some leaves as well, you can also change the green to a darker green as well for the leaves and branches.   

 

Blue flower nail design

For our final step, which I feel like you can see the best on the thumb nail is to add some small lines in the center of the flower and some yellow dots in the center of the flower. Take a thin stripper brush with the opposite color that you used, like in the photo above the large flower is a light blue, so for the lines use a medium blue. Starting from the center make lines that go half way up the petals. 

Then for the yellow dots just take your detail brush with yellow paint on it and make very small dots in the center of your flowers.

 Blue flower nail design

Once your flowers are spring time ready, apply a top coat to seal in your design and to help it last. 

Hope all of you enjoyed this blue flower nail design, and have a great spring time. 

See you next time for more nail fun!  

Dragonfly Dreams- Dragonfly Nail Design

Hello everyone! Today we will be creating a dragonfly design. This design is inspired by a design that I would do on this lady, that would come to the nail salon that I use to work at and she would always want a dragonfly on her big toenail. So after doing this design plenty of times on her, I thought I would give it a try on my own finger nails, and show all of you how it is done. 

 

Dragonfly Nail Design 

Here are the nail art tools and polishes used to create this dragonfly design:

 

Base coat and top coat - CND Stickey Base Coat and Revlon Extra Life No Chip top coat.

Nail polishes- Sally Hansen- Insta Dri Matte- Smoldering Teal, Loreal- textured polish, too dimensional, Sally Hansen- xtreme wear-Celeb city, and Color Club- Mini- Silver Glitter.

Acrylic paint- (optional used to create an outline) White.

Nail art tools- thin detail brush, medium and large dotting tools.

Other- a small glass jar with acetone in it to clean off your nail art brushes.

 

 

Dragonfly Nail Design

Start off with clean nails, with no polish on them, and apply a thin layer of base coat.

Let that dry.

Then polish all of your nails with a teal colored polish, I used Sally Hansen- Insta Dri Matte- Smoldering Teal.

Let that dry as well.

 

 Dragonfly Nail Design

We will first start off with the very simple part, the glitter trail that is left behind by the dragonfly. I know dragonflies don't leave a glitter trail, but I thought it would look pretty as a part of this design and I was really unsure what I could put on the other nails, so we will go with a glitter trail.  

Start off by take a little bit of your glitter polish and pouring some out on a nail mat or a plastic bag, then taking a small detail brush with that glitter on it and make a very big curved line that starts at the index nail and end at the pinky finger nail. I did each part of the line in sections/ one nail at a time. Just make sure the line lines up when you put your finger together.

 

Dragonfly Nail Design

To complete this design we will make the dragonfly on the thumb nail. With all of the designs I do I always like to create an outline with acrylic paint, for this design I first created the outline with white, this part is optional you can always go straight in with nail polish. 

For creating the white outline, first take a clean detail brush with white paint on it and we will make the wings first. Also make sure to leave a little bit of space in between the wings for the body.

Starting on the right side make a teardrop shape near the tip of the nail and then right under that make another teardrop shape for the wings. Repeat this step on the other side for the other part of the wings.

For the body take a few different sized dotting tools to make your dots/ body for the dragonfly, with a sliver polish starting with a large dot and then going small, make a kind of curved line with dots for the body going down the nail.

If you did create a outline with white paint, once that has dried with a small detail brush and a glittery purple (our whatever colored polish you would like), go over the wings with that polish. 

 Dragonfly Nail Design

Once you have your design the way you like apply a topcoat to seal in your design and to make it nice and shinny, I did use a matte teal polish for the base color. 

Hope all of you enjoyed this design, that is nice and simple and great for Spring and Summer.

See you next time for more nail fun!   

Sally Hansen Insta- Dri Matte Nail Polishes Review

Hello everyone! Today we will be going over some kind of newer polishes that Sally Hansen released a few months ago as a part of their Insta Dri line. Not to long ago I did a review on their Jelly Belly Polishes that where also a part of their Insta Dri line, I also purchased these around the same time and I wanted to also give them a try. Unlike the Jelly Belly polishes I think the Insta- Dri Matte's are a permanent part of their line. 

  

Sally Hansen Insta Dri Matte Polishes 

The Sally Hansen Insta- Dri Matte's are made up of eight polishes, as you can see from the photo above I only purchased two of the eight polishes, I will rarely buy a whole collection of polishes because most of the time I am only interested in a few of the polishes.

This collection is of course is all matte polishes, here is a list of all of the polishes names:

Gold Rush, a gold colored polish

Rose Flush, a rosy peach color

Molten Mauve, a mauve red  

Burnished Wine, a purple magenta

Violet Velvet, a purple

Blue Steel, a royal blue

Smoldering Teal, a teal 

Smokey Silver, a silver

Let's take a closer look at the two polishes that I purchased.

 

 

 Sally Hansen Insta Dri Matte Polish, Smoldering Teal with a glossy top coat

First off you may look at the photo's above and say those polishes do not look matte? That is because I did apply a glossy topcoat to all of my nails, I personal like the look of glossy over matte. I do have a photo of the polishes on a swatch wheel that show them both matte and glossy, that I will put into this post as well.

Anyways first we have Smoldering Teal, just like the name says (like all of the polishes in this collection it says the color right in the name.) this is a teal polish that also has some aqua in it as well. This polish also remind me of the ocean or a mermaid color. This polish had a pretty good formula, it did take me three coats to be opaque.

Sally Hansen Insta Dri Matte Polish, Violet Velvet with a glossy top coat

Lastly we have Violet Velvet, this is purple/ violet polish that does have some blue in it. This also had a good formula as well, it was opaque for me in three coats as well. 

 

Sally Hansen Insta Dri Matte Polish, Shown Matte and Glossy

Above is a photo of the polishes both matte and glossy, I personal like them better glossy but they still looked nice matte.  

     Sally Hansen Insta Dri Matte Polish

These polishes also have the wider brushes just like the Jelly Belly polishes, but I found the formula to be better and easier to apply, it also may be the colors that I picked from this collection, these colors are much easier for me to polish, then the lighter colors I picked from the Jelly Belly Collection.

As for the matte formula, these polishes where very easy to apply. I have found that some matte polishes dry/ become matte to fast, like you polish one part and go to the next part of the nail and that is all ready matte, you then go to do your next stroke and because of that already being dry it just does not look right. Even thought these polishes are Insta Dri I did not find that to happen you could polish the whole nail and it would not become matte to fast. 

As for drying very fast, I am never to sure on that I also wait forever for my polish to dry just to make sure I don't mess them up. 

 

Sally Hansen Insta Dri Matte Polish, Smoldering Teal and Violet Velvet

In conclusion I would recommend these polishes even though I only tried two, the formula seems good and they look good both matte and glossy.

   

I purchased these at Walmart for $3.96

Here are some other places where you can purchase this collection as well. 

 Target $4.09

 Ulta$4.99

Walmart  $3.96


Hope all of you enjoyed this small review of the Sally Hansen Insta Dri Matte Polish! 

See you next time for more nail fun!