Tape Mani

I can't believe how long it's been since I posted!  I have been extremely busy and finally finished school!!  Well, the school part of school and start the extern part tomorrow!!!!  Anyways...

Today, I have for you my first ever posted tape mani!!  I'm so OCD about perfectly straight lines, so of course I would love tape mani's!  I didn't really have any particular plan in mind when I started with my base color, Pure Ice Kiss Me Here but ended up doing sort of a triangular pattern on one side the upper part of my nail and painting it with Nina Ultra Pro Night.  After Night was dry, I simply taped off my nail right along the line of the black leaving just the unpainted portion of my upper nail and just painted it with China Glaze Turned Up Turquoise!!  Then, I just added a few dots of Night and Turned up Turquoise using a dotting tool and topped it with Seche Vite. 

I had a little shrinkage from the SV and a little bit of bleeding, but oh well- I think they didn't turn out too bad!  What do you think??

Feather Frenzy

 So today, I felt like doing something a little different, something new.  I got the idea from a Pinterest post a while back.  Under my feathered nails is a China Glaze polish called Turned Up Turquoise, I was absolutely in love with the color when I first saw it- I HAD to have it!  So I bought it.  And this polish did not disappoint!   The application was easy but I had to use three coats as it came out pretty thin.  Also, it dried very matte- which was okay, but it didn’t even look like the color in the bottle!  I was starting to get disappointed until I put on the top coat- then it again looked ahhhh-mazing!!

On to the feathers!  Its actually a lot more simple then it looks!  All you need is your polish, feathers, and small scissors.  I got these feathers at Michaels, I bought a huge bag for only $2 and some change!  Super cheap!  I don’t even think I’ll ever use all of the feathers! To get this look, you simply:

1.)  Set all of your supplies out, as well as your feathers- pick out 10 feathers from the bag and lay them out.
2.)  Paint your base coat of whatever color you want and let your nails dry completely.
3.)  Working nail by nail, paint a very thick top coat (I used OPI’s top coat) and immediately stick your feather on your nail.  I used my feather upside down, with the top of the feather at the bottom of my nail (as you can see), but you can do them whatever direction you want.
4.)  Gently place the feather in the exact spot you want and push down on the feather to get it to stick to the top coat. 
5.)  Take your scissors and carefully cut the excess feather off at the tip of your nail as evenly as possible. 
6.)  Lastly, put on another layer of top coat.  Now finish the other 9 and you’re done!!  Yes- it’s that easy!!

I had a lot of fun doing this mani, it was easy and didn’t take all to long!  I originally was going to use the grey feathers that were in my bag but ended up using the brown ones.  Part of me wishes I would have went with the grey because I think it would have looked better with the turquoise, but I’m actually pretty happy with how they turned out!!  Definitely try this if you’re looking for a fun, unique mani, happy polishing!!

TIP:  You may want to apply a second top coat after you are entirely done with your mani, or the next day.  The feathers tend to fray faster if you use your hands a lot.  Also- don’t use a fast dry top coat.  The feathers stick better and are better protected if the final top coat is thicker.  Fast try top coats tend to be thinner.  I used OPI’s top coat.