Nail Art Lately…

It’s been about a month since I last posted about some of my recent nail art endeavors, so I figured I would share some more.
I’ve been having a lot of fun experimenting with different tutorials and trying my own things.

I know this doesn’t necessarily count as full-blown nail art, but I love the look of these. It’s similar to the colorblock nails I showed in the last post. I love the trick of the eye that occurs when you go down the line with a similar color or a glitter. I actually got this idea from an older woman who comes into the place I work. I used these two colors, Hapless Hunter Green (by Deborah Lippmann from the GIRLS collection) and Esmerelda (by Julep) for my birthday, since my birthstone is emerald. They are super shiny thanks to Seche Vite.
If you aren’t using Seche Vite’s fast-dry top coat, you best clean up your act.

These nails are done using this CutePolish tutorial. I loved the mix of matte and glossy. If I did these again, I would try and do smaller sprinkles. Still, they are a very fun summer look (and you don’t have to use a matte top if you don’t have one) and the dripping look is easier to create than I would’ve thought.

(Apologies for the cuticles in this one) This was my take on the ruffian manicure. I did it freehand instead of using reinforcement or french manicure stickers, basically while looking at photos of other, similar manicures. I chose OPI’s My Boyfriend Scales Walls and Julep’s Nina because I wanted the ruffian manicure to also have a creamsicle vibe, since the neon orange is described as a creamsicle shade.
One person caught on to what I did, saying it made her hungry for one, and that made me happy!

So far, this is the best sponge gradient work I’ve done. Next time, I will try to use similar colors of the same family. I love these colors together, but I know the teal/turquoise kind of threw off the flow. I was actually inspired to use a turquoise, purple, and hot pink because of a design on a pair of underwear I own. Inspiration comes from the strangest places. But hey, they are cute!
I hope to only get better with this type of manicure, it’s still going strong and there’s much more than can be done with the gradient as a base.

I loved this gradient technique. I decided that, instead of sponging or taping, I would do simple scallop-y strokes using just the brush that comes with the polish. Essie’s Butler Please (an excellent royal blue) is sandwiched between two shades from the June Nantucket Nostalgia collection from Julep, Bess (the light) and Char (the dark). I surprisingly got a lot of likes on this one on the old Instagram.
You can’t go wrong with blue polish and, honestly, these are some super-easy and versatile nails to replicate.

I recently became complete enthralled with Mr.Candiipants. I love her tutorials (she’s hysterical and she does great work) and she plays around with some really neat techniques. These are very abstract and bright flowers that I made using this tutorial. There are a lot of polishes here, but you could honestly use any shades on a light base and it would look fantastic. I like the look of multi-colored petals, but it would even look nice with the same color!

Let’s wrap up this shindig with a manicure I did without the help of any tutorials or photos. I am sure it’s been done before, heck, I even did a different ice cream mani that you just saw, but I thought it would be fun to make mini-cones on my fingers. I am so proud of these, I used dotting tools and striper brushes and just kinda went with it.

Practice makes perfect, and I’m really trying to do new things as much as possible.
I am hoping to stop immediately grabbing the iPhone and heading into the crappy light of the bathroom when I finish my nails.
Next time, I’d love to have some legit photos to show you, nothing blurry…and I’ll clean up my cuticles better for y’all.

Any questions, just ask!