Wrap Around Dots: "Dotticure" #1

Hey all! I am soooooo sincerely sorry for not posting in over a week. It's been that hectic season of "back to school" (hurray) and all that good stuff. AND to top that off, the new iPhone 5 by Apple is coming out in a month! Exciting! Not if you have to sale your iPhone 4... :/ So, just a forewarning, these tutorials are going to become even harder to create. Yes, I admit I'm lazy and use an iPhone to take all my pictures, but hey! They turn out pretty decent, huh? ;) Anyway! I will unfortunately have to switch to another camera for about a month... So we will see how this goes, but if you only see a couple tutorials for this month of September, please don't worry, I'll make up for it in November! :D Okie doke! Enough of this silly jibber jabber, let's talk about today's mani. :)

 

Okay, I'm sure a lot of you guys have seen this very pretty manicure around. Something that you should also know is that it is super easy to create! And NO, you DO NOT need dotting tools. ;) Oh... and sorry about my name - I really don't know what to call this! Dot nails just seemed so boring, so what about a "dotticure"? ;) Love it! And of course there are many, so I tried to be a little more specific and since they "wrap" around your nails, that's what I decided to name them. ;) So take a look below to see the finished product and let's get started! I also decided that because of my "lame" choice of colors that did not like to be photographed at all, I will just do the full picture tutorial instead of the little one with only my thumb nail. :)

 

 

I do apologize for the colors I used. In this picture you can't really tell, but in life, they look really cute together! I tried to do a fall color scheme so I chose some golds and pinks/reds.

 

You will need:

• At least 3 colors - 1 for a base and then however many for your dots
• About 3 different sized dotting tools (I will explain later, don't worry!) Try for a big, medium, and small.

I used Dress Me Up and Harvest Moon by China Glaze and the other 3 I have forgotten and will add later because I'm at my local library using their wifi! :O Hehe.. whoops. *BAD JENNA* :( 

 



So here is Dress Me Up by China Glaze. I just really love this color! It's in between a rose pink (much darker, I know) and a tan color... My mother says it's "mauve". ;) I was like but it's like pink and brown! And yup, she says "mauve". ;)

Start off with your base coat. This will be your background for your dots.

With your big dotting tool, make a few dots around your nail like so. I used my darkest color and only could add 3-4 on my nails. Only add a couple or so because you don't want too much clutter! AHHH! I can't get over one of the most important rules - You can ALWAYS come back and add more. ;)

With your medium dotting tools, follow the same pattern you made the first time and make a couple more dots in a different color! I used a gold :) (which you can't really see... ;/ ) I made about 3-4 again of these medium sized.

Oh guess what? Repeat! :D This time you will use the same medium dotting tool or an even smaller one! Once again, I created 3-5 dots of a different shade of gold/brown.

And finally, add as many small dots in your last color as needed! I used them as "fillers" and since I used a hot pink, it also gave it a lil' spunk. :) I added 6-8 of these. This is also the time to come back and add more dots in whatever size you feel is right. :)

A closeup - You can see the colors a little more clearly :)

 

Hehe, my nails are the longest they've been in my entire life! Still short, but good, yeah, still good. ;) (Lilo & Stitch, love that movie! :D)

As I promised, I will explain the dotting tools. :) Okay, in another post I mentioned I recently bought dotting tools (eBbay, $4+free shipping) but you don't need these "fancy" tools for these nails! TRUST ME, I used just these simple things you can most likely find around the house for 4 years and created perfectly amazing nail art! So for your big dots, I'd use a sharpened wooden pencil. You can even write on a paper to dull the tip to make it bigger. Then a .7m lead mechanical pencil for medium (you don't even need the lead! The tip works just fine). A .5m lead mechanical pencil for small dots. And finally, if you even want smaller dots, pick up a tooth pick. ;)

 

Okay, so this concludes are beautiful polka dot nails! (Variation 1, don't be so excited to get done with this first one, there WILL be more, mooohahaha!) These are just one of my favorites because the endless color combinations. :) Have a ton of new nail polish to try out from your recent haul? Yeah, this "dotticure" will help you use them all in one. ;) Until next time, (which is hopefully sooner then a week :( ), you Polish Pal, Jenna =)

"Beary" Easy Bear Nail Tutorial

Hey girls! I realized one of my favorite designs to do on my nails are adorable, little creatures. Okay, I admit that these little guys are super simple but I think they are super cute!  Oh! Did I forget to introduce what we will be making today? ;) Well say hello to the 5 little bears. Hehe, these are one of the simplest creatures I've ever made, but who cares?!?!? I find them one of the cutest. :) So let's get started!

 

I used Mahogany Magic and Dress Me Up by China Glaze, and Black Heart by Sally Hansen.

 

You will need:
• Any 2 colors (I used a dark brown and a lighter brown which actually kind of looks like a rose pink) for the bears' face. I suppose you can do any combo you want ;) But I just stayed with the classical brown bears :) And a black polish to create the nose, eyes, and mouth.
•A small dotting tool (or a black striper art brush)

And here's how we do it :)
1. Start off with your base color. I used the Mahogany Magic  for the "body" of my bear.
2. Add a small oval with your 2nd color at the tip of your nail. Or if it's easier, draw a little mound/hill shape. That's what my bears' snouts ended up looking like ;)
3. Once your snout is dry, use your dotting tool or striper brush (haha I just used my hippy mechanical pencil - still forgetting about these doting tools) and make a round, black oval at the top of your mound for the bear's nose. And then draw a thin line in the middle of his nose downward to the tip of your nail again. This is suppose to be it's mouth but you can do a ton of different mouth types haha. You could draw a line and add little curves so that your bear is smiling or just just a smile or whatever you want!
4. Finally, I just added some small, black dots for eye balls! You can make them much more... Complex than mine by filling it in with white and then ANOTHER black dot or try some funky sunglasses on your bear. ;) I just didn't feel like adding anything because that's where YOUR imagination and creativity comes in! ;) (Or maybe I was just extremely lazy... Shhh ;))

 

My base color

Add those little mound things! :D

There's a nose!

Some simple lines for a mouth :)

And ahhh!! The eyes!

Ta daaah!

 

I hope you enjoyed learning how to make VERY SIMPLE (like most of my nails haha!!) bear nails tutorial. There is so much you can add to these little fellas of course! I can think of ears, hair bows, glasses, mustaches, "hair", and the possibilities are endless! Until next time, Your Polish Pal, Jenna :)

Cloud Manicure Tutorial

Whoo! It’s pretty hot outside! Oh well, I’ll just stay inside and create some pretty nails for you. :) Today we are going to make another one of the trending nail designs at the moment, and they are cloud manis! The finished product turns out very lovely and it’s so simple to create! I also love how you can use ANY colors that you want! Look below and check out what I did. I really liked using light to dark color combo but like I mentioned, you can use any colors you want! So let's get started.

You will only need:

• At least 3 colors, but you can use as many as you want. I prefer ones that use 3-5 colors though. ;)

The colors I used are Hard-Core Party and No Hard Feelings by Sally Hansen., Prince Street by NYC, and Sugar Plum Faries Gone Wild by Sephora.

1. Start with your base color. I used the light pink. (I didn't have enough purples hehe, plus the contrast is nice).

2. Okay, this is hard to explain but I'll try to show a visual below. You are going to make a few hills on your nail with your 2nd color. (This is going to be your background color of your "clouds"). To do this, I just used the nail polish brush and made one long stroke. Then another one right next to it in a slightly shorter length and so on. I was able to make 4 hills on my thumb nail, but my other nails only have 3.

3. Repeat step 2 with your 3rd color. This time start your hills on the 2nd color's.

4. And finally continue step 3 with how many colors you want! My final color was just a simple , chunky sparkle polish to add a litte glam. :) Now I'll try to show how to make the hills.

This is the basics to the making the "clouds". :)

Another visual with all the colors I used. :)

And as always, how my nails were made.

The light pink base (I love this color!) 

The first set of clouds! I used a lavender :)

The 2nd set of clouds! A dark purple :) 

And finally just added some sparkles all over the bottom clouds!  



So, I hope that you enjoyed our short and sweet tutorial on how to create some very elegant cloud nails. (I honestly don't know why they are called cloud manicures.. They look more like ruffles or scalloped edges... Meh. :)) Well until next time, Your Polish Pal, Jenna :)

I recently recieved an email from one of my followers (my first hehe ;)) giving me feedback on the blog and it made me really happy. ;) I just wanted to tell all of you thank you for taking a look and I'm so glad that I can help you gals and inspire you! If you ever need to contact me, please send me an email. ;) Thanks again everyone! <3



Butterfly Wing Tutorial

Hey everyone! I think I've finally created a good season specific tutorial. ;) Today we will be learning how to create some gorgeous butterfly wings! They remind me of a Monarch butterfly because of the colors I use and the way the wing looks. Take a look! So let's celebrate the end of the summer with some pretty wings :)

You will need:

• A base color - I used Hot Tamale by Pure Ice which is that orange color.
• Black and white nail polish
• Something to create lines and dots with - I HIGHLY suggest using a nail striping brush or thin brushes if you have them for this design, but a pencil dipped into nail polish works too. It's just a little more work.

Let's begin! :)
1. Start with your base color.
2. Draw a small curve with black polish in one corner of your nail.
3. Draw a few lines coming out of that curve. I was able to draw four on my thumb and only 3 on my other fingers. I did end up adding more lines so don't try to cram a ton of lines! You can come back and add more. :)
4. (Optional) Connect the lines you just made with a curve. I added this because it gives a little more character than just a straight line.
5. Now on the tip of your nail, fill in everything with black. See, on my thumb I even added another line when filling it in.
6. Finally, add a few white polka dots on the filled in area. I varied my dots sized, so I had some big ones and a couple little ones.
7. (Optional) Add some glitter to the black tip or inside your sections! I forgot to add this step into the pictures because I added them this morning and created this tutorial yesterday. :) I love my glitter nail polish and it does add a lot to the little wings. And you are done!

Okay guys, I have cheated.. I have bought this little nail art brushes. This is how I created these Monarch Butterfly Wings. These brushes came in a set of 5 (colors were black, white, purple, blue, & pink) but all I really wanted was the black and white. I found these at TJ Maxx for $5.90 for all 5. :) I think that this was a great deal because you can find these tools at many beauty supply stores (such as Sally's) for $3.00 for only 1 art brush and UP! They go for as much as $8! That's why I thought that I might as well buy this guys. I really do like them. ;) I just thought that I needed to tell you all my dirty, little secret.. I just bought these though, and this was the first design I used the black one!

Oh hey, and another secret... I got these in the mail a week ago. These are called dotting tools and have little, metal balls at the end of them. You use these the same ways you would as a pencil but they have 10 varied sizes. I love these because they're super easy to clean up and they are EXTREMELY CHEAP. I bought these off of eBay for $3.40 & free shipping. But I've seen them as cheap as $0.99 off of eBay as well. The only reason why I paid more was because I wanted them sooner and they were from the USA. And I didn't want to wait a month for them to ship from China. Okay, enough with my new tools. :) But if you guys are interested in buying some tools like these, I'd totally suggest looking at Amazon.com and eBay.com :)

Okay, back to the nails! <3 My orange base :)

Adding some curves

A few lines

 Connect with some more curves (or just lines if you'd like)

 Fill in with black

 Add some large white dots

And finally some small ones!

Oh, and as always, please add your own embellishments! I just added some pretty gold sparkles to all the orange areas. :)

And there you have it! Some darling butterfly wings! :) Until next time, Your Polish Pal, Jenna :]

Newspaper Nail Tutorial

Eeeeeek! Hey girls! I am so sorry that I haven't posted anything for a week. :'( I have been doing my nails and making several tutorials, but I just didn't think that they were well enough made to post on the blog. I like to have quality photos and colors, but it wasn't really happening... Well, I finally succeeded in completing some newspaper nails which were requested by a few girls on Instagram! So hurray! Are you guys ready to make these?!

Awesome Newspaper Nails! :D

I am going to try a different method of explaining how to make these and I hope that you can understand! So please bear with me. :) Let's get started! :)

You're going to need rubbing alcohol, newspaper, a container to hold the liquid, a light nail polish, and a clear coat.

Okay, I used just a plain white base because I personally like the newspaper on white. But you can use any light/pastel color. I wouldn't use a dark color though because the words won't show up! Make sure your nails are COMPLETELY DRY!!! The results will only end badly if you're not patient!

Get your rubbing alcohol and container ready! I just used plain, old regular rubbing alcohol that you can buy at any drug store. I've seen that you can use anything with a high concentrate of alcohol (hand sanitizer, extracts such as vanilla, and of course alcoholic drinks haha) but I prefer just rubbing alcohol because it's easy to obtain and cheap. I've also seen people use water to make newspaper nails, but I tried that before this and that didn't work for me. Sorry guys! You'll have to look up that on YouTube like I tried and see if that works for you! And for my container to hold the alcohol, I used a 1/4 cup measuring cup. Not because of the volume though! I used it because it was a deep dish. :) You want to fill up something that is deep and I didn't want to waste a ton of rubbing alcohol by putting it into a bowl.

Now just pour enough alcohol into the container that you can soak your nail into it.

See? Just enough to dip my nail in!

Take your newspaper and rip it into chunks. You can cut them up but it's just so much easier to rip them up! Make sure that the pieces are big enough to cover your nail but not too big.

This is my chunk that I'll rip into half again.

Here are a ton of chunks :)

Now we can start! Stick one of your nails into the rubbing alcohol. Let it soak for about 10 seconds.

Place a newspaper piece onto your nail quickly before the alcohol dries!

Now with your other hand, squeeze your finger with the newspaper on it. To make sure that you get the words transferred onto both sides of the nail (not just the middle) rock your thumb and pointer finger (that's what I used to squeeze) back and forth. Another tip is to dip your thumb that you will be squeezing into the rubbing alcohol to make it wet and not tear the paper when you hold it and rock it. Oh and yes, my yellow newspaper nails. ;)

When you think that you have rocked enough and got enough words transferred, gently pull off the newspaper! Ta daaah! But you're not done yet!!!

This step is crucial. You need to have a clear top coat! Otherwise the words just come off! And make sure you apply the top coat quickly after you removed the newspaper. I am using Seche Clear.

 

Look! Now you are done! Repeat with the rest of your nails and enjoy! :)

My left hand :)

A darling little mirror necklace

More of the mirror!

As you can see, you can do any light colored base! (Why did I use yellow.... >.< Oh well, it kind of looks like something from the Yellow Pages! ;))

Oh and newspaper nails make great backgrounds for other designs! These are supposed to be trees, with little hearts and a moon. ;)

I hope that you are now able to make some awesome newspaper nails! I've seen and heard that you can use magazines, comics, and even maps as a substitute of newspaper. But the reason why the prints comes off is because of the paper. So I'm afraid that you can't just print or write things on paper and have those show up on your nails! And just in case you didn't notice, the words come off onto your nails mirrored. ;) So don't worry if the words seem wonky! They are! ;) If you have anymore questions, concerns, or suggestions, please comment below or email me! :) I hope that you liked this different lay out! Until next time, Your Polish Pal, Jenna :)