Tape Manicure Tutorial #1

Okay, first of all -- Today's tutorial will be a geometric tape tutorial. It is VERY simple and requires little effort. I really don't know what to call it and since there are many other "tape manis" tutorials that I will create, I will just call this Tape Manicure #1! ;) Curious about what ours will look like? Look below! :)

 

These ones that I have created have 3 sections of different colors. All of them have different color combos so that you get the sense you can use ANY colors you want! Personally, when I do these again I will probably do all 5 nails only 1 combo. But whatever you like best! So let's get this started! :)

You will need:

• Tape (I just used plain, old Scotch tape)
• Scissors
• And ANY colored nail polish! (Minimum of 2 -- You could do the middle 1 color and the 2 ends the same color but I prefer combos of 3 :) )

So for this tape mani, you will need triangular tape! And all you do is cut a piece of tape at one corner and end at opposite corner. Like so!

Cutting! 

Taa-daah! Now you have 2 triangles, only need to

do cut tape 4 more times and you have triangles

for all 10 fingers! :) (2x5=10 ya feeling it? ;)) 

Let's start this easy tutorial! :)

1. Choose your colors - I used a silver, white, and black. Now paint your nail the base color and this will be your middle triangle.

2. Place your triangle tape diagonally across your nail when your polish is DRY. Be very patient. Maybe wait a day to apply the tape because you don't want to destroy your nails when peeling off the tape. :'( Oh! And since this is totally versatile, you can do this ANY way you want! I'm just explaining my procedure hehe. Make sure you really press the tape down so that nothing will get underneath when you paint over them.

3. See how the tape is cover one section of your nail and there should be 2 other non-covered areas. In those 2 areas, go ahead and paint them in. I used black on top and white on the bottom. Go ahead and get polish on that tape! It's there to block off the silver and hopefully won't let any other colors get on there!

4. Now slowly peel off the tape. And there you go! GORGEOUS tape mani! :) See, it's extremely simple and the lines are guaranteed to be straight and crisp. :) 

 

Oh, and naaaah, I won't list off all the nail polishes I used. Have a specific question on a color? Comment below! This is about a quarter of my nail polish colors haha. ;)  3 different colors per nail? 5 nails? Yup, 15 nail polish bottles right here. xD







And this is my step-by-step procedure! I don't recommend doing all your nails at the same time for this mani. I only did it for picture purposes haha. ;) It's much easier just doing 1 at a time!  

My starting colors :) LOVE that silver by Sally Hansen 

Put the tape on and like I mentioned above, don't do them all at the same time! 

Painted the bottom sections the darker colors

Painted the top section the lighter colors 

Peeled off the tape and SURPRISE! 

A lovely tape manicure :) 

 



Hopefully you've enjoyed this tape mani tutorial #1 and try it sometime soon! It's quite cute and can use any colors and of course you can flip the tape any way as well. Try it out and show me ;) I dare ya! Haha, until next time, Your Polish Pal, Jenna :]





Fish Tail Tutorial

Yes, I think I am having a small obsession with "fish" or something! Well don't worry because I don't know what else you can do that has an involvement with fish on my nails. As you guessed, we will be learning how to create a fish tail manicure that was based off of the new popular braid. This technique is also referred to as braid, weave, or basket nails!

My accent nails have the fish tail technique!

And here is my hair in a fish tail braid. :)

Aren't they really pretty? This may be another

tutorial for another day on another blog. ;)

And before we get started, I should tell  you the truth and give you a heads up -- This is the first time that I tried out this manicure and I started off with practicing on my thumb and in the meanwhile taking pictures of each step to use for my picture tutorial. In the end, I thought that the nail turned out very pretty. And that is where I went wrong. I tried doing fish tail nails on all of my nails and here is what happened: I failed EPICALLY. I realized that since these are geometric-sort-of nails, they need to be pretty similar in order to look clean and that didn't happen My suggestion is when you're first trying this technique out, try on a thumb and/or ring finger for accent nails. Those look really nice and in that case, you don't have to worry about making all the nails perfectly matching (in size of stripe, angle, etc.). Okay enough with the blabbering, let's start this tutorial. (That is the ONE thing I am very proud of. It took me an hour to photoshop, but I was so happy to finish and see the turn out! Sorry for the excessive watermarks! That is how protective I am of this baby . ;))

You only need:

• 3 different nail polish colors

I used (from left to right) Hard to Get, Gaga for Green, and Smoke and Ashes.



Now let us begin our free hand fish tail nail tutorial! It is difficult to explain verbally but hopefully the pictures help. And you may noticed that there is a pattern going on! I will also refer to my colors with these labels: white = A, green = B, and black = C.

1. Start off with your base color, A. This will be 1 of your 3 stripe colors.
2. Draw a diagonal stripe from the left bottom corner to the opposite side with your B color.
3. Draw another diagonal stripe from the right bottom corner to the opposite side with your C color.
4. With color A, draw a diagonal stripe that is basically right on top of your B color and in the same direction.
5. With color B, draw another diagonal stripe on top of your C color and in the same direction.
6. Repeat with color C and just draw another line on top A and in the same direction.
7. Repeat with A on top of B.
8. Repeat with B on top of C.
9. And to finish, just draw a line with C in a diagonal line to meet in the middle of your B color and that is how you finish!
 ~ This is just how many times that I had to do the stripes. Every one's nails will vary! The basic pattern is to just keep on drawing diagonal lines on top of the 2nd to last line that you just made.

I did take step-by-step pictures of my other four nails in the process of making them all fish tailed, but they turned out horrible in the end, so I will only post the finished one.

Yes, this is something that I have to practice... Don't worry! I will!

It was fun learning :)



I did take this manicure off because it was not my best work. I did like how my ring and thumb finger turned out so that was the only win situation when I replaced the other fingers with green :) I hope that the tutorial did help and I'd LOVE to see your work if you tried this out! You can tag me @PolishPals on Instagram or email me photos at yaypolishparty@gmail.com Until next time, Your Polish Pal, Jenna

Fishy Tutorial

Something smells a little fishy... Yes, something strange. Oh! It must be this fish tutorial that I have created for you today! Look at these lovable little guys! :D Okay, let's get started.

Materials Needed:

• Blue, white, and black nail polish + 1 or 2 of your favorite colors for the fishies
• Thick and thin dotting tool
• Scrap Paper (to place the nail polish on)

These are the materials that I used. From left to right, Water Street Blue, Greenwhich Village,

Gaga for Green, Hard to Get, Black Heart, Strapless, and Twinkle.

1. Start off with a solid blue base. I used a light kind of blue, but the first time I created these, I used a dark blue. So whatever shade you prefer you can use!
2. With your thick dotting tool, dip it into one of your nail polishes that you will use for your fish. I used green and hot pink for my fishies. Make a relatively large dot near the end of your nail. This will be your head but you don't want to make the dot too big! You can always come back later and make it larger. You still have to fit it's tail fin in! :)
3. Now you can start making your fins that are coming out of large circle. Go ahead and make that dot larger because you can tell how much room you want for tail. To make the tail you can just draw 2 small lines or a heart shaped figure for its tail.
4. (Optional) This last step is totally optional because maybe you just like plain fish! But I think that if you add in some eyes and bubbles, it gives the fish a lot more character. So for the eyes make a small white dot on the fish's head and then place a little black dot inside. For the bubbles I just used the thin dotting tool dipped into white nail polish and made them "float upwards".

There you have it! Some adorable fish!

Blue Base (One of my favorite nail polishes!)

Add those dots! Yes, on my thumb I am going to

make 2 fishies! The reason why I mad my dots

facing each other are because I'll make my fish

look at each other. :)

See? I increased my fishes bodies a lot! And here are

the tails! 

Add those eyes  

And finally the bubbles! On my thumb I created

a little heart and some "waves" with the glitter

nail polish. :)

Finished Product!

And a close up off my thumb! :D

I hope this tutorial was easy to follow and that you can create your own lovely fish! Until next time, Your Polish Pal, Jenna :)

Oh by the way -- I neglected to mention this is only my right hand. ;) The beautiful galaxy nails are still on my left. xD And I am right handed.. ;) Ambidextrous powers! :D

Galaxy Nail Tutorial

"Twinkle, twinkle little star.
How I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high.
Like a diamond in the sky.
Twinkle, twinkle little star.
How I wonder what you are!"

A classic nursery rhyme. :) And I still can not get over that this tune utilizes the same tune as the ABC's! It's a strange concept to grasp, isn't it? Anyway! Hello ladies! As you guessed, we are learning how to create some legit looking galaxy nails. Go ahead and take a look below to see what our finished product may look like! This was my first time trying this technique myself, but trust me, it is extremely easy if you have already mastered the sponging technique of the gradient nails and such. Okay, so let us get started!

What you you will need:

• Black, white, purple, pink, and blue nail polish colors
• A sponge, such as makeup sponge
• Scrap paper
• A small dotting tool (optional)
• Glitter nail polish (optional)

The colors I used from left to right are Smoke and Ashes, Hard to Get, Prince Street, Greenwich Village, Water Street Blue, Party of Five Glitters, and Spit Fire.

I really just want to put a shining light on how awesome this China Glaze Smoke and Ashes color is; not only is it a nice black polish, but it also has some neat green shimmers in it already. I tried to capture the glitter to the best of my ability, but the camera just wouldn't do. Anyway, I really love this color! In fact, it is one of my first China Glazes that I bought. Love them!

Now, may I introduce to you the Galaxy Nail Tutorial! *polite clapping*

1. Start off with a black base colors.
2. Now let's start put your white color and sponge to use! As always when sponging, place a little nail polish onto the scrap paper and dip your sponge into the polish. Blot the sponge onto the paper a couple times to get rid of the excess polish. So with that sponge with the white nail polish on it, gently sponge a diagonal line onto your nails. Try not to use too much white because it'll be really gunky. That is what the blotting beforehand is for. ;) On your other nails I did different directions of lines and curves so that it adds a little variation.
3. With your other colors, repeat step 2! Yes, you really are just going to sponge over the white color a total of 3 extra times. I used the colors purple, pink, and blue but since these are galaxy nails, you can add any color! Maybe try green, yellow, gold, silver, etc. :)
4. Honestly, this step is totally optional! I originally had these nails for a couple days and JUST added all these extra embellishments yesterday. (I apologize, that is why I did not have a tutorial earlier. I was still testing this one out!) I do really like the end results too. This is how I did it but you can literally just add anything you want: I used really fine glitter and I painted it on the still black part of the nail without any color on it. And with your toothpick, add little, white dots around your galaxy and maybe a few on it. These are suppose to represent stars! On my middle finger I even added a diamond for a different type of star! Finally, I have a chunky glitter polish that I applied to my entire nail. The great thing (and maybe also the downfall) is that with chunky glitter, you only get a few sparkles that end up on your nail. So more sparkly stars that are extremely random! :D YAYYYYY for glitter!!!

Sorry for the different lighting - Like I said,

I added all the embellishments a couple days later!

And here is how my nails looked after every step! :)

Black Base

See my random white lines? ;)

I added the purple right on top!

Added some blue

And here is the pink! You may not tell. Don't worry. I can. xD

Here is the fine glitter!

And the big chunky glitter plus white dots!

Before I added the white dots and chunky glitter. See?

It actually looks really pretty!

But here is with the ALL the embellishments! I love both but

I guess it depends on how busy you like your galaxy nails to be.

And this concludes our galaxy nail tutorial! If you try the out for yourself, I'd love to see how it turned out for you! Email me a picture at yaypolishparty@gmail.com or tag me @polishpals on instagram! Until next time, your Polish Pal, Jenna :) <3

Penguin Tutorial

Hey guys! Today I have made an adorable penguin tutorial. Yes, it is summer but I think that these little penguins are just too cute too pass up. I mean com'mon, take a look!

Would you like to make these precious penguins with me? If not, I'm sorry. :( I hope later I can please you with another nail tutorial, but if so, YAYYY! Let's start!

You will need:

• Black, white, yellow, and orange nail polish
• Dotting tools - thick and skinny
• Assorted colors (optional)

Okay, as always these are just the colors that I used and the "classical" penguins. Of course you can switch up colors. (I did try pink penguins but then I messed up everything by attepmting "real" eyeballs instead of black dots and that turned out to be a flunk. Hey, I tried!)

1. Start with a solid black base.
2. Now draw a white hill with the white nail polish. A easy trick is to pretend to be repainting your entire nail but stop when your almost to the top. Just make it a mound with the brush!
3. With your skinny dotting tool, place 2 black dots for the eyes near the top of the white hill. Also with your skinny dotting tool, take the yellow and draw a beak underneath the eyes. I just drew a diagonal line and then another one in the opposite direction for a petite beak. Then for the feet I used the thick dotting tool and just dipped it into the orange polish and placed 2 medium dots at the very bottom of the mound.
4. (Optional) If these penguins just aren't good enough for you, add some cute bow ties!! This is where your assorted colors come in. To make a bow tie, use your thin dotting tool and add a dot in the area underneath the beak. Now draw 2 little triangles coming out from the dot or 2 little hearts. It just changes the look of the bow tie, but both are awesome! I actually used both variations.

Okay, clean up, add a top coat, and now you have some pretty penguins on your fingers! Here is the visual tutorial and how I did mine. :)

Black base

Add the white mounds

Add solid black eyes

Add yellow beaks

Add orange feet

AND THE ADORABLE BOW TIES

(See, the purple tie is made out of hearts while

the red one has triangles).

And finished product ~ On ice. ;) The penguins

were getting too hot! :'( And my fingers

were getting too cold! :O

I hope that you can now sucsessfully create these funky little creatures. :) Until next time! Your Polish Pal, Jenna

Cheetah Nail Tutorial

In my opinion, cheetah nails are a classic manicure and that is why I am ecstatic to be posting a tutorial on them today. This is also the first time that I have created cheetah nails on a gradient background so I am even more excited about my nails than usual. Let's get this started!

All that you need are:

• 2 different nail polishes (any color combo you desire) & black nail polish
• A dotting tool or 2 -- Thin and thick ones work well (don't know what to use? Check this out!)
• Scratch paper

1. Paint your nails your base color -- This color will be the background of your cheetah nails and we will just say that mine is blue. ;) Allow this to dry completely before moving on!

2. Next, the 2nd color will be the color of your spots. I decided on a silver because it looked chic with the blue. When you have decided on the color, drop a bit onto your scratch paper. Okay, we will start the spots now. Don't be afraid, they DO NOT need to be perfect (like most things in nail art). In fact, they look better if they're varied blobs. :) So with your thick dotting tool, dip it into your nail polish on the paper and draw some funkish looking dot shapes. Seriously, these things can be virtually any shape or size. I only create a few because you can ALWAYS go back and add more. It's like what your parents always tell you food wise; it's better to take and then go back and get more than to be wasteful. :(

3. You're probably looking at your nails right now and thinking "What is Jenna doing?! Destroying my nails with ugly, random blops???" Don't stop! Let's continue and hopefully you'll begin to like the results. :) Now, with some black nail polish, drop some onto the scratch paper. Time to form the spots -- take your thin dotting tool and dip it into the black, and around your newly created spots, draw little "u's". Or another way to think about it is to outline them in black, but leave an opening or two. Once again, you can just see what you like best. Make them irregular and not perfect!

4. As you can see, the nail is incomplete and honestly, just ugly. And this is what I mean by just add more later. I added another full spot and then in the blank spaces, I drew more little "u" shaped items that weren't connected to anything and just plain black dots here and there. And there you have it! A hopefully awesome cheetah mani!

And this is how my cheetah process worked:





 

Hopefully you can see why it's important to leave some space until the end and then fill in. Oh! And don't look at my thumb in the 3rd picture. ;) I'm still learning how to take these pictures for blogging!

Final Product

Extra!

Here is another visual I created for the
process of cheetah making spots.

The tools I used :)

From here on out, if you try one of my tutorials and would like me to see how your nails turned out, feel free to email me a picture or post to instagram and tag @polishpals because I'd love to see! Or if you ever have any more questions, comments, or suggestions, feel free to contact me or leave a comment! I hope you enjoyed this tutorial on cheetah nails. :) Your Pal, Jenna

 

(NOTE: Ah! Boy, my first tutorial... It's so weird looking back now at my color choice and picture quality. ;) Thanks for looking though! I'll be sure to update my old posts with newer nails! Check out my Classical Cheetah Nails to see another small pictorial of cheetah nail art. Let me know if you still have any questions! Cheetah nails are super chic and easy to do really. :) I hope this helps you out! <3 Jenna - Updated 12/23/12).