DIY - Valentine's Heart Tutorial.

Hello Hello!

I know I'm doing this a bit late, but I figure, better late than never right? I've already done all the tutorials to post for Valentine's Day, I just need to find the time to edit my photos and post them on here (: sounds simple enough right? Lol.

A lot of the designs I did make, require making hearts. I figured I'd do a quick tutorial to show you how I created the hearts so I wouldn't have to repeat them each and every single time I did a design.

//Materials Needed/What I Used//
- anything to create a circle / dotting tools - check out my blog about tools if you don't want to buy tools
- any color polish - I used Black Creme by Wet N' Wild to show you

STEP 1. 
Take your dotting implement and create two dots one right next to each other. Leave some space between the two

STEP 2. 
Redip the dotting tool in the nail polish and start to slowly drag the tool down from one dot. I started from my left dot first. Drag it down to a point.

STEP 3. 
Repeat step 2.

That's all!

Hope it helps!
Stace.

How I Remove My Acrylics.

Hello Hello!

So I realized I've never posted an entry about removing acrylics. If you didn't know, I do my own acrylics. Yes, that includes taking them off to put a fresh new set on. I know from personal experience, that yes, taking acrylics can be painful - IF not done properly.

At nail salons, a lot of times, if you're just removing your old acrylics to get new ones, they won't take the time to soak your nails. Instead, they'll simply try prying it off by cutting and sliding the nail tips underneath to pop them suckers off. However, this is both damaging to your nail and very painful.
I've had some nail technicians pull a layer of my natural nail off and cause me to bleed by doing this process.
If you are specifically going to take your nails off, they let you soak your nails. They charge about $10 to do this! Ridiculous! It's so much cheaper to do it yourself.

So here's how I remove my acrylics.

//MATERIALS NEEDED/WHAT I USED//
- aluminum foil - doesn't matter the brand. I picked up a roll at the Dollar Tree
- cotton balls - same as above
- pure acetone - "Beauty Secrets - Pure Acetone" from Sally's Beauty Supply
   TIP: It needs to be pure acetone! All nail polishes have acetone, but pure acetone is what you need!
- nail tips - doesn't matter the brand. I purchased the press on nails from the Dollar Tree
- old towel that you don't care about ruining.

TIP: It might be hard doing both hands at once, so I suggest that you do one hand at a time. That's what I do. 

STEP 1.
Cut out the aluminum foil from the roll. I'd say cut off about 14 inches to be safe.

STEP 2.
Fold the sheet in half hot dog style. Fold the sheet into 5 rectangles or squares hamburger style. Unfold the foil. In the end you should have 5 rectangles or squares, one for each finger. Since you folded it, you should have 10 total.
TIP: You should be cutting the rectangles or squares to fit your finger. Everyone's finger is different. You just want to make sure that the foil will wrap around your finger and is not too small. 

STEP 3.
Cut apart the foil. Cut along the lines where the rectangles or squares should be.

STEP 4.
Take your old towel, place it underneath your hands like at the nail salon. Take a cotton ball, soak it with your acetone.

STEP 5.
Take a piece of the foil, place it underneath your nail, place the soaked cotton ball on top of your nail. Fold the foil over the cotton ball to keep it in place.
TIP: Be careful! 

STEP 6.
Repeat steps 4 & 5 till all 5 or 10 fingers are covered.

STEP 7.
Wait 30 minutes for the acetone does it's job. DO NOT EXCEED 30 minutes.

STEP 8.
When removing the foil off your finger, gently twist the cotton ball as it comes off. You're trying to get rid of as much acrylic as possible.

STEP 9.
Repeat STEP 8 for every finger.

STEP 10.
When you first remove the foil and cotton ball, the remaining acrylic on your nail will be a little sticky.
Take your nail tips and GENTLY start pushing the tip underneath your old acrylic.

STEP 11.
After repeating STEP 10 on every finger, use a cotton ball with acetone on it and gently rub it onto every single finger. This helps remove any acrylic that you might have missed.

STEP 12.
Lightly buff your nails, and use a nail strengthening nail polish.

You're done! I know that this is a very tedious job, but it gets it done, and it's relatively cheap! I spent for everything less than $10! The most expensive thing I purchased was the acetone from Sally's.

There's is one other way to remove your acrylics, if you do not want to mess around with the foil and cotton balls is to purchase Wearable Nail Soakers off of eBay. I purchased them and am waiting for them to arrive. I'll post a review on them later.

Hope this helps!
Stace.

Almond Shape Nails Review.

Hello Hello!

I know it's crazy, two posts in one day! But I figured the last post was a short one, that another review wouldn't be that bad.

Well, this post is simply about the almond nail shape. I know some of you might not be familiar with it. But an almond shape nail is just that it looks like an almond. It's not as pointy as the stiletto, but more rounded at the tip. See? ->

Now normally, I'm constantly sporting a square or a squarely rounded shaped nail. It's just easy to do on myself and doesn't require the most amount of work.

However, have you ever looked at someone else's nails and thought, "Damn, I wanna do that or try that?" Yeah that's what happened to me. I happened to see this particular picture on Kylie Jenner's website.

I've tried the stiletto or mountain peak in the picture nail style before and I did not like it as much. But when I saw this picture, I just had to try it.

It's fairly easy to create and doesn't look as intimidating as a stiletto nail would.

Here's my list of pros and cons with this nail design.
Pro                                                                                 Cons
- looks nice, like the picture                                           - no one in my family liked the nail shape
- it's a less scary version that's popular                           - it doesn't to me feel as sturdy as a square shape
- it's really popular among celebrities it seems                - I couldn't scratch my itch easily or get relief
                                                                                       - less space to do the nail designs I wanted
                                                                                       - I wouldn't recommend this for a professional          
                                                                                         setting

Overall, this nail shape for me is just okay. It does look nice in my opinion and it is a different look for me than what I'm used to. I'd probably do this nail shape once in a blue moon. Not something that I would probably wear for a long time. It's fun and different though.

I think I'd give this nail shape a 3.5 out of 5.

Hope this helps!
Stace.

OPI - "Glitzerland" Nail Polish Review.

Hello Hello!

For some reason or another, lately I've been infatuated with gold colored nail polishes. I have no idea why, but I have. I'm not talking those gold gold colors, but more of a bronze gold. Since I didn't have the particular color I wanted, I went to some random beauty supply store and purchased two different gold colored OPI nail polishes. Both of them are about a shade off from each other.

One Coat

The first color I tried is the darker of the two and is called "Glitzerland". It's actually a very pretty color. It was a little brighter than I had anticipated however.

The consistency of the polish is great actually. I think with this nail polish color, I wouldn't even mind just using one coat. It is a little opaque, but it's not as bad as some of the other nail polishes I've tried.

Two Coats

The second coat, for me was just perfect. It's the type of gold I've been looking everywhere for. The consistency is still really great for me. You don't need a lot of nail polish to coat your entire nail.


I've purchased OPI nail polish in the past that I did not like, however this one is one of my favorites.
I think it's worth the almost $9 it costs.

Hope this helps!
Stace.

DIY - Organizing Your Nail Polish.

Hello Hello!

I've been asked by friends how I keep my nail polish organized, how I know what color the polish looks like etc. So I thought since I explain to them, I'd post a quick entry about it. Hope it helps and you find ideas on how to store your polish as well. I'll be listing all the materials I used at the end.

I know some people like to store their polishes in storage containers, bags, boxes drawers etc. I used to store my nail polish in a storage container till it started to overflow. So I made my own nail rack (I'll be posting a DIY on that later on). I usually keep all my colors in similar shelves just to make everything easier. It usually goes from dark to light.

<--That's what my nail rack looks like.

When I first started purchasing my nail polish, I used to purchase the nail wheel from Sally's Beauty Supply. -->

It's about $5.99 for I think a packet of 10? I can't remember the exact number it comes in. I'd paint every single color on the nail wheel so I'd know what color it was without having to paint mine and erasing it when I didn't like it. 

BUT it started to get expensive! So I tried to think of another cheap alternative to my problem. 

The solution? Using blank labels that I had purchased from the Dollar Tree. I used those stickers a while back for a yard sale and had plenty left. It's actually a good deal, since there's 315 pieces for $1!

What I do with the little circles is paint half of it with just one coat of the polish and on the other half paint it with two coats. You don't have to paint the entire circle so you don't waste the polish. I started painting the entire circle, but it got a little messy when I started peeling it off. Whenever you paint the polish onto the circle, you MUST LET IT COMPLETELY DRY. The reason you need to let it dry is because it can get on your fingers when you go to lift the circle off. 

After painting the circle, I place it on the back of the polish so it's not visible to everyone unless they know where to look. Plus it still shows the name of the polish too. 

I noticed that when I just left it, it started to wear and tear. So I placed a small enough piece of tape to cover the circle. It prevents the polish to wear off when you continuously grab or touch the sticker. Also the tape gives the polish the look of having a clear top coat. This is what it should like in the end. -->

//MATERIALS USED//
- tape from any store (bought mine at the $1 for a pack of 6 tapes)
- white labels (it doesn't have to be a circle, it's just what I had on hand)
- nail polish color

Hope that helps!
Stace.

LeCHAT Nail Polish Review

Hello Hello!

I finally got around to using my 2 for 1 nail polish I purchased a while back. The nail supply shop I go to has random sales, and I purchased this color on a whim.

So the color I purchased is called LeCHAT, well it's what it says on the lid. I'm hoping its the brand of the polish. When I purchased it the logo had already smeared off on the actual bottle. The color I used was Chocolate 2 Silver Luster.

I personally love this color. Depending on the lighting, the nail polish looks like two different colors. Sometimes the color looks like a silver glittery nail polish. At the same time, in a different light looks like a shiny light purple color. The coverage of the nail polish is awesome. It covered my full nail with just one coat. It wasn't opaque like I thought it was going to be. With the second coat, it gave me the consistency I love with all my polishes.

A benefit of this nail polish is that it dries very quickly. As soon as I finished one hand and started on another, it was already dry. I've never seen a nail polish dry that quickly. When it first dried after the second coat, it came out matte. It's not something I like, but after putting on a clear top coat, it came out the color I really do love.

I think if I had the option, and it's on sale again, I'd definitely buy more of the colors.

The finished product, two coats and a top coat. ->

Hope this helps!
Stace.

Chevron.

Hello Hello!

Hope you are all doing well. I decided since I had already painted my nails, I wanted to do something to them. I did a simple chevron design with a gold accent. Hope you like it.

Materials I used. 
Base coat - OPI "Base Coat"
Base color - Essie "Turquoise and Caicas"
Accent color - NYC "French Tip" & CM "Gold"
Top coat - Sally Hansen "UV Top Coat"
Other - Sally Hansen "Nail Art Pen - White"

Step 1. 
Apply a base coat. Wait for this to dry.

Step 2. 
Apply your base color. I used two coats of Essie's "Turquoise and Caicas". Wait for this to dry.

Step 3. 
Using either a dotting tool, toothpick etc create 2 very small dots at the top of your nail. One on the top and one directly below it. This creates the center point of the chevron. You can skip this step if you prefer. It helped me know exactly how far to draw the lines.

Step 4. 
Repeat step 3 to create another chevron further down your nail.

Step 5. 
Using a small brush, draw lines toward the center dots.

Step 6. 
Fill in the lines.

Step 7.
Repeat steps 5 & 6 to create the second chevron. Wait for this to dry.

Step 8. (Optional)
Using a thin brush or nail art paint, create a straight line going through the center of the chevron. Wait for this to dry.

Step 9. 
Apply a top coat.

That's it. It's the simplest chevron design that you can do.

Hope this helps!
Stace.