Friday, October 26, 2012

I "Ghost-a" Do It!

It's that time of year again -- People are flocking the stores for bags of candy and children are deciding their costumes for that ONE night of the year: Halloween. Imagine, free candy?! Who wouldn't want to pass up that kind of opportunity? Well... I only have ever trick-or-treated twice and it was all for a cause! I did happen to get a lot of candy, which to my surprise, was delightful! But other than the free candy and fun makeup you get to wear on Halloween, I'm not much for it. So please excuse the lack of Halloween nail art tutorials, I never really put much thought into Halloween. Don't fret though! I'll try to do some awesome falls nails instead. ;) Even though it's about... 30 degrees here and snowing... But that's beside the point. ;) So today I have for you some adorable ghost nails! Take a look below and let's get started! :)

I love mini pumpkins -- Just saying. ;)

Sunday, October 21, 2012

I Heart Spots (& peanut butter)

Hey ladies! Wanna know a secret? ("Promise not to tell? We are standing by a wishing well!" Just kidding. I wish we were, but we're not.) I probably do my nails about three times a week but I only post the nail art that has tutorials to accompany them. But today is going to be a special occasion for a post because 1. I'm not getting many Halloween tutorials out (I've only done candy corn.. :/ I did try the spiderweb like 4 times though. Still practicing myself! I have to recommend Amber's blog because she has fabulous Halloween tutorials out right now! In fact, HERE is her spider web to find here spider web tutorial :) It's very easy, I just don't have any stripers or thin brushes at the moment to do it myself.. :p) 2. Ugh, I get off topic a lot. ;) and 3. This nail art is actually based off one my friend's tutorial! Take a look below to see what I did. :)

The spots are really funky.. I know. ;) 

Friday, October 19, 2012

Loose Glitter Nails Tutorial

*Drum roll please* Bzzzz.. Why hello ladies! :D Yes, it is time to learn how to create some beautiful glitter nails using your own loose glitter. Before you even start to try this tutorial, I beg to you read the previous post "Glitter Check" because this will ensure you that you won't end up accidentally using "bad" glitters that will ruin your entire manicure. :( And also reading the "Glue Base Method" to remove glitter nail polish would be VERY helpful. :) Don't worry, I'll make sure that the most important parts of what you need to know will be in this tutorial, but the other 2 posts would be helpful and more in depth. But enough talk, let's create some sparkly nails using your loose glitter just laying around the house! This is really nice because I don't like "wasting" my money on glitter nail polish... Com'mon, $2+ dollars on one bottle? I suppose if you use it a lot, then it's worth the money, but I rarely use glitter myself. :) Besides, in my opinion, using your own glitter is a lot more fun and makes your nails prettier than if you'd just use glitter nail polish. So take a look below and if you're interested in learning how to make these, let's get started!

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Glitter Check?

First of all -- I'M BACK!!! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh! I am SO SORRY girls for not posting in like... forever. I just got extremely busy and when I want to do an awesome tutorial (can anyone say LOOSE GLITTER NAILS?!), I'm not going to give up! Yes it's going to be like one of those step-by-step nail tutorials like my Newspaper Nails because I can't show you how to do it the "right" way in just a few measly picture steps! So I have literally a 15-picture "show" to present to you TOMORROW! ;) (I really should start making videos, but I just don't have a decent video taping camera at the moment. Perhaps in a few years? ;)) But anyway, I just also wanted to go over an overview of tomorrow's nails and the frequently asked questions and answers, mainly about the glitter. So if you have a question, hopefully I'll be able to answer it here.

Q: Loose glitter nails... what?
A: Yes. You heard me right. We are going to have loose glitter on our nails. What's the point? (Hey, I'm asking myself a question!) Umm, because it's really pretty and you might not have enough glitter nail polish. ;)

Q: Doesn't the glitter get EVERYWHERE?!?!
A: Very important question! If you do it the right way, no. The glitter will stay only on your nails. The process of getting it on there.. that's another story. But hopefully when you do create these beautiful nails, you have newspaper around your area so clean up will be easy! And I'm just going to start predicting your next question on HOW DO YOU GET THE GLITTER TO STAY?!! (That's what you were going to ask next, don't deny it. ;)) Well, with a little bit of white Elmer's glue and a little bit of clear nail polish, it'll stay on perfectly. I'll get into the details tomorrow!

Q: How in the heck do you take it off?!
A: Check out the easiest way to remove glitter here. This is going to be your very base before you put ANY polish on. Just trust me. Once again, I'll explain the details tomorrow. :)

Q: How long exactly will it stay on?
A: I had mine on for about 4 days but got bored with them so I peeled them off (it's so fun... ;) I love the glue method :)), but I'm sure it'll stay on longer if you really wanted them to.

Q: Where did you buy the glitter?
A: This glitter is the "Recollections" brand which I just bought at Michael's. I think I got 16 bottles (not sure exactly how many ounces, but it's A LOT of glitter) for like $14. I'm sure though most any store will have glitter and you can use virtually anything. Well... we'll get to that. ;) That's actually the MAIN point of this post is to show which glitters work and which ones don't.

So speaking of which glitters work and don't work... Let's get talking about that subject! It's hard to explain in words to find a glitter that doesn't have the dyes "bleed" by checking with clear nail polish. Making sure your glitters won't bleed is crucial for this tutorial because on the nails, you're going to have to put multiple and I mean like 8+ coats of clear nail polish on your nails. And THAT is what keeps the glitters in and makes it really shiny and pretty. So what glitters should I use?
If you already have some glitter in mind that you'd just LOVE to put on your nails, let's make sure first that it's a "good" glitter. First place just a little bit of your glitter onto a scrap piece of paper. (Make sure the paper is kinda thick or fold it in half to make it thick so just in case it's a BAD glitter, the colors won't leak everywhere). And by a good glitter, I mean one that doesn't bleed out the colors and get all messy! This will be the 2nd time I've tried out the loose glitter nails, and the first time I wanted this gorgeous purple. But let's watch at my fail... 
Now with a clear nail polish (I used just a clear by Color Club, but ANY clear polish will work), just place a drop onto your glitter. Watch for it, watch for it! 
And see as I swirl this gorgeous purple around, it bleeds this yucky magenta! Perhaps under other circumstances, I would actually enjoy this color. But remember, when I first did this, this glitter was ON my nails and the clear nail polish brush turned this color too... Yuck. That was a heart breaker. I hope you can see this color is a BAD GLITTER to use for this technique. So let's try some more glitters. And by the way, this is Muse by Recollections, so it's not only the brand, it's the also the color. 
And here I have in the middle is a pretty medium pink called Raspberry and the gorgeous dark blue is Marine, also by Recollections. I don't have glitter from other brands, so if you do try the tutorial I'm going to post tomorrow, so let me know what brand of glitter you used! And if it was chunky or fine! I really want some chunky gold glitter nails, maybe for Christmas! :D Anyway. Here are 2 other glitters we're going to try and see if they're good or bad. 
Drop of clear nail polish 
Swirl around with a pencil (toothpick, cotton swap, or whatever you have) and lookie here! Neither the pink NOR the blue bleed! Yay!! We have some winners!
 
So the whole point of testing the glitters were to make sure when you put them on your nail, it won't get really gross and messy like what the purple did. I wish I did this before when I first tried this out! Be sure to test your glitters!! :D And last question you're going to ask is..... What are we going to learn tomorrow?!?
Does this look appealing enough to you? Yeah, I have better pictures of the end project, but just look at that glitter!! This is PERFECT for one of those dances or parties you'll be chilling out at or just want to play with glitter because... Glitter makes everything better. Everything. Okay. Maybe not everything... Meh. MOSTLY everything. ;) So! Until TOMORROW, Your Polish Pal, Jenna
 
And let me know if you have anymore questions by emailing me at yaypolishparty@gmail.com, KIK @PolishPals, or Instagram @PolishPals. :) I'd be happy to add to this post! So just let me know! <3

Sunday, October 7, 2012

Classical Cheetah Nails

Hey everyone! It's been a VERY busy week. Unfortunately, I don't have an original tutorial, but I hope you don't mind because I have recreated a pictutorial of the cheetah print :) I don't have step by step pictures, so  check out my the Cheetah Nail Tutorial for the full tutorial. Here are my classical cheetah nails. :)
I used Jaguar (ironic!!) by Pure Ice for the base, Harvest Moon by China Glaze for the spots, and Black Heart by Sally Hansen for the black lines and dots. The only 'tool' I used was a mechanical pencil.
Here is just Jaguar. This is a really pretty pale, metallic gold. It does have some small white glitter pieces, but you really can't tell that much. I bought this at Walmart for $2.  
Another shot with the bottle. :)
Okay, here the new updated cheetah nail tutorial. :) This is only a pictutorial, so if you want to know how to do this exactly, check out my Cheetah Nail Tutorial post.
And a close up of how my nails looked this week. Quite classical and sexy nail art. ;)
Sorry for the photo bomb! I just really, really liked these!
Have you ever had a webkinz? Yes, this did really inspire me. ;) I believe this is a Jaguar though... Her name is Jasmine haha! I just liked the colors. ;)
And they match!
 
Okay, I'm done photo bombing you! I hope that I'll have time to create a few Halloween tutorials soon! If you have any suggestions, let me know! :) Until next time, Your Polish Pal, Jenna :) <3