Graduation Nails

Hola niñas! Hoy les traigo un nailart simplecito que hice con motivo de mi titulación profesional, la que se llevó a cabo el pasado Miércoles. Sí, oficialmente, soy Diseñadora Gráfica :D Para empezar usé dos capas de Essie Chinchilly y agregué un degradado con Essence Galactic Black para luego añadir finalmente unos triangulitos metálicos en la base de la uña. La verdad debería haber usado cintas pero estaba apurada asi que lo hice a mano y por eso mis líneas no quedaron muy rectas, pero se ven bien de lejos jajaja.

Hi girls! Today I want to share with you a simple freehanded nailart I did for my graduation, which was this past Wednesday.

I started with a base of two coats of Essie Chinchilly (one of my favorite neutrals ever) then added a small gradient with a makeup sponge and Essence Galactic Black and to finish it off I aded a triangle at the base of my nails with Wet n' Wild Steel the Spotlight, which I also used as an accent on my pinky and thumb.

I really liked how this came out, it's very simple and elegant and it went well with my dress. Speaking of, here's a picture of me from that day

Thanks for reading and see you in the next post! :)

Inspiration is Everwhere NOTD

Hola chiquillas! Hoy les traigo la muestra fehaciente de que la inspiración está en todos lados. El nailart de hoy está inspirado en... mi pijama! Siempre me ha gustado la combinación de colores y líneas que tiene así que ayer me decidí y llevé el diseño a mis uñas. Como base usé a-england Galahad y Finger Paints Papier Maché. Para las franjitas de color de los accent usé Essence Miss Lavender, Essie Splash of Grenadine, Galahad y Orly Gumdrop.

Hello girs! Today I bring you a mani that I did to prove that you can truly find inspiration everywhere. Today's nailart was inspired by... my pj's! I have a fleece striped pajamas that is my favorite for the winter time, and I've always loved the color combo and the stripes together and I always thought "wow, this could make a cool nailart!". So finally yesterday I got to translate the design to my nails.

As a base I used a-england Galahad, except on my accent nails for which I used Finger Paints Papier Maché. Galahad is very easy to work with and almost applies itself on my nails, but my Papier Maché is kinda old and thick and gloopy so it was a bit more difficult to apply (couldn't find my thinner).

For the stripes on the accents I used four colors: Essence Miss Lavender, Essie Splash of Grenadine, a-england Galahad and Orly Gumdrop. I waited for the base color to dry thoroughly (which was a challenge, I am very impatient with nailart lol) then I applied little bits of striping tape and filled in between the tape with my colors. Then I removed the tape inmediatly.

However, my lines were not so crisp and clean so I went over them with a striping brush. But they look fine from a distance so... success!

Overall, I am very happy with the end result I got even though the process was incredibly a bit frustrating. Tape manicures are supposed to be super easy, right? But whenever possible I prefer to recreate the effect with a brush, no one is going to be inspecting my nails with a magnifying glass, right? ;)

Thanks for reading!

Pastel Leopard Print

Hi guys! How are you doing? I'm still stressing over finals over here (Need. Summer. Break..) but still squeezing in some time for manis. Since it's summer I haven't been feeling very Christmass-y (we haven't even put out decorations), so today's mani is nothing at all holiday-related, but still cute (if I do say so myself).

Today's mani started because I wanted to combine Essie Splash of Grenadine and Lapis of Luxury. I've always loved how these two shades look together, no surprise since they were both released in the same collection (Essie Resort 2010, the only collection I wish I had whole *sigh*).

Also, I've been wanting to try out a leopard print manicure, and one thing lead to another...

The base of my manicure is two coats of Splash of Grenadine in almost all my nails. As an accent, I painted three coats of Lapis of Luxury on my index and thumb. Of these two, Lapis of Luxury has the trickier formula, but it's not impossible to work with.

I used a dotting tool for the spots: with one end I added some spots of Splash of Grenadine over the nails painted with blue and after that was dry I used the other end to add the black spots with Essence Galactic Black.

Overall, I loved this look and it was really simple to do the spots. I look forward to make a full leopard mani next time.

What's your favorite nail art look? Share it on the comments :)

Thanks for reading!

Gradient with Essie Lapis of Luxury

Hi guys! sorry this post is late, I had to work in a presentation and was up to 3am, ugh. It's the end of semester around here, so my posting schedule will probably be affected. I'm really sorry about that. To be notified of new posts I'll suggest you to add me to your RSS reader, or follow me on Twitter or Tumblr.

Anyway, today I want to share my first nail art here, which is a simple gradient. It started with a base of Essie Lapis of Luxury, which is a pretty cornflower blue with a jelly-ish formula. It's not the easiest polish to work with, it needed three thick coats to be opaque. But I love the color so much I'm willing to stand its annoying formula.

On day two of this mani I did a gradient with Colorama Missão Azul, which is a darker periwinkle creme. I used the method described in this tutorial, using the sponge as a sort of rubberstamp over my nails. The gradient ended up very smooth.

For a little bling, I added a glitter gradient with Love & Beauty "Gold Rush" from Forever 21, which is micro and medium sized gold holo glitter.

Doing gradients is very easy, but it can be a bit time consuming with the sponging and the cleanup. It's a great alternative if you have tipwear or a bit of chipping but don't feel ready to change your entire mani yet.

Thanks for reading!