Repurposed Nail Art

I hate to wear the same nail art design for more than a day or two. It's just not my style, plus my nails tend to chip easily. This means my manis don't last very long, but the constant un-polishing and re-polishing is not kind to my nails and cuticles. Repurposing nail art is a good way to buy a break for my cuticles without looking at boring, chipped three day old nail art. This week I repurposed two looks.

Over the weekend I laid down my St. Patrick's Day mani, released as a Facebook Exclusive look on Monday. This simple, fun mani had Sally Hansen Jade Jump as the base, with a layer of Glitter Gal Turbulence to make it all holo-y, then basic shamrock details, a little one on the top right of each thumb and a larger one slightly off center on each ring finger. For those I used A England Dragon, which is holo-y in itself.

After the holiday had passed, I repurposed it by striping Dragon to create a jade triangle. I did go ahead and remove the polish on the accent nails, but the others I just added the design over the existing polish.

On Tuesday I had a bad day, so I wanted bright, cheerful nails to help lift my spirits. I chose some of my recent Julep Maven polishes, Harriet and Octavia. I've seen a lot of coral and navy lately, and I think they look gorgeous together. Guava and indigo are a nice play on that idea. I did a dotted nail paired with a super thin french tip. For day 2, I thickened the french tip and reversed the dot design.

 For this one I didn't remove any polish, and the dotted accent nail is untouched. At first attempt I ended up with smudging on my bright, cheerful polish, so I tried it again with a coat of Wet n' Wild topcoat (which is an great topcoat at a scary low price) before topping with my usual MegaShine. This reduced the smudging tremendously. I decided not to redo the accent nails- we'll call the smudging on those an unintentional gradient...

I repurpose with a quick swipe of glitter polish on the tips or a sponge gradient all the time when I'm in a hurry, but this more intentional repurposing is so much more fun.