Weekend Nails: Inspired by Meghan Trainor

Unless you've been completely off the grid for the past year or so, you've probably heard Meghan Trainor's All About That Bass, and if you've really been paying attention (or are one of the over 100 million people who have watched it on Youtube), you've seen her Lips Are Movin' video, too. After hearing these two songs, followed up by the absolutely adorable Dear Future Husband, on a car ride with a friend today, I'm officially a fan.  I had so much fun listening to her songs today that I had to bring back Weekend Nails with some Meghan Trainor inspired nail art!

Meghan's videos have a fairly consistent color palette so far: pastels with pops of brights (usually red). For this nail look, the main mani was inspired by this screenshot from the All About That Bass video, with Meghan laying in a pile of wispy pastel pink, purple, yellow, and blue cloth. I started with one coat of a white base, then used a cotton bud dipped in acetone to sponge on the color. I used Sally Hansen CSM in Tulle Kit (sheer blue glitter), Insta-Dri Lively Lilac (purple), NYC Robin's Egg Blue (pale blue/green), Nicole by OPI Naturally (bubbly pink), and Julep Lilou (yellow). Usually when I use this technique it comes out too bright, but this time it was actually a little softer than I'd planned. The timing isn't great, but maybe I'm finally learning to match up my pastels! For my accent nail, I took my inspiration from a Lips Are Movin' setpiece, a bright blue striped background with a talking lips cutout in the center. I knew that if I tried to make it too complicated I'd end up frustrated, so I started out planning for just a closed mouth. Then I realized that fleshing out the shape would be just as easy with an open mouth as a closed one, so I went for it. Up close you can see a little peek of the blue stripe underneath, but from a normal distance, it looks smooth. I'm pretty happy with how it came out as compared to what I imagined. For the accent, I used Sally Hansen Cherry Red for the lips, with a no-name Sally Hansen white with Julep Lissa for the stripes-it was a perfect match for the inspiration photo!

As the mother of a daughter, I'm constantly trying to toe the line in pop culture between being hypersensitive and shielding my little girl (and, just as importantly, my teenage son) from messages that women are props rather than people and that her worth is tied to her weight/clothes/relationship status/etc., which is harder than it sounds. No artist can be all things to all people at all times, but Meghan's overall attitude of confidence and self respect is something I can feel comfortable sharing with my kids. I had a lot of fun honoring her unique vibe and playful videos with my nail art look, and I wish all the best for her as she continues to turn heads!

Sally Hansen 3D Gel Shine Review

I've got another review for you! It's very unusual for me to pick up a brand new product without looking for reviews, but recently I was desperately low on my favorite topcoats, so I picked up a bottle of Sally Hansen 3D Gel Shine Top Coat completely sight unseen. In a fit of buyers' remorse, I went digging through the blogosphere for reviews the minute I got home, and was surprised to find none. Zero. While I will most surely read all of the reviews to come, I was beyond thrilled to have the jump on a product that hasn't already been reviewed to death, even though it's a mystery to me why there's so little buzz.

According to Sally Hansen, "Top coat goes on thick, dries quick. Unique Vinyl & Gel Tech formula combines with nail color to create multi-dimensional shine & volume. Transform your regular shine into spectacularly gel-like brilliance with no UV light!" I've never had a gel manicure before, and I know "gel shine" is kind of a buzzword right now (All Lacquered Up has a great breakdown of the different types categories of "gel" manicure). Over the course of a few days, I tried the topcoat to see if it holds up those claims. 

Day 1 

For this mani, I wore two coats of Nicole By OPI in Goodbye Shoes with an accent nail of one coat of Revlon Copper Penny with Goodbye Shoes and Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Tulle Kit for my freehand scale print design (easier to do than I expected, by the way). I wanted to see how the topcoat performed over both a regular mani and a layered nail art look, and over several different finishes. I was glad to see that the topcoat did dry fairly quickly. It was a little slower than Julep Freedom Polymer Topcoat, another "gel finish" topcoat that doesn't require an LED lamp. However, within 20 minutes, it was dry enough that I had to press on it to disturb the finish, and was easily able to smooth the fine lines from pressing down with my thumb. By an hour later, it had dried hard-no visible disturbance, even when I tapped on one nail with another. The accent nail wasn't smooth, but I resisted the urge to add a second coat (didn't want to skew my highly scientific results). The final mani had a gorgeous wet shine.

Day 2 

Disclaimer-The chipping on the middle finger is my fault!

I had a break that led to massive chipping on my middle finger, so please disregard the carnage there. Across the rest of my nails, I mostly just had the minor tip wear you see on the other fingers. I tend to have tip wear within a day or two anyway and chip easily, so I would say 3D Top Coat was comparable to others that I've used in terms of lasting power. I tried it again that night over a plain colored mani that required several coats (Julep Harlow, for the curious), and the dry time seemed to be a little slower than the previous mani-faster than most, but not fast enough to keep the smudge queen here from getting polish wrinkles. I have a habit of doing my nails right before bed, so lightning fast dry time is important to me.

The Verdict
I like it, but for me, Sally Hansen 3D Shine is more of a backup than a go-to. I'd compare this to Sally Hansen Mega Shine in dry speed and shine. In fact, it's very similar across the board in performance, the texture's just a little thicker and the brush is flat rather than round. I didn't notice any distinguishable level of "plushy" gel look. The closest I got was with Sinful Colors Dream On (the picture at the top with the bottle), and it's a jelly type formula that looked pretty plushy pre-topcoat, too.The shine level was impressive, but much more obvious on cremes than metallics. Maybe Julep and HK Girl have ruined me for other topcoats, but this one didn't have quiiiite the speed I need for an everyday topcoat. That being said, compared to other topcoats, it's still pretty fast, and I do have to acknowledge that while it says it's quick drying (true), the dry time wasn't the focus of the advertised benefits- the "plump" look and high shine were the main selling points on their end. Thing is, I didn't think my nails looked much plumper than with any other topcoat when following the instructions on the box to use just one coat. If you're in love with your Mega Shine (which is also a few dollars cheaper), you probably don't need this one. If you're slightly more patient than I am and strongly prefer a flat brush, give this one a shot.

New Polish: Pre-NYE Lightning Bolt Nail Art

I recently scored digging through the clearance cosmetics at my local K-Mart. I swear by K-Mart as a treasure trove for marked down polish-I can't walk in without seeing what's on sale. This time, a ton of Nicole by OPI polishes had been marked down to $2.99. After careful deliberation and debate on which ones to get, I finally settled on Berry the Hatchet, a cheerful fuchsia creme, and Party Bus, a chunky holo glitter topper from the Carrie Underwood collection. While I'm deciding what to wear for New Year's Eve, here's some simple nail art featuring Berry the Hatchet.

I used a detail brush dipped in Glitter Gal Turbulence, a fine linear holo, for my lighting bolts, and they were super simple-just three lines! Lighting bolt decals are everywhere right now, but I haven't bought any yet, and they weren't hard to do at all. Both colors were a little hard to catch accurately on camera. You can see a bit of the holo shimmer of Turbulence above. The angle on the photo below is a little truer to color for Berry The Hatchet, but it's still a touch darker on the nail than it looks here.

While it's not necessarily the world's most original shade, Berry the Hatchet is bright without feeling too summery (not that I care that much about whether a shade is 'seasonal' anyway!). In other news, this is my first post using the light box I built using this tutorial from Chalkboard Nails (thanks to the Hobby Polish Bloggers FB group for helping me find it). I'm still getting the hang of it, but it's a huge improvement from waiting for adequate sunlight. What do you think? 

Butterfly Nail Stamping and Lakeside Gradient

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, I've been feeling quite uninspired. Lots of very simple manis and nail fails searching for the look I want that day. I've continued to post NOTD pics on Facebook and Twitter, but nothing has seemed...blogworthy.

However, the show must go on! The look I have for you today is what I call a "lakeside gradient" because the colors I chose reminded me of the blue green of autumn lake water and cool, wet sand. It's not a bright, summery gradient, but it still reminds me of the beach. Over the top I stamped a simple butterfly image from a Kiss Nails stamping kit. The stamper itself and scraper fell to the bottom of my nail box quickly in favor of my usual Born Pretty Store double sided stamper and an old gift card, but the plates are full of cute designs and work pretty well. The butterflies don't really fit my lakeside theme, but I thought they were pretty, and I do what I want. :)

Aren't these colors something? The blue is Nicole by OPI in Goodbye Shoes from the Carrie Underwood collection, a mellow greyish blue creme. For my sandy gradient accent, I used a base color of Julep Cynthia and gently sponged Goodbye Shoes along the tips. As rich as it is, Goodbye Shoes is a two coater that's thin enough to create a decent gradient, even on a much lighter color. It's all topped with Glisten and Glow HK Girl topcoat.

The stamped butterflies are A England Sleeping Palace, possibly my very favorite polish ever. Oooh! Ahhh!

Hopefully my blogger's block will clear up soon. I've been itching to do something really epic, I just haven't been hit by the right inspiration yet. Ideas welcome! Comment, or send them to me on Twitter at @SecretNailBlog.

Deer Season Camo Nails Tutorial

Disclaimer: Some products used in this post have been provided to me for my honest review.

Today I have a fun and easy how-to for my country girls: deer season camo. But first, a confession. This is not a design I would normally wear. I am a classic yuppie girl. I don't even know when deer season is. My partner has decided that he'd like to try hunting, though, so when these cute little deer head decals arrived from Nailed It Decals, I saw it as an opportunity to show an interest (it will probably be the last time, but hey...). These decals are so, so easy to use! What draws me to this shop is that in addition to the standard chevrons, hearts, and stripes, they have decals that are different enough from the standard that you probably won't find them anywhere else. Where else can you find decals to show nail love for this kind of hobby (or, if you're more like me, pay tribute to your favorite hunter)?

I started out with an accent nail base of Nicole for OPI in Naturally with a thin coat of Julep Maren, a leftover from the previous manicure (I've been a master repurposer this week), to girlie it up a little. I painted my other nails with a new polish, Sephora for OPI in Caught With My Khakis Down, an army green creme.

To get my easy camo background, I used a two sided dotting tool with one side bigger than the other.

I wiggled stripes of Caught With My Khakis Down about halfway across the nail using the larger side of the dotting tool, a few on each side.

I gave them a minute to dry, then followed up more wiggly stripes directly next to the green ones in Revlon Bare Naked, a slightly pinky nude, also with the large side of the tool. I made a point to make some of the nude lines longer and some shorter.

Finally, I used the smaller side of the dotting tool to accent the lines with Sally Hansen Black Out. I didn't overthink this part, I just added black lines and swoops anywhere I wanted to give the design some dimension.

After putting a quick dry topcoat over my camo design (mostly because I'm impatient), I pulled my decal off with a pair of tweezers and carefully placed it on the nail. Since my accent was my index finger, I used the medium sized of the three sizes included on the page. I used my cleaned off dotting tool to carefully press the decal down on the nail, then covered it with two coats of topcoat.

My decals, tweezers, and super sophisticated postcard-in-a-baggie polish palette

Isn't it cute? I'll admit, I didn't think this was one I'd keep on for long, but the pop of pink and unexpectedness of this design won me over. If you're looking to create a deer season mani of your own, you can get these decals in a color of your choice here. Be sure to use discount code SSNB20 to get 20% off of all of your Nailed It Decals orders, and show me your designs on Facebook and Twitter!

Weekend Nails: My First Stamping Adventure

My first stamping kit arrived this week! After 6 weeks of waiting, I had scared myself a little bit-had I waited all this time and ordered all this stamping stuff only to discover that I'm not coordinated enough to stamp? Luckily, after a few practice rounds earlier this week, I can report that I'm happy with my results for my first attempt.

I love the old Sailor Jerry style of tattooing, so I was pleased to find these adorable sparrows on a stamping plate. This color scheme is based on one of my own tattoos, with the gradient nails mix and matched from the other designs on this playful plate.

My ink-spiration

For the other hand, I played with freehand lettering, paying homage to myself and my sweetie with our first initials.

For this design, I used Nicole for OPI Naturally with Julep Maren as a sheer topper, Sally Hansen XTreme Wear in Blue Me Away, and stamped with Sally Hansen XTreme Wear in White On and Black Out. Stamping isn't nearly as difficult as I feared, though you do have to be fast, which I typically am not. I put a quick dry topcoat over my polish before stamping as well, to both prevent smudges and allow me to get away with gently wiping off the design if it didn't come out well. I'm happy with the result, and with practice I'll get better.

Now that you've seen my mani, look at all my stuff!

TEN stamping plates! Six striping tapes! Five pages of stickers and decals! French tip guides! I went nuts. Shipping takes foreeeever, but the Born Pretty Store prices are fantastic, and I'm very happy with the quality of the products. I also got decals this week from Nailed It Decals for a great NOTD design, and picked up a new polish that I think will be a surprise favorite. I officially have more inspiration than I know what to do with!

Unappreciated Polish Reviews

I love nail art. However, my polish hoarding + nail art love= a large cross section of polishes that I've never actually seen. My Houndstooth post brought this to light when I realized I had never really worn Julep Mona long enough to get a feel for it before that mani. Maybe it was time to return to a few of those colors I haven't yet given a fair shake. Get ready, this is a long one...

Octavia-Julep

First on the docket is Julep Octavia, a "smoky indigo creme." You may remember it as a supporting player in my glittery dripping paint design and nautical nail art. You may also remember that I wasn't initially too impressed with Octavia as a standalone color. But much like Octavia Spencer (who is my guess for the namesake of this color), as it trickled into my nail art I began to suspect that Octavia is a power color who deserves a chance to be a leading lady. When worn alone, you really get to see the range of this color, from a dark midnight blue to cheerful deep grape. It's a great blue "neutral"- understated, but not ordinary.

Mariska-Julep

When I first tried Mariska in my April Maven Review post, I was optimistic. The finish was a little odd, but I was willing to try it again sometime. Unfortunately, a full manicure has brought me to the conclusion that this color is not me at all. Without a topcoat, it's matte, which brings down the loud factor...but it's not shiny! With a topcoat, it's a neon orange that reminds me of traffic cones. The barely-there shimmer disappears with topcoat as well.  The formula is ok; it feels thick when you're putting it on, but I still have visible nail line after two coats. Sadly, Mariska will be relegated to neon accents and supporting Peyton Manning with Broncos fanicures.

Making Waves-Sally Hansen Triple Shine

I bought Making Waves secretly hoping it would be a dupe for Nicole by OPI American Ocean, a favorite polish from years ago that I think has since been discontinued. Making Waves is a little greener and more duochrome than I remember American Ocean being. It's very sheer, mostly green, with an interesting lavender sheen in certain light that gradiates into a chrome blue. It reminds me of fish scales (in a good way). One unpleasant surprise- I scratched my head too soon and my polish wrinkled. I guess I'm spoiled-my topcoat usually dries hard in 5 minutes or less. I gently pushed down the wrinkles with my finger, applied one more coat of polish to the ruined nails, and topcoated again. I'm not sure if I just got impatient or if this polish is a little more resistant to quick drying topcoat because of the multiple layers needed. I'm guessing it's a little of both. I like the possibilities of this color for layering and nail art, but I probably won't wear it on it's own very often.

Wined Up-Sally Hansen Insta Dri

It was love at first sight with Wined Up. Deep red was a staple color that went by the wayside for me when I started doing nail art because it tends not to play well with other colors and finishes. A deep, shimmery burgundy, this color is near perfect. It's rich, but not "vampy," a term that instantly turns me off  when I see it in polish reviews- not typically my style. I've absolutely loved every Insta Dri polish that I've tried, and this one is a stunning color with great 1-2 coat application. The chrometastic shine from the topcoat really puts it over the top. Cleanup was a little messy; the red color and sticky shimmer particles made my cuticles look inflamed, but by morning the remaining red tinge had rubbed off of my skin. I could definitely see myself wearing Wined Up when I'm short on nailspiration but don't want to go bare.

Naturally-Nicole for OPI, Selena Gomez

This is a color I've always had mixed feelings about, and kind of still do. I got Naturally and Pretty In Plum ridiculously cheap from the Selena Gomez collection. I've worn Pretty in Plum as a headliner, and I love it. Nicole by OPI polishes are a bit of a weakness for me; they were the first "designer" polishes I ever tried, and for a while the only way I could get them was for my nail tech aunt to get them for me at the beauty supply store. Some teenagers beg adults to buy them cigarettes, I begged them to buy me nail polish. I was thrilled when they went mainstream, but my budget means I have to buy them conservatively. Naturally jumped at me in bottle, but wasn't my cup of tea on the nail. So it sat, occasionally pulled out for an accent, but, appropriately, always a bridesmaid, never a bride. I would describe Naturally as Barbie pink. It's kind of bright, but not a hot pink. It has a little bit of shimmer, almost invisible on the nail. It's nicer than I expected, but I still think it's not a full mani color for my skin tone. Application wasn't great either, I needed three coats to even out the streakiness. It would look great under Julep Maren, which is a pearlier, sheer Barbie pink that I absolutely love. One plus: cleanup was excellent on this color. This is probably the neatest looking mani all week.

All of these swatches are over Bridge the Ridge base coat and under Julep Freedom Polymer topcoat and were taken anywhere from immediately after polishing to one day after. What colors in your collection have been relegated to nail purgatory? Is there a reason for that, or is it time to let them shine?