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: Chevron and Shamrock Decals

Disclosure: Some items used in this post were provided to me for my honest review.

So I spent most of last week in Wisconsin, and it was COLD! This did no favors for my already parched nail beds, but when I came home to nail mail, I couldn't resist one more mani before I gave my nails a few days of much needed TLC.

In the packages were one item I ordered (a bottle of Julep Dakota) and one that was provided to me by Nailed It Decals to review some of their adorable St. Patrick's Day themed decals. While I have been wary of diving in to affiliate reviews, after taking a look at Nailed It's products, they seemed right up my alley. My litmus test, which Nailed It passed with flying colors, was "is this a product I would consider using anyway?" Here's what I came up with for my very first affiliate post:

There are two schools of decal that I've tried in the past: water decals and sticker style decals. While I've been fairly successful with both, I prefer sticker type decals because they are so incredibly easy. Lift, place, topcoat, done. These vinyl decals were very easy to apply and excellent quality-all around a good product. Chevrons have been a design I've been a little nervous about trying freehand, so these may have saved me from a potential polish disaster.

I started with the new Wet n' Wild basecoat (so far I like it!), then applied the polish- I used Dakota, a rose gold metallic, and A England Dragon, a stunning mossy green holo. Once it was dry-ish (which hurt my results a little, the instructions specifically say to wait until it's dry), I pulled off the decals I wanted, and used a pair of tweezers to place them. For the longer pieces, I found that nail clippers worked best for trimming them to size. The straight pieces were long enough to split in half and use one for both little fingers, and one chevron piece made up both of the stripes on my accent nail. I used the Julep cleanup tool to push down the edges of the decals, but an orangewood stick would have worked, too. After applying the decals, I put two coats of Mega Shine over the whole deal.

One thing that I didn't notice right away and loved was that each of the small images came in three different sizes. I have small nails, so having size options means I can do more looks with the same package. I'm really looking forward to playing with the rest of these decals!

You can pick these decals up for yourself here through the Nailed It Etsy shop. Be sure to use discount code SSNB20 for 20% off of your purchase (discount code can't be combined with any other offers).