Return of the Restless Nails

I am now on day 3 of having no idea what I want to do with my nails. I have a new color coming that has me inspired, so nothing else will do. But that polish isn't slated to get here until Friday- or later! Not feeling very patient right now. In the quest for a good interim design, I present you with neon heart tips.

For this design, I used the same bright pink from the Physician's Formula California Goddess trio that I used in my Reinvention post paired with Sally Hansen XTreme Wear in Blue Me Away. While I'm a little off my game with my striper skills today, I think this fun, simple nail art in anti-winter colors will keep me amused for at least a day or two while I wait for my new colors to arrive.

Fan Brush Gradient-Love It or Leave It?

I was feeling nail-restless tonight, so after trying out several nail looks and removing them (which is a no-no, try not to do that!), I decided to make good on my promise to show you the results of trying my favorite glitter gradient tool, the fan brush, with a solid color gradient. Results were mixed-take a look.

I started by trying out a few techniques. I painted all nails with one coat of Julep Misti (fair warning, it is much darker and greyer than shown on the website swatch). Then I did three tip styles with Julep Mona. I swear I use other brands, Julep colors just play well with one another. The index finger was a traditional french tip with a striper, the middle was the fan brush, and the little finger used the sponge technique I usually use.

Left to right: Striper, fan brush, makeup sponge

  Ultimately they're all nice in their own way, but I think the sponge is still my favorite technique for a solid color gradient. I'm giving it a shot though, so I added a fan brush gradient to all nails and I'll see how I feel about it in the morning. Words of warning: this tends to be a more saturated technique than the sponge, so it's hard to keep the individual brush strokes from showing close up. For me, this became even more obvious on my right hand (I'm right handed) because I had less control on the brush. Use a light hand, put a quick dry topcoat over it fairly quickly, and choose your colors wisely for the best blending. If you want to play around with it, you can see a step by step with glitter polish a few posts back here. For my finished result, scroll on.

Weekend Nails: Sponged Marble

It's Saturday night, which means weekend nails. For me, weekend nails aren't blinged out party nails-I am boring. Instead of getting ready to paint the town, I frequently spend Saturday evenings babying my nails, then trying something new that I'm not 100% sold on yet. Maybe it's a new technique or color combination, a design complicated enough that it could go terribly wrong, or something that didn't go so well for me the last time I tried it, but had potential. I put it on and see how it goes, and if I don't like it I can change it before I go back to work and may or may not have time to spend on fresh polish for a few days. This week I tried a sponged marble design I saw on Valiantly Varnished. While mine didn't come out quite as nice as hers, I think I might like it.

I used five colors to create my marble look: Julep Noelle, Sally Hansen Maximum Strength Calming Cocoa, Revlon Foxy, and Frankly I Don't Give A-Dam and I Only Shop Vintage, both by Sephora by OPI. I chose randomly for the base color on each nail, then dabbed the others with a piece of makeup sponge (I held it with tweezers for control and to keep from getting polish all over myself) until I liked it. What's something you want to try and haven't yet?