Gelish French Heart Manicure

Hi Everyone! After letting my nails rest a few days, I had finally found a design I wanted to try out.  This look is based on a picture I saw online...somewhere on Coolnailart.com.  Unfortunately I don't have the link or the name of who posted it, but if you see it or it's yours, please msg me so I can give you the proper credit!

So...back to the look.  Basically it's an arrow French, with a heart drawn in where the bottom point fits in snugly to the arrow.  It's a pretty cute idea, and I thought I'd give it a try.  Unfortunately, I draw hearts with a brush like a little boy would. =/  I'm sure with more practice I'll be able to get it....maybe.

Here's the video I uploaded to YouTube (Steps are simplified):



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-K29b1oAfo

What I Used:


Bluish Holographic Glitter
Gelish: PH Bond
Gelish: Foundation Gel
Gelish: Water Field
Gelish: Gossip Girl
Gelish: Top Seal
Beauty Headquarters Gel: White


How to create the look:
*Note: If you want to do this look in regular nail polish, ignore the gel-requirements like curing and such.

Step 1: Clean nails with alcohol
Step 2: Apply PH Bond
Step 3: Apply a thin coat of Foundation Gel (Base Coat)
Step 4: Cure for 30 sec
Step 5: Apply one coat of Base Color (I used Gelish: Water Field)
Step 6: Cure for 1 min
Step 7: Apply one coat of Tip Color in a French Arrow Tip (I used Gelish: Gossip Girl)
Step 8: Cure for 1 min
Step 9: Apply second coat of Tip Color
Step 10: Cure for 1 min
Step 11: Draw a Heart (I used BH Gel: White)
Step 11a: If you want to, you can add glitter using a thin brush on top of the white. (Optional)
Step 11b: If you want to, you can add rhinestones (I used blue ones on my right hand.)
Step 12: Cure for 2 min
Step 13: Apply Top Seal (Top Coat)
Step 14: Cure for 2 min
Step 15: Clean of tacky layer with alcohol

And voila!  You have a French Heart Manicure!  This pic to the left is my right hand.  You can see that my left hand is totally incapable of drawing a good heart, but I tried to camouflage it with rhinestones.

Now, this look takes a lot of patience...I think I spent almost 2 hours....but I was super slow!  I'm sure if I had to do it again, I could do it in a lot less time.  The part that took really long was drawing those damn hearts, lol.  I bought a brush (shown in the pic above), but I realize now that I should've bought a thinner brush that could draw thin lines easier.  But I guess it's cool.  It was my first time using that kind of gel for nail art....I think it's really hard, but the gel is kinda forgiving.  I plan to try out flowers next...I've seen a video that makes it look easy.  =)

In this pic to the right, You can see that the glitter part got a little messy on my thumb.  I fixed this by putting a layer of top seal after the French tip, but before the white hearts.  This step is optional, but I just wanted to test it to see if it worked...which it did. =)

On my middle and pinky finger, I was able to brush off the excess glitter, whereas on my thumb the glitter stuck to my tacky layer.  I should've put glitter on my right hand because it looks like the glitter camouflages the poorly shaped hearts a lot better than the rhinestones, lol.

All in all, I'm actually pretty happy with how my nails turned out.  Obviously, my next try will look a lot better...but how often do I really re-do a look?  Well, once in a blue moon...like with 3TanjaJ3's look that I've repeated like 3 times already, lol.  I may try this out with regular nail polish....which I haven't worn in over a month, lol. =) This Gelish nail polish is just more convenient to wear because of the no-chipping and stuff, even if I don't last the whole 2 weeks before WANTING to change my polish, lol.

I've actually tried out using a gel-liner on my waterline and have taken some pics...I'll post that blog up sometime next week. =)

Till next time!

Disclaimer:
1. I bought every product I'm showing by myself (nothing was sent to me for free). 
2. No one has paid me or compensated me for this video or blog.
3. I am not affiliated with any of the companies of the products I used.
4. These are my honest opinions.

Double X French Manicure

Hey all!  So I've uploaded a couple more videos.  I'm going to blog about the separately though, so check the next blog for the look from the other video I uploaded tonight.

I was only able to upload two videos because one is a picture video versus an actual video of me doing my nails.  Those are much quicker to make and even faster to edit and upload.

So here's the video to this look:
The Link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5NQbBOIrlw



So here's a quick run through of what I used and what I did!

What I Used:

NailTek (Basecoat)

China Glaze: Innocence

O*P*I: I'm Not Really a Waitress

Art Club Nail Art Lacquer: Black

Art Club Nail Art Lacquer: Silver Glitter

Seche Vite (Top Coat)

What I Did:

Step 1: Basecoat.

Step 2: One coat of Innocence.  I just wanted a sheer coverage.

Step 3: Asymmetrical Arrow French in I'm Not Really a Waitress.  I did just one coat, but with some nail polishes you might need two. This (and other O*P*I polishes) has excellent coverage with just one coat.  Which I think, makes this very cost-efficient, esp since O*P*I is pretty pricey.

Step 4: Black Thin Brush to make first X as pictured.

Step 5: Silver Thin Brush to make second X as pictured.

Step 6: Top coat.  I just bought the Seche Vite after hearing lots of good reviews about it on YouTube.  One of my fave gurus MissChevious bought a big kit, and I thought it'd be a good investment, so I bought one too!  So propz to her for giving me that idea!  It's an awesome THICK top coat that really fills in the ridges well, and it dries super fast (well, at least to touch, you know how it is!).  So definitely an excellent buy!

And there you have it, a Double X French Manicure!

I really need to do a Haul/Favorites video/blog/vlog(?).  I have bought so many things this past month, and I'm waiting for tons of stuff from eBay to arrive starting this week.  My mom has been very supportive of me getting into nails (come on...she gets a "free" manicure like every few days, lol).  And I use quotes around "free" because she technically is paying for all my nail polish and makeup at the moment.  She sees it as paying for the manicures, I guess...like this past weekend, I spent $80 at Beauty Headquarters.  She envisions that to equal 4 mani/pedi's LOL!  So yeah...I have many items to show!  Maybe on an off weekend...which wont' be til....after the wedding? Hahaha...well, hopefully sooner.  Or maybe I'll attempt more stuff during my lunch.  

Well...anyhoo...on to the next blog!

New French on Mom and Me!

Well, I obviously didn't keep my Halloween Nails on very long. I decided to do a different look.


I did my my mom's in a diagonal French, with glitter at the border of the tip. This is based on EricaLeung's video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvpxvukYT84

Afterwards, I did my own nails, with a more involved design (hey, my mom rushed me on hers!).  This is more like an Arrow French, but it really is just two opposite diagonal Frenches.

Both looks were really easy to do.  And I really liked how they turned out!

So let's move onto...

What I Used:

NailTek

FingerPaints: Art Her-Story

FingerPaints: Artist's Sapphire

Art Club Nail Art Lacquer: Silver Glitter

Z Super Dry Top Coat

What I Did:

First, for my Mom's nails, I just did the diagonal French in Art Her-Story.  Let that dry, then another coat.  Then let that dry, and then the Silver Glitter along the border of the tip.  Throw on a top coat, and you're done!  Really nice and simple, yet quite elegant.  (I did add some plastic flowers on my Mom's ring fingers, but this is completely optional!)

Then, for my own nails, I basically did two coats of Art Her-Story as a diagonal French in one direction, then two coats of Artist's Sapphire in the opposite diagonal French.  (This pictured here was actually my second attempt.  I think it looks better when you start lower on the nail than just on the tips.  But that's just personal preference!)

After letting that dry (no really, I did try to dry each coat....ish....), I used the Silver Glitter polish to make a design as pictured.  Basically, I followed the diagonal French on the tip, just like 2mm from the actual border.  After that, I put on some top coat.  I thought it ended up looking pretty good (pat on the back! lol).  Maybe a little fancier than I had intended (since I'm not going anywhere special), but whatever!  They're bomb dammit!

As a product review, I'm not overly impressed with Z Super Dry Top Coat.  I bought it because I thought it was similar to Yellow Stopper.  I think it probably is a yellow-stopper type top coat, however, it doesn't glow in the black light (more like shimmers-ish).  But that's not the real problem.  It is a REALLY thin top coat.  Although it looks pretty thick...and goes on pretty thick, it dries like insanely thin.  I suppose this is a good thing if you have like tons of coats of nail polish and you don't want a top coat to add to that thickness...but in general, I like a top coat that smooths all the bumps and ridges from my nail and design.  So yeah, probably going back to the Orly Glosser for the next blog!

Golden Diagonal/Arrow Manicure

Hey Everyone!

I did my mother's nails the other day, and they didn't really turn out the way I wanted them to.  I didn't have the right nail polish, I think.  So in the end, they look a little messier than I'd like, but oh well!  I'll probably redo them really soon!

The original look I was going for is pictured here to the right.  It's a nice simple diagonal/arrow manicure using white and gold.  This picture was sent in by Elaine Lemay from QC, Canada, to a nail design website I explored.

That website is: http://www.nailsmag.com and they have tons of designs, and even some "how-to's" on their site.  I looked through them trying to get some ideas, but most are complicated or pretty difficult (aka meant for experts!).  I think these designs were posted more of an advertisement for these nail artists, but they were really fun to check out.

What I Used:

NailTek

Orly French Manicure: Softest White

Aphrodite: 102

China Glaze: Cleopatra

Art Club Nail Art Lacquer: Red Glitter

What I Did:

Like I said above, this turned out really messy, but I can tell you where I went wrong!

First, I did a basecoat with NailTek.  Personally, I believe NailTek works great...I can see the difference it made on my own nails.  They are definitely stronger and they aren't peeling(?).

Next, I used the Softest White and did a diagonal French at the tip (2 coats).

Third, I tried to use just the Cleopatra for the diagonal from the opposite side, but it was too sheer.  I searched far and wide from my tiny nail polish collection, and came across the Aphrodite 102.  I'm fairly certain you can't find this outside of Myanmar, but any gold polish should do.  I did a diagonal French from the other side (also 2 coats).

Fourth, I tried the Cleopatra only over the gold part (I should've stuck to that!!!), and thought it still was too sheer, so I put it on top of everything.  Big mistake!  The gold and the white just kind of run into each other.  I tried to fix that by using my red glitter thin brush to outline the white and gold, but as you can tell, it looks a little funny.

So the overall effect I was going for did not turn out right.  The original look is definitely classier.  I intend to look for a better gold polish when I head out to the beauty supply store!

I probably will try to get another black polish and do some type of cute design using black for Halloween as well.  I've seen some pretty cute cat ones. =)  EasyNails did a spiderweb design that seemed pretty cool too, with a cute black rhinestone spider.  Decisions decisions!!!