Strawberry & Flowers Spring Mani

Happy Manicure Monday!

I hope you all had a fun filled Easter weekend. Even if you aren't celebrating for religious reasons, I'm sure there were lots of chocolate and candies to be had by all. :3 

In light of the lovely weather we have been having lately, 

I wanted to do a fun and fresh Spring look.

And what else says Spring more then some sweet, succulent Strawberreis!?    

Somehow...everything in my life is often associated with foods >_>;;;

So here is my take on the Strawberry Mani.

I know Strawberry Mani is not anything new or groundbreaking, so to jazz it up a bit I decided to throw in some of their cute, little white flowers into the mix. I did the flower with a dotting tool, and then added in some vines with a toothpick to finish off the look. 

I also made a quick little Photo Step - by - Step on how I did my Strawberries.

Lately, I'm really into using shipping labels as my nail art guides. I find them easier to cut into when you are various shapes (like the scalloped edge here) and I love that it isn't sticky until you peel off the back. 

I always have issues with the tape strips sticking everywhere but my nail. So the shipping label was a nice solution. Also I find these labels to be stickier than the normal hole punch protectors.

I cut this edge with some craft scissors, but I'm thinking you might be able to get some interesting shapes with a die cut punch! Can't wait to try! :P 

Here are my nails after Strawberry-ing them all up! I had originally done both hands as the fruit only, but decided that it wasn't exciting enough ^^; 

Lacquer List

Sephora by OPI - Personal Shopper as the red base

China Glaze - Entourage as leaves, vines, and flower centers 

Sephora by OPI - A-ha! Moment as flowers 

Pretty simple, but I think its nice and fresh for spring!. 

So I hope you guys enjoy this look! I think I might try a whole fruit series soon. Just trying to make a list of what other fruits would be Nail-able. If you have any suggestions lemme know in the comments too! 

-wanyachu

Easter Bunny Spring Nails & Tutorial

Hiyo! I'm really proud of the manicure I have for you all today! 

I know I've only been posting swatches lately and I started to guilty that I hadn't done any nail art.

But since we are having a little Easter Egg Hunt at work this weekend, I figure I might as well get into the spirit of things and go all out! :D 

(Skip to Bunny Tutorial here.) 

So I present to you a fun and fresh Spring inspired Easter Bunny Manicure set! 

I had a lot of fun coming up with this look. And was trying to go for an egg inspired decoration theme. Throw in some bunny rabbits, paw prints and then voila! Done! 

Here is a close up of my two favorite nails! Out of all the rabbits I did, this little guy is by far my favorite. I think it was all the practice on my right hand :P  Also if you guys are interested, I did an easy Bunny Rabbit Nail Art Tutorial here for you so that you can have this cutie too!

I also really loved how these flowers turned out. This is my second time trying out this style. You can check out my first Floral Attempt here at my St. Patty's Day Nails.

Finally the last two nails, For my ring finger I went with a fun Easter Egg Design with Stripes and Dots. And then I added some diagonals with a toothpick to pull it all together. 

My Pinky just has some easy Paws I've Previous Practiced on these Manis here. 

My Lacquer List for this Look

Base coat from Left to Right: 

Sally Hansen Hard As Nails - No hard Feelings

Sally Hansen InstaDri - Blue-Away

Sally Hansen InstaDri - Pink Blink

Accent Colors: 

Pa. Dark Pink Sparkle AA20 for the Floral Centers

Sephora by OPI - Never Enough Shoes for Eyes 

Sephora by OPI - A-ha! Moment for the Flowers, Rabbits, Stripes & Dots  

Pa. Light Pink Sparkle A116 for the Bunny Cheeks 

Also, I threw together a cute little Picture Step - by - Step tutorial for you on how to do the Bunny! 

It was really easy and turned out way cuter than I expected. I just used my dotting tool for the most part with varying pressure. 

Well I hope you all enjoy this look! Anyone else getting Festive Fingers for this weekend? I'd love to see too! I'm more into painting Nails than Eggs it seems :P 

Thanks for Dropping by and pleas share if you try out the Bunny! 

-wanyachu  

Mod Plum & Green Two Tone Manicure Tutorial

Hi lovelies, I'm back again for another Manicure Monday look!

This time I tried to do something a little different and put together a picture tutorial for you all. 

(If impatient click here for Picture Tutorial)

But first here is the completed look I'll be sporting this week on my nails. I wanted to do something colorful and fun for the lovely weather we have been having in the Golden state.  

The color palette for this look actually comes from some bowls we are selling at work :P I thought it was such a fresh combo of lime and plum that I couldn't resist trying it out on my tips. So see! Work is not a complete drain of creative energy, sometimes it can be an inspiration as well!

Luckily enough I went home and dug through my polish box and came up with these two beauties.

The Nail Polishes:

I received the FACE polish as a gift, but never got a chance to try it out. The color is a sensuous medium tone violet called, Plum Forgotten. I had never heard of their polishes before and was pleasantly surprised with how smooth and saturated this lacquer is. Interestingly enough it also dries slightly matte, but you can't tell here because I top coated over the final look.

The lime green on the left is China Glaze in Entourage. This is a very saturated yellow-green, bordering on chartreuse with fun micro glitter. I've actually had this polish for quite a while, but it is just so overpoweringly electric when worn by itself I never gave it much thought. So when I stumbled upon it again I realized what great potential it had as an accent color! And thus this look was born! :3

So without further ado here is my little step by step. 
Lemme know if you guys have any questions!

Tutorial

Step 0: Paint your nails and let completely dry! Sorry forgot to take a picture of that but ya'll know the drill. I did alternating colors of Plum Forgotten and Entourage.

Step 1: To make a clean curve between the two colors I hole punched circles out of envelope labels. I wanted to use those paper hole protector thingys...what are they called even!? The reinforcement stickers that kind of look like donuts....

Anyways, the point is that I didn't have any, probably because I don't even know what they are called =_= So I improvised!

You can really use anything that will stick to your nail and has a curve to it. I even had a friend once who cut masking tape to match the arc she wanted...but that's super dedication I don't have v_v;

Step 2: Stick your guide (tape, label, hole protector...) onto your nail! Be sure to center the curve or else you will get crooked a crooked arc. Make sure the edge where you will be paint over is securely pressed down so you don't get any leaks.

Then go to town and Paint 'em up!

Step 3: Quickly but carefully remove your guide. I suggest taking it off right after you lay down your lacquer. You don't want to leave your guide on for too long, or else any leaks that did manage to seep under will get a chance to dry.

***more taping off tips at my Pink Petite Four Tape Tutorial***

Step 4: Get out a dotting tool (toothpick, bobby pin, whatever floats your boat) and go dot away! Here I used OPI for Sephora – You don't know Jacques and A-Ha! Moment.

Ta dah! Now you're done and ready to rock this playful retro, manicure!
Sorry ended up being more wordy that I had anticipated. So to make it up for your candy starved eyes some more pretty pictures:P

Are you guys sick of seeing my garden foliage yet?
I will try to come up with more interesting props next time!

Thank you for reading! And please leave me any questions, comments, criticism, love...it will all be much appreciated!!!

-wanyachu  

Pink Petit Four Mani w/ Tape Tutorial

Hi everyone! I'm sorry I missed my usually Monday post, but I have a really fun manicure to make up for it! :D

Inspired by some delicious treats and just in time for Valentine's Day I give you the Pink Petite Four scotch tape manicure! :D 

Okay so the right terminology might actually be Checker Cookies and not Petite Four...but Pink Checker Cookie Mani just doesn't sound as cute IMO. So I am sorry for misleading you! v_v;;; I mean there’s four squares...does that count for anything!?

Either way, don't they look delicious? ^_^ I'm super pleased with how this turned out, even if it was way more work than I had originally anticipated.

So I started off with two coats of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri: Pink Blink and let dry completely! This is super important, otherwise when you go to put down the scotch tape it will smudge your base coat. I think I waited around 3 - 5 minutes just to be safe.

I then tore off small sections of tape and cut those in half. This left me with good sized strips to block off the first square on my nails. I then went through taping & painting this first square onto each of my fingertips. Remember to press firmly along the tape edges so you get a crisp line.

For the chocolate color I used OPI for Sephora – Studs & Stilettos, pictured above, in relatively thin, fast coats. You don't want to use too much polish while blocking off, or else things will get messy when you try to pull up the tape.

I also found it helpful to peel the tape off right after you lay down the polish instead of waiting for it to dry completely. This not only gave a cleaner line but also some time to swipe up any polish that leaked under the tape with a q-tip dabbed in acetone.

Once the first round of quartering was finished on both hands I went back in to add the second square. By now the first finger I had painted was dry enough for me to restart the process again. Just be careful to line up your tape with the edges of the first chocolate square you painted.

I ended up adding some faux pearls and crystals in the center and Voila you're done! ^_^

Hope you enjoyed this sweet manicure and if you have any questions feel free to leave a comment below :D

Thanks!

-wanyachu