Christmas Tree Inspired Manicure

Well, I hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas! I have a very nice quite day with my family. :)

Anyway, this is what I prepared for today. I decided to go with a stylistic Christmas tree look. It looked really good, all the nail polish was shimmery!

If you didn't see from the last post, my nails broke super short. Bummer! I have one more manicure to post this month, maybe I can eek out two. Either way, I hope you all enjoy the rest of the year! Merry Christmas again, and Happy Holidays!

Christmas Present Manicure

Well, Santa's getting ready to stop by in a few hours, and I just finished wrapping all my presents. So why not celebrate with some Christmas present nails!

I was originally going to do red with green ribbon, but I didn't want to get too matchy-matchy. So I changed my mind and went with gold ribbons instead, and glad I did! I also think this is ideal for short nails, especially if their on the broad side. :)

Only bad thing is that before they were completely dry, I mushed my nails up against my clothes. And to top it off, the gold didn't photograph very weel. :(

Oh well, you get the idea. :)

Merry Christmas!

P.S. Between the last post and this one, one of my nails broke and it's super painful. It got cut off really short, so my finger is really sore because of it. My nails have been really brittle lately, even with everything I do to keep them strong. So I think I'm going to go back to short nails for a while until I can strengthen them up. So no more long nails for a long while. :(

Holly Pedicure

Hey guys! I'm so sorry it's been so long since I last posted. I've had two Christmas designs all ready and set to go, but somehow time just snuck up on me. I meant to post them sometime within the last week or two, but seeing that Christmas is tomorrow, today's going to be a double post! Plus, I have a third manicure which I'll be rockin' tomorrow!

So this is the pedicure I've been wearing all month. It's so simple and clean, but still festive!

Basically, this is a simple french pedicure with two sprigs of holly that I painted, myself. Sorry about the low image quality on this one, but you get the idea. :(

Look for the other half later today! :D

***EDIT***

Oh no! It seems this image is broken. Thanks Kat S for pointing it out! I'll try to find the original as soon as possible. :(

Gradient Video Tutorial

Ok, so I promised this for yesterday, but I was having some trouble with youtube. :/

I've been using gradients a lot recently; it's how I did the sunset pedicure and a few others. A user on youtube asked how I did it, so here's a tutorial! I'm trying out a different style for video tutorials, tell me what you think.

Anyway, this is the manicure I show in the video. My camera just did not do it justice! It looked like a peacock in real life, so pretty! :D

So I hope that helps! Enjoy! :)

Big Updates!

Ok, just added some new major features, so a double post today!

First of all, probably the biggest bit of news, is that I now have a facebook fan page for DIYNAD! You'll see a section on the side panel where you can "like" it, and then also a link to the fan page, itself. It also shows recent updates on the fan page, which I hope to update more often than here, since I'm on facebook anyway. :)

Then you'll see that right above that is the second new feature! I added a little section that shows the top 3 most popular posts. It's really not all that big, but it's interesting to see what posts people look at the most.

Another big update is that anyone can post comments now! It used to be you had to have a blogger account, or gmail, ect. to be able to post. So now anyone can post, even annomously. The catch is, that I have to approve the comments first. This way bots and such don't spam up my posts. ;)

Finally, I changed the page format slightly. Instead of 5 posts per page, it's now 3. It's a little more a pain to cycle through previous posts, but it also cuts down the length of the page so you don't have so far to scroll.

Kk, that's all for now! Please comment (especially now that anyone can!) and tell me what you think of the changes!

Candy Canes Manicure

CHRISTMAS TIME!!!

Ok, so it's December now and that means Christmas is right around the corner! Christmas time is my favorite time of year, so expect a lot of themed manicures coming up this month. :D

I decided to start off with something pretty simple. So I wore these candy canes last week. I think they'd look better on long nails, but short nails can pull this off pretty well.

All you have to do is paint you nails white and stripe them with red. And to make them more realistic, alternate between thick and thin stripes.

I used a red, glittery Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen. I don't know if it was just my pen, but I found the red to be SUPER thin. This brand of nail art pens are pretty thin to begin with, but this one was even more watery than my other colors. So it was really hard to make nice clean lines. :(

There are lots of different kinds of candy canes, so experiment around with different designs and colors! :D

TWLOHA Manicure

Today is the To Write Lover On Her Arms day on Facebook! This organization does wonderful work, so to show my support, today's manicure is dedicated to TWLOHA! I decided to paint awareness ribbons in the four colors they represent.

I also made a quick little video, so take a look!

Spots and Polka Dots (Manicure)

So since I did stripes the other day, I thought it would be appropriate to show spots some love today. Here are some spotted designs I did a while ago. :)

First up is some black and white polka dots. I loved how these turned out, it looked so nice!



The only hard part about this design is that it can be very time consuming. It can also be tricky to get the dots evenly spaced, but it just takes lots of practice.

Toward the end of summer, I also did this blue leopard print manicure.



To do this, I started off with a light blue base coat. Next, randomly place some dark blue dots of different sizes. After they're all dry, take a sharpie, nail art pen or a brush to paint little squiggly "c" shapes around the blue dots.

So that's it for today. I'm off to Boston early tomorrow morning, so I don't know how long it will be until I do another post. I've been saving some reviews/hauls about some nail polishes two of my friends gave me, so maybe those will be next. :)

P.S. My nails have grown SUPER long lately, I'm talking almost a centimeter beyond my fingertips. They look beautiful, I love them! They're the longest they've ever been in my life. Bad news is that I have to take off all my nail polish off because I need an MRI on Monday. My nails tend to break if they're this long and don't have polish to protect them, so I'll be filing them down. Boo! :( But I figure if I file them a little it's better than if they break and have to file them a lot. Good news is that I took an awesome picture of the manicure I'm wearing now so you can see it and my nails around Christmas time! Can't wait to show off this one, it looks so cool! :D

Vertical Stripes (Manicure & Pedicures)

So for this post, I decided to feature some striped manicures and pedicures I've done recently. They are a super easy design to do. You can use sharpie, nail art pens, brushes, toothpicks and even the nail polish's brush. It's great for everyday wear and there are so many color possibilities! Also, one of the best things about vertical stripes is that they are great for short, broad nails. They give the illusion that your nails are longer and slimmer than they actually are! This also makes stripes great for pedicures, too. :)

I love black paired with bright colors. So for this manicure I used a black base coat with bright green, pink and yellow stripes. With the contrast against the black, the stripes really popped! They almost looked neon. :)

(sorry about the sideways picture! I couldn't orient it right for some reason...)

For this pedicure, I decided to go monochromatic. I think this was my favorite and most successful striped design. I used a light, medium and dark blue to do the stripes.



And then of course you can never go wrong with a good old fashioned rainbow! It looked great, and was very colorful!

I got a whole bunch of odds and ends to post this month, so look forward to a random November!

Glow-in-the-Dark Spiderweb & Jack-o-Lantern Manicures

Well, I did a FANTASTIC The Nightmare Before Christmas themed video tutorial. Bad news is that my Windows Movie Maker keeps freezing up at 42% when I go to publish it. Ugh! Anyone know how to fix this?

Until then, I'll have to save that manicure for later. It's not in time for Halloween, but TNBC is fun any time of the year. So to make up for that and the lack of Halloween manicures, I have a double feature for you today! Here are two similar glow-in-the-dark Halloween manicures!

I decided to go with Jack-o-lanterns this year for Halloween. Very simple to do and they look fun! All you need is orange nail polish and a black sharpie or nail art pen.

(excuse the smudges)!!!

Build up a few layers of orange polish so it's nice and opaque. The draw on the little faces. Be creative! It's great practice for when you go to carve your own pumpkins! ;)

But, that's not all! These pumpkins also glow!!! I couldn't get a very good picture of the glowing, and my glow-in-the-dark polish was a little off this year. I think it's time to get a new one. :/

If you want your nails to glow and still be able to see the faces, you need to paint a glow layer after your orange and BEFORE you draw in the faces. This way your design will be on top and you can see it, even in the dark!

Last year I did a similar manicure. Instead, I used white nail polish and a spiderweb design. The principle is still the same though, draw on your design after you put a glow layer down. You can really use any color and any design you'd like! I, personally, think a bat would look awesome... ;)

Good news is that these two manicures work well on short nails, especially the pumpkin one (I dare to say I prefer it)! So fear not short nailed gals, you can rock nail art just as well! :D

So let's end on that note. Happy Halloween to everyone! Stay safe!

Orange Spiderweb Pedicure

Just a quick little update here, just to put out some ideas... I've got another little Halloween design for you! Basically it's a french manicure, but orange and black. Then I added a couple cute little spiderwebs to finish it all up. :)

I have another spiderweb design to show you later this month, but I might make it into a video tutorial. I think it's my favorite manicure I've ever done, so look forward to seeing that one! :)

Halloween Skull Manicure

Hey guys! It's finally October, my favorite month! I have a few surprises in store for later, but for now, let's kick it off with a bang!

I made my first video tutorial! I'll be showing you how to make these adorable, spooky little skulls. They're perfect for Halloween later this month, or if you want to explore your gothy side. ;)

Enjoy the video and please leave some feedback! :D

Goodbye Summer (Tropical) Pedicure

Well, summer is over and we're heading into colder weather. Fall is my favorite season, but this summer was pretty nice for me, weather-wise anyway. So as a final goodbye to summer, I decided on a tropical pedicure.

This one was very difficult to photograph for some reason, my camera couldn't pick up the colors very easily. I did a gradient of pink, orange and yellow for the sunset background, with black palm trees and seagull silhouettes. It turned out as a nice, relaxing adios to summer.

I'm really looking forward to October though; it's my favorite month so expect lots of Halloween themed manicures coming from me! And as we get closer to Halloween, I'll share with you my all time favorite manicure I've ever done. :D

P.S. You may have noticed some minor changes... I flipped the layout sideways and added a label section so you can search posts by topic. I thought this might make searching older posts easier. ALSO! Please don't forget to vote in the poll! Still 15 days left! :)

Hospital Manicure

Well guys, I'm heading off to the hospital soon. Wednesday I'm going into surgery for a biopsy of my pituitary gland. I figured I'd do my nails all nice so I can look at least somewhat decent while I'm recovering in the hospital... but then I found out I can't wear any nail polish. DRAT! >.< I'll be gone all this week, so I'll try to update once I'm feeling better. For now, I'll leave you folks with an appropriately themed manicure. :)

P.S. A new poll is up, please vote! You have until 10/10/10! :D

Sinful Colors Haul

I'm real tired, but I wanted to do something. So just a quick post:


My mom was out and about and wherever she was, there was a huge nail polish sale! So she came home with a pretty nice Sinful Colors haul! Super super cheap, and the colors are great! We've tried them all so far except the white, purple and opal colored ones.

The blue is peacock blueish, but in some lights, it turns a teal green. It's also pretty shear, along with the opal. The purple is really hard to photograph but it's a nice mid-toned purple. The hot pink and fuchsia are super super bright and pop very nicely. The dark red is perfect for a Christmas red and has a bit of a shimmer to it, but not too much. Then the black and white are just like any other black and white. :P

Missonaries of Charity Manicure

Today, August 26th, is Mother Teresa of Calcutta's 100th birthday. One of the most wonderful things she had done was found the Missionaries of Charity religious order. As a side note, If you don't know already, I'm going to be a nun someday. I have looked at this order and boy, they are some hardcore nuns!!

So in her honor, I was inspired to paint my nails with the famous three blue stripes that can be seen on their habits.

Pray for us Mother Teresa, and God Bless!


***Edit*** I added a poll to the right side column. It'll be open for two weeks. Please go vote! :D

Pink Frog/Toad Manicure (Guest!)

Ok guys, hold on tight for this one! This manicure is a bit longer and has more steps than my others, but boy, did it turn out cute! Also, one of my best friends is modeling this manicure! She is mysteriously known as... 'Guestfingers'... *dun dun DUN*!

Lol, ok on to the manicure! :D



First off, I started by painting a pink base coat. On the ring fingers I painted a dark green.



After that, you'll be painting the frog's heads. To do this, simply paint a green oval about 2/3 of the way down the nail. Next, add two small circles on top of the oval to make the eye sockets. It's similar to a Mickey Mouse logo, but with the ears closer together. :)

After that, paint two white circles on the ring fingers to make the eyes for the toad. It's very important to let your nails dry at this point or you'll risk ruining them when you go on to do the details.



Now onto the detail work! Take your white and add two circles in the eye sockets that we painted earlier. On the frog, add two small black circles in the white ones for the pupils. Draw a thin black line below it for the mouth.

It's easiest if you have a nail art pen for this, but a sharpie marker is just as effective! I've tried sharpies before and my only warning is to make sure your nails are super dry or they will ruin them. Also, you may need two or three coats of sharpie to make it opaque.




After the black has dried on the ring fingers, draw a thin red or pink curvy line for it's tongue. I also added two small black dots for nostrils.



On the other fingers, take your black again and draw in the pupils. Draw a thin black line for the mouth and two small dots for nostrils.



Ta-dah! All done! It came out super adorable. Feel free to change background colors if you don't like pink or even experiment with the frog's expressions. 'Guestfingers' even wanted a little pirate frog on her pinky, haha!

Overall, the whole manicure isn't too hard. You just need some time and patience. :)

A very special thanks to the mysterious 'Guestfingers' for modeling! :D

Sally Hansen - Hard As Nail Xtreme Wear - Review

Ok, now I know I said I wasn't going to do reviews, but I have a bunch of these and I found this line pretty interesting...

Alright, so I'm reviewing a few colors in the Sally Hansen's Hard As Nail Xteme Wear line. First, let's start with the disclaimer: I have not paid for these products; they were given to me by my mother. I am not being paid in any sort of way for this review and this is my honest opinion.

Not all the colors have the same, so I can't speak for every color in the line, but after trying 6 of them, I think I can give a fair review.

ALL of the polishes started off super watery. The brush isn't very good either and doesn't hold the polish, so you'll make a huge mess if you're not careful! After your first or second try, they level out to the consistency of normal polish.

That is, except the white. The white just sucks. It thicken up super fast and it's now like painting with paste. I've thinned it out twice already and it's started getting thick again. The white also looks flat like white out, so unless you like that sort of thing, I would NOT recommend the white. HOWEVER, it's very pigment and is the right consistency for a Konad. It's a perfect, cheap alternative.

The yellow and orange are super shear, so you'll need 5+ coats to get bottle color. Either that or layer it on top of a white coat. I suppose you could also try layering it ontop of another color if you want to experiment.

The green is nice, but it's starting to thicken up like the white, though not as quickly. It's pretty pigmented, opaque in thin 2 coats.

Marine Scene is really good, it reminds me of a peacock blue. It's a frosted with a little shimmer in there. It takes maybe 3 or 4 coats to be opaque, but it's wearable after 2. It's also great to layer on top of another color. I have a frosted green and I put a coat of this over it and it looks gorgeous!

And the best of the bunch is Blue Me Away... it really did blow me away! I have never been so impressed with a nail polish before! It was opaque in 1 coat, is pretty chip resistant, and super cheap! And I just LOVE the color! It looks great on cool skin tones and really jumps out! The only downside to this polish is that when you try to remove it with polish remover, it stains your fingers blue for a few hours. Otherwise, I think it's a great bang for your buck and I would definitely recommend this color! In fact I better go out and get another bottle soon! :D

Overall, they aren't a fantastic nail polish but not bad either. The bottles are small, BUT they are VERY cheap, ($2.50-$3.50ish at walmart and drugstores) so I think they are well worth a try! The color selection is also very good and they have some very unique shades. There aren't very many nudes or skin tones, so this is a line for a girl who loves color!!!

Patriotic Pedicure

Happy 4th of July everyone! Sorry this post is a little late in the day, but here is the pedicure I've been sporting for the holiday! I invented this last year and I just love it!

It's very easy to do. I started by painting my big toes blue and all the others red.




After that, I just put white dots on the blue to represent the field of stars, and white strips on the red for the rest of the flag.




I chose to paint vertical stripes because they make your nails look longer and thinner. This is especially important for your toes because they are already broad and short for most people.

That is it! Easy and quick patriotic design that looks great! I got a ton of compliments on these and my cousin even asked to come over to paint her nails sometime! Happy 4th everyone! :D

Black French Tip & Flower Pedicure

Yikes! Sorry it's been so long guys! I'll save the full explanation for a later date, but to sum it up:

1) Busy semester
2) Illness
3) Laziness

Anyway, let's jump right into the post now! Summer is perfect for pedicures. Good weather means open-toed shoes and bare feat. It's super important to take better care of your feet this time of year since people will see your toes now! So in honor of summer, here is a classy, simple and clean looking pedicure.

This pedicure is the same as a traditional French manicure, except I substituted the white for black. I love black tips; it's a nice modern touch but still conservative for the workplace. To finish it off, I added two small white flowers on my big toes only.

If you don't know how to do a french manicure, there are dozens of tutorials out there, especially on Youtube, so I won't explain how to do this one. This is just to give you an idea. :)

Labyrinth Inspired Manicure - FAIL!

So this is definitely not my best nail art... ok, fine. I failed completely. It's hideous, lumpy and just around bad. I can't imagine it would look good one anyone's nails. But I'm going to share it with you guys anyway so that it might inspire someone to build upon it and make it work. Don't say I didn't warn you!

I love the movie Labyrinth, I've been obsessed with it lately. So I wanted to do a manicure inspired by it. The colors that come to mind are purples and blues... and glitter!



So I got the brilliant idea to take those colors and mix them all together to look cloudy and mysterious...



...yuk. But, oh wait, it gets worse when I try to add those little floating crystal balls...



...
Yeah... I told you it was ugly!

I was really disappointed. It looked so much cooler in my mind... I'll probably attempt this one again some time in the future, but I'll used different methods. Anyway, I hope some good came out of this and someone finds a way to build off of it!

Black and Blue Wavy Manicure

I wanted to play around with the Blue Sally Hansen nail art pen some more. It was really interesting that it came out matte... So here's what I came up with, nothing special.

Basically what I did was paint my nails black, and draw in little squiggles. I fulled in the bottom half and toped it with a clear coat of nail polish.

I was a little disappointed that started to give a crackle look. You can see it best on my thumb and index finger. It even crackled a little worse after I took the picture. I don't know what that was all about, so I'll have to fiddle around with it a bit more.

P.S. Does this remind anyone else of the Backstreet Boys? XD

Jefferson the Betta Fish Inspired Manicure

I finally found my camera cord. So here he is: JEFFERSON!

Jeff is a crowntail betta fish. He wasn't the most colorful, or most active, but he kept calling me so I took him home. Poor Jeff looked so sickly, but now he's all better! He's a little skittish, but his color has brightened up and he's swimming around more. So, I made a little Jefferson inspired manicure in his honor. :)

First I started off with a clear base coat. Next, I used a sheer french manicure nail polish; Any nude polish will do.



After letting that dry, I used a blue Sally Hansen nail art pen to draw wavy strings that resemble Jeff's fins. Like I've said before, a nail art pen is not necessary, a blue polish with a nail art brush or even a sharpie will work. If you do use a sharpie, make sure the nude polish is completely dry; otherwise the sharpie will drag the nail polish and ruin your manicure.




After that dried, I went over the tips of the blue "fins" with a red Sally Hansen nail art pen. It was my first time using the red and clue, and I was a little disappointed that the red was sparkly. I was expecting a solid red. And I certainly didn't expect the blue to be so matte! I do like it though...



Anyway, finish with a clear top coat and clean up stray polish. Viola!

Zebra Print Manicure

Well I got a new betta fish last night! He's still looking a little sickly, but he seems to be getting better now that he's all settled in his new tank. It was so sad going to Petsmart... all those poor mistreated betta fish... :(

Well, at least this little guy's got a nice caring home now. I did a special manicure inspired by his fins! Unfortunately, I can't seem to find the cord that plugs my camera into the computer. I just had it yesterday, dangit!

So in the mean time, let's tide you over with another animal!

Just a simple zebra print. I appologize for the crappy photo quality. Not to mention my cheap clear coat smeared the black a bit... :(

This one is really easy to make. All you need is black and white. Clear base coat, then a coat of white. You may need more than one coat if it's not opaque enough. Paint in random black stripes and top it off with a clear coat
I used a nail art brush to paint in the black stripes. If you don't have one, a thin paint brush or black nail art pen will work just as good. Sharpies also work as well. Be careful though if you use a sharpie. The polish must be completely dry or the sharpie will drag the polish and ruin your manicure. Also, you may need to go over the stripes more than once to make it completely black. Normal nail polish is always a better choice; use sharpies only if you don't have the necessary supplies.

Just a few more tips. If you don't have a nice clear polish, like Seche Vite, you run the risk of smearing detailed designs like this. However, Seche Vite is a tad expensive. If you're using a cheaper clear coat, paint it on thick and it will be far less likely to smear.

Remember to vary the thickness of each stripe. It will help you make a more realistic pattern. Also, if you're uncomfortable painting on your own, google up a zebra print to use as a reference.

(Phew! that was a long one! Sorry about the text intensive post!)

Blue Snowflake Pedicure

Oops! I forgot to mention that I'll also be showing pedicures! Pedicure designs are especially great for girls with broad finger nails!

This is the current pedicure I'm wearing! All you need is a blue, white and a clear coat to make the polish last longer. I also used a coat of a glitter nailpolish, but this is optional.



Start off your pedicure with a base coat polish. I simply used a clear top coat for my base. It works just as well as a special base polish. Then I painted several coats of blue



Using a nail art brush, I painted a large white snowflake on my big toe. If you don't have a nail art brush, a skinny paint brush or a nail art pen will work just as well. If you don't have either, just use a tooth pick. I find tooth picks hard to draw clean straight lines with, but it can be done. You'll just have to be a bit more patient with it.



Paint small white dots randomly scattered on the other toes. I used a dotting tool, but toothpicks are WONDERFUL for this. I painted a coat of glitter polish on my toes, but that is optional for you. For me, it made the blue look a bit more frosty. Finish with a clear top coat!