Pink Glitter Gradient

Lately I've been getting asked a lot on Instagram if I could create a glitter gradient tutorial. I haven't made one yet because it's really so simple. But if you guys want one, then there's no reason why I can't snap a few pictures along the way.

This is my glitter gradient manicure today. If you'd like to see how I achieved this look then continue reading!

Step 1: Grab a base color and some glitters! The look I did has a nude base color, this is something that can be switched up. The nude base allows the glitter to show up a little better, but if you want to use a bright purple base or a dark colored base, you totally can. From left to right: OPI- Sweet Heart, Orly- Tiara and Revlon- Sparkling.

Step 2: Paint on however many coats of your base color that it takes to get a nice finish. This is 2 coats of OPI- Sweet Heart.

Step 3: Out of all of the glitters that you would like to use, apply the finest glitter first. This is all about a gradual gradient look. If you apply your chunky glitter first, it may not look as gradient as you would like. This is Orly- Tiara. What I did was as I removed the brush from the bottle of glitter, I swiped off most of the polish. You only want a tiny bit of glitter on your brush. Be sure to leave the bottom 4th of your nail glitter free. This will also help with the gradient effect.

Step 4: You can continue to build up your finer glitter if you prefer, but this is where I start to bring in my chunkier glitter. This is Revlon- Sparkling. Again, make sure that your brush isn't loaded with glitter. You can always go back and add more. This is where you want to place most of your second coat of glitter. Once your brush has hardly any glitter on it, you can go ahead and blend a bit.

Step 5: This is another coat of Revlon- Sparkling. I also did some glitter placement with the bigger chunks. You want to focus this coat mostly on the very tip of your nail. When there is hardly any polish left on your brush, again blend it into the rest.

Step 6: Apply a fast drying top coat to protect your polish and you're finished!


I hope you all enjoyed this tutorial! I love this manicure so much. Glitter + pink is always a great thing in my book :) If you have any questions, feel free to ask them below.


Happy polishing!
Aubrey

DIY Key Covers

So as most of you know, I have a little bit of a polish obsession. As I was staring at my homely looking house keys last night I thought, "What could possibly liven these babies up? Ooooooh yes, nail polish!" So that's what I did! And I gotta say, I am SO happy with them! They're so cute and girly.

If you don't like the "cute and girly" look, then throw your favorite sports team's colors on them or create some cool pattern! Let your imagination run wild.

Here they are. My boring house keys. Go ahead and grab yours and let's get started!

Step 1: Take some alcohol on a cotton swab and run it over your keys. Your keys can have lots of oil and dirt on them from constantly being handled and you'll want a nice clean surface for your polish to stick to.

Step 2: Use any sort of tape you have and tape off the bottom portion of your key. If you have a steady hand then you can totally skip this step! This is a guide to make sure that you have a nice clean line when you're finished painting.

 Step 3: Choose a color that you would like as the base. I chose Sinful Colors- 24/7. It's a bright neon pink and it's only $1.99 at Target.

Step 4: Let the keys dry between coats. Apply as many coats as you see fit. To stand these babies up so they could dry properly, I put them in little plastic shot glasses.

For my round key, I decided to add some glitter, glitter and a little more glitter. From left to right : Revlon- Sparkling, Orly- Tiara and OPI- Pirouette My Whistle.

Step 5: I applied a layer of Orly- Tiara and then set it in the shot glass to dry.

Step 6: This has all 3 glitters on it. Make sure you set it aside and let it fully dry.

For my square key, I decided to make some leopard spots. Here I have OPI- Siberian Nights and Sinful Colors- Dream On. I also painted on Essie- Pure Pearlfection before I painted on the leopard spots.

Here is the square key with Essie- Pure Pearlfection and Sinful Colors- 24/7

Step 7: Add some random dots with your polish brush. The color used for the spots is Sinful Colors- Dream On.

Step 8: With a small paint brush, paint small lines around your dots. This dark purple is OPI- Siberian Nights.

Step 9: I then took a dotting tool with the same color (OPI- Siberian Nights) and added random dots between the leopard spots.

Step 10: Wait for your polish to dry, and then remove your tape. The tape I used left a little bit of a sticky residue. If your tape left some residue behind, take a cotton swab dipped in alcohol and rub it along the key. The residue will come right up.


I was completely happy with how my keys turned out at this point. Butttt I felt the need to bling them out even more and I happened to have a container of rhinestones in eyesight..

Step 11: Brush a top coat over your entire polish portion of the key. You'll want to do this whether you apply rhinestones or not! While your top coat is still wet, place your rhinestones in random spots on your key. For the leopard print key, I applied rhinestones over top of my small dots.

Step 12: Wait for your top coat to completely dry and you're done!



These keys are so cool and so much fun to make! Part of me wanted to grab my boyfriends keys and go at his but I don't know how he'd explain pink glittery keys to his buddies at work ;) If you decide to try this out, post a picture on Instagram and tag me in it because I'd love to see your creations! ( @aubreyhannah )


Happy polishing!
Aubrey

Purple Water Marble Tutorial

For all of you who don't know what a water marble manicure is, it's a cool way of creating designs using water with your nail polish.

I've made water marble tutorials in the past, but I've never been able to go into too much detail. So I hope this tutorial leaves everyone with all of their questions answered! haha (but of course, feel free to comment below if you do have a question on anything!)

Here are a few examples of water marble manicures..

 

 

These all have the flower water marble design.. there are many other designs that you can use, but the flower is my favorite. If you're interested in learning how to make the flower water marble, keep reading.

Step 1: Grab a shot glass and fill it with room temperature water. You don't want it too hot, or too cold.

Step 2: Grab some polishes that you'd like to make a design with. From left to right: China Glaze- Coconut Kiss, OPI- Pamplona Purple, OPI- Pompeii Purple and OPI- Lucky Lucky Lavender.

Step 3: Paint your nails one of the colors that you chose (choose the lightest shade for best results) This is OPI- Lucky Lucky Lavender.

Step 4: This is the fun part! Take your darkest shade and drop a small amount of paint into the water. It will create a circular film on the top of the water.

Step 5: Take your second darkest shade and do the same thing. Let the paint drip off of the brush and into the water.

Step 6: Repeat the same steps with every color. Once you've reached the lightest shade, start over and begin with your darkest shade until you have about 2 rings of every color.

Step 7: You'll know that you're doing it right when your polish drips start to form a bulls-eye effect in the water. Once you get your perfect bulls-eye, you can start designing.

Step 8: Here I'm using a tack to create the design, but you can use anything from a needle to a tooth pick. Anything with a fine tip. Gently glide the tack from the top of your bulls-eye towards the center.

Step 9: Repeat the same movement but this time start from the bottom of your bulls-eye and glide toward the center where your 2 lines will meet.

Step 10: Do the same steps as 8 & 9 except start from each side of your bulls-eye and gently drag inward.

Step 11: Glide your tack through the center of each petal in Step 10's picture. This will give you 8 petals (they won't always be equal width petals, anything that resembles this is great!)

Step 12: Decide where you want the center of the flower to be on your nail. Line your nail up parallel with the water and your desired design and slowly push into the water.

Step 13: It's VERY important to leave your nail submerged until the extra polish floating on the top is cleaned up. If you look at Step 12, you'll see that the film is still there. If you pull your nail up while the extra polish is at the top, it can ruin your design. To clean the film, stick your toothpick into the water and swirl around. The polish will latch onto the toothpick. Once the water is clean, slowly remove your finger from the water.

Step 14: Once you pull your nail out of the water, it'll look something like this. I opted for the center of the flower to be more towards the left side of this nail.

Step 15: Take a cotton swab dipped in acetone and clean up! Once it's clean you can move on to your next nail. When you've finished all of your nails, apply a fast drying top coat to protect your design and add a pretty shine!

This is a final result picture of my purple water marble flowers. It's a lot of fun to make! And once you get the hang of it, they don't take long at all.


I hope you all enjoyed this tutorial, and as I stated earlier, if you have any questions feel free to leave them below and I'll answer them the best I can!

Happy polishing!
Aubrey

Fishtail Manicure

If you have done any sort of browsing around beauty blogs or beauty pages, you've probably seen a manicure called "the fishtail".

* This is a fishtail manicure that I created with the colors, china glaze- evening seduction, china glaze- rich & famous and china glaze- spontaneous.

* This is another take on the fishtail manicure. If you don't have the time to make this design on every nail, go ahead and declare it the accent nail. Here I have it on my ring finger, but it can be on any nail of your choice. Just be sure to paint the other nails with a complimentary color. The colors I used here are OPI- lucky lucky lavender, OPI- glitzerland and china glaze- white on white.

So now you're probably saying, "Yes Aubrey, this is an extremely cool look and I'm SO thankful that you're showing us ;) But how do I do it?"

* Wait no longer because here is a fishtail tutorial for you.

Step 1: Choose 3 colors. Pick one of these colors (purple) and apply it from your cuticle, to about half way up your nail.

Step 2: Grab your second color (pink), and make a diagonal line, starting from the left corner of your cuticle, and painting upwards towards the right side.

Step 3: Take your 3rd color (dark purple) and make a second diagonal line, this time starting from the right corner of your cuticle, and painting upwards towards the left side.

Step 4: Take your 1st color (purple) and apply it right above your 2nd color (pink), following the same motion that you made with your 2nd color (pink)

Step 5 - Step 8: Continue this pattern while going in order with your colors. (purple, pink dark purple, purple, pink, dark purple.. etc) Soon you will see that you are creating a fishtail effect.

Step 9: Apply a fast drying top coat to seal in your hard work and to add a pretty shine!

Hope you guys enjoyed my first blog post!

Until next time!

Aubrey