Leopard Ombre Manicure (Tutorial)

 

Hey everyone! I can't believe that this is my first post in 2013 and it's already March.. yikes. I will try to do a better job at keeping up with posting. I'm always on instagram, so if you're interested in keeping up with me, you can find me at @aubreyhannah.

 

 

Onto the nails!

 

I recently posted a small tutorial on my instragram of leopard ombre nails which were inspired by @ohtammm. You all seemed to enjoy them so I figured I would explain how I made them in a little more detail.

 

 

Here is my leopard ombre look. I chose to incorporate it as an accent nail, but you could add it to every nail if you wanted! Both ways look great.

 

 

 

 

Step 1: Paint your nails a neutral or a white shade. Here I used OPI- Barefoot in Barcelona. This will be a base for your ombre colors, and will allow the ombre to fully pop.

 

 

 

 

Step 2: Take a makeup sponge and dampen it. Wring out any excess water and paint a dark brown, a lighter brown and a white onto it. Here I used OPI- You Don't Know Jacques!, OPI- Barefoot in Barcelona and China Glaze- White on White.

 

 

 

 

Step 3. Bounce your sponge on top of your nail. The bouncing will lay the colors down and blend them together at the same time. Repeat steps 2 & 3 as many times as it takes to achieve the ombre you're looking for.

 

 

 

 

Step 4: Once you're satisfied with your ombre, clean up around the edges. You'll notice that the sponge has left your nails with a textured look, to smooth everything out, apply a fast drying top coat. Not only will the top coat smooth out your texture, but it will help the colors blend.

 

 

 

 

Step 5: Once your top coat has dried, grab a gold polish and apply random dots on your nail. Here I've used OPI- Glitzerland. You can use the polish brush for this, just make sure your brush isn't dripping with polish. You don't want your spots to be too raised.

 

 

 

 

Step 6: Take a black polish, here I used OPI- Black Onyx and line your gold spots. For a more in depth explanation on how I create my leopard print, click here. Once your spots have dried, add another coat of fast drying top coat. Be sure to wait for the spots to fully dry, otherwise the black and gold could bleed into your ombre, ruining all the time you just put into them.

 

 

 

 

I hope you all enjoyed this quick tutorial. As always, feel free to ask any questions or leave any comments down below.

 

 

 

Happy polishing!

Aubrey

Recent Mani's

Hey guys! I'm here with a little update for you all. I wanted to post my recent mani's since I haven't been showing my blog much love. My main reason for this blog was to focus mostly on tutorials, and I haven't made any lately so that's why I've been M.I.A.

Onto the mani's!!

Here is a golden leopard print mani. If you'd like to see how I create leopard prints, click here. The base color is Orly- Kiss the Bride, the gold is O.P.I.- Glitzerland and the black is O.P.I.- Black Onyx. I used a dotting tool for the dots.

The top and bottom picture are of the same mani which is an ombre one. If you'd like to see how I create my ombre mani's click here. Obviously the bottom picture is a little different. All I did was I added a topcoat&color water marble over top. The top coat allows the ombre to show through, giving it a cool effect. The colors used for the ombre are China Glaze- Purple Panic, China Glaze- Rich & Famous, Pure Ice- Love, and Orly- Kiss the Bride. For my watermarble I used N.Y.C.- Matte Me Crazy and Orly- Kiss the Bride.

Here is my most recent mani that I'm still wearing. It's just a basic mani, nothing too fancy. I have on Sinful Colors- Mint Apple as my base and a couple coats of Revlon- Whimsical overtop. I've also mattified this manicure since the picture was taken and I love it 10x more. I don't know what it is with me and matte polish lately but it's getting out of hand :)

I hope you guys liked this little catch up. If you'd like to be caught up faster, follow my Instagram at aubreyhannah. I post much more frequently on my IG than I do here. Also, I have a really fun manicure planned out for this weekend, I'm hoping that it goes as planned *fingers crossed*

Happy Friday!!

Aubrey

Pink Leopard Print (Tutorial)

Hey guys! Sorry I've been M.I.A. for a little bit. I've been focusing a lot of my designated "nail time" for drawing time. Drawing was something that I really loved in high school and I guess I'm starting to pick back up on it.

Since I've been gone longer than I should have, I'm here with a tutorial for you guys, (it's only fair). I've never done a tutorial on leopard print before because it's really so simple. But I figured I'd show you guys how I create the print. A lot of people do it differently than I do, so by all means, add your own individual touch to it.


This is the pink leopard print mani :

If you'd like to see how I made this, keep on reading!

This is what you'll need:

From left to right : NYC- Matte Me Crazy (optional), Orly- Kiss The Bride, Pure Ice- Love and China Glaze- Rich & Famous. I also used a very tiny brush, if you don't have a tiny brush like this, you can use a striper polish.

Step 1: Paint your base color on every nail. I used Pure Ice- Love for my base color. As you can see the application isn't the best. If you run into a problem where the finish isn't as smooth as you'd like it to be, adding a top coat will even everything out for you.

Step 2: For my spots I used Orly- Kiss The Bride. What you want to do is take your paint brush and make small spots in random places on your nail. You want to make sure that your brush doesn't have too much polish on it or you'll end up with globs for spots and you don't want that.

Step 3: If you're using a tiny brush like I am, take your 3rd color and place a few drops onto a piece of paper. Here I'm using China Glaze- Rich & Famous. Dip your brush into the polish.

Step 4: Create a semi-rounded line along one of your spots.

Step 5: Create a 2nd semi-rounded line. You'll want the 2 lines to connect.

Step 6: Create one more line along the bottom of the spot. This time make sure that it doesn't touch your first 2 lines. And there's your spot. Some people prefer to use a dotting tool for this part, some people connect all of the lines. It's personal preference. If you're confused, you can always google a picture of a leopard and mock their print.

Step 7: Now that the first print is done, you'll want to repeat this process with all of your spots. As you can see I've started my first line on my second spot.

Step 8: Create your 2nd line. As you can see I did it a little differently than the first print. My 2 lines are connecting in a downward point. My connecting lines in my first print are in an upward point. You'll want to alternate throughout your spots so they don't look completely uniform.

Step 9: Create your 3rd line, again making sure that it doesn't touch your first 2 lines.

Step 10: Once you've created all of your prints, go ahead and with that same color, add random dots to fill in any open space. You can create these dots with a dotting tool, tooth pick, ball-point pen, whatever you prefer.

Step 11: Once you've completed all of your nails. Add a top coat to seal in your design. Here I used a matte top coat but that's completely optional.

Hope you guys enjoyed this tutorial! As always, feel free to leave any comments/questions below!

Happy Polishing!

Aubrey

Pink Glittery Fishtail Manicure

A couple weeks ago I was sent O.P.I.- Nothin' Mousy 'bout It from my friend Tamara (her user name is @ohtammm on Instagram). Ever since I recieved this polish I've been thinking about a manicure that I could do to feature it. This is what I came up with..

Here is a flash shot of the manicure..

Here is a micro shot of the polish..

I love love loveee this polish. The pink/gold/purple glitter is to die for, and the glitter is so fine that the finish reminds me a lot of Essie- Pure Pearlfection. The only con is that the bottle is FULL of hearts, but they are a pain to get out. You'll most likely have to do some manual placement with them.

Here are all of the polishes I used for my mani. From left to right, Pure Ice- Love (don't mind the glob of polish on it haha), China Glaze- Rich & Famous, China Glaze- Purple Panic and O.P.I.- Nothin' Mousy 'bout It.

I hope you guys enjoyed! I didn't do a tutorial today because I've already done a tutorial on the fishtail nails. You can find that tutorial here - Fishtail Manicure Tutorial. For the hearts, all I did was place them on the nail with some tweezers! As always, feel free to leave any comments/questions below!

Aubrey

Purple Ombre Nails (Tutorial)

Ombre is one of the biggest trends this year. Whether it's ombre hair, ombre clothing, ombre eyes/lips. It's everywhere, so of course it needs to be incorporated on the nails as well :)

Here are my purple ombre nails. The key to a nice ombre is to use colors that are a few shades darker/lighter from each other. You can also create ombre nails from a blue to an orange for example, but the blending process will be a little harder since the colors aren't similar.

If you'd like to see how I did this, keep reading!

What you'll need :

Here I have a matte top coat (optional), 4 different shades of purple and a makeup sponge. From left to right : NYC- Matte Me Crazy, Essie- Nice is Nice, China Glaze- Spontaneous, China Glaze- Coconut Kiss and OPI- Siberian Nights.

Step 1: You'll need to apply a white or nude color on every nail as your base, this will help the next set of colors pop. Wait for this to dry completely. This is OPI- Sweet Heart (it was not shown in the picture above.)

Step 2: Dampen your makeup sponge and wring out any excess water. This will help your polish stay on the surface and not soak so far into the sponge. Take your polishes, and apply a line for each color, going from light to dark.

Step 3: Line your sponge up on your nail and press down. If you like where all of your colors are placed, you can then blend the colors by bouncing the sponge on top of the nail. Be careful. You don't want to over-do it or the sponge will start to pull your color up instead of laying it down.

Step 4: Apply the first coat with your sponge on every nail. By the time you're finished with your last nail, your first one should be dry enough for the second coat. Apply as many coats as you see fit. Here I've applied 3 coats. You'll notice that your sponge will leave a little bit of a bumpy finish (you can see in the picture) But don't worry. Once you add your top coat, it'll even everything out.

Step 5: Clean up time! I like to pour a bit of acetone in the bottle cap and dip my cotton swab into that. It's much more convenient.

Step 6: Once your nails are all clean, you can then add a top coat. As you can see, the nail texture has evened itself out.

Step 7: You can stop there or choose to add a matte top coat like I did. It was hard for me to decide what finish I liked better, so I just ended up sticking with this one!

Hope you guys enjoyed this tutorial. It's simple and the results are pretty! What's better than that?! As always, feel free to leave any comments/questions below.

Happy sponging! ;)

Aubrey

Neon Saran Wrap Tutorial

Yesterday, my grandmother and I did some shopping. We stopped into Sally's and I spotted China Glaze- Celtic Sun. WOW. Talk about a bright-highlighter neon, I had to get it! I have absolutely nothing like it in my collection. This is a color that most people wouldn't want to get (including my grandmother) but not only was the color popping out at me, but the China Glaze was on sale for $4.99!! Any polish addict would have swooped it up in a heart beat! :)

This is the look that I decided on doing with Celtic sun. Let me warn you now to put on your sun glasses! 8)

I achieved this look by using 2 colors and saran wrap. I decided to use neon, but this saran wrap trick can be used with any colors that your heart desires. If you're interested in how I did this mani, keep on reading!

What you'll need:

Grab 2 colors of your choice. Here I have China Glaze- Purple Panic and China Glaze- Celtic Sun

You'll also need some saran wrap.

Step 1: Decide on which color you'd like to use as your base and paint that on every nail. I decided to use Celtic Sun as a base. (Tip: if you decide to use celtic sun as well, try painting on a coat of white underneath it. The formula is streaky and a white base would help.) Wait for your nails to dry completely.

Step 2: Rip off a piece of saran wrap and crumple it into a ball.

Step 3: Paint your second color onto the saran wrap. This is Purple Panic.

Step 4: Dab your saran wrap ball onto a piece of paper. This will let you know if you're happy with the design that is coming off of it, and it will also remove any excess polish-blobs that may be on the saran wrap.

Step 5: Dab your saran wrap ball onto your nail in a bouncing motion. You can do this as little or as much as you like. If you prefer more of the base coat to show, dab only a few times. If you prefer more of the pink to show, dab many times. The look is all personal preference.

Step 6: Clean up around the edges with a cotton swab. Add a top coat to protect your design and you're finished!

This is a fun and easy look that anyone can do! Hope you all enjoyed this tutorial! As always, if you have any comments/questions, feel free to let me know below!

Happy polishing!

Aubrey