Beginners Tutorial - Super cute pink and fushia dotty French Manicure

Hi everyone!

Lately my color choices have been all about orange and green, and my best friend complained because she hates these colors :-D

So I decided to get back to the basics and do something cute and that doesn't take too long.

For this mani, you will need

• a base coat
• a background color (I used Sally Hansen Xtreme wear Bubblegum Pink #470)
• a colors for your dots (I used Wet n Wild Fastdry FuchsiaRama #232C)
• a top coat
• a dotting tool

If you don't own a dotting tool, I highly recomment you check out The Beauty Department's article about her DIY dotting tool. She uses a pen or pencil, an eraser and a pin. Very smart! Besides, her nail arts are super pretty.

Most polishes work fine for dots. However, some cheap polishes (and I have a lot of those!) are too fluid for dots. Consequently I usually test whatever polish I wanna use before starting my mani. Plus, if you're not too used to using your dotting tool, its a nice way to train. I usually use a magazine cover to do my tests, ideally white so my polish color is not too altered:

Then, I apply two coats of my background color to have enough opacity. When it's dry, I put a couple of drops of polish on my magazine cover to create a big color spot. And then, I dip my dotting tool in the drop, and I start dotting! If I make a mistake, I keep a wooden stick or a toothpick close to me to correct whatever is wrong.

 

Et voila! Of course if you have longer nail you can make more dotted lines and it will look even prettier!

 

 

As usual, a picture with the sun light at my window:

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Splatter Mani

After several weeks of growing my nails, I've reluctantly had to cut them. My two thumb nails were torn since a couple of weeks, and my repair attempts with glue polish and fake nails glue couldn't last forever. So I figured I would cut them very short and give them an other chance to grow without breaking this time!

I wanted to do a splatter manicure since a while, and since my nails are too short for a French Mani I figured this would be the right time. Plus, a trashy mani like this makes less noticeable the fact that my thumb nails are all irregular and ugly!

I used Sally Hansen Smooth and Perfect in Fog #01 as my background color. The polishes of this collection are really pretty. They have a kind of "fluffy" or "cloudy" finish that I like a lot. Fog is a subtle grey which looks clean and elegant. the splatters were made with a straw and a toothpick with Sinful Colors Dream on #113 (a neon fushia-purple that I love!!) and Santee Vikini-Green #M60. 

For those of you who would like to purchase Dream on, please note that it is matte, which can be surprising (or at least it was for me at first).

For once I will show you both hands, as each nail is really different.

Here is my left hand:

And my right hand:

I love the variety of effects you can get with this technique, athough the finish I like best is the one I got on my left thumb an index:

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Santee Neon Sapphire #M30A Swatch

Just a really quick mani after removing my Orange and Grey French Manicure.

I used Santee Neon Sapphire #M30A and used Jordana Red of Hearts #674 as a top coat. Red of hearts is a transparent polish with thin red glitters and red heart-shaped glitters. I used one of the hearts on the corner of my ring finger.
I was kind of in a rush so I only took pictures the next day, while I was in the plane to Cincinnati to visit Jeff from the SuperFriends blog.

The little heart ;)

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Neon Orange and Grey + Holo glitters French Manicure

My other favorite color of the season, other than green, is orange. I found a really pretty Neon orange during my last shopping session and decided to use it for my next French Manicure.

Here are the polishes I used, under the careful supervision of Charlie, my recently adopted cat:

 

Other than my base coat and top coat, I used:

• Santee Beach Yellow #M57A, a very pretty neon orange (and not yellow!!!). Santee polishes are extremely cheap with a large choice of color, but they're full of toxic components... I guess you can't ask for much with a $2 polish...
• Confetti Lonsesome Dove #002, a light grey
• Claire's Disco, a transparent polish with chunky holographic glitters

 I applied one coat of base coat (of course!) and then of the Orange, but I quickly realized that it was super transparent... (eww)

   

 Therefore I applied a couple of coats of White, then 3 coats of Orange (yes, you counted right, that makes a total of 7 coats so far...). Now that's orange! 

 

 An then, finally, I applied a coat (maybe 2?) of Grey on the tips using French Manicure stickers and 2 coats of yhe Claire's Holo Glitters polish and Ta-Da! I was super happy of the result! My only problem was that after so many coats, the polish at the base of the nail was super irregular and didn't look as clean as I would have want it to. But well. 

   

 

 And with natural sun light: 

 

 The tip was so thick that it looked like my nails were fake, lol! You really don't want to know how long it took me to take it off 4 days later... But i any case, I think Charlie liked it!

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Chelly #16 Swatch and glittery accent nail

I have done various manicures in the past couple of weeks but I have been too busy to post! Fortunately I now take pictures of all my manis so at least I can post them at a later date.

I went on a mini polish shopping spree a few weeks ago and now I'm trying to try all my new acquisitions ;)

The first one I tried was Chelly Shade #16 (very poetic name, right?). It is an very nice Emerald Green. I was in a rush so I did nothing fancy. I just applied a couple of coats of Jordana Silver Jewel #176 on my ring finger.
I like the result a lot... for some reason I've been totally addicted to green lately!

In the sunlight in my apartment: 

In the Miami exterior sunlight:

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First Watermarble manicure

Here are the nail polishes that I used for my very first Water Marble Manicure : 

• Base and Top Coat : Orly Nail Defense
• Sinful Colors Twilight #M971
• Confetti Fruit Smoothie #023
• Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme wear Black Out #370

I prepped my nails with one coat of Orly and 2 coats of Twilight. Then, following the instructions posted on various Water Marble Youtube tutorials I started my nail art. Here is the final result!!
It's kind of sloppy... but it's my very first so be gentle ;)

PS : due to some weird bug, this post is not my first Watermarble in the list... please excuse the weirdness :D

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Neon Pink and Coral French manicure

Hi everyone!
This week I wanted to try something a bit different from what I usually do, so I decided to try doing my first home-made french manicure!

For this manicure I used the following colors :

• Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear Coral Reef #405
• Sally Girl Mini  Neon Pink
• Kiss Nail Art Paint Silver Glitter #SPA10

Here a swacth of Sally Hansen's Coral Reef,  which is a very pretty Coral. I know Corals are really trendy at the moment, and they're a shade that I really like. This one looks like a light pink in the bottle, but once applied to the nails it really seems to change color depending on the light, and gets really pretty orange accents.
I applied two coats.

 

 

Then I used stickers to build my French Manicure. I chose to make Neon pink tips with a line of silver glitter with a thin brush: 

   

 

Here is a picture I took at my pool to show you how Coral Reef can really get orange accents with the sunlight. I love it!

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Glitters!

Yes, this blog's name is Glitterisms, so you would definitely expect to find glitters here, don't you? ;-)
Well, yes I love glittersm but when it comes to nail polish, I'm not sure... It looks gorgeous and it lasts a really long time without chipping, but that's kind of the problem. It will literally never chip, and it's a pain to remove! Not only will you spend a lot of time (and nail polish remover) taking it off, you will also damage your nails if you insist too much, because glitters will work as a nail scrub.
Therefore I try to keep Glitters for special occasions only... or until I can't hold myself anymore and need to yield to temptation!

Here is my most recent glitters polish acquisition and I am very proud to say that I bough it in October! Yes yes, almost 6 months of not buying anything glittery (at least for my nails, hehe, what did you think?!). Anyways, here is my little treasure : Pure Ice Cheatin. It is a transparent polish with loads of purple and blue glitters. I love how it looks in the bottle.

 

Feet are the only part of the body where I don't feel too guilty putting all glitters polish. Here's what it looks like, after 3-4 coats:

 

On my handsm I applied a coat of the Ice on top of two coats of my super cute Mini Orly Naugty or Nice. I think I almost like it better like this than alone.

 

Obviously, a couple of weeks later, when it was really time to take off the 100% pure glitters on my toes, the only thing I could do was... using the good ol' tin foil system! (for an explanation on how this works, take a look at Sarah Louise's very good tutorial)

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Sea, Sand and Sun Watermarble

For my second Watermarble, I decided to use colors that make me think of Summer...
Pastel colors were trendy last Winter so I stocked up on these shades, and I really love them! They can be combined and create really pretty manicures.


For this manicure, I used :

• Base and Top Coat : Orly Nail Defense
• New York Color French White tip #134
• Confetti Blue glitz #109 ~ a very subtle light baby blue with a hint of darker blue pearly micro glitters
• Confetti Belle of the Ball #071 ~ a shiny light purple
• Confetti Margarita Senorita #008 ~ a light yellow... I usually don't like yellow polishes because they make me think of yellowed nails, but this one works fine for marbles and mixes well with other pastels

I started by prepping my nails with my Orly base, and then I applied a layer of White. The reason for that is that when you use light/pastel colors, you usually need to apply more than one layer of the color. If you don't the color will be too light and won't stand out too much. That is especially true with cheap polishes like the Confettis that tend to be very fluid. the problem when making a watermarble is that you can't have multiple layers of a single colors. Hence, the White layer helps "revealing" the colors more easily, without having the natural color of the nail interfering.

I'm usually very sloppy when applying my polish but I'm trying to better myself ;-)

After lots of patience, this is what it looked like in natural light!

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Crackled

Whenever my nails are too short for a nice nail art, I usually go for crackle polish. I find it amazing because it creates a fun effect in no time, and it's super easy to apply.
Plus, it's great for sloppy people like me who mess up their first layer and who want to cover it up, instead of starting over with a new manicure ;-P
Here are some of my latest attempts. For all of them I used the Sally Hansen Crackle Overcoat Fractured Foil #03, and changed the color of the layer underneath.


Here with the Confetti Centerstage #077, a very pretty purple with pink and blue micro-nano glitters. The Crackle was applied in a thick layer, which creates these wide and deep crackles.

Here with Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear Mint Sorbet #340. I'm normally not a fan of green polishes (and of green in general!!) but I love the frosty, minty effect of this shade, which is emphasized by the silver sparkles of the Crackle.

Yes, one of these fingers isn't mine ;-P

And finally, my latest Crackle, that I removed yesterday! This one was done with Sinful Colors Professional in shade Hazard #952. This Sinful Colors is one of my latest acquisitions, and I absolutely love it! For some reason I've been addicted to Corals and Oranges lately, and this one seems to be a perfect mix of both colors (although I hope to find a Neon Coral polish ASAP ;-)

Here, I applied the Crackle in a very thin layer which allowed me to get thin and numerous crackles.

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First Post!

Hi everyone!
Welcome to my new blog!
Here I will share with you my manicures and nailarts. Hope you enjoy them! Pin It